Managerial academia: Understanding the organizational factors shaping researchers' motivations to engage with industry

Ana María Gómez-Aguayo
INGENIO (CSIC-UPV)
Thursday, 4 May 2023 - 11:00

The academic debate about university-industry engagement often centres on the strategic aspects of these interactions, particularly those related to the benefits associated with knowledge exchange and learning. In a broader sense, it is assumed that these interactions are fundamental to improving science and innovation. However, the core of the innovation system lies in the researcher, specifically in their internal motivation to engage with companies, which can determine the success of the knowledge transfer and outputs. There is vast literature emphasising the individualistic perspective of motivations, i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic, and ribbon, gold, and puzzle motivations. However, there is limited literature that considers the dynamic and temporal nature of academics' motivation. This research explores the motivation process through semi-structured interviews with the most productive Spanish scholars in terms of co-publications with industry partners. We used an inductive grounded theory approach to analyse the evolution of academics' motivation and performed a triangulation with information on each academic's career trajectory. Our findings prompted us to explore in depth how the incentives faced by academics in the context of managerialism in academia, with its emphasis on quantitative targets, may lead to a shift towards more pro-social motivations to engage. This happens when individuals participate in these types of interactions with the intent of promoting others' targets but with limited interest in actual scientific knowledge creation. This research provides information to contribute to the reflective and critical discussion of the effects of the academic model on researchers' behaviour and adds novel configurations of pro-social motivations.

Place: 

Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación
Edificio 8E, Acceso J, Planta 4ª (Sala Descubre. Cubo Rojo)
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia | Camino de Vera s/n

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Short CV: 

Ana María Gómez-Aguayo is a Ph.D. candidate at INGENIO (CSIC-Polytechnic University of Valencia). Ana completed two postgraduate programmes, a MA in Agrifood and Environment Economics at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and a MA in Management and Social Development at the University of Loja in Ecuador. Her topics are the economics of scientific knowledge, as well as other economic issues related to developing countries.