The growing importance of regions in the analysis of innovation and the pressure on European universities to interact with
their environment justify this article. It argues that faculty support for the objectives of university?industry relations (UIR) does
not vary across disciplines and does not respond to university encouragement in a region with low absorptive capacity. These
results are in contrast with those obtained in studies of technology leading countries like the USA. Furthermore, incentives for
UIR may generate unpredicted dynamics while instruments to cooperate are not significant. Finally, support for the objectives
of UIR should not be confused with the degree of R&D cooperation. The former is sensitive to university age while the latter
is sensitive to gender, discipline, commitment to R&D and university encouragement. Empirical evidence is obtained from a
sample of faculty from the Valencian Community (Spain) and analysed through a set of models for discrete choice.
© 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
JEL classification: O31, innovation and invention: processes and incentives; C25, discrete regression and qualitative choice models
Keywords: University?industry relations; Absorptive capacity