University-industry collaboration in the automotive, biotechnology, and electronics firms in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine existing explanations of drivers of university-industry collaboration. The Probit regression results support prevailing theory on the importance of R&D intensity, partner diversity and access to wider channels of information matter for university-industry collaboration. However, categorizing size as a dichotomous dummy variable of SME and large firms showed an inverse relationship, while actual employment size was not statisti- cally significant. Size was inversely correlated with university- industry collaboration. Separate Probit estimations for the specific industries of automotive, biotechnology and electronics indicate the following as the important drivers. First, R&D intensity, importance of university as a source of knowledge and age were important in automotive firms. Second, R&D intensity, channels of R&D information and R&D partner diversity were important in biotechnology firms. Third, the channels of R&D information and R&D partner diversity were important in electronics firms. Size was statistically significant in automotive and electronics firms but the coefficients were negative when a dummy was used and not statistically significant when the actual employment was used. Closer examination showed higher university-industry collaboration means among medium size firms.