Factors in the Success or Failure of Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers

Abstract

We studied 23 federally supported industry-university cooperative research centers and identified 22 organizational, managerial, and psychological factors that seem to contribute to the success or failure of the founders and managers of these centers, hence to the success or failure of the centers themselves. We grouped the factors into five categories: (1) relations with the focal university; (2) relations with industry; (3) internal management; (4) research and technology strategies; and (5) individual attributes of the founders and managers. Examples from actual chronologies of a successful and a nonsuccessful center seem to indicate that the attributes of the individual founders and managers and their relations with the focal university are the best predictors of success in the early stages of the life of a center, whereas relations with industry and internal management are the best predictors of success of a center in the later stages. Managers of centers and center constituents may be able to assess and predict the success or failure of a center, at any stage of its life, with a very small set of factors, thus allowing center managers to take corrective actions to improve their chances of success.