Which Knowledge-Intensive Business Services Firms Collaborate for Innovation with Universities?

Recent research stresses the growing relevance of external sources of innovation for firms, and particularly collaborative relationships for innovation with universities. Less attention has been paid, however, to which firms (and especially which services firms) collaborate for innovation with universities and benefit from such collaboration. Using data from an original survey, this paper explores what determines whether knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms collaborate with universities and whether they consider this collaboration highly important for innovation. We explore the relation between the knowledge base of KIBS firms and innovation collaboration with universities. We find that KIBS firms providing highly unique services, which share a similarity in their approach to value creation with universities, consider them highly important for their innovation. Also, we find that technology-related KIBS firms, which share a high level of similarity in skill base with universities, both collaborate for innovation with universities and consider them highly important for their innovation. Finally, we find that the skill base of KIBS firms moderates positively the effect of KIBS firms’ approach to value creation on collaboration with universities. Managers and policymakers need to take into account the role of the knowledge base of KIBS firms, and thus formulate more tailored strategies to foster knowledge flows from university to industry effectively.