A Knowledge Economy Model for Government Academia Industry Collaboration in Automotive Industry in India

Abstract

Knowledge economy is not only about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge; it is also about the more effective exploitation of all types of knowledge in all manner of economic activity. The capacity to generate new knowledge, to integrate and transfer it depends increasingly on the triangle of knowledge , that includes education, research and innovation. In this era of high innovation intensity, bringing government, academia and the industry together, to serve as instruments of change, channelizing their unique capabilities and capacities into a seamless intra and inter-play that models synergy in innovation and economic regeneration, has become quintessential. Such collaborative associations have often bridged the gaps between research, technology development and market application. But despite the optimism, the social and technological discontinuities still exist, which underline the need to pay greater attention to the factors that aid in the mapping and harmonizing of different resources when the actors come together. The driving force behind any collaboration amongst the actors arises from an expectation of profit , and this term has different connotations for the actors involved. For firms in the industry, the expectation of profit has found expression in two broad dimensions, innovation and production benefits. For academics, the expectation of profit has found expression in the intellectual and economic benefits. The objective of the present research has been to develop a government academia industry collaboration model for the automotive industry in India. The study builds on government academia industry collaboration architecture that establishes relationships amongst the actors through a set of enablers for a defined set of deliverables. Using the collaboration architecture, a set of critical success factors have been identified and a generic model of government academia industry collaboration has been proposed. Two questionnaires, one for academia and the other for firms in the automotive