Abstract

Purpose - Because of the emphasis on the necessity of academic-industrial cooperation between companies and universities, there are various ongoing academic-industrial cooperation programs led by the government. As government actively supports such cooperation as policy,and universities vitalize new technology development, academic-industrial cooperation between companies and universities is being recognized as an important growth engine for companies the competitiveness of academic-industrial cooperation is also attracting more interest. The government has vitalized human resource fostering, practical R&D, and technology transfer to companies since 2012 by executing a "leading university fostering project for academic-industrial cooperation." Based on an organic interlink among universities, industry, and research institutes, the government also created and is promoting several models of such cooperation between companies and universities to support shared growth of industry and local universities. The purpose of academic-industrial cooperation is growth and benefit fromtechnology development, technical cooperation, and technology transfer between companies and universities. Research design, data, and methodology - As more academic-industrial cooperation efforts are ledby companies due to the limitation in technology-focused commercialization cooperation, the academic-industrial cooperation system became fragmented and it is losing the potential for future advancement. Specifically, as differences between universities grow, academic-industrial cooperation between companies and universities based on new technology from universities is finding difficulty advancing,while systematic support from companies to enhance the performance of businesses created by academic-industrial cooperation is also insufficient. Accordingly, this study established a growth model for the advancement of academic-industrial cooperation between companies and universities and suggested a plan to strengthen the competitiveness and promote the future advancementof academic-industrial cooperation between companies and universities by analyzing the current situation of such cooperation and diagnosing its issues. Results - This study explored the concept and current status of academic-industrial cooperation relationships and analyzed related issues. For such cooperative organizations to be competitive, the employment environment of professional human resources for academic-industrial cooperation should be improved and measures to secure professional resources should be taken as early as possible. Though the academic-industrial cooperation now is being led by government, there is a limitation based on business models, which require creation of profit; however, an academic-industrial cooperation model still cannot stand alone without the support of government. This study also pointed out that a having only a plan to build competitiveness of companies and universities for academic-industrial cooperation is not sufficient. Conclusions - In order to increase the competitiveness of academic-industrial cooperation, a detailed growth-sharing model for academic-industrial cooperation should be developed, and there should be more joint development processes for the advancement of such cooperation in which the need for technology development can be verified in advance. In addition, beyond focusing on technology-focused academic-industrial cooperation, a network between companies and universities searching for ideas for academic-industrial cooperation in the fields of human and social aspects should be created. A new academic-industrial model linking current cooperation between companies and universities to the local area should be built based on such academic-industrial cooperation in human and social fields.