Long‐Term Innovation Outcomes of University–Industry Collaborations: The Role of ‘Bridging’ vs ‘Blurring’ Boundary‐Spanning Practices
研究了大学-产业合作中两种边界跨越实践（桥接与模糊）对长期创新成果的影响，发现桥接促进利用式创新，模糊促进探索式创新，且选择受先前经验影响。
Abstract We explore the link between the long‐term innovation outcomes of university–industry collaborations (UICs) – in particular, whether the UIC has led to further exploitative or exploratory innovation – and the adoption of boundary‐spanning practices. This extends the current literature on UICs, which has mainly focused on short‐term innovation outputs and on the features of boundary‐spanning individuals and teams. Relying on a unique, purposefully constructed evidence base combining information from 95 semi‐structured interviews with participants in 75 UICs and from publicly available databases, we find that adopting a ‘bridging’ approach to boundary spanning – through formal and structured practices and communication procedures – increases the likelihood that the UIC will lead to further exploitative innovation. A ‘blurring’ approach to boundary spanning – through informal practices to de‐emphasize boundaries between organizations – increases the likelihood that the UIC will lead to further exploratory innovation. The choice of each boundary‐spanning approach is in turn influenced by the collaborators’ prior experience with internal knowledge creation and collaborative knowledge co‐creation. Management and policy implications are discussed.