Toward a conceptual model of cooperative research: patterns of development and success in university-industry alliances

A stage model of cooperative research between universities and industry using the National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored industry-university cooperative research centers (IUCRC) as a study sample is proposed. The model is a step above simple retrospective characterization of such cooperation in that causal factors are suggested. This study shows that certain critical events cluster around definable and discrete phases of organizational evolution of IUCRCs. Centers change, adapt, and search for an appropriate mode of operation in stages, redefining their objectives and refining their communications and organization processes. This continual sequential development and the identification of factors which impinge on each stage provides an explanatory mode of how centers evolve and how and why they succeed or fail. These findings are an encouraging note in the search for a predictive theory of cooperative scientific research