Radical university-industry innovation – research design and preliminary findings from an on-going qualitative case study

This paper reports from an on-going pilot project investigating university-industry collaboration on the development of radical innovation. There is evidence in the literature that such collaboration increases the likelihood of radical innovation. A conceptual framework is presented and it is arguing that there is a lack of in-depth understanding of such collaborative radical innovation processes. The paper then suggests an abductive research design for an explorative in-depth case study of collaborative radical innovation involving a university and an established Danish manufacturing firm. Some preliminary findings are presented and briefly discussed, including the role of the university’s formal set-up to deal with IPR/commercialisation and the researchers’ personal networking with industry as well as challenges concerning the sharing of IPR/commercialisation outcomes.