Abstract:
Advanced economies are at the vanguard of sustainable growth of university industry collaborations. Factually, Sri Lankan state universities have had a
truncated level of research and innovation. As a result, Sri Lanka performs less
well than some similar countries in the absorption of technologies. To address the
gap, the authors conducted a study to identify a mechanism to enhance the
efficiency of university-industry collaboration. The study reports empirical
findings concluded from 13 state universities. The authors used questionnaire
surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect data from the universities. A
combination of qualitative and quantitative data analysis was practised to
emphasize research findings. The study discusses the current status of university industry collaboration, barriers to collaboration, roles of university business
linkages or tech transfer offices, and mechanisms to improve university-industry
linkage. Furthermore, the study recommends a technique to enhance the
university-industry collaboration by establishing a research and innovation
ecosystem with the sustenance of stakeholder organizations. The
recommendations of the study could be implemented to escalate the local
university-industry collaboration and in similar realms.
