Abstract
In long term, conducting successful business demands innovation and
substantial investments in research and development. To achieve these
goals, industry actors increasingly collaborate with each other, but
also with universities in order to get access to new or even
revolutionary ideas. Furthermore, cross-border collaboration is an
increasing trend for firms seeking growth and ideas in international
context. However, extant research is still short in understanding the
issues related to passing two cultural crossings at the same time:
organizational (in terms of university and industry cultures), as well
as national. To provide understanding on this, the aim of this study is
to find factors that have an impact of the success of innovation-related
university-industry (U-I) collaboration within and between different
cultures. In particular, this study explores Finnish and Russian
cultural contexts, involving both intra-national and cross-border U-I
collaboration. The findings provide evidence on preconditions, benefits,
and challenges of such collaboration.