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.