Cooperation between university and enterprise: a study of enterprises with intense technology located in Porto Alegre - RS

Abstract

In the competitive business environment, in which companies need to pursue innovation to be different and better than their competitors, the universities can be considered a strong partner in this development. The aim of this paper is to analyze how this university-enterprise interaction occurred in four companies located in Porto Alegre – RS. The research seeks to present, through a case study, the benefits obtained from the university-enterprise cooperation and the difficulties arising from this relationship. Four technology-based companies were analyzed by means of a case study. Only one of them is located in the technological park inside the university. The other companies are not geographically linked to an educational institution, but pursue this approximation for the benefits that can be obtained. The main results show the importance of explicit knowledge transfer between researchers and companies. Besides this, the consultancies offered by the universities facilitate the offer of scholarships and of the necessity of integration between the technical knowledge and management, especially in the process of incubation and internationalization.