International-Level Interactions

While several studies have been carried out on country-specific forms of interactions, only few studies were found on interactions on the international level. Two studies (Okubo & Sjöberg, 2000; Leydesdorff & Wagner, 2008) on international-level interactions investigated international collaboration through the production of academic publications, which can be considered one form of international collaboration between industry and higher education. However, the studies did not investigate other forms of interactions, nor did they have an industry viewpoint. Also, the data used in the studies was relatively old. In a more recent study (Marginson, 2010), the growing role of higher education and research in the worldwide economy was examined.

The changing pattern of industrial research collaboration in Sweden, particularly the extent to which industries participate in academic research, was studied by Okubo and Sjöberg (2000) using a bibliometric approach. The approach is used to measure the scientific performance of a country or institution by their production of scientific publications (Okubo & Sjöberg 2000, 84). The main data was extracted from the CD-ROM of the Science Citation Index database produced by the Institute for Information Science in Philadelphia, USA, from 1986 and 1994. The findings of the study by Okubo and Sjöberg, in relation to the present study, included that of international publications in engineering and technology in Sweden almost one fourth were produced with company participation. Furthermore, Swedish and international researchers in cooperation produced more than half of industrial scientific publications in Sweden.

Another finding was that company participation in research increased the speed of the development of internationalization of universities compared to a situation where research was conducted by universities and other research institutions alone. Also Swedish companies were increasingly inclined to collaborate with research groups outside the country and foreign companies were collaborating increasingly with Swedish public research institutions.

The study further highlighted some important issues. In order to advance research, scientists worked in groups linking together heterogeneous research institutions in various countries. Interesting details were that a merging of competencies was more evident among companies than among universities and that private companies were increasingly integrating with national and international academic networks. Cooperation and networking seemed to be becoming ideal forms of scientific production for companies. (Okubo & Sjöberg, 2000, 85-96) However, it should be noted that although the article was published in 2000, the findings were based on data from 1986 and 1994.

International collaboration in science and the formation of a core group was studied by Leydesdorff and Wagner (2008) who measured international collaboration by co-authorship relations on refereed papers. The data was retrieved from the CD-ROM database of the Science Citation Index for articles, reviews, letters and notes for 1990, 2000 and 2005. The findings showed that the co-authorship of papers increased linearly

in terms of the number of papers, but increased exponentially in terms of international addresses. In the study it was also proposed that international collaboration could be regarded as a communications network which is different from national systems.

Specifically, Leydesdorff and Wagner (2008, 317) stated this as follows:

We suggest that international collaboration in science can be considered as a communications network that is different from national systems and has its own internal dynamics. National systems have policies and institutions that mediate scientific communication, while at the global level the network exists mainly as a self-organizing system.

The study showed that the network of international collaborations in science has expanded quickly after 2000. The network has become denser, meaning in general that countries participating in collaboration have supported and increased the number of collaborators on the global level. (Leydesdorff & Wagner, 2008, 320-321) However, the study only concerns papers produced in international collaboration in science, not in industry, nor does it provide information about other forms of interactions in collaboration. On the other hand, the study provides interesting knowledge about co-authorship of papers published in international collaboration. Furthermore, the study highlights the difference between the network of international collaboration in science and national systems.

Higher education in the global knowledge economy was studied by Marginson (2010), focusing particularly on the changing global landscape of higher education where both higher education and knowledge are simultaneously global, national and local. The study was based on recent research for policy papers prepared for OECD on globalization and higher education as well as the internationalization of higher education in Asia-Pacific, on case studies of leading universities in eight Asia-Pacific nations, and on comparative data from the OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank. The major findings of the study, in relation to this study, included the following. The nature of research and the distribution of research capacity were the most important elements determining the nature of the world-wide environment in higher education and the potential of individual nations. However, the rise of new science powers, for example in Asia, may change the situation, and the knowledge economy power and patterns of

language usage may change. Also, education and research in one country can affect those in others. The cross-border effects can be positive, such as global flows of people, ideas, knowledge, messages, technologies and capital, or negative, such as emigration of educated people, ‘brain drain’. Furthermore, most of interactions between nations in higher education do not seem to take the form of trade but the form of free exchange and cooperation, which means the production of global public goods. (Marginson, 2010, 6962-6978)

The study provides significant views of future developments in the increasing role of higher education and research in the knowledge economy on the global scale. However, the study does not include discussion of the forms of international interactions involved in worldwide knowledge economy, nor does the study provide insight into industry-university collaboration.

To sum up section 2.2, some studies have been carried out on topics related to international collaboration but they do not include information about international interaction forms nor do they provide an industry perspective. On the other hand, various studies exist on industry-university interactions on the country-specific level, including interaction forms, but they do not provide an international perspective. The present study aims to fill this gap by examining international industry-university interaction forms by using primary data collected from existing global collaboration programs in IT. In addition comparative data retrieved from previous country-specific studies, presented in section, is used as secondary data.