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Mapping the emergence of international university research ventures

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Abstract

Research universities are expanding their institutional research presence overseas through the creation of research centers, facilities and partnerships outside of their home countries. We argue that such international university research ventures (IURV) are a distinct type of intermediary node in global knowledge networks occurring at the intersection of three trends: (1) expanding international research collaborations, (2) globalization of higher education, and (3) growing demand for capacity building in science, technology and innovation in emerging economies. To understand and characterize the scope and scale of this phenomenon we undertake an exploratory study of IURVs of 108 research-intensive universities in the United States. Data on U.S. IURV locations and their characteristics is collected from university websites and other secondary sources. We find that 54 U.S. research universities have established at least one IURV, with 183 IURVs in total created in 59 countries. A conceptual framework based on motivations and pathways of IURV emergence is developed. It distinguishes between strategy-driven, collaboration-driven, policy-driven and problem-driven IURVs. Insights from the mapping of U.S. IURVs are discussed, along with implications for future research.

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Fig. 1

Source See Appendix. Note: IURV numbers and university names are shown only for universities that established at least 4 IURVs

Fig. 2

Source: Elaboration of authors’ data

Fig. 3

Source elaboration of authors’ data. Hong Kong and Taiwan, with their distinctive governance systems and history of higher education, are considered separately from mainland China

Fig. 4

Source: Elaboration of authors’ data. Left-hand indicates annual IURV entry; right-hand scale indicates the accumulation of IURV entries and exits

Fig. 5

Sources: Essential Science Indicators; United Nations Development Programme (2015); authors’ data. Small dots are countries without U.S. IURV presence. Bubbles represent countries hosting U.S. IURVs with the size proportional to the number of IURVs. Total IURV counts are shown, without accounting for IURV exits. Hong Kong is considered separately from mainland China. Taiwan, which has hosted two U.S. IURVs, is not included due to its absence in the 2015 edition of HDI

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Acknowledgements

The research reported here is based upon work supported by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Office through the Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative under grant #W911-NF- 15-1-0322. Sergey Kolesnikov worked on the project while at the School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology. We are grateful to Juan Rogers and Mark Zachary Taylor for helpful comments and to Jon Schmid and Olufunke Adebola for additional research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Organization Research and Design, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, 85004-3720, USA

    Sergey Kolesnikov

  2. School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0345, USA

    Seokkyun Woo, Yin Li & Philip Shapira

  3. Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

    Jan Youtie

  4. Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9SS, UK

    Philip Shapira

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  1. Sergey Kolesnikov
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  2. Seokkyun Woo
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Correspondence to Sergey Kolesnikov.

Appendix

Appendix

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Table 4 List of U.S. Research Universities with Identified International University Research Ventures (IURVs)
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Kolesnikov, S., Woo, S., Li, Y. et al. Mapping the emergence of international university research ventures. J Technol Transf 44, 1134–1162 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-017-9640-6

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