Does the merger of universities promote their scientific research performance? Evidence from China

The impact of industry-university-research projects on biopharmaceutical companies' innovation performance: moderating roles of government subsidies for innovation

Innovation holds paramount importance for both nations and businesses. This article presents a panel regression model designed to assess the fixed effects of industry-university-research (IUR) cooperation projects on innovation performance. Furthermore, it examines the moderating impact of government innovation subsidies by utilizing data spanning from 2007 to 2021, encompassing 326 listed Chinese biopharmaceutical firms. Our findings reveal that industry-university-research-cooperation projects have the potential to significantly enhance innovation performance across three key metrics: input, output, and quality for firms. The presence of government innovation subsidies as a moderator is found to have a positive influence on IUR-cooperation projects and their innovative inputs. However, it can yield adverse effects on IUR-cooperation projects with respect to innovation outputs and quality. The insights presented in this paper introduce innovative recommendations for elevating corporate innovation quality and refining the policies governing IUR cooperation.

Developing a Healthcare and Medical School at King Faisal University: Implications for Educational Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

This research explored the potential of developing a university healthcare and medical school within King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, by merging four medical and/or healthcare colleges within the institution into a medical school. The objective of a medical school is to produce professionals who are capable of performing the most fundamental tasks in healthcare and medicine up to the expectations of the market. This research explored various case studies involving mergers, their importance, and how they were conducted to inform this research study. This study adopted a qualitative research approach to collect data from healthcare and medical colleges' senior management, including deans, vice-deans, as well as heads of departments. The results showed several benefits of mergers, although some challenges were also raised. Culture, which some interviewees identified as change-resistant and risk-averse, was recognised as a key challenge for implementing mergers. Additionally, the need for generating funds for the merger projects was identified as a challenge at the start of the initiatives. Furthermore, compliance with regulations and laws at a public university is another challenge. This study identified the need for a strategic framework that builds on stakeholders' involvement and proper communication and addresses the proposals' repercussions. Some implications for educational performance and cost effectiveness were highlighted.

Heterogeneous knowledge spillover channels in universities and green technology innovation in local firms: Stimulating quantity or quality?

Sluggish status of green technology development has stimulated research into new incentives and pathways. Beyond the traditional regulatory-push and demand-pull approaches, we reposition the strength of the technology push. Based on the innovation diffusion theory, a multidimensional path model of knowledge spillover in universities is constructed, and the impact of heterogeneous knowledge spillover channels on green innovation activities of local firms is discussed. We find that R&D collaboration has a significant effect on local firms' quality but not the quantity of green innovation. Contrarily, patent citations and technology transfer have unequal positive effects on the quantity of green innovation of local firms, while there is no evidence that they can also improve the quality of green innovation. Despite regional disparities, strict environmental regulations are pushing companies to cite university patents in some regions. The university knowledge stock has largely contributed to both quantitative and qualitative advances in subsequent green innovation in local firms. Our conclusions provide a precise and objective evaluation of the impact mechanism of multiple knowledge spillover channels in universities on firms' green innovation, as well as a reference for the selection of the form of industry–university–research collaboration.

Research Production and International Visibility in Higher Education: The Evolution of Romanian Universities from 2011 to 2019

The international visibility of Romanian universities is relatively weak, even when compared with neighboring countries. This is explained by the historical heritage of the former communist regime and the lack of a clear vision for a post-communist strategic policy that could guide the research enterprise. This study examined whether the higher education reforms launched in 2011 had an effect on the research output, impact and international visibility of Romanian universities. The researchers used bibliometric data and university ranking data from ARWU, THE and QS Rankings. Trends in aggregate bibliometric indicators were analyzed for 38 universities as a whole, and by type of institution. Additionally, the Theil index was utilized to measure the degree of concentration of the research output across three institutional types. The findings reveal that there was significant growth in research output during the first years following the 2011 Education Law. However, this growth could not be sustained beyond 2014, except for Teaching & Research Universities and medical universities. This suggests that the reforms are producing the expected results at institutions that implemented and enforced new evaluation systems heavily oriented toward research.