THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES ON THE INNOVATION PROCESS OF INDUSTRY AS A KNOWLEDGE SOURCE

Increasing possibility of innovation success depends on reducing risk and environmental uncertainties. Firms are forced by competition to benefit from not only internal knowledge sources but also external knowledge sources through the innovation process. This paper examines universities as an external knowledge source. Our aim is to reveal importance level of universities according to innovative and non-innovative firms. The data is gained from Community Innovation Survey (CIS-4), which was based on OECD’s Oslo manual. Firstly innovativeness of firms is inquired. Our sample includes both innovative and non-innovative firms. Then firms are asked to indicate importance level of universities for the innovation process. Importance level is scaled as “not used”, “low”, “medium” and “high”. After analysis, this paper draws a conclusion that innovative and non-innovative firms are different based on the importance level of universities as a knowledge source. 73,9% of the non-innovative firms assessed universities in “not used” level. Only 10,3% of innovative firms find universities in the “high” level important category as a knowledge source. Most of the firms evaluate importance level of universities in “low” level category. Firms should evaluate the idea of cooperate with universities. Universities have potential to increase innovative success of firms by providing new instruments, techniques and methods.