Innovation in New Media Firms: The Role of University Links

Abstract: The study raises the question how (if at all) relations with university affect the innovativeness of new media firms in Skåne and to what extent it can be related to the type of knowledge base. The object of the analysis is 36 new media companies in the region. The data was selected using the methods of structured and semi-structured interviews. Open Innovation paradigm, knowledge base and knowledge transfer provide a theoretical framework for the analysis. The analysis reveals that there is a general trend for the innovativeness to grow when the value of „relations with university‟ is growing and really high innovativeness is not possible without academia‟s involvement in a form of „hard‟ or „soft‟ knowledge transfer. The effect of dominating knowledge mode in the company seems to be very small. The majority of the new media companies operates or goes towards the Open Innovation paradigm. Openness, networking, and the use of external knowledge seem to be an important factor leading to innovative activities and together to successful performance in the market. Qualitative analysis shows that while the companies might have more or less formal links with universities, all of them see it as an important actor in their knowledge exchange network. The relations with academia not only provides access to university knowledge or helps to develop new technology, but increases the chance for getting financing (essential input for innovation activities) as existing policies tend to support academia-industry partnership and leads to the changes in company‟s social responsibility activities.