Please cite this article in press as: Giuliani, E., et al., Who are the researchers that are collaborating with industry? An analysis of the wine sectors in Chile, South Africa and Italy. Res. Policy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.respol.2010.03.007 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model RESPOL-2446; No. of Pages 14 Research Policy xxx (2010) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/respol Who are the researchers that are collaborating with industry? An analysis of the wine sectors in Chile, South Africa and Italy Elisa Giuliani a,1 , Andrea Morrison b,c,2 , Carlo Pietrobelli d,e,3 , Roberta Rabellotti f,∗ a Dipartimento di Economia Aziendale, Università di Pisa, Via Ridolfi 10, 56124 Pisa (Italy) and SPRU, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK b Section of Economic Geography - URU, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3508TC Utrecht, The Netherlands c Kites, Bocconi University, via Sarfatti 25, 20136 Milano, Italy d CREI, Università Roma Tre, Via S. D’Amico 77, 00154 Roma, Italy e Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, United States f Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Metodi Quantitativi, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Via Perrone 18, 28100 Novara, Italy article info Article history: Received 19 May 2008 Received in revised form 3 February 2010 Accepted 30 March 2010 Available online xxx Keywords: University–industry linkages Academic researchers Innovation system Wine sector abstract Research on University–industry (U-I) linkages and their determinants has increased significantly in the past few years. However, there is still controversy on the key factors explaining the formation of U-I link- ages, and especially related to individual researcher characteristics. This paper provides new empirical evidence and, in particular, looks at the importance of researchers’ individual characteristics and their institutional environments in explaining the propensity to engage in different types of U-I linkages. Based on an original dataset, we present new evidence on three wine producing areas – Piedmont, a region of Italy, Chile and South Africa – that have successfully responded to recent structural changes in the indus- try worldwide. Empirical findings reveal that researchers’ individual characteristics, such as centrality in the academic system, age and sex, matter more than publishing records or formal degrees. Institutional specificities at country level also play a role in shaping the propensity of researchers to engage with industry. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction University–industry linkages (U-I) are not a new phenomenon, although their number and importance have been increasing (Etzkowitz, 1998). This may be due to the increased trans- disciplinarity of the knowledge production process which is requiring tight and continuous interaction between science and technology (Faulkner, 1994), and to policies in the US and Europe – and increasingly in developing countries – aimed at promoting interaction between research organizations and industry (Geuna, 2001; Mowery et al., 2001; Velho and Saenz, 2002; van Looy et al., 2003). All this has promoted growing interest in U-I interactions, which are usually investigated from the perspectives of the firm or the university involved. In the past, studies have focused on patenting, licensing and spin-offs, but these represent only a small fraction ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0321 375317; fax: +39 0321 375305. E-mail addresses: giulel@ec.unipi.it (E. Giuliani), a.morrison@geo.uu.nl (A. Morrison), carlop@iadb.org (C. Pietrobelli), rabellotti@eco.unipmn.it (R. Rabellotti). 1 Tel.: +39 050 2216280. 2 Tel.: +31 030 2531368; fax: +31 0 30 2532037. 3 Tel.: +39 065 7335750. of possible U-I collaborations (Cohen et al., 2002). Several authors (Bonaccorsi and Piccaluga, 1994; D’Este and Fontana, 2007; Mora Valentin, 2002; Schartinger et al., 2002) highlight the many other types of links between universities and firms, ranging from informal meetings to researchers’ involvement in industry commissioned consultancy, to joint research programmes, to the purchase of industry prototypes. Since the late 1990s, the literature on U-I linkages is focused on the existence and drivers of U-I linkages and demonstrates that a variety of factors needs to be taken into account to explain U-I linkages, e.g. organizational characteristics, history and tradition (e.g. Bercovitz et al., 2001; O’Shea et al., 2005; Boardman, 2009) and researchers’ individual attributes (e.g. Blumenthal et al., 1996; D’Este and Fontana, 2007; D’Este and Patel, 2007; Landry et al., 2007; Bekkers and Freitas Bodas, 2008; Bercovitz and Feldman, 2008; Van Rijnsoever et al., 2008; Boardman and Ponomariov, 2009). However, there is little consensus so far on what factors mediate the formation of U-I linkages. This study aims to contribute by taking the researcher as the unit of analysis and providing new original evidence to assess the importance of two sets of factors on the propensity to engage in U-I linkages: (a) researchers’ individual features such as: gender, age, education and academic reputation; and (b) the characteris- tics of the researchers’ organizational contexts such as the type of 0048-7333/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2010.03.007