Empirical study on influence of university-industry collaboration on research performance and moderating effect of social capital: evidence from engineering academics in China

The influence of university-industry collaboration on research performance and the moderating effect of social capital were empirically examined using a dataset of 804 engineering academics of Harbin institute of technology, with social capital in terms of network ties and tie strength. It was found that the intensity of university-industry collaboration had a negative effect on academics’ research performance (h-index), and tie strength had its positive moderation effect, which did not support the moderation effect of network ties. It is therefore concluded that university administrators should not make policies to encourage researchers to seek collaborations with industry without due consideration of research performance, while researchers with high strength of relationships should be encouraged to participate in university-industry collaboration.