Hindrances, Benefits and Measurement of Knowledge Transfer in Universities - Should Be Done More in the Light of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility in the field of universities refers basically to all activities undertaken by the institutions of higher education. Services to society are realized by teaching the inquisitive, doing research and rendering other services to their environment. Most of the activities in teaching and research are directly or indirectly connected to the field of knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer especially to economy is - from a society perspective - one of the prominent services universities have to render beside teaching and research. Nearly all the time it is criticized that the potentials existing in offering these services in Germany are far from being fully exhausted. Therefore the objectives of this paper are to show the status of knowledge transfer, to analyze this actual situation by showing why the broad possibilities of knowledge transfer from universities to economy are so seldom used and finally to propose a way how the transfer willingness of the actors in the university can be increased, always looking especially at the German background. The paper shows that knowledge transfer between university and economy can be on one hand a very helpful way to overcome some of the actual problems of the university and on the other hand can fecundate both university and economy. In contrast the status quo of knowledge transfer between the two institutions shows, that potentials are not yet utilised. This could be lead back to several hindrances which occur at the emotional level and due to different uncertainties.