Strategic planning has become increasingly integral to university operations in recent decades with nearly all European universities developing each their own university strategy. As the landscape of higher education is changing and universities’ role extends beyond conducting research and educating, university leaders address organizational changes by formalizing strategic processes and setting institutional directions. While the subject of the university has been a of interest to scholars in multiple disciplines such as sociology, innovation management, organizational studies and economics, strategic management issues confronting the universities have not been fully addressed. The increasing demand from universities to utilize the knowledge from research and teaching in order to address growing societal and economic challenges by fulfilling their “Third mission” have resulted in a request for extended cooperation with public and private enterprises and while there is an extensive body in research on university-industry collaborations in terms of technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship, we know little about how collaborations are managed in practice and how are they affected by the university strategy. By employing case study research approach and strategic management concepts, this study aims to examine the role of university strategy for addressing key issues related to managing collaboration with external partners at the Faculty of Science at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).
Our study seeks to understand what organizational and managerial capabilities are required for identifying problems and formulating strategies targeting increased collaboration with private organizations.