University-Business Cooperation and Entrepreneurship at Universities – An Empirical Based Comparison of Poland and Germany

Abstract

The EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade (recorded and defined by Horizon2020) and the higher education modernisation agenda force all European countries to establish a more connected and better functioning relationship between the three most important players government, business and higher education institutions (HEI’s) in order to increase employment, productivity and social cohesion. This article explores the development of University-Business Cooperation (UBC) both in Poland and in Germany, shining a spotlight on the various factors influencing UBC, as well as providing a comparison of the two countries. The focus lays on a Polish-German comparison i.e. the compared analyses of the state of UBC in Germany and Poland from the perspective of HEI managers and researchers. Applying a UBC-ecosystem of different factors and action levels (http://ub-cooperation.eu/pdf/ UBCECO.pdf) the major differences of both countries are identified, addressed and commented to offer opportunities for improvements. This paper describes and discusses selected findings of a study, which had been conducted for the European Commission to analyse University-Business Cooperation in 33 European countries by the S2B Marketing Research Centre at Münster University of Applied Sciences.