We examine the tensions that make it difficult for a research-oriented university to achieve commercial outcomes. Building on the organisational ambidexterity literature, we specify the nature of the tensions (between academic and commercially-oriented activities) at both institutional and individual levels of analysis, and how these can be resolved. We test our hypotheses using a novel dataset of 207 Research Council-funded projects, linking objective data on project outcomes with the perceptions of principal investigators. Results show that the tension between academic and commercial demands is more salient at the level of the individual researcher than at the level of institutions.
While previous research has mostly focused on either knowledge stocks or knowledge flows, our study is among the first to integrate these perspectives in order to shed light on the complementarity effects of different types of knowledge stocks and flows in the multinational corporation (MNC). This study investigates intra-functional as well as cross-functional complementarity effects from the perspective of the knowledge recipient and tests their impact on the benefit created for MNC units. Based on a comprehensive sample of 324 relationships between MNC units, we find that both types of complementarity create benefits for these units, but that the effects from intra-functional combinations of knowledge stocks and flows are significantly stronger than from cross-functional combinations.
