University–Industry Linkages in Promoting Technology Transfer: A Study of Vietnamese Technical and Engineering Universities

Both university and industry are key actors of the national innovation system (NIS) of any country (OECD (1997) National Innovation Systems, OECD Publishing, Paris). Not only does the university or industry contribute to the knowledge production and transformation in the NIS as an individual actor but also the collaboration between these two institutions is increasingly a critical component of the NIS. This is truly illustrated either in developed countries or in developing ones. This article first reviews the current status of NIS in Vietnam to see the contribution of Vietnamese universities in knowledge transfer. Second, it describes the collaboration between university and industry in Vietnam by presenting the findings of a survey of 570 respondents, who are teaching at five Vietnamese technical and engineering universities to better understand the different types of university-industry (U–I) collaboration and motivations of and barriers to the university and industry linkage in Vietnam. Based on such findings, some recommendations to promote the university and industry linkage in research and technology transfer are proposed for the university, the industry and the government so that the Vietnam’s NIS will have more impact on economic development.