University regulation and university–industry interaction: a performance analysis of Italian academic departments

In a context characterized by public spending reviews and research funding shortages, governments in several countries are putting pressure on universities to increase their applied research activity, intensify their interaction with industry, and attract funding from the nonacademic domain. The economic literature provides rich evidence on the convergence between institutional factors and individual-level characteristics that are influencing university involvement in knowledge transfer activities. The aim of this article is to investigate the impact of universities’ regulation of knowledge transfer activities on the institutional capability to raise funding from research contracts and consultancies. Based on extensive department- level data on university funding, we address the characteristics of institutional knowledge transfer practices and investigate how these activities influence the intensity of funding to Italian universities.