Mechanisms of collaboration between creative small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and higher education institutions: reflections on the Creativeworks London Creative Voucher Scheme

Virani, Tarek

Abstract

According to the literature, university-industry collaborations are far from straightforward. This
paper adds to this work by looking at how the process of collaboration has fared between higher
education institutions (HEIs) and small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the creative
and cultural industries (CCI). It does this by looking at the preliminary findings of Creativeworks
London’s (CWL) Creative Voucher Scheme. The findings emerged from an analysis of application
data, ex post project final reports and interview data. The results to date show that: first, past
experience in university – industry collaborations is tremendously beneficial to the success of the
collaboration ; second, the creative industries engages with a number of different actors that speak
different collaborative languages, actors are needed that are able to communicate at multiple levels
at once; third, the collaborative process is not simply a dualistic one between university and industry
but multi-layered involving a number of knowledge brokers in different positions in-between and at
the interstices of these organizational structures; fourth, administrative expediency with regards to
implementing these voucher schemes varies from university to university which point to potentially
large departmental differences that can affect the intended collaborations; and fifth, there needs to
be a managing of expectations and a balancing of different incentives when it comes to negotiating
the outcome of these collaborations since university and industry move at different speeds and
value different things.

• Working Paper Type: Working Paper
• Deposit Date: Apr 28, 2020
• Series Number: 4
• Keywords: Creative Industries, SMEs, University – Industry collaboration, Voucher Scheme, Creativeworks London
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5942501
• Publisher URL: http://www.creativeworkslondon.org.uk/publications/working-papers-research/