Eoin Costello - Is effective enterprise engagement occurring at iadt Dun Laoghaire

National Strategy for Higher Education – Is Effective Enterprise Engagement

Occurring at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), Dun Laoghaire?

Eoin Killian Costello

Student Number: B00570977

2011

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Masters in Business Development and Innovation

Supervisor: Professor Audrey Gilmore

Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Strategy

Ulster Business School

University of Ulster

Table of Contents

Table of contents…………………………………………………………........ II

List of Tables…………………………………………………………............ VII

List of Figures…………………………………………………………........... VIII

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………. IX

Abbreviations…………………………………………………………........... X

Declaration of Access to Contents..………………………………………… XI

Abstract…………………………………………………………..................... XII

Chapter Page

1.0 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….

1

1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….................. 1

1.2 The Changing Role of Institutes of Higher Education in Ireland…………….. 5

1.3 Small and Medium Sized Enterprises – the Innovation Interface with HEIs…. 6

1.4 Rationale for the Research …………………………………………............ 7

1.5 Aims and Objectives of the Research……………………………………… 7

1.6 The Structure of the Research……………………………………………… 8

1.7 Research Outcomes Outline…………………………………………………. 9

1.8 Conclusion………………………………………………………….............. 10

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………...........

11

2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………….............. 11

2.2 Review of Foundation Literature ……………………………………........ 12

2.2.1 The Irish Higher Education Sector………………………………………..................... 12

2.2.2 The Changing Role of the Sector……………………………………………............... 13

2.2.3 Small & Medium Sized Enterprises............................................................................... 16

2.3 Review of Core Literature…………………………………………………… 18

2.3.1 What constitutes effective engagement at the innovation interface

between HEIs and Enterprise?.........................................................................................................

18

2.3.2 Defining what is meant by Effective Enterprise Engagement……………………….. 21 II

2.3.3 Obstacles to effective enterprise engagement............................................................... 24

2.4 Identification of Need for Empirical Research….…………………………… 28

2.5 Identification of the Objectives of this Study..……………………………... 29

2.6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………............... 30

3.0 METHODLOGY………………………………………………………….................

32

3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………............ 32

3.2 What is Research?............................................................................................

3.3 The Research Strategy - Justification for the Research Philosophy, Approach

and Method……................................................................................................

33

3.3.1 Research Approach – Deduction and Induction………………………………………. 35

3.3.2 Research Methods……………………………………………………………………… 36

3.3.3 Research Strategies…………………………………………………………………….. 36

3.3.4 Tine Horizon……………………………………………………………………………. 37

3.4 Research Procedures Employed in this Study……………………….……...... 37

3.4.1 Data Collection Techniques……………………………………………………………. 38

3.4.2 Selection of Case Study Organisation……………………………………..…………… 39

3.4.3 Selecting the Sample Populations at the Case Study Institute for

Interview…………………………………………………………………….. ………………

40

3.4.4 Selecting Interview Respondents for this Study............................................................. 43

3.4.5 Research Technique – Interview Strategy Adopted for the Research…………………… 45

3.4.6 Secondary Research Methods Employed in this Study………………………………… 46

3.5 Research Analysis…..…………………………………………………........... 47

3.5.1 Coding of Interview Transcripts……………………………………..………………. 47

3.6 Limitations …………………............................................................................ 49

3.6.1 Validity and Reliability of the Research…………………….……………………. 50

3.7 Conclusion………..……………………………………………………......... 52

4.0 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS.………………………………….………………........

53

4.1 Introduction………..……………………………………………………........ 53

4.2 Analysis Explained…………………………………………………………. 53

4.3 Profile of the Respondents……………..………………………………........ 54

III

4.4 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 1……………………. 55

4.4.1 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis for Research Question 1……………… 56

4.4.2 Content Analysis………………………………………………………………. 56

4.4.2.1 Networking………………………………………………………………………. 57

4.4.2.2 Growth Resources……………………………………………………………… 59

4.4.2.3 Professional Collaborative Services………………………………………….. 60

4.4.3 Analysis and Conclusion…………………………………………………………. 62

4.5 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 2…………………… 65

4.5.1 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis for Research Question 2….………….. 65

4.5.2 Content Analysis……………………………………………………………… 65

4.5.1.1 Misalignment…………………………………………………………………… 66

4.5.1.2 Culture Gap……………………………………………………………………… 68

4.5.1.3 Disconnect………………………………………………………………………. 70

4.5.1.4 Collaborative Commercial Research…………………………………………… 72

4.5.1.5 Competition or Restriction by Competitor ……………………………………. . 75

4.5.2 Analysis and Conclusion 75

4.6 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 3………………….. 78

4.6.1 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis for Research Question 3…………….. 78

4.6.2 Content Analysis……………………………………………………………. 79

4.6.2.1 Individual initiative…………………………………………………………….. 79

4.6.2.2 System…………………………………………………………………………. 80

4.6.2.3 Structure……………………………………………………………………….. 82

4.6.3 Analysis and Conclusion……………………………………………………… 83

4.7 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 4……..……………. 86

4.7.1 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis for Research Question 4……………… 86

4.7.2 Content Analysis………………………………………………………………. 87

4.7.2.1 Positively Disposed…………………………………………………………… 87

4.7.2.2 Enabling Requirements………………………………………………………. 88

4.7.2.3 Benefits Sought………………………………………………………………. 90

4.7.3 Analysis and Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 91

4.8 Summary of Findings and Conclusion…………………………………….. 93

IV

4.0 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………….

97

5.1 Introduction…………………………………….....………………………….. 97

5.1.1 Outline solution to research problem, aim & objectives……………………….. 97

5.2 Conclusion 1 and Recommendations………………………………………… 98

5.2.1 Recommendations……………………………………………………………… 99




5.4.1 Recommendations…………………………………………………………….. 102

5.5 Conclusion 4 and Recommendations…………………………………………. 103


5.6 Implications for Theory/Policy/Practice……………………………………… 104

5.7 Limitations and Future Study…………………………………………………. 105

5.8 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….. 105

APPENDICES ……….…………………………………………………………...............

107

References…………………………………………………………........................ 107

Appendix 1 Definition of Terms…………………………………………………. 117

Appendix 1 Interview Questions……………………….……………………........ 119

Appendix 2 Interview invitation issued to respondents………………………….. 120

Appendix 3 Sample coded interview transcript………………………………….. 122

Appendix 4 Letter of introduction from President of IADT…………………….. 125

Appendix 5 Identifying sample intrinsically motivating enterprise engagements

for testing………………………………………………………………………….

126

Appendix 6 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis framework for Key Issue 1… 130

Appendix 7 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis framework for Key Issue 2… 134

Appendix 8 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis framework for Key Issue 3.. 137

Appendix 9 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis framework for Key Issue 4.. 139

Appendix 10 The Strategic Approach to the Choices facing IADT…………....... 141

Appendix 11 Analysis of Income for IADT in 2010……………………………. 145

List of Tables

Table Page

1. Profile of interview respondents ……………………………………………………….. 43

2. Current activity levels for Innovation Voucher activity at IADT..................................... 61

3. Analysis of Innovation Vouchers processed by Knowledge Providers in Ireland………. 74

4. Sample Activities for enterprise in the IADT literature..................................................... 126

5. Research Question 1 coding analysis framework............................................................. 130

6. Research Question 1 content analysis............................................................................... 132







VII

List of Figures

Figure Page

1. The Expansion of the University Mission....................................................... 14

2. The revenue portfolio for UK universities..................................................... 15

3. The emerging new economics of Higher Education 19

4. Components of the Innovation & Knowledge Ecosystem Model……… 42

5. The process whereby IADT may achieve successful alignment of its

Specialist Industry Expertise specialisations...................................................

142

VIII

Acknowledgements

There are many people to whom I owe thanks for supporting me in a personal and

professional capacity during the completion of this dissertation:-

My supervisor Professor Audrey Gilmore for her helpful comments and advice. My course

director Dr. Adele Dunn who posed the challenge which ultimately provided me with the

subject for this dissertation. Gerard McFall at University of Ulster was a constant help with

literature.

The President at IADT, Dr. Annie Doona, for allowing me the opportunity to use the subject

of my dissertation to be of service to IADT. I am also very grateful to the President’s office

assistants, Elizabeth Stunnell and Elaine Dominguez.

I am also grateful to Marian O’Sullivan, Muiris O’Connor, Richard Thorn, Jim Devine and

Claire McBride for their help and advice.

The interview participants were extremely generous with their time and suggestions.

My partner Ania was a great help to me with the structure of my dissertation, I am deeply

grateful to her.

IX

Abbreviations

HETAC Higher Education and Training Awards Council

HEIs Higher Education Institutions

HEA Higher Education Authority

IADT Staff Member of Academic/Management staff sample population

IADT Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire

IC Incubation Centre – called the Media Cube at IADT

Incubator Incubation Centre enterprise owners sample population

IoTs Institutes of Technology

IP Intellectual Property

K&EI Model Knowledge and Innovation Ecosystem Model

KPIs Key Performance Indicators

NFQ National Framework of Qualifications

SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises

X

Declaration on Access to Contents

DECLARATION

-------------------------

I hereby declare that, with effect from the date on which this dissertation is deposited in the

library or other department / school / faculty of the University of Ulster, I permit the

dissertation to be copied in whole or in parts without reference to myself, in the

understanding that such authority applies to single copies made for studying purposes and

which are not published. An additional condition is that acknowledgement is credited to the

actual source.

This restriction does not apply to the copying or publication of the title, abstract or

introduction to this dissertation. It is a condition that anyone who consults this dissertation

must recognize that the copyright rests with the author and no quotation from the dissertation

or information derived from it may be published unless the source is properly acknowledged.

Signed .............................................................................

Date ................................................................................

XI

Abstract

Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are under pressure to transform their activities,

structures and management systems in response to an increasing range of contemporary

challenges. Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) are the dominant business form in

Ireland and are key engines of growth in modern economies, research shows them to be a

significant source of applied innovation and job creation. However Ireland remains an

‘Innovation Follower’ in European league tables partially because insufficient numbers of

Irish SMEs engage in innovation and the professional training and development necessary for

its exploitation. The Irish government sees the innovative, export led growth of indigenous

SMEs as essential to building the recovery of the national finances and employment.

The recently published National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 (commonly known as

the Hunt Report) states that HEIs have a key role to play as innovation enablers for

indigenous SMEs. It requires that HEIs reduce their dependence on the exchequer by

prioritising the mission of engaging with the innovation needs of Ireland’s SMEs in a manner

that creates diversified revenue streams for HEIs. However the Hunt Report has been

criticised for a lack of empirical guidance on the quantum of such engagement or how it

should be effected operationally.

In order to address this gap an exploratory case study is conducted at IADT. IADT is in an

ideal position to respond flexibly to the Hunt enterprise engagement objective due to it being

one of Ireland’s newest, smallest Institutes of Technology (IoT) with a recently appointed

President from outside the IoT sector, the nature of the disciplines it teaches in the key

growth area of digital media and the institute’s stated pioneering culture.

In order to provide the research instrument for the study ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is

defined as genuine collaborative activities occurring within an effective network which yield

symbiotic outcomes to the participants.

The primary research comprised twelve in-depth semi-structured interviews with key

informants and decision makers drawn from IADT’s enterprise ecosystem over a period of

three months in the summer of 2011. The primary research was supplement by two

unstructured interviews with education policy experts and relevant secondary research. The XII

research is limited to one academic institution, a focus on one industry sector with

respondents drawn from a limited geographical area. In order to ensure the validity of

conclusions the findings are triangulated throughout with evidence from the literature and

informed sources.

The research finds that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not currently occurring at IADT.

Furthermore the research indicates that IADT is failing in its mission to meet the

collaborative innovation, training and professional development needs of SMEs. A recurring

theme throughout the data is that the most significant obstacle to ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ is the internal culture at IADT. From the data enterprise engagement appears to

be a relatively low priority internally at IADT despite public announcements to the contrary.

Despite a number of cases of individual initiative the data suggests that IADT is

predominantly reactive in respect of enterprise engagement. This results in valuable resources

(such as the large population of IADT alumni in key positions in digital media enterprises,

the enterprises located in the on-campus incubation centre and the state funded Virtual Lab

facility) being neglected as a source of revenue and growth for IADT, its staff and students.

This is occurring in spite of the fact that very little progress has been made to date on the

institute’s declared target of raising twenty percent of IADT revenue from non-exchequer

sources by 2013.

The findings of this study suggest serious adverse consequences for the ability of IADT to

generate non-exchequer revenue streams in the absence of deep rooted internal culture

change. In this context effective enterprise engagement may be deemed to be a key priority

for the new President and management of IADT. However many assets and supports are

available to the management team in commencing this process.

In terms of future research it is suggested that this exploratory research may aid in providing

a conceptual framework working hypothesis for further research in respect of the Hunt

enterprise engagement objectives.

1

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Chapter 1 of this research study commences with an examination of the changing role of

HEIs, particularly in respect of becoming innovation enablers for Small and Medium sized

Enterprises. The pressures and challenges shaping structural change in the HEI sector

towards an enterprise orientation (with a particular focus on the Hunt Report (Hunt 2011)) are

examined with a view to framing the research question. Critics of the Hunt Report state that

is not clear on the means which be pursued in achieving the multi-faceted objectives it

contains particularly those in respect of the engagement objectives. This provides the

rationale for this research study. The aims and objectives of the research are then addressed.

The structure of the research is outlined, namely an exploratory case study at the Institute of

Art, Design and Technology (IADT), Dun Laoghaire. Primary data is collected during the

summer of 2011 via twelve semi-structured interviews with opinion leaders, decision makers

and key informants drawn from the enterprise ecosystem of IADT. The primary research was

supplement by two unstructured interviews with education policy experts and relevant

secondary research. The research outcomes are then presented in summary form.

The objective of Chapter 2 is to serve as a foundation for this dissertation. In order to support

the aim of this study the method of Gibbs (2008) is adopted by using the literature review to

examine themes, trends and previous research in order to provide a framework and structure

for an analysis of the data collected to answer the research question.

The review of foundation literature establishes that HEIs are undergoing a period of change

due to policy, technical, competitive and economic challenges. On the other side of the

innovation interface SMEs are the most common form of business unit in the European

Union but, due to resources issues, suffer from an inability to engage in innovation. National

policy identifies that HEIs are well positioned to address this failure and seeks to require that

HEIs do so. The conclusion of the review of core literature examines the aspiration of the

National Strategy for Higher Education in respect of enterprise engagement.

However such engagement must be purposive and Hunt’s desired purpose is that enterprise

engagement creates diversified funding course for HEIs while meeting the innovation,

training and professional development needs of SMEs. Such effective behaviour has the

2

potential to create ‘symbiotic engagements’. However critics of the Hunt Report state it lacks

specific indicators of how any of its recommendations might be implemented nor is it clear

on the means to be pursued in achieving the multi-faceted objectives it contains particularly

in respect of enterprise engagement.

This provides the research question for this study. By seeking to measure ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ at IADT this study attempts to provide a conceptual working hypothesis

(Shields and Tajalli 2006) for future work in respect of operationalising Hunt’s enterprise

engagement objective. Using the synthesis developed in the literature review the research

instruments for the progressive test of ‘‘effective enterprise engagement’’ are:

1. Does an ‘effective network’ exist: This is characterised by regular and intense

interaction as opposed to one off transactional engagements. The goal of this test is to

establish if the relationship is embedded within the enterprise activities of the

participants.

2. Is ‘actual collaboration’ taking place within the ‘effective network’? This is

characterised by equal intensity of engagement across all categories of engagement.

The goal of this test is to establish whether any embeddedness identified is broad

enough to constitute genuine engagement.

3. Is ‘symbiotic engagement’ evident in the ‘actual collaborations’? The goal of this test

is to establish whether collaborative innovation, training and professional

development is occurring in a manner that creates equal revenue and benefits to all

parties. The purpose of this test is to identify conditions for increases of transivity and

homophilly creating the conditions for growing the ‘effective network’. This in turn

provides the potential for a virtuous circle developing, the greater the ‘effective

network’ the greater the opportunities for creating ‘actual collaboration’.

Therefore for the purposes of this study ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is defined as

genuinely collaborative activities within an effective network which yield symbiotic

outcomes to the participants. Chapter 2 identifies obstacles to such ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ which include ‘Culture Gap’, ‘Misalignment’ and ‘Disconnect’. Instruments for

mitigating the effect of obstacles in biological and business ecosystems are systems and

structures which facilitate the key processes. The Hunt report makes a similar statement that

outward-facing systems and structures should be embedded into institutional activity to

underpin engagement.

3

In conclusion of the summary of Chapter 2 the research question is justified on the basis of

the literature and a series of instruments are identified to help operationalise the aims and

objectives of this research.

Chapter 3 describes and justifies the research methodology used in the study.This study

adopts the interpretivist philosophy on the basis that the research question seeks to gain an

understanding of certain dynamic human processes at the case study institution through

capturing feelings and personal opinions of people in respect of the subject being examined.

The research approach employed in this research is inductive due to the fact that the concepts

or variables to be measured in the research are not currently sufficiently defined to be

expressed in a testable hypothesis and measured quantitatively.

Following from the choice of the inductive research approach this study seeks to collect

qualitative data in order to seek to answer the research question. Qualitative data is

appropriate to this research study because exploratory research often relies on qualitative

approaches such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or

pilot studies in addition to secondary research. Finally the case study research strategy is

chosen due to the nature of the research question and the fact that exploratory studies are

generally better served by single cases.

In respect of the research procedure the primary technique of semi-structured interviews are

justified in order to “find out what is happening and to seek new insights” Robson (2002

p59). The selection of case study organisation, sample populations and sample participants

from the IADT enterprise ecosystem are justified. The secondary methods are briefly outlined

and justified.

Chapter 4 presents the findings and analysis of this study. The key findings are presented

under each of the objectives and subsequently linked to the relevant literature in order to

triangulate the findings and contrast results.

The overall finding of this research is that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not occurring

at IADT. Furthermore the research indicates that IADT is failing in its mission to meet the

collaborative innovation, training and professional development needs of SMEs (minimal

evidence is found in the data of satisfactory interactions in these categories of engagement

amongst the respondents).

4

This finding has serious adverse consequences for the ability of IADT to generate non-

exchequer revenue streams and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The finding is

corroborated by the fact that in the period to December 2010 non-exchequer income

accounted for 1.5% of IADT’s €23million income as opposed to an internal strategic target of

twenty percent by 2013.

The purpose of Chapter 5 is to present a further discussion of the findings presented in

Chapter 4 and to provide a set of recommendations to IADT and relevant policy making

bodies based on the findings of this study. Implications for the practice of enterprise

engagement and for future research in this domain are presented. Lastly a brief conclusion of

the study is presented.

The next section will commence the overview of the justification and rationale for the

research question.

5

1.2 The Changing Role of Higher Education Institutes in Ireland

The key purpose of economic development is to support individual wellbeing, to promote

equity in society and to enable national government to deliver on the aspirations of its

citizens. As disseminators and creators of knowledge Ireland’s higher education institutions

(HEIs) play a key role in the economic development of the country. Ireland’s economy is

highly dependent on its ability to convert knowledge and expertise into products, processes

and services for export. The value of Irish exports reached €161 billion in 2010, the highest

annual figure ever recorded (Irish Exporters Association 2011) and constituted approximately

eighty per cent of gross domestic product (being the market value of all final goods and

services produced in a country in a given period). In recognition of the key role HEIs play in

the modern, knowledge-based economy a number of recent government stimulus

programmes have focused on leveraging the HEI sector as provisioning agents (the

Springboard Programme for example).

Irish tax-payers provide the bulk of the funding to the higher education sector in Ireland via

state funding. As a result of current economic difficulties state funding bodies are seeking

increased accountability and alignment of IoT strategies with national priorities and

objectives (Government Publications Office 2007). Marginson (2008) finds that many HEIs

internationally are trending towards more corporate-style forms of organisation. The

characteristics of this trend are increased executive steering at institutional level, greater

administrative and policy autonomy and higher levels of income raising at institutional level.

This is coupled with systems which are based on information and communications which

ensure greater transparency, performance measurement and the accountability of HEIs to

national agencies.

However in Ireland existing models of HEI organisation in respect of research outputs and

enterprise engagement are not suitable to the task national government wishes the sector to

fulfil. In terms of addressing this putative disconnect, between national policy objectives and

the HEI sector, the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 was published in January

2011. This report was commissioned by the Irish Government and seeks to create the

framework and conditions for a re-structuring of Irish higher education. The expert group

report was chaired by economist Dr Colin Hunt and as a result the National Strategy is

commonly referred to as the Hunt Report.

6

The objective of the restructuring proposed in the Hunt Report is to cater for the broad social

and cultural requirements of Ireland in the next twenty years. The scale of the report’s

ambitions for the breadth and quality of Irish higher education over the coming decades

demands more coherence, symbiosis and considerable improvements in the operational

efficiency throughout the organisation and financing of Ireland’s HEI system.

One of the key finding of the report is that the Irish HEI sector requires a dramatic increase in

funding to enable it to deal with predicted record levels of student demand and to enable it to

play a pivotal role in the economic recovery of Ireland. The report proposes that the source of

this funding be new student contribution fees and the creation of revenue streams from the

provision of collaborative innovation, training and professional development services to

enterprise, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The report formulates a

number of processes that it wishes to see underpin HEIs’ new ways of working particularly in

respect of engagement with SMEs across the ‘innovation interface’ (Lanciano-Morandat et al

2006).

1.3 Small and Medium Sized Enterprises – the Innovation Interface with HEIs

SMEs are the dominant form of business organisation in Ireland and the European Union.

However they exhibit low productivity and little design, process or organisational innovation

or use of Information & Communication Technologies (EU Cordis 2003). Ireland’s Report of

the Innovation Taskforce (2010) states that the education system is pivotal in making

innovation happen and should be a key facilitator and enabler of SME innovation. While

HEIs have many functions, missions and commitments in the current recessionary

environment many expect them to play a key role in helping return the national economy to a

growth orientation.

There are ample models in HEI sectors internationally for the systems and structures which

underpin effective engagement across this interface. According to The Expert Group on

Future Skills Needs (2006) symbiotic enterprise engagement is common in the HEIs in the

United States. Industry linkages in the US colleges in terms of course design/delivery,

structured guest lecturer programmes, software company “testing” relationships with colleges

and their students, and extensive joint industry research programmes are well developed. The

structured fostering of informal industry linkages in the US takes place through standing

mechanisms such as Programme Boards and President’s Panels.

7

1.4 Rationale for the Research

The emergence of the impetus to become enterprising HEIs and increase engagement with

enterprise is relatively new in Ireland (as is the requirement to earn revenue from such

engagement). Nevertheless a reforming Irish Minister for Education expects HEIs to achieve

transformation on the broad criteria identified in the Hunt Report in a short time scale.

However the Hunt Report has been the subject of a number of criticisms since its publication.

Begley (2011) states, inter alia, that the report lacks strategic thinking and is not clear on the

exact means which are to be pursued in achieving the engagement objectives. This criticism

is echoed by The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT 2011, p.1) who express the

view that the report is “singularly lacking any specific indicators of how any of its

recommendations might be implemented".

Therefore while internationally many HEIs are undergoing transformation towards the

enterprise model of operation, there is no guidance for the operational implementation of the

Hunt Report enterprise engagement objectives contained in the report. Based on a review of

the current Irish literature there appears to be an absence of research addressing this question.

In light of the current policy and economic environment the researcher believes that the

research question which underpins this study is opportune.

1.5 Aims and Objectives of the Research

In order to address the gap identified in current literature an exploratory case study at a

sample IoT is proposed. Therefore the aim of this research is to use an exploratory case study

to evaluate whether ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is occurring at IADT where ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is defined as actual collaborative activities occurring within an

effective network which yield symbiotic outcomes to the participants.

The objective of this research is to address the following research questions:

1. Is there evidence for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT?

2. Are there obstacles preventing ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT?

3. Are systems and structures embedded within IADT to overcome obstacles to

‘effective enterprise engagement’?

4. Can higher levels of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ be achieved at IADT?

8

This exploratory research may aid in providing a conceptual framework working hypothesis

for further research on the Hunt enterprise engagement objectives.

1.6 The Structure of the Research

The method of research selected is an exploratory case study. Therefore a subject Institute of

Technology (IoT) was carefully selected on the basis of a number of defining characteristics.

The fact that IADT is one of the smallest IoTs in Ireland suggests that the case study method,

with a relatively small number of interviews, has the potential to provide relevant, informed

insights on the research question.

The primary research comprised qualitative data collection via twelve semi-structured

interviews with opinion leaders, decision makers and key informants drawn from those

populations within IADT’s enterprise ecosystem that relevant to the research question

(namely IADT Staff, Business Owning Alumni and Incubator companies). To seek further

insight on the policy environment of the Hunt Report and the Higher Education Authority

two further respondents were interviewed from the Higher Education Authority. The

interviews were carried out over a period of three months during the summer of 2011.

Secondary research primarily focussed on reports, conference proceedings and journal

articles.

The research strategy of Gibbs (2008) is employed in this study whereby the literature review

is used to examine themes, trends and previous research to provide a framework and structure

for analysis of the data collected to answer the research question and to enable comparison

for the identification of consistent themes. Analytic codes and categories/themes are

identified in the theory and models examined in the literature review. This framework

provides the basis for the analysis of the qualitative data.

The interview transcripts were analysed for descriptive codes. These descriptive codes were

sorted into the relevant analytic codes and themes drawn from the literature review. The

resulting data was compiled into tabular form. The researcher then examined the coded data

for trends, patterns and themes in the tabulated data. The key findings that emerged from the

above process are presented under each of the research questions and subsequently

triangulated against the relevant literature in order to compare and contrast results. The

research is limited to one academic institution, a focus on one industry sector with

respondents drawn from a limited geographical area.

9

1.7 Research Outcomes Outline

The answer to the research question is that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not occurring

at IADT within the sample respondents. This finding emerges from the progression of

answers to the tests of the research instruments employed in the research study. Research

Question 1 finds that enterprise engagement is occurring at IADT however once the

instruments of ‘effective network’, ‘actual collaboration’ and ‘symbiotic engagement’ tests

are applied to the tabulated data it is found that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not

currently occurring at IADT. Research Question 2 identifies that the obstacles undermining

effective engagement include ‘Misalignment’, ‘Culture Gaps’, and ‘Disconnect’. Research

Question 3 examines the systems and structures currently underpinning enterprise

engagement at IADT. The data suggests that there is excessive dependence on individual

initiative in this activity at IADT. The finding from the data is that the systems and structures

do not currently exist at IADT to overcome the obstacles to effective engagement.

The majority of enterprise engagements occurring at IADT are informal and not required by

the President to be formally captured or reported. The matter of enterprise engagement

appears from the data to be a relatively low priority internally despite public announcements

to the contrary. While the prospect of short term change is not evident within the data, when

assessing prospects for future improvements Research Question 4 found that there is

enthusiasm for an increase in effective engagement. However in order to increase transivity

and homophilly within the IADT enterprise ecosystem a range of enabling conditions need to

be addressed in advance. These enabling requirements were identified by IADT staff as

internal culture change and the necessity for enterprise engagement activities to be recognised

in their employment contacts. Incubators and Alumni were concerned about quality control

and the overhead of learning curves on each side being identified as something that they

would require to be addressed. The hidden costs of ineffective interfacing between IADT and

enterprise were cited as an inhibitor currently.

Turning to the types of benefits sought by Incubators and Alumni as an incentive for

increases in engagement, a significant finding is that all the benefits identified are

engagements that would improve the ‘effective network’ for IADT and would not necessarily

cost a significant amount of money to implement. The benefits they cited included the

opportunities to help build their personal profile and their network, networking with most

10

promising students at IADT and finally being offered networking opportunities with high

profile people to provide potential opportunities for their business.

Therefore Research Question 4 finds that an increase in ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is

conditional on the commitment of the new President and senior management to implement

deep rooted internal culture change at IADT. The cumulative impact of the above answers to

the research question is that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not occurring at IADT.

Furthermore the research indicates that IADT is failing in its mission to meet the

collaborative innovation, training and professional development needs of SMEs (minimal

evidence is found in the data of satisfactory interactions in these categories of engagement

amongst the respondents).


exchequer revenue streams and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The finding is




It is noted that exploratory case study research is not typically generalisable to the population

at large therefore the limitations noted in Chapter 3 concerning these findings should be

borne in mind.

1.8 Conclusion

This chapter outlined the structure of this research study. It considered the topics of

introducing the subject matter of the research question and provided the rationale for the

research. The aims and objectives of the research were stated. The research strategy,

procedure and method of analysis were introduced. These topics are important to enabling the

research to be communicated to the reader in an understandable manner and to enable critical

assessment.

The next chapter will consider topics concerning the nature and structure of the organisations

on both sides of the innovation interface, HEIs and SMEs. It will then examine the interface

between the two for typical obstacles encountered. These topics relate to this thesis by

providing the framework for supporting the choice of the research question and the related

research instruments required to answer the research question.

11

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The previous chapter provided a detailed overview of this research study. It considered the

rationale for the research, the aims and objectives and how the research is to be conducted. It

also presented a summary of the structure of the research and the outcomes of the research.

The purpose of this chapter is to serve as a foundation for this dissertation. In order to support

the aim of this study the method of Gibbs (2008) is adopted by using the literature review to

examine themes, trends and previous research in order to provide a framework for posing the

research question and a structure for an analysis of the data collected to answer the question.

This introduction will provide a short overview of the structure and layout of the chapter’s

contents.

The chapter commences by investigating the foundation literature. Through an examination

of the broad issues and challenges facing HEIs and SMEs the basis for establishing the

research question is identified (i.e. the necessity for collaborative engagement between HEIs

and SMEs). The research question is further refined and operationalised via the core

literature. The core literature seeks to examine the nature of collaborative engagement at the

interface between HEIs and SMEs. It seeks to identify in the literature the typical obstacles to

engagement between HEIs and SMEs. A detailed examination is then conducted of the Hunt

Report model for the broad instruments and process for enterprise engagement which it

prescribes.

The identification of the need for empirical research draws on the foundation and core

literature to argue the case for research into ‘effective enterprise engagement’ being

necessary and relevant at this time. The final outcome of this chapter is the formulation of a

framework and set of research instruments for identifying the existence of ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ in a research study. Based on these research instruments a definition

of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is then formulated. The objectives of this study in

support of the research aim are then identified.

12

2.2 Review of Foundation Literatures

2.2.1 The Irish Higher Education Sector

Ireland has seven universities and fourteen Institutes of Technology (fifteen if the Dublin

Institute of Technology is included however it is not a member of the IoT association and has

the status of a university in terms of academic conferrals) serving a population of over four

and a half million. Each has its own academic structure and administration. According to the

Institutes of Technology Research Coordination and Support Office (2010) the IoTs work to

a three-fold mission of teaching & learning, research & development and enterprise support.

IoTs award their own degrees under delegated authority from HETAC. They provide Higher

Certificates (National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) Level 6) or Ordinary Bachelors’

degrees (NFQ Level 7) and Honours Bachelors’ degrees (NFQ Level 8 and 9) to students.

Many of the IoTs provide a range of postgraduate programmes at Master’s and Doctoral

level. The Institutes also provide part-time programmes catering for the continuing

professional development and education of the workforce. In 2006 a new Institutes of

Technology Act 2006 put the IoTs on the same footing as the universities in their interaction

with HEA.

The Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire (henceforth IADT) is located in

the county of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown. The current County Development Plan (2010, p.275)

identifies IADT as an important asset to the county in stating:

“Strong evidence exists internationally to suggest that successful cities are those that

achieve strong linkages and synergies between their universities and businesses”.

An IADT Staff respondent stated to the researcher that “The Media Cube (IADT’s incubation

centre) has become part of the enterprise support system in the county and all support

agencies see it as a location where anyone that wants to start a business goes.”

IADT occupies a differentiated role within the Institutes of Technology sector. It has

significant strengths in arts, technology and enterprise, sectors where employment demand

for students is growing. As a result IADT courses experience high popularity with potential

students. Non teaching activities at IADT are predominantly organised via the Development

Office and include industry interaction, collaborative commercial research (innovation

partnerships and commercialisation), applied research/collaborative research, joint initiatives

13

with other Institutions in or outside the state, incubation services, consultancy,

programmes/training for industry and for those in employment, facilities rental, international

students, Erasmus student mobility and placements, undergraduate student placements,

marketing and public relations.

Within the Irish higher education sector IADT is one of the smallest, placed thirteenth out of

Ireland’s fifteen IoTs on the basis of graduate numbers in 2010 (when DIT is included as an

IoT) and tenth in terms of post-graduate student numbers. According to HETAC (2011) there

were 340 academic members of staff or 117 Full Time Equivalents employed at IADT in

2010. In that year IADT educated 3.3% of all under-graduates in the IoT sector and 2.6% of

post-graduates in the IoT sector (HEA Enrolment 2010).

It might be argued that these relatively small percentages reflect the niche specialism of

IADT (many IoTs provide a full range of disciplines whereas IADT concentrates on the

creative arts, creative technologies and business and humanities) and reflect the fact that the

Institute has no Level 6 undergraduate programmes (which comprise a considerable

proportion of the programmes offered at some IoTs). At IADT the majority of programmes

are at Level 8 and 9 which may reflect the high concentration of the ABC social-economic

grouping in the area in which IADT is located.

2.2.2 The Changing Role of the Sector

In respect of the changing nature of the mission of higher education Von Prondzynski (2011)

sees the journey HEIs have made from teachers to creators of economic value as commencing

with their original teaching and scholarship mission. Subsequently pressure to develop new

knowledge, as well as disseminating it, saw scholarship evolve into research thereby creating

a second mission. This involved a focus on published research which enabled the academic

community to share information. The desire of funding governments to secure a transfer of

knowledge via a move effective linkage between HEIs and the needs of society and industry

created a third mission of technology transfer. Elements of this third mission are the focus of

this research study. Figure 1 below illustrates the progression of the mission of HEIs.

14

Figure 1: The expansion of the University mission. The figure below shows the migration

from teaching (i.e. received knowledge) through research and entrepreneurship to a potential

corporate model, which incorporates elements of vocational training (Adapted from

Etzkowitz 2003 p.115).

A range of political, technological and economic pressures are converging on the higher

education sector. Political in the form of policy reforms envisaged in a number of

government initiated reports from statutory constituted bodies. These include, but are not

limited to, the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030, Research Strategy for

Science, Technology and Innovation 2006 and the High Level Group report on International

Education 2010.

Economic pressures exist in the form of government funding cutbacks and the imminent

introduction of student fees at a time when educational qualifications are extremely important

(Cedefop 2008). As illustrated in Figure 2 below data from the UK university sectors

illustrates that the HEI sector is over dependent on government funding in the form of

teaching grants and research grants. It is thought that a similar situation prevails in Ireland.

An HEI recruitment embargo has been in place for the past two years and other cut-backs

have restricted HEIs in their ability to respond to the challenges which the economy and

enterprises face. According to Durkin et al (2011) fees are expected to increase the pressure

on students to become discerning consumers of education whereby HEIs are perceived as

service providers from which they are making a purchase and expectations rise accordingly.

15

An increased insistence on the direct relevance of course content to employability and

innovation in teaching methods is expected from fee paying students.

Figure 2: The revenue portfolio for UK universities (PA Consulting 2011 p.4).

Technological pressures are emerging in the form of e-learning, mobile learning (via smart

phones or tablet computers) and a trend towards “just in time” learning, all of which have the

potential to reduce the demand for formal, accredited qualifications, the stock in trade of

HEIs. Liburd and Hjalager (2010), in addressing collaborative open source education, refer to

the declining role of higher education institutions as knowledge monopolies and their

emerging role as open knowledge mediators. Market place pressures take the form of new,

private sector entrants (such as recently launched Institute of Business and Technology with

campus facilities in a number of locations in Dublin) which are highly focussed in terms of

course content, post-graduation employability and the use of technology in the provision of

learning to reduce overheads and increase student satisfaction.

It is argued (Upton, 2011; Durkin et al, 2011) that due to the convergence of these “perfect

storm” circumstances the higher education sector is experiencing a strategic inflection point

(Grove 1996) whereby the structure and basis of competition within the industry are

undergoing radical change. In response the limits to an entrepreneurial response imposed by

the traditional nature of higher education structures (Brennan and McGowan 2006) may have

to be rapidly dismantled.

However Upton (2011) also points out that the combined challenges faced by HEIs create a

unique opportunity for transformation. Educational institutions willing to think laterally can

position themselves to outperform into the future. This sentiment is echoed by Archbold

16

(2010) who highlights the need for sustained creativity and innovation across all sectors of

society due to the current economic circumstances.

Having identified at a high level a number of the issues that HEIs face the literature review

now examines the nature of SMEs on the other side of the innovation interface and the issues

they face.

2.2.3 Small & Medium Sized Enterprises

International research has identified small & medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as a key

driver of economic growth (Birch 1979). They are the key source of innovation in a capitalist

economy (Acs and Audretsch 1990) and bring more innovation to the market than large

enterprises. SMEs are the dominant form of business organisation in Ireland and the

European Union. They make up 99% of the 22 million businesses in Europe, contribute 57%

of European GDP and employ close to 120 million people (EU Grants Advisor 2006).

To avoid undue dependence on multi-national enterprises a number of national policy

initiatives see growth, innovation and internationalisation by SMEs as the medium term

solution to Ireland’s current economic difficulties. However it is open to question how

realistic this expectation is in light of the difficulties that SMEs face (European Union

Information Society 2004 p2):

“SMEs are struggling every day for economic survival… lack of time, lack of

resources, lack of skilled employees, lack of easy to use technology adapted to SMEs”

The lack of training and lack of access to relevant resources (including design, know how,

intermediaries, networks) undermines the enterprise’s capacity to absorb and capitalise on

innovation (European Regional Development Fund 2009).

The benefits of an ability to be innovative are well established. Research conducted by the

European Union in respect of the innovation behaviours of two hundred SMEs in the Irish

Border Regions identified that the benefits of the innovation discipline as gains of up to thirty

percent consistent growth in sales, greater longevity (the average age of innovative firm was

28 years) and are more profitable than non-innovating firms in the sample (European

Regional Development Fund 2009). However there are distinct differences in participation in

innovation by different sized SMEs. Just 38.9% of small firms with between ten and forty

nine employees engage in either product or process innovation compared to 75.8% of

17

companies with in excess of two hundred and fifty employees (Forfas 2011). The research

suggests that smaller sized SMEs are unable to fund/supervise research and development

(R&D) to the extent needed to remain competitive in rapidly changing environment.

The exploitation of innovation normally depends on access to knowledge and the ability to

synthesise and successfully exploit it. According to Nachira et al (2007) SMEs and local

clusters are now competing in a global and dynamic market where they need more

interrelations, more specialised resources, more research and innovation as well as access to

global value chains and knowledge. In response Ireland’s Report of the Innovation Taskforce

(2010) states that the education system is pivotal in making innovation happen and should be

a key facilitator and enabler of SME innovation. When one surveys the landscape in search of

the best potential candidate to address the issues that enterprises face Ireland’s Institutes of

Technology (IoTs) would appear, due to their specific mandate, to be the best candidates.

Forfas (Ireland’s state policy advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and

innovation) states that IoTs are assigned the role of providers of applied and multi-technology

solutions to industrial needs (2010). The Hunt Report refines this mandate to a prioritisation

of the needs of small and medium enterprises. This mandate arises from the crucial role these

enterprises play in innovation and job creation in the modern economy. According to the

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2006) the multi-regional nature of IoTs

and their openness to working with industry provides a platform upon which real industrial

impact can be built.

Therefore in conclusion of the foundation literature section it has been established that HEIs

are undergoing a period of change due to economic, policy, technical and competitive

challenges. It has been identified that SMEs are the most common form of business unit in

Ireland and the European Union and are a key source of jobs and innovation in the economy.

Due to resources issues SMEs predominantly suffer from an inability to engage effectively in

innovation and growth. National policy identifies that HEIs are well positioned to address this

failure and seeks to require that HEIs do so via the objectives contained in the National

Strategy for Higher Education to 2030.

18

2.3 Review of the Core Literature

2.3.1 What constitutes effective engagement at the innovation interface between HEIs and

Enterprise?

The Hunt report requires HEIs to diversify their funding streams from an over-dependence on

government sources and to seek to phase in funding from engaging in the provision of

professional, collaborative services to SMEs across what may be termed the innovation

interface.

In the context of sustainable engagement between HEIs and enterprise Kaur-Gill (2011, p.3)

defines engagement in this context as:

“Engagement implies purposive, considerate and productive interaction with both

internal and external stakeholders for the establishment of mutually beneficial

partnerships”.

The Hunt Report (Hunt 2011 p. 12) defines the process of engagement as:

“Outward-facing systems and structures should be embeded into institutional activity,

so that there are inward and outward flows of knowledge, staff, students and ideas

between each institution and its external community.”

As noted in Kaur-Gill (2011) enterprise engagement should be purposive. In this context

Hunt states that a key purpose of engagement must be the reduction of dependence on

exchequer funding by earning revenue from responding to the relevant innovation and

training needs of SMEs.

Similar goals have driven recent government higher education policy in other countries.

According to PA Consulting it is no longer sustainable for HEIs in the UK to be over-

dependent on exchequer funding in the new realities. They state that HEIs need to change

internal culture to create portfolios of earned income (see Figure 3 below).

19

Figure 3: The emerging new economics of Higher Education – This figure illustrates the need

for HEIs to move from supply-side entitlement to earning revenue from a range of responsive

activities (PA Consulting 2011 p.3).

On the issue of HEIs creating new sources of income Hunt (2011 p. 16) states:

“Diversifying funding sources should be linked to a more responsive and open

engagement with key stakeholders, particularly students and enterprise, and a drive

to find new ways to link higher education research and innovation capacity to the

needs of the public and private sectors.”

In order to create conditions to drive such responsiveness the Hunt Report (Section 5.6, p79)

recommends that the Higher Education Authority conduct a survey of employers, which

would be “used as part of an assessment of quality outcomes for the system”.

The IoT sector would appear to be broadly in agreement with the objective of increased

responsiveness to SME needs. According to the minutes of the meeting of the Minister of

Education with a group representing the IoT sector, the Minister queried the use of time by

IoT academic staff in light of the low academic publication record in the IoT generally

observed in the IoT sector.

20

The group responded by saying that the IoT mission (Department of Education 2011 p3) is:

“...more focussed on engagement with business and industry (including enterprises,

purpose-driven research, new business incubation and support) than academic

publications.”

However there are a number of criticisms of the Hunt Report in respect of its engagement

objectives. Begley (2011) states that the report lacks strategic thinking and is not clear on the

means which be pursued in achieving the multi-faceted objectives it contains particularly in

respect of engagement. Von Prondsinski (2012) states that the ”major idea” in the report is

that there should be a centrally determined national strategy for higher education, and a set of

structures to ensure that this gets implemented by the HEIs. His criticism is that this approach

may not be successful, in his opinion universities are at their most innovative and creative

when they are allowed to pursue their own vision. The Dean’s office at National University

of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM 2011) states that universities’ engagement with its external

stakeholders has been almost ‘too routinised’ within the fabric of its operations to be

extracted and quantified.

The Dean (NUIM 201, p.12) goes on to focus criticism on the potential threats to the

autonomy of HEIs in the Hunt engagement mandate. Specifically noting that:

“When considering forms of wider engagement for the university sector, it will be

crucial to consider ways of engaging that exploit rather than compromise this

cherished autonomy.”

The Dean sees this autonomy as potentially threatened when the Hunt Report speaks of

facilitating employer input into curriculum design and development as neither the nature or

the level of employer input into curriculum design is clarified nor how this input would be

compatible with “pre-existing levels of refereed academic scrutiny”. The Dean’s final

concern in respect of engagement relates to the fact that, in respect of inward and outward

flows cited in Hunt, the mobility envisaged is overwhelmingly between the university and the

“world of work and business”. In respect of achieving the diversified funding streams from

this mobility the Dean believes that such responsiveness “should not lead to a dilution of

scholarly and professional standards in the interests of flexible expediency”.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT 2011, p.1) criticise the report for

21

“singularly lacking any specific indicators of how any of its recommendations might be

implemented". They also state that the panel comprising the report’s fifteen members did not

include representatives of academic staff and as such does not take sufficient conscience of

the practicalities of how the HEI sector operates.

Having identified a number of criticisms of the Hunt Report this chapter now examines what

is meant by ‘effective enterprise engagement’.

2.3.2 Defining what is meant by ‘effective enterprise engagement’

Research by Perkmann et al (2011) has found that existing measures of engagement activities

at the HEI-Enterprise interface are typically too narrow. Their research finds that the

academic literature focuses excessively on commercialisation activities as a measure of

engagement. They find that this measure is too superficial and not indicative of genuine

engagement (or what they title ‘actual collaboration’). They state that to measure genuine

engagement the degree of engagement across the entire range of potential collaborations (i.e.

collaborative research, contract research, consulting etc.) must be examined.

The Hunt Report appears to be in sympathy with this position and identifies a broad range of

collaborative services that it expects to underpin HEI’s engagement with SMEs. In this

respect Hunt identifies these as research and innovation activities across the entire spectrum

from applied research and commercialisation to development and consulting activities. It also

includes educational services such as Continuous Professional Development and Industry

Training to improve the growth and sustainability of SMES.

From the sampling carried out by the researcher the journal literature on the subject of Irish

HEI enterprise engagement appears to focus on technology transfer (McAdam et al 2009,

Bradley et al 1995, Lai Chun and Garvin 2001) and at the other end of the spectrum on how

student learning outcomes can be improved by use of entrepreneurship education and

interaction (Hegarty 2006). Little research appears in searches on the conditions necessary for

creating ‘actual collaboration’ in an Irish setting at the innovation interface.

Therefore in the absence of insights from the Irish literature how might one identify if ‘actual

collaboration’ is occurring within the network of participants at the case study IoT? To seek

to answer this question one must commence by examining elements of Social Network

Theory. Interactions between different participants in a network, and the propensity for this to

22

draw in other uninvolved participants, are measured transivity. If there is a tie between A and

B and one between B and C then, in a transitive network, A and C will also be drawn in to

interacting (Granovetter 1973). However different ties within a network have different

degrees of density with concomitant results for the effectiveness and embeddedness of those

in the network. Epstein (1969 p 110) defines the "effective network" as those with whom one

"interacts most intensely and most regularly".

Homophilly is an important concept to appreciate when one considers how an “effective

network” may be grown to incorporate a larger number of businesses in embedded

relationships with an IoT. Homophilly describes the positive relationship between the

similarity of two constituents in a network and the propensity of a tie being created between

them. This propensity increases in line with the degree that the other constituent mirrors their

interests (i.e. it is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others). So

for example in the case of IADT their stated specialisation in digital media attracts digital

media companies to their incubation centre and shapes a cluster of organisations with similar,

mutually reinforcing goals. Therefore transivity and homophilly are key characteristics

evident in ‘effective networks’.

Now that the conditions supporting the existence of an “effective network” have been

established (i.e. that there is intensely and regularly interaction between the participants) one

may now progress to seeking to understand what is meant by ‘actual collaboration’ in a

network context. For the purposes of this research Perkmann et al (2011)’s definition of

“actual collaboration” as equal intensity of interaction across all categories of engagement is

adopted.

A final component of arriving at a definition for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is to seek

an understanding of the motivations of the participants. A key motivation for engaging in

effective collaborative networks is the desire by the participants to achieve resource

efficiency. A key driver of the Hunt Report is to achieve resource efficiency for HEIs and

their collaborative partners, the outcomes it envisages seek to create better results for both

participants, i.e. better meeting the growth needs of SMEs which in turn generates revenue

streams for the HEI. Such behaviour is characterised as symbiotic.

23

The concept of symbiosis is normally associated with biological and business ecosystems. A

biological ecosystem contains complex relationships and engagements among its members.

Plants and animals that depend on a particular ecosystem for survival also contribute essential

ingredients/resources to that environment. A tree's roots draw nutrients and water from the

soil but then contribute fallen leaves for next year's soil. These symbiotic exchange

relationships underpin the ecosystem (US Army Corps of Engineers 2009). The research of

Iansiti and Levien (2004) found that a business ecosystem similarly contains a high rate of

interdependency among member firms and the member firms normally benefit from any

value-creating member of the ecosystem.

A key driver of the Hunt Report is to achieve resource efficiency for HEIs and their

collaborative partners, the outcomes it envisages seek to create better results for both

participants, i.e. better meeting the growth needs of SMEs which in turn generates revenue

streams for the HEI. The resource efficiency created by symbiosis is evident where the

companies composing an ecosystem group exhibit the “ability to consistently transform

technology and other raw materials of innovation into lower costs and new products” (Iansiti

and Levien, 2004, p. 72).

Therefore in the context of this study symbiotic engagement is defined as the ability to

collaboratively transform technology and other raw materials of innovation into lower costs

and new products that benefit both parties simultaneously, the SME in, inter alia, increased

revenue and the HEI in increased license revenue and other ancillary benefits. The key

advantage of the presence of ‘symbiotic engagement’ in the network is that it encourages

increases in transivity and homophilly thereby creating the conditions for network growth to

include larger numbers of participants.

Summarising the above discussion the series of instruments to be applied in progression

which provide the test for the presence of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ are as follows:




participants.



24










Therefore for the purposes of this study ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is defined as

genuinely collaborative activities within an effective network which yield symbiotic

outcomes to the participants.

At this point it is important to examine the factors that can prevent effective engagement

occurring at the innovation interface between HEIs and enterprise.

2.3.3 Obstacles to ‘effective enterprise engagement’

Literature documents that many HEI-Enterprise interactions are undermined by obstacles of

various types at the points where they engage, termed the ‘innovation interface’. Obstacles to

‘actual collaboration’ undermine effective networks forming through the undermining of

trust. The specific obstacles documented in the literature concerning the engagement of HEIs

with small and medium enterprise will now be identified.

In terms of the nature of obstacles identified in the literature one theme reflects what might be

termed as a culture gap. According to Ruben (2005) academic institutions are on occasion

criticised for inefficiency, indifference to external constituencies and resistance to change. In

HEIs the reward structure has traditionally been based primarily on success in teaching,

publishing and in acquiring grants (Pera 2009) while in the private sector the focus is on

profit. These motivations are not mutually aligned so it is believed to be difficult for HEIs to

engage effectively in innovation collaboration without changing its organisational focus.

According to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (2006) as long as a commonality of

interests does not exist the challenges and difficulties associated with ensuring industry

engages effectively will persist. IADT School of Creative Technologies (2010, p.7) cites:

25

“The Enterprise Ireland representative was of the opinion that a culture gap may exist

between IADT and industry in general, with a lot of companies not being aware of the

college’s existence.”

IADT’s current strategic plan states that a key challenge that the institute face is that of

securing effective industry engagement (IADT President 2008).

Another common theme identified in the literature is misalignment. The Report of the

Innovation Taskforce (2010) finds that small and medium enterprises individually, in groups,

and as part of industry associations have been poor at interpreting, co-ordinating and defining

their research needs and communicating them at a range of levels to the academic sector. As

a result they are not easy partners for HEIs to align collaborative activities with. This obstacle

is compounded by the fact that the struggles which small and medium enterprises experience

have many direct parallels within HEIs. According to The Institutes of Technology Research

Coordination and Support Office (2010) managing and facilitating the relationships between

the varied activities taking place at the typical IoT (including undergraduate and postgraduate

education, lifelong learning, research, innovation, enterprise support, knowledge transfer etc)

are complex and inter-dependent. As such they leave little internal capacity for addressing

external agendas such as the uncoordinated needs of SMEs.

Pera (2009), Nesta (2009) and Atkinson and Wial (2008) find that the alignment of many

educational institutions’ strategic objectives and resources with the commercial world is

currently sub-optimal due to HEI bureaucracy, disagreements over intellectual property,

university researchers motivations and the long term orientation of university research De

Jong, et al (2008 p232) also identify similar alignment obstacles in their study of HEIs in the

Netherlands, Belgium and Estonia noting that:

“Relationships between universities and business need active management. Barriers

between business and universities are rising as businesses are frustrated with

university bureaucracy and the ‘unrealistic expectations’ of universities about how

much research discoveries are worth. “

A number of specific obstacles to engagement were identified in the IADT literature which

were consistent with a theme of what may be termed disconnect in respect of enterprise

engagement. IADT School of Creative Arts (2009) notes “Staff acknowledged the need for a

26

stronger dialogue with Industry across the School.” And HETAC (2011, p.14) makes a coded

reference to disconnect in noting:

“It recognises the Media Cube’s engagements with the wider Institute and considers

that there is further scope for enhancement by building on the relationships with three

schools within IADT.”

In light of the obstacles to the formation of effective networks one must examine the

literature to identify how the impact of these obstacles can be mitigated, if not removed. In

terms of seeking solutions from within HEIs Houston et al (2006) note that, in the context of

culture change within the university sector, there was a lack of problem-solving or creative

thinking by academics who, he presumed, would apply their professional skills to their

organisational work. Feedback from the focus group meetings in his study suggested that

staff in the university had retreated to a ‘‘culture of blame’’ stance rather than proactive

problem-solving or advocacy to address difficulties in workloads management.

Looking for guidance from biological ecosystems processes in a biological ecosystem are

characterised by systemic behaviour. The US Army Corps of Engineers (2009) state that the

function of a biological ecosystem must be considered as a whole as every part of the

ecosystem has a functional effect on the others. The key defining process involves a cycle of

exchange of materials between living things and the environment the parameters of which are

set by feedback loops within the system. Processes in business are also characterised by the

systemic behaviour where it is argued that the only way to fully understand why an element

occurs and persists in a business environment is to understand the parts in relation to the

whole (Capra 1996). Deming (2000) identifies a system as a network of interdependent

components that work together to try to accomplish the goal of the system. He states that in

organisational behaviour without aim there is no system (i.e. it has no defining identity).

Therefore in order for activity to be systemic it should be organised behaviour geared towards

a defined goal.

Therefore the systemic nature of the processes evident in biological and business ecosystems

help mitigate obstacles to the operation of the process. If correctly regulated, systems have

the potential to overcome or prevent obstacles from limiting the effectiveness of the relevant

process (George 2003). In respect of systems to drive ‘effective enterprise engagement’ the

Hunt Report (2011 p. 12) notes that “Outward-facing systems and structures should be

27

embedded into institutional activity” with the objective of “creating a permanence of patterns

and relationships of constituents”.

However for any system to be effective in respect of human processes it must seek to address

the intrinsic motivations of the participants to ensure their participation to a degree where

effective networks may be formed. The review of relevant IADT literature identified a

number of sample interactions identified as occurring with the groups selected from the

IADT enterprise ecosystem (see Appendix 5 for the specific references identified).

They include access to resources such as opportunities to network with academics, access to

resources such as the physical resources of the HEI, student work placements and internships,

Innovation Vouchers (a collaborative research funding programme managed by Enterprise

Ireland), work based training and staff training programmes, guest lecture opportunities and

access to students to carryout projects/assignments on opportunities/issues that confront the

business.

In conclusion of the review of core literature the aspiration of the Hunt report in respect of

enterprise engagement has been identified as inward and outward flows of knowledge, staff,

students and ideas. Based on a synthesis of the concepts of ‘effective network’, ’actual

collaboration’ and ‘symbiotic engagement’ effective enterprise engagement is defined as

genuine collaborative activities within an effective network which yield symbiotic outcomes

to the participants. The units of such engagement at IADT include student work placements

and internships, Innovation Vouchers, work based training and staff training programmes,

guest lecture opportunities and access to students to carryout projects/assignments on

opportunities/issues that confront the business.

Obstacles to such ‘effective enterprise engagement’ include culture gap, misalignment and

disconnect. Instruments for mitigating the effect of obstacles in biological and business

ecosystems are systems and structures which underpin the key processes. The Hunt report

makes a similar statement that outward-facing systems and structures should be embedded

into institutional activity to embed engagement within HEIs.

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2.4 Identification of the need for Empirical Research

The foundation literature review identified the nature, structure and challenges faced by HEIs

and SMEs in their respective domains of operation. It is evident that both face similar issues

(while of a different scale) and share common objectives in respect of sustainability of their

organisations in the current environment. However the literature suggests this commonality

of interests has not yet percolated to the level of operational behaviour. The foundation

literature also identified the key Hunt Report objective of what may be termed ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ as having the potential to play a key role in the national recovery of

Ireland’s SME population.

However as noted earlier the Hunt Report has been the subject of a number of criticisms since

its publication. These criticisms focus, inter alia, on the fact that it does not contain metrics or

clear structural guidance as to how the enterprise engagement objectives are to be met by

Irish HEIs. This question is deserving of further investigation given its key importance on

two levels, addressing the pressing innovation and growth requirements of SMEs and the

diversified funding requirements of HEIs.

As noted in the core literature an investigation of current literature on enterprise engagement

yields results which appear to focus on technology transfer at one end of the spectrum and at

the other extreme on how learning outcomes can be improved by use of guest lecturers.

While academic research has identified obstacles at the interface little research appears to

exist in an Irish context on the measures and conditions necessary for the existence of ‘actual

collaboration’ which has the potential to create engagement of the type required by Hunt.

Now that a definition of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ has been formulated how might

the question of measuring it be operationalised (i.e. converted in a way that enables putative

facts to be measured quantitatively) to facilitate research? In order to seek an answer the

research question must be operationalised into a number of key issues with their associated

tests.

Given that the aim of this study is to evaluate whether ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is

occurring at IADT one would also seek to examine current interactions, identify any

obstacles, identify existing systems and finally attempt to identify the conditions for

improvement.

29

2.5 Identification of the Objectives of this Study

In order to address the gap identified in current literature on the subject of ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ at Irish HEIs an exploratory case study is proposed at IADT. The aim

is to seek to identify whether ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is occurring at IADT. In

terms of operationalising this aim the objective of this research is to seek answers to the

following research questions:

1. Is there evidence for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT?

2. Are there obstacles preventing ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT?

3. Are systems and structures embedded within IADT to overcome obstacles to

‘effective enterprise engagement’?

4. Can higher levels of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ be achieved at IADT?

The first research question relates to identifying evidence for ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ at IADT. In order to address this question the tests identified in the literature

review will be applied. Therefore in respect of Research Question 1 the researcher is seeking

to identify in primary research with interview respondents evidence of the units of

engagement identified in the literature review. This will be augmented by any further

interactions that emerge during the analysis of the interview transcripts.

In order to seek to identify if the respondents are in an ’effective network’ with IADT the

researcher is seeking evidence from the interview transcripts for regular and intense

interactions between the respondents as opposed to once off transactional engagements.

Once the data is compiled in tabular form the ‘actual collaboration’ test (that engagement is

evident in the sample across the entire range of interactions) is applied to the results of the

data analysis.

The final test instrument is for the presence of ‘symbiotic engagement’. This test seeks to

identify the degree to which engagements identified are, or have the short-term potential, to

generate revenue for IADT while meetings the relevant needs of SMEs.

In seeking to address the second question of whether there are there obstacles preventing

‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT the researcher is seeking evidence in the primary

research data of obstacles identified in the interview responses. During the research analysis

30

stage this will be assessed by reference to the framework of obstacles identified in the

literature review namely misalignment, culture gaps and disconnect.

In respect of Research Question 3 the researcher is seeking evidence of systems and

structures embedded at IADT that have the potential to overcome obstacles to ‘effective

enterprise engagement’. Here the primary data will be assessed for evidence of whether

engagements cited by the respondents take place in a structured, systematic way using the

coding contained in the analysis framework

The ideal situation from a Hunt perspective is to have as many of the constituents as possible

benefitting from symbiotic relationships within the effective network (i.e. increasing the

transivity and homophilly of the network). Without ‘symbiotic engagements’ the virtuous

circle of growing the ‘effective network’ will not be evident. Therefore the final research

question of this study seeks to identify the conditions whereby ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ at IADT may be increased. The research test for this question will be to seek to

identify from the research the disposition of respondents towards an increase in effective

engagement, what the enabling requirements would be for such an increase and what benefits

might incentivise the respondents to participate in an increase in engagement.

The analytic codes and content analysis framework has been compiled for the tests contained

in the objectives of this study are contained in Appendices 6,7, 8 and 9.

2.6 Conclusion

Therefore in conclusion of the literature review the researcher has sought to provide a

summary of existing knowledge on the interface between HEIs and SMEs and a critical

evaluation of said. Previous research has shown HEIs and SMEs face many challenges which

collaborative activities have the potential to ameliorate (in the case of SMEs an increase in

innovation and for HEIs an increase in revenue).

The reason why this study is necessary is due to the specific criticisms of the lack of guidance

on how the enterprise engagement objectives contained in the Hunt Report are to be effected.

In respect of the Irish literature enterprise engagement there appears to be an excessive focus

on technology transfer and at the other extreme on how learning outcomes can be improved

by use of guest lecturers. The gap that this study intends to address is the paucity of research

31

completed on the ‘effective enterprise engagement’ which has the potential to create ‘actual

collaboration’.

In order to operationalise the test for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ a series of progressive

research instruments were formulated. These tests will be applied progressively to the

primary data in order to seek to arrive at valid conclusions.

The limits or boundaries of this study are examined in detail in Chapter 3 but may be

summarised as follows. The study is limited to one very specific objective contained in a very

wide ranging National Strategy on Higher Education. The interview schedule was completed

under some time pressure. It is also noted that this study was carried out with the sole, limited

resources of the individual researcher. Furthermore while interview transcriptions sought to

capture all words spoken the researcher concedes that this was not possible in every

circumstance. The research is limited due to the weakness of the case study approach (one

cannot easily generalise from one case study to another and as a result multiple cases are

preferable), that it focused on one industry sector (digital media and animation), had a limited

sample size from a limited geographical area and was limited to one academic institution.

While these limitations are of some consequence the researcher believes that valid

conclusions have been identified due to the care taken in selecting the case study institution,

the respondents and the expertise exhibited in adding his interpretation to the data.

Furthermore to ensure validity these findings have been triangulated throughout with general

theoretical ideas and relevant specific observations in the literature.

The next chapter will describe and justify the research methodology, research procedure and

research analysis employed in the study. It will also address the limitations of the study,

ethical issues and how researcher bias was mitigated. These elements help enable the reader

to understand and critically assess the choices and assumptions that the researcher has made

in conducting this study.

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The previous chapter established that HEIs are undergoing a period of change due to

economic, policy, technical and competitive challenges. It has also been found that SMEs are

a key source of jobs and innovation in the economy. They are the most common form of

business unit in Ireland and the European Union but due to resources issues predominantly

suffer from an inability to engage effectively in innovation. National policy identifies that

HEIs are well positioned to address this failure and seeks to require that HEIs do so in

objectives contained in the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030.

A number of criticisms of the Hunt Report are made specifically in respect of the absence of

clear guidance on mechanisms or measures for engagement. The need for empirical research

emerges from these criticisms. In order to address the gap identified in current literature on

the subject of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at Irish HEIs an exploratory case study is

proposed at IADT. The aim is to seek to identify whether ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is

occurring at IADT. This exploratory research may aid in providing a conceptual framework

working hypothesis for further research on the Hunt enterprise engagement objectives.

The objective of this methodology chapter (methodology being the guideline system for

solving a problem, with specific components such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and

tools (Gibbs 2008)) is to describe the research methodology used in the study. The chapter

will begin with a description of the research philosophy adopted and the research methods

used. It will focus on qualitative studies and their appropriateness for this study. The specific

qualitative method used and its limitations are defined.

The details of how the qualitative data was collected and how the analysis was conducted will

be presented. The chapter concludes with an examination of the limitations of the research

design.

3.2 What is Research?

Sekaran (2000) defines the activity of research as a systematic and organised effort to

investigate a specific problem that needs a solution. Creswell (2006) states that research

consists of three steps: the posing of a question, the collection of data to answer the question

33

and the presentation of an answer to the question. Finally Maylor and Blackmon (2005 p5)

define research as “A systematic process that includes defining, designing, doing and

describing an investigation into a research problem”.

In conducting research the researcher should be clear about what is the essence of the enquiry

they are undertaking and should express this as an ‘intellectual puzzle’ with a clearly

formulated set of research questions (Mason, 2002 p13). According to Carson et al (2001)

research questions require outcomes and conclusions that fall into two broad categories of

findings: outcomes that identify general statements (generalisations) and those that identify

specific understandings and conclusions of an in-depth nature.

In terms of the selection of a research methodology Benbasat et al (1987) note that no single

research methodology is intrinsically better than any other methodology. Many authors

advocate a combination of research methods in order to improve the quality of research. The

choice of approach depends to a large extent on the properties of the subject matter and on

the objective of the research in hand. Benbasat et al (1987) argue that it should be best suited

to the problem under consideration, as well as the objectives of the researcher. The over-

riding concern is that the research undertaken should be both relevant to the research question

and rigorous in its operability.

According to Kumar (2010) an examination of research methodology commences with the

application of the research study namely is it applied using basic research or past theories,

knowledge and methods for solving an existing problem) or basic (also called pure or

fundamental research) research. In the case of the nature of research conducted in this study it

is of an applied nature as it seeks to solve a practical problem inherent in the Hunt Report.

3.3 The Research Strategy - Justification of the Research Philosophy, Approach and

Method

Clarity on the purpose of the research study is necessary in order to inform the choice of

research strategy. Kumar (2010) states that the objectives in undertaking the research can be

descriptive (describes a situation, phenomenon, problem or issue), confirmatory (where the

objective of the research is to find out if a proposed theory is supported by the facts),

explanatory (which attempts to clarify why and how there is a relationship between two

aspects of a situation or phenomenon) or exploratory, which according to Babbie (1998), is

used when problems are in a preliminary stage.

34

Exploratory research is a methodological approach that is primarily concerned with discovery

and with generating or building theory. An exploratory study is a means of finding out “what

is happening, to seek new insights, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light”

(Robson 2002 p59). The nature of the purpose of the current study is exploratory because, as

identified in the literature review, the National Strategy for Higher Education report contains

no empirical guidance or framework to HEIs as to the desired level of engagement required

with enterprise.

Further justification of the choice of the exploratory approach is due to the fact that the

research question examines a group, process, activity or situation which has received little

systematic empirical scrutiny in Ireland. A limitation of the exploratory approach is that it is

not typically generalisable to the relevant population at large. The results of exploratory

research are not usually useful for decision-making by themselves, but they can provide

significant insight into a given situation.

In order to understand and select from the different combination of research methods for

exploratory research it is necessary for the researcher to understand different philosophical

positions in respect of research. Saunders et al (2009) define the research philosophy as the

development of the research background, research knowledge and its nature.

In terms of research philosophies Gray (2009) defines positivism as the philosophical

assumption that theoretical truths can be distinguished from untruths using scientific

methods, and that this can be achieved either by deduction or by empirical support.

According to Carson et al (2001) the positivist approach seeks to maintain a clear distinction

between facts and value judgements. Here it is maintained that the statistical approach and

quantitative processing of data are capable of providing all the necessary tools needed to

identify objective facts.

In the positivist tradition quantitative research seeks to use the scientific approach of analysis.

A hypothesis is stated and the researcher tries to prove or disprove it using methods capable

of yielding quantifiable, normally numerical, results. Quantitative research typically asks a

narrow question and collects numerical data for analysis using statistical methods.

In the modern era the interpretivist approach emerged in light of the fact that reality in many

instances is socially constructed rather than objectively determined and many observed

human forms of behaviour are not composed of objectively measurable truths. It allows the

35

focus of research to be on “understanding and making sense of phenomena in specific

contexts” (Carson et al 2001 p7), a capturing of a dynamic view of the research subject. The

positivism paradigm is often known as a systematic or scientific approach, while the

interpretivist approach is often interpreted as qualitative, ethnographic, ecological or

naturalistic. While positivism ultimately measures snapshots of data for a particular time the

interpretivist approach seeks to capture the conceived reality underpinning dynamic human

processes and the contextual phenomena of what is happening in a given context.

Other research philosophies include realism (a philosophical position which relates to

scientific enquiry and postulates that what humans perceive via their senses is the “truth”).

According to Carson et al (2001) the distinction between the paradigms is clear on

philosophical level but the distinction breaks down when it comes to the detailed

implementation of qualitative and quantitative approaches.

3.3.1 Research Approach – Deduction and Induction

In academic research conclusions are based on two methods known as deduction and

induction. Saunders et al (2009) state that the deductive approach involves the testing of a

theoretical proposition by the employment of a research strategy specifically designed for the

purpose of its testing. An important characteristic of the deductive approach is that the

concepts need to be operationalised in a way that enables putative facts to be measured

quantitatively.

On the other hand Saunders et al (2009) state that the inductive approach involves the

development of a theory based on an examination of the empirical data. The inductive

research approach involves the observation of some happening, identifying a pattern and

seeking to draw conclusions.

While deductive approaches are underpinned by quantitative methods the inductive approach

makes use of qualitative methods which enable inductive reasoning processes to interpret and

structure the meanings that can be derived from data. According to Holloway (1997)

inductive reasoning uses the data to generate ideas (hypothesis generating), whereas

deductive reasoning begins with the idea and uses the data to confirm or negate the idea

(hypothesis testing). Schwandt (1997) emphasises that qualitative research is often used as a

method of exploratory research as a basis for later quantitative research hypotheses.

36

3.3.2 Research Methods

As discussed earlier research methods fall into two groups: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative methods of research involve the collection of data concerning many variables,

perhaps through a questionnaire or survey, or also the measurement of just two or several

variables by observation or testing. The resulting data is then subjected to statistical analysis

in order to establish generalisable relationships between variables. Quantitative methods such

as surveys and questionnaires are quite rigid in that researchers ask all respondents identical

questions in the same order.

Qualitative methods are typically more flexible and involve techniques such as interviews or

focus groups. There is the potential to allow greater spontaneity and adaptation of the

interaction between the researcher and the study participant. For example, qualitative

methods ask mostly “open-ended” questions and the relationship between the researcher and

the participant is often less formal than in quantitative research.

3.3.3 Research Strategies

Research strategies include inter alia experiments, surveys, case studies, grounded theory,

action research, ethnography and archival research. Exploratory studies are generally better

served by single cases, i.e. where there is no previous theory (Gibbs 2008). Yin defines the

case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary

phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and

context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin

1994).

In light of the fact that this study relates to a single institution the case study research strategy

is felt to be most appropriate due to the fact that Benbasat et al. (1987, p.370) argue that using

a case study research strategy is appropriate where:

· It is necessary to study the phenomenon in its natural setting;

· The researcher can ask "how" and "why" questions, so as to understand the nature and

complexity of the processes taking place;

· Research is being conducted in an area where few, if any, previous studies have been

undertaken i.e. if it is a theory building research project.

37

Critics of the case study method (Wisker 2001) believe that the study of a single case can

offer no grounds for establishing the reliability or generality of findings. Others feel that the

intense exposure to the study of the case biases the findings.

3.3.4 Time Horizon

According to Saunders et al (2009) research constituting a “snapshot” at a certain period of

time is referred to as a cross-sectional study. Studies that examine a series of “snapshots”

over time are termed longitudinal. As the research of this Dissertation examines a particular

phenomenon at a particular time it is therefore a cross-sectional study.

The following section summarises the justification for the choices made in the Research

Strategy. In respect of the Research Philosophy this study adopts the interpretivist philosophy

on the basis that the research question seeks to gain an understanding of certain dynamic

human processes in the case study institution through the capturing feelings and personal

opinions of people in respect of the subject being examined.

The research approach employed in this research is inductive. The reason for this choice is

that the concepts or variables to be measured in the research are not currently sufficiently

defined to be expressed in a testable hypothesis and measured quantitatively. Following from

the choice of the inductive research approach this study seeks to collect qualitative data in

order to seek to answer the research question. Qualitative data is appropriate to this research

study because Stang and Wrightsman (1980) state that exploratory research often relies on

qualitative approaches such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case

studies or pilot studies in addition to secondary research.

Finally the case study research strategy is chosen due to the nature of the research question

(the examination of certain forms of behaviour in their natural setting in a single

organisation) and the fact that exploratory studies are generally better served by single cases

(Gibbs 2008).

3.4 The Research Procedures Employed in this Study

In respect of data sources for research studies researchers can use primary and secondary data

sources in seeking to answer their research question. Primary research is necessary for

answering the research question of this study as it seeks answers to questions posed but not

answered by the Hunt Report.

38

Primary research has been defined as “The study of a subject through firsthand observation

and investigation, such as analysing a literary or historical text, conducting a survey or

carrying out a laboratory experiment” (Gibaldi 1995 p2). According to Saunders et al (2009)

primary research sources can include primary observations (notes of what happened or what

was said in a participant observation study), surveys, telephone interviews, focus groups and

test marketing.

The advantages of primary research include the fact that the data is specific to the research

subject; it affords greater control over the task in terms of the research questions selected,

size of sample and geographical location of research sample. Finally this method generates

data that is proprietary to the researcher. The disadvantages include the potential cost of

collection, time taken to collect and the potential for collection of data which may not

ultimately inform the research question (despite well constructed questionnaires).

The framework for the primary research and for the analysis of the data yielded by the

primary research is provided by secondary research. In respect of secondary research Maylor

and Blackmon (2005) state that it uses previously collected data which has already been

interpreted and recorded. Saunders et al (2009) state that the advantages of using relevant

secondary data can include large cost savings, higher quality data than might be collected by

one’s own primary means. It may also enable longitudinal studies, can provide comparative

and contextual data and finally it may be a data source that is more permanent than one’s own

primary data. The disadvantages of secondary data include the fact that it may be costly to

access, the quality of information collected may be unsuitable to the research purpose

(according to Fink (2005) the assessment of the quality of the information is one of the

challenges that the researcher faces), the aggregations and definitions used in the secondary

research may fail to provide comparative basis, one has no real control over data quality and

finally bias may be inherent in the secondary data that is unobservable to the user. Secondary

data sources include documentary and survey based data.

3.4.1 Data Collection Techniques

The data collection techniques are informed by the choice in this methodology of the

interpretivist philosophy and the case study research strategy. These choices are best served

by a data collection technique that involves in-depth qualitative investigations amongst a

relatively small sample at the case study organisation.

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In keeping with the interpretivist philosophy qualitative research techniques were used to

generate the primary research data. The main primary research techniques associated with

qualitative research include focus groups, observation and interviews. In exploratory research

such as this study in-depth interviews can be very helpful to “find out what is happening and

to seek new insights” Robson (2002 p59). A further advantage of the interview research

technique in the context of the interpretivist nature of this study is its ability to allow themes

to emerge from the responses of the respondents. Writers in the area (Gray 2005; Walliman

and Baiche 2001) identify three main types of interviews namely structured interviews

(involving a set of structured questions to all respondents), semi–structured interviews (which

seek to conduct an in-depth examination of the opinions of the interviewees on a list of

questions but it is not necessary to adhere to the list compiled) and unstructured interviews

(essentially described as conversations with a purpose).

The choice of an interpretivist epistemology involves seeking to understand the meanings that

respondents ascribe to various phenomena and accordingly the research technique should aid

the objective of building one’s own understanding. For the purpose of this research semi-

structured interviews were selected as the appropriate data collection method as they allow

for the use of a common list of questions and topics to be covered (aiding analysis and

comparison) while at the same time enabling the interviewer to probe the views and opinions

of the respondents (potentially providing greater meanings, understandings and new insights

on the research question).

The key topics covered in the primary research interviews were extracted from the key issues

of this dissertation study.

3.4.2 Selection of Case Study Organisation

According to Gibbs (2008) when employing the case study research strategy the sites or

locations in which cases studies are to be conducted should be chosen with great care. After a

careful assessment by the researcher of the Irish HEI sector (specifically the IoT sector) the

researcher selected the Institute of Art Design and Technology Dun Laoghaire. Education

Ireland stated that IADT is unique in Ireland. It is recognised as a leader in its chosen

specialities and in its mission to become the leading Irish educator for the knowledge, media

and entertainment sectors (Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council 2010). It is committed

40

to contributing to Ireland’s development as a creative knowledge economy (IADT President

2008).

A key criterion for selection was an IoT that is evidently committed to the engagement

objective of the Hunt Report. Documents referenced in the literature review provide evidence

of IADT’s desire to engage effectively with enterprise. Furthermore it is noted that the

current strategic plan of IADT (IADT President 2008) includes many of the aspirations

contained in the Hunt HEI Model. A final criterion is that IADT is one of the smallest IoTs in

Ireland and as such the case study method with relatively small interview samples has the

potential to provide relevant, informed insights on the research question.

3.4.3 Selecting the Sample Populations at the Case Study Institute for Interview

Three key populations were identified in the literature review as being necessary in order to

answer the research question. The reason the IADT Staff, Business Owning Alumni and

Incubation Centre enterprises population groups were selected from the complete ecosystem

is that those groups would normally be expected to have an engaged relationship with IADT

and would therefore be in a position to provide the most informed data.

The detailed justifications for the selection of the sample groups are as follow:

The IADT Staff group was selected as a sample population because academic staff

(particularly those in senior roles) play a key role in creating the culture of the organisation

and deciding operational objectives. The sample also includes the incubator manager who has

a particularly important role in enterprise engagement through organising student placement

schemes with the college; organising enterprise seminars for under-graduates, post-graduates

and staff; and identifying and locating staff to work with the companies. The academic and

management staff are also the key conduit to the Business Owning Alumni of the host

institution. According to Enterprise Ireland (2005) Business Owning Alumni provide

considerable potential for relationships and a source of potential customers, investors,

advisers, and joint venture partners. Therefore this group are suitable to provide primary data

in respect of the research question.

The Business Owning Alumni group were selected as a sample population because the

objectives of IADT in respect of its alumni is to engage and communicate more effectively

with past students to enable them to appreciate and participate in the life of IADT (IADT

41

President 2008).An examination of the IADT Graduate Survey (IADT Careers Advisory

Service 2009) shows many IADT Business Owning Alumni occupy key positions in

organisations in industries relevant to the discipline areas of IADT. The School of Creative

Technologies (2010) carries out an annual destination survey of its graduates. This survey

finds that a high proportion of students starting their own companies set up ventures in the

Media Cube. Therefore this group are suitable to provide primary data in respect of the

research question. Their attitudes are assessed strictly in relation to their business relationship

with IADT not their “alma mater” relationship with their former educator.

The Incubator group were selected as a sample population because according to Enterprise

Ireland (2005) incubation centres and their occupants form a key part of their strategy for

regional development and entrepreneurship and as a result physical facilities were built on all

HEI campus’ and fitted to a high specification. IADT’s incubation centre is called the Media

Cube and is specifically focused on supporting Digital Media companies. It is located on the

IADT campus, thirty metres from the main entrance to the academic buildings. The

relationship between the host institution and the occupants of the incubation centre is

essential for the success of campus-based incubation. Therefore this group are suitable to

provide primary data in respect of the research question. This group are in a close physical

relationship with IADT given that they occupy offices rented to them by the IADT incubation

centre however the attitudes of this group are assessed from the point of view of their

engagement with the host institution of IADT not their relationship with the Media Cube.

42

Figure 4: Components of an Innovation & Knowledge Ecosystem model illustrating the

multiple stakeholders involved in the HEI ecosystem (Costello Unpublished 2011 p.5).

The details of the individuals comprising the sample respondent groups are shown in Table 1.

In order to ensure anonymity the names of interviewees were coded against numbers and

numbered responses.

Keystone HEI

Students

Academic /Management

Staff

Incubation Centre

Alumni

Enterprise

Regional, National and Strategic Partners

43

Table 1. Profile of interview respondents

3.4.4 Selecting Interview Respondents for this Study

It is felt that twelve in-depth interviews are appropriately representative of the populations

comprising this case study (particularly in light of the strategy for selecting representative

interview respondents).

As the researcher was limited in terms of the time available in which to conduct this study he

sought to mitigate this by ensuring that the respondents selected were opinion leaders,

decision makers and key informants in the populations selected for study. As such he sought

to ensure that the participant selection provided a high possibility of informed, representative

data.

The minimum requisite criteria for selecting the individual interview respondents for the

IADT Staff population was that the participant have executive decision-making responsibility

in respect of enterprise engagement and should have first hand direct experience of same.

Population Company

size

Characteristics of interviewees Code Assigned

4 Academic(Heads of

School)/Management staff

Not relevant

Senior career positions in IADT, age group

50-65, sex: 3 male, 1 female

Participant 1 - 4

4 Business Owning Alumni

that are managers of

enterprises in the digital media

sector

5-1,000 staff

Owner/Managers of own business or

senior management in multi-national,

graduated within the past 15 years, age

group: 30-45, sex: 3 male, 1 female

Participant 5-8

4 Incubator 2-20 staff

Owner managers that established their

business in the past 5 years and have been

resident at incubation centre at least 1 year,

age group: 25-40, sex: 2 male, 2 female

Participant 9-12

2 policy experts on higher

education, one of which is

employed by the HEA, the

second by the IoTi.

Not relevant

Not relevant

Participant 13,14

44

Therefore all three heads of school at IADT and the Manager of the Incubation Centre were

selected to represent this population.

The minimum requisite criteria for selecting the individual interview respondents to

represent the Business Owning Alumni was that the potential participant should be actively

managing/own an enterprise or be a senior manager in a multinational with

research/recruitment decision-making responsibilities in an area related to the activities of

IADT (digital media or animation). The list of candidates for the selection process was

compiled from a list supplied to the researcher by the Careers Office at IADT. This was

supplemented by research on LinkedIn (an online business networking tool that enables

searches through its database by defined criteria (i.e. for example IADT graduate)).

In this population purposive or judgmental sampling was employed whereby the researcher

used his judgement to select cases that best enabled him to answer his research questions and

meet his research objectives. According to Saunders et al (2009) this form of sampling is

often used when working with very small samples such as in case study research. In order to

provide a representative sample the researcher ensured that the primary degree completed by

each invited participant was as diverse within the sample.

The minimum requisite criteria for selecting the interview respondents for the Incubation

Centre group were that in an area related to the activities of IADT (digital media or

animation), a minimum of one year should have been spent at the centre (in order to increase

the likelihood that they had adequate opportunities to engage with IADT). A list of the

current occupants of the incubation centre was requested from IADT and those occupants

who fitted the above criteria were selected. The current occupancy of the incubation centre is

approximately twenty-five companies therefore the four interviews conducted comprise

sixteen per cent of the total population.

In respect of the Incubators the placing of questions and analysis of data was from the

perspective of excluding the fact of their occupation of the Media Cube. While the use of

rental facilities at the IADT incubation centre indicates an automatic degree of enterprise

engagement with IADT the centre is effectively managed at arm’s length and also the

purpose of this study is to examine their engagement in vivo with IADT itself as distinct from

their engagement with the Media Cube. Consequently, when asked to describe their

45

engagement with IADT, for example, the interviewees were advised not to refer to rental of

space at the Media Cube as a qualifying engagement.

3.4.5 Research Technique – Interview Strategy Adopted for the Research

In terms of organising the interviews each interviewee was contacted directly by email and in

the email the scope and objective of the research was outlined in detail. Within three days of

sending an email, each potential interviewee was telephoned to arrange a meeting at a venue

suitable to them. All interviewees were guaranteed confidentiality and were told that the

interviews would not be taped so as to allow a freer flow of conversation. The interview

themes were supplied with the invitation in order to provide time for the participant to

consider their replies. The questions asked were designed to probe and gain a better

understanding of the research objectives. Each interviewee was contacted again by email one

week in advance of the interview date in order to re-confirm the interview time and date.

Preparation in advance of each interview included the following:

1. In order to gain engagement the researcher conducted research in to the potential

interviewee’s organisation and personal background using Linkedin. This level of

relevant knowledge was then embedded into the interview invitation.

2. Credibility was increased by the provision of a letter of recommendation from the

President of IADT (see Appendix 5) and through the supply of relevant information to

respondents before the interview.

3. A location that was suitable to the interviewee was agreed in order to make the

interviewee feel at ease and more likely to develop themes.

Due to the illness of one of the interviewees one face-to-face interview had to be cancelled

and rescheduled to a telephone interview. Five of the total interviews took place over the

telephone; the remaining nine were conducted face-to-face. Each face-to-face interview took

approximately one-to-one and a half hours to complete whereas the telephone interviews

were of shorter duration due to the less ‘flowing; nature of the medium.

The questions used in the semi-structured interviews were open-ended, standard, free

responding questions where people answered in their own words. The questions were

designed according to the researcher’s needs and in order to frame important issues and aid

conversation.

46

The answers given to the questions were handwritten during the interview by the researcher

and where relevant read out to the interviewee to make sure of the correct interpretation.

Interviewees were allowed plenty of time to respond to questions and when they expressed

doubts or hesitated they were probed to deepen their thinking and to solicit further insights or

experiences.

In a number of cases further questions were used to probe the opinions of the respondents.

All responses made were listened to carefully and any points that were not clear were

followed up on. The researcher sought to establish an informal relaxed atmosphere during

each interview. Detailed notes and summaries of keys points were taken during the interviews

and all interviewees indicated they were satisfied that the contents were an accurate record of

the interview.

The interviews took place in the personal offices of the respondents (apart from the five

interviews that took place over the phone).

3.4.6 Secondary Research Methods Employed in this Study

For the purpose of this study considerable time was spent on sourcing information relating to

the research question. Sources included books, journals, the internet, case studies, business

reports and government policy documents. IADT was requested to supply all relevant reports

and documents and a significant volume of same were forthcoming on the basis of a non-

disclosure agreement. The researcher was obliged to seek specific permission for any

secondary data provided by IADT that he wished to reference in this study. Furthermore in

advance of submission to University of Ulster he provided a final copy of the draft to the

President for her thoughts and relevant permissions.

This information was accumulated over a period of six months. Although an extensive list of

information was reviewed, only the most relevant literature was referenced in the final draft

of this dissertation.

One of the most important secondary sources used for this study was the National Strategy

for Higher Education (Hunt 2011). The examination of the research questions was framed by

its recommendations and statements of intent in respect of HEIs and helped to shape the

design of the primary research tools and also aided in the author’s overall analysis of the

findings of the research.

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The interviews which provided the primary data for this study took place between the months

of May and September 2011. In respect of the IADT staff a practical difficulty encountered

due to the contractual arrangements of staff members (whereby key staff were unavailable for

interview from June 20th until late in the month of August and did not respond to interview

requests during that period despite the provision of a letter from the President of IADT). In

respect of the Alumni and the Incubation Centre enterprises these interviews took place at

varied intervals during the above time period.

3.5 Research Analysis

As noted by Yin (1994) in order to devise a theoretical or descriptive framework one needs to

identify the main variables, components, themes and issues in the research project and the

predicted relationships between them. This has the advantage of linking the research with an

initial analytical framework. Therefore a detailed descriptive framework was identified in the

literature review in order to provide an analytical framework for the fieldwork of this

dissertation.

Saunders et al (2009) state that no standard procedure for analysing qualitative data exists per

se. According to Denscombe (2007, p.287)

“(Analysis of) qualitative data is based on the logic of discovering things from the

data, of generating theories on the basis of what the data contains, and from moving

from particular features of the data towards the more generalised conclusions.”

Wisker (2001) states that findings need to be derived from the analysis of the data collected

from the research through a two stage process of managing the data (reducing its size and

scope in a manner consistent with the research question so that one can report on the data

usefully) and secondly analysing the managed data (asking the data analytical questions,

using it to back up the arguments and indications they seem to present). Walliman and

Buckler (2008) refer to the second stage as data display and add a third stage which is

concerned with the drawing of conclusions and arriving at verification.

3.5.1 Coding of Interview Transcripts

In terms of analysing qualitative data Wisker (2001) states that the process of managing

qualitative, semi-structured interview data requires the coding of this data, that is coding in

relation to the kinds of answers, themes and issues and categories of responses received.

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According to Gibbs (2008) coding is the process of examining the data for themes and

categories and then marking similar passages with a code label so that they can be retrieved at

a later stage for further comparison and analysis. According to Lofland (1971) codes can be

based on acts, activities, meanings, themes, topics, ideas, concepts, terms, phrases and

keywords found in the data. Usually it is passages of text or phrases that are coded however

codes may also be applied to individual words.

The identification of categories or themes is normally guided by the specific purpose of the

research. In terms of categorisation Strauss and Corbin (2008) suggest that there are three

main sources to derive names for these categories:

One utilises terms that emerge from one’s data;

They are based on actual descriptive terms used by the respondents (“in vivo” or

descriptive codes); or

They are derived from terms used in existing theory and the literature.

In the case of this study the categories or themes were identified in the literature review as

were the analytic codes. In the analysis phase the descriptive codes in the full interview

transcripts were then assembled into the most appropriate theme. However some themes also

emerged from the freedom the participant had to talk about enterprise engagement in a semi-

structured interview format. These were added to the coding analysis framework in an

iterative process.

According to Creswell (2006) coding is only a first step in the analysis. The researcher must

add his/her interpretation and relate general theoretical ideas to the text.

The coding frameworks employed in this study are contained in Appendices 6, 7, 8 and 9.

They were compiled through extracting from the literature review the key themes and

analytic framework, the analysis of interview transcripts then sought to move from a

descriptive approach to an analytical approach through assessing the appropriate fit for

descriptive terms in the transcripts with the framework. Using this framework all of the

transcripts were analysed closely. Tables were used in this study to summarise a substantial

amount of the data which are displayed in Appendices 6, 7, 8 and 9 grouped under

categories/themes.

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The method used to compile the data into each table was as follows:

1. All descriptive coded data was analysed initially within each sub-theme on the basis

of simple averages for each descriptive code identified thus yielding the most

commonly cited descriptive code within each sub-theme.

2. Further analytic codes and themes emerged from the interview data and were

incorporated in an iterative process.

3. Where relevant each sub-theme was then ordered on the frequency of the appearance

of the relevant descriptive codes in the data.

The researcher then examined the coded data for trends, patterns and themes in the tabulated

data. The caveat of Saunders et al (2009) was noted when embarking on this state, by

rigorously testing ones propositions against the data, looking for alternative explanations and

seeking to explain why negative cases occur one may be able to move towards the

development of valid and well grounded conclusions.

3.6 Limitations

There are a number of limitations typically identified in respect of qualitative research data.

According to Gibbs (2008) the research philosophy which informs the researcher’s

approaches to the phenomenon, the strategies that the researcher uses to collect or construct

data and the understandings that the researcher has about what might count as relevant or

important data in answering the research question are all analytic processes that influence the

analysis of the research data.

Specific limitations in respect of this study include:

1. The interview schedule was completed under some time pressure. Negotiations with

the new President of IADT in respect of finalising the contents of the Letter of

Introduction and Memorandum of Understanding were prolonged into June. Once

completed the President emailed all relevant staff encouraging their participation.

However as of the twentieth of June academic staff are no longer required to respond

to non-official matters. Therefore the summer period was not an optimal time for a

case study involving an academic institution and when engagement was ultimately

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achieved the respondents stated they were under time pressure with the new academic

year commencing. The Alumni and Incubator respondents were equally under

commercial pressure and could not commit for more than an hour and a half of their

time.

2. This study was carried out with the sole, limited resources of the individual

researcher. This presented a number of limitations including the requirement to fit

paid employment in around the research required for the study.

3. The interview transcriptions sought to capture all words spoken however the

researcher concedes that this was not possible in every circumstance.

In respect of the limitations associated with case study research Wisker (2001) notes that one

cannot easily generalise from one case study to another and as a result multiple cases are

preferable. If, however, it is a single case study then the case needs to be contextualised and

carefully described and then others can consider its usefulness in other contexts and

examples.

Furthermore the limitations of this case study research strategy include the fact that it focused

on one industry sector (digital media and animation), had a limited sample size from a limited

geographical area and was limited to one academic institution.

There are also limitations in respect of the exclusive focus on the enterprise engagement

objective of the Hunt Report. The report is a broad, all-encompassing strategy which seeks a

variety of objectives such as a higher degree of evolution by HEIs in terms of diversity of

funding sources through an enterprising approach, prioritisation of strategic objectives,

amalgamation, introduction of metrics, a systems approach in order to achieve the objectives

of the report and to align higher institutes activities with national priorities, open engagement

with the community and wider society. It contains a number of important statements of intent

in respect of these multiple objectives. However this research study is limited to a single

strand of the entire strategy.

3.6.1 Validity and Reliability of the Research

According to Maylor and Blackmon (2005) validity defines how accurately the research was

conducted while reliability means that the findings are capable of being repeated and are not

the result of unique circumstance. Gibbs (2008) states that it can be argued that the “validity”

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of a piece of research is a matter of whether it is a reasonable account of what has been

observed.

In the case of the semi-structured interviews carried out in this study, the issue of validity was

addressed by ensuring that the question content concentrated on the research objectives. To

ensure the validity of the data the researcher used interview techniques that build rapport and

trust, interviewees were prompted to illustrate and expand their initial responses, the

interview process was long enough for the subject to be explored in depth. The researcher

sought to compare the results of the qualitative analysis with the literature and with the model

being tested. This triangulation of multiple sources of evidence conforms to Yin’s (1994)

construct validity test.

In terms of ensuring reliability the researcher has taken steps towards ensuring his research is

transparent (studiously recording when and where the interviews took place etc). Furthermore

the criterion for selection of interview candidates is also clearly and transparently stated.

In respect of researcher bias Gibbs (2008) states that the researcher is an essential component

of the research instrument and as result he states it is difficult to claim that the results are

reliable and unbiased. An accepted way of improving the integrity of the results is to give an

explicit account of the research procedures which should include a detailed description of the

methods and analysis. This is referred to as an ‘audit trail’. Denscombe (2007, p.298) writes

'the principal behind the audit trail is that the research procedures and decision-making could

be checked by other researchers who would be in a position to confirm the existence of data

and evaluate decisions made in relation to the data collection and analysis.'

In order to minimise potential researcher bias when conducting the interviews the researcher

sought to ensure that his own beliefs or frame of reference were not imposed on the

interviewees. Imposing any bias in the way that responses were interpreted was also avoided

(Easterby-Smith et al 2008). In respect of the interpretation of the information the researcher

took full cognisance of the caveat given by Saunders et al (2009) concerning the danger of

logic leaps and false assumptions when moving “from a mountain of data to arriving at

conclusions”.

This study posed no ethical issues. All respondents consented to be interviewed voluntarily

and were satisfied that their responses could be identified with their group on condition that

they were guaranteed anonymity. All respondent names have been coded to ensure the

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confidentiality of the data. When contacting each of the intended respondents the researcher

broadly explained the objective of my research in order that they understand the implications

of participating in the study. No psychological stress was envisaged by participating in the

research nor were any vulnerable groups to be interviewed.

3.7 Conclusion

This chapter described and justified the research methodology, research procedure and

research analysis employed in this study. It addressed the limitations of the study, ethical

issues and the steps taken to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. The objective of

this chapter was to enable the reader to better understand and critically assess the choices and

assumptions that the researcher has made in conducting this study.

The next chapter of this study will present the data analysis. It presents the data gathered and

will seek to identify patterns or themes that arise directly from the coded data. The chapter

then describes in detail the main findings of the research and presents an analysis of each.

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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction

The previous chapter described and justified the research methodology, research procedure

and research analysis employed in this study. It addressed the limitations of the study, ethical

issues and the steps taken to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. The objective of

the chapter was to enable the reader to better understand and critically assess the choices and

assumptions that the researcher made in conducting this study.

The objective of Chapter 4 is to explain the method of analysis and present the profile of the

respondents. The chapter presents the aim of the research, the method of data collection

employed to answer the research question, the method of analysis and finally the findings

from this analysis in respect of the research questions that this study sought to address. An

analysis of each of the findings is presented.

The aim of this research is to use an exploratory case study to evaluate whether ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is occurring at the the case study institution. ‘Effective enterprise

engagement’ is defined as genuine collaborative activities occurring within an effective

network which yield symbiotic outcomes to the participants. The case study institution was

the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire.

4.2 Analysis Explained

The objective of this chapter is to establish and address the relevant findings that have

emerged from the in-depth interviews conducted by the researcher. All the interviews were

recorded by hand during the interview and subsequently transcribed. The data gathered was

then flagged with descriptive codes for analytical purposes. The analytic codes and themes

applied in the analysis were extracted from the research conducted in the literature review

and are contained in Appendices 6, 7, 8 and 9. However further analytic codes and themes

emerged from the interview data and were incorporated into the analysis framework in an

iterative process. The findings presented in this chapter will seek to address the aim of this

research study.

There are a number of stages required to analyse qualitative interview data. According to

Saunders et al (2009) stage one involves ensuring all the appropriate data is collected and

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coded. The approach used in this study involved using the theories and models addressed in

the literature review to identify themes and analytic codes for the analysis framework. The

researcher then examined the interview transcripts for the use of descriptive terms that were

relevant to the analytic codes.

In order to examine the data for comparison with the themes identified in the literature review

a set of tabular data displays were compiled for each of the objectives (see Appendices 6, 7, 8

and 9). Each contains the descriptive codes identified and transcribed from the interviews.

Stage two involves integrating all aspects of analysis, working back and forth between data

and building upon the themes identified. The key findings that emerged from the above

process will be presented under each of the key issues and subsequently linked to the relevant

literature in order to compare and contrast results.

Unabridged versions of the interview transcripts are not presented however a sample of a

coded interview transcript can be found in Appendix 4. A sample interview invitation is

contained in Appendix 3. Specific participant comments from the interview transcripts are

presented with each Objective in order to provide further insight on the subject of the

individual theme or sub-theme. The identity of respondents is coded in order to preserve

anonymity but the respondents did agree that their responses could be identified with those of

the relevant sample population.

4.3 Profile of the Respondents

Three relevant populations were selected from the ecosystem model of Costello (2011),

namely Academic/Management Staff, Business Owning Alumni and occupants of the IADT

Incubation Centre (Incubators). Detailed justification of the selection of these populations is

contained in Chapter 3. In respect of the IADT Staff population they were represented by the

three heads of school at IADT and the manager of the IADT incubation centre. All hold

senior career positions within IADT, are in the age group 50-65, sex: 3 male, 1 female. The

Business Owning Alumni sample comprised four respondents that own their own business in

the digital media sector or are senior management in a relevant multi-national selected by

purposive sampling, had graduated within the past 15 years, age group: 30-45, sex: 3 male, 1

female. The Incubator population comprised four respondents drawn from current tenants of

the incubation centre at IADT, are owner managers that established their digital media

business in the past 5 years, age group: 25-40, sex: 2 male, 2 female. In order to gain

55

additional insight on policy aspects of the Hunt Report and that of the Irish Higher Education

Authority two relevant education policy experts were interviewed using un-structured

interviews.

The following sections now present the findings and analysis of the research conducted in

this study.

4.4 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 1 - Is there evidence for

‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT?

The objective of this question is to identify whether ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is

occurring within the respondents. The test for the presence of ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ is formulated in Section 2.3.2. This test is to be applied in progression as

follows:




participants.












For the purposes of this study ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is defined as genuinely

collaborative activities within an effective network which yield symbiotic outcomes to the

participants.

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The open-ended question put to interviewees for this Objective was “Please outline

engagements between IADT and enterprise that take place in your personal or your

organisation's direct experience”. A common probing question was “Please describe the

specific nature of exchanges taking place within these engagements?”

4.4.1 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis for Research Question 1

The sub-themes identified in the literature review include the following:

1. Networking with the HEI to strengthen networks (‘Networking’).

2. Assembling the resources to ensure survival and growth (‘Growth

Resources’).

3. Innovation collaboration (‘Professional Collaborative Services’) with

partners with characteristics of low transaction costs - these costs may take the

form of learning curves, form filling, misunderstandings due to lack of

professional language commonalities.

The themes and analytic codes used in this section were extracted from the literature review

and used to compile the tables located in Appendix 6 containing the coding analysis

framework and the content analysis of interview transcripts. Coding analysis in respect of

Analytic Codes is only referenced in the findings where it provides additional insight.

4.4.2 Content Analysis

The results of the analysis of data relating to this theme were as follows:

‘Networking’ emerged as the most commonly cited sub-theme across the three

populations with descriptive codes from this sub-theme being cited on average 45%

across all the relevant engagements.

The next most commonly cited sub-theme was ‘Growth Resources’ with an average

of 26% citation for descriptive codes across the sub-themes engagements.

The sub-theme with the lowest citations in the data was ‘Professional Collaborative

Services’ with an average of 24% citation across the sub-themes.

When one applies the ‘effective network’ test regular and intense interaction occurs in the

tabulated data in certain activities. Therefore one can say that IADT is part of the ‘effective

network’ of at least 45% of the Incubators and Alumni in respect of their enterprises. When

57

one applies the ‘actual collaboration’ test (equal levels of engagement across all categories of

enterprise engagement) equal participation across the three categories of enterprise

engagement is not observed in the Incubator and Alumni populations. Therefore it is

concluded that ‘actual collaboration’ is not occurring within the sample population. When the

symbiosis test is applied (collaborative innovation and training is occurring that creates equal

revenue and benefits to both parties) the categories of enterprise engagement with the highest

citations (‘Networking’ and ‘Growth Resources’) are found not to be symbiotic in the sense

that while they may meet some of the innovation-development needs of SMEs they do not

simultaneously generate diversified revenue streams for IADT. Therefore the data suggests

that IADT fails the tests for ‘actual collaboration’ and ‘symbiotic engagements’ therefore it is

concluded that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not occurring within the sample

respondents.

Each sub-theme for Research Question 1 will now be addressed in the order in which they

were most frequently cited by the respondents.

4.4.2.1 Networking

Within ‘Networking’ the individual engagement most cited across the three populations was

‘Guest Lecture’ while the least cited was ‘Mentoring of Students’.

The order of frequency of the descriptive codes which emerged from the were ‘Guest lecture’

(66%), ‘Student Showcase’ (58%), ‘Course design’*(42%) ‘Interview Panel’ (33%) and

‘Mentoring of Students’* (25%).

All sample populations cited good evidence of networking type activities from the annual

‘Student Showcase’ (e.g. “The graduate showcase is a key way for me to keep in contact and

keeping in touch for my business with the talent coming through.” Business Owning Alumni)

to ‘Guest Lectures’ (e.g. “Each programme has a budget for visiting guest speakers, 2-3

people per programme” IADT Staff). Examples of externally focused engagements were

cited by IADT Staff respondents (e.g. “Our students are very involved in external

organisations through the Dragon’s Den competition that the students organise each year.

The competition is aligned with the County Enterprise Week and the Enterprise Board”).

Within the Business Owning Alumni population certain interactions identified in the

literature review were high. 50% had been invited to speak as guest lecturers. All the

respondents that have participated in this type of exchange agreed that they found that the

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exchange was beneficial. 50% indicate that they attend the annual ‘Student Showcase’ to

network and spot talented students.

Plice and Reinig (2009) found recent alumni to be a key source of relevant information for

informing curriculum assessment and this appears to be the case at IADT where a number of

Business Owning Alumni had been included in course design committees. One Alumni

respondent cited involvement in course design (e.g. “I was asked by IADT for input in the

interactive media degree and the Masters program. IADT valued my opinion as I work for a

multinational e-learning business, thanks to my input a strategy of online distribution of the

relevant course was adopted by IADT“).

In respect of the incubation centre IADT School of Creative Arts’ programmatic review

(2009) noted that ways of improving relations “between the School and the Cube include

Internships for students, and companies based in the Media Cube giving seminars to

students.” There is evidence in the data of a level of interaction in the data that conforms to

this description (e.g. “I have done a number of guest talks to students and some students

worked on a project for our business.” Incubator).

These findings suggest a good base exists for IADT to grow their level of enterprise

engagement in the future.

In terms of contra indicators it is notable that for the IADT Staff population once-off

transactional ‘Guest Lectures’ were cited as the most common form of enterprise engagement

(thereby bringing relevant speakers in once to interact with students and colleagues). This

form of interaction requires the least amount of effort and subsequent follow through on the

part of both the organising staff member and the participant. Nor does it generate revenue for

IADT. Therefore when assessed against the tests for symbiosis and the ‘effective network’

once-off transactional ‘Guest Lectures’ might be regarded as one of the least effective forms

of enterprise engagement.

It is also of note that in respect of their current enterprise engagement practices the IADT

Staff respondents predominantly cited engagement with industry organisations or conferences

(e.g. according to the response of an IADT Staff respondent “Our school’s engagement with

enterprise would include Conference participation and networking; participation in local

industry groups – e.g. Chamber of Commerce; DLCEB; Charitable organisations; Industry

panels; Research groups; publishers; academic networks.”) as opposed to genuine one-to-

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one engagement with specific companies. When the researcher contacted a number of such

representative bodies cited in IADT’s Institutional Review (such as the Digital Media Forum

and two other bodies) the relevant representative explained that it had been over three years

since there had last been a collaborative programme or other actual collaborative initiative of

any substantive nature with IADT.

4.4.2.2 Growth Resources

Within ‘Assembling Resources’ the individual engagement most cited across the three

populations was ‘Preferential Access to Recruiting Top Under-Graduates’ while the least

cited was ‘Internships’. The order of frequency of the descriptive codes which emerged from

the data were ‘Preferential Access to Recruiting Top Under-Graduates’ (66%), ‘Student

Work Experience’ (42%), ‘Student Projects Carried out for Enterprise’ (42%), ‘Internships’

(33%), ‘Off Site Consultancy by IADT Staff to Enterprise’ (0%),’Use of resources of lecture

halls/meeting rooms in IADT’ (0%) and ‘Use of the Virtual Lab’ (0%).

Engagements which are non-revenue generating ranked most highly with preferential access

to IADT under-graduates emerging as the most cited engagement for both Business Owning

Alumni and Incubation groups (e.g. “Our school has an interview panel that our enterprise

contact sits on. One year he hired seven of our graduates at the student showcase.”IADT

Staff respondent). It is clear from the interviews that opportunities for networking with

current high performing students with a view to recruitment are important contributor to

company success in the opinions of the interview respondents (particularly where talent can

be identified “before the whole industry does” (Alumni)).

Business Owning Alumni demonstrate a strong interest in an IADT work

placement/internship program, they confirm the benefits that are the result of such an

interaction (for example interview respondents noted new experiences and different point of

views and interesting solutions to work problems that students suggested).

In terms of revenue generation the finding that there was a zero finding in respect of use of

Off Site Consultancy by IADT Staff to Enterprise, Use of Resources of Lecture

Halls/Meeting Rooms in IADT or Use of the Virtual Lab amongst the interview respondents

is of concern and suggests that ‘symbiotic engagement’ is not occurring. A common

statement from a number of relevant respondents was “I use canteen but nothing else, I

wasn’t aware of other resources.”

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It must be noted however that individual examples may be taking place in this category at

IADT that might not have been within the knowledge of the IADT Staff interviewed.

Therefore the researcher placed follow up questions with the financial controller at IADT.

The response confirmed the above findings. In the period to December 2010 non-exchequer

income (Media Cube Rentals, Football Pitch Rentals, Virtual Lab Rentals (minimal), Campus

Rentals, Student Print System, Library Charges, Media Cube Sponsorship and Grants)

accounted for 1.5% of the €23million income as opposed to an internal strategic target of

twenty percent by 2013(see Appendix 11).

4.4.2.3 Professional Collaborative Services

Within ‘Professional Collaborative Services’ the individual engagement most cited across the

three populations was ‘Innovation Voucher’ while the least cited was ‘Continuous

Professional Development and Industry Training’. All engagements cited fell into the analytic

code of ‘Professional Collaborative Services’.

The order of frequency of the descriptive codes which emerged from the data was

‘Innovation Voucher’ (42%) and ‘Continuous Professional Development and Industry

Training’ (8%).

The Hunt Report is quite specific in where it expects HEIs to earn diversified earnings; these

include research and innovation activities across the entire spectrum of innovation activities

from basic through applied research to development, consulting activities through to

Continuous Professional Development and Industry Training. Hunt states that institutions

should reward their staff for participation in all of these. The data suggests very low levels of

‘Continuous Professional Development and Industry Training’ provision by IADT (e.g. “We

provide training in the 3D animation software Maya to approximately 8 business staff per

annum“ IADT Staff respondent).

All members of the IADT Staff cited activity in the area of Innovation Vouchers. A high

level of activity in this area was also identified amongst the Incubator group (e.g. “We are

currently engaged in an Innovation Voucher with the Creative Technologies School”

Incubator). Amongst the Business Owning Alumni 50% had researched the Innovation

Vouchers scheme with IADT but found the application process too complicated and/or

inconclusive.

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The level of activity in respect of Innovation Vouchers is a positive finding. Innovation

Vouchers were introduced by Enterprise Ireland (2008, p.1) “to build links between Ireland's

public knowledge providers and small businesses and create a cultural shift in the small business

community's approach to innovation. “

These vouchers are the most basic unit of collaborative engagement at the HEI-SME

innovation interface therefore one would expect all IoTs to perform well in this category.

However if one analyses IADT’s spread of Innovation Voucher activity by School an

interesting pattern emerges. In proportion to the full time staff members the School of

Creative Technologies handles the highest proportion of Innovation Vouchers. Looking at the

figures for staff employed in relation to the number of vouchers handled (see Table 2) there

may be a strong case for a considerable increase in this category of engagement. This finding

is echoed in the IADT School of Creative Arts programmatic review (2009) which notes

where the School aspiration was to further develop practice based research.

Table 2. Current activity levels for Innovation Voucher activity at IADT - Source: Direct

request by the researcher to IADT Development Office.

In the past 18 months School of

Creative

Arts

School of

Business &

Humanities

School of

Creative

Technologies

Totals for

IADT

Total number of Innovation Vouchers

undertaken in past 18 months

8 1 14 23

Number of academic staff involved in

these Innovation Vouchers

16 2 20 38

Core staffing numbers 70 30 31 133

Vouchers per core staff 0.1 .03 .45

When the researcher sought further insight on this one reply he received was “There is not

much external demand for Innovation Voucher work with our school.” However on further

examination the researcher found that those schools with lower Innovation Voucher activity

had been reactive in waiting for such collaborative research work and not proactively

promoting their capabilities in this area. This provides a potential explanation of the low

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figures. For example Business Owning Alumni respondents stated that they had never been

proactively approached by IADT with a request to commission an Innovation Voucher with

IADT, they had initiated the contact themselves. The finding of being reactive in respect of

Innovation Voucher activity appears to be a common finding in the literature. “Most HEIs

adopt a largely reactive strategy towards generating third stream opportunities.” (PACEC

and the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge 2009).

4.4.3 Analysis and Conclusion

The content analysis of the data in respect of Research Question 1 makes a number of

important findings.

In respect of enterprise engagement there is a finding that interactions approximating to

Hunt’s (Page 12) “inward and outward flows of knowledge, staff, students and ideas” is

currently occurring at IADT. There were many positive comments from respondents in

respect of current engagements. The outcome of high levels of enterprise engagement is

encouraging however once the findings are assessed against the tests for ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ a different picture emerges from the data.

The majority of the engagements identified in the data are transactional in nature and are

biased towards ‘Networking’. It is clear that certain Alumni and Incubators regard IADT as

part of their ‘effective network’ for very narrow needs. When one applies ‘actual

collaboration’ test across the categories of engagement equal participation is not observed

across the three categories of enterprise engagement (‘Networking’ 45% of cited

engagements, ‘Assembling Resources’ 26% and ‘Professional Collaborative Services’ 24%).

Therefore the data suggests that ‘actual collaboration’ is not occurring at IADT within the

sample populations.

When the ‘symbiotic engagement’ test is applied to the most frequently cited interactions

(namely within ‘Networking’ the interaction of ‘Guest Lecture’ and ‘Assembling Resources’

the interaction of ‘Preferential Access’) at IADT they fail as, while beneficial to both parties,

they are not generating simultaneous revenues for both.

In terms of identifying the root cause of why ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is not

identified as occurring there are a range of potential reasons that present themselves in the

data.

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‘Networking’ (cited as the most common engagement by 45% of the entire sample) is

concentrated particularly in once-off Guest Lectures (cited by 66% of the entire sample)

which is an activity that requires the least amount of effort and subsequent follow through on

the part of the organising staff member and the participant. As such it has a much lower

potential to result in embedded relationships or indeed revenue for IADT. This finding

suggests that IADT Staff may be engaging in those forms of enterprise engagement (such as

invitations to celebrity speakers) that most suit their personal or teaching objectives.

Furthermore current enterprise engagement practices identified in the responses of the IADT

Staff members cite engagement with industry organisations and networks (e.g. “Chamber of

Commerce; DLCEB; charitable organisations; industry panels; research groups; publishers;

academic networks.”) as opposed to genuine one-to-one engagement with individual SMEs.

Subsequent checking by the researcher found engagements with organisations cited by IADT

Staff to be extremely shallow in certain cases and unlikely to create ‘actual collaboration’ at

any point. The researcher requested a list of the SMEs IADT had the most intense

relationship with however such a list was not forthcoming. This may be due to the fact that

for the average academic industry organisations are easier to engage with but Hunt’s

diversified revenue streams will arise from effective direct engagement with SMEs not

industry organisations.

Having identified the potential reasons for a lack of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ in the

‘Networking’ category when one examines the ‘Assembling Resources’ category of

engagement further explanations present themselves. The most cited engagement here is

‘Preferential Access to Recruiting Top Under-Graduates’ which meets a very specific, narrow

resource need for SMEs. Furthermore it is an activity which is not revenue generating in and

of itself nor might it be regarded as meeting the broad growth needs of SME enterprise (i.e.

resources beyond their immediate staffing needs).

In terms of triangulation of this finding (that ‘actual collaboration’ is not occurring at IADT)

confirmation may be found in respect of a finding of zero in respect of use of ‘Off Site

Consultancy by IADT Staff to Enterprise’, ‘Use of Resources of Lecture Halls/Meeting

Rooms in IADT’ or ‘Use of the Virtual Lab’. This is further corroborated in the fact that in

the period to December 2010 non-exchequer income accounted for 1.5% of IADT’s

€23million income as opposed to an internal strategic target of twenty percent by 2013.

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Turning to the issue of symbiosis and diversified revenue streams the above finding is of

concern. The consequences of a failure to engage in ‘actual collaboration’ may be seen in the

very small contribution to IADT income from non-exchequer sources.

In terms of diversified revenue from ‘Professional Collaborative Services‘the findings of

activity levels in the area of Innovation Vouchers is positive. However the fulfillment of

Innovation Voucher work is falling disproportionately on one school in IADT with one

school processing 0.1 of a voucher per core staff member and another 0.03 of a voucher per

core staff member. The very low level of through-put in Innovation Vouchers prevents those

other schools developing an internal discipline in respect of the most basic building block of

commercial research collaboration with knock-on implications for quality. If this level of

volume is due to staff shortages and other internal priorities then it is open to question as to

whether it is viable for IADT to develop collaborative research capabilities outside very

narrow niches.

Therefore at the end of Research Question 1, while the findings indicate good evidence of

enterprise interactions, IADT does not pass the test of ‘effective enterprise engagement’, the

‘effective network‘ is currently restricted to ‘Networking’ and ‘Preferential Access’

activities. Furthermore the data suggests that symbiosis is not occurring in the engagements

of the sample populations. Therefore ‘actual collaboration’ is not occurring within the

respondents of this research, a finding corroborated by the fact that non-exchequer income

accounted for 1.5% of IADT’s €23million income in 2010. Furthermore the very low levels

of interaction in key areas such as ‘Growth Resources’ and ‘Professional Collaborative

Services’ suggest that that IADT is failing in its mission to meet the collaborative innovation,

training and professional development needs of SMEs (minimal evidence is found in the data

of satisfactory interactions in these categories of engagement amongst the respondents).

However the findings suggest a good base exists for IADT to grow their level of ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ in the future.

65

4.5 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 2 – Are there obstacles

preventing ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT?

The purpose of this question is to seek to identify whether obstacles to effective engagement

exist at IADT and, if so, identify their specific nature.

The open-ended question put to interviewees for this Objective was “Please outline any

obstacles encountered in respect of IADT engagement with enterprise or reasons for a lower

level of engagement than you require”. To draw out this issue a common probing question

was “Please describe the specific nature of such obstacles”.


The sub-themes identified in the literature review in terms of obstacles to enterprise

engagement include:

1. Culture gap

2. Disconnect

3. Misalignment

4. Collaborative commercial Research*

5. Competition or Restriction by Competitor*


and used to compile the table containing the coding analysis framework and the table

containing the content analysis of relevant interview responses located in Appendix 7.

Coding analysis in terms of Analytic Codes is only referenced in the findings where it

provides additional insight.

*These sub-themes emerged during the iterative analysis of interview data and were

incorporated in the analysis framework.


The results of the analysis of responses to this theme were that:

‘Misalignment’ emerged as the most commonly cited sub-theme with descriptive

codes from this sub-theme being cited on average 83% across all populations.

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The next most commonly cited sub-theme was ‘Culture Gap’ with an average of 66%

citation for descriptive codes across the sub-themes engagements followed by

‘Disconnect’ (42% citation for descriptive codes) and ‘Collaborative Commercial

Research’ (34% citation for descriptive codes).

The sub-theme with the lowest citations was ‘Competition or Restriction by

Competitor’ with an average of 25% citation across the sub-themes engagements.

Expressing these findings in terms of analytic codes the descriptive codes within ‘Culture

Obstacle’ appear on average 54% in relevant responses while ‘Operational Obstacles’

appears on average in 47% of relevant responses in the interview transcripts.

Each sub-theme for Research Question 2 will now be addressed in the order in which they

were most frequently cited in the interview transcripts.

4.5.1.1 Misalignment

Within ‘Misalignment’ the descriptive code most cited across the three populations was

‘Academic Contracts’ while the least cited was ‘Physical Closeness to Academics’.

Opinions expressed on the subject of misalignment ranged from the time taken to complete

Innovation Vouchers (e.g. “I would be biased against collaboration with IADT as they have

been far too slow and lacking any sense of commercialisation.” Alumni) to the relative

importance that IADT appear to allocate internally to collaborative enterprise projects.

Incubators and Business Owning Alumni expressed the sense that academics are not

motivated to engage meaningfully with enterprise (e.g. “There is misalignment. The way

contracts are there is nothing in the contracts for academics that they have to do this

research work.” Incubator) while IADT Staff opinions suggested that that they are under too

much time pressure and do not receive adequate recognition for work in this area (e.g. “You

can talk about projects with staff but then the academics don’t have the time or reward to

participate in the project. It is difficult given the time pressures we are under.”IADT Staff

and “IoTs don’t have an efficient system for commercial activity and academic staff don’t get

credit for it, it’s almost frowned upon.” IADT Staff ). Such a finding in respect of IADT staff

opinions is similar to that found in the literature. Martin and Turner (2010) state that in many

HEIs internally collaboration may be actively discouraged while external links are

simultaneously emphasised in institutional mission statements.

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The IADT School of Creative Technologies programmatic review (2010, p.6) states staff

have “the burden of a heavy teaching load”. The review states that if research is to be an

integral part of the Institute’s mission, the Panel recommends that management look at new

ways to release staff in order that they may develop their research aspirations. A contra

opinion is that IADT academic staff may be well paid for their non-enterprise activities and

as a result are not inclined to engage (e.g. “Participation in consultancy or Innovation

Vouchers is driven by what the staff member is motivated by. Even though there are financial

rewards including equipment or payroll, they are well paid for their non-Innovation Voucher

activities so the incentives are not sufficient for them in most cases. “IADT Staff).

In respect of the most cited obstacle within this sub-theme the Hunt Report makes specific

reference to the type of misalignment identified in this study’s interviews. It states that the

current employment contracts for academic staff must be reviewed with a view to recognising

academics’ professional standing and requiring comparable levels of accountability to those

in place in the wider public and private sectors.

There is somewhat of a paradox in the matter of academic staff motivations arising from the

interview responses. A recent study of academics motivations’ (Houston et al 2006) finds that

rather than salary, the motivators that are mentioned by staff are far more likely to be

expressions of appreciation by one’s students and the recognition of colleagues. In contrast

the academic respondents in this study refer to the requirement for rewards specifically in the

context of their employment contracts.

On the other hand it is likely that the IADT Staff interviewees have a valid point of view on

this matter. Johnston et al (2010) find that social processes are often under-explored but

essential in collaborative HEI-enterprise settings. They find that building trust in relationships

through mutual understanding takes time and effort and as such should be rewarded. Bayissa

and Zewdie (2010) find that many universities are rethinking their reward strategies to better

align them with the new commercial realities in order to improve teaching staff motivation

and retention.

A number of Incubator and Alumni respondents referred to misalignment between teaching

and the requirements of enterprise (e.g. “We found an unsuitable quality of interns that we

were offered – there is poor alignment with enterprise requirements in the grads that IADT

produces, it’s probably down to the fact that lecturers in colleges are bad at getting outside

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college walls.” Alumni and “IADT can’t keep up, the speed of my industry is huge, gaming

has gone from console to social very quickly. HEIs are too theoretical.” Alumni).

In examining more closely the nature of the occupants of the Incubation Centre a degree of

misalignment emerges. The Media Cube stated specialisation is “Digital Media” however it

can be argued that this is not a specialisation, digital media per se is not a specialisation, but

an entire industry. As a result of a generalised recruitment policy for the IADT Incubation

Centre the interview data suggests a lack of alignment between the nature of the businesses of

many of the current occupants and IADT's core teaching strengths (e.g.” My company needs

skill sets that are not taught at IADT, what my company does is not really aligned with what’s

taught at IADT so there are limited prospects for us using students or interns or Innovation

Vouchers with IADT” Incubator , “The deciding factor for me in deciding where to allocate

my Innovation Voucher is who has done research on the area that is relevant to them. IADT

doesn’t have the relevant research expertise in its academic staff.” Incubator).

As noted in the literature review desirable characteristics of the relationship between IADT

and the Media Cube would be homophilly and transivity. Neither appears to be evident in the

data.

4.5.1.2 Culture Gap

Within ‘Culture Gap’ the individual obstacle most cited in the descriptive codes across the

three sample populations was ‘Lack of Trust’ while the least cited was ‘Holidays’.

There are arguments at both ends of the spectrum appearing in the data concerning this sub-

theme. The sense from a number of the Incubator respondents is that IADT academics are not

as available as they should be (e.g. “A lot of people in HEIs run shy of real business

engagement because academics want to be sure what time they will get home at.” Alumni)

but at the same time there is the impression amongst IADT Staff that SMEs are not organised

in their research needs, are over-demanding with unrealistic expectations and as such can be

difficult to engage with (e.g. “We are looking at SMEs to give us our future and there is an

argument that IoTs are not as available as they should be but at the same time there is the

SME that is not organised in its research needs. SMEs don’t know what they don’t know.

“IADT Staff).

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There is a degree of frustration expressed on the IADT Staff side for what they perceive of a

problem at IADT with low enterprise engagement (e.g. “Credibility is the problem for IoTs,

the sector don’t yet have credibility in industry.” IADT Staff) and on the enterprise

respondents’ side (e.g. “It is unsustainable for academics to have such long holidays. The

Teachers Union of Ireland is the main union and sees third level as an extension of the

second level and their holidays are secondary school based. How can you collaborate when

they are on holidays so much?” Alumni).

The result appears to be a relatively low level of trust between the IADT Staff and the

Incubator and Business Owning Alumni groups in respect of collaborative enterprise projects

(e.g. “The reason I would not collaborate on mission critical projects is because I have a lack

of trust they can be commercial enough or that they have commercial awareness.”

Incubator).

Furthermore the interviews appear to suggest that at present there is an absence of IADT staff

in key positions who can understand not only the requirements of enterprise but also how the

academic capabilities within the HEI can help the enterprise partners (e.g. “They need

business men in running the incubation centre. Each of the colleges needs a commercial

entrepreneurial person to drive it.” Alumni). This finding has much in common with the

findings of a study in the UK which evaluated the effectiveness and role of HEFCE third

stream funding activities in UK HEIs (PACEC and the Centre for Business Research,

University of Cambridge 2009).

Further evidence of a culture gap emerged when during the interviews the respondents were

asked to outline the benefits they would require to increase their level of engagement (IADT

Staff were asked to answer what they believed the motivations of Incubators and Alumni

might be). IADT Staff predominantly cited altruistic, non commercial benefits (“affection for

the college”, “revisit tutors”, “give something back” and “sharing ideas”). Incubators and

Business Owning Alumni, while acknowledging altruistic reasons, were specific in the

distinct benefits necessary to their businesses (“first pick of the graduates”,” having an “in”

is a competitive advantage”, “Treat us as paid consultants” and “potential opportunities for

my business”).

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4.5.1.3 Disconnect

Within the area of ‘Disconnect’ the individual obstacle most cited across the three

populations was ‘Strategic’ while the least cited was ‘Civil Service Mentality’.

A number of the themes from the literature review are identified in the responses within this

sub-theme. Research carried out by Pera (2009) found that the concerns of businesses about

the disconnected time scales of universities had more than doubled between 2004 and 2008.

De Jong, et al (2008) also identifies the same disconnect issue in noting that ‘barriers between

business and universities are rising as businesses are frustrated with university bureaucracy. “

Bayissa and Zewdie (2010) find that academic staff identifies inefficient administration as a

major obstacle to their work.

A number of strategic failings at IADT emerge in this sub-theme. There is a failure to

leverage the asset that Business Owning Alumni represent (e.g. “I have never been

approached by IADT offering the services of their consultancy or research offerings, they are

not thinking strategically” Alumni). There appears to be a failure to regard the Media Cube

occupants as an asset to IADT (e.g. “The physical resources of the Media Cube are great but

that’s it. IADT is not looking at Cube companies as a strategic resource. ” Incubator).

According to one of the IADT Staff respondents the institute needs more strategic leadership

(e.g. “We would need to be strategic in our approach to increasing engagement, we would

need to decide what we are going to do and how. This would then need to be distilled into

SMART goals and monitored by the President to ensure that the IADT culture changes

effectively“).

The Virtual Lab (VLAB), funded by Enterprise Ireland, was singled out for mention as a high

value asset which had no alignment with the resource needs of SMEs (e.g. “IADT spent a lot

of tax-payers money on a Virtual Lab Cave system but no-one in enterprise needs it, certainly

not in the Media Cube. There seems to be an absence of joined up thinking.” Incubator).

IADT received R&D infrastructure funding of €560,000 in 2008 from Enterprise Ireland to

develop an immersive virtual reality system. The virtual lab system, entitled CAVE

(Computer-generated Automatic Virtual Environment), immerses users in ambionic sounds

and high-end 3D graphic environments projected on four walls.

This would appear to indicate a degree of disconnect between what the academic staff

pursued as desirable equipment/technology for their research purposes/student teaching and

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what had the potential to be provided on a commercial basis to relevant SMEs to help them in

their business while generating revenue for IADT.

A key finding within this theme were the contrasting Incubator attitudes to the Incubation

Centre itself as against to the host institution IADT. All Incubators reported good interaction

with other Media Cube occupants but poor linkages to IADT in the majority of cases. A

number of Incubator respondents referred to an excellent collaborative atmosphere within the

Media Cube (e.g. “Overall a positive experience being in the Media Cube, I would

recommend it to any friends starting a business.” Incubator, “My business did work for other

companies in the Media Cube when we were located there. It helped us get off the ground. “

Incubator). These opinions are confirmed in that the Media Cube is seen widely as a good

facility but largely in isolation to IADT.

However in respect of the relationship with the host institution Incubator respondents refer to

a “chasm” between the Media Cube occupants and IADT (e.g. “There are coffee mornings

once a month upstairs which are great for networking, academics from IADT don’t come

though. There is a chasm between those in the incubation centre and the academic staff at

IADT. The incubation centre manager is frustrated himself as he can’t get engagement with

the IADT staff.” Incubator, “There is NO interaction, I have internship opportunities and no-

one has let me know how to go about getting that into IADT.” Incubator).

There was clear evidence of a degree of disillusionment in respect of engaging with academic

staff and a perception of an “Us and Them” divide which has direct parallel in the findings of

the literature review. The HETAC Institutional Review of IADT (2011) which identified

recommended improvement in the level of interaction between “IADT and its onsite

incubation centre”.

A number of Incubators and Alumni expressed the wish for greater interaction with the

research work of IADT Staff (e.g. “I would welcome an increase in engagement. I would like

to meet some of the research staff in IADT and hear what areas of research they are working

on to see if there is any potential to collaborate in my business.” Incubator, “A benefit would

be to hear from the researchers what can IADT do for my business would also be of interest.

“).

Some of the literature suggests (Enterprise Ireland 2005) that it is the incubator manager who

should initiate and drive interaction with the host institution, that the manager should take the

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first steps in forging strong ties. However, the IADT incubator manager cited a degree of

powerlessness in getting academic staff to prioritise commercial objectives sufficiently. This

view was echoed by Incubator respondents (e.g. “Key IADT staff are complacent within the

bureaucratic system they operate in” Incubator). This finding is corroborated by

Wohlmuther’s (2008) research within a university environment in New Zealand.

Wohlmuther’s research finds that it is often not clear on who actually has, or who is

perceived to have, the balance of power in such circumstances. One IADT Staff participant

cited the fact that enterprise engagement is almost “frowned upon” as an activity in which a

true academic would not be involved.

This is a particularly important finding due to the fact that Vanderstraeten and Matthyssens

(2010) find that incubators with high quality access to the host institution’s expertise and

facilities are among the top-performing incubators generating considerable revenue for the

host institution. The most successful relationships are those where the incubation centre

becomes part of the research commercialisation strategy of the HEI. This study finds that this

is not the case at IADT in respect of the Media Cube (e.g. “Personally my business does have

a good relationship with IADT but I would be pretty unique. A lot of the companies in the

Media Cube now have very little affiliation with IADT“. Incubator). The divide is reflected in

the fact that a number of Incubators see the Media Cube as merely as cheap office space that

“happens to be located on a third level campus”, rather than an incubation centre with high

quality access to the host institution’s expertise and facilities. Rents in the centre have fallen

as a result.

4.5.1.4 Collaborative Commercial Research

Within ‘Collaborative Commercial Research‘ the individual obstacle most cited across the

three populations was ‘Quality and Time Issues’ while the least cited was ‘Intellectual

Property Leakage’.

A finding that arose from the analysis of transcripts in respect of this sub-theme is that there

appears to be a degree of misinformation, a lack of trust and misunderstandings on the part of

Incubator and Business Owning Alumni respondents in respect of professional research

services (e.g. “I do nothing in research collaboration with IADT at the moment, I don’t

understand how they really work, afraid they would demand IP control, I’m a bit nervous of

it, part ownership of my company with a college doesn’t rest easy with me.” Alumni). There

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is an apparent generalisation whereby IADT would take a disproportionate share of the

intellectual property (even in services that do not involve intellectual property matters).

Concern was expressed over the valuation HEIs put on Intellectual Property (IP) and

potential dilution (e.g. “My company is interested in Innovation Vouchers however I find that

HEIs overvalue any IP they contribute. For my collaborating with a HEI can’t be decoupled

from IP. If I felt collaboration diluted ownership in any way I would not be interested”

Alumni).

There is clear evidence of dissatisfaction from the Incubators with the results of their

collaboration with IADT on Innovation Vouchers. This is an important finding with

implications for the ability of IADT to earn revenue from this source. IADT’s policy on

consultancy (IADT Development Office 2010) states that the completion of consultancy

work, and in particular Innovation Vouchers, is of strategic importance to the Institute. While

a degree of misalignment of time frames (with business seeking quicker results than

universities) is commonly noted in relevant research (Pera 2009) the interview evidence

refers to delays and quality issues at IADT which fatally undermine the value of the projects.

This research found earlier that one school was processing 0.1 of a voucher per core staff

member and another 0.03 of a voucher per core staff member in the period under review.

Such a low put through is likely to undermine quality as this process will not receive enough

priority within each School.

Two comments selected from the Incubator transcripts yield some further insight on this

matter.

Incubator “Business seeks quicker results. My business had an Innovation Voucher

with IADT and everything that could go wrong went wrong. It’s not as if I just threw it

over the fence at them, I spent a lot of time with the researcher guiding him towards

the results we needed. The researcher in question delivered zero useful stuff and after

working on it for six months I abandoned it.”

Incubator “I used an Innovation Voucher with IADT to build a prototype but it took

too long and the process was not satisfactory. The value of the voucher was €5000 but

I didn’t feel I got good value for money, communication was poor, it was too much

hassle following up with the IADT staff member. It’s not taken seriously by academic

staff; by the time the work comes back innovation is dead!!”

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From these comments it would appear that in the sample group from the Incubation centre

innovation collaboration with IADT does not exhibit characteristics of low transaction costs.

When the researcher sought to gain some insight on the matter a relevant staff member

refused to comment stating that IADT are about to embark on the next strategic review and

that would be the appropriate forum for his thoughts on such a matter.

When one looks at the performance by IADT in Table 3 below the increase in completed

vouchers apparent in 2011is encouraging. In order to seek insight on this sudden jump the

researcher requested a number of IADT Innovation Voucher customer satisfaction reports. In

return he received a blank template for IADT Innovation Voucher customer satisfaction

reports. He then requested a number of completed reports rather than blank templates but

received no further reply from IADT on the matter. However in seeking to further understand

the leap in completions which might also explain the levels of dissatisfaction expressed by

the Incubators the researcher contacted the relevant manager at Enterprise Ireland (who

manage the voucher scheme).

Currently Enterprise Ireland does not require the signature of the SME client when each

voucher is submitted as completed by the HEI nor is there an individual satisfaction survey

returned to Enterprise Ireland with each voucher claim. However the contracts unit at

Enterprise Ireland confirmed that it will be addressing this current quality control weakness

shortly.

Table 3. Analysis of Innovation Vouchers processed by Knowledge Providers in Ireland

(Contracts Unit Enterprise Ireland, unpublished)

Total Innovation Vouchers by

knowledge providers

IADT

total Percentage

2011 to July 344 11 3.2%

2010 855 8 0.9%

2009 487 4 0.8%

2007/8 207 3 1.1%

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4.5.1.5 Competition or Restriction by Competitor

Within ‘Competition or Restriction by Competitor’ the individual obstacle most cited across

the three populations was ‘Using another HEI currently’ while the least cited was ‘In-house’.

In the interviews both Business Owning Alumni and Incubators cited collaborative

engagements they currently have with other HEIs (e.g. “We were looking to develop a

ticketing app but we used DCU as we already have a relationship there and have to keep it

in-house.” Alumni). These existing relationships would appear from the conversations to

preclude embarking on a collaborative relationship with IADT (e.g. “The reality is that as a

multi-national we are engaged in a lot of collaborative projects with different HEIs but IADT

is not one of them.”Alumni). The transaction costs of engaging an alternative provider such as

IADT appear to be an obstacle to this form of engagement. This has implications for IADT in

a fast moving educational market place (e.g. “Ballyfermot College are eating our breakfast in

the animation area at the moment.” IADT Staff). As the Hunt Report takes effect a number of

more proactive HEIs are making “land grabs” for growth areas targeted by national policy.

The Hunt report is clear on the fact that duplication of offering will not be countenanced

therefore the time for manoeuvre available to the IADT is limited.


While IADT’s current strategic plan (IADT President 2008) states that its objective in respect

of its organisation culture is “To embed a culture of innovation and quality enhancement” this

does not appear to be occurring in respect of ‘effective enterprise engagement’. The data on

this question provides evidence of considerable evidence of obstacles to ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ at IADT.

There is evidence at IADT of clear and present obstacles to ‘effective enterprise engagement’

in terms of ‘Misalignment’, ‘Culture Gaps’, ‘Disconnect’ and in respect of ‘Collaborative

Commercial Research’ there is also evidence of unsatisfactory quality and lack of

commercial viability in respect of Innovation Voucher work.

Opinions differ on the causes of these obstacles. The current academic employment contract

emerges as a key obstacle as did the apparent low prioritisation of such work within IADT.

On the other hand IADT staff indicate that effective engagement with SMEs is difficult and

time consuming and they are not rewarded for it.

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In terms of identifying the root cause of why this is the case ‘Culture Obstacles’ appear to

account for the highest proportion of obstacles (on average 54% of citations) with

‘Operational Obstacles’ accounting for 47% of citations. The data suggests that IADT has a

more significant problem in respect of internal culture towards effective engagement.

In seeking to explain the nature of such ‘Culture Obstacles’ the data suggests that IADT

Staff do not feel they are sufficiently rewarded by their contract of employment for

engagement in ‘effective enterprise engagement’. ‘Culture Gap’ appears to a major generator

of ‘Culture Obstacles’. The data indicates a relatively low level of trust between the IADT

Staff and the Incubator and Business Owning Alumni groups in respect of collaborative

enterprise projects on the grounds of unrealistic expectations, commercial awareness,

academic holidays, timeliness and quality. This is compounded by evidence of a degree of

misinformation, lack of trust and misunderstanding on the part of Incubator and Business

Owning Alumni is evident in the data in respect of professional research services at IADT.

Turning to the issue of diversified revenue streams the finding of a high degree of internal

culture related obstacles has serious implications for IADT’s ability to diversify its funding

streams from government sources in a timely manner. Data from a number of Incubators cites

a misalignment between the discipline areas of their business and the teaching and research

areas of IADT. This misalignment has the effect of reducing the potential internal market for

IADT’s ‘Professional Collaborative Services’ and reduces IADT’s potential to create ‘actual

collaboration’ and capability through volume. Furthermore in terms of disconnect the Virtual

Lab Environment (VLAB), funded by Enterprise Ireland, was singled out for mention as a

high value asset which has no alignment with the resource needs of SMEs and as such will

remain an under-utilised asset not creating revenue for IADT.

A further serious problem for diversified funding streams emerged where, in addition to the

nature of the Media Cube client businesses not being strictly aligned with the teaching

strengths of IADT, a number of Incubator respondents referred to a “chasm” between the

Incubation Centre occupants and IADT. There was clear evidence of a degree of disconnect

and disillusionment in respect of engaging with IADT academic staff and an “Us and Them”

perception which had a direct parallel in the findings of the literature review. This is of

concern as the literature finds that the most successful relationships are those where the

incubation centre becomes part of the research commercialisation strategy of the HEI. There

is a finding in the data that this is not the case at IADT in respect of the Media Cube. This

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divide is reflected in the fact that a number of Incubators see the Media Cube as merely as

cheap office space rather than an incubation centre with high quality access to the host

institution’s expertise and facilities. Rents in the centre have fallen as a result.

Deepening the theme of a “chasm” between IADT and its Incubation Centre there is a finding

from the data that the Incubators are dissatisfied with the results of their collaboration with

IADT on Innovation Vouchers. This is an important finding with implications for the ability

of IADT to earn revenue from this source and professionalise their enterprise collaborative

research capability. The data cites delays and quality issues at IADT which fatally undermine

the value of the Innovation Voucher projects of the respondents from a commercial point of

view. A consequence of this is the undermining of IADT’s ability to create an internal culture

of enterprise engagement.

The consequence of the misalignment of Medic Cube tenants with IADT teaching strengths,

the disconnect between IADT staff and Incubation Centre occupants and the complaints of

Incubators concerning the quality and timeliness of IADT collaborative research is a

considerably reduced ability by IADT to exploit the captive audience in the Media Cube for

building specialist research capabilities, ‘effective enterprise engagement’ and commercial

revenue generation. Corroboration of this finding is evidence from the data that Incubators

see the Media Cube as undifferentiated cheap office accommodation and rents have fallen

accordingly.

Finally the data suggests that the time available to IADT to get it right in respect of the above

issues is finite. Both Business Owning Alumni and Incubators cited existing collaborative

engagements they currently have with other HEIs as precluding them embarking on a

collaborative relationship with IADT. As the Hunt Report takes effect a number of more

proactive HEIs are making “land grabs” for enterprise growth areas targeted by national

policy. The Hunt report is clear on the fact that duplication of offering will not be

countenanced therefore the time for manoeuvre for IADT to establish ‘actual collaboration’

in selected strategic areas is limited.

Therefore at the end of this objective the findings suggest that there are considerable

obstacles to ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT and that these obstacles are more

rooted in the culture within IADT than operationally.

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4.6 Findings and Analysis in respect of Research Question 3 - Are Systems and

Structures Embedded within IADT to Overcome Obstacles to ‘effective enterprise

engagement’

The objective of this question is to identify the degree to which current enterprise

engagements are embedded via systems and structures at IADT and their consequential

potential for their long- term sustainability. The more embedded the relationships, the more

likely ‘actual collaboration’ will take place thereby yielding ‘symbiotic engagement’.

In order to illuminate this issue an open-ended question was put to interviewees namely

“Please outline the systems and structures which IADT uses in your experience in respect of

enterprise engagement”.


The sub-themes identified in the literature review include the following:

1. System – Being organised behaviour towards a defined goal. In the case of this

research the systemic goal is that of Hunt’s enterprise engagement objective (better

meeting the growth needs of SMEs and thus generating revenue streams for the HEI),

un-systematic being the opposite.

2. Structure - Being institutional processes “creating a permanence of patterns and

relationships of constituents” that support the enterprise engagement goal of the Hunt

Report, un-structured being the opposite.

3. Individual Initiative - Being voluntary, ad hoc goodwill gestures and efforts by

individual members of staff or SME owner managers in respect of enterprise

engagement. *





provides additional insight. *This sub-themes emerged during the iterative analysis of

interview data and were incorporated in the analysis framework.

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The results of the analysis of responses to this theme were that:

‘Individual Initiative’ emerged as the most commonly cited sub-theme across the

three populations with descriptive codes from this sub-theme being cited on average

67% across all the relevant engagements.

Within the ‘System’ sub-theme 42% of interviewees used descriptive codes

suggestive of ‘Systematic’ behaviour in respect of enterprise engagement which

contrasts with 58% finding in respect of ‘Un-Systematic’ type descriptive codes.

Within the ‘Structure’ sub-theme 50% of interviewees used descriptive codes

suggestive of ‘Un-Structured’ processes in respect of enterprise engagement while

there was a 42% finding in respect of ‘Structure’ type descriptive codes.

Each sub-theme within Research Question 3 will now be addressed commencing with

‘Individual Initiative’, ‘System’ and then ‘Structure’. Analytic codes followed the same

meaning as the relevant sub-theme and therefore did not yield further insight.

4.6.2.1 Individual initiative

Within this theme the individual descriptive code cited across the three populations was

‘Goodwill Basis’ while the least cited was ‘Responsibility’.

This is a positive finding in respect of enterprise engagement in one sense. It suggests that

both Incubators-Alumni and IADT Staff populations show initiative in engaging with each

other with some extremely positive examples (e.g. “Lecturer Y took the initiative and

contacted me to talk to the interactive media degree students and the Masters programme.”

Alumni). In the interviews a number of respondents singled out individual members of staff

at IADT for positive mention and as the instigators of maintaining the relationship (e.g.

“Once when I rang for a reference and the individual lecturer showed the initiative to seek

internship opportunities, he asked about opportunities in Canada for students.” Alumni).

This is an important finding as many of the activities crucial to engagement at the HEI-

Enterprise innovation interface are dependent on social processes. Johnston et al (2010)

identified these processes as, inter alia, openness and connectivity of network structures and

building trust in relationships through mutual understanding. A contrary argument is however

that trust is a function of a systematic approach (rather than individual initiative) which

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generates predictability in the relationship and embedding leading to being part of an

effective network. The more dependence there is on individual initiative the more likely that

key engagement relationships may be lost as staff come and go at IADT (e.g. “There is no

structured interface at IADT for Alumni to liaise with. As a result I rely on my personal

network at IADT for access to the best students. However many of my contacts have moved

on and my IADT network is atrophying now.”Alumni).

From the perspective of the Incubators the majority stated they took the initiative in

“injecting” themselves into IADT for engagements such as guest lectures or student projects

(e.g. “I am always going to ask lecturers if they would like me to speak to their students to try

and inject myself into the place. I approach IADT myself and speak at least once a year but it

is only with one lecturer.”Incubator). There was a similar finding in respect of Alumni with

one notable exception. While cases of individual IADT staff being proactive were cited but

the majority of Incubators and Alumni felt IADT were reactive.

IADT staff members all referred to a dependence on individual initiative for most types of

enterprise engagement (apart from certain guest lectures which have an annual budget

allocation) with a lack of resources and lack of internal prioritisation being cited by way of

explanation.

4.6.2.2 System

Within this sub-theme descriptive codes indicating systematic behaviour were most

frequently cited in respect of ‘Guest Lecture’ while the least cited was ‘Innovation Voucher’.

In the context of this study the goal of systematic enterprise engagement activity at IADT is

the creation of effective networks through strategic enterprise engagement with the potential

to yield revenue to IADT. Therefore in the context of this study the goal of systemic

behaviour at IADT should be ‘effective enterprise engagement’.

There is a finding that a number of the engagements that fall under the ‘Networking’ analytic

code are not conducted on a systematic basis at IADT (examples include ‘guest lectures’ and

‘student showcase’) i.e. towards the above systematic goal. Evidence also emerges that the

majority of the engagement activities categorised as ‘Growth Resources’ are conducted on a

“hit and miss” basis (e.g. “Work placement is sporadic; it is hit and miss on a course by

course basis with the programme coordinator taking responsibility.” IADT Staff). Revenue

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earning ‘Professional Collaborative Services’ appear to be excessively dependent on the

individual initiative and personal enthusiasm of IADT Staff and as such are not occurring on

a systematic basis at IADT (e.g. “The staff that are interested in modernising their skill are

the ones that get engaged in this work. “ IADT Staff).

Other key forms of income generating research projects and investments (such as the Virtual

Lab funding from Enterprise Ireland) rely on individual IADT Staff initiative. This finding is

corroborated in the literature, the IADT School of Creative Technologies programmatic

review (2010) notes that successes at the school are often the result of individual effort.

In seeking to establish explanations for this finding IADT staff members cited a lack of

resources and lower prioritisation (in comparison with learning programmes for example).

One interviewee from the staff expressed the belief that putting enterprise engagements on a

systematic, monitored basis might be counter-productive but then went on to describe an

event which contradicted this view.

“My colleagues do not get sufficient recognition however timetabling goodwill in a

systematic way is not desirable as too many metrics can undermine goodwill. I would

prefer to let things evolve organically. Saying that however in the past projects such

as the establishment of an Business Owning Alumni organisation and a marketing

plan for this were allocated to interested parties but no metrics were assigned or

timescales so there was no follow-up and little happened.” IADT Staff respondent

The view that academic staff members resist metric-driven accountability does appear in the

literature. Egginton (2010) states that historically HEIs have been independent institutions,

backed by an ideology that led staff to expect and enjoy high levels of independence and

autonomy, relatively free from any sense of management, commercial responsibility and

accountability.

IADT Staff respondents cited the fact that activity spikes in certain areas due to underlying

objectives (the design of a new academic programme, for example, requires an increase in

engagement with enterprise temporarily). One of the Incubator respondents cited bureaucratic

obstacles as being an underlying reason why structured behaviour has not evolved in respect

of internships (e.g.“I started an internship programme myself to get IADT students to work

with our company. It ran out of steam after some invoicing issues.” Incubator).

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4.6.2.3 Structure

Within this sub-theme the descriptive code indicating systematic behaviour was most

frequently cited in respect of ‘Student Showcase’ while that least chosen was ‘Media Cube

liaison’.

In terms of a structured approach this was most in evidence in respect of annual ‘Networking’

events (e.g. “Dragon’s Den is an annual event” or “The student showcase is an annual

event”). At the other end of the spectrum the data suggests there is an absence of structure in

respect of the relationship between the Media Cube and IADT (e.g. “As manager of the

incubation centre I have meetings with the school heads about the Media Cube informally;

there is no formal structure in place at the moment.”).

Opinions were divided amongst the IADT Staff group on the issue of a structured approach to

enterprise engagement. One stated that “Capturing activity and projecting it should then in

turn inform activity which would be a good thing.” whereas another IADT staff member felt

it is better to allow engagement to emerge organically “rather than have a formal structured

relationship”. However the contra to this opinion is that an essential prerequisite to

embedding effective engagement is a close attention to the numbers that the system is

reporting for the activity of the key categories of engagement (George 2003). This can be

done while also ensuring an avoidance of excessive transaction costs (according to

Eggertsson (1990) transaction costs include the costs of gathering information, coordinating

users, organising decision making and enforcing rules ). Cork Institute of Technology have

commenced using a low cost, flexible Customer Relationship Management system to track all

enterprise engagement across the IoT.

There is a finding that the absence of a structured approach by IADT to key areas of

enterprise engagement results in valuable resources being neglected (such as an Incubator’s

comment “I would do guest lectures if I was asked by IADT, I do them for lots of other

HEIs”). Furthermore none of the Business Owning Alumni had been approached by IADT to

engage with IADT’s professional or collaborative research services. This is in direct contrast

to their experience with other IoTs (e.g. “My business is approached on a systematic basis by

other IoTs, for example Waterford Institute of Technology were in contact twice in the past

12 months.”). One member blamed the lack of strategic structure in respect of commercial

‘Professional Collaborative Services’ as a contributory factor in what he perceived as IADT’s

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weakness in this area (e.g. “At the moment we are doing a bit of everything in the commercial

research area, Innovation Vouchers etc and this is a weakness.”).

In the opinions of Incubator and Alumni respondents trust in IADT structures had been

undermined by a failure to follow through on invitations made by IADT or structures

established but abandoned (e.g. “I was approached about a guest lecture at IADT but nothing

came of it.” Incubator “Someone in the careers office did mention that they would like me to

speak as a guest lecturer but nothing happened afterwards.” Incubator, “There was an

industry advisory board put together that I sat on. It met three times but it fizzled

out.”Alumni).

The fact that many enterprise engagements are not “formally captured or reported” does not

lend itself to ‘actual collaboration’ becoming embedding within IADT. However noting

earlier the findings of Houston et al (2006) HEIs can display a reluctance to examine or

measure their own organisational behaviour. The matter of enterprise engagement appears

from the data to be a relatively low priority internally despite public announcements to the

contrary. It is also the case that the IADT President’s office does not require such reports and

performance measurement in respect of engagement and thus there is evidence of a drive

towards culture change in this area. On the other hand the Higher Education Authority (HEA

2011) note that there are risks associated with performance measurement which must be

acknowledged such as unintended consequences, bureaucracy and stifling of innovation.

The finding in the Incubator and IADT Staff group of an absence of structure in respect of

engagement with the Media Cube corroborates earlier findings of a disconnect.


The findings in respect of this objective present a mixed picture. In respect of this sub-theme

the Hunt Report states that in facilitating engagement “Outward-facing systems and

structures should be embedded into institutional activity”.

The findings show that IADT is most systematic about engagements that fall into the

Networking analytic code and least systematic about engagements falling into the

Professional Collaborative Services codes. A similar finding is that IADT appears to be most

structured concerning engagement in respect of Networking codes and least structured in

terms of Professional Collaborative Services codes.

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Taking into account the finding that the most commonly cited descriptive code fell within

‘Individual Initiative’ it suggests that systems and structures in respect of enterprise

engagement are not in place at IADT with the potential for “creating a permanence of

patterns and relationships of constituents”. Therefore it is suggested that the systems and

structures in place at IADT in respect of enterprise engagement do not have the potential to

overcome the existing obstacles to effective engagement.

In seeking to gain further insight on the main finding above it is clear that IADT are

excessively dependent on individual initiative in respect of enterprise engagement. The more

dependence there is on individual initiative the more likely that key engagement relationships

may “atrophy” as staff come and go at IADT.

In terms of identifying the root cause of why this is the case the data suggests that it is an

endemic issue within the culture of the organisation. IADT appear to be reactive in respect of

enterprise engagement. Cases of individual IADT staff being proactive were cited however

the majority of Incubators and Business Owning Alumni identified their experience of IADT

as an institution is reactive in respect of enterprise engagement.

Turning to the issue of diversified revenue streams ‘Networking’ engagements are carried out

on a structured basis but not on a systematic basis (i.e. towards the goal of ‘effective

enterprise engagement’). The data suggests that no attempt is made to align individual guest

lecture invites either on a consistent annual basis (thereby building a pattern of “regular and

intense interactions “thus building the ‘effective network’) or with the invitees’ potential to

generate research contracts for IADT staff (‘actual collaboration’). ‘Professional

Collaborative Services’ are occurring on a structured (as in a process and institution policy

documents exist) but not systematic basis at IADT (the data suggests that alignment of

activity and capabilities are not optimised towards a strategic goal).

Due to the reactive nature of IADT in respect of enterprise engagement the data suggests that

valuable resources are being neglected due to the failure to implement structure in respect of

key potential engagements. No Alumni in the sample had been approached by IADT to

engage with IADT’s professional or collaborative research services. Repeated delays have

occurred in respect of harnessing the resource of Alumni via an official IADT Alumni

organisation. As a result “There is no structured interface at IADT for Alumni to liaise with.

As a result I rely on my personal network at IADT for access to the best students. However

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many of my contacts have moved on and my IADT network is atrophying now.” (Alumni

respondent). IADT have considered the creation of an Alumni organisation for a number of

years “but the Institute was not yet in a position to create an infrastructure to seek

engagement” (IADT School of Business and Humanities 2010).

These findings have negative implications for the ability of IADT to increase ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ and diversify funding streams. Trust is undermined through lack of

structure in respect of engagement. A number of respondents cited invitation to appear as

guest speakers being issued that were never followed up by IADT. There is an absence of

structure in respect of IADT engagement with the Media Cube. Trust within the Media Cube

has been adversely impacted as the advisory board was disbanded and at the time of the

interviews.

The evidence for imminent change is not evident within the data. The majority of enterprise

engagements are informal and not “formally captured or reported”. Explanations from IADT

Staff for the situation outlined above included weakness from being spread too thinly, lack of

resources and low internal prioritisation from senior management and the belief that putting

enterprise engagements on a systematic, monitored basis might be counterproductive.

Consequently the findings from the data suggest that in respect of enterprise engagement the

systems and structures are not in place at IADT that have the potential for “creating a

permanence of patterns and relationships of constituents”. A dependence on ‘Individual

Initiative’ on both sides of the innovation interface is undermining the systemic conditions

required for ‘actual collaboration’ and symbiosis. Therefore it is found that the systems and

structures in place at IADT in respect of enterprise engagement do not have the potential to

overcome the existing obstacles to effective engagement. The primary reason this appears to

be the case is the matter of genuine enterprise engagement appears from the data to be a

relatively low priority internally despite public announcements to the contrary.

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4.7 Findings and Analysis in Respect of Research Question 4 - Can higher levels of

‘effective enterprise engagement’ be achieved at IADT?

The objective underlying this question is to identify if conditions can be created to grow the

‘effective network’ at IADT to broaden it across the range of enterprise engagements thereby

creating the conditions conducive to ‘actual collaboration’. In order to seek an answer to this

question a number of sub-questions must be addressed namely what are the attitudes of the

respondents to an increase? What are the enabling requirements that need to be addressed to

facilitate an increase and what are the benefits that Business Owning Alumni and Incubators

might seek in order to be motivated to increase their engagement?

In order to draw out this issue the open-ended question put to interviewees for this Objective

was “Would you be prepared to increase levels of enterprise engagement in respect of IADT

and what should be addressed to facilitate such an increase?”


The sub-themes which were identified in literature review and which emerged during the

interviews include the following:

1. Positively disposed towards increased engagement (‘Positively Disposed’).

2. Enabling requirements necessary before any increase in engagement (‘Enabling

Requirements’).*

3. Benefits sought to provide motivation to increase engagement (‘Benefits Sought’).*





provides additional insight.

*The analytic codes and frameworks for these sub-themes emerged during the iterative

analysis of interview data and were incorporated in the analysis framework.

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The results of the analysis of responses to this objective were that:

‘Positively Disposed’ descriptive codes from this sub-theme were cited on an average

of 92% across all the sample populations.

‘Enabling Requirements’ descriptive codes from this sub-theme were cited on average

67% across all the sample populations.

‘Benefits Sought’ descriptive codes from this sub-theme were cited on average 83%

across all the sample populations.

Each sub-theme for Research Question 4 will now be addressed.

4.7.2.1 Positively Disposed

Within ‘Positively Disposed’ there was a 92% positive response to the question with the

exception of one Incubator who did not wish to have any further engagement with IADT.

Within the data the individual response most cited across the three populations was ‘Yes’

while the least cited was ‘Collaborate’.

All sample populations indicated that they were positively disposed however interview

responses followed a pattern of cautious welcome from the IADT Staff group (e.g. “Yes,

there would be a benefit to increasing engagement via such things as student projects and

work placements. However there are pros and cons, they are difficult to organise and be

consistent about.”) to full bodied enthusiasm on the part of the Incubators (e.g. “I would

consider increased engagement positively. I would be happy to formalise the relationship.”)

and Business Owning Alumni(e.g. “My company has a vendor strategy department in the

company and I am continuously looking for diversity of suppliers.”).

In particular IADT has a good reputation amongst Business Owning Alumni in terms of the

students that Business Owning Alumni engage with directly after graduation and via

internship programs. There was also enthusiasm amongst the Incubators for active

participation in the disbanded Media Cube Advisory Board (e.g. “Yes, I would be delighted

to help on the Media Cube advisory board for example to give a voice to identifying the

supports start-ups really needs.” Incubator).

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IADT Staff expressed concerns in respect of the conflict of interest between student learning

outcomes and enterprise needs (e.g. “I would be concerned to ensure that our students were

not cheap labour or that their learning outcomes were compromised”. IADT Staff ). These

views are similar to those identified in the literature review (e.g. NUIM 2011). They also

expressed concern over the difficulty of securing sufficient engagement from enterprise (e.g.

“Meaningful engagement for things like student work placement would be great but might

only get two companies and what do you do with the rest of the students, is it fair?” or “Is a

big logistical administrative overhead. Creative industries are harder to match with specific

intern requests.”).

The Incubator and Business Owning Alumni groups expressed interest in all areas of

engagement except increased use of the physical facilities of IADT (in particular the Virtual

Lab) or of those Incubators who have Innovation Voucher experience with IADT indicated

no wish to engage again in this respect with IADT.

4.7.2.2 Enabling Requirements

Within Enabling Requirements the individual engagement most cited across the three

populations was ‘Culture Change’ while the least cited was ‘Transaction Costs’.

While there was broad support for an increase in enterprise engagement in the previous sub-

theme there were also a number of caveats and “cons” identified by the respondents. These

are addressed in more detail in this sub-theme however those objections that touch on

learning outcomes are not addressed as they are outside the scope of this study.

IADT Staff respondents identified a requirement to “re-structure internally” to bring about

“culture changes”.

“There is lots of energy within IADT put poor connectivity internally and we are

duplicating activities internally. Before we could seriously embark on professional

engagement with enterprise I believe that we need to re-structure internally into one

school with three departments would lead to greater focus on the whole rather than

fiefdoms.” IADT Staff respondent

This group also expressed concern about a potential conflict of interest between “the

objectives of the company needing a commercial result and the students learning objectives”.

The IADT Staff also cited the necessity of any enterprise engagement activities being

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recognised in their employment contacts (e.g.“Staff in my school do not get rewarded for all

the time they put into creating industry contacts. Compared to NCAD IADT staff have had to

work a lot harder to develop the contacts and it should be recognised in our contracts.”

IADT Staff).

Business Owning Alumni and Incubators identified themes similar to earlier findings in

relation to addressing quality obstacles (e.g. “Quality control is essential if I were to start

using IADT research consultancy, the standard of work would need to be at least as good as

my current suppliers and freelancers.”Alumni) and the overhead of learning curves on each

side being identified as something that they would require to be addressed (e.g. “Transaction

costs can’t be too high, there can’t be a big learning curve for the academic I’m going to

work with. I don’t have time to teach IADT how to do their job.”Alumni).

The hidden costs of ineffective interfacing between IADT and enterprise were cited as an

inhibitor (e.g, “If it was made easier I would like the resource of interns from IADT, the

management overhead of organising this at the moment is too high. By easier I mean help

refining our needs which would improve the chances of getting the right candidates.”

Incubator).

In respect of student interns and work placements Incubators and Business Owning Alumni

suggested improvements at the interface so that the right student with the right skills could be

identified for the needs of the company. Furthermore Professional Collaborative Services

(such as Work Based Training) must be relevant to the specific company’s needs (e.g “I

would be interested in engaging with IADT on work based training but it would need to be

customised to what we do.” Incubator).

These findings have common ground with the work of Johnston et al (2010) who showed that

the removal of engagement bottlenecks may depend on the provision of well defined

interfaces or other technical standards that facilitate coordination and cooperation between

ecosystem members and this activity needs resources and management attention which may

not be forthcoming.

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4.7.2.3 Benefits Sought

The question was put as to what would constitute sufficient benefit or incentive to the

Incubator and Alumni groups in exchange for moving towards a level of ‘regular and intense

interaction’. While this question was put to all respondents it was requested that the replies

from IADT Staff should be formulated from the point of view of the Incubators and Alumni

(i.e. the IADT Staff were asked to surmise what in their opinion had in the past led to an

increase in engagement by enterprise).

Within ‘Benefits Sought’ the individual engagement most cited across the three populations

was ‘Preferential Access’ (e.g. “The most useful thing would be access to first pick of the

graduates. It has been a factor in my career success across all the different jobs I have had

over the past fifteen years.” Alumni) while the least cited was ‘Moral Suasion’ (e.g. “I

believe Alumni with their own businesses would get more involved due to affection for the

college, a desire to revisit tutors and a bit of moral suasion.” IADT Staff).

Business Owning Alumni and Incubator respondents stated that the reciprocal benefits that

would help them in undertaking an increased level of engagement included the opportunity to

help build their personal profile and build their network (e.g. “I would do it to help build my

personal profile and my network.), and networking with the most promising students at IADT

(e.g. “Good to have a close relationship with IADT and to get to know the under-graduates

before the other studios get them. Having an “in” is a competitive advantage for me.”), being

offered networking opportunities with high profile people to provide potential opportunities

for their business (e.g. “I’m happy doing one offs like guest lectures but if I was to commit to

a structured engagement I would need it to be a networking opportunity where other

important people are coming so that there are potential opportunities for my business.”).

Incubators expressed a desire to serve on the incubation centre’s Advisory Board (e.g. “The

reason I would like to get more involved is I would like to see things get better for clients in

the Media Cube.”). A final benefit would be if IADT would provide an update to Alumni and

Incubators on what they are working on behind the scenes which could lead to collaboration

in the long term (e.g. A benefit would be to hear from the researchers what can IADT do for

my business would also be of interest. “).

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A significant finding is that all the benefits identified are engagements that are of a type

which have the potential to improve the effective enterprise network for IADT and would not

necessarily cost money to implement.

Also cited was the need for an official Alumni organisation to enable collaboration (e.g. “If

they had an official Alumni organisation it could open doors to increased collaborative

work” Alumni). Palmer and Koenig-Lewis (2008) found that, from the perspective of an

institute of higher education, a strong and vibrant alumni association offers potential sources

of finance and political influence, in addition to a strong likelihood of individuals

recommending the university to future prospective students. According to Weerts and Ronca

(2009) the key determinants of alumni that become givers to the HEI are inter alia the level

of “keeping in touch” with the institution that is facilitated by the HEI.


The ideal situation from a Hunt perspective is to have a growing effective network at IADT

(i.e. increasing the transivity and homophilly of the network). The data yields results that are

encouraging in this regard, 92% of respondents are positively disposed to an increase.

Caveats are, however, expressed and investment in interfaces that would serve to minimise

costs and errors for enterprises are cited as necessary amongst the Incubators and Alumni.

The necessity for a change of culture and clarity of strategic objectives was identified by

IADT Staff as were quality control, the overheads of learning curves, the alignment of

interns/work placements with the precise needs of the business and that all ‘Professional

Collaborative Services’ be customised to the needs of the business. All of these emerged

from the data as ‘Enabling Requirements’.

In terms of identifying the root cause of why respondents require that a range of ‘Enabling

Requirements’ be addressed the existing internal culture and low prioritisation of enterprise

engagement was cited. The IADT Staff also cited the necessity of any enterprise engagement

activities being recognised in their employment contacts. Incubators and Alumni were

concerned about quality control and the overhead of learning curves on each side being

identified as something that they would require to be addressed. The hidden costs of

ineffective interfacing between IADT and enterprise were cited as an inhibitor currently. In

respect of student interns and work placements Incubators and Business Owning Alumni

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suggested improvements at the interface so that the right student with the right skills could be

identified for the needs of the company. It was found that a key enabler of an increase in

respect of Business Owning Alumni would be the establishment of an official IADT Alumni

organisation to enable collaborative opportunities.

Turning to the types of benefits sought by Incubators and Alumni as an incentive to increase

engagement, a significant finding is that all the benefits identified are engagements that are of

a type which would have the potential to improve the effective network for IADT and would

not necessarily cost a significant amount of money to implement. The benefits they cited

included the opportunities to help build their personal profile and their network, networking

with most promising students at IADT, be briefed by IADT researchers on enterprise related

research projects they are engaged in and finally being offered networking opportunities with

high profile people to provide potential opportunities for their business.

Turning to the issue of diversified revenue streams it is of concern that there was a finding of

no demand amongst the Incubator and Business Owning Alumni group for increases in the

use of the physical facilities of IADT (in particular the Virtual Lab) or for increased

collaborative research amongst those Incubators with Innovation Voucher experience of

IADT.

Data from the majority of Incubators and Business Owning Alumni indicated that if enabling

conditions were addressed they would potentially engage with IADT to a point where it

becomes part of their effective network. The feasibility of implementing any of the benefits

sought for increased engagement is dependent on the success of the President at IADT in

implementing culture change within the organisation.

Therefore at the end of this objective the findings suggest that ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ at IADT may be increased if commitment and leadership on the matter of deep

rooted internal culture change at IADT is demonstrated by the President. This finding is

corroborated in the literature. Successful mutually beneficial engagement with external

organisations has been found to require strategic and organisational shifts on the part of HEIs

and their partners, and a commitment by senior HEI managers in support of the third stream

mission (PACEC and the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge 2009).

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4.8 Summary of Findings and Conclusion

The content analysis of the data and analysis of the findings yielded a range of important

conclusions. In respect of Research Question 1 there is a finding of high levels of enterprise

engagement within the sample populations. This is encouraging however the majority of the

engagements identified are transactional in nature and are biased towards ‘Networking’.

Therefore they fail the ‘actual collaboration’ test as the intensity of activity is not occurring

equally across the three categories of engagement. When the symbiotic engagement test is

applied the categories of enterprise engagement with the highest citations (‘Networking’ and

‘Growth Resources’) are found not to be symbiotic in the Hunt sense.

Therefore based on the data from the sample populations there is a finding that ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is not occurring at IADT. Furthermore the research indicates that

IADT is failing in its mission to meet the collaborative innovation, training and professional

development needs of SMEs (minimal evidence is found in the data of satisfactory

interactions in these categories of engagement amongst the respondents).

In terms of identifying the root cause of why IADT fails in respect of Research Question 1 a

number of explanations present themselves. ‘Networking’ observed at IADT is concentrated

in transactional once-off Guest Lectures. Furthermore IADT Staff cite ‘superficial’ enterprise

‘engagement’ with industry organisations in place of genuine one-to-one engagement with

individual SMEs.

This finding has serious adverse consequences for the ability of IADT to diversify its

dependence on the exchequer. This finding is confirmed in the data through a finding of zero

amongst relevant respondents in respect of use of ‘Off Site Consultancy by IADT Staff to

Enterprise’, ‘Use of Resources of Lecture Halls/Meeting Rooms in IADT’ or ‘Use of the

Virtual Lab’. Furthermore there is a finding that the most basic unit of enterprise

collaboration, the Innovation Voucher, is not prioritised by the two largest schools at IADT

with resulting implications for quality and timeliness. The negative consequences of the

absence of ‘effective enterprise engagement’ are evident in the fact that in the period to

December 2010 non-exchequer income accounted for 1.5% of IADT’s €23million income as

opposed to an internal strategic target of twenty percent by 2013. Furthermore the research

indicates that IADT is failing in its mission to meet the collaborative innovation, training and

professional development needs of SMEs.

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In respect of Research Question 2 the data on this question provides evidence of considerable

obstacles to ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT. In terms of identifying the root cause

of why this is the case, ‘Culture Obstacles’ appear to account for the highest proportion of

obstacles in the data. IADT Staff do not feel they are sufficiently rewarded by their contract

of employment for engagement in ‘effective enterprise engagement’. The data indicates a

relatively low level of trust between the IADT Staff and the Incubator and Business Owning

Alumni groups in respect of collaborative enterprise projects on the grounds of commercial

awareness, academic holidays, timeliness and quality.

Data from a number of Incubators cites a misalignment between the discipline areas of their

business and the teaching and research areas of IADT. This misalignment has the effect of

reducing the potential internal market for IADT’s ‘Professional Collaborative Services’ and

reduces IADT’s potential to build collaborative capability and expertise through volume.

Furthermore in terms of disconnect the Virtual Lab Environment (VLAB), funded by

Enterprise Ireland, was singled out for mention as a high value asset which has no alignment

with the resource needs of SMEs and as such will remain an under-utilised asset which is not

generating revenue for IADT.

These findings have serious adverse consequences for the ability of IADT to diversify away

from its dependence on exchequer funding. This is compounded by the finding that a number

of Incubator respondents refer to a “chasm” between the Incubation Centre occupants and

IADT. As a result a number of Incubators see the Media Cube as merely as cheap office

space and rents in the centre have fallen as a result. The data cites delays and quality issues at

IADT which fatally undermine the value of the Innovation Voucher projects of the

respondents from a commercial point of view. IADT’s policy on consultancy (IADT

Development Office 2010) states that the completion of consultancy work, and in particular

Innovation Vouchers, is of strategic importance to the Institute. Therefore it is of concern to

discover that the Incubators are dissatisfied with the results of their collaboration with IADT

on Innovation Vouchers. This is an important finding with implications for the ability of

IADT to earn revenue from this source and professionalise their enterprise collaborative

research capability.

The misalignment of Media Cube tenants with IADT teaching strength, the disconnect

between IADT staff and Incubation Centre occupants, the absence of institutional systems or

structures that bridge the divide between the Media Cube and IADT and the complaints of

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Incubators concerning the quality and timeliness of collaborative research results in a

considerably reduced ability for IADT to exploit the captive audience of the Media Cube for

‘effective enterprise engagement’ and commercial revenue generation.

In respect of Research Question 3 there is a finding that existing systems and structures at

IADT do not have the potential to overcome the obstacles to ‘effective enterprise

engagement’. Hunt’s objective of “creating a permanence of patterns and relationships of

constituents” will not be achieved at IADT based on the results of the data. IADT are

excessively dependent on individual initiative in respect of enterprise engagement on both

sides of the innovation interface. The more dependence there is on individual initiative the

more likely that key engagement relationships may “atrophy” as staff come and go at IADT.


endemic issue within the culture of the organisation. The data indicates that IADT are

reactive in respect of creating ‘effective enterprise engagement’. These findings have serious

adverse consequences for the ability of IADT to create new revenue streams. Current

‘Networking’ activity is conducted in a structured manner but not on a systematic basis (i.e.

towards the goal of ‘effective enterprise engagement’). The data suggests that no attempt is

made to align individual guest lecture invites either on a consistent annual basis (thereby

building deeper relationships) or with the invitees’ potential to generate commercial research

or other revenue generating collaborations for IADT.

A negative consequence of the lack of strategic, structured activity is that valuable resources

are being neglected. No Alumni in the sample had been approached by IADT to engage with

IADT’s professional or collaborative research services. Repeated delays over the years have

occurred in respect of harnessing the resource of Alumni through an official IADT Alumni

organisation. Trust has been undermined through lack of structure in respect of engagement,

a number of respondents cited invitation to appear as guest speakers being issued that were

never followed up by IADT. There is an absence of structure in respect of IADT engagement

with the Media Cube. Trust within the Media Cube has been adversely impacted as the

advisory board was disbanded at the time of the interviews.

The prospect of short-term change is not evident within the data. The majority of enterprise

engagements are reported as being informal and not required by the President to be “formally

captured or reported”. The matter of enterprise engagement appears from the data to be a

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relatively low priority internally despite public announcements to the contrary. Explanations

from IADT Staff for the situation outlined above include capability weakness from being

spread too thinly across the range of engagement categories, lack of resources, low internal

prioritisation of enterprise engagement from senior management and the belief that putting

enterprise engagements on a systematic, monitored basis might be counterproductive.

In respect of Research Question 4 there is a finding that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ at

IADT may be increased if commitment and leadership on the matter of deep rooted culture

change at IADT is demonstrated by the President. Data from the majority of Incubators and

Business Owning Alumni indicates that if a series of identified enabling conditions are

addressed they would potentially engage with IADT to a point where ‘actual collaboration’

and symbiosis may occur.

Before concluding Chapter 4 it is important to acknowledge that alternative explanations

often exist for findings identified in research. Miles and Huberman (1994) state that it is only

by testing the findings using contra-cases that one may be able to move towards formulating

valid conclusions. In seeking to conduct this research the researcher has sought to ensure that

all putative findings were corroborated and triangulated with the literature (both that of IADT

documents and the academic literature) and by direct further investigation with relevant

parties by phone calls and email queries. Therefore the researcher is confident that the

findings and analysis of this chapter accurately represent the situation in respect of enterprise

engagement at IADT at the time of this study.

Now that the findings from the research data have been documented and analysed the next

chapter of this study presents the conclusions and related recommendations arising from this

research study.

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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION

5.1 Introduction

The previous chapter used the analysis framework developed in the literature to seek to

identify findings in respect of the research questions. A series of findings in respect of

‘effective enterprise engagement’ at IADT were presented.

The purpose of this chapter is to present a further discussion of the findings presented in

Chapter 4 and to provide a set of recommendations to IADT and relevant government bodies

based on the findings of this study. Implications for the practice of enterprise engagement at

IADT and for future research in this domain are presented. Lastly a brief conclusion of the

study is presented.

5.1.1 Outline solution to research problem, aim & objectives

Government are looking to HEIs and the ecosystem around HEIs to help build the recovery

of the national finances through the innovative, expert led growth of SMEs. Research finds

that SMEs are a key engine of growth in modern economies and a significant source of

applied innovation. However in the Irish economy insufficient numbers of the smaller sized

SMEs are innovating in the disciplined manner required to achieve scaling and export

growth. Government policy and the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 see HEIs

are part of the solution to this challenge through an increased level of effective engagement

with SME needs.

In terms of addressing the outline solution to the research problem it should be noted that the

results of exploratory research are not usually useful for decision-making by themselves, but

they can provide significant insight into a given situation.

The aim of this research was to use an exploratory case study to evaluate whether ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is occurring at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT),

Dun Laoghaire. For the purposes of this study ‘effective enterprise engagement’ was defined

as actual collaborative activities occurring within an effective network which yield symbiotic

outcomes to the participants. A number of limitations were noted in Chapter 3 however the

researcher believes that, due to the care taken in selecting the case study institute, the

respondents and the expertise exhibited in adding his interpretation, valid conclusions have

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been identified by this study. Furthermore these findings have been triangulated throughout

with literature and informed sources.

The answer to each individual research question is addressed in each relevant conclusion

below however the cumulative answer to the research question of this study is that ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is not occurring at IADT. Furthermore the research indicates that

IADT is failing in its mission to meet the collaborative innovation, training and professional

development needs of SMEs (minimal evidence is found in the data of satisfactory

interactions in these categories of engagement amongst the respondents).


exchequer revenue streams and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. This finding is




A recurring theme throughout the data is that the most significant obstacle to ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is the internal culture of IADT. Therefore the overall conclusion of

this study is that the single most important condition required for ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ to emerge at IADT is the leadership of the new President in implementing the

internal culture change necessary.

However this study is not intended to be a normative study and as such the recommendations

below are based on the specific choices facing IADT. The Hunt Report is clear that HEI

funding must be diversified from over-dependence on the exchequer. If IADT fail to make

significant financial progress on their current 20 percent target then student will pay the price

either through higher fees than necessary or poorer teaching due to resource constraints. In

this context effective enterprise engagement may be deemed to be a key priority by the

management and President of IADT and the recommendations below may be helpful.

5.2Conclusion 1 with Recommendations

In respect of the question as to whether there is evidence for ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ at IADT the answer from the data is that there is evidence for engagement

occurring. However once the ‘effective network’, ‘actual collaboration’ and ‘symbiotic

engagement’ tests are applied to the data it is found that ‘effective enterprise engagement’ is

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not currently occurring at IADT. Furthermore the research indicates that IADT is failing in its

mission to meet the collaborative innovation, training and professional development needs of

SMEs (minimal evidence is found in the data of satisfactory interactions in these categories

of engagement amongst the respondents).

The relationship of IADT with its incubation centre occupants and alumni does not exhibit, in

the data collected, transivity or homophilly. This divide is reflected in the fact that a number

of Incubators see the Media Cube as merely as cheap office space, rather than an incubation

centre with high quality access to the host institution’s expertise and facilities. Rents in the

centre have fallen as a result.

Putting the contra case it should be emphasised that the difficulty of achieving ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ is a common problem for HEIs internationally. For example in the

United States, only six per cent of total research funding income is generated from industry

sources (Marginson 2011).

5.2.1 Recommendation

The overall conclusion of this research is that the internal culture at IADT in respect of

‘effective enterprise engagement’ needs to be addressed and that the respondents indicate that

responsibility for implementing the culture change necessary at IADT rests with the people at

the top, particularly the new President. A number of respondents stated similar expectations

(e.g. “The new president is going to achieve great things in respect of our Third Mission.”).

In addressing the issue of culture change Kotter (1996) states that the first step is to create a

sense of urgency internally. Kotter suggests that for change to be successful seventy five

percent of an organisation's management needs to "buy into" the change. Therefore the

President needs to spend significant time and energy building urgency amongst the staff and

management. The objective is to form a powerful coalition that will help the President to lead

change. The final recommendation is that the President creates and communicates internally

her vision for change in order to galvanise the coalition to action.

A small step by the President in the direction of culture change would be to seek to require

IADT staff to approach ‘Networking’ engagements strategically. This could be achieved by

aligning invitations to individuals or organisations with their potential to engage in ‘actual

collaboration’ with IADT over time. The focus needs to move from invitations to celebrity

industry icons to concentrating on invitees that will commit to long term embedded

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engagement with IADT across the entire spectrum of innovation activities from basic through

applied research to development, consulting activities through to Continuous Professional

Development and Industry Training.

5.3 Conclusion 2 with Recommendations

In respect of the question of whether obstacles preventing ‘effective enterprise engagement’

exist at IADT the answer from the data is yes. Clear and present obstacles to ‘effective

enterprise engagement’ in terms of ‘Misalignment’, ‘Culture Gaps’, ‘Disconnect’ are

identified in the data. In respect of ‘Collaborative Commercial Research’ there is also

evidence of unsatisfactory quality and lack of commercial viability in respect of Innovation

Voucher work conducted by IADT. In terms of identifying the root cause of why this is the

case ‘Culture Obstacles’ appear to account for the highest proportion of obstacles in the data.

The data indicates a relatively low level of trust between the IADT Staff and the Incubator

and Business Owning Alumni groups in respect of collaborative enterprise projects on the

grounds of commercial awareness, academic holidays, timeliness and quality.

The misalignment of the on-campus Media Cube tenants with IADT teaching strength, the

disconnect between IADT staff and Incubation Centre occupants, the absence of institutional

systems or structures that could bridge the divide between the Media Cube and IADT and the

complaints of Incubators concerning the quality and timeliness of collaborative research

results in a considerably reduced ability for IADT to exploit the captive audience of the

Media Cube tenants for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ and commercial revenue

generation.

Putting the contra case it should be emphasised that academic institutions internationally are

culturally dependent on academic teaching and research grants from government. This is

compounded by the obstacles of an internal culture nature identified at IADT. Again this has

similarities internationally. A study of 15 universities in the UK by Martin and Turner (2010)

found that tensions can result from imposing third mission activities on organisations

established for other purposes.

5.3.1 Recommendations

The recurring theme emerging in this study as an obstacle to ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ is the internal culture at IADT. Kotter (1996) finds that as culture change takes

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hold a key step to maintaining momentum in the process is the removal of obstacles: In this

respect the recommendation is that the President put in place the structure for change at

IADT, and continually checks for the barriers to it identified in this study. Removing, or

ameliorating the impact of, obstacles may serve to empower the IADT staff needed to

execute change in respect of enterprise engagement.

A specific recommendation to IADT is to implement a structured and systematic approach to

its relationship with its incubation centre. This presents the most immediate path for IADT to

develop embedded relationships with enterprise. Realistically it is not plausible that IADT

staff complain of a lack of industry engagement when they do not use the on-campus

resource of the Media Cube occupants. A number of occupants identified that the Media

Cube Advisory Board is not operational. It is recommended that a number of current

Incubators are appointed to a re-activated board which may provide an increased possibility

that actions will be initiated to bridge the current divide at IADT.

Furthermore Media Cube applicants should be screened strategically to align occupants with

IADT’s Specialist Industry Expertise areas within each School. This approach is based on the

model used by Cork Institute of Technology in developing and communicating their specific

expertise in ICT and linking this into revenue generating industry and enterprise

development. See Appendix 10 for the researcher’s outline of how such a strategy could be

implemented at IADT.


In respect of Research Question 3 there is a finding that systems and structures in place at

IADT in respect of enterprise engagement do not have the potential to overcome the existing

obstacles to effective engagement. Hunt’s objective of “creating a permanence of patterns

and relationships of constituents” will not be achieved at IADT based on the results of the

data nor is there evidence in the data for change in the short term. IADT are excessively

dependent on individual initiative on both sides of the innovation interface in respect of

enterprise engagement. The more dependence there is on individual initiative the more likely

that key engagement relationships may “atrophy” as staff come and go at IADT.


endemic issue within the culture of the organisation. The data indicates that IADT are

reactive in respect of creating ‘effective enterprise engagement’. The primary reason this

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appears to be the case is the matter of enterprise engagement appears from the data to be a

relatively low priority internally despite public announcements to the contrary.

Putting the contra case it should be emphasised that explanations from IADT Staff for the

situation identified in respect of Research Question 3 include capability weakness from being

spread too thinly across the range of engagement categories, lack of resources and low

internal prioritisation from senior management and the belief that putting enterprise

engagements on a systematic, monitored basis might be counterproductive.


In order to commence the internal culture change required it is recommended that the

President commence requiring internal reporting of enterprise engagement in a professional,

thorough manner. An essential prerequisite to embedding effective engagement at IADT is a

close attention to the numbers that are being reporting for all the categories of engagement

(applied research, commercialisation, development and consulting activities, educational

services to SMEs in respect of continuous professional development and industry training).

This can be achieve with an avoidance of excessive transaction costs, for example Cork

Institute of Technology have commenced using a low cost, flexible Customer Relationship

Management system to track all enterprise engagement across the IoT. Being a leading

exponent of excellence in Digital Media and Data Visualisation it should possible for the

President of IADT to create the sustained impetus for culture change through engaging

display of real-time key engagement metrics on wall mounted monitors around the IADT

campus.

This recommendation is supported in the literature by the fact that the Higher Education

Authority (2011) state that metrics can be addressed through building on institutional

planning, focusing on a small number of important indicators and focusing mainly on

outcomes not means. This recommendation is made because using metrics to underpin

culture change in the area of enterprise engagement will become more important over coming

years. The Higher Education Authority is currently preparing a performance based model for

future funding of HEIs. The metrics for such funding will be informed by the engagement

objectives contained in the Hunt Report.

A second recommendation in respect of structures is that an official IADT Alumni

organisation be established as soon as possible. By keeping in structured contact with IADT

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Alumni they may form a valuable database and resource for collaborative innovation and

training programmes at IADT.


The necessity for a change of internal culture and clarity of strategic objectives as a key

enabling requirement for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ was identified by a majority of

the respondents, in particular the IADT Staff respondents. (e.g. “We would need to be

strategic in our approach to increasing engagement, we would need to decide what we are

going to do and how. This would then need to be distilled into SMART goals and monitored

by the President to ensure that the IADT culture changes effectively“).

In respect of Research Question 4 there is a finding that a greater level of ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ may be achieved if commitment and leadership on the matter of deep rooted

culture change at IADT is demonstrated by the President. This commitment would be evident

to colleagues and enterprise by addressing the essential enabling requirements identified by

the respondents in this study. The incentives sought by Incubators and Alumni in exchange

for increases in engagement are all of a type which would improve the effective network for

IADT and would not necessarily cost a significant amount of money to implement.


By creating a number of short-term wins on these ‘enabling requirements’ Kotter (1996)

states that small wins create motivation towards the desired culture change. These short term

wins should be achieved within a short time frame (this could be within six months) in order

to generate results that staff at IADT can see. The final recommendation in respect of culture

change at IADT is to seek to anchor the changes in IADT’s internal culture in order to

prevent a common problem with culture change, recidivism. The internal culture of

organisations often determines what gets prioritised and done. Therefore the President should

prioritise quantitative reports on ‘effective enterprise engagement’ for presentation at all key

monthly internal meetings of senior management.

Another recommended small step towards the strategic goal of deepening long-term

relationships towards ‘actual collaboration’ would be to respond to the wishes of Incubators

and Alumni for greater interaction with the research work of IADT Staff. This could be

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achieved by organising an annual IADT showcase dedicated solely to all relevant IADT

research for enterprise with invitations issued to all Alumni, Incubators and other interested

parties in the area of enterprise.

Finally it is recommended that the President and senior staff at IADT lead by example in the

practice of effective enterprise engagement. Kotter (1996) states that in creating the

conditions for culture change the organisation’s leader has a disproportionate role in creating

the circumstances for positive outcomes through their personal example and commitment.

The presidents of other IoT’s are frequently seen in the boardrooms of multinationals and

SME businesses ‘selling’ the services of their IoTs, touring enterprises with a ‘kitbag’ of

successful case studies and testimonials from satisfied enterprise clients. They reinforce this

by featuring testimonials from enterprise clients on their websites thereby further

engendering an internal culture that is committed to genuine, professional engagement with

enterprise.

5.6 Implications for Theory/Policy/ Practice

An implication which arises for practice in the area of the Third Mission activities of HEI’s is

that policy objectives may need to be re-considered. There are capability limits to academics

which are not sufficiently recognised in current expectations for multifunctional behaviour by

this cohort. In terms of a general recommendation to national policy makers in light of the

degree of the challenge faced by HEIs and the reality that culture change will be too slow it is

recommended that within the Technology Transfer/External Services offices of HEIs

considerable investment is made by government in new categories of professional staff.

Individual comments of respondents identify such a need – “In respect of engagement there is

a personality type that is needed in IoTs that is not present at the moment Alumni and “They

need business men in running the incubation centre. Each of the colleges needs a commercial

entrepreneurial person to drive it.”Alumni. The role of these staff would be to seek ways in

which non-state income can be increased on a significant scale.

This implication is supported by the literature. To address the lack of entrepreneurial minded

individuals in academic institutions Pera (2009) recommends the introduction of an

entrepreneurial cadre to lead such initiatives within HEIs. Equally Marginson (2011)

recommends that a professional office be established within Irish HEIs with a specialised

focus on building enterprise and community links, working in conjunction with other units.

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5.7 Limitations and Future Study

Much of the value of qualitative research is its context based relevance and appropriateness

therefore many of the findings and recommendations of this study are not capable of

generalisation. Furthermore the context and background of the time period in which this

study was conducted were very specific. The respondents and the researcher may be key

factors in the data and findings that were generated and different findings might have

emerged under different circumstances. Furthermore while the respondents were opinion

leaders they constitute a small group, particularly in respect of IADT Alumni.

The objective of academic research is neither to neither proves nor disprove but to lay the

foundations for others to make informed decisions and choices. In terms of future study the

absence of clear guidance from the Hunt Report means that everything in respect of Irish HEI

enterprise engagement objectives is currently somewhat ambiguous. A set of benchmark

measures have yet to emerge from the Department of Education on intensity levels required

for the sample activities to achieve the levels desired by the Hunt Report HEI model. Shields

and Tajalli (2006) link exploratory research with the conceptual framework working

hypothesis. The researcher believes that this study may help provide a conceptual working

hypothesis for the enterprise engagement objective of the National Strategy for Higher

Education.

5.8 Conclusion

The stated IADT mission is to be at the forefront of teaching research and innovation at the

convergence of the arts, technology and enterprise and to contribute to Ireland’s development

as a creative and innovative economy. This study finds that significant internal culture

change is necessary at IADT to give effect to the development objective stated externally.

IADT’s new President is aware of the broad requirement for culture change in the IoT sector

and specifically at IADT. In addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Curriculum issues in Institutes of Technology in 2010 the President and other representatives

of the IoT sector spoke of the need to address the challenges and opportunities society faces

through restructuring of programmes within the IOT sector to reflect changing societal needs.

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IADT presents a very interesting test case for the ambitious enterprise engagement goals of

the Hunt Report. IADT possesses all the positive features necessary to prove that IoTs can be

flexible, responsive and adaptive in respect of ‘effective enterprise engagement’. This study

finds that all senior IADT management, Alumni and Incubators are positive about increases.

The new President is not steeped in IADT culture but is very well connected within the IoT

sector and relevant decision making bodies. The President has strong allies and supporters in

key positions within IADT’s power structure.

In terms of the institution itself IADT it is one of the smallest, ‘newest’ IoTs in Ireland and

therefore should be able to exhibit considerable more flexibility in successfully achieving the

culture change necessary for ‘effective enterprise engagement’ than larger HEIs. It is

extremely well served in this goal by the fact that many IADT Alumni occupy key positions

in digital media organisations (IADT Careers Advisory Service 2009). Furthermore the IADT

annual destination survey of its graduates finds that a high proportion become self employed

and start their own companies thus providing further large numbers of positively disposed

enterprises to engage with.

Therefore it may be argued that IADT is one of the best placed IoTs in Ireland to prove what

can be achieved in respect of Hunt’s goal of ‘effective enterprise engagement’. The initiative

rests with the new President and the senior management at IADT.

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Appendix 1 - Definition of Terms

Actual collaboration: This is a measure of genuine engagement or ‘actual collaboration’. It is

measured by assessing the degree of engagement across the entire range of potential

collaborations (i.e. collaborative research, contract research and consulting) must be

examined (Perkmann et al (2011)). The Hunt Report is in sympathy with this view and

identifies a broad range of collaborative services that it expects to underpin HEI’s

engagement with SMEs.

Effective Enterprise Engagement: For the purposes of this study ‘effective enterprise

engagement’ is defined as genuinely collaborative activities within an effective network

which yield symbiotic outcomes to the participants.

Effective Network: The “effective network” is defined by Epstein (1969 p 110) as those with

whom one "interacts most intensely and most regularly".

Embeddedness: Hunt Report (2011 p. 12) notes that “Outward-facing systems and structures

should be embedded into institutional activity” with the objective of “creating a permanence

of patterns and relationships of constituents”.

Homophilly: In Social Network Theory homophilly describes the positive relationship

between the similarity of two constituents in a network and the propensity of a tie being

created between them. This propensity increases in line with the degree that the other

constituent mirrors their interests (i.e. it is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond

with similar others).

Symbiotic Engagement: For the purposes of this study ‘symbiotic engagement’ is defined as

the ability to collaboratively transform technology and other raw materials of innovation into

lower costs and new products (Iansiti and Levien 2004) that benefit both parties

simultaneously, the SME in, inter alia, increased revenue and the HEI in increased license

revenue and other ancillary benefits(Hunt 2011). The key advantage of the presence of

‘symbiotic engagement’ in the network is that it encourages increases in transivity and

homophilly thereby creating the conditions for network growth to include larger numbers of

participants.

118

Transivity: In Social Network Theory interactions between different participants in a

network, and the propensity for this to draw in other uninvolved participants, is measured by

transivity.

119

Appendix 2 Interview Questions

Question 1. Please outline engagements between IADT and enterprise that take place in your

personal or your organisation's direct experience?

Question 2. Please outline any obstacles encountered in respect of IADT engagement with

enterprise or reasons for a lower level of engagement than you require?

Question 3. Please outline the systems and structures which IADT uses in your experience in

respect of enterprise engagement?

Question 4. Would you be prepared to increase levels of enterprise engagement in respect of

IADT and what should be addressed to facilitate such an increase?

Please feel free to add any other relevant items you would like to discuss.

120

Appendix 3 Interview invitation issued to respondents

121

122

Appendix 4 Sample coded interview transcript

123

124

125

Appendix 5 Letter of introduction from President of IADT

126

Appendix 5 Identifying sample enterprise interactions in the IADT literature

The following table contains the sample engagements noted in the IADT and other relevant

literature and identifies relevant themes for investigation in this Dissertation.

Table 4: Sample Activities for enterprise in the IADT literature

Sample

Engagement

type

Activity/Engagements described in the

literature

IADT

Literature

Source

Themes identified

Guest lectures Play a key role in driving entrepreneurial

activity throughout the campus -

individuals from companies in the Cube

regularly delivered lectures to students in

the School.

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

- IADT

School of

Business and

Humanities

(2010)

While this develops the enterprise agenda

it is also an opportunity to raise the profile

of incubation across the campus to a wide

variety of potential clients.

Resources Leverage the resources of the college

computer and science laboratories,

meeting facilities, library

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

This success is based on the enhanced

credibility and reputation that the

affiliation with a research institution

brings to the programme

Work

Placements

Organising student placement schemes

Technology departments can provide

interns with specialist skills. A skilled

talent pool and free recruiting service:

Internships can be one way for companies

to pre-screen prospective employees

without commitment.

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

IADT School of Creative Arts (2009)

There was a perception among staff that

the Media Cube benefited from IADT

programmes and students, but the School

did not profit. Suggested ways of

improving relations between the School

and the Cube include Internships for

students, and companies based in the

Media Cube giving seminars to students.

Innovation

Vouchers

Identifying and locating staff to work with

the companies

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

The issue of staff research poses

problems; staff are teaching a full week.

An Institute wide, creative approach to

releasing staff time was needed. Despite

time and cost constraints staff have

managed to be productive, but the

disadvantage was this work extended into

weekends and holiday periods. IADT

127

School of Business and Humanities (2010)

Networking Each incubation centre should have in

place an active and enthusiastic advisory

board. The board should be composed of a

mixture of individuals in terms of

characteristics, background, and skills.

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

Participation by IADT ENTERPRISE

clients on this board.

Student

Projects

The opportunity for students at the host

institution in that they can help fledgling

clients to conduct marketing studies,

develop accounting systems and complete

business plans.

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

The Media Cube’s practical engagement

with the real world of business could be

an opportunity for the School to exploit.

IADT School of Creative Arts (2009)

Resources Faculty expertise: Many faculty members

may be willing to act as advisers and

board members to the incubator and its

client firms.

Enterprise

Ireland (2005)

Networks

Networking A member of the panel saw potential for

the enhancement and development of the

relationship between the School and the

Media Cube

IADT School

of Business

and

Humanities

(2010)

Networks

Student

Projects

Currently there are companies resident at

the Cube that evolved from the School of

Business and Humanities and the School

of Creative Technologies. The Panel

suggested the School of Creative Arts

could partner an enterprise project on a

Professional Practice module

IADT School

of Creative

Arts (2009)

Enterprise Engagement

Enterprise

Engagement

In conjunction with DLR County Board

IADT run a student enterprise week each

year. States that the School organises an

Annual Showcase, in the form of a

‘Business Breakfast’, and this provides a

meeting space for student and industry

representatives. The Panel was informed

that industry stakeholders form part of the

Creative Technologies community and

also act as collaborators on student

projects. The School organises a rolling

IADT School

of Creative

Technologies

(2010)

Enterprise Engagement and

entrepreneurial skill development

128

programme of speakers from industry

throughout the year.

Enterprise

Engagement

Staff acknowledged the need for a

stronger dialogue with Industry across the

School

IADT School

of Creative

Arts (2009)

Level of Enterprise Engagement

Enterprise

Engagement

For example, in IADT creative courses in

media related areas involve one guest

lecturer per week who are typically well

established industry professionals.

Describe their strategy for industry

engagement as Staff told the Panel most

personnel in the School are Industry

practitioners, Students are linked with an

Industry Project during their studies,

and/or a Placement with a Research

Industry Focus and The Film School

enjoyed good working relations with

people in the Film Industry. The School of

Creative Technologies states that it has a

strong and sustainable relationship with

Creative Ireland. In terms of Strategic

Partnerships the Panel acknowledged

challenging times ahead for the School,

despite its excellent record to date, and

recommend the development of

networking strategies, for example lunch

meetings three times a year, giving School

staff an opportunity to connect with their

peers and decision makers in Industry.

IADT School

of Creative

Arts (2009),

IADT School

of Creative

Technologies

(2010)

Level of networking

Enterprise

Engagement

The Institute might consider the

possibility of developing more economic

partnerships to bring in funding. Potential

for more proactive engagement with

working world, Current relationships with

Industry could be more explicit, i.e. a

Joint Conference.

IADT School

of Business

and

Humanities

(2010), IADT

School of

Creative Arts

(2009)

Diversifying funding streams through

engagement

129

Enterprise

Engagement

Multifaceted collaboration was going on

between the School and outside

industries:

o Enterprise Ireland/IDA/UCD/IADT

o Students and entrepreneurs linked with

real time projects

o Students business propositions have

been top class, such as an IAP with

coeliac information for people travelling

abroad, and special gloves for arthritis

sufferers. Both of these are simple but

impressive ideas, and Dun Laoghaire

Rathdown Co. Enterprise Board have

given students from the School a

commitment to commercialization.

IADT School

of Business

and

Humanities

(2010)

Enterprise Engagement

130

Appendix 6 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis framework for Research Question 1

Table 5 Research Question 1 coding analysis framework

Descriptive codes Analytic Codes Sub-Theme *

Guest lecture Networking Networking with the HEI to

strengthen networks.

Mentoring of students* Networking Networking with the HEI to


Course design* Networking Networking with the HEI to


Interview panel Networking Networking with the HEI to


Student Showcase Networking Networking with the HEI to


Student work experience Growth Resources Assembling the resources to

ensure survival and growth.

Student projects carried out for

enterprise

Growth Resources Assembling the resources to


Internships Growth Resources Assembling the resources to

131


Preferential access to recruiting

top under-graduates

Preferential access Assembling the resources to


Use of resources of lecture

halls/meeting rooms in IADT

Professional Collaborative

Services

Assembling the resources to


Continuous Professional

Development and Industry

Training


Services



Use of the Virtual Lab Professional Collaborative

Services



Off Site Consultancy by IADT

Staff to Enterprise


Services

Innovation collaboration with

partners with characteristics of

low transaction costs

Innovation Voucher Professional Collaborative

Services

Innovation collaboration with

partners with characteristics of

low transaction costs

*The questions and categories are constructed from the perspective of enterprise (even to the

internal IADT Staff at IADT). This is due to the fact that the research question concerns the

requirement of HEIs to engage with enterprise.

132

Descriptive code Sub-theme Analytic code Academic/Management

staff

As a

% of

this

popula

tion

Business Owning Alumni As a %

of this

populati

on

Incubation Centre As a %

of this

populati

on

Tota

l

%

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P1

1

P1

2

Guest lecture Strengthen networks Networking x x x x 100% x x 50% x x 50% 66%

Student Showcase Strengthen networks Networking x x x x 100% x x 50% x 25% 58%

Course design* Strengthen networks Networking x x x 75% x 25% x 25% 42%

Interview panel Strengthen networks Networking x x x 75% x 25% 33%

Mentoring of students* Strengthen networks Networking x 25% x 25% x 25% 25%

Average 45%

Preferential access to

recruiting top under-

graduates

Assembling resources Growth

Resources x x x

75%

x x x

75%

x x

50% 66%

Student work

experience


Resources x x

50% x x

50% x

25% 42%

Student projects

carried out for

enterprise


Resources x x x

75%

x

25%

x

25% 42%

Table 6. Research Question 1 content analysis

133

*emerged as a new sub-theme during interviews

All percentages rounded up to the nearest decimal.

Internships Assembling resources Growth

Resources x

25% x x x

75%

33%

Off Site Consultancy

by IADT Staff to

Enterprise


Resources

0%

Use of resources of

lecture halls/meeting

rooms in IADT


Resources

0%

Use of the Virtual Lab Assembling resources Growth

Resources

0%

Average 26%

Innovation Voucher Innovation

Collaboration

Professional

Collaborative

Services

x x x

75%

x x

50% 42%

Continuous

Professional

Development and

Industry Training

Innovation

Collaboration

Professional

Collaborative

Services x

25%

8%

Average 24%

134

Appendix 7 Coding Guide and Transcript Analysis framework for Research Question 2

Table 7 Research Question 2 coding analysis framework

Descriptive codes Analytic Codes Sub-Theme

Lack of trust, not commercially aware,

long holidays, no credibility, not

entrepreneurial, don’t understand,

mismatch, too theoretical,

Culture Obstacle Culture gap

Relevance to academic staff,

Academics unavailable, not a priority,

bureaucracy, no engagement, ignoring

resources, no interest, no professional

training, no advisory board, not taken

seriously, Time available, complacent,

civil service mentality, invoicing

confusion, Never knocked on our

door, fiefdoms, can’t engage with

Business School, interconnectedness,

outside college walls

Culture Obstacle Disconnect

Not necessary for requirements,

vocational education neglected,

Employment Contract incentives,

running shy of this kind of

engagement, potential financial

rewards to academics, writing journal

papers, pay too high, unclear contract,

no measurement, Lack of commercial

awareness, add value, not usable, not

properly trained, inappropriate to our

needs, unsuitable, graduates not

aligned with industry needs, Far too

Operational Obstacle Misalignment

135

slow, quick results, Months to

complete, no longer an innovation,

physical proximity.

Nervous of losing control, IP Leakage,

over- valued, bringing very little to the

table, IP not shared,

Operational Obstacle Collaborative commercial

Research

In-house, using another HEI currently, Operational Obstacle Competition or competitor

restriction

136

Table 8 Research Question 2 content analysis

Sub-theme Analytic code Academic/Manag

ement staff

% Business

Owning

Alumni

% Incubation

Centre

% Tot

al

%

P1 P2 P3 P

4

P

5

P

6

P

7

P

8

P

9

P1

0

P1

1

P1

2

Misalignment Operational

obstacle

x x x x 10

0

x x x 7

5

x x x 7

5

83

%

Culture gap Culture

obstacle

x x x 75

x

x x 7

5

x x 5

0

66

%

Disconnect Culture

obstacle

x x 50 x 2

5

x x 5

0

42

%

Collaborative

Commercial

Research

Operational

obstacle

x x 50 0 x x 5

0

34

%

Competition or

Restriction by

Competitor

Operational

obstacle

x 25 x x 5

0

0 25

%

137

Appendix 8 Coding Guide & Transcript Analysis framework for Research Question 3

Table 9. Research Question 3 coding analysis framework

Descriptive codes Analytic Codes Sub-theme

Metrics, reporting, take initiative,

capture information, focus,

formal, system

Systematic System

Organised on an annual basis,

calendared, structure, on meeting

agenda, timetabling,

Structured Structure

No follow through, Hit and miss,

Not on a systematic basis, Little

happened, doing a bit of

everything, fluid,

Un-systematic Un-systematic

Nothing came of it, Sporadic,

Informal basis, Fizzled out, Ran

out of steam, No follow up,

Nothing happened, no resources,

once off, forgotten

Not structured Not structured

Individual effort, Voluntary,

Individual lecturer, Personal

network, friendly, my own

initiative

Ad hoc goodwill gestures Individual initiative

138


Academic/Management

staff

% Business

Owning Alumni

% Incubation Centre % Total

%

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12

Individual

Initiative

x x x x x x x x 67%

Systematic x x x X x 42%

Un-

systematic

x x x x x x x 58%

Structured x x x x x 42%

Un-

structured

x x x x x x 50%

139

Appendix 9 Coding Guide & Transcript Analysis framework for Research Question 4

Table 11. Research Question 4 coding analysis framework

Descriptive codes Analytic Codes Sub-Category

Happy to, positive, well

disposed, yes, welcome

opportunity to, contribute,

increase, collaborate, help, use,

regular, pro, increasing

Positively Disposed Positively disposed towards

increased engagement

Interfaces need to be right,

quality control, transaction costs,

learning curve, made easier,

caveats, connectivity, re-

structure, organising, culture

change, careful, too high,

customised,

Enabling Requirements

necessary before any increase in

engagement

First pick, social atmosphere,

relationship, benefit, access,

moral suasion, affection, old

tutors, enjoyed, old contacts,

latest developments, exchange,

goodwill, give something back,

promoting their company,

Business Owning Alumni

organisation, networking events,

an in, pay, consultants, guest

lectures, important people,

researchers, personal profile.

Benefits sought Benefits sought in exchange for

an increase in engagement.

Enabling Requirements

140


Academic/

Management staff

% Business Owning

Alumni

% Incubation Centre % Total

%

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P

8

P9 P10 P11 P12

Positively

Disposed

x x x x

100

x x x x

100

x x x 7

5

92

Enabling

Requirements

x x x 7

5

x x 50 x x x 7

5

67

Benefits Sought x x x 7

5

x x x x 10

0

x x x 7

5

83

141

Appendix 10 The Strategic Approach to the Choices Facing IADT

IADT need to be very clear and strategic about where its chosen areas of engagement will lie and

form these into areas of Specialist Industry Expertise (henceforth SIE) areas within each School.

Step 1 would involve each School identifying at least two SIEs where they can sustain a long

term (potentially unique, at least regionally) excellence and in embarking on the process of

identifying those SIEs the direction the Schools might be given is that an SIE:

o Must be commercially viable (leading to spill over benefits for activities such as

work based training).

o Be aligned with teaching expertise located within the School and informed by

regional/national SME needs.

In selecting SIEs the objective of recruiting client companies to the Media Cube to create a

critical mass in that area of SIE will also be a guiding objective for the Schools in their selection

process.

These SIEs will then shape individual regional training programmes for SMEs and inform

student projects.

These SIEs will also shape the admission criteria for the Media Cube in order to develop a

critical mass of specialist industry projects for academic staff and students to work with.

142

Objective of this strategy – Achieving alignment and sufficient critical mass in IADT’s

chosen Specialist Industry Expertise specialisations

Figure 5: The process whereby IADT may achieve successful alignment of its Specialist

Industry Expertise specialisations

Potentially Unique

SIEs of IADT

Animation

ELearning

Apps Development

Design

Cyber-psychology

SMEs Needs

Training in the

IADT SIEs

Innovation

Vouchers in the

SIEs

Media Cube clients

Are companies in the

chosen areas of IADTs

SIEs

This provides

specialisation and

critical mass

Why is this alignment important? In order to achieve Critical Mass

As one interviewee located in the Media Cube stated

“My company needs skill sets that are not taught at IADT, what my company does is not really

aligned with what’s taught at IADT so there are limited prospects for us using students or interns

or Innovation Vouchers with IADT” -

143

Non-alignment of IADT skills, expertise and the nature of the client recruited to the Media Cube

leads to a failure to achieve critical mass in key areas and a reduced ability to earn revenue for

IADT.

There is increasing recognition in the academic sector that, rather than offering a bit of

everything, institutions must identify the key areas of expertise that can best support future

growth and focus efforts on those areas (Upton 2011). The National Strategy for Higher

Education to 2030 requires that the tertiary sector focus priority resources on a smaller number

of challenges in strategically important domains that can be addressed effectively and in which

the institution can make a difference. Furthermore greater specialisation around particular niches

to improve quality of offerings is advocated by the Hunt Report.

Strategy formulation for Academic Institutions

Johnson et al state that “strategy is an understanding of the direction and scope of an

organisation over the long-term which achieves advantage for the organisation in a changing

environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling

stakeholder expectations” (2008).

While external factors create the dynamics and opportunities of the industry within which the

organisation operates it is argued that internal factors such as the combination of an

organisation’s unique resources and core competences creates their sustainable competitive

advantage. In respect of resources thinking in this area originates from the work of the Resource

Based View (RBV) school, the key principle of the RBV is that the basis for the competitive

advantage of a firm lies primarily in the use of the assembled resources at the organisation’s

disposal.

Barney grouped capabilities in the catchall of resources arguing that the firm’s resources include

all its assets, capabilities, organisational processes, firm’s attributes, information, knowledge,

etc. owned and/or controlled by an organization (Barney 1991). Building on Barney’s work

Collis and Montgomery state that the tests of a resources’ uniqueness include the fact that it's

hard to copy, its value is controlled by your company, it's not easily substituted by alternatives

and it is better than competitors' similar resources (Collis and Montgomery 2008).

144

Hamel and Prahalad (1990) single out competences (knowledge, skills and abilities) from the

more inert resources of an organisation to identify the core competences that contribute to

sustainable competitive advantage. Hamel and Prahalad (1990) state that a core competence

requires the following key criteria:

1. It is not easy for competitors to imitate.

2. It can be leveraged widely to many products and markets.

3. Should make a significant contribution to the perceived customer benefits of the end

product.

In considering a methodology by which an academic institution may reach strategic choices the

final relevant concept is that of the evolution path of the institution. While resources and

competences are the elements that create a company’s strategic capabilities, the strategic choices

that the organisation made in the past (or the “evolution path(s) it has adopted or inherited”

(Teece et al 1997)) are key to shaping its strategic position.

Strategy and the Role of the President at IADT

The address of IADT (in conjunction with the IOTI) to the Oireachtas noted that the challenges

and opportunities that will face society in the coming decades require education and training that

crosses traditional subject and discipline lines and requires significant restructuring of

programmes and structures within the IOT sector to reflect changing need (Doona et al 2010).

In order to achieve such a significant restructuring the role played by the President is critical.

Academic institutions self-organise around their identity. That includes its vision, purpose,

guiding principles, values, history, theory of success and shared aspirations. The role of the

President is to facilitate the creation of this vision and ensure its implementation. A clearly

designed, shared identity allows the organisation to self-organize in alignment with the identity

desired by leadership. Resistance is diminished when everyone shares in the identity and

understands the benefits of change.

145

The scale of IADT brings advantages and disadvantages, and these must be factored into any

future the strategy e.g. the smaller size is an attraction for students but has disadvantages in terms

of economies of scale. Therefore IADT’s success as a niche, specialist institute is likely to

continue to be a strength.

Appendix 11 Analysis of Income for IADT in 2010

2010 Total Income: €23,005,846 Research Grants and Contracts €1,289,542 Bank Interest €251,491 Extra Mural Courses €709,452 Other non Exchequer Income* €346,027 *This item includes: Media Cube Rentals (€152k), Pitch Rentals (€61k), VLab Rentals (minimal), Campus Rentals (€80k), Student Print System (€40k) Library Charges (€6k), Media Cube Sponsorship and Grants (€25k) .

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