Towards an innovation union : the role of business-academic collaborations in improving Malta’s competitiveness

Abstract

The flagship initiative Innovation Union stated that ‟…Europe’s competitiveness, …and, overall, our future standard of living depends on our ability to drive innovation in products, services, business and social processes and models” (European Commission, 2010).

Whilst taking this statement as the point of inquiry, this research focuses on one out of over thirty action points outlined in the flagship initiative, i.e. Business-Academia Collaboration (BAC). This dissertation aims to investigate the contributions of BACs to innovation and national competitiveness in Malta. The study investigates the dynamics present in the Maltese scenario and how this affects BACs, and, ultimately, provides policy recommendations which can be taken up by the national government for the encouragement of BACs with the ultimate aim of achieving improved national competitiveness.

This case study for Malta uses secondary data obtained through the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Reports from 2011-2012 till 2017-2018 to conduct a graphical analysis so as to provide a time series assessment of the relationship between BACs, Innovation and Competitiveness. It also makes use of interviews with key stakeholders to obtain insight on the situation in Malta. An analysis was carried out based on themes established from the literature.

Findings show that although BACs in Malta offer contributions towards innovation and competitiveness, such as innovative processes within the industry, quality of education and hiring of graduates, amongst others, there remains a lack awareness on the value added from BACs, the industry lacks an interest in investment in R&D, while the University of Malta faces a huge problem of funds for research.