Moroccan public university as an actor of open innovation within clusters: Difficulties and challenges

Abstract

This work focuses on the Moroccan public university as an actor in open innovation projects within clusters, and in particular on the human difficulties that arise during these projects, as well as the challenges to be met. We position ourselves in the interpretativist epistemological paradigm and we adopt the qualitative approach and the abductive approach. We have favored the strategy of multi-site research, which is considered by many authors to have the advantage of deepening and strengthening understanding, as well as increasing the generalizability of the research results. For the selection of interviewees within each case (site), we used the "snowball or chain effect" sampling method recommended by Miles and Huberman, 2003. We applied the thematic analysis method (with the paragraph coding unit), using Nvivo 10 software. We translated our empirical data into theoretical concepts through the abstraction method using the open coding technique. Based on a semi-directive interview guide, we conducted 22 interviews with four categories of actors in open innovation projects (university professors, company managers, executives of research foundations and cluster managers) within three Moroccan clusters (CE3M, Cluster Solaire, C2TM). The results of our study show that the main difficulties are the lack of collaboration, the absence of a single vision between the university and the industrial world of business, communication problems between project partners, project management problems and the lack of skills. Overcoming these difficulties are the human challenges that Moroccan public universities must take up.

JEL Classification: A2, C38, I22, L38

Paper Type: Empirical Research.