Productization of University Services

Purpose – The importance of university-industry co-operation has been recognized, but it has been faced many challenges such as unclear and undefined service offerings from universities and a lack of mutual content and structures. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how productization of services can be used to enhance university-industry (U-I) co-operation. Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the nature of U-I co-operation while the main focus is on the enhancement of co-operation through the productization of university services. Results are derived from the analysis of both existing literature and empirical case study. Findings – The study finds that through productization, U-I co-operation can be enhanced and several synergies can be achieved. These are based on well-defined procedures and service packages, which lead to the following things: (i) Better quality and management of services leads to more stable, effective and manageable co-operation; (ii) Communication is more comprehensive and the customer’s perspective can be taken more thoroughly considered; (iii) Productized services are partially standardized and partially customized: standard parts ensure efficient processes while customization ensures the fulfillment of customer requirements. Research limitations/implications – The paper shows that productization is not a solution for all of the challenges of U-I co-operation. Before productized services are useful, collaborators must engage in active communication to map out the common content. Originality/Value – Based on findings it is suggested that productization might help educational institutes and firms to develop co-operation in order to gain better results.