Relationship marketing and university-industry linkages: A conceptual framework

Relationship marketing (RM) is a prolific area of current marketing theory development. While RM principles are relevant to a range of business-to-consumer and business-to-business contexts, their theoretical foundations have principally emerged in reference to the private sector. By contrast, this exploratory study examines RM opportunities between entities operating in different sectors, namely university and industry in Australia. Using a qualitative approach, findings led to the development of a conceptual framework of university-industry relationships, integrating variables of organizational environment difference, relationship and value. Overall, this exploratory study broadens RM theory and application to relationships involving parties from fundamentally different organizational environments and suggest opportunities for the implementation of RM in this context. The article concludes with recommendations for academics and practitioners and provides several directions for future research.