Towards a better understanding of the initiation process for new university-industry relationships: the role of interpersonal dynamics in collaborative innovation projects

While significant research has focused on how relationships between universities and industry develop, little is known about the initiation stage and the micro-level interpersonal dynamics that underpin it. This stage is critical: it strongly influences whether a relationship is founded and shapes its subsequent success or failure. We identify and conceptualize the behaviours of boundary-spanning individuals (innovation champions) that support relationship initiation or contribute to premature termination. Participants described preparation, responsiveness, follow-through, and resource investment as influencing their assessments of prospective partners and their decisions about whether to continue relationship development. Using signalling theory abductively, we interpret these observable behaviours as potential signals through which champions and prospective partners may update their beliefs about one another’s otherwise unobservable latent commitment. On this basis, we extend the literature by developing an exploratory conceptual model of relationship initiation as a process of belief updating and theorize planning and early interaction as contexts in which potential signals of latent commitment may become observable. The concepts illuminate factors that may enable relationships to reach the level of mutual commitment needed to proceed or contribute to their premature termination. In practice, careful investment in selecting people with technical and relational attributes to send and interpret these signals is crucial when forming teams for complex collaborative projects.