Abstract
This dissertation studies the contribution of universities to industrial innovation by focusing on the impact that university demand has on the innovative performance of firms.In the first chapter, we conduct an in-depth literature review of the main research streams studying universities’ influence on industrial firms through the procurement of instrumentation. [...] In the second chapter,we consider the scientific instruments suppliers' of the second largest French public university – the University of Strasbourg - and we investigate the impact of university demand on firms’ innovative performance. [...] In the second chapter,we consider the scientific instruments suppliers' of the second largest French public university – the University of Strasbourg - and we investigate the impact of university demand on firms’ innovative performance. [...] In the fourth chapter, we go beyond the excessive focus on quantitative relations which does not allow one to fully explore the complexity of inter-personal and inter-organisational relations underlying the processes explaining the observed empirical results in the above chapters.