Unveiling the drivers of SMEs’ cooperation with universities. Do firms’ CEO characteristics matter?

This paper aims to investigate the microprocesses underlying university‒industry cooperation (UIC) in SMEs by examining the role played by CEOs’ characteristics. While previous research on UIC has focused predominantly on contextual factors and firm characteristics, we explore the relationship between CEOs’ individual dimensions and SMEs’ decisions regarding UIC. Specifically, we investigate the associations between CEOs’ psychological characteristics, such as self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity, and perceptions of government support, as well as CEOs’ skills, and the choice of UIC channels (i.e. traditional, service, and bidirectional learning and commercialisation). By applying structural equation modelling to a sample of 130 entrepreneurs, our findings reveal that the use of traditional channels is negatively associated with CEOs’ risk-taking propensity, whereas service channels are preferred by CEOs with high self-efficacy. Bidirectional learning and commercialisation channels require CEOs’ self-efficacy and technical skills. CEOs’ perceptions of government support are positively associated with the adoption of complex UIC channels.