B325 TMA Assignment: Managing Across Boundaries
Managing Across Organizational & Cultural Boundaries B325
This TMA and the attached case study is about social capital and the importance of social capital in alliances and in mitigating challenges. The case is about alliances between University and Industry. It reflects on a longitudinal case-study to assess how firms and university can collaborate in research alliances and how social capital dimensions develop over time to enhance fruitful collaboration.
Note to students
The case might be seem long to you but don’t panic. You are not to refer to the entire case to answer to the TMA question. You will be referring mainly to the introduction for a general information about the case; the theoretical framework for some definitions; results and discussion to critically analyse the importance of social capital in alliances in general and particularly in this type of alliances. You may refer to the conclusion and implications to boost up your analysis.
QUESTION
Write an essay (approximately 1500 words), discussing the importance of social capital in forming alliances in general and in forming university-industry alliances in particular. Reflect in your discussion on the most important types of social capital that allow to promote collaboration particularly in the context of university-industry alliance. Support your discussion with example about a real example about university-industry collaboration.
Hint: in your essay, you need to reflect on the following:
- Definition of social capital; by referring to B325 material and the case particularly the theoretical framework section.
- Importance of the social capital in alliances; by referring to B325 material and the case particularly the results and discussion section (particularly subsection 4.2) and conclusion and implications section.
- Refer to external sources (e-library; google scholar; etc.) to provide tangible examples about university-industry collaboration.
Attention
- Pay attention not to copy information as is whether from the course material or the case. You are ought to provide a discussion and demonstrate understanding of various concepts.
General hints
- Critical discussion and link between theoretical frameworks and the article should be clearly highlighted. You should take a critical approach, try to be creative in your response, and avoid descriptive answers.
- You are expected to refer to external references to provide more evidence to your discussion. External resources can be related to the case/article or they can be not directly related to it yet helping to add to your analysis and discussion.
- Your answer has to be in an essay format divided into introduction, body and conclusion.