Academic scientists' engagement with industry is a central mechanism in
university-industry knowledge transfer and the development of
collaborative research. However, most empirical studies are limited to
researchers in technical disciplines. We extend the analysis beyond
engineers to include broader disciplinary fields, including humanists,
economists, medicine, biosciences and cross-disciplinary scientists. Our
findings suggest that cross-disciplinary researchers and researchers in
technical sciences engage in more industry interaction than their
peers. The motivations for the choice of research area play an important
role in industry collaboration. Furthermore, we identify three types of
industry interaction (interaction modes) among researchers: 1.
educational interaction, consisting of conferences or seminars,
corporate training programs, or supervising thesis work; 2. research
interaction, consisting of shared publications, research-related
consulting, public research programs and contract research; 3.
integrated interaction, consisting of joint research in shared
premisesand employment contracts with companies. Of these, the educational and research interaction modes (1 and 2) are
motivated by the possibility of individual academic advancement.
Integrated interaction (3) is rare and significantly correlates with
only one of the three types of industry cooperation motivations:
commercialization of research findings. We conclude by identifying
future research needs, opportunities for methodological improvement and
policy interventions.