Industry - University collaborative networks for new product development: The case of the TeNeT group in IIT Madras, India

Most of the times, research on collaborative environments focuses mainly on the creation of networks made up mainly by companies, and less attention is paid to the different actors in the territory and the local infrastructure provided to these enterprises (specially SME's), which in many cases enable or disable them to be more innovative. Different authors have recognized the increasing pro-active role of the territory in the learning processes of the economic agents and productive organizations. Universities play an important role, as they can be considered as a focal element for the development and dissemination of new knowledge and technologies for the design, development and commercialisation of new products and processes. Therefore, research should also be done to analyze and promote different agents in the territory, such as Universities as potential partners to be integrated in these new collaborative environments for the transfer of knowledge to foster innovation and promote regional sustainable development. Therefore, the ability of Industries and Universities to collaborate to develop innovations can enable companies' sustainability increasing the overall region competitiveness. This paper will present the results of a research carried out in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras which intended to assess IIT's key role for developing new products and generating new high tech companies. The paper will present case study of the Midas company which was the first spin off of the TeNeT group.