How do manufacturing companies acquire new knowledge? - Examples from nine Swedish companies.

Experience has shown that new research does not reach out to companies and organizations as desired. Thereby many improvement opportunities, increased profitability and competitiveness are probably missed. In order to investigate the underlying causes an interview study in Swedish companies was made. The results showed different reasons in large and smaller companies. The overall conclusion was that dissemination of academic knowledge and associated need of (external) implementation support must be better adapted to varying conditions in companies.