Identifying barriers to industry-academia engagement - Evidence from Aotearoa, New Zealand’s tourism sector

Abstract

It is known that research collaboration between industry and academia supports improvement in industry and enables industry relevant academic research. However, if academia fails to create knowledge that can solve industry problems, the industry will have less regard for the knowledge provided by the universities. In this research we examined the literature on industry-academia engagement to determine the barriers that exist. Additionally, we focused our literature review on the tourism sector due to the challenges this sector has faced since 2020. Our primary data collection was using a survey where we invited members of the Tourism Association Aotearoa. Through the results we were able to determine why the industry does not choose to engage with academia. Our findings revealed that the worlds of industry and academia seldom cross due to communication barriers and lack of practical orientation of academic solutions. However, there are opportunities for collaboration through better stakeholder engagement.