Status of the linkage can be categorized according to the degree involvement of institution or individual involvement in the linkage. Linkages are also classified into Formal and Informal types.
USING THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS APPROACH FOR ASSESSMENT OF THE STRENGTH OF UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY-GRI COOPERATION IN VIETNAM By Cu Duy Tung A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Examination committee Professor Himangshu Paul (Chairman) Dr Jung-won Lee Professor Nazrul Islam Nationality Previous Degree(s) Vietnam Bachelor of Chemical Engineering HoChiMinh University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Scholarship donor Government of Switzerland Asian Institute Of Technology School of Management Bangkok, Thailand April 1999 Acknowledgement I extend my gratitude to all involved, whose contribution brought the research to this stage Especially, my research advisor Professor Himangshu Paul, whose inspiration, guidance, valuable suggestions, constant encouragement and care not only as the research committee chairperson but also as a program Dean, deserves the author's gratefulness I extend my esteem appreciation to the research committee member Dr Jung-won Lee whose constructive suggestions and helpful comments enhanced the value of the work Sincere thanks also go to the research committee member Professor Nazrul Islam for his invaluable advice and effort in guiding me at the first steps All the respondents and contributors for the work in data collection period in Vietnam are acknowledged for their prompt responses and interest Many thanks gift to the friends in SIM and SAV for their help All the friends here in AIT deserve thanks for their love and supports during the study period The colleagues of the SOM 97 class are never to be forgotten I express my love to all of them I am grateful and extend my thanks to the Government of Switzerland for its financial support during the entire study period at the Swiss-AIT-Vietnam programme in Vietnam and at School of Management of AIT Encouragement and support from parents and relatives are keys to the success of this work Last but not the least, support, patience and dedication from my lover are secret of the whole success ii Abstract The work is a methodological framework for public involvement in the process of technological assessment The objective of this study is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for assessing the strength of University-Industry-GRI cooperation by measuring the magnitude of different types of factor flows and the relative importance of the linkages The model for assessment is developed on AHP taking care of major actors and factors with the linkage alternatives of University-Industry-GRI cooperation In dealing with such problem, five steps are developed The first step is problem conceptualization, consisting of the identification of critical techno-economic assessment criteria, including flows of technological factors, linkage factors, and linkage types The next step is model formulation, including factor, criterion and alternative definitions to develop a tentative AHP model The third step mainly concerns data collection coming from various actors through structured pairwise comparison questionnaire via individual opinions and group opinions The next step employs the geometric mean method to make a consensus from group opinions on the importance ratio of criteria and alternatives Processing of the responses is conducted using the AHP based software called Expert Choice The last one conducts to model validation and result interpretation The approach of involving public and controversy management is new in the area of assessment on technological cooperation The results of the study show that the most preferred linkage is University-Industry cooperation The study also indicates that government people is the most different group from others iii Table of Contents Chapter Title Page i Acknowledgement Abstract Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Acronyms List of Appendix ii iii iv viii ix x xi Chapter Introduction and Problem Description 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Problem Statement 1.3 Objectives of the Study 1.4 Scope and Limitations of the Study 1.5 Organization of Report and Research Design Figure I.1 : Research design 1 2 Chapter Literature Review 3.1 General Figure I.2 : The Innovation Triangle [15] 3.2 Linkage Types 3.3 Facilitators and Inhibitors to Linkages Table 1.1 : Orientation differences between an industrial firm and a university 10 Table 1.2 : Characteristics of GRI unit and Industry unit 12 Table 1.3 : Different Characteristics of University and GRI units 13 3.4 The Analytic Hierarchy Process 13 Research Methodology and Framework 4.1 General iv 16 linkage 4.2 AHP Model Formulation 16 4.3 The AHP Model for Overall Linkage 17 Figure I.3 : Hierarchy for overall linkage 18 4.4 The AHP Model for Individual Linkage 18 Figure I.4 : Flows of linkage factors in the Innovation Triangle 19 Table 1.4 : An example of in and out flow of factors in the innovation triangle 21 Figure I.5 : Hierarchy for individual linkage judgment 22 4.5 Model Application, Processing and Reporting 22 Table 1.5 : Type of Linkages in the Innovation Triangle 23 Figure I.6 : Procedure for Linkage Judgments 24 University-Industry-GRI Partnership in Vietnam 5.1 Overview 25 5.2 The Reformation of Research and Development in Vietnam 25 5.3 University-Industry-GRI Partnership Prior to 1988 26 Figure I.7 : The organizational structure of R&D in Vietnam prior to 198828 5.4 University-Industry-GRI Partnership since 1988 28 Figure I.8 : The organizational structure of MoSTE 29 5.5 Existing Difficulties in R&D System of Vietnam 29 Table 1.6 : Budget allocated to MoET in years 31 Chapter Data Collection and Processing 6.1 General 6.2 Data collection method and source Figure I.9 : A partial sample of questionnaire Table 1.7 : Distribution of questionnaire 6.3 Data Processing Figure I.10 : Data collection and processing steps Chapter 10 Analysis of Results 7.1 General 7.2 The Overall Linkage: University-Industry-GRI Table 1.8 : Individual judgment and their priority to the linkage 32 32 33 35 36 37 v 38 38 38 actors and factor linkage 11 Figure I.11 : Percentage of response to preference order for different linkages 39 Table 1.9 : Individual importance to factors 39 Figure I.12 : Percent of respondents giving first priority to various factors 40 Table 1.10 : Individually preferred linkages distributed in actor group 40 Table 1.11 : Priorities of factors and alternatives from overall group and various 41 Figure I.13 : Importance to factors by actors and overall group 41 Table 1.12 : Summary of overall group judgments on overall linkage 42 Figure I.14 : Overall group synthesis of linkage alternatives with respect to goal 42 Figure I.15 : Hierarchy for Overall Linkage 43 7.3 Linkage between Food Industry and University 44 Table 1.13 : Summary of overall group judgments on University-Industry 44 Figure I.16 : Magnitude flow of factors from University to Industry 45 Figure I.17 : Magnitude flow of factors from Industry to University 46 Figure I.18 : Overall judgments on University and Industry linkage 46 Figure I.19 : Hierarchy for University and Industry linkage 48 7.4 Linkage between University and GRI 49 Table 1.14 : Summary of overall group judgments on GRI-University linkage 49 Figure I.20 : Hierarchy for GRI and University Linkage 50 Figure I.21 : Magnitude flow of factors from University to GRI 52 Figure I.22 : Magnitude flow of factors from GRI to University 52 Figure I.23 : Overall judgments for University and GRI linkage 52 7.5 Linkage between GRI and Industry 53 Table 1.15 : Summary of overall group judgment on Industry-GRI linkage53 Figure I.24 : Magnitude flow of factors from GRI to Industry 54 Figure I.25 : Magnitude flow of factors from Industry to GRI 55 Figure I.26 : Overall judgments for GRI and Industry linkage 55 Figure I.27 : Hierarchy for GRI and Industry Linkage 57 Chapter 58 Conclusions and Recommendations 9.1 General 9.2 Conclusions 9.3 Recommendations 9.4 Further Research Direction References Appendix vi 58 58 59 60 61 64 vii List of Figures Figure No Title Page 1.1 Research design 2.1 The Innovation Triangle 3.1 Hierarchy for overall linkage 18 3.2 Flows of linkage factors in the Innovation Triangle 19 3.3 Hierarchy for individual linkage judgment 22 3.4 Procedure for Linkage Judgments 24 4.1 The organizational structure of R&D in Vietnam prior to1988 28 4.2 The organizational structure of MoSTE 29 5.1 A partial sample of questionnaire 33 5.2 Data collection and processing steps 38 6.1 Percentage of response to preference order for different linkages 40 6.2 Percent of respondents giving first priority to various factors 41 6.3 Importance to factors by actors and overall group 42 6.4 Overall group synthesis of alternatives with respect to goal and factor 43 6.5 Hierarchy for Overall Linkage 44 6.6 Magnitude flow of factors from University to Industry 46 6.7 Magnitude flow of factors from Industry to University 47 6.8 Overall judgments on University and Industry linkage 47 6.9 Hierarchy for University and Industry linkage 49 6.10 Hierarchy for GRI and University Linkage 51 6.11 Magnitude flow of factors from University to GRI 53 6.12 Magnitude flow of factors from GRI to University 53 6.13 Overall judgments for University and GRI linkage 53 6.14 Magnitude flow of factors from GRI to Industry 55 6.15 Magnitude flow of factors from Industry to GRI 56 6.16 Overall judgments for GRI and Industry linkage 56 6.17 Hierarchy for GRI and Industry Linkage 58 viii List of Tables Table No Title Page 2.1 Orientation differences between an industrial firm and a university 11 2.2 Characteristics of GRI unit and Industry unit 12 2.3 Different Characteristics of University and GRI units 13 3.1 An example of in and out flow of factors in the innovation triangle linkage 21 3.2 Type of Linkages in the Innovation Triangle 23 4.1 Budget allocated to MoET in years 31 5.1 Distribution of questionnaire 35 6.1 Individual judgment and their priority to the linkage 40 6.2 Individual importance to factors 40 6.3 Individually preferred linkages distributed in actor group 41 6.4 Priorities of factors and alternatives from overall group and various actors 42 6.5 Summary of overall group judgments on overall linkage 43 6.6 Summary of overall group judgments on University-Industry linkage 45 6.7 Summary of overall group judgments on GRI-University linkage 50 6.8 Summary of overall group judgment on Industry-GRI linkage 54 ix List of Acronyms AHP Analytic Hierarchy Process AIT Asian Institute of Technology DoSTE Department of Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment ECPro Expert Choice Professional 9.5 FAO United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FIRI Food Industries Research Institute (FIRI) GRI Government-sponsored Research Institute IMB Inter-Ministerial Board MoARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MoET Ministry of Education and Training MoI Ministry of Industry MoSTE Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment MOT Management of Technology MOU Memorandum of Understanding MS Excel Microsoft Excel 7.0 PHTI Post-harvest Technology Institute (PHTI) PORI Plant Oil Research Institute (PORI) R&D Research and development S&T Science and Technology SAV Swiss-AIT-Vietnam Programme SIM School of Industrial Management SOM School of Management UAF University of Agriculture and Forestry (UAF) UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UT University of Technology x STRENGTH OF THE LINKAGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY FLOW FROM UNIVERSITY TO INDUSTRY Money FLOW FROM INDUSTRY TO UNIVERSITY Brainpower SR Facility RC Organization PS Information TA Figure I.19: Hierarchy for University and Industry linkage SR: Sponsored research RC: Research Contract PS: Provision of Services TA: Training activities 48 7.4 Linkage between University and GRI 7.4.1 Model Application Regarding to data collected, existing links between University and GRI studied in Vietnam were mostly limited in provision of services and training activities There are many missing links between the two units Most of formal types such as joint research, research contract and collaboration are absent Other missing links in informal type are staff transfer and consultant From these points, only two alternatives are established as regards of existing links Factors for judgments of these alternatives are referred to section 3.4 Therefore, the hierarchy model established for the linkage between University and GRI in Vietnam is presented in Figure I.20 7.4.2 Results The result of synthesized group judgment shows that Training Activities cooperation has drawn higher importance, fifty six percent The rest of forty four percent is gained by the Provision of Service The numerical data is illustrated in Table 1.14 More results are presented in the appendix C Table 1.14: Summary of overall group judgments on GRI-University linkage Alternatives Factors and Sub-factors Provision of Services FLOW from UNIVERSITY to GRI Magnitude of Money Human Interactions Organization Interactions Facility Utilization Information Interactions Training Activities Synthesis 2.9 13.0 7.3 1.5 5.4 50.0 5.8 15.8 10.2 6.2 11.9 FLOW from GRI to UNIVERSITY Magnitude of Money 3.1 Human Interactions 1.6 Organization Interactions 2.5 Facility Utilization 11.6 Information Interactions 5.8 3.1 7.4 6.4 3.6 4.8 50.0 6.2 9.0 8.9 15.2 10.6 RESULTS INCONSISTENCY 55.5 0.01 2.9 2.8 2.9 4.8 6.5 44.5 49 100.0 STRENGTH OF THE LINKAGE BETWEEN GRI AND UNIVERSITY FLOW FROM UNIVERSITY TO GRI Money FLOW FROM GRI TO UNIVERSITY Brainpower Facility TA Organization PS Figure I.20: Hierarchy for GRI and University Linkage PS: Provision of Services TA: Training activity 50 Information 7.4.3 Implications of the Result Firstly, the model result shows that both of actors (GRI and University) play equal role in determining the strength of the linkage between University and GRI The magnitude flow of factors from GRI to University is almost as same as the magnitude flow of factors from University to GRI The reason is that both of parties are government-funded organizations and they also have some similar R&D activities such as basic and applied research, technology transfer etc However, both have different objectives and roles GRI’ objective is to commercialize R&D results to make profit whereas University’s know-how is freely published University pays much attention on academic result rather than profit Thus, each party has different strong points the other can tap on Secondly, in the flow from University to GRI, brainpower (31.6) is still the most dominant factors as shown in Figure I.21 University known as an educator and provider of talent has a strong point in providing pool of competent faculties and graduate students On the other side, in the flow from GRI to University, facility (30.4) is the most important aspect as shown in Figure I.22 GRI with advancements of professional and efficient laboratories can satisfy university’s needs of improving technique and methods Moreover, in both flows, information plays the second highest preference Thus, most of cooperative activities the two parties involve are mainly to exchange technological information Finally, the overall result of the judgments for the alternative types of linkage between University and GRI is illustrated in Figure I.23 It shows that Training Activity (55.5) took over half of interactions between the two units The implication of this result means that the communication between University and GRI is really limited in such activities as student practicing in GRI’ laboratory, university faculty as R&D collaborator in Institute, and researchers as visiting faculty in University 7.4.4 Discussion Like many developing countries, R&D units in Vietnam really depend on the government because the biggest funding research also comes from the government Thus, research activity is limited to existing budget Unfortunately, academic university also suffers the same fate Money is the most important resource both of parties need to nurture their R&D activities, but no one can afford Therefore, it is easy to understand that cooperation between University and GRI is only training activity and provision of services The missing of almost research cooperation suggests that the linkage between the two units is so weak that they should not depend on the sponsor from government and should positively speed up the cooperative linkage in terms of joint R&D project to tap technological advantage of each other 51 LINKAGE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT R&D INSTITUTE AND UNIVERSITY Synthesis of Level Nodes with respect to FLOW U-R Distributive Mode BRAINPOW 316 INFORMAT 239 ORGANIZA 204 FACILITY 125 MON EY 116 Abbre viation De finition BRAINPOW Human Interactions INFORMAT ORGANIZA Inf ormation Interactions Organization Interactions FACILITY Facility Utilization MONEY Magnitude of Money Figure I.21: Magnitude flow of factors from University to GRI LINKAGE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT R&D INSTITUTE AND UNIVERSITY Synthesis of Level Nodes with respect to FLOW R-U Distributive Mode FACILITY 304 INFORMAT 212 BRAINPOW 181 ORGANIZA 178 MONEY 125 Abbre viation FACILITY INFORMAT BRAINPOW ORGANIZA MONEY De finition Facility Utilization Inf ormation Interactions Human Interactions Organization Interactions Magnitude of Money Figure I.22: Magnitude flow of factors from GRI to University LINKAGE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT R&D INSTITUTE AND UNIVERSITY Synthesis of Leaf Nodes with respect to GOAL Distributive Mode OVERALL INCONSISTENCY INDEX = 0.01 TA 555 P OF S 445 Abbre viation TA P OF S Definition Training Activ ities Prov ision of Serv ices Figure I.23: Overall judgments for University and GRI linkage 52 7.5 Linkage between GRI and Industry 7.5.1 Model Application From data collected, existing links between GRI and Food Industry studied in Vietnam were mainly limited in provision of service, training activities, research contract and sponsored research The missing link in formal type is joint research and other missing links in informal are staff transfer and sharing facilities From that point, there are four alternatives as regards of existing links Factors for judgments of these alternatives are referred to section 3.4 Therefore, the hierarchy model established for the linkage between GRI and Food Industry in Vietnam is illustrated in Figure I.27 7.5.2 Results The result of synthesized group judgment shows that Sponsored Research cooperation has drawn a highest importance, twenty eight percent, then Research Contract got the second priority by twenty six percent Twenty four percent is gained by Provision of Service and the least importance of twenty one percent is to the Training Activities cooperation The numerical data is illustrated in Table 1.15 More results are presented in the appendix C Table 1.15: Summary of overall group judgment on Industry-GRI linkage Alternatives Research Sponsored Factors and Sub-factors Contract Research FLOW from GRI to INDUSTRY Magnitude of Money 2.0 Human Interactions 1.7 Organization Interactions 5.1 Facility Utilization 3.4 Information Interactions 6.2 FLOW from INDUSTRY to GRI Magnitude of Money 2.3 Human Interactions 0.6 Organization Interactions 1.9 Facility Utilization 1.4 Information Interactions 2.1 RESULTS INCONSISTENCY 26.5 3.9 2.0 0.9 2.6 9.2 Provision of Services Training Activities Synthesis 1.6 5.4 2.4 5.2 2.0 1.0 6.4 3.0 1.3 3.7 68.75 8.5 15.5 11.3 12.4 21.1 4.6 0.6 0.3 1.1 3.1 1.8 1.7 0.9 2.1 0.7 1.1 2.0 1.1 0.5 1.3 31.3 9.8 4.9 4.3 5.1 7.2 28.4 23.7 0.01 21.4 100.0 7.5.3 Implications of the Result 53 Firstly, the model result shows that the strength of the linkage between GRI and Food Industry is much more determined by the magnitude of flow (68.8) from GRI to Food Industry in comparison with that (31.3) from Food Industry to GRI It is said that the first factor to build a strong linkage between the two units would come from GRI However, the survival of the linkage depends on not only GRI’ R&D capability, but also Food Industry’s interest That is why Food Industry somewhat has responded to GRI's stimulation In the beginning, almost initiatives of establishing the cooperation come from GRI, and then the cooperation interest gradually becomes necessary need of Food Industry, because they realize that cost of R&D in GRI is sometimes much cheaper than that of international supplier Secondly, it is likely that the model result shows information (30.6) as the most important criterion for maintaining the linkage between GRI and Food Industry with respect to the magnitude of flow from GRI to Food Industry People in industry consider GRI as the source of know-how for them to acquire The second priority is brainpower (22.5) factor In the linkage, GRI mostly just provide technological resources It is reckon that human resource is the most valuable asset for GRI to build relationship with industry The next is facility utilization and organization interaction factors The least important factor is money as presented in Figure I.24 LINKAGE BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT R&D INSTITUTE Synthesis of Level Nodes with respect to FLOW R-I Distributive Mode INFORMAT 306 BRAINPOW 225 FACILITY 181 OR GANIZA 164 MONEY 123 Abbre viation De finition INFORMAT Inf ormation Interactions BRAINPOW FACILITY ORGANIZA MONEY Human Interactions Facility Utilization Organization Interactions Magnitude of Money Figure I.24: Magnitude flow of factors from GRI to Industry Thirdly, in the magnitude of flow from Food Industry to GRI, people gave more emphasis on money factor (31.4) as the most important one Researchers in GRI always expect that industry would be the first source of funding their R&D project The second priority is assigned for information factor (23.0) as shown in Figure I.25 Well understanding Industry behaviors such as R&D needs, technological capability or so on is much helpful for GRI to commercialize and transfer its technologies The importance of brainpower (16.2) and facility (15.8) factors is almost equal and they are given in the third rank The weakest one in the flow from Food Industry to GRI is organization interactions This factor much concerns to the top management’s vision toward technological cooperation When the industry involves in technological linkage, the top or high level of management is usually the decision-maker However, many managers are neither aware of nor believable in R&D capability of GRI 54 LINKAGE BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT R&D INSTITUTE Synthesis of Level Nodes with respect to FLOW I-R Distributive Mode MON EY 314 INFORMAT 230 FACILITY 162 BRAINPOW 158 ORGANIZA 136 Abbre viation De finition MONEY INFORMAT Magnitude of Money Inf ormation Interactions FACILITY Facility Utilization BRAINPOW ORGANIZA Human Interactions Organization Interactions Figure I.25: Magnitude flow of factors from Industry to GRI In the final result of judgments for the alternative type of linkages between GRI and Food Industry, the collaboration in research project is considered as the highest rank in priority The implication of this result means that in order to maintain the strength of the linkage, GRI and its industrial partner need capital not only from industry itself but also from outside sponsors such as government and international organizations to support their R&D activities As presented in Figure I.26, sponsored research and research contract took more than half of linkage activities and followed by training activities and provision of services in terms of informal linkage such as consultant, technical assistance and sharing facility LINKAGE BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT R&D INSTITUTE Synthesis of Leaf Nodes with respect to GOAL Distributive Mode OVERALL INC ONSISTENCY INDEX = 0.01 SR 284 RC 265 P OF S 237 TA 214 Abbre viation SR RC P OF S TA De finition Sponsored Research Research Contract Prov ision of Serv ices Training Activ ities Figure I.26: Overall judgments for GRI and Industry linkage 7.5.4 Discussion On the industry side, as discussed in the previous part, most production design and manufacturing organizations have three primary resources to draw upon in order to accomplish required applied research: in-house projects, supplier efforts and university capabilities However, most of small and medium food enterprises in Vietnam not have 55 enough technological resource to be self-reliance on in-house projects Thus, they have to rely on the two remain sources In addition, cost of R&D of domestic supplier is likely cheaper than that from outside Therefore, more and more food enterprises look for R&D source from local GRI For food enterprises, brainpower such as researchers and engineers with unique expertise is highly preferable Officially, this force is employed as researchers by government Sometimes they may become part-time employees in food enterprises or serve as R&D collaborators The technological information such as know-how and know-why, which are always embodied in institute researchers, is the most preferable factor for industry to develop their own technology The flow of information from GRI to Food Industry presents through almost linkage types For example, research contract, training activities through on-filed training, practical training, and provision of service like consultant From that viewpoint, in order to maintain and strengthen the linkage, GRI should pay more attention on disseminating information and developing a competent staff including researchers and engineers GRI should play an essential role in providing reliable and valuable information for Food Industry On the other hand, GRI should keep in mind that its R&D cost should be cheap and quality of R&D result should be high On the GRI side, as government funded institute, the primary role of GRI is to develop needed technology and then transferring the results of such research over to industrial sector [18] However, the current fund for R&D budget from the government is not enough, that forces GRI actively seek other financial sources to fund their R&D projects and to survive Therefore, GRI looks industrial sector as the substitute player Inherently, almost Vietnamese GRI’ efforts to commercialize R&D results into industry derive from organic relationships such as friend, alumni, relatives, old colleague or so on Therefore, in many cases the level of organization involving in on the GRI side is only individual or group, whereas that on the Food Industry side is usually top or high level of management From these arguments, in order to strengthen the linkage, industrial partner should be more tolerant in financing R&D projects in GRI and top management should more appreciate the technological linkage as an important engine for their development In general, most of linkage activities are dominated by research contract and sponsored research The sponsored research type plays the most important role This implicates that the third party should present such as government to facilitate the linkage Besides, both parties should concentrate more on provision of services and training activities that are cheapest ways in disseminating technology 56 STRENGTH OF THE LINKAGE BETWEEN GRI AND INDUSTRY FLOW FROM GRI TO INDUSTRY FLOW FROM INDUSTRY TO GRI Money Brainpower SR Facility RC Organization PS TA Figure I.27: Hierarchy for GRI and Industry Linkage SR: Sponsored research RC: Research Contract PS: Provision of Services TA: Training activity 57 Information Chapter 8 9Conclusions and Recommendations 9.1 General The final and concluding section of the research report is further divided into three sections namely, conclusion, recommendations and further research direction The conclusion portion gives the findings of the study to justify the fulfillment of the objective of the research study The second section focuses on recommendations on the basis of experience gained from the study Guidance for the further research direction has been highlighted on the last part of the chapter 9.2 Conclusions Hierarchy Analysis can be applied at many levels of policy making – global, national, industrial and specific technology levels The AHP approach is used in developing a model for assessment of University-Industry-GRI cooperation as a means for structuring and analyzing the complex, multifaceted problem of technological assessment The adaptability of the method used is highly dependent on people judgment Thus, data collected from 19 respondents through a structures questionnaire, maintaining an inconsistency index of less than 0.1 for each respondent further supplemented by individual interviews, whenever possible The AHP has produced a viable model to ease strategic measurement during the process of technological assessment at industrial level One benefit from the analysis by considering different linkages, their respective weighted criteria, namely linkage factors and linkage types is in the applying them to the technological alternatives Furthermore, the hierarchy models as illustrated in previous sections, show how Expert Choice Software can be effectively used to analyze different multicriteria decisions involving subjective judgment The factors, sub-factors and criteria considered in the study models deserves its full value in the judgment process with public involvement for assessing the strength of University-Industry-GRI cooperation Hence all the factors, criteria and sub-factors identified in the model are relevant to the measurement process of the problem The results of the AHP models developed for overall and individual linkages show that all inconsistency indices are under 0.1 Thus, the validation of the work is satisfied Moreover, as per Aczel and Saaty [66], when applying the AHP on group judgment, the geometric mean is the uniquely appropriate rule for combining individual judgments because it preserves the reciprocal property in the combined pairwise comparison matrix For the individual to be compatible with the group the inconsistency index should not exceed 0.1 Therefore, the inconsistency index of group judgment would be satisfied when that of individual is acceptable The group inconsistency index comes to 0.0 limitation when all individuals are consensus and consistent In accordance to the result of assessment of the overall linkage, the first priority is gained by the University-Industry linkage, second by Industry-GRI and the last one by GRI- 58 University linkage In the types of linkages, Research Contract is the most prominent, followed by Training Activities, Sponsored Research and Provision of Services In the result of assessment of individual University-Industry linkage, the strength of the cooperation is mainly determined by magnitude of flow from University to Industry Human resource is the most important "product" Industry demands from University On the other side, money is the essential need for University to satisfy its R&D activities Training Activities is the most preferred alternative both parties want to cooperate The result of assessment of Industry-GRI linkage shows that the strength of the cooperation is mostly determined by magnitude of flow from GRI to Industry From the viewpoint of Industry, information is the most valuable benefit GRI can provide for Industry On the GRI side, it found that Industry would be the substitute player of government in supporting financial source for R&D activities Thus, Sponsored Research and Research Contract is the highest priority both side consider in technological cooperation In the linkage between GRI and University, the result indicates that almost cooperative programs between these two units are in terms of education-oriented activities The common linkage activities are staff transfer and training The result of experts' choice shows that the strength of the linkage is determined by equal magnitude of flow in this linkage and the most dominant factor is Human Interactions and Facility Utilization 9.3 Recommendations 9.3.1 Overall University-Industry-GRI Cooperation Assessment of the strength the overall linkages in the Innovation Triangle is to determine which linkage is relative more important among the three links, namely UniversityIndustry, Industry-GRI, and GRI-University The final result for the judgments of the linkage alternatives shows that University and Food Industry have the strongest interaction as shown in Figure I.14 Therefore, it is necessary for policy maker to pay more attention on the linkage between University and Food Industry The linkage between University and GRI is assigned the lowest rank that urges policy maker to revise the current structure of innovation In both linkages with University and GRI, Industry always has less enthusiasm in initially building cooperation These findings suggest that to strengthen the linkages, Industry should be the first one in actively taking initiative for establishing the linkage 9.3.2 University-Industry Linkage University should concentrate more attention on developing its faculty staff and providing reliable information and good quality of services as well as more relevant preparation for graduates about to enter industry University should shift their emphasis away from traditional basic research to applied research directed toward more immediate practical implementation in order to suit more relevant R&D results for industry On the Industry side, it should view University as a training center for their future human resource They should not only recruit university students with out any reimbursement for training expenditure, but also has to long term invest in training activities by sending their engineers and workers and by giving fellowships and sponsorships to the university Industry-University collaborative programs should be established with a clear understanding by both parties in which the mutual trust and appreciation are of the utmost importance for developing the linkage between these two units 59 9.3.3 GRI-University Linkage The missing of almost research cooperation suggests that the linkage between the two units is so weak that they should not depend on the sponsor from government and should positively speed up the cooperative linkage in terms of joint R&D project to tap technological advantage of each other 9.3.4 Industry-GRI Linkage In order to maintain and strengthen the linkage, GRI should pay more attention on disseminating information and developing a competent staff including researchers and engineers GRI should play an essential role in providing reliable and valuable information for Food Industry On the other hand, GRI should keep in mind that its R&D cost should be cheap and quality of R&D result should be high On the Industry side, industrial partner should be more tolerant in financing R&D projects in GRI and top management should more appreciate the technological linkage as an important engine for their development Besides, both parties should concentrate more on provision of services and training activities that are cheapest ways in disseminating technology 9.4 Further Research Direction Due to difficulty of collecting reliable data and time constraints, this study covers only food-processing industry of the Vietnamese production sector Besides, secondary data was collected on some typical units in the food-processing industry Thus, it is recommended that the model should be extended to the other industry and also to the nationwide production sector The research study just explores the assessment of the strength of UniversityIndustry-GRI cooperation under the perspective from each unit However, the survival of these linkages depends on not only each unit itself but also technology infrastructure (mentor, promoter, etc) of the country Therefore, another research should be conducted to assess the strength of the Nation's technology infrastructure The proposed research study only applies one of methodologies to assess 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the process of technological assessment The objective of this study is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for assessing the strength of University-Industry-GRI cooperation. .. At the bottom of the model, the alternatives of individual linkage hierarchy are the existing linkage types This level will determine the rank of linkage type The hierarchy developed for individual