Companies invest heavily in R&D, yet results can be uneven. Working with universities helps ideas move from plans to usable solutions—not only through patents or equipment, but through the human side of knowledge. When teams share language, simple routines, and learn together, they frame the problem the same way and avoid rework. Starting with a co-designed brief, giving academics a bit of protected time, and backing the project with capable legal and project-management support keep collaborations on track. Prestige may open the first door, but everyday joint work creates the real value: faster adoption, better processes, and skills that stay inside the firm. When universities recognise and reward these outcomes, partnerships deepen. The takeaway is simple: invest in the relationship that carries know-how, and R&D pays off more reliably.
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The existing literature on the legitimacy of daughters in the succession process of family businesses tends to separate the analysis between, on the one hand, the role of successor daughters and, on the other hand, the networks that activate and validate their legitimacy. This separation sustains a dualism in the conceptualization of relationships between successor daughters and the various stakeholders. This study addresses this gap by drawing on Strong Structuration Theory and the analysis of five cases of successor daughters. The results highlight that the social legitimacy of successor daughters in family businesses is the result of a continuous interaction between individual agency and social structures, within a logic of duality. It proposes a conceptualization of legitimacy as a dynamic process of social co-construction. The study reveals the interdependence between personal legitimacy and entrepreneurial legitimacy, which mutually reinforce each other through intertwined structuration cycles. This articulation contributes to the progressive co-construction of social legitimacy, emphasizing its evolving and adaptive nature.
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