Roles and Requirements for Effective Knowledge Exchange in an IT Company’s Academic Ecosystem: Insights from Modeling the SAP University Alliances Ecosystem

Many students and lecturers desire tangible and conceivable teaching content. In the information systems (IS) domain, access to real-life information technology (IT) is required. Nevertheless, it often needs more than access, such as contract processing, suitable curricula, or lecturer training. In many cases, these activities are managed bilaterally between an educational institution and a company. The resulting partnerships, however, bear the risk of dispersing as soon as strategic, technological, or staffing conditions change. To address this issue, we examine the ecosystemic approach toward academic-industry partnerships. The ecosystemic approach applies the concept of competence centers as independent intermediary hubs. Using the SAP University Alliances (SAP UA) program as an example of the ecosystemic approach, we iteratively develop an e3 value model of the ecosystem by interviewing its stakeholders and validating the resulting model at a conference with the SAP UA community. Further, we develop six role concepts and respective requirement dimensions that facilitate effective knowledge exchange in IT companies’ academic ecosystems. Our contributions provide insights into how such an ecosystem can be structured and critically assess application fields by considering the continuous changes affecting the IS education community. Implications for practitioners and researchers in the field of academic-industry collaboration are discussed.