The role of university industry cooperation on the performance of family enterprises in local level

The aim of this study is to determine how local scientific studies affect the performance of family businesses in the same location. In this context, the research has two focus points. The first focus of the study is to make concrete determinations on how local scientific studies affect the organizational performance of family businesses. The second focal point of the research is to detect and illustrate the gap amongst the academic field and business life in Turkey. The sample of the study consists of the members of the family businesses operating in the Sakarya province. In the determination of the participants, purposive sampling technique was adopted. In this context, interviews were conducted with nine (9) family members operating in Sakarya province. In this study, which is carried out with case study design, interview technique which is frequently used in qualitative research is used. The data of the study was collected by a semi-formal interview with 9 people (director) in the board of directors of the mentioned family businesses. The results of this study revealed that almost all the family businesses in the sample were inadequate in their relations with the university. The results indicate that family businesses can acquire resources from universities, obtain academic information, but are not satisfied with the situation. The results of the success assessment of the family businesses in the determined performance measures showed that they contributed to the production and R & D measures in a dense manner, and that the marketing criterion was relatively more prominent than other measures.