Case Study 2: Expert Interviews with staff from heterogeneous university-company research clusters 

Personnel from heterogenous university-company alliances from different research areas (engineering or social technology) of various compositions and sizes (small, medium, or large-scale companies) in different positions (spokesperson, coordinator, principal investigators).

In addition to scientific personnel, members of companies were also interviewed. The research field as well as the composition of involved institutions were decisive for the selection of the research clusters. The research clusters should cover different combinations of characteristics of these two variables. Apart from that, different sizes or degrees of network complexity were considered in choosing the research clusters. Two of the three chosen research clusters aim at researching and developing engineering technology, and one research cluster pursues a social technological goal in the field of sustainability research. Research clusters with large-scale companies as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) were included. Analogous to case study 1, bearers of different roles were interviewed, such as spokesperson, principal investigator, and, if applicable, the management or coordination.