Linking HEIs with the production sector: A communication approach between key actors in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Abstract

To keep up with rapid evolutions in technical and scientific developments, countries must create competitive dynamics that enable key actors to generate high-tech projects, boosting both a country’s productivity and economic development. Higher education institutions (HEIs), with their intellectual capital and as core generators of knowledge, are one of the main actors in these dynamics, particularly given their societal responsibilities and contributions to intellectual development and technical knowledge in the community. This article aims to identify the relationship patterns required for actors to create a fully participatory and integrative process between HEIs and the production sector (PS). This integrative and linking process generates and improves technical projects in the region. Through a literature review and an analysis of current empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the relationship between these two sectors in the region, an inter-relational map has been developed. This map aims to highlight key activities to be considered during the execution of the linkage and to identify an ecosystem of necessary elements to develop a diagnostic evaluation tool. This tool may be used to define the ideal conditions that should lead to project development between the HEIs and the PS. The article presents the region of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico as a case study.