ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Increase Collaboration Willingness Through Trust Building in University-industry Collaboration: A Higher Education Institution-Level Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China
- 2Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology - Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, Pakistan
- 3Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden Heights, Malaysia
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Successful university-industry collaboration (UIC) largely depends on the close relationship and effective engagement between higher education institutions (HEIs) and industrial practitioners. The purpose of this study is to analyze the industrial enterprise's willingness to collaborate with HEIs in the UIC regarding the development of degree curricula. It was confirmed that both ethical and servant leadership in HEIs affect industrial practitioners' trust level in the UIC. Additionally, it was discovered that industrial practitioners' trust in HEIs could foster their willingness to collaborate with HEIs in the UIC. Leaders' self-mindfulness training for ethical or servant leadership implementations in HEIs strengthens the significant associations between these two leadership styles and increased trust among industrial practitioners at the UIC. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of this research were presented.
Keywords: university-industry collaboration, Ethical Leadership, servant leadership, Trust, Collaboration willingness
Received: 19 Sep 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Nadeem and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shi Hu
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