Mapping the Conceptual Structure of University–Industry Knowledge Transfer: A Co-Word Analysis

University–industry (U–I) collaborations are widely recognized as key drivers of economic progress, innovation, and competitiveness, fostering significant scholarly interest. Concurrently, research findings on these interactions have contributed to the establishment of an interdisciplinary field marked by the inherent complexity of these relationships. This study aims to map the conceptual structure of university–industry knowledge transfer (UIKT) research from 1980 to 2023 by employing co-word analysis and social network analysis based on data retrieved from the Scopus database. The results reveal that 1577 documents were published during this period, incorporating 147 keywords, with the five most frequent being “innovation”, “higher education”, “university”, “technology transfer”, and “knowledge management”. The United Kingdom was identified as the most prolific country, contributing 366 documents, while Research Policy emerged as the most cited journal, with 3546 citations. This study offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of UIKT research, paving the way for future studies and providing valuable directions for further investigations.