Revealing the online network between University and Industry: The case of Turkey

TL;DR

This study explores the web-based relationships between Turkish universities and industry by analyzing web presence and visibility indicators, revealing significant differences and highlighting the need for further longitudinal research.

Contribution

It introduces a webometric approach to mapping university-industry links in Turkey using web impact indicators, providing initial insights into their online network.

Findings

Significant differences in web presence between universities and companies.

Web impact indicators vary notably across sectors.

The study underscores the exploratory nature and the need for larger, longitudinal analyses.

Abstract

The present paper attempts to explore the relationship between the Turkish academic and industry systems by mapping the relationships under web indicators. We used the top 100 Turkish universities and the top 10 Turkish companies in 10 industrial sectors in order to observe the performance of web impact indicators. Total page count metric is obtained through Google Turkey and the pure link metrics have been gathered from Open Site Explorer. The indicators obtained both for web presence and web visibility indicated that there are significant differences between the group of academic institutions and those related to companies within the web space of Turkey. However, this current study is exploratory and should be replicated with a larger sample of both Turkish universities and companies in each sector. Likewise, a longitudinal study rather than sectional would eliminate or smooth fluctuations of web data (especially URL mentions) as a more adequate understanding of the relations between Turkish institutions, and their web impact, is reached.