University-enterprise cooperation for the employability of higher education graduates : a social capital approach

Our paper addresses the analysis of how the collaboration between HEIs and companies affects the employability of HEIs students. We approach the paper from a social capital theoretical framework, and the perspective of companies, investigating how the intensity of collaboration between HEIs and companies, as well as the diversity of mechanisms used, affects the satisfaction of employers in HEIs graduates in companies. We use the database on ‘Employers’ perception of graduate employability’ from Flash Eurobarometer of the European Commission, collecting the responses of 7,036 companies in Europe. From the theoretical point of view, our paper contributes to expanding the previous literature, showing that creating an active collaboration between the university and the company both in-depth and in breadth is a facilitator of the employment of HEIs graduates. The second contribution of our paper is rooted in managerial implications. Our results highlight the importance of establishing strong ties with HEIs, in terms of achieving a higher level of satisfaction with the employer of HEI graduates in the companies.