Development and Validation of a Strategic Partnership Dashboard for Long-Term University–Industry Collaboration

Sammanfattning

Long-term university–industry strategic partnerships require continuous coordination across multiple activities, focus areas, roles, and governance levels. Using the Tetra Pak–Lund University (TP–LU) partnership as the empirical setting, this thesis aims to design a strategic partnership dashboard for governance support and to develop design-oriented knowledge for shared dashboard use in similar long-term collaboration contexts. The study follows a Design Science Research approach, using document analysis, interviews, questionnaire responses, regular meetings, workshops, and a practical implementation interview to inform the development and evaluation of a pilot dashboard artefact. The artefact was developed through iterative refinement and organized around three connected layers: data collection and entry, thematic review and preparation layer, and steering-level synthesis and overview layer. Building on the artefact development and evaluation process, the study derives four design propositions that connect the practical governance information work of the TP–LU partnership with more general design knowledge for strategic partnership dashboard design. The propositions emphasize layered governance workflows, traceable shared information bases, common organizing structures with contextual explanation, and sustained governance value through organizational embedding, maintainable routines, and bounded human-AI support. In addition to these design propositions, the study offers practical suggestions for further TP–LU implementation and outlines future research directions concerning transferability, long-term use, organizational routines, and technical support boundaries.