Abstract—The paper’s key objective is to explore the social
tie enabling the knowledge flow in the academia-industry
collaboration. The inquiry is based on an ethnographic work in
ATMI Polytechnic Cikarang. It pursues its analysis through
case studies. The main argument in this paper is that
alumnaeship is the social tie fostering the academia-industry
linkage. This social tie invites one to reconceptualise the notion
of physical proximity. Such reconceptualisation is tenable, as
this research shows: first, the pertinence of geographic
reference point being made to ATMI Polytechnic Solo for
collaborations to take place, and second, the thick linkage of
alumnaeship enabling the flow of tacit knowledge. The study
contributes to the inquiry of academia-industry collaboration
from an organisational sociology standpoint.
Index Terms—Vocational education, industry-academia
collaboration, tacit knowledge
Farah Purwaningrum is with the Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti
Brunei Darussalam (e-mail: farah.purwaningrum@ubd.edu.bn).
Cite:Farah Purwaningrum, "The Social Tie That Binds: Academia-Industry Collaboration in ATMI Polytechnic Cikarang, Indonesia," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 547-553, 2013.