ASP, The Art and Science of Practice: Academia-Industry Interfacing in Operations Research in Montréal

This paper reports on the 40-year experience of academia-industry interfacing in the operations research (OR) field in Montréal. We focus on five spin off companies that academic entrepreneurs from the CIRRELT and the GERAD created between 1976 and 2003: INRO Consultants, GIRO, AD OPT, Omega Optimisation/Planora, and ExPretio. The importance of university spin offs for knowledge transfer is well documented in fields such as biology and nanotechnology; however, few papers have studied university spin offs in OR. Yet, OR has an enormous impact on society, and university spin off firms play a key role in the diffusion of research to the world of practitioners. In this paper, we tell the story of five companies created by academics from two world-renowned OR research centers based in Montréal, and we derive lessons about academia-industry interfacing in the OR field. By so doing, we hope to improve our understanding of the creation of fruitful relationships between academics and OR practitioners.