The purpose of this study is to identify the nature of change taking place in university-industry partnerships, to understand the underlying factors that influence that change, and to explore the underlying process of change. Three in-depth case studies are considered, that of MIT, Cambridge University, and Tokyo University, to compare their experiences in developing new types of university-industry relationships. Hatakenaka argues that internal and external organizational boundaries have influenced the evolution of the new types of relationships, and that the three universities have defined these boundaries differently.