There is broad consensus that universities play a key role as knowledge platform in regional economic development. This PhD thesis exactly picks up this line of thought and explores the role of the German universities in a system of joint knowledge generation and innovation. The overall aim of this PhD thesis is to provide new insight into the German universities' behavioural patterns regarding their knowledge generation, innovation and collaboration function in order to finally provide appropriate policy recommendations which are very closely tailored to the requirements of the German universities as well as to the needs of the German knowledge-based community.