In a fast moving business environment university-industry collaborations play a critical role in contributing to national economies and furthering a competitive advantage. Knowledge transfer from university to industry is supported by national governments as part of their innovation, national growth and competitiveness agenda. A university-industry landscape involves multiple stakeholders with multiple, and often contradicting, objectives and organizational mind-set and cultures. The paper is based on a systematic literature review of the effectiveness of university industry collaborations from a holistic perspective in order to identify drivers and barriers to a fruitful collaboration. A dedicated section explores knowledge transfer in the emerging market context to provide an international dimension to a growing international trend in university industry collaboration. The key findings on success factors relate to organizational and individual contexts, knowledge attributes and relational aspects. The literature research findings are further tested through a survey of key stakeholders: university managers, researchers, industry managers and government representatives, revealing differences in perception among various stakeholders' groups. The paper provides an insight into drivers and potential barriers in university-industry collaborations. The findings enable developing a practical framework for the universities to support their decision-making process. The framework can be used a support tool for evaluating university industry collaborations both generally and in the international context.