This study shows for eight science-based industries that the citation impact of research collaboration is higher for international collaboration than for national and regional collaboration. A further analysis of institutional affiliations shows that university-industry-government collaborations profit from being organized at the regional scale only in the cases of biotechnology and organic fine chemistry. The alleged importance of physical proximity for successful interaction between university, industry and government thus is not robust across industries. We discuss the policy implications that follow.
This study shows for eight science-based industries that the citation impact of research collaboration is higher for international collaboration than for national and regional collaboration. A further analysis of institutional affiliations shows that university-industry-government collaborations profit from being organised at the regional scale only in the cases of biotechnology and organic fine chemistry. The alleged importance of physical proximity for successful interaction between university, industry and government thus is not robust across industries. We discuss the policy implications that follow.
In economic theory, one can distinguish between variety as a source of regional knowledge spillovers, called Jacobs externalities, and variety as a portfolio protecting a region from external shocks. We argue that Jacobs externalities are best measured by related variety (within sectors), while the portfolio argument is better captured by unrelated variety (between sectors). We introduce a methodology based on entropy measures to compute related variety and unrelated variety. Using regional data for the period 1996-2002 for The Netherlands, we find that Jacobs externalities enhance employment growth, while unrelated variety dampens unemployment growth. Implications for regional policy follow. Dans la théorie économique, la variété peut se présenter de manière distincte suivant qu'elle constitue une source de retombées de connaissances régionales, appelées externalités de Jacobs, ou un portefeuille qui protège la région des chocs externes. Nous affirmons que la variété intrasectorielle (au sein des secteurs) permet de mieux mesurer les externalités de Jacobs alors que la notion de portefeuille est mieux saisie par la variété intersectorielle (entre les secteurs). Nous présentons une méthodologie fondée sur des mesures d'entropie afin d'estimer ces deux types de variété. À partir des données régionales des Pays-Bas sur la période 1996-2002, nous constatons que les externalités de Jacobs augmentent la croissance de l'emploi, alors que la variété intersectorielle atténue celle du chômage. S'ensuivent des implications pour la politique régionale.
Collaboration and the exchange of knowledge are supposedly made easier by geographical proximity because of the tacit character of knowledge. Recently a number of scholars' criticised this view on geographical proximity as being oversimplified and argued that the precise role of geographical proximity for knowledge exchange and collaboration still remains unclear. This paper analyses the role of geographical proximity for collaborative scientific research in science-based technologies between universities, companies and governmental research institutes. We test the hypothesis that the collaboration between different kinds of organisations is more geographically localised than collaboration between organisations that are similar due to institutional proximity. Using data on co-publications, collaborations patterns are analysed and the hypothesis is confirmed.
We analyse inter-regional research collaboration as measured by scientific publications and patents with multiple addresses, covering 1316 NUTS3 regions in 29 European countries. The estimates of gravity equations show the effects of geographical and institutional distance on research collaboration. We also find evidence for the existence of elite structures between excellence regions and between capital regions. The results suggest that current EU science policy to stimulate research collaboration is legitimate, but doubt the compatibility between EU science policy and EU cohesion policy.
