Academic inventors: collaboration and proximity with industry

Riccardo Crescenzi, Andrea Filippetti () and Simona Iammarino

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper addresses a number of fundamental research questions on university-industry (U-I) collaborations. Are U-I collaborations intrinsically different from other forms of collaboration, such as inter-firm or inter-university collaborations? Are they more difficult to form? Is their output qualitatively different? What factors facilitate their development? By looking at the collaborative behavior of all Italian inventors over the 1978-2007 period, the empirical analysis shows that U-I collaborations are less likely to happen when compared to other types of collaboration, and suggests that they tend to generate patents of more general applicability in subsequent inventions. As emphasized by the literature, geographical proximity plays an important role in facilitating all forms of collaboration. At the same time, it works as a possible substitute for institutional proximity, facilitating U-I collaborations. However, the involvement of ‘star inventors’ on both sides of the collaboration can play an equally important role in ‘bridging’ universities and industry.

Keywords: university-industry collaboration; institutional and geographical proximity; innovation; regions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O32 O33 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-cse, nep-geo, nep-ino and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

Published in Journal of Technology Transfer, 1, August, 2017, 42(4), pp. 730-762. ISSN: 0892-9912

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/67961/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Academic inventors: collaboration and proximity with industry (2017)
Working Paper: Academic Inventors: Collaboration and Proximity with Industry (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:67961

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