Cluster and Local Science-Industry Collaborations: Evidence from a Place-based Innovation Policy

Aurelien Quignon
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Aurelien Quignon: ICN Business School, CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine

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Abstract: Place-based cluster policies have been widely adopted to foster regional innovation by promoting R&D collaborations. While previous research highlights the behavioral additionality of these policies, evidence regarding their effectiveness in fostering science-industry (S-I) collaborations remains limited. This paper examines the impact of the establishment of the French Competitive Cluster Program in 2005 on S-I collaborations. Leveraging a novel dataset of collaborative patents from 2000 to 2018, the results show that the cluster policy increases S-I collaborations within targeted regions. Additional analyses suggest that the effect is strongest in knowledge-intensive sectors and is associated with higher patent quality. Furthermore, the cluster policy induces a shift in innovative search strategies, with greater reliance on prior knowledge, suggesting a move toward incremental innovation. The findings contribute to the literature on the effectiveness of place-based cluster policies on science-industry collaborations and offer new insights into how to promote new collaborations through direct R&D subsidies and the diffusion of academic research into industrial applications.

Keywords: Science-Industry Collaborations Cluster policy Organizational change Regional Innovation. JEL Codes: J24 O31 O34; Science-Industry Collaborations; Cluster policy; Organizational change; Regional Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09-24
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04701809

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4663785

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