Proximity, network formation and inventive performance: in search of the proximity paradox

Lorenzo Cassi and Anne Plunket

The Annals of Regional Science, 2014, vol. 53, issue 2, 395-422

Abstract: Based on patent data in the field of genomics between 1990 and 2010, we investigate how social network relationships, various proximity dimensions (geographical, organizational, technological) and their interplay affect the likelihood of forming technological collaborations and their inventive performance. We show that the network and proximity characteristics of co-inventors enable them to access different sources of knowledge, in different geographical and organizational contexts, and finally affect the quality of inventive collaboration. Based on econometric estimations, our results enable to address the proximity paradox argument that proximity acts differently on the formation of collaborations and innovative performance. Our results partly support this paradox. Although all types of proximity positively impact on the formation of new collaborations, only organizational and technological proximities directly impact performance. Moreover, the optimal level of technological proximity critically varies given the organizational and social network context. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Keywords: O31; O33; R11; D85; L65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00168-014-0612-6 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Proximity, network formation and inventive performance: in search of the proximity paradox (2014)
Working Paper: Proximity, network formation and inventive performance: in search of the proximity paradox (2014)
Working Paper: Proximity, network formation and inventive performance: in search of the proximity paradox (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:anresc:v:53:y:2014:i:2:p:395-422

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://link.springer.com/journal/168

DOI: 10.1007/s00168-014-0612-6

Access Statistics for this article

The Annals of Regional Science is currently edited by Martin Andersson, E. Kim and Janet E. Kohlhase

More articles in The Annals of Regional Science from Springer, Western Regional Science Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().