The spatial component of R&D networks

Tobias Scholl (), Antonios Garas () and Frank Schweitzer ()
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Tobias Scholl: Philipps University of Marburg
Antonios Garas: Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich
Frank Schweitzer: Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich

Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2018, vol. 28, issue 2, No 11, 417-436

Abstract: Abstract We study the role of geography in R&D networks by means of a quantitative, micro-geographic approach. Using a large database that covers international R&D collaborations from 1984 to 2009, we localize each actor precisely in space through its latitude and longitude. This allows us to analyze the R&D network at all geographic scales simultaneously. Our empirical results show that despite the high importance of the city level, transnational R&D collaborations at large distances are much more frequent than expected from similar networks. This provides evidence for the ambiguity of distance in economic collaboration which is also suggested by the existing literature. In addition we test whether the hypothesis of local buzz and global pipelines applies to the observed R&D network by calculating well-defined metrics from network theory.

Keywords: Complex network; Geographic distance; R&D; Collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 F60 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00191-017-0531-7

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