ARTICLES
The spatial profile of university‐business research partnerships

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1435-5957.2010.00292.xGet rights and content
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Abstract

This paper focuses on one particular type of linkage between university and business – joint research partnerships – and addresses two specific issues. First, it investigates the extent to which research quality and geographical proximity bear an influence on the frequency of the collaborations between university departments and businesses. Second, it explores the factors affecting the geographical distance of university‐business partnerships. Our findings show that both geographical proximity and research quality are positively associated with the frequency of university‐industry partnerships; though, results are not homogenous across scientific disciplines. Our results also show that distance between university and business partners exhibit a curvilinear (inverted‐U shape) relationship with the research excellence of university departments.

Resumen

Este artículo se centra en un tipo específico de vínculo entre universidad y empresa – consorcios de investigación – y trata dos temas específicos. Primero, investiga hasta dónde influyen la calidad en la investigación y la proximidad geográfica en la frecuencia de colaboraciones entre departamentos universitarios y empresas. Segundo, explora los factores que afectan a la distancia geográfica de los consorcios universidad‐empresa. Nuestros resultados muestran que tanto la proximidad geográfica como la calidad en la investigación están asociadas positivamente a la frecuencia de consorcios universidad‐empresa; aun así, los resultados no son homogéneos para todas las disciplinas científicas. Nuestros resultados muestran también que la distancia entre socios de universidades y empresas muestra una relación curvilínea (en U invertida) con la excelencia investigadora de los departamentos universitarios.

Keywords

University‐industry linkages
geographical proximity
collaborative research partnerships

JEL Classification

O31
O32
O33

Cited by (0)

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007‐2013) under grant agreement no 216813. One of the authors acknowledges support from the Innovation and Productivity Grant Challenge (IPGC), an initiative of the Advanced Institute of Management Research funded by UK EPSRC. The authors would like to thank three anonymous referees for their extremely valuable and extended suggestions on how to improve the paper. The authors are also grateful for comments on earlier versions from the partners of the Intangible Assets and Regional Economic Growth (IAREG) Project, and they are also indebted to Toke Reichstein (CBS) and Ammon Salter (ICL) for the GRIDLINK data and methodology. All errors and omissions remain our own.