The innovation and its territorial factors: An analysis in the micro-regions of São Paulo.

This paper aims to examine empirically, through the application of the Knowledge Production Function, how the innovation in micro-region of São Paulo can be affected for some territorial factors. In the literature, and assumed here, the innovative results, measured by patents, are linked to the quantity and quality of innovative inputs and characteristics of the regions that are configured as an input. In this sense, stands the importance of positive externalities that are generated by the spatial concentration of producers and support institutions that are able to contribute to the efforts of innovative firms. In addition, this paper emphasizes the role of local production structures in the regions of São Paulo, since both the regional diversification and regional specialization are mentioned as important factors in the innovation process. The main results suggested that although the level of R&D investments were important for generating local innovation, ie, the generation of local patents, this relationship does not occur clearly in the regions of São Paulo. In addition, local productive structure or density linkages of firms that interacts are certainly important factors and compensatory for innovation process

University-industry linkages and the role of the geographical proximity

The main aim of this paper is to exam the local dimension of the university and industry linkages. It is widely recognized in the literature that academic research is an important source of new knowledge to the innovative efforts of the firms. Many authors, such as Audrescht and Feldman (1996), Acs and Varga (2005), Breschi and Lissoni (2009), have shown that academic research is positively correlated with firms’ innovation at the geographical level. There are two reasons that are pointed out for this correlation. First, there are many ways in which knowledge generated by academic research can spill over to the firms, such as research papers, patents and informal contacts. Second, geographical proximity can encourage cooperation between academic researchers and the R&D staff in the firms. In this way, this paper tries to measure empirically the geographical dimension of the university-industry linkages in Brazil, in the same way to the first effort presented in ERSA 2010 (Garcia et al, 2010). To do that, it was used data from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), collected at the CNPq Directory of Research Groups of Brazilian universities. The data shows that in 2008 there were 22,797 research groups from 422 institutions. Among these research groups, 2,726 declared that they have interactions with more than 3,800 firms, which means 5,132 interactions between university and industry. Data were organized both in firm-level and in research group-level; allow the identification of the localization of the firm and of the research group. Among the 5,132 interactions between firms and research groups, it was possible to see that 43.6% of interactions occur inside the same city; 51.2% inside the same region; and 75.3% in the same state. These results show the importance of the local dimension of the interactions between academic research of the university and innovative efforts of the firms. In addition, it was done some empirical tests in order to identify the main factors that contribute to foster university-industry linkages.

An exam of the role of the geographical proximity for the university-industry linkages

It is widely recognized in the literature that the clustering of firms can generate benefits for the local firms, especially in terms of the creation and diffusion of knowledge among producers. One of the main sources of this new knowledge is the academic research, which can contribute to the innovative efforts of the firms, mainly when researchers in university and industry can cooperate by build joint research projects. Many authors (Audrescht and Feldman, 1996; Acs and Varga, 2005; Breschi and Lissoni, 2009) have shown that academic research is positively correlated with firms' innovation at the geographical level. There are two reasons that are pointed out for this correlation. First, there are many ways in which knowledge generated by academic research can spill over to the firms, such as papers, patents and informal contacts. Second, geographical proximity can encourage cooperation between academic researchers and the R&D staff in the firms. Based on these statements, it was done an empirical research by using data from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), collected at the CNPq Directory of Research Groups of Brazilian universities. This database allows the identification of 2,151 interactive research groups, among 19,470, that declared that they have interactions with 3,068 firms. By the localization of both firms and university research groups, it was possible to gather information about the geographical pattern of university-industry linkages

University-industry linkages and the role of the geographical proximity

The main aim of this paper is to exam the local dimension of the university and industry linkages. It is widely recognized in the literature that academic research is an important source of new knowledge to the innovative efforts of the firms. Many authors, such as Audrescht and Feldman (1996), Acs and Varga (2005), Breschi and Lissoni (2009), have shown that academic research is positively correlated with firms' innovation at the geographical level. There are two reasons that are pointed out for this correlation. First, there are many ways in which knowledge generated by academic research can spill over to the firms, such as research papers, patents and informal contacts. Second, geographical proximity can encourage cooperation between academic researchers and the R&D staff in the firms. In this way, this paper tries to measure empirically the geographical dimension of the university-industry linkages in Brazil, in the same way to the first effort presented in ERSA 2010 (Garcia et al, 2010). To do that, it was used data from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), collected at the CNPq Directory of Research Groups of Brazilian universities. The data shows that in 2008 there were 22,797 research groups from 422 institutions. Among these research groups, 2,726 declared that they have interactions with more than 3,800 firms, which means 5,132 interactions between university and industry. Data were organized both in firm-level and in research group-level; allow the identification of the localization of the firm and of the research group. Among the 5,132 interactions between firms and research groups, it was possible to see that 43.6% of interactions occur inside the same city; 51.2% inside the same region; and 75.3% in the same state. These results show the importance of the local dimension of the interactions between academic research of the university and innovative efforts of the firms. In addition, it was done some empirical tests in order to identify the main factors that contribute to foster university-industry linkages

The role of the geographical proximity and the quality of academic research to university-industry linkages

This paper examines how the geographical proximity of university-industry linkages relates to the quality of an institution?s research, local efforts in research and development (R&D), and characteristics of a region?s production structure. The important role of universities for the firms? innovative efforts has been widely accepted in the literature. In particular, universities serve as a source of new scientific and technological knowledge and geographical proximity can facilitate an interactive learning process between universities and industry. To exam this point, database of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology was used, such it collects and compiles information on the activities of research groups in Brazil and their interactions with firms. Findings from this study show a positive correlation between the quality of research groups and the mean distance of interactions with firms. Top-tier research groups interact with both local firms (due to the convenience of being co-located) and more distant producers in need of cutting edge research and expertise to support advanced innovation. It is evident, then, that the costs of establishing long-distance university-industry relationships are overcome by the benefits offered by interacting with high capabilities research groups to solve complex and highly specific problems. Results also show that the increasing positive correlation between academic quality and interaction distance decreases with an increase in quality. This pattern was demonstrated by the quadratic parameter used in the empirical model and is particularly significant when top-tier research groups are involved. Thus, the mean distance of interactions tends to decrease when the interactions involve centres of academic excellence. However, the importance of second-tier universities cannot be neglected. Results from the empirical model indicate a positive correlation between academic research quality and interaction distance, suggesting that second-tier universities tend to interact more frequently with local firms. Findings from this study indicate that second-tier universities are well-equipped to handle the simpler needs of local producers, which do not require cutting edge expertise or complex academic capabilities. Findings from this study have important policy implications. Results emphasise the importance of creating and supporting top-tier centres of advanced research, since these centres are able to generate and exchange complex knowledge through university-industry linkages. It is also important to support research development in second-tier universities, as these universities attend to the specific needs of local businesses and help enhance their competitiveness. Finally, it is worth noting that industry R&D efforts greatly contribute to the development of university-industry linkages

An analysis of the characteristics of firms and universities in shaping geographical distance of university-industry linkages

University has being playing an increasing role in supporting innovation. In this way, university-industry linkages has become a growing subject in the literature, in order to understand how these relationships are shaped on space. Recent issue is about the role of geographical distribution of these relations, since geographical proximity can provide important benefits for firms in accessing these sources of information and new knowledge. The aim of this paper is to examine the main factors that affect geographical distance of university-industry linkages, by analysing both sides of collaboration, the characteristics of firms and universities. Several studies show that there are important benefits related to the co-location of firms? R&D staff and academic researchers (Jaffe, 1989; Audrescht & Feldman, 1996; Arundel & Geuna, 2004; D?Este & Iamarino, 2010; De Fuentes & Dutrenit, 2014). However, recent analyses show that, several times, firms prefer to collaborate with geographically distant universities, since there are some factors that stimulate firms to go far to interact with university (D?Este & Iamarino, 2010; Laursen et al, 2011; Muscio, 2013). Hence, the main question that the literature are trying to answer is why firms go far to interact with university. General results points to two main drivers. First, firms look for distant universities when they cannot find local high-performance academic research. Second, firms must have high absorptive capacity in order to be able to search for universities that are able to solve their innovative problems. Previous studies show important evidence to this debate. However, they left an important gap that requires deeper analysis, since evidence presented in previous studies are based only on information about the university (D?Este & Iammarino, 2010; Muscio, 2013) or only of the firm (Laursen et al, 2011; De Fuentes & Dutrenit, 2014). Linked to this issue, this paper aims to contribute to this debate not only by presenting new evidence on the main drivers of the pattern of geographical distance of university-industry linkages, but also by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the collaboration by using complete information of both universities and firms. To do that, a wide-ranging database of interactions between university and industry was used in the scientific fields of Engineering and Agrarian Sciences in Brazil. Main results of the empirical analysis show that bigger firms with higher absorptive capacity tend to interact with more distant research groups, which shows the importance of the skills of the firm to find universities, local or distant, that are able to solve their innovative problems. On the side of the university, larger research groups and those who perform higher quality academic research presents higher average geographical distance of interactions, which shows that they are able to attract more distant firms to collaborate

University-industry linkages and the influence of the characteristics of academic research groups

There is a growing interest on university-industry linkages in the field of innovation studies, since university can be an important source of information for firms' innovative efforts. In this way, this paper aims to exam how the characteristics of academic research groups influence their interactions with firms. Using data from a survey with research groups in Brazil, an empirical model to evaluate how the characteristics of research groups impact their interactions with firms was estimated. Main results show that research groups with better academic performance, larger and linked to bigger university departments interact more with firms. Additionally, Engineering and Agricultural Sciences research groups also interact more. The main contribution of the paper is to present a better understand of the main factors that shape university-industry linkages in Brazil and how the characteristics of research groups influence their interactions.As interações universidade-empresa vêm ganhando papel de destaque nas investigações na área dos estudos da inovação, uma vez que a universidade pode ser uma importante fonte de informações para os esforços inovativos das empresas. Com base nesse contexto, este artigo tem como objetivo avaliar como as características dos grupos acadêmicos de pesquisa influenciam suas interações com as empresas. A partir dos dados de um survey com os grupos de pesquisa no Brasil, foi estimado um modelo empírico que avalia como as características dos grupos de pesquisa impactam suas interações com empresas. Os principais resultados mostram que grupos de pesquisa com melhor desempenho acadêmico, de maior tamanho e que estão ligados departamentos universitários maiores, possuem maior número de interações. Ainda, grupos de pesquisa das áreas de Engenharia e Ciências Agrárias interagem mais com empresas. Assim, este trabalho tem como principal contribuição auxiliar a melhor compreensão dos fatores que conformam as interações universidade-empresa no Brasil e como as características dos grupos de pesquisa influenciam a interação.Universidade de São Paulo Escola PolitécnicaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)USP Escola PolitécnicaUNIFESPUNIFESPSciEL

The role of geographic proximity for university- industry linkages in Brazil: an empirical analysis

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of geographic proximity in the occurrence of university - industry linkages. The main argument is that university - industry linkages are strongly localized, which suggests that geographic proximity between academic research and firms’ research and development ( R&D ) facilities matters in fostering university - industry linkages. Interactions between university and industry in Brazil were analysed using data from the Census 2004 - Directory of Research Groups . Using this data it was possible to gather information on 2 108 academic research groups that interact with 3 068 firms. From the location of both firms and university research groups, it was possible to analyse the spatial pattern of university - industry linkages in Brazil, and the differences among knowledge areas. The results of the empirical analysis show that geographic proximity matters for the cooperation between firms and academic research groups. In addition, significant differences among knowledge areas imply different location patterns in university - industry linkage

Efeitos da qualidade da pesquisa acadêmica sobre a distância geográfica das interações universidade-empresa

É crescente o interesse sobre a importância da interação universidade-empresa e como\ud essas relações se conformam no espaço geográfico. Nesse contexto, este trabalho tem\ud o objetivo de examinar os fatores que influenciam a distância geográfica das interações\ud universidade-empresa, com especial atenção para a qualidade da pesquisa acadêmica,\ud além de outros fatores, como os esforços locais de P&D e as características da estrutura\ud produtiva da região. Para isso, foi estimado um modelo empírico que utiliza os dados das\ud interações dos grupos de pesquisa acadêmicos do Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa da\ud base Lattes do CNPq. Os resultados mostram que a qualidade da pesquisa acadêmica é\ud positivamente correlacionada com a distância geográfica, o que indica que os grupos de\ud pesquisa com mais elevado desempenho acadêmico tendem a interagir com empresas\ud mais distantes. Porém, não se deve negligenciar a importância das universidades de\ud desempenho acadêmico mais modesto, uma vez que elas são capazes de atender as\ud demandas das empresas locais e colaborar com seus esforços inovativosApoio financeiro da FAPESP (2012/23.370-5) e do CNPq (401.529/2010-0