We investigate the determinants of industry researchers’ interactions with universities
in different localities, distinguishing between local and international universities. We
analyze the extent to which local and international interactions are enabled by
different types of individual personal networks (education, career based), and by their
access to different business networks through their employer companies (local vs.
domestic or international multinational company networks). We control for selection
bias and numerous other individual and firm-level factors identified in the literature as
important determinants of interaction with universities. Our findings suggest that
industry researchers’ personal networks play a greater role in promoting interactions
with local universities (i.e. in the same region, and other regions in the same country)
while researcher employment in a multinational is especially important for
establishing interaction with universities abroad
