Spatial and non-spatial proximity in university–industry collaboration: Mutual reinforcement and decreasing effects

Abstract

The role of geographical proximity in fostering innovation is widely recognized, and local flows of information and knowledge-sharing play a critical role in interactive learning. The aim of this paper is to evaluate synergistic effects and non-linearities in spatial and non-spatial proximity in university–industry collaborations. Previous studies have evaluated this issue in scientific collaboration. Here, we examine the role of geographical and cognitive proximity in university-industry collaboration using data from collaborative projects between academic research groups and firms in Brazil (4,342 collaborations involving 3,063 firms and 1,738 research groups in most scientific fields). Our results reveal synergistic effects that mutually reinforce the benefits of geographical and cognitive proximity and reveal non-linearity in the impacts of geographical and cognitive proximity in university-industry collaborations. The contribution of our research is its examination of synergistic effects and non-linearities in university-industry collaborations that include information exchange and knowledge-sharing between firms and their academic partners.