Proximity and Collaboration in European Nanotechnology

Collaborations are particularly important for the development and deployment of technology. We analyze the influence of organizational, technological and geographical proximity on European nanotechnology collaborations with the help of a publication dataset and additional geographical information. While organizational proximity influences collaboration only indirectly geographical and technological proximity do so directly. Geographical proximity is most significant in statistical terms and technological proximity has the highest magnitude of effect. Consequently, the latter lends itself most for management and policy interventions, e.g. providing information on technological specialization of potential partners or on project management tools.

[1]  W. Greene.  Functional forms for the negative binomial model for count data , 2008 .

[2]  R. Boschma.  Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment , 2005 .

[3]  Andrew J. Nelson.  Measuring Knowledge Spillovers: What Patents, Licenses and Publications Reveal About Innovation Diffusion , 2009 .

[4]  European Parliament Resolution on Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies: An Action Plan for Europe 2005–2009 , 2010 .

[5]  Massimo G. Colombo,et al.  Alliance form: a test of the contractual and competence perspectives , 2003 .

[6]  Kumiko Miyazaki,et al.  Nanotechnology innovation system: Understanding hidden dynamics of nanoscience fusion trajectories , 2009 .

[7]  Alan L. Porter,et al.  Bibliometric discovery of innovation and commercialization pathways in nanotechnology , 2011, 2011 Proceedings of PICMET '11: Technology Management in the Energy Smart World (PICMET).

[8]  Can Huang,et al.  Nanotechnology publications and patents: a review of social science studies and search strategies , 2008 .

[9]  Mario A. Maggioni,et al.  Space Vs. Networks in the Geography of Innovation: A European Analysis , 2007 .

[10]  Jan Youtie,et al.  Emergence of Nanodistricts in the United States , 2008 .

[11]  Paul Dewick,et al.  Modelling creative destruction: Technological diffusion and industrial structure change to 2050 , 2006 .

[12]  K. Frenken,et al.  The citation impact of research collaboration in science‐based industries: A spatial‐institutional analysis , 2010 .

[13]  H. C. Meister,et al.  Physical and organizational proximity in territorial innovation systems Introduction to the special issue , 2004 .

[14]  M. Newman,et al.  The structure of scientific collaboration networks. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  Roberto Verganti,et al.  Designing foresight studies for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NST) future developments , 2008 .

[16]  Claudia Werker,et al.  Marshall’s disciples: knowledge and innovation driving regional economic development and growth , 2004 .

[17]  C. Edquist.  Design of innovation policy through diagnostic analysis: identification of systemic problems (or failures) , 2011 .

[18]  C. Autant‐Bernard,et al.  Social distance versus spatial distance in R & D cooperation: Empirical evidence from European collaboration choices in micro and nanotechnologies , 2007 .

[19]  V. Gilsing,et al.  A system failure framework for innovation policy design , 2005 .

[20]  Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli,et al.  Proximity and knowledge gatekeepers: the case of the Polytechnic University of Turin , 2008, J. Knowl. Manag..

[21]  Teodora Diana Corsatea,et al.  Measuring science: Spatial investigation of academic opportunities in Belgium , 2010 .

[22]  Mario A. Maggioni,et al.  Knowledge networks across Europe: which distance matters? , 2009 .

[23]  J. Youtie,et al.  Refining search terms for nanotechnology , 2008 .

[24]  Martin Meyer,et al.  What do we know about innovation in nanotechnology? Some propositions about an emerging field between hype and path-dependency , 2007, Scientometrics.

[25]  P. Cooke,et al.  Regional innovation systems: Institutional and organisational dimensions , 1997 .

[26]  J. Knoben,et al.  Proximity and Inter-Organizational Collaboration: A Literature Review , 2006 .

[27]  J. S. Katz,et al.  What is research collaboration , 1997 .

[28]  Vincent Mangematin,et al.  Understanding the emergence and deployment of “nano” S&T , 2007, 0911.3323.

[29]  T. Brenner,et al.  Regional innovation systems, clusters, and knowledge networking , 2011 .

[30]  C. E. SHANNON,et al.  A mathematical theory of communication , 1948, MOCO.