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

th 2013) Abstract This study 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. Geographical proximity can facilitate an interactive learning process between universities and industry by allowing for frequent interaction and face-to-face contact, which speeds the transmission of local knowledge spillovers. However, it is also necessary to analyse the quality of the university's academic research because state-of-the-art scientific and technological expertise is required for the development of advanced industry innovations. This level of expertise is more commonly found at top-tier universities. To examine this point, the Directory of Research Groups from the Lattes database of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology was used. The Lattes database collects and compiles information on the activities of research groups in Brazil and their interactions with firms. By using these data, it was possible to identify factors that influence geographical distance in university-industry linkages, including the quality of academic research, local research efforts, and the characteristics of the local production structure. This study aims to contribute to the debate on the role of geographical proximity in university-industry interactions by providing an analysis of the issue in Brazil. Furthermore, the empirical model developed for this analysis introduces control variables that will help to identify the role of geographical proximity. The 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. Thus, it is evident that the costs of establishing long-distance university-industry relationships are overcome by the benefits offered by interacting with high capability research groups to solve complex and highly specific problems.