Innovative Place-Based Triple Helix Approaches for Regional Development through Smart Specialisation Strategies 28-29 June, 2019 St Mary’s University, Waldegrave Suite, UK A pla lace-based perspective to research-in industry ry in interactions: who are the key research partners for lo local l busin inesses ? Federica Rossi, Birkbeck, University of London Panel 1: Innovative Place-Based Triple Helix Approaches: Connecting Research and Innovation Players with Economic Growth
Public research actors as catalysts for growth • Particularly as we attempt to develop place based policies involving the public research system, it is paramount to understand who are the public research actors that local companies collaborate with, and how • Probably due to data availability issues, the literature on university-industry interactions, including in a Triple Helix perspective: • tends to focus predominantly on the universities’ side of the relationship • when it focuses on the industry side, mostly relies on company-level rather that individual level data • neglects other public research organisations 2
Outline • To better implement place-based policies, it is crucial to • understand which research players local industry interacts with, why, and how • focus on the whole set of research actors, not just universities • Some findings from my recent research focusing on regional companies and industry inventors, and their relationships with universities, as well as on the role of other actors in the public research system 3
Which research partners does local industry interact with? • Two original surveys of companies and company-based inventors in Piemonte, Italy • UIPIE survey: 1,052 companies • PIEMINV: 2,945 inventors employed in industry (holding at least one patent filed at the European Patent Office between 1998 and 2005), about 1600 usable responses • Some findings in line with previous research: • companies rely on open science channels (scientific publications and conferences) more than proprietary sources (licenses) • the more educated the workforce the more companies can exploit academic knowledge • larger and more R&D-intensive companies are more likely to interact with universities 4
Not all university-industry knowledge transfer involves universities: a lot of it is based on direct personal interactions • 17.5% of companies are involved in academic research collaborations: • 7.9% exclusively through direct personal interactions with academics • 9.9% formalize their interactions with the university institutions (alongside, possibly, direct interactions with academics) • Personal interactions with academics are particularly appealing to dynamic small and medium size enterprises which probably find institutional channels too cumbersome: these companies are smaller and more likely to adopt open innovation strategies than those that use institutional channels 5
• Similar results when we surveyed individual company inventors about their individual interactions with universities Channels of Interaction Used – not Used – very Used important important Institutional research collaborations between your 15.3% 12.8% 28.1% company and the university (department, faculty, university, technology transfer office), financed by the company Institutional research collaborations between your 14.4% 11.4% 25.8% company and the university, financed through public funds (regional, national or international) Personal contracts between your company and 14.2% 11.6% 25.8% individual university researchers 6
• Effectiveness of collaboration types for achieving different objectives 7
• Personal collaborations are particularly important because they contribute to the production of valuable inventions Variables (significant ones only) Economic value of invention with highest contribution from university knowledge relative to most valuable invention in portfolio Type of collaboration • Personal contracts (IV) + • Institutional contracts Type of knowledge • Theories + • Methods + • Applied • Contact Type of firm • SMEs • Large firms - • Technological capability + Technology dummies YES Observations 580 8
The social sciences have a key role to play in regional knowledge transfer • Many interactions between companies and universities focus on providing solutions to legal, logistic, marketing, management and organizational problems • This is particularly so for interactions between companies and universities based in the same region, while interactions between more distant universities are more likely to concern technological (R&D, testing) issues 9
Both Regional and Only Non-regional Both Regional and Non-regional university partners Non-regional university partners university partners versus Only Regional versus Only Regional versus Only Non- university partners university partners regional university partners Variables (significant ones only) R&D and Test + R&D and Business Consultancy - + Only Test Only Business Consultancy - + Size + Constant - - Industry dummies YES YES YES Observations 90 90 90 10
• This may depend on the fact that business problem-solving : • requires direct interactions that allow the transfer of tacit knowledge • builds upon detailed knowledge of the socioeconomic and legal-institutional context in which the firm operates • Instead, collaborations around R&D and testing activities • involve more often codified and abstract forms of knowledge, the transmission of which does not require direct interactions • may involve very specific knowledge that does not exist in the region 11
Collaborations with distant universities require appropriate networks • Collaborations with distant universities: • difficult (higher transaction costs), but often necessary when firms need to access frontier scientific knowledge not available locally, often from top ranked departments • Companies are often larger and tend to invest more, since technology-focused projects are usually more expensive than those focused on the solution of business problems • Different networks matter for local versus international collaborations 12
� � Interaction with Italian universities � � � 222 � � � � 10 57 � � � Interaction � Interaction with 42 � with US European � universities universities � 6 1 1 13
• Education based personal networks (alumni effect) very important, but only for regional and national universities • Career based personal networks: mixed results, only partly relevant for very distant (US) collaborations • Working in a national or international MNE increases the probability of collaboration with international universities (no effect for local uni). • Only the organizational network of foreign MNEs is useful in order to reach more distant locations 14
(1) (2) (3) (3a) (3b) Regional Other Italian Foreign European US University Variables (significant ones only) University University University University MNE affiliation • Employed by a Foreign MNE + + + • Employed by an Italian MNE + + Career based network • Worked outside Piedmont - - + • Personal international network Education based network • Alumni effect + + Individual characteristics and education controls YES YES YES YES YES Company characteristics controls YES YES YES YES YES Selection equation YES YES YES YES YES Observations 644 612 587 582 579 15
Beyond universities: public research organizations • Public research organizations are important research performers in many countries, including both emerging economies (e.g. Brazil, South Africa, India) and high and middle income economies (e.g. Germany, France, Spain, South Korea) • Yet, they are under studied: evidence is that they PROs engage in knowledge transfer but we know very little about their interactions with external stakeholders, including at local level, and the practices that they adopt do so. 16
The UK system: many PROs but difficult to identify the sector’s boundaries Number of PROs Number of PROs (only (including research and research institutes) cultural institutes) Departmental Research 76 28 Bodies Research Council 27 21 Institutes MRC units 34 34 Total 137 83 • Departmental PROs perform “responsive research” on topics directly mandated by the government while Research Council PROs are more autonomous in setting their research priorities 17
• PROs by sector: specialized 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 Human Health & Well Being, disease control Environment and sustainability, including Marine Environment & Food and agriculture, animal health Physical Sciences Biological Sciences, Plants Space/ Earth Observation/ Aerospace National and Individual Security Built Environment, land use 18
• PROs by region: unequally distributed 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 South East England East of England Greater London Scotland South West England East Midlands Northern Ireland Yorkshire and the Humber North West England West Midlands North East England Wales 19
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