Knowledge spillover from university research before the national innovation system reform in Japan: localisation, mechanisms, and intermediaries

Abstract

This study examines whether and how university knowledge affected industry R&D in the period when university–industry collaborations encountered institutional barriers. Panel estimation of the regional knowledge production function (1983–1996) revealed that university research had localised impacts on industrial innovations, measured by patents filed by the Japanese firms, with a five-year lag. University–industry joint research did not act as a conduit of university spillover, which suggests that informal channels, such as voluntary transfer of academic inventions in return to donation, worked in the pre-reform period. Intermediaries as a part of regional innovation policy, represented as local public technology centres, exerted a positive impact on industrial innovations in the region. Their immediate impacts suggest the contribution of technology diffusion, such as technical consultation, that help small local firms solve current problems while their far-reaching impacts suggest the importance of knowledge creation, such as own research.