The regional network capital index in Mexico from 2012 to 2016

Abstract

Based-off the regional development theory developed from knowledge and innovation, Huggins & Thompson [1] have proposed the concept of Network Capital, which aims to explain the importance of knowledge flow, knowledge absorptive capacity and investments on associations between firms and Universities or Scientific Centers or other firms in order to increase regional development. This paper used empirical data from Mexico for the period 2012–2016 to propose an alternative to the calculation of Network Capital at State level as an alternative to the Huggins and Thompson proposal. The data used cover all the 32 Mexican States about innovation activities. On this paper is shown the deep differences between Mexican States about the knowledge qualities, the absorptive capacity of knowledge and the investments on strategic associations, it that might be typical at non-innovation Nations. Although the proposal on this paper cannot be directly compared to that of Huggins and Thompson, both shows evidence that, the greater network capital, the greater the potential development based on knowledge.