Abstract
This paper contributes to the growing literature on knowledge network evolution. It provides an analysis of the role universities play in a network emerging from the joint participation of organizations in R&D projects subsidized by public authorities. In addition to theorizing universities’ effect on network formation processes, the paper includes an empirical study identifying the main drivers behind the formation of the subsidized network of R&D collaboration in the German biotechnology industry.We find that universities strongly shape the evolution of the network in the period 2007–2010. They are clearly central knowledge sources and dominate the network as partners in many R&D projects. While knowledge links among universities are an essential part of the network, universities are also able to connect local firms to inter-regional knowledge networks. Accordingly, subsidies for joint R&D support universities in acting as regional gatekeepers and thereby facilitate local and inter-regional knowledge diffusion.
Highlights
Firms’ competitiveness emerges from the capability to exploit, integrate, and recombine existing knowledge in order to produce new knowledge more efficiently than their competitors (Kogut and Zander 1992; Grant 1996)
We focus on yet another transmission channel that is gaining more and more importance: knowledge spillovers emerging from the participation in subsidized joint research and development (R&D) projects
The presented study investigates the evolution of a network that emerged from subsidized R&D collaboration in the German biotechnology industry
Summary
Firms’ competitiveness emerges from the capability to exploit, integrate, and recombine existing knowledge in order to produce new knowledge more efficiently than their competitors (Kogut and Zander 1992; Grant 1996). We focus on yet another transmission channel that is gaining more and more importance: knowledge spillovers emerging from the participation in subsidized joint R&D projects Due to their up-to-date R&D activities and access to international collaboration partners, universities generate and accumulate valuable knowledge assets making them attractive collaboration partners (Jaffe 1989; Blind and Grupp 1999). Camagni 1991; Fritsch and Slavtchev 2007), the role universities play in networks emerging from the subsidization of joint R&D projects has received far less attention Insights about this will contribute to the understanding of how policy activities translate into knowledge network development but will add to the understanding of interrelating policy effects. In the following we will discuss in more detail for each of these levels, what factors drive knowledge network evolution and what role universities may play in this context
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