Beyond regional clusters: On the importance of geographical proximity for R&D collaborations in a global economy - the case of the flemish biotech sector

When internal knowledge bases are insufficient for developing innovations, companies tend to collaborate with external R&D partners. According to a long-standing literature on “clusters”, “industrial districts”, “local production systems” and “regional innovation systems”, geographical proximity between innovation partners is considered a precondition for inter-organizational collaborations: proximity is said to facilitate trust, the transfer of tacit knowledge and the intensity of interactions. This article investigates the importance of geographical proximity for R&D collaborations b... Mehr ...