Knowledge externalities and knowledge creation: the role of inventors’ working relationships and mobility

We study the transmission of tacit knowledge arising from working relationships established by inventors and its impact on firms’ knowledge creation. First, we consider knowledge spillovers that originate through inventor working relationships that are not the result of collaboration agreements among patenting firms. Second, we analyse their effect on the creation of new knowledge as measured by companies’ patenting activity. The study focuses on the role played by geographical proximity. The analysis was carried out on the population of firms located in the Italian region of Veneto and is based upon the original OECD REGPAT database that records all patenting applications at EPO.