La Géographie des comportements d'innovation au Québec : des territoires « européens » aux accessibilités « canadiennes » ?

The geography of innovation is often analysed from the perspective of its association with territory. However, recent research looking at Quebec shows that the nature of innovation and the propensity to innovate vary with distance from metropolitan areas. This paper proposes a discussion, followed by an empirical analysis, of the geography of innovative behaviour amongst Quebec?s manufacturing establishments. An underlying question concerns the possibility that some concepts and approaches in regional science differ between Canada and Europe. The results show that innovative behaviour varies across space (with accessibility to interlocutors) and also varies across territory. Only collaborations with private partners reflect no geographic pattern. These analyses tend to support the idea that the concepts used ? finite territories or continuous distance ? are universal (or at least relevant in both Europe and Canada), but that the orientation of empirical research ? and therefore the research questions asked ? are influenced by local particularities.