The role of the geographical proximity and the quality of academic research to university-industry linkages : (paper submitted to 53rd Regional Studies Association European Congress : ERSA 2013, Palermo, August 27-31 2013)

This paper examines how the geographical proximity of university-industry linkages relates to the quality of an institution's research, local efforts in research and development (R&D), and characteristics of a region's production structure. The important role of universities for the firms' innovative efforts has been widely accepted in the literature. In particular, universities serve as a source of new scientific and technological knowledge and geographical proximity can facilitate an interactive learning process between universities and industry. To exam this point, database of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology was used, such it collects and compiles information on the activities of research groups in Brazil and their interactions with firms. Findings from this study show a positive correlation between the quality of research groups and the mean distance of interactions with firms. Top-tier research groups interact with both local firms (due to the convenience of being co-located) and more distant producers in need of cutting edge research and expertise to support advanced innovation. It is evident, then, that the costs of establishing long-distance university-industry relationships are overcome by the benefits offered by interacting with high capabilities research groups to solve complex and highly specific problems. Results also show that the increasing positive correlation between academic quality and interaction distance decreases with an increase in quality. This pattern was demonstrated by the quadratic parameter used in the empirical model and is particularly significant when top-tier research groups are involved. Thus, the mean distance of interactions tends to decrease when the interactions involve centres of academic excellence.