Seminar by Rune Dahl Fitjar

SALA SEMINARI – I° PIANO, PALAZZO LEVI CASES, VIA DEL SANTO 33 - ORE 12.30

14.06.2018

Seminar by Rune Dahl Fitjar, Professor of Innovation Studies, University of Stavanger

Title: University-Industry Collaboration and Regional Innovation: Does University Quality Matter?

Abstract: Regional innovation policy is increasingly focused on the role of universities in generating innovation and regional development. However, the geography of scientific research is highly spiky and there are strong Matthew effects in research funding. Furthermore, university-industry collaboration tends to be mainly regional, even more so than other types of innovation collaboration. This raises the question of whether a regional innovation policy focused on universities may exacerbate the currently uneven regional development trends in the global economy. This paper examines the drivers of university-industry collaboration and its effects on firm innovation output. We first examine whether collaboration with regional, national and international universities is a function of characteristics of the firm or of the university. Second, we examine the impact of university collaboration at different scales on firm innovation output. Finally, we test whether this impact depends on the research quality of the university.