Collaboration, information and the geography of innovation in knowledge intensive business services

Abstract

Most studies on the relationship between space and innovation have focused on local factors to explain spatial variations in the innovation performance of firms. Few papers have considered the relationship between innovation and the wider spatial structure within which firms operate. This article has three objectives. First, we investigate whether innovation varies in a continuous manner across space. Second, we explore whether these spatial variations can be explained by variations in information gathering and collaborative behavior. Finally, we seek to verify whether these conclusions are robust to the inclusion of local fixed effects. We find that innovation varies both across continuous space and across discrete territories. However, this geography is not affected by firms’ information gathering and collaborative behaviors. Since these factors, usually considered as explanations of geographic variation in firm level innovation, have no effect, this reveals limits to our understanding of the geography of innovation which call for further exploration.

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