The impact of technological relatedness, prior ties, and geographical distance on university–industry collaborations: A joint-patent analysis

Empirical studies on R&D collaborations between universities and firms have mainly centered their attention on universities and firms' characteristics that favor the establishment of collaborative agreements. In this paper, I extend the current research framework investigating the role that specific technological and relational attributes may play on the relevance of such collaborations. Specifically, I focus on the effects exerted by three relevant factors, namely technological relatedness, prior collaboration ties, and geographical distance, on university–industry joint innovation value. I develop testable hypotheses about their impact on the innovative performance of R&D university–industry collaborations, and test them on a sample of 796 university–industry joint patents, developed by 33 universities located in 12 different European countries. Our results suggest that partners' technological relatedness has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation value. In addition, prior ties and geographical distance between universities and firms are both positively related to the achievement of higher innovative outcomes.

Research highlights
► The role that specific technological and relational attributes on the relevance of U-I collaborations are investigated.
► The value of U-I collaborations presents an inverted U-shaped relationship with partners' technological relatedness, and it is favored by the existence of previous collaboration ties between them.
► Geographical closeness between universities and firms seems to not favor the joint development of more valuable innovative outcomes.