The impact of intra- and inter-regional knowledge collaboration and technological variety on the knowledge productivity of European regions

•We examine the impact of different types of collaboration on regional knowledge productivity.•We apply spatial econometric techniques to analyse longitudinal patent data.•Inter-regional collaborations have a negative effect on the knowledge productivity of regions.•A balanced ratio between inter- and intra-regional collaboration is positive.•The interaction between collaboration balance and technological diversity is significant.

Collaboration is the cornerstone of European innovation policy, because it stimulates the recombination of knowledge across technological, social, institutional and organizational boundaries and strengthens the knowledge productivity of regions. Despite this key role, little attention has been paid to collaboration as a specific set of organizational arrangements strengthening the knowledge productivity of regions. Therefore, this study focuses on collaboration and looks at the effect of intra- and inter-regional collaboration on the knowledge productivity of regions. Furthermore, it examines the interaction between collaboration and technological variety as complementary drivers of this productivity. The analysis uses a large dataset referring to 269 European regions. This study produces some major original contributions. First, we show that a balance between intra- and inter-regional collaboration is required to support regional knowledge performance. Second, we emphasize that the effect on knowledge productivity is stronger in regions with a diversified knowledge base. The implications of these findings in terms of policy design are then discussed extensively.