Local buzz, global pipelines, or simply too much buzz? A critical study

The conceptual framework of local buzz and global pipelines has received much attention. It suggests that regional collaboration (local buzz) in particular will induce value creation if combined with international collaboration (global pipelines). Here, we analyze national data from Norway and find that both regional and international collaboration can foster product innovation. However, for medium-sized enterprises, we only found a substitution effect from combining regional and international collaboration. For small enterprises, there was even a subtractive effect. For large enterprises, we found an additive effect, and for very large enterprises, there was a multiplicative effect. It thus appears that large enterprises have an increased absorptive capacity in handling both regional and international collaboration. We conclude that the local buzz and global pipelines proposition is rejected for small and medium-sized enterprises, and gains partial to full support for large and very large enterprises.