The Geography of Publicly Supported Collaboration

Abstract: This paper presents an econometric analysis of the factors that influence the degree of interregional R&D collaboration between firms and other economic actors in publicly supported innovation programs. The study is based on quantitative data of two innovation programs financed by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova; “Fordonsstrategisk forskning och innovation” (FFI) and “Utmaningsdriven Innovation” (UDI). The econometric analysis is conducted in two parts. First, an ordered logit model is applied, measuring the correlation between the degree of interregional collaboration within each project and the different varieties of actors within the projects. Second, an OLS analysis is performed in order to see whether different firm characteristics, as well as the concentration of different sectors within the projects, influence the degree of interregional R&D collaboration. Our findings suggest that sectoral differences between participants as well as industry branch activity differences between firms impede interregional collaboration within publicly financed collaboration programs. An additional finding is that the studied programs seem to have a behavioural effect on its participants. This is demonstrated by the finding that smaller firms are more likely to collaborate interregionally compared to larger firms, something that is generally not the case in other types of unsubsidised collaborative efforts. Innovation programs may therefore be useful in correcting market outcomes that are sub-optimal from a social perspective.