Location in scientific-technological parks, dynamic capabilities, and innovation

Regional Specialization, Competitive Pressure, and Cooperation: The Cocktail for Innovation

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of industrial agglomeration on the degree of interorganizational cooperation and the innovative performance of firms of the electricity supply sector in Spain. For this purpose, the agglomeration coefficient in each of the 50 provinces of Spain is calculated, based on secondary data from SABI database. Subsequently, primary data are obtained from a sample of 197 companies through a structured questionnaire. In this case, the PLS-SEM technique is used. The results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between the variables analyzed. It is concluded that industrial agglomeration and cooperation are relevant external factors that boost the innovative performance of firms and that business associations foster interorganizational cooperation.

The effect of science and technology parks on tenant firms: a literature review

Science and technology parks (STPs) are non-spontaneous agglomerations aimed at encouraging the formation and growth of on-site technology and knowledge-based firms. STPs have diffused worldwide, attracting significant, and often public, investment. However, there are contrasting evidence and insights on the effectiveness of these local development, technology and innovation policy tools. This paper provides a comprehensive and systematic review of the STP literature (221 papers, 1987–2021), focusing especially on quantitative papers aimed at assessing the park effect on tenant’s performance. We perform an in-depth quantitative analyses, which allows us to go beyond the inconclusiveness reported in previous review papers, showing that the likelihood of finding positive STP effects increases considerably with sample size. We discuss the limitations of this literature and offer some suggestions for future research.