A Proximity Approach to Understanding University-Industry Collaborations for Innovation in Non-Local Context: Exploring the Catch-Up Role of Regional Absorptive Capacity

Abstract

The article aims to explore which types of proximity approach can foster university–industry (U-I) collaborations for innovation and discuss the role of different dimension regional absorptive capacity in cooperation to promote inter-regional partnerships from “unbalance” to “coordination”. Therefore, we intercept 484 pairs of cooperative entities and analyze proximity effects and heterogeneity cross-regional U-I collaborations by hierarchical regression. The results show: (1) In non-local contexts, geographic distance is not a hamper for improving innovation performance. The economic development level has no significantly different effects on such a role. (2) Technological proximity plays a negative role in increasing innovative performance, and the eastern region has the most noticeable results. (3) The closer in social distance can get more innovation performance in eastern and western, but the central area negatively affects. (4) The U-I collaborations for innovation performance-enhancing advantages are not equal for all regions but are moderating by specific regional absorptive capacity dimensions. The areas with a higher level of internal human capital can get more catch-up effects. The lagging regions should increase talents to promote cross-regional cooperation for catching up. In contrast, the prosperous areas should take advantage of the talent-gathering effects to promote knowledge spillover.