Does geographical proximity still matter for innovation? Notes on university-industry interaction from the perspective of a peripheral context

Abstract

Interactions between universities and industry are essential for innovation systems, whereby the process is catalyzed by the proximity between these actors in different dimensions (cognitive, organizational, social, institutional and geographical). The present paper seeks to investigate the specific importance of geographical proximity for university-industry interactions during a specific moment in Brazil’s peripheral socioeconomic formation, with the construction of an institutional framework that proved favorable to peripheral innovation and the advancement of information and communication technologies that would dispense with co-location and face-to-face contact in collective learning processes. By applying multiple linear regression analysis and smallest space analysis (SSA) to a database obtained from an extensive survey, it was observed that, associated with the cognitive dimension, geographical proximity still prevails in interactions for innovation in peripheral contexts.