Networks, innovation systems and the geography of university–industry linkages: the case of knowledge-intensive business services

This chapter explores the interrelationship between the concept of geographic proximity and the more relational concepts of networks and innovation systems from the perspective of university-industry linkages. It focuses on linkages that are knowledge-based, and draws specifically on an analysis of the linkages universities form with firms in knowledge-intensive business service sectors (KIBS). Its arguments and conclusions draw upon both an in-depth critique of the key literature and an empirical analysis of the effects of different locational environments on the spatiality of the linkages formed between universities and KIBS firms. The key results of the study indicate the following: urban KIBS firms are generally located in much more competitive environments; urban KIBS firms tend to develop collaborative linkages with universities in much closer proximity than their rural counterparts; organisational proximity does not differ across firm types; and urban KIBS firms have different partner selection criteria to their rural counterparts.