Open innovation in science: assessing the formation and function of SME-university collaborations through the proximity matrix

As university-industry collaboration is regarded as an important practice within the open innovation in Science (OIS) framework, this paper assesses the formation and function of these collaborations using the ‘proximity matrix’, evaluating similarities between actors through evaluating their closeness in terms of distance, network membership, knowledge base and working practices. Through presenting analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with SMEs, the findings outline that the process of SME-university collaboration is driven by the ability of the firms to both access (through social proximity) and understand (through technological and organisational proximity) their university partners. Furthermore, the results also suggest distinct roles for each proximity.