The influence of Science and Technology Park characteristics on firms' innovation results Articles uri icon

authors

  • ALBAHARI, ALBERTO
  • PEREZ CANTO, SALVADOR
  • MODREGO RICO, AURELIA MANUELA

publication date

  • June 2018

volume

  • 97

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1056-8190

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1435-5957

abstract

  • The effectiveness of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) as instruments of innovation policy has generated thriving debate among academics, practitioners and policy makers. A gap in the existing literature on STPs is that research mostly does not consider STPs' heterogeneity. The present paper aims at filling this gap, analysing the influence of different STP characteristics on their tenants' performance. Using data on 849 firms and 25 STPs from the 2009 Community Innovation Survey for Spain and a survey of STP managers respectively and after controlling for a wide set of firms characteristics, we find that: (i) firms located in very new or longer established STPs show better innovative performance; (ii) the size of the STP and its management company positively affects the innovative performance of tenants while services provision has no effect on firms' achieving better results; and (iii) firms in less technologically developed regions benefit more from location in an STP. Theoretical, policy and managerial contributions of our research are discussed in the paper.

keywords

  • science and technology parks; agglomerations; innovation policy; innovation determinants