Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/253272 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] Technological Forecasting and Social Change [ISSN:] 0040-1625 [Volume:] 180 [Article No.:] 121689 [Publisher:] Elsevier [Place:] Amsterdam [Year:] 2022
Publisher: 
Elsevier, Amsterdam
Abstract: 
Two main targets of contemporary preferential innovation policy support, especially in Europe, are key enabling technologies (KETs) and innovation 'missions' focused on solving societal challenges. Both topics are associated with uniting disparate sets of capabilities, either by driving technology-based innovation into various application domains or by eliciting interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral solutions to urgent societal demands. In this study we assess to what extent pre-commercial R&D collaborations span geographic and cognitive boundaries. We analyze firm-level tie formation in Dutch collaborative R&D projects initiated in the period 2013–2018. Gravity models reveal that, while results for geographic proximity are mixed, some KET types are indeed related to projects in which cognitive proximity is significantly less relevant for tie formation. This contrasts with the findings for projects that retroactively received a mission label. Projects on health and care missions, and especially energy transition and sustainability missions, instead spur collaborations between cognitively proximate firms. The latter suggests that without additional policy intervention, such projects might interconnect similar rather than dissimilar knowledge bases. We conclude by discussing research and policy implications.
Subjects: 
innovation policy
societal challenges
general purpose technologies
proximity dimensions
networks
JEL: 
O31
O38
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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