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Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance pp 187–206Cite as

Academic Entrepreneurship and the Geography of University Knowledge Flows in the UK

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Part of the book series: Advances in Spatial Science ((ADVSPATIAL))

Abstract

Knowledge flows between universities and industry have long been recognised as important determinants of regional economic development. However, a major unresolved issue is the exact nature of the mechanisms through which knowledge flows take place. We analyse the spatial patterns of knowledge exchange activities by considering a wide range of mechanisms including joint research, consultancy services, personnel exchange and informal advice. The analysis is based on a recently completed survey of UK academics, providing micro-data on over 22,000 academics across all subject areas. Our results show that the geography of academic entrepreneurship varies widely by type of activity.

JEL codes: O31, O32, R11

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The survey was part of a 2-year project on “University-Industry Knowledge Exchange: Demand Pull, Supply Push and the Public Space Role of Higher Education Institutions in the UK Regions”, with grant number ESRC- RES-171-25-0018, which was carried out over 2007–2009. The project involved Maria Abreu, Vadim Grinevich, Alan Hughes and Michael Kitson, and was sponsored by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in partnership with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) in Northern Ireland, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).

  2. 2.

    See Abreu et al. (2009) for further details. The data are available through the UK Data Archive (http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/) and are listed under “Cambridge Centre for Business Research Survey of Knowledge Exchange Activity by United Kingdom Academics, 2005–2009”, archive no. SN 6462.

  3. 3.

    The “Higher Education – Business and Community Interaction Survey 2007–08” data are available through the Higher Education Funding Council for England (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09_23).

  4. 4.

    Because the survey allows respondents to choose more than one geography for each type of activity, Fig. 1 has been drawn so that the total percentage for each activity is the percentage of academics engaged in that activity at any geographical level, while the breakdown by geography shows the percentage of those engaged in that activity who indicated a specific geography.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pembroke College and Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Maria Abreu

  2. Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge and School of Business, Leadership and Enterprise, University Campus Suffolk, Cambridge, UK

    Vadim Grinevich

Authors
  1. Maria Abreu
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  2. Vadim Grinevich
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Correspondence to Maria Abreu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom

    Riccardo Crescenzi

  2. , Institutional Analysis and, Università Bocconi, via Rontgen 1, Milano, 20121, Italy

    Marco Percoco

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Abreu, M., Grinevich, V. (2013). Academic Entrepreneurship and the Geography of University Knowledge Flows in the UK. In: Crescenzi, R., Percoco, M. (eds) Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33395-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33395-8_10

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