Dear Colleagues,
We are delighted to share with you the ninth issue of Industry & Innovation for 2025.
This issue brings together four research articles that examine innovation from diverse empirical and theoretical angles. The manuscripts explore topics ranging from regional technological diversification in the United States, to the role of complementary capabilities in global value chains. Two additional articles focus on the interface between industry and knowledge institutions: one investigates how CEOs' psychological traits influence SMEs' cooperation with universities, while the other analyzes how digital platforms shape academia–industry knowledge exchange. The issue also features a target article reflecting on a decade of research on trademarks and innovation. This retrospective looks back at the origins of the paper 'Are trademark counts a valid indicator of innovation? Results of an in-depth study of new Benelux trademarks filed by SMEs', recently distinguished with the Decade Award for the most influential article published in I&I in 2014.
We hope you will enjoy the reading:
Research Articles
Unpacking the role of relatedness in technological diversification in the US metropolitan statistical areas
Yibo Qiao & Yingcheng Li
Abstract
This paper aims to unpack the role of relatedness in regional technological diversification by decomposing relatedness from the perspectives of mechanisms, strength, and complexity. In terms ofmechanisms, relatedness is divided into geography, complementarity, and similarity relatedness. Furthermore, relatedness is differentiated into four categories based on relatedness strength and knowledge complexity. The effects of different types of relatedness are tested on adataset containing 2,922,473 patents distributed across 347 US metropolitan statistical areas and 544 technology classes from 1976 to 2015. Our results, which area robust under different circumstances, show that the effect of geography relatedness outweighs complementarity relatedness and similarity relatedness, and higher strength and lower complexity relatedness have the largest impact on technology entry. We contribute to the literature by proposing a newmethod to calculate similarity relatedness and responding to the call ofunpacking relatedness by taking relatedness strength and knowledge complexity dimensions into account.
The role of complementary interregional linkages for functional upgrading and downgrading of global value chains in EU regions
Eduardo Hernández-Rodríguez, Ron Boschma, Andrea Morrison & Xianjia Ye
Abstract
This paper studies the role of complementary interregional value chain linkages in functional upgrading and downgrading in global value chains in EU regions. It adopts an evolutionary approach to assess functional upgrading and downgrading using relatedness and economic complexity metrics. The empirical analysis of 199 EU regions between the years 2000 and 2010 shows that, while local capabilities remain crucial, complementary interregional value chain linkages increase (decrease) the likelihood of functional upgrading (downgrading) in GVCs. Regions engaged in GVCs in which partner regions offer complementary capabilities are more likely to specialise in more complex functions and to retain such specialisations over time. By doing so, this paper proposes a new theoretical-analytical framework to identify partner regions that can offer complementary capabilities in GVCs.
Unveiling the drivers of SMEs' cooperation with universities. Do firms' CEO characteristics matter?
Adele Parmentola, Luca Pennacchio, Eva Panetti & Marco Ferretti
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the microprocesses underlying university‒industry cooperation (UIC) in SMEs by examining the role played by CEOs' characteristics. While previous research on UIC has focused predominantly on contextual factors and firm characteristics, we explore the relationship between CEOs' individual dimensions and SMEs' decisions regarding UIC. Specifically, we investigate the associations between CEOs' psychological characteristics, such as self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity, and perceptions of government support, as well as CEOs' skills, and the choice of UIC channels (i.e. traditional, service, and bidirectional learning and commercialisation). By applying structural equation modelling to a sample of 130 entrepreneurs, our findings reveal that the use of traditional channels is negatively associated with CEOs' risk-taking propensity, whereas service channels are preferred by CEOs with high self-efficacy. Bidirectional learning and commercialisation channels require CEOs' self-efficacy and technical skills. CEOs' perceptions of government support are positively associated with the adoption of complex UIC channels.
Digital platforms for academia–industry knowledge exchange: characterisation, functions, and types
Ekaterina Albats, Henry Etzkowitz & Martin Kalthaus
Abstract
Digital platforms have transformed how goods and services areexchanged, but their role in knowledge exchange, particularly between academia and industry, remains underexplored. Like dating apps that help match unique and diverse individuals virtually, digital platforms facilitate interactions between academia and industry. However, exactly how they do that remains open. Drawing on the digital platform and the knowledge transfer intermediation literature, we conduct multiple case studies analysing the functionality of nine digital platforms that support interactions between academia and industry. Each of the studied platforms performs five key functions: reducing proximity limitations and transaction costs, engaging with users' knowledge, supporting knowledge codification, transforming knowledge, and facilitating matchmaking. Notably, two functions, knowledge engagement and transformation, vary along continuums from surface-level to deep interaction and from generalisation to personalisation. Following these continuums, we distinguish four platform types: display-window, relationship-enabler, broker, and deep-dive. Byrevealing how digital platforms facilitate knowledge exchange between academia and industry, we substantiate the literature on innovationintermediaries and illustrate how digital platforms overcome limitations of classical intermediaries. We reframe academia–industry interaction as a platform-enabled process and show how digital platforms allow for knowledge-based digital matchmaking prior to any interaction between individuals, in contrast to traditional collaboration scenarios.
Target Article
On trademarks and innovation: a retrospective, 10 years later
Meindert Flikkema, Carolina Castaldi & Ard-Pieter de Man
Abstract
In this retrospective, we look back at the origins of our 2014 Industry & Innovationpaper 'Are trademark counts a valid indicator of innovation? Results of an in-depth study of new Benelux trademarks filed by SMEs'. We reflect on the impact of that paper over the past decade and identify new research avenues. The paper's key contribution was to determine whether and when new trademark filings by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are connected to innovation. We reconstruct how our pioneering methodological efforts fuelled aresearch agenda on trademarks and innovation. We identify how this agenda now offers insights across several disciplines.
Best regards
Alessandra Perri and Vera Rocha
Co-Editors-in-Chief, Industry and Innovation
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Vera Rocha
Copenhagen Business School
Kilevej
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