Knowledge transfers and innovation: The role of labour markets and R&D co-operation between agents and institutions

Abstract

This paper investigates the role played by the knowledge transfers fostering innovation in Finnish high technology industries. In particular, we examine the roles played by both face-to-face knowledge transfers and also human capital transfers between different types of agents and institutions in the promotion of innovation. In order to examine these issues we employ a unique innovation dataset which provides information about a firm's innovation performance along with information regarding the geographical and sectoral origins of a firm's recent labour acquisitions, disaggregated according to different types of agents and institutions. This allows us to develop proxies for inter-firm face-to-face knowledge exchanges and also human capital knowledge transfers. The analysis of these data allows us to identify the different roles which the geography of knowledge exchanges and labour markets between agents and institutions play in regional innovation processes.