Regional collaboration and innovation: the role of research institutions and technological capabilities

Public research institutes (PRIs) and higher education institutions (HEIs) are important actors in knowledge production in regional innovation systems (RIS), influencing network dynamics and inventions. While their impact on RIS has been widely studied, less attention has been paid to how different types of research affect RIS depending on regional technological characteristics. We therefore analyse the effects of German PRIs and HEIs on patent collaborations, centrality, invention quality and regional technological paths using a spatial vector autoregressive (spVAR) model. Our results show that basic research generates substantial positive regional effects in the long run and is particularly conducive to introducing new technologies. Moreover, mechanical engineering, alongside research and development (R&D)-intensive fields, strongly boosts the effects of PRIs and HEIs.