The moderating role of the territorial research infrastructure on the geographic proximity effect in research collaborations: a regional-based view

Geographic proximity is widely acknowledged as a primary catalyst for research collaborations in general, and specifically for cross-sector collaborations. This study proposes a large-scale empirical analysis to examine the moderating role of certain territorial features of research infrastructure in the relationship between geographic distance and collaboration type. Our approach employs bibliometrics, using individual Italian coauthors of publications from both private and public sectors as the units of analysis. On average, cross-sector collaborations exhibit greater distances compared to intra-sector public collaborations. Importantly, this outcome is attributed to the uneven territorial distribution of private R&D in Italy. Specifically, as the size of research staff in private organizations within a region increases, the average distance of cross-sector collaborations tends to decrease significantly. A similar, though less pronounced, effect can be observed in regions with varying intensities of inventive activity.