@article {DADDA2025100073,
	title = {Regional technological profiles and collaborations: An empirical analysis of joint patents and EU-funded projects},
	journal = {Papers in Regional Science},
	volume = {104},
	number = {1},
	year = {2025},
	pages = {100073},
	abstract = {The aim of this paper is to determine the factors affecting technological collaborations among EU regions, focusing on the role of their technological profiles. We consider the population of EU NUTS2 regions and analyse the inter-regional collaborations in EPO patent applications and in EU projects in the Seventh Framework Programme in the period 2007{\textendash}2013. We overcome the limitations related to the mono-dimensionality of technological proximity by explicitly considering the distinction between technological similarity and technological complementarity. We further distinguish between horizontal complementarity, related to the degree to which technologies are fruitfully combined in R\&D, and vertical complementarity, the degree to which technology developers (leaders) are related to technology adopters (followers). To measure {\textquoteleft}horizontal{\textquoteright} technology complementarity, we develop an original dyad-level indicator based on the concept of technological relatedness. The empirical analysis shows that technological complementarity has a statistically significant effect on the number of collaborations between regions, even when controlling for the degree of similarity. While horizontal complementarity positively affects only collaborations in EU projects, vertical complementarity negatively affects both joint patents and EU projects. Notwithstanding the relevance of complementarity, technological similarity seems to have a larger impact on the intensity of inter-regional collaboration. We also find dissimilarities in the factors affecting joint patents and EU projects due to the inner differences in the nature of these two types of innovative collaborations. The results are robust to different specifications and to the use of different methodologies for measuring similarity and complementarity. Given the rising interest in promoting technological inter-regional collaborations in the EU (e.g. in the Smart Specialisation Strategy), this paper provides novel insights about the determinants of two very different forms of inter-regional collaborations in innovation: joint patents and EU projects.},
	keywords = {collaborations, European projects, patents, regional innovation policy, regional technological profile, Smart Specialisation Strategy},
	issn = {1056-8190},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pirs.2024.100073},
	url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056819024000939},
	author = {Diego D{\textquoteright}Adda and Donato Iacobucci and Francesco Perugini}
}
@article {doi:10.1080/10438599.2019.1571668,
	title = {Local variety and innovation performance in the EU textile and clothing industry},
	journal = {Economics of Innovation and New Technology},
	year = {2019},
	pages = {1-17},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	abstract = {ABSTRACTA large body of the literature showed that related variety at local level is more relevant than unrelated variety for explaining the innovation performance of firms. Knowledge relatedness is usually measured by considering activities within the same industry (i.e. the same two-digit code) while activities in different industries are associated with unrelated variety. This approach is challenged by the increasing relevance of transversal technologies, i.e. technologies that are developed and applied in rather different sectors. As a result, between industry variety (i.e. unrelated variety) is expected to be more important than within industry variety (i.e. related variety). We test this hypothesis by examining the innovation activities of firms in the textile and clothing industry. The innovation model of these firms is characterized by low investment in R\&D, little capabilities for autonomous innovation and dependence from knowledge suppliers belonging to different sectors. The empirical analysis, carried out over the 1996{\textendash}2014 period at the EU NUTS2 level, shows that between industry variety has a greater impact than within industry variety for the innovative performance of firms.},
	doi = {10.1080/10438599.2019.1571668},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2019.1571668},
	author = {Valentina Giannini and Donato Iacobucci and Francesco Perugini}
}
