The literature on Science and Technology Parks (STPs) is growing rapidly and, despite the positive impact of STPs on firms found by many studies, it remains unclear how STPs create value for tenants. In this paper, we study the STP supply side through a case study in a Swedish region. We identify two components of the business support provided by parks: a configuration-oriented component, and a process-oriented component. The former refers to the static design of the business support, and the latter to the active, hands-on support provided by parks' management. Both components must be planned carefully in order to deliver value to tenants. We also discuss some implications for policy and managers.
The effectiveness of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) as instruments of innovation policy has generated thriving debate among academics, practitioners and policy makers. However, research mostly does not consider STPs' heterogeneity. The present paper analyses the influence of different STP characteristics on their tenants' performance. Using data on 849 firms and 25 STPs from the 2009 Community Innovation Survey for Spain and a survey of STP managers respectively, we find that: (i) firms located in very new or longer established STPs show better innovative performance; (ii) the size of the STP and its management company positively affects the innovative performance of tenants while services provision has no effect on firms' achieving better results; and (iii) firms in less technologically developed regions benefit more from location in an STP.2
Although the notion of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) has become fairly widespread, however, the level of university involvement in these parks differs hugely. At the extremes, there are parks that are owned and managed by universities, and parks with no formal links of any kind with a university. We use data from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) for Spain and a survey of STP park managers to analyse how the level of involvement of a university in the STP affects the innovation outputs of its tenants and their links with universities. We find that higher involvement of a university in the STP negatively affects tenant's innovation sales and positively affects the number of patent applications. We find no robust evidence of the involvement of a university in the propensity for park firms to cooperate with a university or to purchase external R&D services from the university.
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