Modes of innovation and proximity in practice: Insights from university-small and medium sized enterprise collaboration in biotechnology

This article explores factors driving collaboration between biotechnology firms and higher education institutions, emphasizing various proximity dimensions (geographic, cognitive, social, organizational, institutional). Through interviews within Norway’s Heidner Biocluster, we found geographic proximity matters more for larger, established firms collaborating with local higher education institutions, compared to smaller, internationally oriented firms. Our findings highlight differences in firms’ innovation modes (doing, using, and interacting vs. science, technology and innovation) and underscore the roles of informal institutions, embeddedness, and alternative proximities beyond geography