Knowledge flows in clusters and innovation networks: The case of Canadian biotechnology and nanotechnology

The research objectives of this thesis are organized around four main themes. The first theme concerns the debate on the economic performance and growth of firms in the specialized versus diversified clusters or regions, which has yet to reach conclusive results. Here, the main aim is to provide taxonomy of scientific articles and to investigate the reasons behind this inconsistency. The second theme of the thesis concerns the creation of innovation in Canadian biotechnology clusters. The objective is to identify, analyze and characterize these clusters, with a special focus on the intellectual property politics in Canadian institutions. The innovation networks and collaboration are the third major topic of this work. Here the thesis first seeks to examine the geographical aspects of the collaboration and the impact of geographical proximity on the selection of the collaboration partners in Canadian biotechnology and nanotechnology. Afterwards, the goal is to compare the characteristics of the biotechnology and nanotechnology collaboration networks and to highlight their role in the efficient knowledge diffusion. Finally, the fourth theme deals with the prominent inventors in Canadian biotechnology clusters and their roles in the innovation networks. One objective here is to develop innovative methodologies to identify the key individuals (knowledge gatekeepers) in the collaboration network. Another objective concerns the star scientists. The thesis intends to find different ways for their identification and to investigate their geographical and network positions.;The main approach of the thesis consists in the creative exploitation of the large amounts of information extracted from the patent database of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The information is used to describe the creation of biotechnology and nanotechnology innovation in Canada and to build the innovation networks based on the patent co-inventorship links. The methods of social network analysis are used to create, characterize and evaluate these innovation networks.;In general, this thesis suggests that in regions with mature, low tech industries, regional policy should emphasize the development of a narrow set of economic activities in the region, which will presumably lead to greater productivity. In high tech regions, on the other hand, policy should focus on the creation of a diverse set of economic activities, which should enhance economic development.;It was shown that innovative activity in Canada is concentrated in several locations which roughly correspond to the larger metropolitan areas. The thesis has made a contribution by making a profile description for the Canadian biotechnology clusters in terms of patenting quality and quantity, the nature of biotechnology activities, the properties of assignees and their propensity to collaborate. Around half of the patents are assigned to firms. However, publicly-funded research is highly important for biotechnology in Canada. Universities are the most active institutions in biotechnology and the greatest producers of patents. The contribution of the government laboratories to the biotechnology research and development is also substantial.;Most of the collaborative activity of Canadian inventors takes place within Canadian clusters, while the inter-cluster collaboration in Canada is much less common for both biotechnology and nanotechnology. International ties account for the highest proportion of all the collaborations outside the clusters and the most popular foreign collaboration partners for Canadian inventors reside in the USA. Foreigners are extremely important in connecting Canadian inventors from different clusters (or even those from the same cluster) together.;The collaborative structures within biotechnology and nanotechnology networks are quite distinct. The biotechnology innovation network is larger, more developed and less fragmented than that of nanotechnology. The higher fragmentation of the nanotechnology network is explained by the greater disparity among the nanotechnology specializations compared to the more closely related biotechnology fields.;The architecture of the network of Canadian biotechnology inventors was investigated within two different concepts: First, collaboration among inventors working in clusters (geographical proximity); second, cooperation among inventors who are directly or indirectly interconnected in network components (cognitive proximity).