Border blocking effects in collaborative firm innovation

Border regions are not often associated with innovation and economic prosperity. And even when they are prosperous, cross-border interaction is still mostly limited. The opening up of borders in Europe has presented new opportunities for firms located in these border regions to co-operate for innova...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European planning studies 2018-07, Vol.26 (7), p.1330-1346
Main Authors: van den Broek, Jos, Benneworth, Paul, Rutten, Roel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blocking
Borders
Case studies
Collaboration
Companies
Cooperation
Innovations
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Summary:Border regions are not often associated with innovation and economic prosperity. And even when they are prosperous, cross-border interaction is still mostly limited. The opening up of borders in Europe has presented new opportunities for firms located in these border regions to co-operate for innovation and knowledge to flow across borders. Despite the reduction of the importance of borders, firms seeking to access cross-border knowledge resources need still to 'cross' the border and address the various effects it brings. This paper therefore asks the question of how the presence of a border affects the processes by which firms attempt to build up productive co-operations for innovation. We use a heuristic of collaborative innovation across borders as building up through four sequential cooperation stages, and each of these different stages is susceptible to different kinds of border effects. Using a case study of firms co-operating across the Dutch-Flemish border, we empirically explore these border crossing processes in order to shed further light on how border processes play out.
ISSN:0965-4313
1469-5944
DOI:10.1080/09654313.2018.1476470