Science parks: seedbeds of innovation? A duration analysis of firms’ patenting activity

This article investigates the role of Science Parks (SPs) as seedbeds of innovation. It aims to verify if and to what extent firms’ innovative performance is affected by relocating inside a SP. The analysis is structured in the form of a duration model that holds patenting as a repeated and event-dependent phenomenon and accounts for the persistence of innovative activities and the cumulativeness of knowledge. Estimates are based on a conditional risk-set model. The study relies on an original database regarding Finnish SPs: 252 firms that in the year 2002 were located in the Parks and the firms’ lifetime patenting activity, over a 33-year-period. We find support for the existence of spillovers and for the positive role of incubators over those firms joining SPs when very young.