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The literature on Innovation Systems is divided into several directories. Dif- ferences occur through the definition of the system's borders. This paper intro- duces a methodology how to differentiate between regional and technological effects of cooperative innovation activities and analyzes furthermore how dif- ferent dimensions of regional knowledge affect the regional effects on coopera- tive innovation activities. We find evidence that the related variety of knowl- edge available within a region and its combination with a proxy of the amount of knowledge foster regional effects of cooperative innovation activities. Addi- tionally, we find that the development of German regions fits with the sugges- tions of the Regional Innovation System (RIS) approach.

In this paper we investigate the determinants of cooperative innovation and put our main focus on the regional or spatial and on the technological or sectoral dimension. We suggest a method to disentangle these two factors and to extract differential regional effects. The latter can be used to identify and evaluate the strength of regional innovation systems. Applying this method to German patent data we find evidence that regional differences in the degree of cooperative innovation are not only due to the technological/sectoral composition of the region but also due to a specific regional effect.

Studies analyzing the importance of intra- and inter-regional cooperation for regional innovation performance are mainly of qualitative nature and focus strongly on the positive effects that high levels of cooperation can yield. For the case of the German labor market regions and the Electrics & Electronics industry the paper provides a quantitative-empirical analysis taking into account the possibility of negative effects related to regional lock-in, lock-out, and cooperation overload situations. Using conditional nonparametric frontier techniques and cooperation behavior measures we find positive as well as substantial negative effects of cooperation with the latter being induced by excessive and unbalanced cooperation behavior.

This paper investigates the possible presence of three problems in regional innovation systems (RIS): intermediation, reciprocity and compatibility. Based on firm data gathered for three different regions, Northern Hesse, Jena and Sophia Antipolis, we can show that a low propensity to cooperate in a RIS is related to poorly performing intermediaries and a low complementarity with the regional knowledge base. The issue of trust in cooperating tends to have no effect on the propensity to cooperate. However, it is a main determinant of failed cooperation projects.

This work deals with the determinants of cooperative invention and innovation within innovation systems. Several proximity dimensions are used to identify the levels on which systemic innovation activities can be observed. To disentangle the effects of different proximity dimensions a procedure is suggested to identify the relative regional impact (RRI) on cooperative invention and innovation. Applying this method to German patent data shows that there are significant differences in the RRI of German regions. These differences are related to measures of the technological relatedness of the regions knowledge bases, and over time they show a considerable path dependency.

A key issue of dfferent streams of economic literature is to determine the impact of certain dimensions of proximity on the cooperative behavior of actors and, thus, on interactive learning processes. This paper is a quantitative study on the impact of technological and geographical proximity on the choice of the cooperation partner. Patents that were filed for Germany in the years 1998 to 2003 are used to identify the impact of both dimensions of proximity as well as their interplay. It can be shown that an increasing proximity in either of these dimensions has an independent positive impact on the cooperation probability.