Territorial Review Copenhagen - Region Hovedstaden

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growth. Similar findings were found in a study of 24 cities in the United
States over 1977-1992 (Kresl and Singh, 1999): the number of research
centres per million workforce was correlated with the growth of retail sales,
manufacturing value added and business service receipts. University R&D
also has an effect on new firm formation: Kirchhoff finds that it has the third
most significant effect after market size and population size (Kirchhoff,
2007). Goldstein and Renault (2004) studied 312 Metropolitan Statistical
Areas in the United States over 1969-1998 using a quasi-experimental
approach in which the measure of regional economic development was
workers‘ average annual earnings. They found that research and technology
functions generate significant knowledge spilovers that result in enhanced
economic development that would otherwise not have occurred. In the
period 1986-1998, total university R&D activity was significantly related to
regional economic growth. The strength of the causal relationship is
however modest. Controlling for other factors, it would have taken an
increase of USD 10 million in research expenditures among universities in
an average metropolitan statistical area to increase the index of average
earnings per job by 0.36%.
There are minimum thresholds for R&D and technology. For R&D
investment to be effective, a minimum threshold of investment is necessary.
The relationship between R&D and economic development is not linear.
Furthermore, there are externalities associated with R&D, and returns from
R&D rely heavily on the quality of the workforce and the quality of the local
human capital (Rodriguez-Pose and Crescenzi, 2008).
Universities have a potential role to act as a node in knowledge
networks linking regions and their actors to regional and international
knowledge sources. There is however considerable variability in the
capability of universities to effectively transfer their knowledge; and of
regional businesses to effectively absorb such knowledge. Policy has sought
to establish intermediary brokers and intermediary institutions. In some
regions, such efforts appear to be bearing fruit through acknowledged
contributions to regional development. However, it is not always the case,
which makes it difficult to ascribe improved regional competitiveness to
developments in knowledge-based infrastructure (Huggins et al., 2008).
In these constellations, knowledge institutes will not always be willing,
or in a position, to transfer knowledge across networks, if there is a low
expectancy of reciprocal return. Universities are often wary of engaging
with a business community dominated by SMEs, which they often regard as
inferior and less lucrative collaborators and partners in comparison to larger
and more internationally focused firms. Effective knowledge absorption is
more likely to occur through collaborative networks than it is through
market transactions. Perkmann and Walsh (2007) find that research