A Multilevel Blockmodeling Approach to Explore Local Based Knowledge Networks

The literature on university-industry relations has gone beyond direct surveys by academic and industrial researchers, and now also focuses on co-patenting, co-working and research in coop eration. These activities represent specific channels of interaction, conveying knowledge flows of different “value”. Each forms of those interactions basically produce a different network and usually each network is analyzed and interpreted individually. In this study, we combine different collaboration relations among firms and among inventors (hired by individual firms/assignees). In particular, we use data on both patenting activities and research collaboration in projects among firms located in an Italian region, namely Friuli Venezia Giulia, which is characterized by a high concentration of research organizations and a lively sector of R&D small firms. Regional patenting activities give rise to a co-patenting networks (inventors- by-inventors), whereas collaboration in research projects leads to a firm-by-firm network. The combination of these two peculiar university-industry interactions when combined with affiliation network of investors and firms naturally leads to a multilevel network. The paper aims at exploring the underlying structure of the firms’ relationships in the region by means of a block- modeling approach suitable for linked/multilevel networks. Finally, we project all networks to the level of firms in order to verify the hypothesis that in- ventors’ cooperation on patents increases the probability of a tie between firms based on projects. The blockmodeling approach used allow us to show how cluster of inventors and firms at different levels are connected.