Face-to-face contact and university–industry collaboration: evidence from mobile signaling data in Beijing

The university–industry collaboration is an essential engine of the regional innovation system and can significantly drive regional economic growth. The realization of intellectual collaboration, especially for firms absorbing academic knowledge, is heavily dependent on the transmission of tacit knowledge through face-to-face contact. Though economic geographers have long emphasized the importance of face-to-face contact, its effect is rarely measured directly. This paper contributes to this end by utilizing the mobile signaling data and tries to estimate and explain the marginal effect of face-to-face contact on the co-patenting behavior between firms and universities in Beijing. We conclude that face-to-face contact indeed increases the productivity of university–industry collaboration, specifically in the idea-formation period. In addition, we detect the ambiguity of geographical proximity in explaining university–industry collaboration. For policy consideration, we contend that innovation policy should pay enough attention to reinforcing the university–industry nexus. The removal of interaction barriers between firms and universities is crucial, and it can be achieved either by forming direct contact channels or leveraging the spatial spillover effect of personal interaction.