Campus, technopole, science, technology or research park: a typology study on science parks in Europe

Although science parks are established globally for decades, still limited attention is paid towards research into possible typologies within these real estate concepts. Science parks are believed to enhance, among others, innovative output, entrepreneurship, and economic value for firms and regions. Past academic research shows mixed results on these performances and suggests that the lack of clear results is due to not taking into account the wide variety of of types of science parks that exist in reality. Prior attempts in categorizing science parks are characterized by the limited number of cases and variables. Therefore the present study serves to fill this gap in the literature by developing a more comprehensive analysis of science park typologies. A large-scale survey on science park characteristics is distributed among all known science park managers/owners in Europe in order to collect data on both physical and non-physical science parks features. The selected variables of science park features are based on prior academic research. The total list of science parks is compiled through a number of sources including desk research (case studies reported in the literature), member lists of science park associations and other registers. A cluster analysis is conducted to group the different science parks into types with clearer differences. The typologies of science parks, derived in this way from data, provide a further understanding of science parks in general and offers researchers and practitioners a means to compare, market, and benchmark science parks more adequately.