The origins of external knowledge inflows and the impact of university technologies

Abstract

This paper analyses how universities leverage knowledge coming from different technological, institutional, and geographical domains to develop technologies exerting a relevant impact for firms’ technological advancements. The analysis is based on a panel of 219 worldwide universities that filed, at least, a patent belonging to the alternative energy production sector in the period 2002–2010. Results show that using external knowledge originating in different technological and institutional domains exerts an inverted U ‐shaped effect on the firms’ subsequent technological progress, while the geographical origin seems to do not exert any influence.