“KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION AND LABOR MOBILITY: A LEIDEN BIO SCIENCE PARK CASE STUDY

Knowledge is the foundation for innovation and plays a major role in the current economic environment. Especially in high tech industries such as the biotechnology sector, the role of knowledge has become increasingly important and has played a role in the formation of numerous clusters worldwide. There is a heated debate about how and where knowledge diffuses. This thesis is constructed as a case study in which the diffusion of knowledge and one of the suggested knowledge diffusion mechanisms are investigated. Knowledge created on the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP), a typical biotech cluster located in Leiden, The Netherlands provides the research setting. The nature of the thesis is for a large part descriptive but the goal is to test to what extent the knowledge diffuses locally and how large the role of labor mobility in this knowledge diffusion. By following the trail of patent citations of a sample of LBSP patents, the knowledge diffusion can be determined. A new data resource (LinkedIn) provides more detailed information about the labor mobility of the LBSP inventors, which leads to more detailed insights in their actual job mobility. The knowledge diffusion doesn‟t seem to diffuse locally. The role of labor mobility as a knowledge transfer mechanism for LBSP knowledge seems to be negatively related to the distance the knowledge is transferred