The Role of Venture Capital in Business Innovation in North America

To better comprehend the geographical elements of the inventors' collaboration, we classified the vertices. The vertices in the following two diagrams (diagrams 5 and 6) indicate all of the database's inventors, sorted either by continent or cluster. The link between each of the two groups indicates the presence of a cooperative relationship between them. The number connected with each connection is the total number of patent co-inventions for all members of that group. To better visualize the relative differences in group cooperation, the line widths represent the frequency of cooperation. Not unexpectedly, 27% of all collaboration activities of Canadian nanotechnology inventors take place over the border. Figure depicts partnerships between Canadian and foreign inventors, organized by continent. The table also displays the primary collaborating partners by cluster. Inventors from Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal most typically seek cooperation partners in the nearby Northeast region, although they can also find appealing collaboration partnerships in the geographically distant South or Northwest. The preferences of the western clusters of Vancouver and Edmonton for the south-western US states are not surprising, but it is unclear why the inventors in the western cluster of Calgary would prefer to sign their partnership contracts primarily in the eastern or southern parts of the US. These findings indicate that when a deal cannot be made inside 

a cluster or within Canada, the choice of collaborating partner appears to be significantly 

less dependent on physical location. But how essential are geographical characteristics when looking for a colleague within Canada? Inter-cluster collaboration This section analyzes the role of location in selecting a partner for joint research initiatives conducted within Canada's borders. Figure 6 depicts collaborations among nanotechnology innovators from various Canadian clusters, as well as the degree of collaboration linkages between individual Canadian clusters and all foreign countries combined. To put inter-cluster collaboration in context, we included international collaborations in the chart as well. 5. Canadian innovators prefer to collaborate on research projects with inventors from other Canadian clusters or outside these clusters, even if they live nearby. Only 12% of all collaborative actions occur between Canadian clusters. Figure 6 clearly shows that the strongest collaborations are concentrated in the triangle formed by Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa (79 Toronto-Ottawa links, 64 Toronto-Montreal links, and 60 Montreal-Ottawa links), despite the fact that both Toronto and Montreal conduct a significant amount of joint research with inventors from other countries. Smaller clusters, however, prefer to collaborate with Canadian inventors. Table 5 provides a more complete view of inter-cluster collaboration in Canadian nanotechnology. We observe that innovators in Canadian nanotechnology clusters collaborate in two geographically distinct patterns. 

s a result, we have classified the defined nanotechnology clusters into two categories

eastern clusters and western clusters. Eastern Clusters: The inventors in eastern Canada's nanotechnology agglomerations (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, and Kingston) usually engage in predicted collaborative behavior, which is to seek out cooperation partnerships within a relatively short distance of their own clusters. Toronto's most common collaboration partners are from Ottawa and Montreal, while inventors in Montreal collaborate with researchers from Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec; in Ottawa, collaborators are primarily from Toronto and Montreal, and Quebec's inventors typically seek collaboration partnerships in Montreal. The small Kingston cluster is an outlier in this regard: while its researchers frequently collaborate with partners in the physically close clusters of Toronto and Ottawa, they also maintain significant cooperative projects with the distant western cluster of Edmonton. In general, inventors in the Eastern nanotechnology clusters prefer to form local or geographically near relationships rather than collaborating with the western portion of Canada. Western Clusters: The second cooperation pattern represents the normal cooperative behavior of the western clusters of Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary. For the innovators therein, the most ideal collaborative partners live in eastern Canada, whereas innovative partnerships from geographically close clusters are typically far less appealing. Vancouver's inter-cluster research collaborations are primarily with inventors from distant Toronto, but also from physically close Edmonton. Edmonton's collaborative linkages, however, are primarily aimed eastward

Kingston, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, with just a minor interest in proximate 

creative collaborations seen. Similarly to Edmonton, Calgary's geographically near cooperation linkages are poor, whereas collaboration with Eastern clusters, particularly Ottawa and Toronto, is far more prevalent. The preferred collaboration partners of innovators in Western clusters are typically located in Eastern clusters, but local and geographically close relationships are scarce. Table 5 shows that a considerable proportion of collaboration ties in Vancouver and Toronto are directed outside of the eight identified groupings. These are partially the outcome of our cluster definitions. Victoria has a nanotechnology agglomeration that is geographically too far away to be included in the Vancouver cluster and too small to stand alone. As a result, many Victoria innovators frequently collaborate on joint research initiatives with Vancouver inventors, while living outside the cluster. In fact, Victoria is home to 84% of British Columbia's inventors who live outside clusters. The scenario is similar near the Toronto cluster, which is geographically limited to Hamilton and Kitchener on the southwestern edge but does not stretch as far as London. Approximately 34% of inventors from outside clusters in Ontario live in London.