Knowledge Bases and Spatial Patterns of Collaboration: Comparing the Pharma and Agro-Food Bioregions Scania and Saskatoon

The aim of this paper is to compare the spatial patterns of innovation and knowledge linkages of a biopharmaceutical and an agro-food biotech cluster. Dissimilarities can be expected based on substantial differences in terms of historical technological regimes and sectoral innovation system dynamics between the agro-food and pharmaceutical industries in general and particularly the distinctive analytic (science-based) knowledge base of biopharmaceuticals in contrast with the more synthetic (engineering-based) knowledge base of agro-food biotechnology. Empirically the study compares co-publications and co-patents of main actors for two typical cases: a biopharmaceutical cluster in Scania, Sweden and an agro-food biotech cluster in Saskatoon, Canada.