Analysing Structural Changes in Collaboration Networks through Social Network Analysis

By adopting a whole network perspective, the present study aims at describing systemic changes in the pattern of collaborative behaviours linking the organizations partaking in an Italian technological district. This methodology can be fruitfully employed to identify groups of organizations with similar behavioural patterns and to observe, in evolutionary terms, changes in the configuration of the R&D collaboration network as a whole. The organizations within the district are extremely heterogeneous as they include public and private research centers, firms, and local institutions sharing scientific research and technological interests. In Italy, technological districts are considered key drivers of innovation and growth, as well as a generators of competitiveness and inter-cluster cooperative projects. The investigation of the extent of the occurrence, outspread and stabilization of collaborative relationships is indeed relevant insofar as it provides a measure of the systemic effects of innovation policies.