Quali-quantitative methods for the analysis of a regional innovation experience: the case of Imast Technological District

This work aims at exploiting the potentials of both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand whether social and cognitive proximity overlap in regional innovation networks. The showcase of IMAST Technological District in Campania region is examined. First we undertake an ego-centered network analysis of the actor-by-project collaboration network to derive social proximity measures and trace their changes over the period 2005-2013. Second, we adopt a lexical correspondence analysis on qualitative in-depth interviews gathered from managers of all public and private research institutions and firms in the district. Finally, we triangulate these social and cognitive proximity measures to understand to what extent these two dimensions overlap over time. Results highlight the importance of interpreting network collaboration data in the light of their social context.