University-business interaction in the Oxford and Cambridge regions.

This paper explores the interplay of factors that produce specific local patterns of interaction between firms and universities, using survey evidence from a comparative study of two e´lite locations, the Oxford and Cambridge regions. It uses these examples to examine why innovating firms have external links, why they have them with universities, which spatial mechanisms are significant in the place-specific technology transfer links universities have with firms in their immediate hinterlands, and what kinds of institutional factors influence the form links take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]