Philipp Jonas Kreutzer

Collaboration is expected to play a central role in the transition to a
bioeconomy—a central pillar of a green economy. Such collaboration is sup
posed to connect traditional biomass processing firms with diverse actors in
f
ields where biomass ought to substitute existing or create novel products
and processes. This study analyzes the network of technology collaborations
among innovating firms in Sweden between 1970 and 2021. The results reveal
generally positive associations between direct and indirect ties, with mean
ingful increases in innovation output for each additional direct collaboration
partner. Relationships between brokerage positions and innovation output
were statistically insignificant, and cognitive proximity—while following theo
retical expectations—materially insignificant. These associations are mostly
equal between actors heavily invested in the bioeconomy and those focusing
on other innovation areas, indicating that these actors operate under largely
similar mechanisms linking collaboration and subsequent innovation output.
These results suggest that stimulating collaboration broadly—rather than
attempting to optimize collaboration compositions—could result in higher
number of significant Swedish innovations, for bioeconomy and other sectors
alike.