Assessing University-Business Collaborations for Moderate Innovators: Implications for University-Led Innovation Policy Evaluation

The growing literature on University-Industry Collaborations (UICs) highlights how learning processes get unevenly located in space, within centers of innovative activity, where the local presence of research-oriented universities plays a crucial role. Through a mixed-methods approach, this article explores the firm-level drivers of innovation and the interactions between a sample of companies and the local university in a moderate innovation EU region. Findings highlight that firms' size, sector, leadership's commitment to digitalization, and collaborations with the university explain companies' innovative performance. The article contributes to the university's societal impact assessment and discusses the implications for university-led innovation for Smart Specialization.