Abstract

Together with indivisibility and synergy, proximity has been identified as one of the three sources of agglomeration economies, and is therefore at the core of regional science. Thanks to proximity, both indivisibilities and synergies exert higher efficiency effects on production processes. Over time, the concept of proximity has been applied to explain dynamic agglomeration economies in the form of advantages for innovation performance related to the geographical concentration of innovative activities in space. The concept of proximity has changed drastically over time, interpreting its role in displaying dynamic advantages in more sophisticated ways, enlarging and reinforcing the interpretation of space in regional innovation processes. This paper has the aim of analyzing the evolution of the concept of proximity, highlighting the role of Italian scholars in that process over time. The paper ends by showing how a recent approach has been able to take advantage of a wide variety of proximity concepts to produce an advanced conceptual framework on regional innovation processes capable of high interpretative power.