This study explores the knowledge-creation process that arises from inventors’ working relationships and
its impact on company innovation. Innovation is measured by a company’s patenting activities. Our
analysis is based on an original database built using OECD micro data obtained from patent applications
at the European Patent Office (EPO). An empirical analysis was carried out on a body of firms located in
the Italian region of Veneto. Our results reveal that the inventors’ working relationships have a significant
impact on a company’s innovation – innovation which is also dependent upon both geography and
timescales. Inventors’ working relationships thus produce productivity effects, in terms of patenting
activity, both in the short and long term and these impacts are also dependent upon geographical distance.