The answer is not simple...

To the best of my knowledge there are no theoretical contributions that explicitly address the topic.

From an empirical viewpoint results on their effectiveness are mixed, also because there is not a clear-cut definition of SP (someone include business incubators, others do not etc.).

Anyway results differ from country to country (sometimes the differ also for the same country, like UK).

For some references see for example (and references therein)

[24] Squicciarini M. (2008), Science Parks' tenants versus out-of-Park fi rms: who innovates more? A duration model", Journal of technology transfer 33(1) 45-71.

[25] Squicciarini M. (2009a), Science Parks: Seedbeds of Innovation? A Duration Analysis of Firms Patenting Activity", Small Business Economics 32(2) 169-190.

I have a paper that is going to be published as a working paper but it would be unfair to mention it ;)

Good luck with your reading

Maybe this paper is helpful as well:

Van Geenhuizen, M., Soetanto, D.P., 2008. Science Parks: What they are and how they need to be evaluated. International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy 4, 90-111.

Thanks Marco and Laurens for your help.

Marco, if you are ok with sharing your working paper, I'll like very much to read it.

Dear Felipe, I will send you my paper as I will come back in my office the next monday.

Many thanks for your interest. Obviously any comment is more than welcome.

Best

Dear Felipe...

This is the paper I mentioned.

It's about a survey that we made to study the Italian Science park.

In Section 2 you will find our literature review.

As I told you it is still a first draft so any comments are welcome.

Best regards

Dear Felipe

You could also take a look at the work of Andréz Rodirguez-Pose from LSE.

Best regards, Anne

The following article may be useful:

Rampersad, G. C. (2015). Managing Innovation Clusters: A Network Approach. Journal of Management and Strategy, 6(3), p9.

http://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/jms/article/viewFile/7638/4537

Cheers,

Giselle

Don't know whether you would consider this economics. The use of the Choquet integral may satisfy the "empirical" side of the question. While the multi-attribute/utility/preference approach  (Lancasterian demand) seems to satisfy the "logical" aspect of the question related to science parks :

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-015-1804-2

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-015-1804-2

I wish to thanks for the citations. I think that the reading of the mentioned paper could be so useful to better understand the real effects produced by a Science Parks