Globalization and the perennial hyper-connection due to the diffusion of communications technologies more and more apparently capable of annihilating geographical proximity, has aimed the recent scientific debate on the topic of network externalities, especially when these concern the relation relative to activities of research between universities and businesses located in the territory of reference. It makes sense, therefore, to critically reflect about the significance of spatial cluster configuration of the subjects who entertain such relationships, investigating their nature and intensity. This contribution, through the synthesis of a research activity developed as part of a multi-year project financed by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, proposes an inductive approach starting from a concrete case study that has been analyzed. Even with the awareness of the conceptual complexity related to the enormous variety of configurations that the system of university-business and intra-companies relations and the related modeling assume, the proposed inductive methodological approach, based on the determination of thematic clusters and the subsequent analysis of nature of the typology of the exchanged relationships, it is functional to argue a critical answer to the question posed.
Keywords: Clusters, knowledge, spillover, complex network, innovation, Naples.