Capabilities and Opportunities for R&D Collaborations between China and Austria in the Green Tech Sector

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify cooperation potentials between the Chinese and the Austrian Green Tech sector, focusing on R&D activities of both countries. The notion of ‘Green Tech’ in this study is defined to include all environment-related technological fields as outlined by the OECD (2011a). We use patents to measure R&D specialisation advantages at a detailed technological level, using the OECD (2011a) classification scheme on environment-related technological fields based on the International Patent Classification (IPC). Revealed Technological Advantage (RTA) indices are calculated to measure specialisation advantages in specific technologies, indicating potential collaboration fields. Furthermore, such fields are identified from a network perspective by characterising the embedding of Austria and China in the international Green Tech R&D network. The international R&D network is measured in terms of common co-patent applications. Using network visualisation techniques, the network position of China and Austria in certain fields is to be illustrated. The empirical findings show that the R&D activity in the Chinese Green Tech sector is mainly characterised by high growth rates whereas the Austrian Green Tech sector reveals specialisation advantages in various environmental technology fields. Four technology fields Energy Generation from renewable and non-fossil sources, Energy efficiency in building and lightning, Emissions abatement and fuel efficiency in transportation and General Environmental Management reveal particular cooperation potentials, characterised by positive growth rates in China and corresponding high RTA values in Austria. An extension of our investigation to selected subclasses identified the subclasses Energy storage and Wind energy, as technology fields with greatest cooperation potentials.