Mapping high R&D city-regions worldwide: a patent heat map approach

Pieter E Stek

doi:10.1007/s11135-019-00874-w

Abstract

A methodology for identifying high R&D city-regions worldwide using patent data is presented. A heat map (kernel density estimation) approach is used which allows city-regions to be identified in areas with a high patenting intensity, a proxy for high R&D expenditure. The methodology is independent of any pre-existing administrative boundaries and it can therefore be applied to identify sub-national concentrations of R&D expenditure worldwide. This is an important advantage compared to other statistical data which is often only available at the national level. The results provide insight into the changing worldwide spatial distribution of R&D expenditure between 1997 and 2011, including the rapid rise of Asian R&D city-regions as well as less dramatic shifts among European and North American city-regions. The results also highlight some challenges of identifying high R&D city-regions and estimating R&D expenditure using patent data, and the existence of very large high R&D city-regions which encompass multiple cities. Some suggestions for improvement and further research are also proposed.

Highlights

Like many other kinds of economic activity, Research and Development (R&D) is spatially concentrated and globally distributed (Dicken 2007; Fujita et al 2001; Malecki 2014)
Because city-regions are the spatial scale at which innovation activity is concentrated, the purpose of this paper is to identify the world’s most important city-regions in terms of R&D expenditure
No high R&D city-regions are identified in South America, Africa or India

Summary

Introduction

Like many other kinds of economic activity, Research and Development (R&D) is spatially concentrated and globally distributed (Dicken 2007; Fujita et al 2001; Malecki 2014). As a result most of the world’s R&D expenditure is found in a relatively small number of city-regions around the world. Some of these city-regions are well known and have been extensively described in the scientific literature, such as California’s Silicon Valley (Castells 2014; Saxenian 1996). The global position of many other city regions is less clear. While Seoul is well known as a global R&D hub, is the R&D activity of other cities in South Korea globally significant? Stek about second-tier cities in Europe, the United States and Japan? Or emerging R&D centres in India and China? (Crescenzi and Rodríguez-Pose 2017)

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Discussion

Conclusion