Abstract
AbstractThis paper studies the role of the inventors’ networks and the diversity of the local industrial structure for regional innovation, differentiating between regions' production of normal and breakthrough innovations. Our results suggest that, on the one hand, local related variety enhances the overall innovation rate, while unrelated variety supports the rate of breakthrough innovations. On the other hand, we find evidence that inventors’ networks are determinant for regions' patenting of normal and breakthrough innovations. To do so we constructed a unique database of Italian patenting activity at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) dating back to 1972.
Highlights
In recent innovation literature, several studies analyse the role of inventors’ networks on regional inventive activity
The hype developed from the technological “relatedness” concept has allowed broadening this field of study by analysing how places with a higher technological relatedness could excel in the production of inventions (Ebersberger et al, 2014; Van der Wouden, 2020; van der Wouden & Rigby, 2019; etc.)
The present research aims to investigate whether the structure of knowledge networks and the variety of the local industrial structure are important for regional innovation and if there are different effects between normal and breakthrough inventions
Summary
Several studies analyse the role of inventors’ networks on regional inventive activity. The present work contributes to the above debates investigating whether the structure of knowledge networks and the variety of the local industrial structure are important for regional innovation and in particular on the capacity to produce breakthrough inventions. To investigate the effect of inventors network and industrial structure on the overall innovation production and second, on the capacity to produce those that are defined as breakthrough inventions For this reason, we will test two different dependent variables. The estimation results are presented utilizing panel regression techniques with year and province fixed effects This method is used to identify the relationship between patent production and different measures of inventor networks structure as well as the effect of industrial variety of the province. NBR À0.0806 (0.0463) 0.00283 (0.0430) 0.201*** (0.0504) À0.0336 (0.0326) 0.309*** (0.0482)
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