International Innovation Networks Research Articles

Generating tacit knowledge across borders: international collaboration and design innovation in Norway

ABSTRACT We analyse the international dispersion of inventor networks engaged in design innovation, by studying a dataset of design patents linked to Norway. Specifically, we examine the extent to which the international dispersion of design innovation is sustained by firms´ organisation-based pipelines, innovation capabilities and star designers’ personal linkages. We find that, in traditional design sectors, greater orchestration and innovative capabilities help firms source knowledge globally, while star designers tend to work independently or collaborate locally. Design innovation activities in high-tech sectors show higher international connectedness, largely driven by star designers’ personal connections. Surprisingly, firms with lower innovative capability tend to be connected to inventor networks that are more internationally dispersed. While increasing attention is being given to the value added by design, little is known about international design innovation networks. Our paper opens potential avenues for research on the distribution and orchestration of design innovation across borders.

Not all peripheries are the same: The importance of relative regional innovativeness in transnational innovation networks

AbstractThis paper aims to test the hypothesis according to which “relative” innovativeness (regions scoring higher than the national average in innovation rankings, such as the Regional Innovation Scoreboard) is more important than “absolute” innovativeness (regions scoring higher than the European Union [EU] average) in determining the centrality and key positioning of EU regions in highly selective and competitive international innovation networks. The combined adoption of various social network analysis techniques and econometric models in the specific arena of the EU nanotechnology network created within the Horizon 2020 program confirms this hypothesis. However, additional graph visualization and brokerage analysis highlight how such relative innovators, holding key positions in the targeted network, hardly act as gatekeepers in the respective national contexts. A major implication of this study is that although relatively innovative regions may play a key role in transnational innovation networks, their inadequate action as gatekeepers represents a negative aspect for peripheral regions in general and especially in marginally innovative countries. This finding raises doubts about the actual increasing and more effective knowledge circulation between the surveyed regions to which the EU explicitly aspires.

National borders transcended: the impact of geographical proximity on the growth of global innovation networks among cities in East Asia

ABSTRACT Recently, the concept of the global innovation network (GIN) has been emphasized in view of increasing joint international research within regional economies as enabled by drastic changes in technology. However, insights gained from quantitative analysis of GINs are lacking. This study empirically investigated the GINs among major cities in East Asia by using data on patented co-inventions. This included an analysis of the factors that influence networks in the formation of international research collaborations in East Asia, and its interplay with geographical proximity. The results of the analysis suggest that there is a system of mesoscale international networks such as those in East Asia between GINs and national innovation systems. Our findings suggest that future policy should be more supportive of international innovation networks, especially in East Asia. Highlights This study traces the evolution of global innovation networks among major East Asian cities over time. China, South Korea, and Taiwan are increasing their share in the network. Geographical proximity has the greatest influence on global innovation network. Networks formed by transnational geographic proximity are found between major cities.

International cooperation in research and development of Artificial Intelligence – publication and patent activity

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the dynamically evolving research fields on the global scale. The world production of publication associated with the AI field increased by a third over the four-year period 2013–2017. Even less research intensive countries as Iran, Turkey, India and Indonesia appear to increase the share of the AI topics in their publication output. In the Czech Republic the fraction of publications in the AI field increased by approximately 10 % over this period. It makes the lowest increase within the EU/EEA. The field normalized citation index of the Czech publications in the year 2016 was above the world average but it is deeply below the top countries USA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Singapore, and Norway. The extent of international cooperation in AI is generally below the world average. The Czech Republic falls into the group of less cooperating countries. The countries exhibiting the highest growth in AI research are underrepresented in the Czech cooperation portfolio. The fraction of Czech publications in AI coauthored by foreign authors is lower than the national average. It indicates a lower international collaboration in comparison with other research fields. CR falls also in the group of countries less engaged in the international cooperation. The Czech international collaboration misses the countries exhibiting the most vigorous R&D in AI. The international collaboration adds to the quality of the research. The Czech publications originating from the international collaboration are cited above the country average for the AI field. It is even more significant in the collaboration with researchers from the top countries in the AI R&D. The patent activity in the AI field has grown significantly in recent years. There is a marked increase of patent applications having inventors/applicants from more than one country. It indicates that the applied R&D in AI has a more international character in comparison with other technology fields. A high intensity of collaboration in the authorship of patent applications is within language and geographically neighbouring countries and with countries having a highly internationalized R&D system. Multinational corporations involved in international innovation networks contribute also to the international cooperation. ICT corporations like IBM, Google, or Microsoft which often employ foreign researchers have a dominant role in international cooperation. The R&D of the Czech enterprises is relatively closed to the international cooperation. Domestic enterprises in AI use foreign employees in a small extent. The domestic enterprises even do not tap into the pool of intellectual property authored by the Czech researchers. The majority of patents with participation of Czech inventors is registered by foreign corporations.

Migration, communities on the move and international innovation networks: an empirical analysis of Spanish regions

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the impact of migration on innovation networks between regions and foreign countries. It posits that immigrants (emigrants) act as a transnational knowledge bridge between the host (home) regions and their origin (destination) countries, thus facilitating their co-inventorship networks. It also argues that the social capital of both the hosting and the moving communities reinforces such a bridging role, along with language commonality and migrants’ human capital. Focusing on Spain, as a country that hosted an intense process of migration over the past two decades, patent data are combined with national data on residents and electors abroad and a gravity model is applied to the co-inventorship between Spanish provinces (NUTS-3 regions) and a number of foreign countries. Both immigrants and emigrants affect the kind of innovation networking at stake. The social capital of both the moving and the hosting communities actually moderates this impact positively. The effect of migration is stronger for more skilled migrants and with respect to non-Spanish-speaking countries, pointing to a language-bridging role of migrants. Policy implications are drawn accordingly.

In Search of Complementarity in China’s Innovation Strategy through Outward Strategic Mergers and Acquisitions Policy: A Behavioural Additionality Approach

Chinese policymakers have witnessed great efforts in building indigenous innovation-led economy as well as a deep interest in promoting outward strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a major approach to acquire advanced technological know-how. Although debates take place regarding whether the governmental promotion of strategic M&As has an impact on the particular responsiveness of Chinese enterprises in terms of innovation activities, most studies use input or output additionality approaches that directly measure either the additional investment in innovation or the innovation output in the form of commercial benefits. The adoption of these approaches has led to inconclusive results. In this article, we assess the relationship between the governmental promotion and enterprises’ responses using a behavioural additionality approach. The findings show that China’s outward strategic M&A policy is likely to increase enterprises’ willingness to venture abroad, extend their international innovation networks, change their focus on innovation and, last but not least, enhance the learning capacity of Chinese government. We conclude that outward strategic M&As is an avenue to achieve the innovation-led economy in China.

Science Policy for an increasingly diverging Europe

This paper argues about the need for a revisited public policy framework giving priority to knowledge and technological change across the entire Europe, by discussing new cumulative data on R&D expenditure and the qualification of human resources across Europe. It takes a wide international comparison after a decade hit by recession and economic and budgetary problems, which shows an increasing internal divergence on knowledge investments across Europe, beyond the increasing gap between Europe as a whole and North America. As a result, the paper argues that new paradigms and conditions for responsible science and innovation policy across EU require the collective action of R&D institutions and a system approach to higher education, together with new initiatives towards international cooperation across an enlarged Europe. Analysis shows that chronic backwardness in science and technology in many European peripheries, including in EU southern and eastern regions, have been significantly overcome over the last decade. Nevertheless, their growing scientific and technological capacity is now associated with an increasing vulnerability as a result of the growing international competition for qualified human resources. Additionally, the comparative analysis of levels of economic diversification and sophistication across Europe, suggests the need to insist on qualification and institutional strengthening. This should consider active public policies to attract and retain qualified human resources all over Europe, as well as considering public actions towards promoting new markets. The way in which the economic fabric may gain competitiveness and access to external markets may require enhancing the degree of internationalization of the scientific community and encouraging international knowledge and innovation networks.

Networking, context and firm-level innovation: Cooperation through the regional filter in Norway

The paper assesses the role for innovation of one aspect which has been generally overlooked by evolutionary economic geography: context. It analyses how context shapes the impact of collaboration on firm-level innovation for 1604 firms located in the five largest city regions of Norway. Specifically, the analysis shows how the benefits to firms of collaborating within regional, national, and international innovation networks are affected by the knowledge endowments of the region within which the firm is located. Using a logit regression analysis, we find, first, that only national and international networking have a significant positive impact on the likelihood of innovation (the former only for process innovation), whereas the regional knowledge endowments have no direct effect. Second, regional cooperation is particularly effective in regions with high investments in R&D, whereas international cooperation is important in regions with an educated workforce – and regional and national collaboration may be ineffective in such cases. We conclude that, in the case of Norway, context is essential in determining the capacity of firms to set up networks and innovate. Regions with an educated workforce can use the resulting absorptive capacity to successfully assimilate knowledge being diffused through global pipelines from faraway places. However, this absorptive capacity is likely to be heavily filtered if regional firms mainly rely on internal connections within Norway.

Location of a Competitor and the Regional Innovation Activity of Industrial Systems in Transition Country–Poland’s Case Study

Aims: Spatial proximity with competitive enterprises is a factor influencing the acceleration of the technological progress in industrial systems in the most developed countries, but is it like that also in Poland? The main objective of the conducted studies was the identification of the effect of distance from the nearest competitor on the innovation activity of the selected regional industrial systems in Poland. Study Design: Surveys were conducted in the years of 2007-12 on a group of 2 434 industrial companies in four diverse provinces located in different parts of the Poland-Masovian, Greater Poland, Silesian and Swietokrzyskie. Place and Duration of Study: Faculty of Economics and Management (university in Zielona Gora), between October 2007 and June 2012. Methodology: The methodical side of analyses was based on the theory of probability – the probit modelling. Results: The obtained results of the analyses indicate, that both the location and the current level of the economic development of the analysed provinces do not influence the diversity of the innovation activity of the regional industrial systems. Therefore, the discussed regularities in Poland have the Original Research Article Swiadek; BJEMT, 7(1): 45-54, 2015; Article no.BJEMT.2015.070 46 system nature (against isolated nature). The challenge to creating cluster structures and facilitate their development in Poland in the horizontal approach, taking into account the obtained results of studies, will be extremely difficult to achieve. The knowledge deficit and low own abilities create areas of local system technological gaps – impossible to take innovation action between competitor in the local spatial proximity. The regional level in any case did not show significant statistical codependencies, what proves that this level of aggregation currently remains neutral for the implementation of the innovation activity. Just the beyond regional distance from nearest competitor (especially international) allow the acceleration of innovation processes. So, industrial enterprises in Poland are much more connected to the international innovation networks, than are depending on local or regional technological trajectories. Conclusion: The obtained research results indicated a different effect of the spatial proximity of competitors in Polish regions on the innovation activity of the industrial systems compared to the most developed countries. A new showing up technologies should improve that image of our future. Strong international connection will be more important for innovation activity and knowledge flow in Poland, than close physical distance to the potential collaboration firms.

A Dynamic Comparative Analysis of International Innovation Networks in Emerging Market MNCs

This paper compares the international innovation strategies of emerging market MNCs (EMNCs) with those of developed country MNCs (DMNCs). More specifically, we analyze the patent outcomes related to the use of international innovation networks (IINs) of EMNCs in developed markets compared with those of DMNCs in emerging markets. We explore the convergence and volatility patterns in patent generation within these IINs, considering the use of overseas R&D affiliates and the outcomes of interactions between foreign R&D affiliates and home headquarters for generating patents over a 20-year period. Our findings are broadly supportive of the idea that the trends in the volume and volatility of patents generated from the underlying IINs used by EMNCs are converging with those of DMNCs. This is in line with the predictions of a number of current international business theories regarding EMNC international expansion.

The configuration and performance of international innovation networks: some evidence from the Chinese software industry

Research in social networks has demonstrated that firms in changing environments will benefit from innovation networks. However, the lack of consensus on what factors and how these factors impact performance impedes further research in this area. In this paper, the concept of an International Innovation Network (IIN) and its performance is clarified. Then, based on reviews of the social network and knowledge management literatures, along with the results of previous empirical studies, we clarify the relationships between the performance of a focal firm entering an IIN and each configuration, such as the network structure (range and density), network relationship (tie strength, duration and norm distance) and network position (centrality). We conduct a case study from the Chinese software industry to test our conclusions and then propose an integrative model. We also come up with some efforts that the firm can make in order to improve its performance. Finally, future research is discussed

Networking as a Means to Strategy Change: The Case of Open Innovation in Mobile Telephony

The purpose of this article is to investigate how innovation networks can be used to deal with a changing technological environment. This study combines different concepts related to research and development (R&D) collaboration strategies of large firms and applies these concepts to R&D alliance projects undertaken by Nokia Corporation in the period 1985–2002. The research methodology is a combination of in‐depth semistructured interviews and a large‐scale quantitative analysis of alliance agreements. For the empirical analysis a distinction is made between exploration and exploitation in innovation networks in terms of three different measures. As a first measure, the difference between exploration and exploitation strategies by means of the observed capabilities of the partners of the contracting firms is investigated. The second measure is related to partner turnover. The present article argues that in exploration networks partner turnover will be higher than in exploitation networks. As a third measure, the type of alliance contract will be taken; exploration networks will make use of flexible legal organizational structures, whereas exploitation alliances are associated with legal structures that enable long‐term collaboration. The case of Nokia has illustrated the importance of strategic technology networks for strategic repositioning under conditions of change. Nokia followed an exploitation strategy in the development of the first two generations of mobile telephony and an exploration strategy in the development of technologies for the third generation. Such interfirm networks seem to offer flexibility, speed, innovation, and the ability to adjust smoothly to changing market conditions and new strategic opportunities. These two different strategies have led to distinctly different international innovation networks, have helped the company in becoming a world leader in the mobile phone industry, and have enabled it to sustain that position in a radically changed technological environment. This study also illustrates that Nokia effectively uses an open innovation strategy in the development of new products and services and in setting technology standards for current and future use of mobile communication applications. This article presents one of the first longitudinal studies, which describes the use of innovation networks as a means to adapt swiftly to changing market conditions and strategic change. This study contributes to the emerging, but still inconsistent, literature on explorative and exploitative learning by means of strategic technology networks.

The formation of international innovation networks in the multinational corporation: an evolutionary perspective

The Formation of International Innovation Networks in the Multinational Corporation : An Evolutionary Perspective