Technological Specialization Patterns Research Articles

Which actors drove national patterns of technological specialization into the science-based age? The British experience, 1918–1932

AbstractThis article assesses the contributions of industry leaders, smaller corporations, and independent inventors to the international technological specialization of Great Britain in the interwar years. For the first time, we compare directly the contribution of these sources and combine the Chandlerian and “sources of invention” perspectives. The analysis is based on a novel dataset of more than 8,000 patents granted in the USA to British inventions. Our findings show the extent to which Britain integrated inventions generated by independent inventors with those of corporate inventors, i.e., industry leaders and smaller corporations, in both engineering- and science-based fields. This research highlights specificities of a former leader’s transition from the technological paradigm of the first phase of capitalism to that of the second phase.

Co-evolution patterns of university patenting and technological specialization in European regions

This paper provides novel evidence on co-evolution patterns of the technological specialization of innovation activities of firms and academic institutions located in the same European region during the years from 2003 to 2014. We exploit a novel and unique dataset merging data on EU-funded R&D projects, universities, patents, and economic region-level data for a large sample of universities and firms co-located in geographical areas at the third level of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS3), which correspond to a sub-regional scale of analysis. Our results indicate the presence of substantial heterogeneity across the analyzed EU regions with respect to the co-evolution of industry and academia specializations. In particular, we find that the specialization into a new technological domain is led by the local academic research system only in a few cases. We also document that a number of factors, at both the university and region levels, are associated with convergent or divergent processes in the relative specialization of the innovation activities carried out by firms and universities co-located in the same region.

Sobre a coevolução das estruturas comercial e tecnológica: teoria e evidência empírica

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar em que medida os padrões de especialização tecnológica coevoluem com os de especialização comercial. Para isso, o artigo assume que existe interdependência entre as estruturas produtiva, tecnológica e comercial e, portanto, os choques de demanda subjacentes aos processos de integração econômica gerarão impactos na estrutura tecnológica. A hipótese de coevolução é testada para 35 países e 38 setores no período de 1996 a 2013 por meio de estimações em dados em painel. Os resultados mostram que ambos os padrões (comercial e tecnológico) coevoluíram, especialmente nos setores mais intensivos em conhecimento, registrando-se um importante efeito demand pull nos setores mais internacionalizados. A ação das empresas multinacionais se revelou como um direcionador menor da evolução dos padrões de especialização tecnológica dos países hospedeiros. Entre os determinantes autônomos da especialização tecnológica, a cumulatividade parece jogar um papel crucial, enquanto a oportunidade tecnológica só se mostrou relevante nas indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais.

On the evolution of technological specialization patterns in emerging countries: comparing Asia and Latin America

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the role of technological opportunity and cumulativeness in the evolution of technological specialization patterns (TSP) in catching-up processes. Concretely, I assume that opportunity induces mobility while cumulativeness leads to diversification and stability. The empirical analysis uses patent data indicators for nine Asian and Latin American countries between 1978 and 2012. The paper shows that, during economic liberalization (although with different timings), emerging countries caught up and redefined the path of technological accumulation for Asian and Latin American countries. With the exception of Hong Kong, all the countries increased their technology share, but they ran in different directions. Asian countries made greater relative efforts in dynamic technologies, while Latin American countries focused on stagnant technologies. In this sense, Asian countries achieved a more successful performance, building new technological bases and taking a technological leap in some of the more dynamic technologies. Meanwhile, Latin American countries left their technological bases unchanged. The paper also shows that, at the beginning of the catching-up cycle, the TSPs were turbulent. Afterwards, cumulativeness in the technological choice induced the diversification and stabilization of the TSPs.

技術特化パターンとイノベーションに関する実証研究 : 特許データを用いた台湾・韓国の比較分析

技術特化パターンとイノベーションに関する実証研究 : 特許データを用いた台湾・韓国の比較分析

Learning in ‘Organized Anarchies’: The Nature of Technological Search Processes at Trade Fairs

Bathelt H. and Gibson R. Learning in ‘organized anarchies’: the nature of technological search processes at trade fairs, Regional Studies. Trade fairs have become an important temporary organizational form for the establishment of inter-firm linkages and networks. Despite recent insights into the nature of knowledge flows, the causal mechanisms linking trade fairs to processes of technological searches and choices remain underspecified. Taking this as a starting point, this paper provides a conceptual and empirical account of the technological search and related learning processes between geographically distant firms at trade fairs. Building on the concept of ‘organized anarchies’ and the ‘garbage-can model’ of organizational choice, it reconceptualizes the nature of search processes and applies this conceptualization to an explorative study of four business-to-business fairs in North America. This provides a dynamic explanation of how inter-firm interaction and observation support technological search processes, which may lead to distinct wider patterns of technological specialization and/or diffusion.

Patrones de Inserción de las Empresas Multinacionales en la Formación de Competencias Tecnológicas de Paises Seguidores

Utilizando base de dados de patentes depositadas no Escritório Europeu de Patentes este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar a existência de padrões de inserção tecnológica dos países retardatários latino-americanos e asiáticos; demarcar o papel exercido pelas EMN na formação de competências desses países e na aceleração dos processos de captura. O trabalho conclui que: (i) existem diferentes padrões de inserção das EMN (empresas multinacionais) de acordo com seu grau de inserção na composição da estrutura tecnológica do país receptor e com a região geográfica deste país; (ii) não necessariamente as EMN duplicam as competências adquiridas em seus países de origem, podendo também aproveitar competências e especialização local; e (iii) existem padrões diferentes entre AL e Ásia, ou seja, a ação das EMN favorece a diversificação da base técnica na Índia e em Hong Kong, enquanto no Brasil e na Argentina as EMN colaboram para sua maior especialização.

Do ‘liberal market economies’ really innovate more radically than ‘coordinated market economies’?: Hall and Soskice reconsidered

In Varieties of Capitalism; The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (H&S) argue that technological specialization patterns are largely determined by the prevailing “variety of capitalism”. They hypothesize that “liberal market economies” (LMEs) specialize in radical innovation, while “coordinated market economies” (CMEs) focus more on incremental innovation. Mark Zachary Taylor [Taylor, M.Z., 2004. Empirical evidence against varieties of capitalism's theory of technological innovation. International Organization 58, 601–631.] convincingly argued that Hall and Soskice's empirical test is fundamentally flawed and proposed a more appropriate test of their conjecture. He rejected the varieties of capitalism explanation of innovation patterns. We extend and refine Taylor's analysis, using a broader set of radicality indicators and making industry-level comparisons. Our results indicate that Hall and Soskice's conjecture cannot be upheld as a general rule, but that it survives closer scrutiny for a substantial number of industries and an important dimension of radicality.

Technological and Output Complementarities, and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Information Technology Ventures

Firms whose profiles of technologicalcompetence are complementary to one another are morelikely to enter into technology-based cooperativeagreements, and a broad level of technologicalcomplementarity is necessary for these agreements toextend as far as a mutual coordination of learningprocesses (combined research ventures). Using data onagreements between the world's largest firms in thearea of information technology (IT) and the patternsof technological specialization of these firms in theIT fields as revealed by their corporate patenting inthe US, we show that the technologicalco-specialization of firms helps to explain allianceformation, over and above the effects of anyco-specialization in IT products. While firms whosetechnological efforts are less complementary are lesslikely to cooperate for technology purposes, if theydo cooperate it is to exploit the differences in theirfields of expertise, and hence they are likely to usequasi-market organizational forms such as licensing,while the purpose of the alliance is restricted to anexchange of knowledge without any joint coordinationof learning (research). Instead, equity jointventures are likeliest when at a broad level ofaggregation the profiles of technologicalspecialization of partners are complementary, but ata more detailed level of disaggregation there is agreater distance between them, such that thecoordination of learning efforts is feasible, butrequires a stronger organizational commitment.