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Evidence-informed decision-making in Smart Specialisation Strategies: a patent-based approach for discovering regional technological capabilities
Abstract
Discovering regional technological capabilities is key to underpinning the place-based and evidence-driven logic of Smart Specialisation. However, a comprehensive methodological approach for operationalizing the mapping, assessment and benchmarking of regional technological knowledge is urgently required. To address this need, we design and test a patent-based methodology that helps to profile technological domains in European Union regions, detects technological competitive advantages and opportunities for knowledge recombination, assesses selected S3 priorities against regional innovation performance measures, and conducts benchmarking activities. This study lays the foundation for tailoring a digital application to complement the suite of online services for S3 development currently available.
... In the second article, Natalicchio et al. (2022, in this issue) present a new patent-based methodology for examining regional technological capabilities. Like the initial contribution, among the objectives of this methodology is the need to help European regions detect technological competitive advantages and opportunities for knowledge recombination, assess S3 priorities against regional innovation performance measures, and conduct benchmarking activities to enhance cross-border innovation mechanisms. ...
Conceived in the framework of regional studies on Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) development, this special issue strengthens research efforts oriented towards assembling a technology-enhanced approach to S3 policymaking. First, it sheds light on fundamental methodological limitations that affect S3 development and reports on the digital support tools currently available. Second, it offers a knowledge base for producing novel digital applications that align with the overlooked needs of S3 orchestrators. Third, it complements this practical input with theoretical advancements in regional innovation studies by addressing intellectual questions and policy issues of pivotal importance for the S3 debate.
... Regional innovation (RI): Regional innovation is an important indicator of the output function of knowledge production is patents [52] and has thus become a classic indicator of innovation research [53][54][55][56]. Patents provide a basis for regional technological knowledge assessment and are an important tool for analyzing regional technological areas, detecting technologically competitive advantages, and knowledge reorganization [57]. The increase in the number of patents in a region promotes regional innovation and reflects the level of regional innovation [58,59]. ...
In the 2018 Global Environmental Performance Index, China’s global air quality rank was fourth from last, indicating a more pronounced conflict between the environment and development compared with other countries. Because of the vastness of China’s land area, the development of different regions is imbalanced. The achievement of the stipulated goal to be among the top innovative countries in the world by 2035 not only depends on the economically developed eastern part of China but also on the relatively economically underdeveloped central, western, and northeastern parts. In this context, this paper uses time-varying qualitative comparative analysis to explore how the coupling paths of environmental regulation affect regional innovation. The results show that: (1) In most cases at the overall level of China, the Porter hypothesis is supported, and environmental regulation can play the role of a “booster” and stimulate regional innovation. In a few cases, however, the Porter hypothesis is not supported. (2) The Porter hypothesis is also supported in most cases at the regional level, where environmental regulation is mostly a “booster” for regional innovation in the east, center, west, and northeast. (3) Comparison of regional heterogeneity shows that environmental regulation is more important for stimulating regional innovation in the east than in the center, west, and northeast. This study helps to identify the role of environmental regulation in regional innovation. Moreover, it also helps to understand the emphasis China placed on environmental management during the early stages of its economic development.
This study aims to propose methods for identifying entrepreneurial discovery processes with weak/strong signals of technological changes and incorporating technology foresight in the design and planning of the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). For this purpose, we first analyse patent abstracts from 2000 to 2009, obtained from the European Patent Office and use a keyword-based text mining approach to collect weak and strong technology signals; the word2vec algorithm is also employed to group weak signal keywords. We then utilize Correlation Explanation (CorEx) topic modelling to link technology weak/strong signals to invention activities for the period 2010-2018 and use the ANOVA statistical method to examine the relationship between technology weak/strong signals and patent values. The results suggest that patents related to weak rather than strong signals are more likely to be high-impact innovations and to serve as a basis for future technological developments. Furthermore, we use latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modelling to analyse patent activities related to weak/strong technology signals and compute regional topic weights. Finally, we present implications of the research.
The article compares and contrasts different sets of patent-based indicators, traditionally used to assess countries' technological capacities and specialisation. By doing that, we seek to determine how a chosen metric might affect the results of such an analysis, sometimes causing misleading conclusions on technological profiling. This goal is achieved with the statistical analysis of patent activity of the top-10 patenting economies. Findings indicate the need for policymakers to employ a complex of patent-related indicators when formulating technological specialisation strategies. Results also offer a taxonomy of technological capacities of the leading countries, which can further help understanding their current status and prospects for future progress. Thus, the paper might be of interest for researchers and analysts, which seek to offer methodological approaches and models to assess technological development of economies, as well as for policymakers governing the process.
It is important that evaluation exercises are focused on a few selected elements of the policy scheme; this facilitates identifying suitable evaluation questions and methodologies. Evaluation is meaningful only in the presence of well-specified evaluation questions, stemming from the specific information needs of the actors involved in Smart Specialisation Strategy. A well-defined intervention logic, linking clear ends with means, is essential for evaluation. Monitoring systems act as early-warning mechanisms signalling critical aspects in the implementation, which call for deeper assessment and understanding through evaluation exercises. To plan useful evaluations and increase the chances of their results being used require an ongoing commitment to develop a learning culture and build evaluation capabilities across institutions and stakeholders.
This paper explores the effect of different regional technological profiles on the resilience of regional economies to exogenous shocks. It presents an empirical examination of the determinants of resilience through panel analyses of UK NUTS-III-level data for the period 2004–12. The results indicate that regions endowed with technologically coherent – and not simply diversified – knowledge bases are better prepared to face an unforeseen downturn and display adaptive resilience. Moreover, local economies tend to be more adaptable if they innovate in sectors with the strongest growth opportunities, even though firms’ entry does not appear to contribute significantly towards resilience.
The Online S3 Platform (http://s3platform.eu/) aims to expand administrative capabilities of regional institutions, and thus, become an essential tool for improving the effectiveness of decision-making processes. The report describes the overall Online S3 platform mechanism, in terms of information flows and application interoperability. Its main rationale is to present the logical connections and the information links between the 28 developed applications, as well as to illustrate different ways in which they could be combined to provide services to the users. These services could be used to support the RIS3 design and implementation phases, as well as generic processes related to the general concept of strategic planning.
Moreover, the identification and development of 4 comprehensive roadmaps aims on more explicitly guide regional authorities towards an effective implementation of the RIS3 process. The Mini-S3 roadmap provides a core set of methodologies and applications that are essential for the development of RIS3 strategies, whereas the EDP roadmap targets on providing guidance on effectively supporting the three phases of EDP implementation – knowledge production, stakeholder engagement and knowledge sharing, as well as collaborative decision-making. The significance and role of specialisation analysis in the context of developing and implementing a RIS strategy is addressed by the Specialisation roadmap, whilst methodological guidance to policymakers and regional officers on specific (thematic) investment priority areas within their RIS3 strategy is provided by the Industry vertical platforms and Global Value Chains roadmap.
This study offers a novel analytical approach to inform the regional search for new industrial opportunities, as promoted by Smart Specialisation within the EU Cohesion policy context. The analysis departs from the challenges of practicing Smart Specialisation and its entrepreneurial discovery process in a dynamic perspective. It argues that the adoption of a dynamic approach to identify new opportunities implies mapping regional business and innovation assets as well as, assessing their position within the global technological and industrial landscape. The report brings a case study of the Lombardy region business environment, spurring from the S3 Lab initiative (in collaboration with Baden-Württemberg, Catalonia and Lapland), together with a comparative analysis focusing on technological development. The empirical study combines patent data from OECD REGPAT and territorial proprietary micro-data from Lombardy region on firm creation in emerging industries (EI) – new industrial sectors or existing sectors evolving into new industries (European Cluster Observatory). These industries represent a priority area for Lombardy's innovation-led development strategy. The initial observations confirm the importance of such industries in the region; they represent more than one-third of employment, almost a half of the regional value-added and feature together the majority of innovative start-ups, suggesting the relevance of the regional strategic development choices. Also, in terms of productive advantages, Lombardy ranks high in some key EI. The mapping of technological competences through patent indicators measuring specialisation, diversification and the ability to specialise in fast-growing and niche fields gives relevant insights on the technological potential of the region, providing further guidance for better targeted interventions.
The operationalization of smart specialization policy has been rather limited because a coherent set of analytical tools to guide the policy directives remains elusive. We propose a policy framework around the concepts of relatedness and knowledge complexity. We show that diversifying into more complex technologies is attractive but difficult for European Union regions to accomplish. Regions can overcome this diversification dilemma by developing new complex technologies that build on local related capabilities. We use these findings to construct a policy framework for smart specialization that highlights the potential risks and rewards for regions of adopting competing diversification strategies.
This work proposes a definition of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on the technology classes of the International Patent Classification (IPC) in which patents are classified. This new taxonomy, called the “J tag”, aligns with the definitions of the ICT sector (2007) and of ICT products (2008) put forward by the OECD, and stems from the in-depth knowledge of Japan Patent Office experts, as well of experts from the Intellectual Property (IP) Offices participating in the OECD-led IP Task Force. Expert judgment of patent class content, relevance for ICT-related products, completeness and accuracy are the principles guiding the inclusion of IPC classes in the “J tag” taxonomy. ICT technologies are subdivided into 13 areas defined with respect to the specific technical features and functions they are supposed to accomplish (e.g. mobile communication), and details provided about the ways in which technologies relate to ICT products.
This report provides an overview of the use of various analytical methods in the design of regional smart specialisation strategies (RIS3). It then sets out and explain the rationale and justification for the selection of 30 methods currently applied in or applicable to RIS3 development. Using this background information tailored online tools will be designed to enable policy-makers to make full use of these methods in all phases of RIS3 process – designing suitable governance mechanisms, analysing the regional context, building a shared vision, setting priorities, undertaking implementation, and ensuring monitoring and evaluation. This note elaborates on the key findings from the mapping of methodologies used in a sample of RIS3 strategies and a literature review to support the selection of methodologies. Each of the selected methods is described in more detail in Annex 1.
The selection of the RIS3 methods is based on: 1) analysis of the methodologies applied in RIS3 design in 30 European regions; 2) literature review on the (good) practices for the application of various analytical methods in smart specialisation process; and 3) review of wider sources exploring the state-of-art practices in data-driven applications and online tools for knowledge-based policy making.
Recombinant innovation, the combination of existing ideas, is important for technological progress; we want to understand how important market frictions are in stifling the transmission of ideas from one firm to another. Although the theoretical literature emphasizes the importance of these frictions, direct empirical evidence on them is limited. We use comprehensive data on patent applications from the European Patent Office and a multiple spells duration model to provide estimates that suggest that they are substantial. It is around 30% more costly to successfully discover and utilize new ideas created in another firm than in your own. This compares to the increased costs of accessing new ideas across national borders of around 7%, and across technologies of around 20%. These result point towards substantial imperfections in the market for technology.
The concept of smart specialization has attracted great interest and has been adopted widely in European regional and innovation policy. Foresight is an important part of creating smart specialization strategies. However, both the smart specialization concept and foresight have been criticized for lacking an empirical and theoretical foundation that can help guide their application in practice. This paper contributes to the theoretical foundation of smart specialization and regional foresight by drawing on the field of economic geography and elaborating a typology for patterns of smart specialization. We highlight that there are different paths to reaching smart specialization within the same industrial domain. The empirical research focuses on the offshore wind service sector in four regions around the North Sea. The findings corroborate a typology that offers four distinct patterns—diversification, transition, radical foundation, and modernization—all of which can enable the creation of new industrial activities where regions enter an emerging industry based on fundamentally different starting points.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are major drivers of social and economic change. They are also one of the key Thematic Objectives (TOs) in the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF). The aim of these funds is to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion within the European Union. ICTs not only constitute an important sector themselves, but are also an important enabler of other sectors. This is why, analysis of ESIF data on planned ICT investments show EUR 12.2 billion encoded in the dedicated TO, but when ICT categories in other TOs are included, this amount almost doubles, to EUR 21.4 billion.
Finding out more about the ICT investment plans of EU Member States and regions is not always a straightforward process. The available data for ESIF are structured in TOs and Categories of Intervention (CoIs); however, ICT investment often funds activities beyond the dedicated TOs and CoIs. To obtain a better picture of planned ICT investments, the European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT) and the JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) have developed an online tool to display planned ICT investment data on a regional basis. This tool will help EC officials, national and regional policymakers working on ICT issues, and beneficiaries of ESIF, to understand what kind of ICT activities are being planned in Europe.
The ICT monitoring tool can be searched using a number of predefined filters, or searches of TOs and CoIs can be customised. The tool also contains a database of keywords built up by a semantic search for keywords in Operational Programmes (OPs). This database allows the user to identify OPs that mention a number of ICT activities more frequently than others, and to identify if a specific topic is mentioned in a region at all. The data set included in the tool is based on an in-depth study of individual OPs, as well as on aggregated data sets.
When studying the available data, we found that Thematic Objective 2 (TO2) does not account for all planned ESIF investments in ICT. Using a broader set of CoIs, planned spending on ICT almost doubled, from 3.8 % to around 6.6 % of the combined total of European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), Cohesion Funds (CF) and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). However, it is likely that even this method fails to capture all planned investments, as respondents to our study indicated that substantial investments in ICT will be allocated to other categories, which would increase ESIF investments in ICT to EUR 35.5 billion. However, this estimate is not currently included in the tool, as the methods of estimating investments are not judged to be adequate. This range of different amounts of investment reflects the dual nature of ICT as an important sector and activity in itself, as well as an enabling technology in other public and private activities.
Taking the moderate estimates, the EU Member States that plan by far the largest investments in ICT in absolute terms are Poland, Italy and Spain; the regions with the largest planned investments are Campania (IT), Sicilia (IT), Andalucía (ES), Slaskie (PL) and Puglia (IT). For example, the region of Campania plans to invest more ESIF in ICT than the whole of Germany. The greatest investments will be in broadband and ICT infrastructures (EUR 6.9 billion), e-Inclusion and digital skills (EUR 3.9 billion), e-Government (EUR 3.4 billion), and smart cities and smart grids (EUR 3.1 billion).
To get a more in-depth view of future plans, we carried out a keyword search of ESIF data. Among the most frequently mentioned keywords are ICT innovation, e-Inclusion, broadband and digital content. This is partly because these keywords are broad and all-encompassing, but the findings also reflect the ambition of many regions to invest in ICT-based innovation activities. Quite substantial ICT investments will go to ICT-based innovation and digital content, but this will be listed under CoIs related to support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and research and innovation, rather than the core CoIs for planned ICT investments.
Innovation strategies for smart specialization have become the new framework for organizing innovation support in European regions and states. This article examines how policy-makers conceive monitoring in the context of the current European territorial and innovation policy. In this setting, monitoring activities have to move beyond an audit-oriented logic in order to integrate a range of strategic functions such as producing the information needed to manage evidence-based policy decisions effectively and keep stakeholders informed and engaged in the policy cycle. To analyse this transition, we first conceptualize the logic of intervention of smart specialization. In a second step, we present the findings from a survey of policy-makers on their perceptions of this intervention logic and monitoring. We find that strategy monitoring is an exercise that must go beyond a narrow audit focus. Regional policy-makers involve stakeholders to interpret monitoring results for strategy revision and they adopt a priority-specific intervention logic, albeit with problems of implementing this logic in practice.
The role of universities and research organisations as drivers for smart specialisation at regional level
Brussels, 23 January 2014
The development and implementation of smart specialisation strategies involve a number of stakeholders, among which universities and research centres play a key role. Smart specialisation requires them to re-think their mission beyond scientific research with focus on national or international excellence and mobilise their expertise in innovation and regional development. This report analyses the role of universities and research centres in the development and implementation of smart specialisation strategies and examines their strengths and weaknesses with a view to their contribution to a diversified local innovation and growth process. While there are still challenges to be overcome, a number of success stories already demonstrate that universities and research centres can develop their capacity to successfully promote the approach of smart specialisation. Strengthening their interactions with companies and building up on their competitive presence and international networks, universities and research centres can position themselves as lead organisations in the process. The report proposes a number of recommendations for policy makers at EU, national and regional level for facilitating the involvement of universities and research centres in the development and implementation of smart specialisation strategies
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Corporate author(s): European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation Themes: Research policy and organisation, Regional policy and regional economies, Education policy Target audience: Specialised/Technical Key words: innovation, research and development, research policy, university, higher education, organisation of research, regional development, competitiveness, economic and social cohesion, Community research policy, new technology, report
The existing gap between thinkers and doers is one of the main reasons behind the failure of the modern research system in the field of management, as many scholars suggest. Participatory, action research and experience based methods are now attracting scholars as well as institutions who actively participate in improving the efficacy of policy-making. This study presents the work conducted by the JRC-IPTS of the European Commission in the Greek region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace for supporting the implementation of the region's Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3). The study presents the methodology based on participatory and experience-based
methods and offers reflections on how to reduce the thinkers–doers gap.
In the context of innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3), monitoring mechanisms perform three fundamental functions: (1) inform about what the strategy achieved and whether implementation is on track and making this information available to decision makers; (2) clarify the logic of intervention of the strategy and make it comprehensible to the broader public; (3) support the constructive involvement and participation of stakeholders through transparent communication and promote trust building. RIS3 monitoring focuses on tracking the developments related to policy interventions within the specific priority areas identified in the strategy. The monitoring mechanism should be able to capture and follow the relevant expected changes that are foreseen in each RIS3 priority by means of an appropriate choice of result indicators; it should also capture and follow the policy output that ought to make expected changes happen. Regions and countries with extensive experience in monitoring innovation strategies and territorial development policies in general should build on existing monitoring structures; those with limited experience in this field should begin to develop their own internal capacities and experience starting with simple indicator systems, following the practical guidelines of this brief.
The development and implementation of regional development policies comprising information and communication technologies (ICT) is a complex process. ICTs play a crucial role in regional development as a horizontally enabling tool, such as high-speed internet infrastructures. At the same time, some regions have an interest in supporting the vertical development of ICT industries and emerging regional specialisations like eTourism. Due to the technical nature and the socio-culturally embeddedness of ICT, policy processes have to include technical, socio-economic and policy capabilities in order to work with ICT. Using participatory methods, policy makers can encourage transfer of knowledge amongst regions to address this complex reality. This policy brief presents the findings from three learning workshops where Andalusia (ES), Lodz (PL), Lombardy (IT), Malopolska (PL), Noordvleugel (NL) and Scotland (UK) have presented their work on ICT strategies and digital growth. The regions' individual experience is distilled into four general observations: i) the importance of an adequate infrastructure as a crucial pre-condition for the development of the digital economy; ii) the significance of involving stakeholder groups in ICT policy development and in governance structures and processes, since every actor is a potential agent of change; iii) the need for inter-regional collaboration both for learning and co-development of policies; and iv) the need for a broad array of policies tailored to the specific needs of each region.
This note studies the mechanisms through which regional economies diversify over time and formulates suggestions on how policy can influence such process. In particular, two closely related concepts will be defined, that is, technological relatedness and related variety.
Regional diversification is a crucial process in order to develop new growth paths. It is understood as an emerging process through which new activities develop out of existing ones, but the scope and outcome of this process are fundamentally affected by technological and cognitive constraints.
We discuss how technological relatedness may provide an input for effective policy making. In this respect, public policy should avoid picking winners that do not fit into the regional actual and potential industrial space and should prevent supporting declining industries that occupy a peripheral position in the industry space of a region. More in particular, we direct attention to various mechanisms through which new industries may be stimulated to connect to technologically related industries at the regional level.
We also introduce the process of entrepreneurial discovery, in which entrepreneurs generate the key information guiding the selection of the domains of future regional specialization, and discuss its relationship with policy schemes based on related diversification.
This paper examines the arguments underpinning the smart specialisation concept, an idea which originally emerged from the sectoral growth literature, and one which has recently been applied with to the regional policy context. The shift from a sectoral to a regional context appears prima facie to be quite straightforward but this paper explains that translating the idea to a regional policy context is rather more complex that it at first appears and implies some changes in both interpretation and implications. The outcomes of this are that in a regional policy setting the smart specialisation logic is seen to be broadly consistent with the overall reforms of EU Cohesion Policy. However, in a regional policy setting there is no reason why ICTs should be prioritised over many forms of intangible capital, and the promotion of technological diversification via entrepreneurship may need to be related to specific sectors or activities.
[fre] Un indice d'Herfindhal comptant par définition un nombre de parts relatives s'avère biaisé à la baisse dès que ce nombre est trop faible du fait des propriétés statistiques du nombre de données comptées et de l'inégalité de Jensen. Cette note propose une correction simple de ce biais, ainsi qu'une illustration qui applique cette méthode dans le contexte de données de brevets et de citations de brevets. [eng] A Herfindahl index of constructed from shares based on count data where the number of counts is small will generally be biased downward because of the statistical properties of count data and Jensen's inequality. This note suggests a simple correction for the bias and illustrates its applicability when using measures based on patent data and patent citation data.
The handbook aims at taking stock of the Smart Specialisation experience and presenting its current state of the art, both in terms of conceptual developments and practical implementation.
This paper has been written as a response to « Six critical questions about smart specialization » by R. Hassink and H. Gong. The paper starts with a reminder of what has not changed in terms of the basic principles and raison d’être of smart specialization. Then it proceeds to identifying what we have learned since 2014 and on this basis it will address the six critical questions posed by Robert and Huiven.
Smart Specialisation is closely associated with the concept of diversification. For a better understanding of Smart Specialisation, this paper examines one little-explored explanatory factor of technological diversification: cooperation within and between regions. Using Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) REGPAT data on co-applications for patents, the empirical analysis investigates the role of cooperation between organizations on technological diversification in 226 European regions over 10 five-year periods, 2000–13. Cooperation within and between regions emerges as an important determinant of regional diversification, but both forms of cooperation should evolve hand in hand – singly, each form may prove ineffective at boosting regional diversification.
The implementation of the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) has required European regions to identify the technological domains in which they show superior innovative capabilities. This choice should promote specialization and facilitate diversification into new sectors. Given that regional specialization shows path dependence, successful diversification can be achieved in domains closely related to the existing knowledge base. The paper provides a first empirical assessment of the coherence between the technological domains chosen by Italian regions and those in which they show actual innovative capabilities, as measured by their patenting activity.
Industry 4.0 is a name used to indicate a ‘fourth industrial revolution’, characterised by the emergence of smart factories in which cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes and communicate with each other and human beings in real time. European Member States and regions are committed to adapt their innovation systems to the trends of Industry 4.0 and Europe as a whole is facing the challenge of finding a balance between promoting research and innovation excellence and putting less advanced regions in the position to benefit from the ongoing industrial revolution. However, relatively little is known about the magnitude of this economic phenomenon, the comparative advantages of countries and regions and their technological specialisation. We use data from European regions’ participation in collaborative research projects promoted by the 7th Framework Programme for research and innovation to investigate relative and absolute advantages in the enabling technologies of Industry 4.0. Data are regionalised and categorised on the basis of an original taxonomy of technologies developed with the support of a team of European experts in each technological domain. The article also explores regional networks promoted by the Framework Programme and draws policy indications to support the competitiveness of European manufacturing.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm in the ICT sector and it is at the center of many current political and economic debates. Scholars, executives, and policymakers are becoming increasingly interested in understanding how to turn the IoT into reality, since various technological constraints (e.g., standardization and interoperability) limit the possibility of realizing an inclusive IoT information network. These constraints are exacerbated by the lack of a clear picture of the innovation dynamics and technology evolution of the IoT. This paper seeks to address this gap by mapping the development of IoT technologies. In particular, we have collected 61,972 IoT patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in the period 2000–2012. We analyze temporal trends, cross-country dynamics and identity of the applicants. Moreover, we provide insights about the development of the most relevant IoT technologies by looking at triadic patent families.
Purpose
The present study aims at understanding if and how the technological diversification of collaborating firms and public research organisations (PROs) affects the technological impact of the resulting joint-patented innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct an analysis on a database of 590 dyadic joint-patents, assigned to both firms and PROs, registered from 1976 to 2010 to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and belonging to green technological classes, as defined by the International Patent Classification green inventory.
Findings
The study reveals that the assignees’ technological diversification has a significant influence on the impact of the patents jointly developed. Indeed, our results show that the most impacting joint-patents result from collaborations involving technologically diversified firms.
Research limitations/implications
This research sheds further light on the establishment of R&D collaborations between firms and PROs to jointly innovate. Specifically, it provides a novel perspective to investigate the impact of joint-patents, by focusing on the assignees’ technological profile.
Practical implications
The present work suggests that firms characterised by a higher degree of technological diversification are more likely to co-develop patent of higher technological impact, as resulting from a collaboration with PROs.
Originality/value
This study investigates the factors affecting the impact of joint-patents resulting from collaborations between firms and PROs. In particular, the present research focuses on the effect of a relevant partners’ characteristic, such as their technological diversification.
European guidelines for the smart specialization strategy (S3) required regions to identify synergies between technological domains within the same region (relatedness) and potential links of the chosen domains with other European regions (connectivity). The aim of this paper is to analyse if and to what extent regions have been able to implement such indications and the methodology adopted. The paper is based on a content analysis of the S3 documents approved by Italian regions. The empirical analysis reveals that only in a few cases regions considered relatedness and connectivity of technological domains. Moreover, the methods adopted by regions to detect potential links between the specialization domains is based more on anecdotal evidence than on the application of theoretically grounded methodologies. The paper suggests that the explanation for this omission is the absence of a consolidated methodology to deal with these issues and proposes some preliminary guidelines to overcome the problem.
This paper discusses the early-stage experience of the smart specialization agenda within EU Cohesion Policy. The analysis examines the types of policy prioritization choices made by different member states and regions and seeks evidence on the extent to which weaker regions, in particular, might be constrained in their choices. The paper then reviews the evidence arising out of various surveys of policy-makers’ own experience and perceptions of the agenda, and concludes with a discussion of the major features of the policy progress so far and the main challenges ahead.
The smart specialization strategy is now a reality. With regions and nations having completed the technical fulfillment of the ex-ante conditionality and the related action plans, the first evaluation studies have been launched with the aim to assess the consistency of the concept, once moving from the design (theory) to the implementation phase (practice). From these first evaluation exercises, strengths and weaknesses emerge in the way the smart specialization strategy has been conceived that lead to reflections on its possible future adjustment trends. The paper highlights emerging bottlenecks (e.g. the lack of local pre-conditions in the local economy and limits of governance) as well as possible future trajectories to overcome such bottlenecks, like the shift from a compulsory to a voluntary RIS, and from an industry-focused to a territorial development strategies.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to focus on the distinction between smart specialisation and smart specialisation policy and it studies under what conditions a smart specialisation policy is necessary.
Design/methodology/approach
– A conceptual framework is built based on historical evidence of successful dynamics of structural changes at regional level qualified as “smart specialisation”. The identification of market and coordination failures that are likely to impede the occurrence of spontaneous process of smart specialisation makes a good case for a smart specialisation policy.
Findings
– The paper highlights important design principles for the policy process that should help to minimise potential risks of policy failures and policy capture.
Research limitations/implications
– The paper does assess the effect of smart specialisation on innovation and growth at regional level because it is too early to observe and measure effects. The paper confines itself to conjectures about the effects of such a policy.
Practical implications
– The paper makes recommendations and explains some of the practicalities about the implementation of the policy at regional level.
Originality/value
– The paper is one of the first dealing with the topic of smart specialisation policy.
This paper introduces indicators of regional related variety and unrelated variety to conceptually overcome the current impasse in the specialization-diversity debate in agglomeration economics. Although various country-level studies have been published on this conceptualization in recent years, a pan-European test has been missing from the literature until now. A pan-European test is more interesting than country-level tests, as newly defined cohesion policies, smart-specialization policies, place-based development strategies and competitiveness policies may be especially served by related variety and unrelated variety conceptualizations. We test empirically for the significance of variables based on these concepts, using a cross-sectional data set for 205 European regions during the period 2000-2010. The results confirming our hypotheses are that related variety is significantly related to employment growth, especially in small and medium-sized city-regions, and that specialization is significantly related to productivity growth. We do not find robust relationships that are hypothesized between unrelated variety and unemployment growth.
This paper reflects on the implementation of the RIS3 policy agenda. Based on two surveys and various phone interviews, it underlines that Europe's diverse pattern of institutional arrangements poses locally contingent policy challenges in which regional governance capacities are at least as important an issue as techno-economic potentials. In detail, it demonstrates how Southern Europe profited from novel practices while Eastern Europe had to invest substantially to change existing routines. Concluding, it argues that the main merit of RIS3 processes may, in fact, lie in their contribution to changing routines and practices of governance even if those, for now, remain without measurable effect on policy.
The current debate on a regional policy design to fit the Europe 2020 Agenda calls for additional reflection on how sectoral policies, like innovation policies, can be appropriately translated into a regional setting. The paper enters the debate on smart specialisation by claiming that innovation strategies call for the identification of common approaches for similar types of regions in order to prevent misallocation of public resources and unfeasible local strategies. For this purpose, a territorial taxonomy is suggested for the development of a regional innovation strategy, from which innovation policies for each regional mode of innovation are proposed.
Patents, which are regarded as important sources of innovation, are closely related to innovation strategies, and data from patent registrations are frequently used in innovation studies. Generally, such studies collect patent information from a patent database and analyze it to identify innovation trends and strategies at the firm, industry, and national levels. Therefore, it is important not only to develop and apply a suitable analysis method, but also to select a patent database that is appropriate for such studies' research objectives. But few previous studies on patent analysis have carefully examined the suitability of the databases they have used.
Is there a role for the multifaceted Renaissance Man in modern team-intensive innovation activities? This paper argues that generalist inventors, holding a broad knowledge set, make an especially valuable contribution to innovation teams in uncertain contexts. For a given level of team knowledge variety, the presence of generalists in an innovation team enables a more effective recombination of knowledge and attenuates the typical barriers affecting team-working processes. On the other hand, the lack of specialized contributions in such teams may hamper the process of adapting each recombined component in the search for an innovative solution. Thus, we expect teams including generalists to perform better than otherwise comparable teams in contexts where there is not a well-defined path to combine knowledge and the advantage of specialized contributions plays only a secondary role. We analyze the role of generalists in teams of inventors in the electrical and electronics industry by tracking the trajectories of individual members and the performance of their teams through their patenting activity. Our findings are consistent with the proposition outlined above.
Given the ever-increasing pace and complexity of technological innovation in the energy sector, monitoring technological changes has become of strategic importance. One of the most common techniques for technology monitoring is patent analysis, which enables the identification of technological trends over time. However, few previous studies have carried out patent analysis in the energy sector. This study aims to explore patterns of innovation and of evolution in energy technologies, particularly focusing on similarities and differences across technologies. For this purpose, we first defined the relevant energy technologies and extracted the associated patent data from the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) and then adopted six patent indices and developed six patent maps to analyze their innovation characteristics. We then clustered energy technologies with similar characteristics, so defining innovation categories, and analyzed the changes in these characteristics over time to define their evolution categories. As one of the few attempts to investigate the overall trends in the energy sector's innovation and evolution, this study is expected to help develop an in-depth understanding of the energy industry, which will be useful in establishing technology strategies and policy in this rapidly changing sector.
Most of the conventional indicators for measuring the amount of technological knowledge (TK) have so far been input-based indicators. Hence, there is growing need to develop output-based indicators, and accordingly some studies have been conducted thereon. However, previous research has adopted patent count or patent stock by simple count in measuring the amount of TK as output-based indicators. The principal problem with using this variable is that the value of individual patent is too heterogeneous. That is a large portion of these patent databases are either of little value or nothing at all. As a result, patent count or patent stock by simple count cannot be seen as a suitable measure of TK.In this study, we attempted to resolve the value-heterogeneity problem in measuring patent stock. The notion of citation-based patent stock (CPS) and valuation-based patent stock (VPS) is proposed in this paper and the calculation method is described in detail. In CPS, the economic value of individual patent is assumed to be proportional to the number of citations received from other patents. And in VPS, the economic value of individual patent is derived from the value distribution of patents registered in some cohort by manipulating the patent renewal data. We validated the indicators by comparing them with the usual input-based indicators and by analyzing the relationships between them and the productivity growth empirically.
This paper analyses the evolution of regional innovation policy into the mainstream of public policy. The paper examines the
empirical and theoretical developments which have shifted much of the focus on innovation-related issues to matters of economic
geography. As well as academic material we also review the literature on the subject produced by the international development
institutions. In terms of policy, special attention is devoted to the role of local market failures and local institutions
in explaining the importance and need for regional innovation policies, and the advent of the smart specialisation agenda
is discussed. Finally, the paper discusses the current regional innovation policy tools and interventions observed around
the world, which are seen by international institutions as examples of best practice.
This paper makes the assumption that Norwegian patenting in the US reflects a quasi-universe of Norwegian technological capabilities. Based on this assumption, the paper combines a "patent-bibliometrics" and a "technometrics" approach to study other relevant bodies of knowledge these capabilities build upon. In order to study interactions at the "science-technology-innovation interface", the paper maps the citation patterns that radiate from the patent population (1990–96) to other areas of technology (patent-citations) and to science-bases (citations to Non-Patent Literature or NPL). The study identifies important technology-technology links that involve machinery, process-engineering and chemical and significant science-technology links that involve pharmaceuticals and instruments.
We examine the attributes of technological inventions that influence their commercialization. Using a unique dataset of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-licensed patents, we show that the likelihood of invention commercialization, which we measure by the achievement of first sale, is positively associated with two characteristics of licensed technological inventions—scope and pioneering nature—and has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the age of the invention. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Argues for studying the region as a locus of untraded interdependencies. Three main lines of analysis have emerged from the study of regions since the early 1980s, concentrating on institutions, industrial organization and transactions, and technological change and learning. These analyses regard the region as an essential level of capitalistic economic coordination, but none has gone so far as to formulate why this is the case. It is argued that untraded interdependencies between actors in a region generate material and non-material assets in production, so that the region serves as the primary source of development. A regional economics of this nature takes into account more than the typical input-output relations, and includes an analysis of technological change and organization. Synthesis of the regional literature and a brief look at contemporary European policies show that public goods, and especially capacities for collective action and coordination, are missing from policies aimed at abating regional inequalities. In sum, developing an analytical language for the region - based on action and encompassing the uniqueness of particular regions as well as the interdependencies by which they are characterized - will contribute greatly to understanding economic processes within capitalism. (CJC)
Innovation and technological change, long recognized as the main drivers of long-term economic growth, are elusive notions that are difficult to conceptualize and even harder to measure in a consistent, systematic way. This book demonstrates the usefulness of patents and citations data as a window on the process of technological change and as a powerful tool for research on the economics of innovation. Patent records contain a wealth of information, including the inventors' identity, location, and employer, as well as the technological field of the invention. Patents also contain citation references to previous patents, which allow one to trace links across inventions. The book lays out the conceptual foundations for such research and provides a range of interesting applications, such as examining the geographic pattern of knowledge spillovers and evaluating the impact of university and government patenting. It also describes statistical tools designed to handle methodological problems raised by the patent and citation processes. The book includes a CD with complete data on 3 million patents with more than 16 million citations and a range of author-devised measures of the importance, generality, and originality of patented innovations.
The information in patent data can be used for strategic planning purposes. A conceptual framework is developed showing the use of patent information in core areas of technology management. This paper addresses how patent information can be used for competitor monitoring, technology assessment, R&D portfolio management, the identification and assessment of potential sources for the external generation of technological knowledge, especially by means of mergers and acquisitions, and human resource management. Indicators of patenting strategies and various portfolio concepts which can be used for these purposes are described. Because of its strategic value, it is argued that the retrieval and evaluation of patent data should be institutionalized within the organization in order to ensure the continuous and systematic use of patent information in a company's decision-making processes. How patent information becomes a core element of a firm's knowledge management system is outlined. This type of strategic patent information is geared toward two important recipients: (1) senior management who uses this information for decision-making purposes in important areas of technology management and (2) external stakeholders of the firm, such as shareholders and analysts, who have an increasing interest in assessing a firm's technological competence because of its strong impact on the firm's future competitiveness.