Publications
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PDF Technological relatedness and industrial transformation: Introduction to the Special Issue
This article introduces eleven research articles that connect concepts of technological relatedness and diffusion with the transformation of industrial and… Show more innovation systems. These studies focus on the role of knowledge spillovers, regional variations in innovation and performance, and the evolution of new technologies, such as green and digital technologies. Regional capabilities and ability to diversify are key in accelerating the transformation process of existing industries Taken all together, these studies suggest that industrial transformation hinge on firms capability to absorb domestic or foreign knowledge, regions capabilities, development trajectories, and their ability to network. In particular, regions capacity to diversify and leverage existing related knowledge are key in accelerating the green and digital transformation process of existing industries. Show less
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PDF Corporate Venturing for R&I: Practitioner’s views and policy questions
Recognising the increasing role that corporate venturing (CV), in general, and corporate venture capital (CVC), in particular, play in company… Show more innovation strategies, the European Commission organised on 23rd May 2022 a workshop with CVC practitioners to better understand the features of and rationales for CVC / CV and the role public policy could play to facilitate its expansion. The workshop confirms the Growing Phenomenon of CV in Europe; an increasing number of recurring CVC investors and growing investments, reaching 14.5b$ in 2019 from 3.6b$ in 2013. Despite this increase, CVC investments in start-ups are still modest with regard to the overall size of the VC market. They are modest also with regard to the corporate’s investment in internal R&D, representing about 2,6% of the sum spent on corporate R&D. In line with the overall venture capital (VC) market, corporate VC is also less mature in the EU than in the USA. The panel discussed options to improve this situation, geared to create an efficient pan-European market for cross-border deals, such as promoting VC networks, improving the visibility of start-ups (particularly outside the country of the headquarters of the mother company) or measures to strengthen linkages between start-ups and corporates at early stages. Show less
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PDF Top R&D investors recovering fast from the Covid-19 crisis: Preliminary insight to the 2022 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard
This policy brief presents preliminary insight in the 2022 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (the Scoreboard). It is based on… Show more a subsample of companies with available published accounts for the year 2021. The subsample consists of 678 companies representing 66.5% of the global R&D in the previous year’s Scoreboard. It includes 274 companies based in the EU, 198 in US, 112 Chinese companies, 16 Japanese companies and 78 from the rest of the world. Show less
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PDF The regional green potential of the European innovation system
The brief provides an overview of green technological development across European regions employing the Economic Fitness Complexity approach to establish… Show more a green technology space. The study explores the associations between comparative advantage in specific technological domains and a region’s capacity to develop green technologies, i.e. its Green Fitness. Furthermore, it addresses the interaction between the green and non-green knowledge bases, with a particular focus on whether regional know-how in the non-green technological realm can be exploited in the green domain and vice versa. To this aim, a metric of regional Green Potential is proposed. The analysis suggests that regions specialised in green domains, irrespective of their complexity, have a higher propensity to develop technologies connected with green technologies. Green technologies are linked mostly to technologies related to the production or transformation of materials; with engines and pumps; and with construction methods. The regions with the highest Green Potential are not necessarily those with the highest Green Fitness. The results suggest that there is a potential for green and non-green technological advances to generate positive spillovers in terms of capabilities to produce innovations across the spectrum of technological complexity. Show less
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Top R&D investors, structural change and the R&D growth performance of young and old firms
This paper investigates the structural change of the major economies through the lens of the leading global corporate R&D investors.… Show more Moreover, we explore the relationship between R&D intensity, capital intensity and profitability and R&D investment growth for young and old firms. Contrary to common understanding, our results show that in the EU the R&D distribution between sectors has changed – similar to the USA; however, the USA has experienced a very strong shift towards ICT-related sectors, which makes its change more visible. Both the EU and the USA have experienced a slower pace of structural change than emerging economies. The results also indicate that capital and R&D intensity may have a complementary effect on long-term R&D performance, which can vary according to a firm’s age. The specific nature of the sample allows to link our results to the Schumpeterian waves of innovation and the changes of techno-economic paradigms rather than alternative interpretation of management literature. Policy implications are discussed accordingly. Show less
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PDF Industrial innovation for competitive sustainability: Science-for-policy insights
New scientific evidence points out key issues helpful to designing policies and understanding new challenges. This brief article holds the… Show more outcomes of the CONCORDi 2021 conference focused on ‘Industrial innovation for competitive sustainability’, and organised by the European Commission’s JRC in collaboration with EARTO, OECD and UNIDO. The brief introduces the key takeaways from the scientific research presented and a summary of key policy insights arising from the mentioned event. Show less
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PDF The 2021 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
This publication is a Science for Policy report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge… Show more service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of this publication. For information on the methodology and quality underlying the data used in this publication for which the source is neither Eurostat nor other Commission services, users should contact the referenced source. The designations employed and the presentation of material on the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the European Union concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Show less
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Patenting in 4IR technologies and firm performance
We investigate whether firm performance is related to the accumulated stock of technological knowledge associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution… Show more (4IR) and, if so, whether the firm’s history in 4IR technology development affects such a relationship. We exploit a rich longitudinal matched patent-firm data set on the population of large firms that filed 4IR patents at the European Patent Office (EPO) between 2009 and 2014, while reconstructing their patent stocks from 1985 onward. To identify 4IR patents, we use a novel two-step procedure proposed by EPO (2020, Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Global Technology Trends Enabling the Data-Driven Economy, European Patent Office), based on Cooperative Patent Classification codes and on a full-text patent search. Our results show a positive and significant relationship between firms’ stocks of 4IR patents and labor and total factor productivity. We also find that firms with a long history in 4IR patent filings benefit more from the development of 4IR technological capabilities than later applicants. Conversely, we find that firm profitability is not significantly related to the stock of 4IR patents, which suggests that the returns from 4IR technological developments may be slow to be cashed in. Finally, we find that the positive relationship with productivity is stronger for 4IR-related wireless technology and for artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, and big data analytics. Show less
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PDF Background Note CONCORDi 2021
This background note describes five core global disruptions affecting the world economy in the context of industrial innovation for competitive… Show more sustainability. It discusses how scientific evidence presented at the 8 th CONCORDi conference proposes to tackle some of these disruptions, and concludes by highlighting the policy-relevant issues. This resonates with CONCORDi’s science-to-policy objective - from the four conference organisers JRC, EARTO, OECD and UNIDO. The note is addressed to the participants of CONCORDi 2021 as well as to a wider audience interested in the main themes of this conference. Show less
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PDF World corporate top R&D investors: Paving the way for climate neutrality
The current fourth edition of this biennial report on the innovative activity of the world’s top corporate R&D investors is… Show more the result of a long-standing and fruitful collaboration between the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It focuses on the role that these companies can play in reaching climate neutrality by developing, owning and commercialising low-carbon technologies. It does so by presenting and analysing data on their patent and trademark portfolios, with particular emphasis on intellectual property rights related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Show less