Publications
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PDF Teaming up with Large R&D Investors: Good or Bad for Knowledge Production and Diffusion?
The participation of top R&D players to publicly funded research collaborations is a common yet unexplored phenomenon. If, on the… Show more one hand, including top R&D firms creates opportunities for knowledge spillovers and increases the chance for a project to be funded, on the other hand, the uneven nature of such partnerships and the asymmetry in knowledge appropriation capabilities could hinder the overall performance of such collaborations. In this paper, we study the role of top R&D investors in the performance of publicly funded R&D consortia (in terms of number of patents and publications). Using a unique dataset that matches information on R&D collaborative projects and proposals with data on international top R&D firms, we find that indeed teaming up with leading R&D firms increases the probability to obtain funds. However, the participation of such R&D leaders hinders the innovative performance of the funded projects, both in terms of patents and publications. In light of this evidence, the benefits of mobilizing top R&D players should be carefully leveraged in the evaluation and design of innovation policies aimed at R&D collaboration and technology diffusion. Show less
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PDF Concordance and complementarity in IP instruments
This work investigates the relationship between proxies of innovation activities, such as patents and trademarks, and firm performance in terms… Show more of revenues, growth and profitability. By resorting to the virtual universe of Italian manufacturing firms this work provides a rather complete picture of the Intellectual Property (IP) strategies pursued by Italian firms, in terms of patents and trademarks, and we study whether the two instruments for protecting IP exhibit complementarity or substitutability. In addition, and to our knowledge novel, we propose a measure of concordance (or proximity) between the patents and trademarks owned by the same firm and we then investigate whether such concordance exert any effect on performance. Show less
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PDF A geography of corporate knowledge flows across world regions: evidence from patent citations of top R&D-investing firm
This exploratory study looks at the structural and geographical patterns of corporate knowledge flows from a regional perspective. The methodological… Show more approach combines the centrality indicators developed in the social network analysis (SNA) and complementary tools from the graphs theory to assess the betweenness centrality of regions (or poles) their ability to control knowledge flows within a network or to impact its cohesiveness and the relative contribution of individual firms (or layers) to the centrality of regions. The combination of the two approaches brings relevant insights on the way large R&D-driven firms organise their knowledge sourcing and generation across world regions. Show less
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PDF World Corporate Top R&D Investors: Shaping the Future of Technologies and of AI
In modern societies, innovation and new technologies are key to growth and development and to achieving more inclusive economies and… Show more societies. In the past decades, the development and adoption of new technologies across all sectors of the economy has been characterised by unprecedented speed, scale and scope of technological change. Some of these new technologies are so pervasive that they have the potential to affect every part of economies and societies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one such general purpose technology that seems set to play a key role in almost every aspect of our lives. While very widespread and deep, ongoing changes are nevertheless difficult to fully understand. The prospect for opportunities seems huge but so do the challenges, and there is the risk that the future may bring undesirable consequences - at least for some parts of society - if technological change is not steered towards enabling inclusive and sustainable outcomes, nor follows internationally agreed ethical principles. AI is a typical example of a technology having the potential to profoundly improve our lives but also to create or widen disparities. Understanding the role of all players involved in and leading technological change, also in the private sector, is key to better understand ongoing and future developments and to steer them in a direction that enhances society. This report brings together data on patents, trademarks and scientific publications of the world’s top corporate R&D investors to shed light on the role of these key players in shaping the future of technologies, and of AI in particular. As for the two previous editions, this work results from the collaborative effort of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), two organisations committed to providing solid data and analysis in support of evidence-based policy making. Show less
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PDF Economic complexity to address current challenges in innovation systems: A novel empirical strategy linked to the territorial dimension
Economic Complexity is a data driven empirical approach developed to inform the territorial development debate with quantitative metrics. In this framework,… Show more techniques inspired by complex systems analysis and network theory allow to measure the intangible capabilities necessary for a country or region to be competitive, both in absolute terms and in specific markets. This document addresses how different clogs of the innovation system co-evolve under complexity: both in terms of the different aspects (innovation, production, scientific activities) and geographical scales (countries, regions, cities) By using a number of techniques from the Economic Complexity toolbox, this document showcases examples of policy messages. Show less
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PDF International technological collaboration in the China-Europe-US triangle: Evidence from top corporate R&D investors
The report examines the empirical patterns and dynamics of technological collaboration within the China-Europe-US triangle. It provides an assessment of… Show more the international knowledge collaboration and sourcing for the sample of worldwide top corporate R&D investors (EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard). To this end, it exploits European Patent Office and US Patent and Trademark Office patent data and information on the location of the inventor(s) and the applicant Scoreboard firms for the decade 2005-2015. The study mainly focuses on the patenting activity of China-, EU- and US-based firms and compares the extent to which they tap into knowledge sources from abroad, as compared to domestic ones. Finally, the report explores the industry-specific patterns of international technological collaborations in the China-EU-US triangle. Show less
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PDF How to survive an economic crisis? Lessons from the innovation profiles of EU regions
Whereas the European project has long been described as a ‘convergence machine', the recent economic crisis has halted convergence in… Show more certain dimensions, and triggered divergence in others. By exploiting a dataset that includes patents, trademarks and design registrations at the regional level (NUTS2) in the period 2007-2016, this report aims to identify the different innovation profiles of European regions. Moreover, we also investigate to what extent the innovation profiles of regions have contributed to their resistance to the shock brought by the 2008 economic crisis, as well as their paths of economic recovery in the aftermath of the crisis. Innovation did help to sustain employment both during the economic downturn as well as in the aftermath. The most resilient regions are those that have a strong performance in the three intellectual property rights (IPRs) analysed; patents, trademarks and design. This suggests the presence of comparative advantages for those regional innovation systems which couple technology-intensive innovation in manufacturing with a strong service-intensive sector. Evidence also suggests that European regions should no longer be divided into the advanced regions in the West and the lagging-behind regions in the East. There is a group of regions in Eastern countries that is consistently improving its innovation performance, while growing disparities in innovation arise within the EU-15 countries. Show less
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PDF Technological innovation activities in the EU: A new perspective
In many EU countries, a high proportion of local inventions are owned by foreign companies. On the contrary, in few… Show more countries the number of patents owned is much higher than the local inventions. Companies from Germany and the US are the most frequent foreign owners of patents invented in EU countries. Concentration of patents across companies changes largely from one country to the other. Differences between local inventions and patent ownership, as well as their concentration within countries matter for Innovation policies aiming at closing the EU gap of knowledge creation and technology diffusion. Show less
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PDF What are the policy options? A systematic review of policy responses to the impacts of robotisation and automation on the labour market
Three main policy responses to the labour market challenges posed by robotisation and automation have emerged in the research literature.… Show more The first is ‘taxing robots' and using this revenue to introduce a basic income that could offset the negative impacts of replacing humans by robots. The second option highlights the ownership of robots so that taking part in the new source of wealth is possible. The third focuses on strengthening the comparative advantages, the creativity, and the social intelligence of humans that robots will never be able to match. All of these policy responses are supported by economic rationales and research findings but a systematic review shows that all of them raise further questions and challenges that should be carefully investigated in order to choose the right path. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of these questions. Furthermore, in a broader sense these policy options—redistributing the benefits of technological changes, increasing accesses to the benefits and utilisation of changes, and supporting the individual and institutional adjustment to changes—are relevant to every technological transformation. Hence, the lessons that are drawn from the current discussion of policy options driven by specific technologies, robotization, and automation might serve as a precursor to potential policy responses triggered by other technologies. Show less
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PDF Intellectual Property Protection Mechanisms and the Characteristics of Founding Teams
Intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) are critical to fostering innovation and their relevance has grown enormously with the increased trade… Show more in goods and services involving intellectual property. Scholars have investigated what factors facilitate or hinder the use of such IP protection strategies, identifying country, sector, and firm characteristics. However, the extant literature has overlooked the role of founding team characteristics on the choice of IPPMs. Using data from a large sample of European small and young entrepreneurial firms, we show that controlling for size, R&D intensity, and other firms and market effects, the founding team characteristics such as gender and education greatly influence the choice of IPPMs. Show less