Publications
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PDF Distribution of industrial research and innovation activities: An application of the technology readiness levels
The Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) approach is relevant to map the functional decomposition of companies' R&D value chains. TRLs matter… Show more for corporate location choices. Knowing what distinct types of R&D&I activities (or TRLs) stay, go and come back in EU territories – and why – is central for policies supporting local industrial and innovation ecosystems and clusters, and the identification and integration into strategic value chains. Fast-developing local strengths of Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea, in Automotive, and in Electronics and related fields are shaping companies' geographical decomposition of R&D&I activities. While the EU has strong value chains in e.g. automotive (network of combustion engine) and pharma (highly skilled labour force and strong research institutions), corporate R&D&I investments are finding their way to novel applications in emerging technologies in Asia. Show less
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PDF Assessing the innovation capability of EU companies in developing dual use technologies
This study proposes a framework to identify and analyse the European defence innovation ecosystem and to investigate the relevance of… Show more dual use inventions, extending previous empirical approaches. 63,714 defence inventions in the decade 2002-2012 were analysed by taking several dimensions into consideration: time, geography, technology, type of innovator. The main findings indicate an increasing trend of patented inventions covering a wide range of technological fields not only in the traditional defence areas, but also in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and in instruments for measurement and control. The innovations seem to be quite concentrated: the twenty largest patent holders (firms and government agencies) account for 40% of total defence inventions. The largest geographical source of innovations is the USA, but South Korea has increased significantly in recent years. Dual use innovations, i.e. military patents subsequently cited by a civilian invention, are identified using a novel method employing patent citations. The proportion of dual use inventions in the whole dataset is 41%, but the value has been decreasing in recent years and shows heterogeneity across technological sectors and geographical areas (the USA reports the highest share, 63.9%). Analysis of knowledge flows suggests significant heterogeneity in the share of intra-border innovations: the European defence innovations are largely cited by US inventions, especially when considering dual use cases. Show less
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"A Technology-Based Classification of Firms: Can We Learn Something Looking Beyond Industry Classifications?"; Entropy 2018, https://doi.org/10.3390/e20110887 (registering DOI) Volume 20, Issue 11
In this work we use clustering techniques to identify groups of firms competing in similar technological markets. Our clustering properly… Show more highlights technological similarities grouping together firms normally classified in different industrial sectors. Technological development leads to a continuous changing structure of industries and firms. For this reason, we propose a data driven approach to classify firms together allowing for fast adaptation of the classification to the changing technological landscape. In this respect we differentiate from previous taxonomic exercises of industries and innovation which are based on more general common features. In our empirical application, we use patent data as a proxy for the firms' capabilities of developing new solutions in different technological fields. On this basis, we extract what we define a Technologically Driven Classification (TDC). In order to validate the result of our exercise we use information theory to look at the amount of information explained by our clustering and the amount of information shared with an industrial classification. All-in-all, our approach provides a good grouping of firms on the basis of their technological capabilities and represents an attractive option to compare firms in the technological space and better characterise competition in technological markets. Show less
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PDF EU regions and the upgrading for the digital age
In this work we use patent data from the European patent office (EPO) to assess the capabilities of EU regions… Show more in developing digital technologies especially focusing on those that are more closely related to the digital transformation. More specifically, we measure ICT patents by considering those containing digital codes, as defined by the OECD. The penetration of digital technologies in the development of innovative products is instead captured by the co-occurrence of digital and non-digital codes within patent documents; we call these patents ICT-combining patents. Show less
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PDF R&D and innovation activities in companies across Global Value Chains
The objective of the study is to better understand the geographical and organizational patterns of corporate R&D and innovation across… Show more Global Value Chains (GVCs) and their interactions with home and host-countries' economies and policy initiatives. In addition, a better understanding of the drivers and barriers to improving the location of high-value creation and knowledge-intensive activities in Europe and the competitive position of EU industry in strategic GVCs is aimed for. Show less
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PDF R&D Intensive corporations and the job market: The danish case
To boost job creation, the labour market role of big multinationals cannot be overlooked. Large R&D investing companies operating in… Show more Denmark act as agents of skill upgrading, rather than destroying mid-skill jobs through job polarisation. However, workers employed by these companies tend to move within such elite (i.e. remaining in the ‘Champion's League') rather than moving to other non-multinational indigenous firms. Scoreboard companies, domestic and foreign, pay higher wages for a given occupation compared to other firms; they also show a higher wage growth. Show less
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PDF Industrial R&D continued to grow substantially in 2017
R&D funded by the business sector increased in the EU by 5.6%, below the 6.1% global rate and the US… Show more R&D growth (7.2%). The worldwide growth of industrial R&D in 2017 is slightly higher than that recorded in 2016. This growth is largely driven by ICT and health industries. As in previous years, the industrial R&D growth in the EU is led by Germany, with France showing a stronger R&D increase compared to the previous year. In the EU, R&D inflows and outflows for Health industries were nearly equivalent in 2017 (€9.6bn versus €9.4bn) and showed a significant positive trend with respect to 2016. Show less
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PDF Ten-year evolution of EU industrial R&D in the global context
More than a quarter of the industrial investment in global R&D is made by EU companies. In the last decade… Show more EU companies have increased their specialisation in medium-tech sectors, with a significant R&D share increase in the Automobile sector and a decrease in the Aerospace & Defence sector. Industrial dynamics at company level provide insights into policy strategies to strengthen EU corporate R&D and to improve the competitiveness of innovation-driven industries. Show less
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PDF Global Innovation Networks: State of the art and issues at stake for GVCs
The objective of the study on "Literature review on Global Innovation Networks: State of the art and issues at stake… Show more for GVC" is to summarise the state of the art literature on Global Innovation Networks (GINs) in order to understand the patterns and evolution of these networks. Based on the review of the literature the study develops a conceptual framework on the relationship between GINs and global value chains (GVCs). The framework systematises the main commonalities and differences between GINs and GVCs and makes suggestions for further evidence collection to address the links between GINs and GVCs. Show less
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"Towards evidence-based industrial research and innovation policy"; Oxford Academic. Science and Public Policy, Volume 45, Issue 2, 1 April 2018, Pages 143–150
Calls for better use of scientific evidence to inform policy decisions stem from the belief that enhanced outcomes for the… Show more society can be expected. Yet, the introduction of evidence-based practices in innovation policymaking has not come without criticism. This introductory article sets the scene for the short collection of papers that address specific issues regarding the prospect of better evidence-based policy in the area of industrial research and innovation (IRI). It identifies and discusses key challenges for the transition towards evidence-based IRI policy. It then introduces the three papers, which build upon and depart from related assumptions or narratives reflecting the current state of practices in IRI policy. Show less