The interactions between national systems and sectoral patterns of innovation: a cross-country analysis of Pavitt’s taxonomy

Castellacci, Fulvio (2006): The interactions between national systems and sectoral patterns of innovation: a cross-country analysis of Pavitt’s taxonomy.

Abstract

Do national and sectoral innovation systems interact with each other? The paper explores this unexplored question by carrying out a cross-sector cross-country analysis of European systems of innovation in the 1990s. The empirical study takes Pavitt’s (1984) taxonomy as a starting point, and it investigates the cross-country variability of Pavitt’s sectoral patterns of innovation. The analysis leads to three main results. First, the various technological trajectories show large differences across countries, due to the influence of national innovation systems. Second, there is evidence that the interaction between national systems and sectoral patterns of innovation constitutes an independent source of variability in the sample. Third, the analysis leads to the identification of eight sector- and country-specific technological trajectories in European manufacturing industries, and, based on that, proposes a refinement of Pavitt’s taxonomy. The refined taxonomy, in a nutshell, suggests that sectoral systems must be supported by and interact with their respective national systems in order to become industrial leaders.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: National systems; sectoral systems; Pavitt’s taxonomy; vertical linkages
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development

References

Andersen, E. S. (1992): “Approaching national systems of innovation from the production and linkage structure”, in B.A. Lundvall (Eds.), National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning, Pinter Publishers, London.

Archibugi, D. (2001): “Pavitt’s taxonomy sixteen years on: a review article”, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 10 (5): 415-425.

Archibugi, D. and Pianta, M. (1994): “Aggregate convergence and sectoral specialization in innovation”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics (1994) 4, pp. 17-33.

Balzat, M. and Hanusch, H. (2004): “Recent trends in the research on national innovation systems”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics (2004) 14: 197-210.

Balzat, M. and Pyka, A. (2006): “Mapping national innovation systems in the OECD area”, International Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 2 (1/2): 158-176.

Begg, I., Dalum, B., Guerrieri, P., and Pianta, M. (1999): “The impact of specialization in Europe”, in J. Fagerberg, P. Guerrieri and B. Verspagen (Eds.), The Economic Challenge for Europe – Adapting to Innovation Based Growth, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

Breiman, L., Friedman, J., Olshen, R. and Stone, C. (1984): Classification and Regression Trees, Wadsworth, Belmont, California.

Castellacci, F. (2007a): “Evolutionary and new growth theories. Are they converging?”, Journal of Economic Surveys, 21 (3): 585-627.

Castellacci, F. (2007b): “Technological paradigms, regimes and trajectories: manufacturing and service industries in a new taxonomy of sectoral patterns of innovation”, Research Policy (second revised version resubmitted).

Castellacci, F. (2007c): “Technological regimes and sectoral differences in productivity growth”, Industrial and Corporate Change, 16 (6): 1105-1145.

Cefis, E. and Orsenigo, L. (2001): “The persistence of innovative activities: a cross-countries and cross-sectors comparative analysis”, Research Policy 30, pp. 1139-1158.

Dopfer, K., Foster, J. and Potts, J. (2004): “Micro-meso-macro”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics (2004) 14: 263-279.

Dosi, G. (1988): “Sources, procedures, and microeconomic effects of innovation”, Journal of Economic Literature, XXVI: 1120-1171.

Edquist, C. (1997): Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organisations, Pinter, London and Washington.

Edquist, C (2005): “Systems of innovation: perspectives and challenges”, in J. Fagerberg, D. C. Mowery and R. R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Evangelista, R. (1999): Knowledge and Investment. The Sources of Innovation in Industry, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

Evangelista, R. and Mastostefano, V. (2006): “Firm size, sectors and countries as sources of variety of innovation”, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 15 (3): 247-270.

Fagerberg, J. (1995): “User-producer interaction, learning and comparative advantage”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 19: 243-256.

Fai, F. and von Tunzelmann, N. (2001): “Industry-specific competencies and converging technological systems: evidence from patents”, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 12: 141-170.

Freeman, C. (1987): Technology Policy and Economic Performance: Lessons from Japan, Pinter, London.

Laursen, K. (2000): “Do export and technological specialisation patterns co-evolve in terms of convergence or divergence? Evidence from 19 OECD countries, 1971-1999, Journal of Evolutionary Economics (2000) 10, pp. 415-436.

Laursen, K. and Meliciani, V. (2000): “The importance of technology based inter-sectoral linkages for market share dynamics”, Weltwirtscaftliches Archiv, 136 (4).

Laursen, K. and Meliciani, V. (2002): “The relative importance of international vis-à-vis national technological spillovers for market share dynamics”, Industrial and Corporate Change, 11 (4): 875-894.

Laursen, K. and Salter, A. (2005): “The fruits of intellectual production: economic and scientific specialisation among OECD countries”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 29, pp. 289-308.

Lundvall, B.A. (1992) National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning, Pinter Publishers, London.

Lundvall, B. A. and S. Borrás (2005): “Science, technology and innovation policy", in J. Fagerberg, D. C. Mowery & R. R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Malerba, F. (1993): “The national system of innovation: Italy”, in Nelson, R. (Ed.), National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.

Malerba, F. (2006): “Innovation and the evolution of industries”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 16 (1-2): 3-23.

Malerba, F. (2005): “Sectoral systems: how and why innovation differs across sectors”, in J. Fagerberg, D. C. Mowery & R. R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Malerba, F. and Orsenigo, L. (1995): “Schumpeterian patterns of innovation”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 19, pp.47-65.

Malerba, F. and Montobbio, F. (2003): “Exploring factors affecting international technological specialization: the role of knowledge flows and the structure of innovative activity”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics (2003) 13: 411-434.

Marsili, O. and Verspagen, B. (2002): “Technology and the dynamics of industrial structure: an empirical mapping of Dutch manufacturing”, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol.11 (4), pp.791-815.

Miles, I. (2005): “Innovation in services”, in J. Fagerberg, D. C. Mowery & R. R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Mowery, D. and Nelson, R. (1999): The Sources of Industrial Leadership, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Mowery, D. and Sampat, B. (2005): “Universities in national innovation systems”, in J. Fagerberg, D. C. Mowery & R. R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Murmann, J. P. and Homburg, E. (2001): “Comparing evolutionary dynamics across different national settings: the case of the synthetic dye industry, 1857-1914”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics (2001) 11: 177-205.

Narula, R. (2002): “Innovation systems and ‘inertia’ in R&D location: Norwegian firms and the role of systemic lock-in”, Research Policy, 31 (5): 795-816.

Nelson, R.R. (ed.) (1993): National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.

Nelson, R. and Winter, S. (1977): “In search of a useful theory of innovation”, Research Policy, 6: 36-76.

Nelson, R. and Winter, S. (1982): An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA.

Pavitt, K. (1984): “Sectoral patterns of technical change: towards a taxonomy and a theory”, Research Policy, 13: 343-373.

Peracchi, F. (2001): Econometrics, Wiley, Chichester.

Porter, M. (1990): The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Macmillan, London.

Powell, W. and Grodal, S. (2005): “Networks of innovators”, in J. Fagerberg, D. C. Mowery & R. R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Scott Long, J. (1997): Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences, Volume 7, Sage Publications.

Tidd, J., Bessant, J. and Pavitt, K. (1997): Managing Innovation – Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change, Wiley, Chichester.

Verspagen, B. (2005): “The Netherlands Innovation system”, in C. Edquist and L. Hommen (Eds.), Globalization and National Systems of Innovation – A Comparative Study of Ten Small Countries in Europe and Asia, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, forthcoming.