On Patents, Innovation Surveys, R

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On Patents, Innovation Surveys, RD and other
devices to measure the rate and direction of
technological change

• Prof. Daniele Archibugi
• Italian National Research Council
• Birkbeck College, University of London
• Seminar 5 at the Science Policy Research Unit,
  University of Sussex
• July 10-15 2005

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The hard task of measuring innovation

• Innovation is the most heterogeneous economic and
  social phenomenon
• There are no two identical innovations if so,
  one would be an imitation
• Scientific and technological value do not
  correspond to economic value
• The impact of an innovation is always uncertain

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Beyond RD and PatentsWhy?

• Rosenberg motivation - Lower forms of knowledge
• Pavitt and Smith motivation - non-RD component
  of innovation
• Lundvall motivation - Learning and knowledge
• Bell - Castells motivation - Towards a service
  economy

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Development of indicators
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Institute for Studies on Scientific Research and
Documentation National Research Council of Italy
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The patience and persistence of Joe Townsend,
SPRU Researcher, Mayor of Brighton

• Collection and classification of more than 4,000
  radical innovations

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A taxonomy of innovations(Freeman-Perez)

• Incremental innovations
• Radical innovations
• Changes of technology systems
• Changes in techno-economic paradigm
  (technological revolutions)

• measurable
• measurable
• measurable
• not measurable

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Manufacturing and Services in innovation and
employment

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According to how many criteria can an innovation
be classified?

• The technological field of the innovation
  (antibiotics or semiconductor)
• The product in which the innovation is more
  likely to be used (drug or television)
• The main product activity of the firm producing
  it (Pharmaceuticals or Electronics)
• The main product activity of the firms that will
  more likely using it (again, Pharmaceuticals or
  Electronics)
• The human necessity that it is likely to satisfy
  (health or entertainment)

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Objects and SubjectsTwo Alternative Approaches
toIndustrial Statistics

• OBJECTS
• Trade, products, patents
• Objective data

• SUBJECTS
• All industrial statistics (employment,
  production, RD)
• Subjective data

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Objects and Subjects Innovation Surveys
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When will the Object and the Subject approach be
the same?

• If firms will be able to be single-product?
• If firms will be allowed to produce innovations
  in one technical field only?
• What do we mean by industry?

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Winter From how many SIC Classes will it be
possible to buy a salad bowl?

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• Major Group 24 Lumber And Wood Products, Except
  Furniture 
• Major Group 30 Rubber And Miscellaneous Plastics
  Products  
• Major Group 32 Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete
  Products 
• Major Group 33 Primary Metal Industries 
• Major Group 34 Fabricated Metal Products, Except
  Machinery And Transportation Equipment 
• Major Group 39 Miscellaneous Manufacturing
  Industries

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Inter-Industry Technology Flows Only?

• Scherer-Pavitt line based on the producer-user
  differences, but...
• Can be applied both among economic agents (firms,
  ie subjects) or among economic artefact (products
  or innovations, ie objects)
• Havent we learnt that to introduce innovations
  an absorptive capacity within the firm is needed?

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Strengths and Weaknesses of the Objects and
Subjects
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What are we learning from Community Innovation
Surveys?

• Number of innovating firms
• Reliable differences across industries
• Somehow reliable differences across firm size
• Not reliable indicators across countries still
  survey-specific and not country-specific outcomes

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CIS Learnt Lessons Sources of Innovation

• Wide statistical population, useful insights, but
• No major news from more economical surveys (SPRU,
  CNR, von Hippel, Yale, PACE)
• Little variations over time

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Sources of Innovation where to go?

• Is it possible to get more information on the
  changing nature of the sources to innovate?
• Relevance of public research spill-over
  literature and CIS results. Combination of
  sources and not causality
• Geographical proximity

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Innovation Costs Will it become the CIS key
indicator?

• It has proven difficult for the firm to answer
  this question, more than with RD
• We need to be flexible and to add up items since
  this is a consequence of technical change
• As with human capital, it might result an endless
  fight

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Innovation expenditure of Italian service firms
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Relevance of New Products

• Is the innovation new to the firm, industry,
  country?
• Highly subjective judgement the least informed
  firm might believe that it has new products
• More robust filters are needed
• Very relevant to associate it to the total share
  of innovative value added

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Critical areas

• Meaning of innovation in manufacturing and
  services
• Organisational innovation
• Knowledge-based economy
• Indicators of ICT
• Time lag between the survey and the availability
  of the data
• Firm-level data protected too much by
  confidentiality

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Developments from the CIS

• Deepening of measurement through CIS
• reconciling the subject and object approach
• Indicators for the new trajectories (rapidity)
• biotechnology
• information and communication technology
• Converge/fusion between manufacturing and
  services