Knowledge Space, Relatedness and Complexity: A Regional Analysis in Turkey

Sedef Akgüngör and Mert Abay
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Sedef Akgüngör: Department of Economics, Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business, İzmir, Turkey
Mert Abay: Department of Economics, College of Europe, European Economic Studies, Bruges, Belgium and Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business, İzmir, Turkey

Yildiz Social Science Review, 2021, vol. 7, issue 2, 110-122

Abstract: Regional development policies based on regions’ core strengths are key for innovation. For sustainable growth, regions would discover their own growth paths grounded on their core knowledge base. Although there are studies focusing on regional clustering of economic ac-tivity in Turkey, little is known related to regions’ potential to attract new technologies based on their core strenghts. The first objective of the paper is to map knowledge space in Turkey for 2010 and 2017. The second objective of the paper is to understand relatedness and knowledge complexity in Turkey’s NUTS3 regions. The third objective is to demonstrate the relationship of regional innovativeness with relatedness and knowledge complexity across Turkey’s regions. Relatedness of the regions is operationalized by relatedness density. Knowledge complexity is operationalized by knowledge complexity index. We use regression analysis to understand the correlation of patent applications with regions’ relatedness density and knowledge complexity. As a control variable, diversity variable is used. The analysis demonstrates that knowledge space in Turkey became denser between 2010 and 2017 and there are variations across regions with respect to relatedness and knowledge complexity. Diversity and relatedness density are positively correlated with patent applications while complexity does not have a correlation with regional innovativeness.

Keywords: Branching, relatedness density, knowledge space, regional diversifi-cation, regional development, smart specialization, patents, Turkey; JEL Classification: R10, R11 R58Journal: Yildiz Social Science Review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F00 F30 G00 G10 K00 K20 M00 M20 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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