Do scientific capabilities in specific domains matter for technological diversification in European regions?

Pierre-Alexandre Balland and Ron Boschma ()

No 2116, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Do scientific capabilities in regions translate into technological leadership? This is one of the most pressing questions in academic and policy circles. This paper analyzes the matching of scientific and technological capabilities of 285 European regions. We build on patent and publication records to identify regions that lie both at the scientific and technological frontiers (strongholds), that are pure scientific leaders, pure technological leaders, or just followers in 18 domains. Our regional diversification model shows that local scientific capabilities in a domain are a strong predictor of the development of new technologies in that domain in regions. This finding is particularly relevant for the Smart Specialization policy because it implies that the analysis of domain-specific scientific knowledge can be a powerful tool to identify new diversification opportunities in regions.

Keywords: science-technology link; regional diversification; relatedness; strongholds; scientific capabilities; technological capabilities; Smart Specialization policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 O33 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05, Revised 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-hme, nep-ino, nep-ore, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Do scientific capabilities in specific domains matter for technological diversification in European regions? (2022)
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