Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Srholec, Martin
Author-Email: martin.srholec@tik.uio.no
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK)
	 and Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Author-Name: Verspagen, Bart
Author-Email: b.verspagen@tue.nl
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK)
	 and Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies (ECIS)
Title: The Voyage of the Beagle in Innovation Systems Land.Explorations on Sectors, 
	 Innovation, Heterogeneity and Selection
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to assess heterogeneity of the innovation 
	 process. Using exploratory factor analysis on micro data from the third 
	 Community Innovation Survey in 13 countries, we identify four factors 
	 that that can be interpreted as research, user, external and production 
	 ingredients of innovation. All too often it is assumed that the 
	 differences between the rates at which these factors are found in firms' 
	 innovation strategies can be accounted for by differences across sectors 
	 and/or countries. To put this proposition under scrutiny, we partition 
	 variability of the innovation process into components identified by the 
	 different levels. The analysis shows that sectors and countries matter 
	 to a certain extent, but far most of the variance is given by 
	 heterogeneity among firms within either sectors or countries. On the 
	 other hand, a grouping of firms produced by cluster analysis ac-counts 
	 for a much higher share of the variance, which implies that the most 
	 relevant contextual fac-tors cut across the established boundaries 
	 between sectors and countries. We discuss the implica-tions of these 
	 findings for the literature on national and sectoral systems of 
	 innovation, and for the way in which evolutionary economics has analyzed 
	 the role of selection.
Classification-JEL: O31, O38, C40, C49
Keywords: Technological Change, Innovation, Heterogenity, Variance Components
	 Analysis, Factor Analysis, Systems of Innovation
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2008
Number: 008
File-URL: http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2008/wp2008-008.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2008008