A network analysis of cities hosting ICT R&D

We apply network analysis to study the ICT R&D locations at the city level. We use a dataset on the location and R&D activity of over 3000 R&D centres belonging to 175 MNEs, located in over 1300 cities around the world. The results show that most of the cities have few R&D connections and are grouped into "cliques", linked through network hubs. Hence, not only is the R&D activity concentrated in space, but also the nexus of connections between locations is limited. Asian and Japanese cities are favoured as a source of R&D services, as compared to European or US cities.