INDUSTRIAL LOCATION OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES AND TECHNO-INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS: ASTRUCTURALIST APPROACH TO NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS

In this paper we suggest a description of National Innovation Systems (NIS) from a structuralist point of view. Two NISs are investigated (French and Italian) with patent data broken down into two dimensions: the industrial sectors which produce them and the technological fields in which the applications belong. Such a matrix provides a map of technological activities. The main results of our analysis are: the distribution of technological activities by industrial sector, the distribution of patents by technological field and the industrial concentration of technological knowledge are similar. Nevertheless, the technological concentration of industrial sectors are very different. NIS effects occur with each country organising its sectoral technological variety in a specific manner. A second body of results concerns techno-industrial "clusters". Three large groups emerge from the two NISs (chemical, electronics, mechanical equipment). They differ in terms of size, form and complexity.