The role of scientific and market knowledge in the inventive process : evidence from a survey of industrial inventors : Seventh Framework Programme

This paper studies the role of scientific and market knowledge in the inventive process by asking whether these two types of knowledge complement each other for the inventor's performance. The empirical analysis makes use of an original survey of industrial inventors carried out in three European regions in 2012 that aimed at exploring the inventive process of inventors working inside firms. The econometric analysis employs the so-called productivity approach, in which the inventors' knowledge sourcing strategies are used as explanatory factors for inventors' performance, measured in terms of both quantity and quality of inventions. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is one of the first attempts to apply this approach at the inventor's level. The results suggest that complementarity exists, since the joint use of scientific and market knowledge is positively and significantly related to the inventor's performance, across different estimations. Furthermore, variation exists across mobile and non-mobile inventors, especially as far as the quality of inventions in concerned. Tracing a positive link between the use of external knowledge and the inventive process at individual level is not only relevant for research, but also for policy, considering that knowledge exchange across a wide range of organisations is at the core of the innovation policy agendas in most countries.