In this paper, we argue that together with individual inventors and firms, what Robert C. Allen (1983) has termed as collective invention settings (that is settings in which rival firms freely release each other pertinent technical information), were also a crucial source of innovation in the...

The purpose of the present paper is to explore the possibility to compound in a unique formalization two different but complementary theories of technical change and macroeconomic growth, that is the Kaldorian idea of cumulative causation and the technology-gap approach to economic growth. . The...

Based on empirical data at an aggregate level it has been argued that the propensity to internationalise corporate technological activity is higher among firms originating from smaller countries and in less research-intensive industries. However, more disaggregated evidence on the patenting of...

Over the last fifty years, foreign-owned firms have played an important role in developing the Brazilian industry. The focus of debate on the impacts of these firms upon technical change in Brazil has been on the use of technology. However, a further understanding of how they can help to deepen...

It has been demonstrated that users occasionally innovate. However, it can now be observed that even end-consumers act as a source novel product designs. A case study of a firm, and “its” consumers - from the computer games industry - illustrates how sourcing of consumer knowledge has...

An earlier version of this paper was prepared for the joint OECD/Eurostat workshop on innovation surveys, OECD, Paris, June 30th 1999. The paper addresses some issues about the nature of innovation surveys (particularly the new Community Innovation Surveys) and how they might be improved to take...

Most international trade theory, whether classical or "new," predictst that increased globalization will be associated with increased locational concentration of particular economic activities, and hence increased specialization of national and regional economies, due to the greater freedom for...

The structure of wages and employment has shifted against the low-skilled in many OECD countries over the last decade. Many authors have attributed this shift to the impact of new technologies, and or technical change in general. This paper investigates and structures the growing body of...

The purpose of this paper -as a part of a wider research project - is to analyze the concept of production network from a methodological and theoretical viewpoint based on a three-plane perspective. These dimensions are the linkages among agents, the innovation activities, and the social...