Elsevier

Research Policy

Volume 28, Issue 5, June 1999, Pages 451-468
Research Policy

Interdependencies between the science and technology infrastructure and innovation activities in German regions: empirical findings and policy consequences

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(99)00007-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Regional studies have detected interdependencies between the technological infrastructure and the innovation activities of the respective regions. It is commonly agreed that the private knowledge base of companies in a region is supplemented by the public knowledge of research institutes located in the region. On account of the accumulation of knowledge and regional effects, competitive regional specialisation patterns evolve. This paper follows studies from the United States and underlines the mostly positive influence between the public science infrastructure and the industrial science and technology output. The empirical part deals with the federal states (laender) of Germany. For two of them, Baden–Wuerttemberg (BW) and North Rhine–Westphalia (NRW), an innovative in-depth analysis based on a breakdown of activities in 18 technology areas is presented. Consequences for science and technology policy are discussed.

Section snippets

Introductory theoretical deliberations

The on-going discussion about Germany's suitability as an industrial and also as a research location often disregards the fact that on a regional and federal state (laender) level there is no uniform `German' economic structure and research landscape. Besides the universal call for reduction of labour costs and further liberalisation and deregulation initiatives, many propositions to strengthen Germany's competitive position are region- or state-specific. This is demonstrated by the studies on

Remarks on methods and data used

Quantity and quality of R&D cannot be measured unambiguously. For this reason, proxies, so-called indicators, are used instead.3 Meaningful indicators are the R&D budget or the number of personnel involved in R&D. For these proxies, the aggregation level of official statistics is usually very high (Malecki, 1986, Grupp, 1998). For the results of R&D efforts, patent indices come to mind. These permit a fine breakdown

Regional disparities in innovative activities in Germany

In order to gain insight into regional disparities in innovation intensity, Fig. 1 displays the patent intensity (patent applications per 1000 employees) in 1996 (priority year) for the 16 federal states. NRW occupies a middling position because some smaller states are relatively more active. BW lies here clearly in the lead. This relationship has remained relatively unchanged for years, whereby the eastern states are catching up, and NRW and BW now lie somewhat under the German average (see

Discussion and consequences for regional science and technology policy

In the age of globalisation, the mobility of capital and therefore also of R&D has increased enormously. Multinational companies in particular are beginning to increase their R&D investments in more than one country, in order to benefit from several national or regional knowledge and innovation potentials (Morgan, 1997, p. 495). What are the consequences of this for the R&D policy of the German federal states and, in perspective, the European regions in general?

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support of several German ministries at the federal and state level. We are also grateful for the sophisticated patent research performed by our colleague Ulrich Schmoch and for quite detailed comments of two anonymous referees.

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