Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Technological Breakthroughs: An Analysis of U.S. State-Level Patenting

Konferenzbeitrag

We investigate how variety affects the innovation output of a region. Borrowing arguments from theories of recombinant innovation, we expect that related variety will enhance innovation as related technologies are more easily recombined into a new technology. However, we also expect that unrelated variety enhances technological breakthroughs, since radical innovation often stems from connecting previously unrelated technologies opening up whole new functionalities and applications. Using patent data for US states in the period 1977-1999 and associated citation data, we find evidence for both hypotheses. Our study thus sheds a new and critical light on the related-variety hypothesis in economic geography.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: 53rd Congress of the European Regional Science Association: "Regional Integration: Europe, the Mediterranean and the World Economy", 27-31 August 2013, Palermo, Italy

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives ; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
• Subject: Keywords: recombinant innovation ; regional innovation ; superstar patents ; technological variety ; evolutionary economic geography

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Los, Bart ; Castaldi, Carolina ; Frenken, Koen
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): European Regional Science Association (ERSA)
• (where): Louvain-la-Neuve
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/123980
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET