Description du projet
Une compréhension plus approfondie de la répartition des activités de R&D à l’échelle mondiale
La recherche et le développement de produits sont soumis à une répartition spatiale. Si les entreprises mondiales délocalisent leurs activités de recherche vers des centres de connaissances, il arrive que le développement de produits demeure à proximité de leur emplacement d’origine. Il est de plus en plus à craindre que cette pratique canalise les flux de connaissances mondiaux et nuise à la capacité des régions à fabriquer des produits innovants, comme des moteurs respectueux du climat ou des vaccins contre de nouveaux virus, et qu’elle ait d’autres conséquences sur le bien-être économique et social des régions concernées. Dans ce contexte, le projet DISCO, financé par l’UE, dressera l’état des lieux de la situation. En particulier, il exploitera des informations issues de brevets afin de concevoir un indicateur et une typologie d’entreprise révélant les schémas mondiaux des types d’activités de R&D et de l’emplacement où ils se déroulent.
Objectif
Scholars recently observe an increasing spatial disconnect between research and development (R&D) activities within global firms, in particular from emerging markets. These firms off-shore their research activities to centers of state-of-the-art knowledge while they might keep product development closer to their original locations. This is of major concern to our society because this spatial split channels global knowledge flows and affects the ability of regions to produce innovative output such as climate-friendly engines or vaccines against new viruses, and has further implications for the economic and social welfare of regions. This project aims at understanding the dynamics of spatial (re-)organization of R&D in relation to firm development as well as economic shocks and social crises, such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 or the current COVID-19 pandemic. Because we still know too little about how stable this spatial disconnect is, based on initial evidence that it might only temporary exists, DISCO uses information from patents to build an indicator and a firm-typology revealing the global patterns of which type of R&D activity is performed at which locations. The project provides a quantitative measure for the type of R&D activity that goes beyond the qualitative measures often used to study this phenomenon. Applying these indicators to almost 200 years of historical patent data yields insights into the effect of economic shocks on the spatial organization of R&D. Further, it reveals similarities and differences between the development of currently emerging firms and early activities of today’s global players. This can yield new evidence on innovation capability building and successful development trajectories in R&D internationalization. The findings provide a more profound understanding of the temporality of globally splitting R&D activities, with implications for firms and the regional development of emerging as well as established markets.
Champ scientifique
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Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
WC2A 2AE London
Royaume-Uni