Abstract
This contribution takes a closer look at innovation in ICT sectors and the failing ability of young innovative firms in Europe to grow into leading world innovators in these sectors. The analysis suggests that Europe might be missing strong digital regional clusters with a symbiotic relationship between young ICT innovators and incumbent ICT leading companies.
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Notes
The EDA industry is a subsegment of the semiconductor industry, providing tools that support the automated design of integrated circuits.
The 500 largest listed ICT companies represent about 90% of the revenues of all listed ICT companies. Although many firms cross different layers, firms and their revenues and expenditures are allocated to their main subsectors on the basis of their main line of activities. Likewise, although firms’ activities cross different regions, revenues and expenditures are allocated to the region of the firms’ main region of activities.
The analysis on the “old” firms in Layer III have to be treated carefully, as it only includes 7 firms for Europe, 7 firms for the US and 4 firms for Asia.
We use the OECD classification to identify ICT sectors (both manufacturing and services)The ISIC Rev. 3 classes included in the definition are: Manufacturing: 3000—Office, accounting and computing machinery; 3130—Insulated wire and cable; 3210—Electronic valves and tubes and other electronic components; 3220—Television and radio transmitters and apparatus for line telephony and line telegraphy; 3230—Television and radio receivers, sound or video recording or reproducing apparatus and associated goods; 3312—Instruments and appliances for measuring, checking, testing, navigating and other purposes, except industrial process equipment; 3313—Industrial process equipment. Services: 5150—Wholesaling of machinery, equipment and supplies (if possible only the wholesaling of ICT goods should be included); 7123—Renting of office machinery and equipment (including computers); 6420—Telecommunications; 72—Computer and related activities.
The year 2009 allows for enough time to assess growth performance.
Growth can be measured by the number of employees or by turnover. Enterprises should have at least 10 employees at the start of any observation period.
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Diogo Machado, research assistant at Bruegel, for providing the data for the regional cluster analysis, Piedro Moncada (IPTS) for providing access to the age structure of the Scoreboard firms. The author also wishes to thank the participants at the EIED conference in December 2014, Paris, for their helpful comments. Financial support received from KULeuven (GOA/12/003) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Paper prepared for the JTT special issue at the occasion of the EIED conference, Paris, 9–10 December.
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Veugelers, R. Eco-systems for young digital innovators. J Technol Transf 43, 1449–1465 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9542-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9542-z