Structures formed by innovative activities beyond the traditional separation between manufacturing and services: identification of patterns of innovation

Abstract

This paper focuses on complementarities between innovative activities carried out by firms in the manufacturing and service sectors. A new methodology based on conditional probability is applied in order to determine similarities in the process of innovation in either sector. The empirical analysis uses data from the Community Innovation Survey 4 (CIS-4) of various European countries. As a contribution to innovation theory, the empirical analysis reveals structures of innovative activities that are common to sectors in taxonomies of Pavitt (1984) and Soete and Miozo (1989). Moreover, empirical evidence provides new patterns of innovation beyond the traditional separation of the manufacturing and service sectors.

Este trabajo se centra en buscar complementariedades entre las actividades innovadoras que realizan las empresas de manufacturas y servicios con el objeto de encontrar similitudes entre los procesos de innovación de ambos sectores. Para ello se utiliza una metodología basada en el cálculo de probabilidades condicionales y se emplean datos del “Community Innovation Survey 4” (CIS-4) para varios países europeos. El análisis, que toma coma referencia las taxonomías de Pavitt (1984) Soete and Miozo (1989), lleva a identificar varias estructuras de actividades innovadoras que son comunes a ambos sectores. También se identifican patrones de innovación basados en esas estructuras que no responden a la tradicional separación entre manufacturas y servicios.