The role of regional sectoral specialisation on the geography of innovation networks: a comparison between firms located in regions in developed and emerging economies

Recently, there has been a rise of contributions in innovation and economic geography studies on how firms from specific industries and regional innovation systems (RISs) rely on international networks to innovate. So far, the focus has been on single cases, firms located in well-known RISs and international linkages, without really distinguishing those with geographically close partners from those with partners from distant locations. Using primary firm-level data, this article compares the patterns of collaboration for innovation in a selection of Swedish, Norwegian, Chinese and Indian regions with an ICT cluster specialisation. The results show that firms in RISs in emerging economies tend to link more to innovation networks with a real global character, particularly in relation to new-to-the-world innovation. It also shows that firms in the most successful RISs in ICT clusters rely more than others on networks with organisations in close proximity.globalisation; innovation networks; developed economies; emerging economies; China; India; Sweden; Norway; regional innovation systems; RIS; cluster specialisation; ICT; new-to-the-world innovation; regional development; sectoral specialisation; collaboration patterns; information and communications technology; information technology