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Brave old world: Accounting for 'high-tech' knowledge in 'low-tech' industries

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  • Mendona, Sandro

Abstract

'Lower-tech' sectors are still commonly regarded as unusual suspects in the modern process of innovation and economic change. In this paper we try to understand better how organisations specialising in traditional businesses have been transformed by a period of paradigm-shift such as the one that characterised the final decades of the twentieth century. We focus on a population of nearly 500 of the world's largest innovative companies to assess the extent to which companies belonging to 'old-economy' sectors have been developing cutting-edge knowledge about clusters of new technologies such as ICT, new materials and biotechnology. We find that 'non-high-tech' corporations transformed their patent portfolios in a non-trivial way. Companies in mature trades contributed significantly to the development of technologies that are at the core of the so-called Third Industrial Revolution.

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  • Mendona, Sandro, 2009. "Brave old world: Accounting for 'high-tech' knowledge in 'low-tech' industries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 470-482, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:38:y:2009:i:3:p:470-482
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    4. Jia Zheng & Zhi-yun Zhao & Xu Zhang & Dar-zen Chen & Mu-hsuan Huang & Xiao-ping Lei & Ze-yu Zhang & Yun-hua Zhao & Run-sheng Liu, 2011. "Industry evolution and key technologies in China based on patent analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(1), pages 175-188, April.
    5. Havas, Attila, 2014. "Mit mér(j)ünk?. Az innováció értelmezései - szakpolitikai következmények [The theory and measurement of innovation and its mutual effect on policy]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 1022-1059.
    6. Martin Borowiecki & Bernhard Dachs & Doris Hanzl-Weiss & Steffen Kinkel & Johannes Pöschl & Magdolna Sass & Thomas Christian Schmall & Robert Stehrer & Andrea Szalavetz, 2012. "Global Value Chains and the EU Industry," wiiw Research Reports 383, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
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    8. Iizuka, Michiko & Soete, Luc, 2011. "Catching up in the 21st century: Globalization, knowledge & capabilities in Latin America, a case for natural resource based activities," MERIT Working Papers 2011-071, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

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