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Inventor mobility and the geography of knowledge flows: evidence from the US biopharmaceutical industry

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  • Zafer Sonmez
Abstract
This article investigates the role of labor mobility and geographical proximity in the knowledge diffusion process in the US biopharmaceutical industry. The application of social network analysis to patent authorship reveals that labor mobility and co-inventorship are responsible for a large portion of knowledge flows. This finding provides support for recent studies that called into question the notion that technical and commercially valuable knowledge ubiquitously disseminates in high-technology industrial agglomerations, indicating instead that such an explanation is only partially true. Results also suggest that high quality inventions draw (proportionally) more from nonlocal knowledge sources and that network connections are more important for the transmission of knowledge for high quality patents than for low quality patents. The substantial concentration of local knowledge flows suggests that industrially targeted public financial support for research and development activities at the regional and state levels can be considered as supportive of firm performance and by extension economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Zafer Sonmez, 2017. "Inventor mobility and the geography of knowledge flows: evidence from the US biopharmaceutical industry," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 670-682.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:scippl:v:44:y:2017:i:5:p:670-682.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/scx001
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    2. Jennifer Hunt & Iain M. Cockburn & James Bessen, 2024. "Is Distance from Innovation a Barrier to the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence?," NBER Working Papers 33022, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Zafer Sonmez, 2018. "Interregional inventor collaboration and the commercial value of patented inventions: evidence from the US biotechnology industry," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 61(2), pages 399-438, September.
    4. Francesco Lamperti & Franco Malerba & Roberto Mavilia & Giorgio Tripodi, 2019. "Does the Position in the Inter-sectoral Knowledge Space affect the International Competitiveness of Industries?," LEM Papers Series 2019/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

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