NETWORKS OF INNOVATORS - EVIDENCE FROM CANADIAN PATENTS

Various forms of cooperative development have emerged in recent years, in response to increasing competitive pressures, development costs, a nd complexity. We use data on patents granted by the Canadian governme nt between 1978 and 1989, in order to explore the formation of develop ment coalitions, where two or more firms jointly develop and patent an innovation. Close to 2,600 firms have been involved in development co alitions. These coalitions can be mapped into more than 1,000 independ ent networks of innovators. The largest network interconnects 711 orga nizations. The prevalence of development coalitions varies considerabl y across nations. Two-thirds of the Japanese firms holding more than f ive patents are involved in at least one development coalition. This f igure is less than 20% for Canadian and American firms, and 35% for Ge rman firms. Coalitions tend to be domestic rather than international. They also tend to be intra-sectorial, except in Japan where they are m ore frequently inter-sectorial. Our analysis indicates that Japanese d evelopment networks are very loose, just as they are for their America n and European counterparts.