LOCATION OF INNOVATING ACTIVITIES, INDUSTRIAL-STRUCTURE AND TECHNO-INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS IN THE FRENCH ECONOMY, 1985-1990 - EVIDENCE FROM US PATENTING

This paper deals with the distribution of innovating activities across industries and technological areas in the context of a Knowledge-base d Economy. The results are directly based on data concerning French fi rm patenting in the US (over the period 1985-1990). Each patent is ide ntified by the industrial sector in which it is produced and by the te chnological field in which the patent application has been made. Innov ative activities are concentrated in a few industrial sectors and in a few technological fields. Our main contribution concerns techno-indus trial clusters (blocks of technological knowledge structured by a set of industrial sectors). On the basis cf an algorithm (Zig-Zag) we iden tify several techno-industrial clusters, three of which underpin the F rench 'system of innovation': chemicals, electronic and communication, transport and mechanical engineering. Our analysis shows that the str ong patterns derived from the most complex clusters deal with sectors that invest intensively in R-D. Such a result confirms the view concer ning the emergence of pervasive 'technological families'. (C) 1998 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.