The persistence of innovative activities - A cross-countries and cross-sectors comparative analysis

This paper examines the persistence of innovative activities at the firm le vel in a comparative perspective. A new data set is used composed of six pa nel data, one for each of the following countries: France, Germany, Italy, UK, Japan and the USA. For each country, we use data on patent applications to the European Patent Office in the period 1978-1993 by 1200-1400 manufac turing firms. Using a transition probability matrix (TPM) approach, we find evidence for the existence of persistence in innovative activities, althou gh, it is not very high in the aggregate and it declines as time goes by. H owever, both great innovators and non-innovators have a high probability to remain in their state and persistent innovators originate a disproportiona te share of innovative activities. In this sense, persistence in innovative activities is quite strong. These tendencies apply to all countries considered here, although, clear co untry-specific properties are observed. Moreover, there is heterogeneity al so across industrial and size classification. Intersectoral differences are invariant across countries, suggesting that persistence is (at least partl y) a technology-specific variable. Persistence tends to increase with firm size, but the relationship between firms' size and persistence is strongly- country-specific and it is not a simple one. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.