The regional geography of corporate patenting in information and communications technology (ICT): domestic and foreign dimension

In the new techno-socio-economic conditions, characterized by an increasing reduction of temporal and spatial barriers, and further globalization of economic activity, paradoxically geography seems to matter more than ever before. This particularly applies to science-based industries (e.g. information and communications technology - ICT), where links between corporate competitors, and firm-university and user-producer relationships are crucial in the development and adoption of new flexible technologies. Using US patents granted to the largest European electronic firms, this paper looks at the interplay between the patenting by domestic and European foreign electronics companies of research and development carried out in ICT fields in German, UK and Italian regions. The findings suggest that patenting is attracted to existing areas of industrial strength taking a form of cumulative causation. Nonetheless, policy measures may be successful in reversing the trend