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Knowledge spillovers, driven by development and research projects, are crucial in generating new companies and services. They enhance innovation, improve competitiveness, and sustain the economic growth of nations. Hence, this paper aims to examine the relationship between knowledge spillovers and economic growth. It offers a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on the relationship between knowledge spillovers and economic growth, investigating the impact of economic cycles on knowledge spillover. Doing this provides valuable insights into how to leverage them at the different stages of the economic cycle. Hence, a PRIMA systematic review was conducted. Articles from the last 15 years were analyzed from repositories and scientific databases with a Cohen's kappa coefficient of 0.8902. This review identifies and presents a systematic analysis of the impacts of favoring and hindering knowledge spillovers in the economic growth of a nation. These effects offer greater resilience to a nation after periods of recession. In addition, the case study of three countries is presented to illustrate the findings from the review. The results show that better utilizing knowledge spillovers to enhance economic growth depends on a functional compromise between the university, industry, and governments to understand and commit to knowledge-based economic development. Our study has implications for policymakers who aim to boost economic growth by promoting knowledge spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the comprehensive previous research on different aspects of inventions and externalities spanning both the micro- and macrolevels, no prior studies have, to our knowledge, examined the relationship between the commercialization strategies of inventions/patents and social knowledge spillovers. To bridge this gap in the literature, we examine how such spillovers, measured as forward citations, covary with four commercialization modes: (1) setting up a new firm, (2) commercialization within an existing firm where the inventor either is employed or (3) has an ownership stake, and (4) licensing/selling patents to other firms. Alternatively, an inventor may refrain from commercialization. Utilizing unique survey data on patents owned by small- and medium-sized enterprises and individuals, we provide evidence that commercialization through licensing/selling is the most efficient way of generating knowledge diffusion. We also find some support for new ventures being an important source of knowledge spillovers. Plain English Summary: New inventions and discoveries, here defined as patents, are instrumental in promoting growth and increasing societal prosperity. To contribute to a benevolent development of societies, it is imperative that new findings and new knowledge also is disseminated to a large group of users and producers. We investigate how such diffusion is affected by the chosen strategy to commercialize patents: through a new firm, within an existing firm, or licensing/selling patents to other firms. We provide evidence that commercialization through licensing/selling, closely followed by setting up a new firm, appears to be the most efficient way to generate knowledge diffusion. Policymakers should therefore not only support technological development and encourage new firms but also facilitate for firms to interact and enhance their networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Editorial introduces a Special Issue that aims to develop a more insightful understanding of the processes and mechanisms that initiate and drive local interactions between science and innovation activities in the economy. The contributions primarily extend this line of inquiry, which is highly relevant in the context of regional Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) policy initiatives in two directions: 1) by taking advantage of increasingly available and previously understudied data on scientific and technical knowledge production, and the intrinsic connections thereof; and 2) by examining intra-regional collaboration patters, a topic that recently has gained prominence in regional innovation studies, via a more inclusive perspective that includes the different actors who are involved in these processes into the investigative framework. The Editorial also provides an outlook towards future policy opportunities and possible research directions in this field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Research on industry evolution highlights the role of knowledge‐building activities of startups and established firms in shaping knowledge evolution in a nascent industry. Yet, research thus far has overlooked the possibility that differences between startups and established firms might also shape the diffusion of the knowledge that they build. This study abductively explores this conjecture in the context of solar energy by examining the extent to which the photovoltaic cell inventions that firms create spur subsequent inventions by other firms. In contrast with existing literature highlighting differences across firms in the types of inventions they create, this study reveals asymmetries between startups and established firms in the diffusion of the knowledge underlying their inventions, even when they create inventions with similar attributes. Managerial Summary: This study examines differences between startups and established firms in shaping knowledge diffusion in a nascent industry. Using data from photovoltaic cell patents, it shows that startups' inventions spur more subsequent inventions by other firms, even when compared to established firms' inventions with similar attributes. Findings indicate that such asymmetry is not driven by knowledge transfer mechanisms but rather by factors associated with knowledge spillovers. Specifically, findings reveal that university citations of a startup's patents draw other firms' attention to those patents, and that startups are less able to preempt rivals through cumulative inventions and less able to rely on litigiousness to deter rivals from building on their patents. These findings underscore the asymmetric influence startups have in shaping the knowledge underlying a nascent industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model the spatial characteristics of technological knowledge flows in the UK. Using a novel and highly accurate dataset of inventor locations, we test for localisation of knowledge spillovers in citations between UK patent applications from 1982 to 2015. We apply continuous distance localisation tests separately to patent citations in 313 technologies and find that spillovers are localised in far fewer technologies and at shorter distances than previous studies have suggested. Only 30% of technologies in the UK display localisation, knowledge spillovers decay rapidly at distances between 30 and 80 km, and spillovers within technologies are twice as frequently localised as spillovers between technologies. Our results suggest that technological and geographical proximity are important determinants of knowledge spillovers in the UK and that close physical proximity is particularly relevant for industrial sectors that are more reliant on tacit knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the spillover from the outcomes of military R&D to subsequent civil applications. We aim to identify the characteristics of those military innovations that are more likely to be exploited in civilian areas (i.e. dual use) and we build on previous literature to develop a methodology to identify such cases. Using both patent and citation data, we investigate country effects and invention-level characteristics that increase the likelihood to observe a military-to-civil knowledge spillover. We test these relationships by estimating probit, survival, and competing-event models on a large sample of military inventions filed between 2002 and 2012. Our results indicate that the incidence of dual use decreases during the period analysed and is heterogeneous across both technologies and countries. Military inventions having wider technological and geographical scopes are more likely to be cited by subsequent civil patents but military-to-civil spillovers occur later than military-to-military ones. Finally, the first dual use application of a military invention tends to appear within the country boundaries, suggesting that cross-border knowledge spillovers are not immediate. Our evidence is functional to the assessment of the potential indirect effects generated by the innovative activities of companies operating in the defence sector on the civilian sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to investigate the relationship between the knowledge spillovers and the potential for high-value inventions to emerge. We study knowledge spillovers through the lens of knowledge networks: a web of interrelated knowledge elements with structural patterns. Knowledge spillovers influence the productivity of a technology sector and hence their pattern should impact the pathways for knowledge appropriation in the sector. It is hypothesized that a robust knowledge network is associated with knowledge appropriation leading to valuable inventions. We test the hypothesis using patent citation network of 1821 patents from 78 inventions belonging to two different technological sectors. Based upon the findings, we suggest network robustness as a new metric for determining the technical value of inventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the trends in geographic localization of knowledge spillovers via patent citations, extracting multiple cohorts of new sample US patents from the period of 1976–2015. Despite accelerating globalization and widespread perception of the 'death of distance', our matched-sample study reveals significant and growing localization effects of knowledge spillovers at both intra- and international levels after the 1980s. Increased localization effects have been accompanied by greater heterogeneity across states and industries. The results are robust to various methods of proxying the existing geography of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While urban technology exerts a positive effect on rural development through knowledge spillovers, it also raises the competitive advantage of urban firms over rural firms in product market competition. Urban technology also affects the rural labour market through brain drain. Using US county-level data, we find a negative relationship between metropolitan patent counts and non-metropolitan labour market performance. Our basic calculation indicates that, between 2005 and 2015, metropolitan technological progress was associated with a relative loss of about 2.5 million non-metropolitan jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the relationship between knowledge spillovers and new firm formation in 980 NUTS-3 regions at the industry level shows that regional knowledge stocks represented by patents positively influence new firm formation, but that knowledge protection and appropriation strategies of incumbents discourage it. Knowledge stocks represented by trademarks translate into higher entry rates in the absence of a pronounced appropriation strategy of incumbents or when entrants do not directly compete with the trademarking incumbents. Our findings highlight the two-sided effects of trademarks: as an indicator of product novelties as well as a potential expression of strengthened incumbent appropriation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) considering both region- and technology-specific factors. Focusing on patent data for four technologies at the core of I4.0 between 2000 and 2014, we provide evidence of their uneven distribution across NUTS-2 European regions. Our analysis confirms the role of regional absorptive capacity, cognitive and spatial proximity as drivers of I4.0 knowledge flows, but also indicates important variations among these technologies. Cumulated technological capabilities and spatial proximity exert a stronger effect on the diffusion of robots and 3D printing, whereas big data and the Internet of Things tend to be more spatially distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]