Evidence on the Determinants of the Likelihood and Speed of Technological Convergence: A Knowledge Search and Recombination Perspective in Key Enabling Technologies

Abstract

Technological convergence is the phenomenon whereby a focal technology, originating in one domain of application, end up as a part of new technologies that pertain to distant domains of application. This phenomenon is assuming increasing relevance due to its potential to create new markets and disrupt existing ones. Therefore, by adopting a search and recombination perspective, we seek to understand if and how the technological search breadth (i.e., the degree of different technological domains characterizing the knowledge base of the focal technology) and the geographical search breadth (i.e., the diversity of the knowledge base available for subsequent inventing activities) influence the likelihood and the speed of technological convergence events. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 135,496 European patents; they are applied between 1990 and 2009 and can be classified as key enabling technologies according to the European Commission. Our analysis shows that the likelihood and speed of technological convergence are positively affected by technological search breadth, negatively affected by the geographical search breadth, and positively affected by the interaction between technological and geographical search breadths.

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