The role of local actors in spatial agglomeration of innovative activities: evidence from 3D printing

ABSTRACT

The regional success in relation to the development of emerging technology is not automatically determined by pre-existing conditions and activities. Relatively visible actors, such as universities or individuals, need to engage in developing emerging technology and help facilitate knowledge spillovers through vibrant interactions in a region. However, it is often unclear which local actors are most important in the process of developing spatial agglomeration of innovative activities related to emerging technology. Using the case of 3D printing, this paper empirically investigates the role of innovative local actors, such as universities, individual inventors and producers, and answers the question of who the primary local actors in the agglomeration process are. This paper finds that the emerging technology-related knowledge of local universities has a robust, significant and positive effect on firms’ innovative activities, thereby spreading the use of emerging technology in a region and building regional competitive advantage based on such technology.

KEYWORDS:

• Regional competitive advantage
• spatial agglomeration
• emerging technology

Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Dr. Jongmin Choi is a Research Fellow at Korea Small Business Institute. He holds a doctorate degree in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2017. His research interests include innovation, science and technology policy, industrial cluster, and regional economic development.

Notes

1 Thirteen keywords and 43 patent classes with the 13 keywords were employed (Choi 2018).

2 The dataset started in 1986 instead of 1985 to deal with endogeneity.

3 Since the first 3D printing patent was filed in 1984, it can be assumed that the event or the initial time at risk started after 1984.