IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/ecobur/v5y2019i3p50-71n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technological competitiveness of the EU member states in the era of the fourth industrial revolution

Author

Listed:
  • Weresa Marzenna Anna

    (World Economy Research Institute, Collegium of World Economy, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, al. Niepodległości 162, 02-554Warszawa, Poland)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the implications of the fourth industrial revolution for technological competitiveness, its definition and measurement methods. An empirical part is aimed at identifying comparative advantages of the European Union in digital technologies. Recently new approaches have appeared to measure digital competitiveness, however they use a broad definition of competitiveness that encompasses not only technological factors but also the macroeconomic and institutional environment (IMD, 2017; WEF, 2018). There is still a limited number of studies focused on the technological dimension of competitiveness in digital technologies. This paper fills the gap by developing a conceptual framework based on patent indicators, i.e. Patent Share and Revealed Technological Advantage indices. It allows a consistent analysis of the comparative advantages of the EU member states in digital technologies to be conducted. The results confirm a huge diversity within the EU in terms of digital technologies, their global impact and comparative advantages.

Suggested Citation

  • Weresa Marzenna Anna, 2019. "Technological competitiveness of the EU member states in the era of the fourth industrial revolution," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 5(3), pages 50-71, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:ecobur:v:5:y:2019:i:3:p:50-71:n:5
    DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2019.3.4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.18559/ebr.2019.3.4
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18559/ebr.2019.3.4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernst, Holger & Omland, Nils, 2011. "The Patent Asset Index - A new approach to benchmark patent portfolios," World Patent Information, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 34-41, March.
    2. Donghyun Choi & Bomi Song, 2018. "Exploring Technological Trends in Logistics: Topic Modeling-Based Patent Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-26, August.
    3. Mu-Hsuan Huang & Dar-Zen Chen & Danqi Shen & Mona S. Wang & Fred Y. Ye, 2015. "Measuring technological performance of assignees using trace metrics in three fields," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(1), pages 61-86, July.
    4. Yong-Gil Lee, 2009. "What affects a patent’s value? An analysis of variables that affect technological, direct economic, and indirect economic value: An exploratory conceptual approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(3), pages 623-633, June.
    5. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1990. "Comparative Advantage and Long-run Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 796-815, September.
    6. de Rassenfosse, Gaétan & Dernis, Hélène & Guellec, Dominique & Picci, Lucio & van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno, 2013. "The worldwide count of priority patents: A new indicator of inventive activity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 720-737.
    7. Kim, Jeeeun & Lee, Sungjoo, 2015. "Patent databases for innovation studies: A comparative analysis of USPTO, EPO, JPO and KIPO," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 332-345.
    8. Mercedes Delgado & Christian Ketels & Michael E. Porter & Scott Stern, 2012. "The Determinants of National Competitiveness," NBER Working Papers 18249, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Ferraro Simona & Dutt Pawan Kumar & Kerikmäe Tanel, 2017. "Using Patent Development, Education Policy and Research and Development Expenditure Policy to Increase Technological Competitiveness of Small European Union Member States," Croatian International Relations Review, Sciendo, vol. 23(78), pages 97-126, August.
    10. Goran Radman & Ana Belin, 2017. "Competitiveness in Technology and Innovation: How to Keep On?," International Journal of Digital Technology and Economy, Algebra University College, vol. 2(1), pages 45-56, June.
    11. Carlos Hemais & Henrique Barros & Elizabeth Rosa, 2005. "Technology Competitiveness in Emerging Markets: The Case of the Brazilian Polymer Industry," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 303-314, July.
    12. Raphaël Chiappini, 2014. "Persistence vs. mobility in industrial and technological specialisations: evidence from 11 Euro area countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 159-187, January.
    13. Sandra Planes-Satorra & Caroline Paunov, 2019. "The digital innovation policy landscape in 2019," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers 71, OECD Publishing.
    14. America I. Zamora-Torres, 2015. "Countries' Competitiveness on Innovation and Technology," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 8(5), pages 73-83.
    15. Jeremy Howells & Jonathan Michie, 1998. "Technological Competitiveness in an International Arena," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 279-293.
    16. Pantano, Eleonora & Priporas, Constantinos-Vasilios & Stylos, Nikolaos, 2018. "Knowledge Push Curve (KPC) in retailing: Evidence from patented innovations analysis affecting retailers' competitiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 150-160.
    17. Narula, Rajneesh & Wakelin, Katharine, 1998. "Technological competitiveness, trade and foreign direct investment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 373-387, September.
    18. Fagerberg, Jan, 1996. "Technology and Competitiveness," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 39-51, Autumn.
    19. Dziallas, Marisa & Blind, Knut, 2019. "Innovation indicators throughout the innovation process: An extensive literature analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 80, pages 3-29.
    20. Sandro Montresor & Francesco Quatraro, 2017. "Regional Branching and Key Enabling Technologies: Evidence from European Patent Data," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 93(4), pages 367-396, August.
    21. Popp, David, 2005. "Lessons from patents: Using patents to measure technological change in environmental models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 209-226, August.
    22. Éric Archambault, 2002. "Methods for using patents in cross-country comparisons," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 54(1), pages 15-30, April.
    23. Uchida, Yuichiro & Cook, Paul, 2005. "The effects of competition on technological and trade competitiveness," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 258-283, May.
    24. Marzenna Anna Weresa (ed.), 2014. "Innovation, Human Capital and Trade Competitiveness," Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-319-02072-3, December.
    25. Robert J. W. Tijssen & Jos J. Winnink, 2018. "Capturing ‘R&D excellence’: indicators, international statistics, and innovative universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 687-699, February.
    26. Iain M. Cockburn & Rebecca Henderson & Scott Stern, 2018. "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Innovation," NBER Working Papers 24449, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. America I. Zamora-Torres, 2014. "Countries' Competitiveness on Innovation and Technology," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 8(5), pages 73-83.
    28. van Ark, Bart & Hao, Janet X. & Corrado, Carol & Hulten, Charles, 2009. "Measuring intangible capital and its contribution to economic growth in Europe," EIB Papers 3/2009, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    29. Karl Aiginger & Susanne Bärenthaler-Sieber & Johanna Vogel, 2013. "Competitiveness under New Perspectives. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 44," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47019.
    30. Dominique Guellec & Caroline Paunov, 2018. "Innovation policies in the digital age," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers 59, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mario Benassi & Elena Grinza & Francesco Rentocchini & Laura Rondi, 2020. "Going Revolutionary: The Impact of 4IR Technology Development on Firm Performance," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-08, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Fernando Almeida & Nelson Amoedo, 2021. "Exploring the association between R&D expenditure and the job quality in the European Union," Papers 2101.03214, arXiv.org.
    3. Artemisa Zaragoza-Ibarra & Gerardo G. Alfaro-Calderón & Víctor G. Alfaro-García & Fernando Ornelas-Tellez & Rodrigo Gómez-Monge, 2021. "A machine learning model of national competitiveness with regional statistics of public expenditure," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 451-468, December.
    4. Eleni Laitsou & Antonios Kargas & Dimitris Varoutas, 2020. "Digital Competitiveness in the European Union Era: The Greek Case," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-33, October.
    5. Igor Matyushenko & Serhii Hlibko & Mariana Petrova & Olena Khanova & Maryna Loktionova & Kamila Trofimchenko, 2021. "Assessment of Technological Competitiveness of Ukraine in Terms of Association with the EU," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 7, pages 148-176.
    6. Götz Marta, 2019. "Unpacking the provision of the industrial commons in Industry 4.0 cluster," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 5(4), pages 23-48, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eleni Laitsou & Antonios Kargas & Dimitris Varoutas, 2020. "Digital Competitiveness in the European Union Era: The Greek Case," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-33, October.
    2. Ardito, Lorenzo & D'Adda, Diego & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2018. "Mapping innovation dynamics in the Internet of Things domain: Evidence from patent analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 317-330.
    3. Falkowski Krzysztof, 2018. "Competitiveness of the Baltic States in International High-Technology Goods Trade," Comparative Economic Research, Sciendo, vol. 21(1), pages 25-43, March.
    4. Peter Mayerhofer, 2022. "Vorarlbergs Wirtschaft im europäischen Konkurrenzumfeld. Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit 2022," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 69424.
    5. Valeria Costantini & Valerio Leone Sciabolazza & Elena Paglialunga, 2023. "Network-driven positive externalities in clean energy technology production: the case of energy efficiency in the EU residential sector," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 716-748, April.
    6. Falkowski Krzysztof, 2017. "Long-Term Comparative Advantages of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States in International Trade," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 53(4), pages 27-49, December.
    7. Song, Kisik & Kim, Kyuwoong & Lee, Sungjoo, 2018. "Identifying promising technologies using patents: A retrospective feature analysis and a prospective needs analysis on outlier patents," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 118-132.
    8. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    9. Padoan, Pier Carlo, 1998. "Trade, knowledge accumulation and diffusion: A sectoral perspective1," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 349-372, September.
    10. Quatraro, Francesco & Scandura, Alessandra, 2019. "Academic Inventors and the Antecedents of Green Technologies. A Regional Analysis of Italian Patent Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 247-263.
    11. Abbasiharofteh, Milad & Kriesch, Lukas, 2024. "Not all twins are identical: the digital layer of “twin” transition market applications," Papers in Innovation Studies 2024/16, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Song, Haoyang & Hou, Jianhua & Zhang, Yang, 2023. "The measurements and determinants of patent technological value: Lifetime, strength, breadth, and dispersion from the technology diffusion perspective," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    13. Karl Aiginger & Matthias Firgo, 2015. "Regional Competitiveness Under New Perspectives. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 26," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58501.
    14. Cheng-Wen Lee & Budi Hasyim & Jan-Yan Lin, 2024. "Digital Technology for Supply Chain Management- marketing Integration," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(1), pages 1-4.
    15. Raphaël Chiappini, 2014. "Persistence vs. mobility in industrial and technological specialisations: evidence from 11 Euro area countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 159-187, January.
    16. Mulatu, Abay, 2016. "On the concept of 'competitiveness' and its usefulness for policy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 50-62.
    17. Georg Licht & Bettina Peters & Christian Köhler & Franz Schwiebacher, 2014. "The Potential Contribution of Innovation Systems to Socio-Ecological Transition. WWWforEurope Deliverable No. 4," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47502.
    18. repec:beo:swcetp:23-08 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Leila Tahmooresnejad & Catherine Beaudry, 2019. "Capturing the economic value of triadic patents," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(1), pages 127-157, January.
    20. Areti Gkypali & Kostas Kounetas & Kostas Tsekouras, 2019. "European countries’ competitiveness and productive performance evolution: unraveling the complexity in a heterogeneity context," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 665-695, April.
    21. Chikán, Attila & Molnár, Boglárka & Szabó, Erika, 2018. "A nemzeti versenyképesség fogalma és támogató intézményi rendszere [The concept of national competitiveness and the institutional system to support it]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1205-1224.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    technological competitiveness; digitalization; European Union; revealed technological advantage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:ecobur:v:5:y:2019:i:3:p:50-71:n:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.