Paths of technology upgrading in the BRICS economies

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.08.016
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Research article published in the journal Research Policy, Volume 48, Issue 1, February 2019, Pages 262-280.


Highlights

  • Application of new conceptual framework to assess prospects for long-term technology based growth of emerging economies
  • Technology upgrading is the three-dimensional process which shows country specific profiles of the BRICS economies.
  • BRICS exhibit several profiles with trade-offs between intensity, structural change and interaction with the global economy.
  • The relationship between frontier and behind frontier activities reflects differences between individual economies.
  • BRICS have improved technology sourcing capabilities, but not organisational capabilities to source technology from abroad.

Abstract

This paper explores technology upgrading of BRICS economies based on a three-pronged approach, which distinguishes between the intensity of technology upgrading, structural change and global interaction. We develop a statistical framework based on patent indicators to measure technological upgrading and apply it to BRICS economies in the period 1980–2015. The paper shows that there is no single path of technology upgrading. Instead, we find several unique paths with different trade-offs between intensity, structural change and the nature of the global interaction. All BRICS economies display increased generation of frontier technological activities, while China and Russia have also increased the intensity of behind frontier technological activities. China has also diversified its technology knowledge base and entered into dynamic frontier areas. With increasing intensity of frontier technology activities of the BRICS, the relative, but not absolute, the importance of foreign actors and international collaboration has declined. However, BRICS economies seem to lack the organisational and complementary capabilities to match the extent of technology sourcing from abroad, observed in high-income countries. Our result represents the application of a new conceptual framework and contributes to assessing the sustainability of innovation-based growth among BRICS.

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