The emergence and historical evolution of innovation networks: On the factors promoting and hampering patent collaboration in technological lagging economies

Collaboration and research networks are nowadays central to innovation because they favor knowledge interactions and complex approaches to challenging problems. This study explores the factors underlying the emergence and evolution of innovation networks in the past, using as example the case of Spain, a backward country regarding R&D performance. Combining, for the first time, historical patent data, social network analysis, and discrete choice regression techniques we test distinct institutional, geographical, and sectoral factors that triggered or hampered collaboration over the long term, i.e., the growth in the connections of individual co-patentees within innovation groups. The findings are relevant and demonstrate, inter alia, that in the Spanish case the length of intellectual monopolies did not foster collaboration, while geographical/technological diversification was key to enhance collaborative patterns in the past. The analysis also demonstrates that the likelihood of increasing collaboration over time depended on the initial level of connections (degree) the patentee had, confirming the existence of preferential attachment, even within the context of an emerging and disconnected network. However, belonging to larger innovation groups (size of the network components) did not promote per se greater interactions, suggesting that institutional weaknesses and backward innovation trends prevented the existence of positive payoffs from increased connectivity. The results have direct R&D policy implications for both nowadays developing countries and innovation leaders.