The Economic Impact of Spillovers from R&D and Innovation

Abstract

Dirk Meissner — Deputy Head, Research Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics. Address: National Research University — Higher School of Economics, 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000. E-mail: dmeissner@hse.ru

In light of globalisation of knowledge generation, Science and Technology have opened up previously distinct borderlines now favoring overlapping if not merged fields. Hence innovation becomes more complex by bundling different technological solutions in new products, processes, services and business models, which stem from different scientific and technological roots. Thus spillovers are an essential precondition towards the establishment of new interdisciplinary fields of knowledge, science and technology.

The paper reviews and synthesizes literature on spillovers, introduces a typology of spillovers and a taxonomy of spillover channels, estimates the economic impact of spillovers. Special attention is paid to assessing recipient’s capabilities to absorb new knowledge thus gaining advantages for own development.

The author concludes that knowledge spillovers have a positive impact on performance of a recipient (company, country or region) as long as it possesses sufficient absorptive capacity. Spillovers might under certain circumstances lead to strengthening competition between knowledge recipients at the cost of the place of origin. Nonetheless the latter still is in a position to use instruments of legal protection of own knowledge (under certain circumstances), build on the existing competences and capacities and invest in the next frontier of knowledge and technology in certain fields and moreover create a boom in the field of knowledge and technology generated using marketing instruments extensively.