Title: An international comparison of scientists in an emerging field

Authors: Koenraad Debackere, Michael A. Rappa

Addresses: De Vlerick School voor Management, Universiteit Gent, Bellevue 6, B-9050 Gent, Belgium. ' MIT Sloan School of Management, Room E52-538,50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

Abstract: The role of national systems of innovation in shaping technical change has received much attention recently. This paper examines the community of researchers behind the change process. The approach shifts attention from the factors inducing technical change to the community of individuals who create the knowledge enabling technological development. We investigate national differences in the performance of R&D activities of scientists in five major industrial countries: France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Evidence is presented from a recent survey of nearly 600 scientists working in the field of neural networks. The survey instrument provides detailed information on national and international patterns of collaboration and communication among researchers in the field of neural networks. The results offer insights into the nature of intra-community knowledge flows, and allow us to speculate about the |localness| of national systems of innovation.

Keywords: research community; scientific activity; research collaboration; R&D activities; neural networks; research and development; national systems of innovation; France; Germany; Japan; UK; United States; USA; knowledge flow.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1993.025809

International Journal of Technology Management, 1993 Vol.8 No.6/7/8, pp.740 - 763

Published online: 24 May 2009 *

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