Schumpeterian patterns of innovation

Using patent data for four countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy) for the period 1968–1986, the authors find that the patterns of innovative activities differ systematically across technological classes, while remarkable similarities emerge across countries in the patterns of innovative activities for each technological class. This result strongly suggests that ‘technological imperatives’ and technology-specific factors (closely linked to technological regimes) play a major role in determining the patterns of innovative activities across countries.