Return mobility of scientists and knowledge circulation : an exploratory approach to scientists attitudes and perspectives

The paper addresses the international mobility and return of scientists and its implications for regions/countries with weaker scientific and technological systems. It focuses on the “return dilemma” and, using the Portuguese case as empirical setting, discusses the conditions for return, the “diaspora” alternative and the role of policies in minimising the impacts of mobility flows. Despite the growing importance assumed by scientific mobility, our understanding of mobility flows, in particular of return mobility, is still deficient. Data about the level of mobility and mobility paths is scarce and difficult to obtain and the knowledge about expatriate scientists’ motivations and strategies, namely their attitudes towards the home country and their perspectives concerning career and return mobility, remains limited. The research presented in this paper is a preliminary contribution to attend to some of these issues. A method is proposed to address some methodological problems in empirical research on scientific mobility. It permits to delimit a sample of “scientifically productive” expatriate scientists in specific fields, to locate these scientists and to trace their professional trajectories, thus making possible to collect information on their mobility behaviour as well as to gain some preliminary insights on their attitudes and perspectives. This methodology is experimentally applied to the Portuguese case. Notwithstanding its exploratory nature, the empirical research provides some insights into the behaviour of a younger generation of “scientifically productive scientists” in a field with a strong international mobility pattern (biotechnology), which can be relevant for policy makin

Spatial diffusion and the formation of a technological innovation system in the receiving country: The case of wind energy in Portugal

This paper investigates how energy technologies diffuse spatiallythrough the examination of wind growth in Denmark (core) andPortugal (follower). The research draws on the empirical his-torical scaling dynamics to compare patterns of diffusion, andproposes an explanation for these patterns with the help of thetechnological innovation systems (TIS) theoretical framework. Theanalysis uncovered an acceleration of diffusion when the technol-ogy attained the new market. The mechanisms that allowed rapidadoption were found to be, among others, transnational linkagesand an improved absorptive capacity. The latter benefited frompast investments in knowledge development, imports of state-of-the-art technology and construction of a local industry assemblingavailable competencies. Targeted policies (e.g. tender-based feed-in scheme) were effective to stimulate technology transfer andboost diffusion. The linkages with the global TIS and the conceptof absorptive capacity improve the understanding of the processesinvolved in the formation of a TIS in receiving countries

The capacity for adopting energy innovations in Portugal: historical evidence and perspectives for the future

This paper investigates the speed of adoption of energy technologies in a traditionally innovation importing country, Portugal, as compared with countries where these technologies first started. Data were collected on the growth of eight energy-related technologies, both energy supply (e.g. natural gas plants, wind turbines) and end-use (e.g., motorcycles). The analysis is done in terms of the evolution of the number of units and installed capacity, indicating possible scale effects. The results show an average adoption lag of one to two decades relatively to “Core” countries. However, the growth rate increases when a technology arrives at Portugal, confirming the hypothesis that adoption accelerates when technology reaches new markets. Additionally, the duration of diffusion in Portugal is less constrained by the final scale of diffusion, contrasting with previous observations for the Core. The data also uncover the successful diffusion of wind energy in Portugal, showing that growth took off less than a decade after the diffusion in the Core, and achieving similar levels of intensity. The analysis suggests that this was supported by the improvement in the adoption capacity, associated with the development of a wind energy innovation system. These findings open new perspectives for the spatial diffusion of sustainable innovations

Social Networks and the entrepreneurial process in molecular biotechnology in Portugal : from science to industry

DINÂMIA'CET, Junho de 2011This paper addresses the network building strategies followed by Portuguese biotechnology start-ups, as well as their implications for the configuration of firms’ networks. Results show that firms combine the use of entrepreneurs’ social capital with an effort to build up new relationships, thus allowing the resource search space to be expanded. The network building strategy is influenced by the team’s characteristics and the nature of the resources searched (knowledge, complementary assets, credibility), which generate different network structures. Results also highlight context-related specificities, such as the central role of research organizations in accessing non-technological resources and the relevance of international relationships.FC

The construction of a new technological innovation system in a follower country: wind energy in Portugal

This article analyzes the process of construction of a new innovation system based on wind energy in a “follower” context. The technological innovation systems framework is used to analyze the process of technology diffusion as well as the emergence of a new wind sector in Portugal, where this renewable energy technology showed a spectacular development in the past decade. This framework highlights the main processes or functions that occur in the diffusion of a new technology. The evidence obtained demonstrates that the fulfillment of these functions, which were mostly studied in the context of pioneer countries, is still pertinent to explain the formation of a wind energy system in this follower country. Yet the type of resources and the nature of the activities needed to adopt the technology in the latter often differ. This case provides new insights into the importance of functions that enhance the follower's capacity to assimilate the new technology (e.g. local knowledge development, experimentation), thus creating the conditions for a fast move as soon as innovations become sufficiently mature in the core

Building innovation networks : the process of partner selection by young knowledge-intensive firms

This paper addresses partner selection in innovation networks. It builds on the existing literature to develop an integrative framework that encompasses the main factors identified as influencing selection of innovation partners by young knowledge-intensive firms. It considers that both persistence and novelty are present in the network building process and that to fully understand the selection of innovation partners both aspects have to be considered. A framework is developed that integrates several arguments advanced in the literature to explain partner selection, namely social capital, imprinting and inertia for tie persistence, and network embeddedness and proximity for new tie selection. Using a rare event logit model, we estimate the likelihood of selecting a partner to access resources vital for innovation (both in aggregated terms and distinguishing between three resources - knowledge, complementary assets and credibility). The model is tested using data about the partnerships established by young Portuguese biotechnology firms, purposefully collected through questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews, complemented with documentary information. The results highlight the advantages of adopting an integrated framework that takes into account a variety of complementary explanations for both persistence and novelty, that tend to be addressed separately. They also uncover different network building strategies in terms of partner selection to access the different types of resources needed for innovation

Building innovation networks in science-based young firms: the selection of knowledge sources

The paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Data collected on Portuguese biotechnology firms are analysed with a view to answer to two research questions: whether, to what extent and in which conditions science-based entrepreneurs activate their social capital and/or build new knowledge relationships at start-up; whether and to what extent the knowledge relationships established at start-up persist and/or the firm builds relationships with new organisations. The results confirm the importance attributed to tie persistence but they also show that science-based firms need to search for new knowledge sources from the very early stages. Thus, their start-up behaviour departs from the one often depicted by the entrepreneurship literature, that emphasises the mobilisation of the entrepreneurs' social capital. Results also show that persistence of ties established at start-up is lower than would be expected

Building innovation networks in sciencebased young firms : the selection of knowledge sources

The paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms’ regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Drawing on two streams of research – on alliances and on social networks – two different dimensions of this strategy are considered: the activation of the entrepreneurs’ social capital (versus the intentional inclusion of new knowledge sources) and the persistence of ties from start-up to the early growth phase. The data collected for a subset of the Portuguese biotechnology sector are analysed with a view to answer to four research questions: i) To what do extent firms’ rely on entrepreneurs’ personal networks, activating their social capital to access scientific and technological knowledge at start-up; ii) To what extent are new actors added to knowledge networks at start-up; iii) Are there differences between existing and new ties in terms of strength and formalisation?; iv) Is there tie persistence in knowledge networks between the start-up and the early growth phases? The results obtained confirm the consideration of the strategies underlying network building is vital for an understanding of the configuration of young science-based firms’ knowledge networks. They reveal the existence of different network building strategies and appear to indicate a tendency for continuity of attitudes over the companies’ life. They also suggest that differences in the network building strategies may be the behind the somewhat contradictory results presented in the literature about the network configuration that is more favourable for innovatio

Knowledge networks in science-based start-ups : actors and strategies

The paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms’ regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Drawing on two streams of research – on alliances and on social networks – two different dimensions of this strategy are considered: the activation of the entrepreneurs’ social capital and the intentional inclusion of new knowledge sources. The data collected for a subset of the Portuguese biotechnology sector are analysed with a view to answer to three research questions: i) To what do extent firms’ rely on entrepreneurs’ personal networks, activating their social capital to access scientific and technological knowledge at start-up; ii) To what extent are new actors added to knowledge networks at start-up; iii) Are there differences between existing and new ties in terms of strength and formalisation. The results obtained confirm the consideration of the strategies underlying network building is vital for an understanding of the configuration of young science-based firms’ knowledge networks. They reveal the existence of different knowledge network building strategies that often combine tie persistence with search for novelty. They also suggest that differences in the network building strategies may be the behind the somewhat contradictory results presented in the literature about the network configuration that is more favourable for innovation

Types of proximity in knowledge access by science-based start-ups

This paper addresses the strategies adopted by science-based start-ups to gain access to knowledge resources at different spatial levels. The goal of the paper is to investigate the presence and relative importance of ties endowed with different types of proximity in firms’ knowledge networks, as well as the role played by non-geographical proximity in gaining access to knowledge sources, both located nearby and at a distance. For this purpose we develop an analytical framework that permits to distinguish between two dimensions of proximity: geographical, associated with the spatial location of the actor; relational, associated with the origin of the tie – leading to different modes of proximity that are further linked with modes of knowledge access (formal or informal). We also develop a methodology to reconstruct the knowledge networks, permitting to identify origin, location and nature of the ties and to position them along modes of proximity. The results show that the incidence and mix of these modes of proximity vary in firms’ individual networks, being possible to identify different patterns of knowledge access. But they also uncover the overall relevance of “relational proximity”, whether or not coexisting with geographical proximity and often compensating for its absence. The paper contributes to our understanding of knowledge access strategies of science-based start-ups and uncovers the spatial spanning role played by the entrepreneurs’ personal networks