ABSTRACT

The Fourth Technological Revolution has become a reality and profound changes and restructuring in the markets for 4.0 technologies are taking place with important spatial consequences. The paper demonstrates this statement through an empirical analysis based on an original large-scale patent database covering the creation of all 4.0 technologies across all European NUTS-2 regions in the period 2000–15. Regions exist in Europe characterized by a 4.0 technological leadership achieved in the absence of a strong pre-existing 3.0 technological base. By scaling up the existing technological seeds, these islands of innovation can act as best-practice examples for areas that are still lagging behind from the technological point of view.

摘要

第四次技术革命已经成为现实，4.0技术市场正在发生深刻的变化和重组，并产生重要的空间影响。本文通过基于原始大规模专利数据库的实证分析证明了这一说法，该数据库涵盖了 2000-15 年期间所有欧洲 NUTS-2 地区的所有 4.0 技术的创建。欧洲存在一些区域，其特点是在缺乏强大的预先存在的 3.0 技术基础的情况下实现了 4.0 技术领先。通过扩大现有的技术种子，这些创新孤岛可以作为从技术角度来看仍然落后的领域的最佳实践范例。