The geography of Industry 4.0 technologies across European regions

Carlo Corradini; Erica Santini; Claudia Vecciolini

doi:10.1080/00343404.2021.1884216

The geography of Industry 4.0 technologies across European regions

Carlo Corradini, Erica Santini, Claudia Vecciolini

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Abstract

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) considering both region- and technology-specific factors. Focusing on patent data for four technologies at the core of I4.0 between 2000 and 2014, we provide evidence of their uneven distribution across NUTS-2 European regions. Our analysis confirms the role of regional absorptive capacity, cognitive and spatial proximity as drivers of I4.0 knowledge flows, but also indicates important variations among these technologies. Cumulated technological capabilities and spatial proximity exert a stronger effect on the diffusion of robots and 3D printing, whereas big data and the Internet of Things tend to be more spatially distributed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1667-1680
Number of pages	14
Journal	Regional Studies
Volume	55
Issue number	10-11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1884216
Publication status	Published - 4 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Regional Studies Association.

Keywords

Industry 4.0
absorptive capacity
knowledge spillovers
relatedness
technology diffusion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Environmental Science
General Social Sciences

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10.1080/00343404.2021.1884216Licence: None: All rights reserved

CorradiniC2021geography
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Regional Studies. Carlo Corradini, Erica Santini & Claudia Vecciolini (2021) The geography of Industry 4.0 technologies across European regions, Regional Studies, 55:10-11, 1667-1680, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2021.1884216. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Accepted author manuscript, 284 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

Cite this

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The geography of Industry 4.0 technologies across European regions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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