Firms’ innovation across regions: an exploratory study

This paper investigates the geographical distribution and concentration of firms’ innovation persistence and innovation type - product and process - based upon three waves of the Community Innovation Survey data covering the period 1998-2006. The main findings are: (i) both innovation persistence and innovation type are asymmetrically distributed across Portuguese regions; (ii) the degree of correlation between geographical location and innovative output varies with the innovation type; and (iii); the correlation between geographical unit and innovation increases when the spatial unit of analysis is narrower. Overall, results indicate that firm’s choice of geographical location have a long-lasting effect, engendering no equal probabilities of being persistently innovator.