Linking Technology Areas to Industrial Sectors

TLDR

Technological innovation drives advanced economies’ competitiveness, yet no single indicator captures all innovation stages, and while economic metrics are sector‑classified, patent‑based tech indicators like IPC lack direct industrial sector mapping. The study aims to systematically monitor technology development, build a network of diverse innovation indicators, link them to economic performance, and create a concordance between technology and industry classifications. The authors use NACE/ISIC industrial sector schemes and IPC patent classifications to develop a reliable concordance linking technology areas to industrial sectors.

Abstract

Technological innovations are one of the key factors in explaining economic competitiveness of advanced countries. Therefore it is important to monitor technological development of areas, countries and regions in a systematic way to support economic analysis and decision making. It is, however, impossible to describe the technological development by a single indicator encompassing all aspects and stages of innovation. Rather, it is necessary to establish a network of related indicators reflecting different aspects of innovation. At the same time to examine the relationship between technology and economic performance it is crucial to link technological indicators with those related to economic performance. At the international level, most economic indicators such as turnover, investment, employment, productivity, value added, R&D expenditure etc. are classified by industrial sectors, for instance, according to the NACE or ISIC schemes. In contrast, some of the most frequently used indicators for technology are based on patent statistics, classified according to the International Patent Classification (IPC).5 However, the IPC is based on technological categories and cannot be directly translated into industrial sectors. One approach for solving this problem is to establish a reliable concordance between technology and industry classifications.