Accounting for core and extra-core relationships in technological systems: a methodological proposal

The paper proposes a new intersectoral methodology to measure the core relationships of a technological system – that is the relationships of its private business core (PBC) – and to integrate them with a consistent analysis of its extra-core relationships – that is between the PBC and the public and the foreign sub-system. Although more demanding in terms of data, referring to sectoral R&D financing rather than to sectoral R&D expenditure, and differentiating the diffusion channels which approximate these relationships accordingly, turns out to be more accurate in methodological terms and more powerful in terms of applications, in particular as far as network analysis indicators are concerned. An illustrative application for 5 TS is provided with respect to 1985 and important insights are obtained about how to compare the structure of the different TS sub-systems. Although to be further explored in more extended and updated applications, these insights have to be considered as pros along with the cons the methodology we propose inevitably entails.