Knowledge-relatedness in firm technological diversification

This paper claims that knowledge-relatedness is a key factor in affecting firms' technological diversification. The hypothesis is tested that firms extend the range of their innovative activities in a non-random way. Specifically, we test the extent to which firms diversify their innovative activities across related technological fields, i.e. fields that share a common knowledge base and rely upon common heuristics and scientific principles. The paper proposes an original measure of knowledge-relatedness, using co-classification codes contained in patent documents, and examines the patterns of technological diversification of the whole population of firms from the United States, Italy, France, UK, Germany, and Japan patenting to the European Patent Office from 1982 to 1993. Robust evidence is found that knowledge-relatedness is a major feature of firms' innovative activities. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.