Determinants of inventive collaborations in Brazilian interregional and international networks

The paper investigates the regional and structural determinants of the links in social networks of inventive collaboration among regions in Brazil. In order to do this, we make use of a patent applications database that registers collaborations among Brazilian inventors and Brazilian and foreign inventors. As possible determinants of the links in Brazilian co-patenting networks, we take into account variables that capture economic, technological, and demographic density aspects of Brazilian regions, as well as the topology structures of the nodes in the networks. The approach considers the Zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model, which considers the absolute number of interregional links among inventors from different regions. The formation of interregional patenting links was found to have been positively affected by the number of internal links to the region, by the number of inventors, by university and business R&D capacity, and mainly by the degree of centrality of the region. In the case of international networks formed between Brazilian and foreign inventors, the links are positively affected only by R&D capacity, especially industrial, and by the degree of centrality. In addition, the degree of internationalization of a network seems to positively affect the establishment of interregional networks.