National characteristics and competitiveness in MOT research: A comparative analysis of ten specialty journals, 2000–2009

This paper addresses how countries placed a different intellectual focus on the management of technology and innovation (MOT) research in ten leading MOT specialty journals published in 2000–2009. The result confirms that each country has quite diverse relative research interests and performances in MOT domains. Among the top seven leading countries in MOT research, the US has a comparative advantage in project management (PJM); the UK has one in social change (SCH); and Spain has one in intellectual property (IPR). The other four countries show much more dynamic observations. Netherlands has clearly a comparative advantage in technology policy (TPO), while Taiwan has one in technology analysis and forecast (TAF), Germany in entrepreneurship (ENT), and Italy in technology transfer and commercialization (TTC).This paper contributes to the MOT community by providing much clearer evidence of how countries become differently positioned in the global MOT arena. These empirical findings demonstrate significant differences in the comparative competitiveness of countries involved in MOT research that were little known earlier.

► Countries show clear diversity in MOT research interests and performances.
► RRA profiling proves to be beneficial to effectively visualize such research differences.
► The empirical findings present the relative strengths and weaknesses of countries.
► The US and the UK are relatively well balanced compared to global average.
► Spain, Netherlands, Taiwan, Italy, Germany show diverse performances per domain.