Degree of Specialization and Size of National Scientific and Technological Activities

In the previous four Chapters the specialization profiles of advanced countries have been identified according to both technology and science indicators. The mapping of sectoral strengths and weaknesses, however, also requires a description of how concentrated (or spread out) national science and technology activities are across fields. Beyond analysis at the sectoral level, in fact, the resulting aggregate tendencies, and differences existing among countries, should be explored. This Chapter examines the extent to which countries focus their efforts in a few areas of science and technology, or distribute their resources over many different fields. This analysis qualifies the study of national sectoral specialization developed in the previous Chapters, and constitutes an original contribution of this report.