Technological hierarchies and learning: Spillovers, complexity, relatedness, and the moderating role of absorptive capacity

We develop a theoretical framework, which facilitates the investigation of spillover effects on productive performance under the lens of path dependence, technological relatedness, and complexity. We distinguish between hierarchical structured knowledge pools and allow for the moderation role of the absorptive capacity of the examined production entities. We employ a panel dataset from country specific industrial structures of thirteen manufacturing and transportation industries in seventeen EU countries during the pre-crisis 1999–2006 period. Path dependence proves to be ubiquitous and relatedness highly influential. Absorptive capacity frames different patterns related to technological complexity and sectoral idiosyncrasies.