(Not) Energizing Microelectronics Ecosystem through Large Firm’s Inventors Network. Lessons from Italy

To what extent do large, multinational companies promote local entrepreneurship through knowledge spillovers? How do their appropriation strategies shape entrepreneurial opportunities and nurture business ecosystems? In order to address these research questions, we focus on the interplay between knowledge spillover theory and ecosystem literature and use an evolutionary perspective to look at a specific business ecosystems leader, namely STMicroelectronics, leveraging local resources and innovation capabilities. Specifically, we focus on STMicroelectronics inventors’ network and pay attention on how this global player has adapted and varied its involvement in creating glocal value over time. Data are drawn from a dataset taking into account 1432 STMicroelectronics Catania Site patent applications filled in the period 2000–2009.