Embodied and disembodied innovative activities: evidence from the Italian innovation survey

In this chapter, the relationship between “embodied” and “disembodied” forms of technological change is analyzed using data drawn from the Italian (Istat-Cnr) innovation survey. The empirical analysis aims at: a) showing the importance in firms’’ innovative behaviors of investment in new machinery as compared to expenditure on R&D, design and engineering activities; b) exploring the weather these different types of innovation activities are complementary or substitutive in nature; c) identify main sectoral patterns of innovation on the basis of the relevance played by embodied and disembodied innovation activities