‘Migration without Migration’: Technological Knowledge Flows and the Influence of External Factors

The migration of highly qualified professionals is typically regarded as a problem to solve by countries where the emigration of this category significantly exceeds immigration. However, in the context of globalization and internationalization of the economy, the loss of intellectual capital can occur even without a mass exodus of highly qualified professionals from the country. Remote working, the establishment of R&D departments abroad, R&D outsourcing to foreign performers (companies, universities, etc.), and even direct collaboration with individuals, inventors (Sonnenwald, 2007; McAusland, Kuhn, 2009) – these and other strategies are used by many economic actors as a part of their innovation activity, technological upgrading and implementation of the open innovation paradigm (Chesbrough, 2003). Technological knowledge, which can be converted into new technologies and intellectual property (Parayil, 1991), is of a particular value in this ‘race for talents’.

Using the case of Russia, the study examines the intensity of these international (inward and outward) flows of technological knowledge, their dynamics and structural characteristics (countries, organizations, technological domains, etc.). It is based on the methodology of patent analysis and – empirically – on the collection of collaborative patents (inventors and assignees from different countries) for the period 2010–2023. It examines how various factors (including the global economic inequality, the specificity of national innovation systems, etc.) influence the positions of countries in the global ‘space’ of technological knowledge, making some of them predominantly exporters and others – mostly importers. The results of this analysis are also compared with the traditional imbalances in international flows of highly qualified specialists to show how they are reproduced at different levels. Additionally, the study discusses how certain external factors (such as the COVID-19 pandemic and post-2022 geopolitical tensions) shape the international flows of technological knowledge, which (falsely) seem to be immune to borders closures and formal sanctions.