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on Economics of Strategic Management |
| By: | Andrea Morrison (CESPRI and Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, Università Bocconi, Milano and Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy); Roberta Rabellotti (Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy) |
| Abstract: | A well-grounded empirical and theoretical literature shows that local production systems can benefit from external economies generated by a shared ‘industrial atmosphere’. Many scholars would agree that in contexts as industrial districts, clusters and local systems, economic actions are strongly embedded in social and institutional factors. Nevertheless, many scholars would instead debate about the nature, boundaries and processes underpinning ‘industrial atmosphere’. This paper aims at contributing to this field of studies by entering into the black box of the ‘industrial atmosphere’ reconstructing the informal contacts underpinning collective learning in a local production system. The study is based on empirical evidence collected at firm level in an Italian wine local system and uses methods of network analysis. |
| Keywords: | Social Networks, Knowledge, Industrial Clusters, Wine Sector |
| JEL: | O31 R10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp174&r=cse |
| By: | Daniela Grieco (CESPRI, Bocconi University, Milano,Italy.) |
| Abstract: | A limited number of business firms engage in disruptive innovative activity. When firms decide among alternative innovative patterns, inertial forces may bias their choices in favour of incremental innovations. This paper proposes a model that compares firms’ value when firms can invest in strategies implying different degrees of innovativeness. The model shows that incremental strategies emerge as a dominant strategy for oligopolists when imitation of incremental innovation is sufficiently slow and firms are not too asymmetric in their access to knowledge. If these conditions are not respected, the model exhibits an additional symmetric Nash equilibrium where firms select radical innovations. |
| Keywords: | Radical innovation, Incremental Innovation, Imperfect competition, Patent race. |
| JEL: | D21 D81 L20 O33 |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp178&r=cse |
| By: | Nooteboom,Bart; Gilsing,Victor; Vanhaverbeke,Wim; Duysters,Geert; Oord,Ad van den (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the innovative performance of alliance networks as a function of the technological distance between partners, a firm's network position (centrality) and total network density. We study how these three elements of an alliance network, apart and in combination, affect the 'twin tasks' in exploration, namely novelty creation on the one hand and its efficient absorption on the other hand. For an empirical test, we study technology-based alliance networks in the pharmaceutical, chemical and automotive industry. |
| Keywords: | innovation networks;cognitive distance;centrality;density |
| JEL: | O31 O32 L14 L24 L25 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200632&r=cse |
| By: | Nooteboom,Bart (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a cognitive theory of firms and organizations, with a focus on learning and innovation. Here, cognition is a wide notion, including value judgments and corresponding feelings and emotions. This paper focuses on the relation between that cognitive theory and Penrose's theory of the growth of the firm. As in Penrose's work, the focus is on learning, rather than on efficient utilization of resources or appropriation of returns from them. Also as in Penrose, the underlying view of cognition is a constructivist one, according to which people with different experience view the world differently. So far, the paper is consistent with Penrose. However, it also adopts and further develops some of the criticism of her views, concerning the role of other human resources than managers in organizational learning, problems of conflicts of interest and governance within the firm, dynamic capabilities for developing new capabilities, and, above all, the alternative of collaboration between firms, for learning and innovation, in the combination of capabilities between rather than within the firm. In particular, it argues that, in contrast with Penrose, there are limits to firm size. |
| Keywords: | theory of the firm;Penrose;knowledge;learning;innovation;dynamic capabilities;firm size;growth of the firm |
| JEL: | D21 L22 M13 M14 O31 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200634&r=cse |
| By: | Nooteboom,Bart (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Keywords: | transaction costs;innovation;learning;inter-organizational relations;networks |
| JEL: | L14 L22 L24 O31 O32 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200636&r=cse |
| By: | Nooteboom,Bart (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This chapter explains and employs a constructivist, interactionist theory of knowledge that has come to be known as the perspective of 'embodied cognition'. That view has roots in earlier developmental psychology, and in sociology, and more recently has received further substance from neural science. It yields a basis for a cognitive theory of the firm, with the notion of cognitive distance between people, the resulting view of organization as a cognitive focusing device, the need for external relations with other organizations to compensate for organizational myopia, and the notion of optimal cognitive distance between firms for innovation by interaction. |
| Keywords: | theory of the firm;organizational cognition;learning;innovation |
| JEL: | D21 L22 M14 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200638&r=cse |
| By: | Nooteboom,Bart (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper gives a survey of insights into inter-firm alliances and networks for innovation, from a constructivist, interactionist perspective on knowledge, which leads to the notion of 'cognitive distance'. It looks at both the competence and the governance side of relationships. Given cognitive distance, organizations need to align cognition sufficiently to enable the fast and efficient utilization of opportunities from complementary capabilities. This, I propose, is done by means of a culturally mediated 'organizational cognitive focus'. The problem with that is that it yields a greater or lesser organizational myopia that, for the sake of innovation, needs to be complemented by means of outside relations with other firms, at larger cognitive distance. Hence the importance of networks for innovation. On the governance side, the paper gives a review of relational risks and instruments to manage them. Next to the effects of cognitive distance, the paper analyses the effects of density and strength of ties in innovation networks, concerning both competence and governance. |
| Keywords: | inter-organizational relationships;networks;competence;governance;innovation; cognitive distance |
| JEL: | D23 L14 L22 O31 O32 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200639&r=cse |
| By: | Holger Graf (University of Jena, Faculty of Economics); Tobias Henning |
| Abstract: | Universities and public research organizations are said to be an integrative and essential element of a functioning innovation system as they play a vital role not only in the generation of new technological knowledge, but also in its diffusion. We analyse four East German local networks of innovators which differ in structure and innovative performance and investigate the characteristic role of public research within these local systems by applying methods of social network analysis. Our results show that universities and non-university institutions of public research are key actors in all regional networks of innovators both in terms of patent output and in terms of centrality of their position in the networks. Further we find the 'thicker' networks to have more central public research organizations. Higher centrality of public research compared to private actors may be due to the fact that universities are explicitly designed to give away their knowledge and that they increasingly face the need to raise external funds. |
| Keywords: | Innovator Networks; Public research; R+D Cooperation; Mobility |
| JEL: | O31 Z13 R11 |
| Date: | 2006–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jen:jenasw:2006-19&r=cse |
| By: | Verena Bikar (DULBEA-CERT, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); Michele Cincera (DULBEA-CERT, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, and CEPR); Henri Capron (DULBEA-CERT, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at proposing an original framework for the mapping of innovation systems. The analytical outline is based on the following paradigm: the innovation process has commonly been accepted as a complex system of interactions between different institutions aimed to achieve specific objectives through the efficient implementation of public instruments. More specifically, the objective of this paper consists, in a first step, in identifying and defining these innovation concepts. In a second step, the STI mapping is evaluated by crossing the STI objectives, instruments and institutional actors into four functional matrices that should all together empirically depict the innovation system. In order to strengthen the validity of the approach, an empirical example implemented at the EU-15 level is presented. The approach is based on the respect of the four following criteria: 1) international comparability of results; 2) representativeness of results; 3) measurement issues; and 4) consistency of the approach. |
| Keywords: | Innovation Systems, Innovation Objectives, Innovation Governance, Institutional Set-up |
| JEL: | O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:06-09rs&r=cse |