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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2011‒08‒09
thirteen papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Purificacion Vicente Galindo (University of Salamanca, Spain, and CIEO, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal); Teresa de Noronha Vaz (CIEO, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Eric de Noronha Vaz (Institute of Statistics and Information Management, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and CIEO, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | Portuguese strategic choices regarding innovation and R&D policy have, over the past two decades, produced various positive achievements, in which the regions of Lisbon and Algarve have taken the lead, and are the only ones in the country to converge towards the European average growth rate. Regarding the other Portuguese regions - despite significant national growth rates in the 1990s as well as a successful attempt to cope with the EMU -, these are lagging behind the EU average with respect to gross production, investment or employment generation. Meanwhile, one of the greatest public policy efforts was to diffuse much of the European funds across the entrepreneurial sector. After a long pathway, it is now timely to evaluate the firms' contribution to national and regional growth, their obstacles and impacts. For the purpose of this paper, innovation is used here as a major contributor to the policy evaluation process referred to above. Our investigation aims to explain the present performance of Portuguese firms located throughout the country and to explore those innovation determinants that have a region-specific connotation. To provide a thorough investigation, our analysis defines, on a regional basis, a set of firmsâ?T behavioural patterns regarding innovation. In our modelling, we employ a new methodology, viz. the External Logistic Biplot method, which is applied to an extensive sample of innovative institutions in Portugal. Variables such as 'Promoting knowledge', 'Management skills', 'Promoting R&D', 'Knowledge transfer', 'Promoting partnership & cooperation', and 'Orientation of public measures' have been identified as crucial determinants in earlier studies and are now used to describe regional institutional profiles. Such profiles exhibit a great variety in the way they combine these determinants to promote regional innovation. The creation of a <I>gradient of capacity to dynamically innovate</I> associated with each firm makes it possible to analyse the innovation gradient of each region in Portugal. Our paper presents and systematically investigates these findings and then reaches some policy conclusions. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Firms' Performance; Regional Innovation Systems; Principal Coordinates Analysis; External Logistic Biplot; Voronoi Diagram; Dissimilarity Matrix |
| JEL: | O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110106&r=cse |
| By: | Laborda, Leopoldo; Guasch, Jose Luis; Sotelsek, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Increasingly, entrepreneurship is being discussed and considered as a source of high economic growth and competitiveness. A conceptual process of creative construction that characterizes the dynamics between entrants and incumbents can prove quite useful to analyze the impact of countries'entrepreneurship capital on economic performance and can be a guide for economic policy. This paper applies a Stochastic Frontier Analysis approach to test the hypothesis that entrepreneurship capital promotes economic performance by serving as a conduit of knowledge spillovers. In addition, kernel density functions are employed to analyze convergence (or divergence) in the efficiency estimated for individual countries. The empirical evidence and results here tend to support the hypothesis. Specifically, the empirical analysis shows that the rate of expenditure on research and development in relation to new businesses registered has a positive and significant effect in increasing technical efficiency. These factors facilitate the dissemination of existing knowledge, develop entrepreneurship capital, and thus provide the missing link to economic performance -- entrepreneurship capital. The authors also show the trends and dynamics of changes in countries’ technical efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Labor Policies,E-Business,Knowledge for Development |
| Date: | 2011–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5739&r=cse |
| By: | Massimo Armenise (Fondazione Manlio Masi); Giorgia Giovannetti (Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche); Gianluca Santoni |
| Abstract: | Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increase the productivity of domestic firms through spillovers and incentives to innovate. Hence, the capacity of local firms to absorb new technological knowledge emerges as a crucial factor for a country to benefit from FDI. This process might take time, especially if firms are small and medium as those prevailing in Italy. Between 2001 and 2007 the number of foreign firms in Italy has decreased, showing a particularly negative dynamic. However, in the same period, FDI in business services increased. The number of foreign firms investing in professional business services in Italy passed from 1277 in 2001 to 1700 in 2007, with a concurrent increase in the average dimension of firms. The aim of this paper is to test the effect of FDI in Business Services on the efficiency (Total Factor Productivity and Labor Productivity). Hence, the paper tests whether firms located in provinces better equipped to attract FDI in business services have received a premium in terms of productivity, profitability and other dimensions. Preliminary results show that while it is important to attract FDIs to improve the performance of domestic firms, the capacity of a province to keep the foreign direct inflows has an even more relevant effect. This relationship becomes even more evident for the traditional "Made in Italy" firms. |
| JEL: | C23 D24 F23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2011_12.rdf&r=cse |
| By: | Fidel Pérez Sebastián (Universidad de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | This paper searches for the determinants of government-funded R&D. The goal is to disentangle whether the efficiency considerations overwhelmingly emphasized by the theoretical literature are indeed the main driving force behind public R&D expenditures. Another goal of the paper is to assess whether other types of innovation policy such as the degree of patent protection can have an impact on private R&D. I find that there are important differences between rich and poor nations at this respect. In particular, R&D-specific efficiency factors are not significant to explain public R&D in rich nations, whereas related variables such as the access to private credit and knowledge spillovers are important in less developed economies; in rich countries, public innovation effort can be better explained by the political economy variables that determine the size of governments. Private R&D, on the other hand, depends in high income economies on R&D policies that try to improve R&D efficiency, but is highly determined by government size in less income nations. Results suggest that more research on political economy theories of innovation is essential to understand R&D investment. |
| Keywords: | R&D, policy, market failures, political factors |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2011-17&r=cse |
| By: | Malwina Mejer |
| Abstract: | Intensification of university-industry interactions raises concerns about the potential negative impact it may have on the pace of scientific progress. This paper analyzes the relationship between academic patenting, research collaboration and quality of scientic output in a panel of 268 patenting and non-patenting life-science researchers from five universities in Belgium. Results suggest that scientists benefit from research collaboration with industry as witnessed by higher productivity and higher annual citation frequencies. Patenting positively correlates with higher quality of scientific output, except when industry is directly involved in the patenting process. In contrast to previous studies we do not end a positive relationship between patenting and citations. |
| Keywords: | patenting; scientific publication; quality; collaboration |
| JEL: | I21 I23 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/93568&r=cse |
| By: | Thomas Cleff (Pforzheim University); Klaus Rennings (Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)) |
| Abstract: | In environmental policy first mover advantages for environmental technologies are often taken for granted. It is a popular view to see the state as a political entrepreneur who introduces a certain environmental policy instrument, e.g. feedin tariffs for renewable energies, and thus becomes the world market leader or the lead market for the respective technology. Against this background, this paper wants to find out if the idea of first mover advantages can be justified by theories and empirical evidence from industrial organization and business management studies. After a review of theoretical and empirical papers we see that first mover advantages are not confirmed by empirical evidence. Thereby the successful innovator is not necessarily the first but very often one of the early movers within the competition of different innovation designs. We show that the success of a timing strategy depends on country-specific lead market potentials, on market and technology characteristics and on the regime of the country-specific regulation. On this basis we derive options for environmental innovation strategies for firms under different circumstances of markets, technologies and regulations. We will see different implications for practical innovation management and innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | Lead markets, environmental innovation, first mover advantages,innovation strategies |
| JEL: | Q55 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp11-01&r=cse |
| By: | Zhang, Rui; Sun, Kai; Delgado, Michael; Kumbhakar, Subal |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of Research and Development (R&D) on the productivity of China's high technology industry. In order to capture important differences in the effect of R&D on output that arise from geographic and socioeconomic differences across three major regions in China, we use a novel semiparametric approach that allows us to model heterogeneities across provinces and time. Using a unique provincial level panel dataset spanning the period 2000-2007, we find that the impact of R&D on output varies substantially in terms of magnitude and significance across different regions. Results show that the eastern region benefits the most from R&D investments, however it benefits the least from technical progress, while the western region benefits the least from R&D investments, but enjoys the highest benefits from technical progress. The central region benefits from R&D investments more than the western region and benefits from technical progress more than the eastern region. Our results suggest that R&D investments would significantly increase output in both the eastern and central regions, however technical progress in the central region may further compound the effects of R&D on output within the region. |
| Keywords: | China; Research and Development; Productivity; Semiparametric smooth coefficient model |
| JEL: | C14 L00 |
| Date: | 2011–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32507&r=cse |
| By: | Friebel, Guido (Goethe University Frankfurt); Ivaldi, Marc (Toulouse School of Economics); Pouyet, Jérôme (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates various options for the organization of the railway industry when network operators require the access to multiple national networks to provide international (freight or passenger) transport services. The EU rail system provides a framework for our analysis. Returns-to-scale and the intensity of competition are key to understanding the impact of vertical integration or separation between infrastructure and operation services within each country in the presence of international transport services. We also consider an option in which a transnational infrastructure manager is in charge of oering a coordinated access to the national networks. In our model, it turns out to be an optimal industry structure. |
| Keywords: | Network access, Vertical separation, Transport economics |
| JEL: | L14 L42 L51 L92 |
| Date: | 2011–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:24795&r=cse |
| By: | Jean Bonnet, University of Caen Basse-Normandie, France - CREM-CNRS; Thomas Brau, University of Caen Basse-Normandie, France - CREM-CNRS; Bernard Cadet, University of Caen Basse-Normandie, France - CREM-CNRS; Antonia Guijarro Madrid, Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT), Spain |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to present a {proposal to make students sensitive to entrepreneurship} aiming at familiarizing students to the setting up of new firms and stimulating such a course of action. This {{awareness campaign}} would take place during the student's curriculum and rest on a simulation exercise. This campaign is based on the results of a survey conducted at the Technical University of Cartagena (Spain). This study has identified some students’ aspirations to salaried employment and entrepreneurship. This survey also recognized some specific features that the campaign must integrate, in particular the need to make entrepreneurship compatible with the preparation for salaried employment. The results of this study are completed comparing them with the opinion from entrepreneurs of the same region. This comparison highlights some barriers to entrepreneurship among the students population, making it possible to complete the content of the proposed simulation exercise. This paper also highlights the absence of barriers of a psychological nature usually put forward by the literature, such as a low level of the {need for achievement or the propensity for risk-taking}. |
| Keywords: | career, company, entrepreneurship, making sensitive, student |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:201103&r=cse |
| By: | Werner Boente (Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, University of Wuppertal); Monika Jarosch (Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, University of Wuppertal) |
| Abstract: | In this study we empirically investigate the contribution of personality traits to the gender gap in entrepreneurship. Our empirical analyses, which are based on data obtained from a large scale survey of individuals in 36 countries, suggest that a group of personality traits which we call Individual Entrepreneurial Aptitude (IEA) has a positive effect on latent and nascent entrepreneurship among women and men. Moreover, women’s considerably lower level of IEA contributes significantly to the gender gap in entrepreneurship. The lower level of IEA is mainly due to women’s lower levels of competitiveness and risk tolerance. Furthermore, these results are confirmed by the results of a country-level analysis which show that the within-country variation of entrepreneurial activities of women and men is significantly related to within-country variation of IEA. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, gender gap, personality traits, competitiveness |
| JEL: | J16 L26 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp11012&r=cse |
| By: | Shafinah Rahim (Faculty of Economics & Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) |
| Abstract: | This research paper aims at understanding what Economic Degree undergraduates of a public university recognize the recent New Economic Model (NEM) as and perhaps interpret given certain issues posed to them. Throughout the three month period of written assignment and optional bi-weekly consultation, each of the 64 respondents were asked to review the NEM report and identify key areas they considered to be of high priority at present. They were allowed to share ideas but advised to provide preferably own reasons to support their thoughts. It is timely to conduct studies related to the NEM in general as the successful implementation of this broad-based economic policy depends on the continuous feedback from all stakeholders. Findings of the current project are expected to shed light on how the young generation perceive of the NEM as well as their prospective attitude towards its execution |
| Keywords: | NEM, graduates, understanding, expectation, attitude |
| JEL: | M0 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cms:2icb11:2011-143&r=cse |
| By: | Ashish Arora; Lee G. Branstetter; Matej Drev |
| Abstract: | This paper documents a shift in the nature of innovation in the information technology (IT) industry. Using comprehensive data on all IT patents granted by the USPTO from 1983-2004, we find strong evidence of a change in IT innovation that is systematic, substantial, and increasingly dependent on software. This change in the nature of IT innovation has had differential effects on the performance of the IT industries in the United States and Japan. Using a broad unbalanced panel of US and Japanese publicly listed IT firms in the period 1983-2004, we show that (a) Japanese IT innovation relies less on software advances than US IT innovation, (b) the innovation performance of Japanese IT firms is increasingly lagging behind that of their US counterparts, particularly in IT sectors that are more software intensive, and (c) that US IT firms are increasingly outperforming their Japanese counterparts, particularly in more software intensive sectors. The findings of this paper thus provide a fresh explanation for the relative decline of the Japanese IT industry in the 1990s. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence consistent with the hypothesis that human resource constraints played a role in preventing Japanese firms from adapting to the shift in the nature of innovation in IT. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Technological change, IT industry, Software innovation, Japan |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd11-199&r=cse |
| By: | David Bardey Helmuth Cremer Jean-Marie Lozachmeur |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: This paper uses a two-sided market model of hospital competition to study the implications of different remunerations schemes on the physicians'side. The two-sided market approach is characterized by the concept of common network externality (CNE)introduced by Bardey et al. (2010). This type of externality occurs when occurs when both sides value, possibly with di¤erent intensities, the same network externality. We explicitly introduce e¤ort exerted by doctors. By increasing the number of medical acts (which involves a costly e¤ort) the doctor can increase the quality of service o¤ered to patients (over and above the level implied by the CNE). We first consider pure salary,capitation or fee-for-service schemes. Then, we study schemes that mix fee-for-service with either salary or capitation payments. We show that salary schemes (either pure or in combination with fee-for-service) are more patient friendly than (pure or mixed)capitations schemes. This comparison is exactly reversed on the providers'side. Quite surprisingly, patients always loose when a fee-for-service scheme is introduced (pure of mixed). This is true even though the fee-for-service is the only way to induce the providers to exert e¤ort and it holds whatever the patients'valuation of this effort. In other words, the increase in quality brought about by the fee-for-service is more than compensated by the increase in fees faced by patients. |
| Date: | 2011–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:008848&r=cse |