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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2013‒09‒06
twenty papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Patrucco, Pier Paolo (University of Turin) |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201316&r=cse |
| By: | Wojciech Grabowski; Teoman Pamukcu; Krzysztof Szczygielski; Sinan Tandogan |
| Abstract: | The aim of the project is to analyze government support for innovation in a comparative perspective by first examining the main existing instruments of financial support for innovation in Turkey and Poland, and secondly to assess their effectiveness by applying recent econometric techniques to firm-level data for both countries obtained from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). Comparing Turkey to Poland is both meaningful and promising from a policy-analysis point of view. Both countries are comparable in terms of levels of economic development and technological capabilities, i.e. the ability of their economies to create knowledge and exploit it commercially. Both have undergone deep market-oriented reforms in the last decades – Turkey since 1980, Poland since 1989 – resulting in a significant catching-up of their economies. However, as the possibilities for further growth based on structural change and eliminating obstacles to business are shrinking, the problem of building a knowledge-based economy comes to the fore. In Turkey, one can observe the growing popularity and the generous practices of public incentives in industrial R&D and innovation, in addition to the recent trends in public policies to support technological entrepreneurship and the commercialization of research output. Since 2004, significant changes and improvements have taken place in Turkey concerning science and technology policy schemes that have actually influenced the national innovation system in a number of ways. These include: an important increase in public support provided to private R&D, the diversification of direct support programmes for private R&D and innovation (which was tailored to the needs of potential innovators), a widening of the scope of existing fiscal incentives for private R&D activities and the implementation of new ones, the implementation of new call-based grant programmes targeted at technology areas and industries based on national priorities. Considering the large resource allocation for the government involvement, there is a growing and urgent need for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of R&D and innovation policies in Turkey. In Poland, the science, technology and innovation (STI) policies were seen as less important than other reforms (financial system, privatization, pensions etc.) during the economic transition. The STI policies have lacked funding, co-ordination and vision. The institutional Architecture has evolved with a lack of continuity and a short institutional memory. A major breakthrough occurred after 2004 when considerable funds for innovation were provided via EU structural funds. The three principle areas of support were the creation of technologies, technology absorption and indirect support. However, with respect to public programmes targeting firms, technology absorption has dominated all other instruments. Consequently, it is legitimate to ask whether the EU funds are being spent in the best possible way, and in particular, whether they contribute to the enhanced innovation performance of economy. To assess the efficiency of public support, the same econometric methodology is applied to the Turkish and Polish 2008 and 2010 editions of the Community Innovation Survey for manufacturing firms. Two models are estimated: one following the now classical CDM model and assessing the role of innovation spending, but assuming government support to be exogenous, and another controlling for the endogeneity of support but assuming a simplified version of the innovation performance equation. Depending on data availability, extensions of the analysis for both countries are offered: for Turkey the estimation of a full-fledged CDM model and for Poland the analysis of panel data for 2006-2010 and an assessment of the Efficiency of specific kinds of public support. The evidence indicates that government support contributes to higher innovation spending by firms and this in turn improves their chances to introduce product innovations. The positive impact remains valid even when a possibly non-random selection of firms for government support programmes is controlled for. The extended analysis of Turkey has proved that there is a positive relationship between innovation and firm productivity. On the other hand, substantial differences between various kinds of public aid were identified. In particular, support from local government proved inefficient or less efficient than the support from central government or the European Union. Moreover, in Poland, grants for investment in new machinery and equipment and human resources upgrading proved to contribute significantly less to innovation performance than support for R&D activities in firms. In terms of policy recommendations, this report supports an increase in the volume of innovation support and in the number of instruments used in Turkey. However, a more specific analysis is needed to explain the inefficiency of support from local government. The recommendation for Poland is to redesign the innovation support schemes for firms so as to put more focus on R&D activities and the development of truly new products and technologies |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Manufacturing Firms, Government Support, EU Structural Policy, Poland, Turkey |
| JEL: | O31 O38 H81 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:cnstan:0458&r=cse |
| By: | Maria del Sorbo (JRC-IPTS); Fernando Hervás Soriano (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | This policy brief shows new evidence on the causes of the S&T skills gap in European regions. It highlights that the S&T skills gap is mainly due to shortages of capabilities that are crucial to support the innovation and growth of firms and the other actors of the regional system, including university and government. From these findings, ad hoc policy implications upon the development of innovation capabilities and skills for the European Research Strategy and Innovation agenda are proposed and future research issues identified. |
| Keywords: | Science and Technology skills gap, innovation, research |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc83766&r=cse |
| By: | Pietro Moncada-Paterno-Castello (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Peter Voigt |
| Abstract: | The Policy Brief addresses the following question: To what extent the high-growth of current innovative R&D-intensive SMEs can drive the envisaged structural change of the EU economy towards high R&D intensive sectors? It aims to contribute to the debate about how to set the right priorities and find the most appropriate policy interventions to allow Europe to reach the 3% R&D intensity target and hence its growth and employment objectives. It first summarises stylised findings from the literature on the relevance of innovative companies for economic growth, then presents results from a recent JRC-IPTS study which go some way towards answering the question posed above, and concludes by outlining some of the contributions that enrich the policy debate. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Economics, Corporate R&D and innovation, industrial R&D investment, economic performance of the private sector, productivity, business trends, research, innovation, technological innovation, intangible assets, competitiveness, growth and employment, company growth, scoreboard, survey, economic analysis, policy analysis, Europe 2020 strategy |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc83400&r=cse |
| By: | Consoli, Davide; Patrucco, Pier Paolo (University of Turin) |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201317&r=cse |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Crespi, Francesco; Scellato, Giuseppe (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the analysis of the persistence of firm productivity, here measured by the total factor productivity (TFP), and highlights its path dependent characteristics. The study contributes to the literature on persistence in productivity along four main lines. First, it develops a conceptual framework that links the persistence in productivity performance to persistence at the firm level in innovative activities, which include the adoption and imitation of innovations introduced by third parties. Second, it shows how the internal characteristics of companies, including the propensity of managers to leverage dynamic capabilities, can shape the dynamics of the process. Third, it confirms that external factors, such as the access to local pools of knowledge and the dynamics of economic activity, have relevant effects on persistence and shape its evolution along its path. Fourth, the use of Multiple Transition Probability Matrices (MTPMs) and the subsequent econometric analysis provides substantial evidence on the relevance of the crucial distinction, within non-ergodic dynamics, between past dependent processes, characterized by full hysteretic irrever sibility, and path dependent processes in which events that take place along the process may affect its direction and pace. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201310&r=cse |
| By: | Sandro Montresor (JRC-IPTS); Claudia Ghisetti (University of Bologna); Alberto Marzucchi (Catholic University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | This Policy Brief presents recent results on the impact that an open innovation mode has on European firms' environmental innovations. New evidence drawn from the CIS suggests that knowledge sourcing can increase the environmental innovation performance of firms. However, the way firms search for external knowledge and work to absorb it can lead them to different results, depending on whether they are involved in the adoption of an eco-innovation or the extension of their eco-innovation portfolio. Drawing on these results, policy implications for the European Research and Innovation Agenda are discussed. |
| Keywords: | innovation, environment, eco-innovation |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc83831&r=cse |
| By: | Juliana Dahl |
| Abstract: | Since the year 2000, innovation and the path towards a “knowledge-based” economy have become prominent concepts in the European policy sphere. Although fostered by the goal of the innovationoriented Lisbon Strategy, it remains questionable in how far the situation of being the “most competitive economy” favours the diverse territories in the European Union. In this matter, very little is known about the ability to translate innovation into regional growth in territories with geographical disadvantages. The present paper discusses the intensified emphasis of the European policy approach towards innovation and its adequacy to the need of regions with unfavourable geographical features. This thorough discussion aims to shed some light on the issue of whether the EU’s twin goals for 2007-2013, to achieve global competitiveness and cohesion, are suitable for areas with geographical limitations |
| Keywords: | European Regional Development Fund, Innovation, Regional Policy, Specific Geographical Features |
| JEL: | O31 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieasw:463&r=cse |
| By: | Patrucco, Pier Paolo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at explaining the changes in how economic actors and their organizations acquire and coordinate innovative and productive capabilities. Through the illustrative evidence of organizational change occurred in the automobile industry in the area of Turin over the last 50 years, the paper describes how transformations in the structure of interactions between firms are steered by the modification in the pattern of specialization and differentiation in the capabilities and technological skills of economic actors. The automobile system in Turin is characterized by the emergence of a distributed innovation platform, which is seen as a major innovation in the organization of innovation and technological knowledge in the system. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201315&r=cse |
| By: | Leonidas A. Zampetakis (1 Department of Production Engineering & Management Technical University of Crete, 73100, Chania, Crete, GR); Afroditi Anagnosti (3 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Unit, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855 Athens, GR); Stelios Rozakis (Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development, Agricultural University of Athens) |
| Abstract: | There is a growing body of literature arguing that an individual's intention to start an enterprise is a strong predictor of individual entrepreneurial action. The present research uses Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate entrepreneurial intent of agricultural students. The TPB offers a parsimonious explanation of purposeful behavior and has been used with success in previous research studies to explain the entrepreneurial intent of business and engineering students. However, research studies that examine the application of the theory to students from agricultural universities are scarce. In the present research, we empirically examine the TPB using data from 65 students from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. Results, using path analysis, support previous studies that used TPB to predict entrepreneurial intentions, which suggest that students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship are related to their intention (INT) to start a business. In addition perceived behavioral control (PBC) is a strong predictor of INT. As far the role of subjective norm (SN) is concerned, results of the present study suggest that it has a small negative, and statistically significant effect. Furthermore, in line with recent theoretical and empirical studies about the potential role of emotions in entrepreneurship, we investigated the role of anticipated emotional ambivalence in students’ entrepreneurial intent. Results suggest that anticipated emotional ambivalence from nascent entrepreneurship (that is, students’ future oriented emotions relating to the expectancy of feeling both positive and negative affect) relates negatively to perceived behavioral control. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural university, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intentions |
| JEL: | A22 C39 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aua:wpaper:2013-4&r=cse |
| By: | Baldwin, John R.<br /> Leung, Danny<br /> Rispoli, Luke |
| Abstract: | This paper examines differences in labour productivity across small, medium- and large-sized enterprises in Canada. In 2008, the level of labour productivity, as measured by nominal gross domestic product per hour worked, in large businesses was greater than that for medium-sized and small businesses. This gap between large businesses relative to small and medium-sized businesses narrowed slightly during the post-2000 period. The paper also examines the impact of changes in industrial structure on labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | Business performance and ownership, Economic accounts, Productivity accounts, Small and medium-sized businesses |
| Date: | 2013–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp6e:2013032e&r=cse |
| By: | Quatraro, Francesco; Vivarelli, Marco (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide an updated survey of the “state of the art” in entrepreneurial studies, with a particular focus on developing countries (DCs). In particular, the same concept of “entrepreneurship” will be critically discussed, then moving to the institutional, macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions affecting the entry of new firms and the post-entry performance of newborn firms. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201314&r=cse |
| By: | Mauro V. Tomasello; Mauro Napoletano; Antonios Garas; Frank Schweitzer |
| Abstract: | Drawing on a large database of publicly announced R&D alliances, we track the evolution of R&D networks in a large number of economic sectors over a long time period (1986- 2009). Our main goal is to evaluate temporal and sectoral robustness of the main statistical properties of empirical R&D networks. By studying a large set of indicators, we provide a more complete description of these networks with respect to the existing literature. We find that most network properties are invariant across sectors. In addition, they do not change when alliances are considered independently of the sectors to which partners belong. Moreover, we find that many properties of R&D networks are characterized by a rise-and-fall dynamics with a peak in the mid-nineties. Finally, we show that such properties of empirical R&D networks support predictions of the recent theoretical literature on R&D network formation. |
| Date: | 2013–09–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2013/18&r=cse |
| By: | Bellmann, Lutz (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Crimmann, Andreas (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Evers, Katalin (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Hujer, Reinhard (Goethe University Frankfurt) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the determinants of different innovation types. Beside a wide range of firm characteristics also the effects of regional factors are estimated using three-level random effect logit models which account for the clustered and longitudinal structure of the data. The analyses contain three regional variables: the unemployment rate, the assessment of the region with reference to proximity to research and technology centres and universities and the rate of graduates in mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technological sciences (MINT-graduates). The empirical basis is the IAB-Establishment Panel Survey 2006 to 2010. Process and radical innovations are significant affected by the unemployment rate and the share of MINT-graduates. The unemployment rate has also for some of the innovation combos a significant effect. The proportion of MINT-graduates is relevant for the probability of all 4 innovation types simultaneously. |
| Keywords: | determinants of innovation, regional effects, multilevel modelling |
| JEL: | D21 O30 R15 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7572&r=cse |
| By: | Nocke, Volker; Yeaple, Stephen |
| Abstract: | We present an international trade model with multiproduct firms. Firms are heterogeneously endowed with two types of capabilities that jointly determine the trade-off within firms between managing a large portfolio of products and producing at low marginal cost. The model can explain many of the documented cross- sectional correlations in firm performance measures, including why larger firms are more productive and more diversified, and yet more diversified firms trade at a discount. Globalization is shown to induce heterogeneous responses across firms in terms of scope and productivity, some of which are consistent with existing empirical work, while others are potentially testable. |
| Keywords: | multiproduct firms , trade liberalization , diversification discount , firm heterogeneity , productivity |
| JEL: | F12 F15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnh:wpaper:33985&r=cse |
| By: | Nikulainen, Tuomo; Pajarinen, Mika |
| Abstract: | Industries go through different phases of evolution where old skills become obsolete and new skills arecrucial for the industrial renewal process. Industry evolution is usually addressed from the perspectives of production and exports, leaving one factor largely unexplored: human capital. Industry restructuring isa dynamic process where skills developed in one industry move to other industries as individuals change employers. We argue that the labor flows between industries reveal skill relatedness because individuals move to industries that value their existing skills. We also argue that the labor flows differ between highand low-skill labor. By examining these flows, we can identify spillover effects between industries during restructuring. To address this argument, we analyze all individual-level labor flows originating from the Finnish ICT sector for 1989-2010. This industry sector-level study focuses on three ICT industries (manufacturing, services and software), and we address the differences in labor mobility between the individuals with different professional skill levels. We find several differences in the labor market dynamics over time for each ICT industry and for the different skill levels. |
| Keywords: | labor mobility, skill relatedness, ICT sector, knowledge spillovers |
| JEL: | J24 J21 J62 |
| Date: | 2013–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:17&r=cse |
| By: | Antonelli, Cristiano (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This work elaborates a dynamic version of the H-O model based upon the hypothesis that technological change is endogenous and biased towards the most intensive use of production factors that are locally most abundant in comparative terms. In the standard H-O model, the difference in the levels of the output elasticity of inputs is assumed to be exogenous. In this dynamic version, instead, this difference is fully endogenous. This approach rests upon the localized technological change approach that integrates the advances of the new economic of knowledge with the Schumpeterian notion of creative reaction, the analysis of induced technological change and technological congruence. According to the Schumpeterian notion of innovation as the result of the creative reaction, firms caught in out-of-equilibrium conditions by the changing conditions of both factor and product markets might try and react by means of the introduction of biased technological changes directed towards the most intensive use of inputs that are locally most abundant in relative terms. Their success and hence the actual introduction of technological innovations will depend upon the availability of appropriate knowledge externalities. According to this framework, countries exposed the out-of-equilibrium conditions engendered by the globalization of product markets can react with the successful introduction of innovations aimed at increasing the intensity of capital -the most abundant input- with the increase of its output elasticity. For the same token they can contrast the twin globalization of capital and product markets with the introduction of the technology production function that makes intensive use of technological knowledge as the most abundant input. Technological knowledge in fact is characterized by its strong collective and systemic character that limits its dissemination and use outside its context of origin. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201312&r=cse |
| By: | Michele Pinelli (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice) |
| Abstract: | This paper joins the debate on businessÕ role in the implementation of sustainable development and argues that firms are beginning to run more sustainable practices as these are becoming increasingly profitable. It is also argued that such evolution of the economics of social environmental performance is the result of a three stage dynamics which involves consumer awareness, industrial policies, new cost structures and stakeholdersÕ pressure. Moreover, it is also considered that such a phenomenon implies that corporations can be of huge help to regulations in the implementation of sustainability. Finally, by running analyses of the relevant literature on the business case for sustainability, this paper reconciles the mixed and inconclusive results which the academic research on the economic rationale of sustainability has always produced. |
| Keywords: | corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, social impact, environment, sustainability. |
| JEL: | M14 M21 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpdman:50&r=cse |
| By: | Sara Bonesso (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice); Anna Comacchio (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice) |
| Abstract: | Our research aims is to explore the dynamics of Absorptive Capacity (AC) routines, investigating the emergence of recognition and assimilation practices in innovative organizations. The study contributes to the understanding of routines enactment at the intersection of two streams of research: studies on routines dynamics and the process-based approach on absorptive capacity. We answer the call for a micro-foundation of studies on AC, investigating its emergence process and its determinants, by focusing on the role of individual and collective agency. Research finding enriches the literature in two directions. First we extend literature on the routinesÕ enactment dynamics, showing how individual Òtaking chargeÓ behaviours act as a trigger of change and how they are reinforced at collective level. We suggest that collective agency underpin the dynamics of routine enactment, activated by new extra-role behaviour. Second, by a multiple case-study, we provide rich grounded examples of the AC routine enactment dynamics. |
| Keywords: | absorptive capacity, routines dynamics, recognition, assimilation, taking charge |
| JEL: | M10 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpdman:48&r=cse |
| By: | Erkoc, Taptuk Emre |
| Abstract: | Economic insights on the provision of public goods and services by public sector organizations went hand in hand with probing questions on the efficient allocation of resources within them concerning neo-classical assumptions on the theory of firm (Coase, 1937; Alchian and Demsetz, 1972). The rationale behind the unprecedented divergences from the neo-classical firm postulations on the basis of not-to-operate at the efficient production frontier has attracted attentions of researchers working not only on the private firms but also on the public sector. This paper investigates theoretical underpinnings of efficient allocation of resources within public sector organizations on the basis of a variety of arguments. Before examining the (in) efficient usage of resources in the public sector that is mostly based on the theory of bureaucracy, methodological and practical challenges to measure the efficiency performances of public intuitions are visited. Subsequently, institutional framework on the public provision of goods and services is scrutinised referring particularly to the discussion on incentive schemes and efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, Government Output, Public Sector Organizations, Bureaucracy |
| JEL: | D73 H11 |
| Date: | 2013–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49386&r=cse |