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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2017‒01‒08
seventeen papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Björn Jindra (Copenhagen Business School); Iciar Dominguez Lacasa (University of Bremen); Slavo Radosevic (UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies) |
| Abstract: | This working paper explores patterns of technology upgrading as a three-dimensional process which consists of (i) intensity of technology upgrading, (ii) structural change, and (iii) interaction with the global economy. The specificity of our report is that we depict patterns of technology upgrading by relying entirely on patent data. We derive patent indicators to capture the three dimensions. Patent indicators for intensity of technology upgrading trace technological capabilities at the technology frontier (transnational patents) and behind the technology frontier (domestic/resident direct applications to national offices). Structural change in technological knowledge is depicted by the share of transnational patent applications in high technology fields and knowledge-intensive activities and by calculating a technological diversification index. To capture interaction with global economy in the upgrading process indicators measure technological knowledge sourcing across countries and interactions between foreign and indigenous actors. Based on 7 patent indicators covering the three upgrading dimensions the comparative analysis focuses on EU27 and its subregions and on the BRICS countries. According to the results, in 2011 CEECs were quite homogenous in their upgrading paths. A typical CEE economy in 2011 is well behind EU12 in terms of frontier technology intensity, domestic technology intensity, share of high tech patents and technology sourcing abroad. Moreover, its organizational capabilities are often less advanced. The CEE profile is much less coherent in terms of technology diversification/specialization and share of joint inventions. However, differences among CEECs are not significant. Still there are some notable national features. Poland, Romania and Slovenia have above average domestic technological intensity which reflects partly their sizes (Romania and Poland) and specific model of innovation system reliant on domestic R&D intensive firms (Slovenia). Latvia and Lithuania are specific in terms of high share of HTKI patents. CEE technology upgrading as depicted by patents is within the BRIC pattern (with exception of China which in terms of technology upgrading has de facto delinked from BRICS). In the BRIC context, the CEE characterize very open innovation system with a high share of coinventions and foreign actors exploiting local inventions. This reveals weak organizational capabilities to commercialize its own inventions. According to the results CEE grew during 1990s/2008 based on production, not technological capability. Their future growth will increasingly depend on building technological capabilities at world frontier level. Our analysis shows that the basis for such growth exists only to a limited extent and that speed of upgrading towards world frontier activities is well beyond required for catching up. Equally, our analysis shows that solutions for improved technology upgrading will need to be found with their existing innovation model of small open economies integrated into the EU. |
| Keywords: | Technology upgrading; Central Europe; Eastern Europe |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:see:wpaper:2015:135&r=cse |
| By: | Ger Post; Lotte Geertsen |
| Abstract: | Organizations want to have access to each other?s resources and so they establish different forms of collaboration strategies (Podolny & Page, 1998). Knowledge sharing and also collaboration are dependent on an organizations? social network and the proximity within this network. A central element in the theory of clustering is the idea that physical clustering of businesses within specialized sectors is a source for regional economic growth (Porter, 1998). The spatial proximity of companies and institutions within related industries create a specific setting in which learning, knowledge sharing and mutual competition are encouraged (Raaijmakers, 2012). Additionally, active participation within the innovation eco system of a Science & Technology park provides actors access to knowledge, facilities and complementary contacts and network structures (Post, 2009). Collective ideation helps an organization to improve the positioning within the technological field and economic market (Alexy et al., 2013), especially within an innovation ecosystem because actors are dependent on each other's behavior (Pisano & Teece, 2007) to be successful in innovation. This research focuses on the question how to design the collective ideation process in particular to foster interactions within the context of a science & technology parks? this research is based 16 semi-structured interviews, conducted at all development stages (idea, startup, grow and mature) of Dutch science & technology parks with stakeholders from different perspectives, based on the triple-helix structure (government, industry, research). The study describes how multiple stakeholders benefit from collective ideation, what mechanisms and tools used in practice and also descibes prerequisites and limitations of collective ideation, This research contributes to consisting literature in three different ways. First, this research builds on theory on how to produce ideas as it offers an structural overview of the process and of the underexplored process-based facilitators (benefits, boundaries, strategies, mechanisms, deliverables) in the process of collective ideation (Harvey, 2014). This research can add a new collaboration method which can be a standard tool in the competitive toolbox of the organization (Alexy et al., 2013). Second, this research provides a new template of collective ideation and a new design of the creative process at the group (Harvey, 2014) and how this can be embedded in strategy (Alexy et al., 2013). Next to that, as relationships strongly depend on knowledge brokering within a network, this research extends understanding in the stickiness of knowledge (Zahra & Nambisan, 2011). It adds new insights on how these networks can be governed successfully (Alexy et al., 2013). Third, the concept of collective ideation is empirically tested at Science and Technology parks which provides a new framework that will help platforms to become more successful (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014). In other words, this research contributes on how to organize innovative activity and open innovation (Alexy et al., 2013; Chesbrough, 2003; Dahlander & Gann, 2010; Laursen & Salter, 2006). |
| Keywords: | Ideation; proximity; collaboration; cluster; science and technologiy park |
| JEL: | O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p846&r=cse |
| By: | Fernanda Ricotta |
| Abstract: | The performance of a firm is influenced by decisions made by the firm itself as well as factors external to it. Firm competencies are important but also competencies that pertain to territories. External factors encompass different aspects of the environmental context in which firms operate, such as physical infrastructures, innovative capacity and efficiency of the public administration. The attention in this paper is on the effect of regional quality of government (QoG) on the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of firms. The analysis is based on comparable cross-country data of manufacturing firms operating in the seven European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) included in the ?European Firms in a Global Economy: internal policies for external competitiveness? (EFIGE) project. The measure of the ?quality of government? is the European quality of government index (EQI), calculated at regional level over twenty-seven EU members. Scholars have demonstrated that the institutional environment affects macro variables such as growth, income level, productivity, innovation activity, investment and trade at the country (Aron 2000; Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson, 2001; Hall and Jones, 1999; Barbarosa and Faria 2011; Levchenko 2007) as well as at the regional level (Tabellini 2010; Rodríguez-Pose and Di Cataldo 2014; Ketterer and Rodríguez-Pose 2014). The quality of institutions also influences micro variables such as firm performance (Dollar, Hallward-Driemeier, and Mengistae, 2005; Lasagni, Nifo and Vecchione, 2015; Aiello, Pupo and Ricotta, 2014; Manzocchi, Quintieri and Santoni, 2014). Recent studies indicate that there might be a significant difference in the macro- and micro-impacts of institutional quality: better institutional quality that may have beneficial macro-implications, may not necessarily have positive implications for firm performance (Bhaumik and Dimova 2014). Thus, the proper level of analysis to test whether the regional institutional environment affects productivity is to focus on firms (Beugelsdijk 2007). To disentangle internal from external productivity drivers, the multilevel approach is employed. In the econometric specification, the 2008-value of TFP depends on key-drivers of firm performance (size, family-management, group membership, innovations and human capital), on the variable of interest, the indicator of the quality of government, and on control variables at the regional level that, according to the theoretical and empirical literature, may affect firms? economic performance. Results refer to 2008 and show, as expected, the importance of firm-specific determinants of TFP. Results confirm that to be located in a region with high level of R&D and good infrastructure is correlated positively to the firm?s TFP. As far as the specific scope of this paper is concerned, the quality of regional government has a positive impact on firm TFP. This is in line with previous research which underlines the importance of the quality of institutions at the regional level while it contradicts the hypothesis that within country institutional differences do not matter for economic performance (Gennaioli et al, 2013). As far as the EQI components are concerned, corruption and the quality of services appear to be positively correlated to TFP, while the evidence is inconclusive for the impartiality indicator. |
| Keywords: | Institutions; firm performance; European regions; multilevel model |
| JEL: | O43 D24 C30 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p357&r=cse |
| By: | Jingjing Liu; Peter Nijkamp |
| Abstract: | Along with the globalization and information-economic epoch, international knowledge spillover plays an important role in regional development, and the regional innovation system becomes more and more open-ended. As a nexus of the destination and the outside world, inbound tourism brings various economic and social resources for the development of the host region, which may also contribute to a higher level of cognitive proximity and absorptive capability as well as to greater product variety and manifold consumption externalities. Much research has addressed the influence of innovation on the tourism industry development, but only a few studies have focused on the impact of tourism on innovation. This study focusses on the influence of inbound tourism on a regional innovation system. The aims of this research are to: (1) interpret the mechanism of how inbound tourism impacts regional innovation; (2) inquire the external influence factors of the performance of inbound tourism; (3) explore the different characteristics of these effects when considering different types of innovation; (4) revisit the Tourism-Led Growth (TLG) hypothesis, and consider whether innovation can be a new vehicle to explain the influence of inbound tourism on spatial economic development. The influence of inbound tourism on innovation will provide a new perspective for analyzing the long term impact of tourism development. Furthermore, it may also be a meaningful complement to studies on the relationship between immigration, culture diversity and innovation, especially in the context of developing regions. Our study is organized as follows. First, the theoretical framework and the related hypotheses on the interaction between inbound tourism and regional innovation are presented. The network structure and diverse demands approaches as well as the effect of the regional absorptive capacity are considered and highlighted. Next, data from 30 Chinese Mainland provinces (Tibet being excluded, because part of the important indicators are unavailable) for the years 2003-2012 are used for the empirical analysis. The data come from the Chinese Patent Statistical Yearbook, the Chinese Statistical Yearbook, and the China Economic & Industry Data Database. From a methodical perspective, an entropy method and a perpetual inventory method were undertaken to measure the key variables. Next, a descriptive analysis was used to reach a preliminary idea on the above relationship. As to the existence of spatial autocorrelation, spatial panel data analysis was conducted to test these hypotheses. The study finds that inbound tourism is a driving force for a regional innovation system in China and can bring a new life to regional economic development. Firstly, inbound tourism appears to have a direct and indirect impact on regional innovation, while absorptive capacity has a significant mediating effect in this relationship. Secondly, the impact of inbound tourism on regional innovation capacity tends to be stronger in the wealthier and more international-oriented provinces. Thirdly, the effect of inbound tourism on technological innovation is mostly weaker than that of social innovation. Fourthly, this study supports the TLG hypothesis with regional innovation as the mediating variable. |
| Keywords: | Inbound tourism; regional innovation; absorptive capability; spatial panel data analysis; China. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p600&r=cse |
| By: | Marina Van Geenhuizen |
| Abstract: | Industrial competence is increasingly dispersed across the globe, urging technology-based firms in Europe to establish international knowledge relationships at larger distances. This paper examines changing patterns of international knowledge relationships and the influence of capability factors of university spin-off firms on building such relationships, using a sample of 105 of such firms. The paper addresses the debate on capabilities among young high-tech ventures in developing an adequate internationalization network, in which opinions are contrasting, like concerning an easy globalization (born-global model) versus a reluctant and step-wise approach. In early patterns, 62 per cent of the sampled firms employed knowledge relationships abroad. The main capability factors affecting these early relationships tend to be PhD education in the founding team, participation in training, and the capability to innovate on a practical and modestly innovative level responding to market demand. The subsequent changes in relationships have led to a high overall internationalization level of 82 per cent five years later, but also reveal diverse trends on the individual level of firms, namely, no change for half of the spin-offs but an increase of spatial reach for only one third. With the aim to explore spatial internationalization patterns and changes herein, we apply logistic regression analysis. Important factors affecting both early and later international networks tend to be entrepreneurial orientation, regarding industry sector and market, while later relationships tend to be path-dependent, i.e. mainly influenced by the previous pattern. |
| Keywords: | University spin-off firms; Knowledge relationships; Spatial reach; Capability factors |
| JEL: | D8 L21 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p405&r=cse |
| By: | Mete Basar Baypinar |
| Abstract: | The ICT and software industry have evolved as twin global industries now spanning a large number of interconnected clusters in the developed and emerging countries. Firms, governments and other actors have re-established different relationships and structures throughout 1980-1984, early 1990s, 2000-2001 and 2007-2008 crises, often resulting in decline of older clusters and emergence or solidification of newer ones. Studies indicate that a cluster?s evolution, its position in the technological life-cycle, and dominancy are quite relevant with resilience of the cluster. On the other hand, region-specific factors seem to be important for specialization of ICT-software clusters, which, may work or against their benefit due to strategic geographic responses of larger actors in the industry, such as promotion of offshore outsourcing or onshore in-house activities. There is increasing evidence that these factors are recently used better by regional and national governments against clusters in more advanced regions, particularly by strategic use of timely legal reforms, state-sponsored large ICT-software projects and attempts to grow local ICT-software markets. Yet, the knowledge externalities created by these efforts are captured not only by large MNCs, but also by an increasing number of local companies, which are increasingly transforming into multi-national actors. This paper tries to evaluate how governments, local companies and MNCs establish strategic collaborations and promote growth of clusters in emerging country context, in the case of ICT-software industries. The study relies on secondary data resources and the literature in evaluating emerging country contexts, but also makes use of primary data, local and national strategic planning documents and interview interpretations in the context of Turkey?s clusters. The study?s main contribution lies in demonstrating how mixed core/periphery features, collaboration of local/national actors with global actors, and emerging new technologies play a role in the emergence of new forms and functional structures at industry level. |
| Keywords: | software; information and communication technologies; resilience; clusters; emerging countries |
| JEL: | H12 L86 O38 N90 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p232&r=cse |
| By: | Anastasiia Konstantynova; Tine Lehmann |
| Abstract: | In recent decades? industrial clusters and agglomerations were recognized as drivers of regional and often national economic growth and competitiveness. Based on this cluster policy has been widely used to spur economic change, especially on the sub-national level. The public support to cluster development was widely done following the observed examples in the United States aiming to follow their success stories. Most commonly applied cluster policy approach composed of cluster mapping, establishment of institutions (labelled as cluster initiative/ association) in respective clusters through public-private support of these institutions´ and companies´ activities. However, the implementation of blue-printed cluster policy did not always lead to positive paths of cluster development due to the negligence of country / region specific institutional frameworks. This paper fills this void, by exploring selected cases of cluster associations and how their activities are influenced by different sets of institutional framework conditions. Information and communication technologies (ICT) clusters and their associations in European Union (EU) and Non-EU countries are taken as cases for the analysis. |
| Keywords: | clusters; cluster policy; cluster association; institutions; ICT |
| JEL: | R11 R58 O18 M21 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p722&r=cse |
| By: | Zizi Goschin; Steliana Sandu; Georgiana Gloria Goschin |
| Abstract: | Research and development (R&D) is an important driver of productivity, competitiveness and economic growth, both nationally and regionally. In Romania all national development strategies acknowledged R&D as a priority sector, but the territorial component of the national innovation system is still underdeveloped. Moreover, research and development activity might be among the factors accountable for the increasing regional economic disparities, as the territorial distribution of its potential and performance is extremely unbalanced, the capital region (Bucharest-Ilfov) concentrating over half of R&D endowment. Romania is still lacking a strong regional R&D policy to address such disparities and the recent economic crisis brought about new hardships on the Romanian innovation system. Following a significant rise in research and development funding prior to the crisis, R&D intensity declined from 0.58 % in 2008 la 0.38 % in 2014, placing Romania at the bottom of European Union hierarchy. The convergence of the regional R&D and innovation system is as an essential component of successful regional development because, on the one hand, it provides a key asset to improve local economic competitiveness and, on the other hand, facilitates cohesion in the social sector. In this context our paper explored the convergence patterns of R&D in Romania over 1995-2014 and several subperiods, with a focus on the recent economic crisis, applying the ?sigma? and "beta? convergence methods, as introduced by Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995). We used county level (NUTS3) data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. The diagnostics for spatial dependence have been performed, but Moran?s I test for errors couldn?t reject spatial randomness (on all time spans considered), therefore classic OLS model has been applied as the best fit for our data. We found a discontinuous sigma convergence trend, with some temporary periods of divergence that disrupted the convergence process, and conditional beta convergence over 1995-2014. When exploring the relevant subperiods of this time span, the results indicated absolute (unconditional) beta convergence until 2008, but no evidence of either convergence or divergence afterwards. The annual average speed of convergence declined from 6.97% over 1995-2000 to 2.65% over 2000-2008. Sigma convergence has been also reversed during the crisis, but seems to have resumed in the last couple of years. Our findings clearly show the disruptive impact of the economic crisis on the convergence path, from the perspective of both sigma and beta technique. The persistence of high R&D regional inequalities and low convergence calls for adequate policies, able to stimulate the regional innovation potential and underpin faster development of the Romanian regional research and innovation system. |
| Keywords: | research and development; sigma and beta convergence; Romania |
| JEL: | R11 C51 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p499&r=cse |
| By: | Tsvetkova, Alexandra; Partridge, Mark; Betz, Michael |
| Abstract: | Economic development policies often revolve around supporting small businesses and new firm creation as they are locally grown and likely can be more influenced by state and local policy. Two prominent strands of current research—the regional economic growth and small business/entrepreneurship literatures—elucidate the importance of small, young firms for regional economic performance and the crucial role urban-rural proximity plays in the distribution of growth across space. Keeping these two research traditions in mind, we study the effects of self-employment on job growth in US counties. Our goal is to estimate the net employment spillovers from changes in self-employment (SE) and to compare them to spillovers from changes in wage and salary employment (WS). We ask the following research questions: Do exogenous net changes (shocks) in SE spur larger or smaller changes in employment than do equal changes in WS employment and do these effects vary across the rural-urban hierarchy? The answers to these questions are of paramount importance in devising economic development strategy across urban and rural settings. We use a differencing strategy and an exogenous measure of SE and WS employment shocks to estimate net multiplier effects and to investigate their relationship with proximity to differing-sized urban centers. The analysis uses US county-level data spanning the 2001-2013 period. The results suggest that marginal effects from self-employment are consistently larger than from paid employment, particularly in metropolitan counties. Given the dominant share of paid employment, however, the magnitude of economic impact is greater from wage and salary employment. Distance from urban centers generally offers protection that promotes SE growth but hinders WS employment growth. In an austere fiscal environment, spending a dollar to stimulate SE is likely to have greater returns as opposed to stimulating WS employment if the costs of creating one SE and one WS job are comparable. |
| Keywords: | self-employment; wage and salary employment; exogenous demand shocks; employment growth; job creation; regional economic growth |
| JEL: | O1 O51 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75777&r=cse |
| By: | Akcigit, Ufuk; Hanley, Douglas; Serrano-Velarde, Nicolas |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a general equilibrium model of endogenous technical change through basic and applied research. Basic research differs from applied research in the nature and the magnitude of the generated spillovers. We propose a novel way of empirically identifying these spillovers and embed them in a framework with private firms and a public research sector. After characterizing the equilibrium, we estimate our model using micro-level data on research expenditures by French firms. Our key finding is that standard innovation policies (e.g., uniform R&D tax credits) can accentuate the dynamic misallocation in the economy by oversubsidizing applied research. Policies geared towards public basic research and its transmission to the private sector are significantly welfare improving. |
| Keywords: | applied research; basic research; Endogenous Growth; government spending; innovation; productivity; Research and Development; spillover. |
| JEL: | J82 L25 L50 O31 O38 O40 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11707&r=cse |
| By: | Jing Cai; Adam Szeidl |
| Abstract: | We organized business associations for the owner-managers of randomly selected young Chinese firms to study the effect of business networks on firm performance. We randomized 2,800 firms into small groups whose managers held monthly meetings for one year, and into a “no- meetings” control group. We find that: (1) The meetings increased firm revenue by 8.1 percent, and also significantly increased profit, factors, inputs, the number of partners, borrowing, and a management score; (2) These effects persisted one year after the conclusion of the meetings; and (3) Firms randomized to have better peers exhibited higher growth. We exploit additional interventions to document concrete channels. (4) Managers shared exogenous business-relevant information, particularly when they were not competitors, showing that the meetings facilitated learning from peers. (5) Managers created more business partnerships in the regular than in other one-time meetings, showing that the meetings improved supplier-client matching. (6) Firms whose managers discussed management, partners, or finance improved more in the associated domain, suggesting that the content of conversations shaped the nature of gains. |
| JEL: | D22 L14 O12 O14 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22951&r=cse |
| By: | Fazlıoğlu, Burcu; Dalgıç, Başak; Yereli, Ahmet Burçin |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of firms’ innovation activities on their productivity changes systematically for Turkish manufacturing firms differentiating between different typologies of innovation. To do so, we utilize a recent and comprehensive firm level dataset over the period 2003-2014, mainly constructed on the four consecutive waves of the “Community Innovation Surveys”. We employ endogenous switching methodology controlling for endogeneity and selection bias issues as well as analyzing counterfactual scenarios. The main finding of the study points to firm heterogeneity in terms of both propensity to innovate and their benefiting from innovation activities. Our results indicate that all types of innovation activity have positive effects on the productivity of firms with respect to non-innovating firms. Further, we find robust evidence for the differential impact of innovation on firm productivity across different innovation types. |
| Keywords: | Internal and External R&D, Product and Process Innovation, Organizational and Marketing Innovation, Firm Productivity |
| JEL: | D22 L25 O30 |
| Date: | 2016–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75773&r=cse |
| By: | Nabil Abou Lebdi (CREA, Université du Luxembourg); Katrin Hussinger (CREA, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | By the notion of creative destruction, a crisis can stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation through reallocation of unproductive assets to new ventures that exploit emerging opportunities. However, a crisis can also hamper innovation by exacerbated credit market imperfections that affect new innovative ventures disproportionately. This study investigates the innovation behavior of German startups founded during the past economic crisis in 2009. Empirical results show that crisis startup foundations in high-tech sectors are less likely to introduce innovations to the market than ventures started in the pre-crisis period. Yet, the degree of novelty of these product or service innovations is significantly higher as compared to products and services introduced by start-ups founded in pre-crisis years. Moreover, we do not find evidence for necessity entrepreneurship in German low-tech industries. |
| Keywords: | creative destruction, economic crisis, entrepreneurship, innovation, startups |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:16-27&r=cse |
| By: | Tödtling, Franz; Sinozic, Tanja; Auer, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The health sector and medical technologies are of an increasing importance in society and for regional and national economies. Much like other life sciences industries, the medical devices sector relies upon specific factors and knowledge processes that shape and support its innovation capabilities and competitiveness. Previous studies have shown that growth and innovation in this sector depend on specific local factors and conditions as well as on markets and knowledge-interdependencies at higher spatial scales. There is still a research gap on the detailed nature of these driving factors and relationships, however. In this research, we have investigated these issues for the Vienna medical devices cluster that is part of the wider life sciences sector in this region. The main aims of the study were to generate insights into how different economic, knowledge- and policy conditions, and their spatial scales, interact to support and hinder development of the medical devices industry in Vienna, and to draw policy conclusions based on these findings. (authors' abstract) |
| Date: | 2016–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus009:5199&r=cse |
| By: | Harry Bloch; Mita Bhattacharya |
| Abstract: | Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a substantial role in Australian growth and job creation. We discuss approaches to understanding the drivers of innovation and then review evidence on the determinants of innovation by Australian SMEs. We also examine the role of these firms in job creation. Against this evidence and the conceptual underpinnings, we then discuss some issues that arise with the government’s current innovation agenda. |
| Keywords: | Australia; Research and development; SMEs; innovation; innovation policy |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2016-17&r=cse |
| By: | Kostakis, Ioannis; Lolos, Sarantis; Sardianou, Eleni |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses empirically the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on environmental quality, measured by CO2 emissions. The cases of Brazil and Singapore are taken as examples for our empirical investigation, on the grounds of their specific similarities and differences. The empirical analysis is carried out in a multivariate setting, using a variety of models (ARDL, FMOLS, OLS) for the early 1970s to 2010. The results indicate that FDI inflows have lead to environmental degradation in Brazil but not in Singapore. Our findings point to the importance of the sectoral composition of FDI as a determinant of its impact on environmental quality. The analysis is supplemented with an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), our results showing that the EKC hypothesis holds for the case of Singapore but its validity is marginal in Brazil. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment; environmental degradation; kuznets curve |
| JEL: | Q43 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75643&r=cse |
| By: | Conti, Chiara; Mancusi, Maria Luisa; Francesca, Sanna-Randaccio; Roberta, Sestini; Elena, Verdolini |
| Abstract: | A major concern regarding innovation in clean technologies in the EU is that the fragmentation of its innovation system may hinder knowledge flows and, consequently, spillovers across member countries. A low intensity of knowledge flows across EU states can negatively impact their technological base, suppressing opportunities for further innovations and hindering the movement towards the technological frontier. This paper evaluates the fragmentation of the EU innovation system in the field of renewable energy sources (RES) by examining the intensity and direction of knowledge spillovers over the years 1985-2010. We modify the original double exponential knowledge diffusion model to provide information on the degree of integration of EU countries’ innovation efforts and to assess how citation patterns changed over time. We show that EU RES inventors have increasingly built “on the shoulders of the other EU giants”, intensifying their citations to other member countries and decreasing those to domestic inventors. Furthermore, the EU strengthened its position as source of RES knowledge for the US. Finally, we show that this pattern is peculiar to RES, with other traditional (i.e. fossil-based) energy technologies behaving in a completely different way. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Spillovers, Renewable Energy Technologies, Fossil Energy Technologies, EU Innovation, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q55, Q58, Q42, O31, O33, |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:250256&r=cse |