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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2018‒02‒05
thirteen papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Valeria Costantini (Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy); Francesco Crespi (Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy); Elena Paglialunga (Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy); Giorgia Sforna (Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to analyse the evolution of energy efficiency systems for the residential sector of EU countries over the past twenty years and the associated process of structural change occurred in EU economies. To this purpose, we develop a set of indicators to measure some significant characteristics of the energy efficiency systems and map European countries in terms of four dimensions: energy system, innovation system, policy mix design and export competitiveness. Building on these indicators we develop a cluster analysis identifying non-arbitrary homogeneous country groups according to several characteristics in order to investigate the co-evolution of technological trajectories, energy use performance and structural change in this specific domain. Results suggest the distinction of EU countries into four groups, that are individually and comparatively scrutinized shedding light on how the four dimensions here considered dynamically evolved and interacted within and across countries. Empirical findings reveal that the design of the domestic policy mix may play a key role in shaping technological trajectories and structural change processes that in turns allow an increase in external competitiveness performance. Such positive impact appears to be closely related to the quality and quantity of international relationships with main economic partners. |
| Keywords: | eco-innovation; policy mix; international competitiveness; structural change; energy efficiency; residential sector |
| JEL: | O31 O38 Q48 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2018-03&r=cse |
| By: | Trushin, Eshref; Ugur, Mehmet |
| Abstract: | Firm age or size diversity in an industry is taken for granted but its implications for industry evolution and firm survival have remained below the radars of empirical research. We address this knowledge gap by drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework informed by theoretical biology, organizational ecology and industrial organisation. We hypothesize that firms in more diverse industries are more likely to exit as a result of rugged fitness distributions where a global fitness optimum is less likely to emerge. We also hypothesize that investment in research and development (R&D) may counterbalance the adverse effect of diversity on survival by enabling the firm to engage in active learning about its market and technology niches. Evidence from discrete-time hazard estimators and an unbalanced panel dataset of 35,136 R&D-active UK firms lend support to these hypotheses. The findings remain robust to: (i) a battery of sensitivity checks, including step-wise estimations, different diversity measures and various firm cohorts; (ii) control for frailty and for a wide range of firm, industry, and macroeconomic factors considered in the survival literature; and (iii) taking account of direct effects of age, size and R&D intensity. |
| Keywords: | Diversity; complexity; firm survival; R&D; ecosystem |
| JEL: | C4 L2 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2018–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gpe:wpaper:19095&r=cse |
| By: | Marc Fréchet (COACTIS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne], CRM - Centre de Recherche en Management - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Hervé Goy (COACTIS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne]) |
| Abstract: | Despite abundant research, the relationship between strategy formalization and innovation remains unclear. Some acknowledge a positive impact of strategy formalization on innovation while others consider it an impediment to novelty and creation. Going beyond the conflicting views over the influence of formalization, we combine open innovation and socio-material perspectives. This study aims to contribute to the debate by considering the possibility that formalization is a means of benefiting from openness with respect to innovation. Therefore, we predict that formalization might positively moderate the impact of openness on innovation. Relying on a unique sample of 555 SMEs, we investigate the effects of strategy formalization and openness—according to their various facets and interactions—on new product innovation. We find a positive influence of formalization (whether it is approached as a process or as a strategic tool) on product innovation. Our findings also support the idea that formalization increases the effectiveness of openness on innovation performance. Implications are discussed, and future research directions are outlined at the end. |
| Keywords: | innovation,open innovation,strategy formalization,SMEs |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01623788&r=cse |
| By: | Firdaus Hafidz (Academic Unit of Health Economics, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds); Tim Ensor (Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds); Sandy Tubeuf (Academic Unit of Health Economics, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds) |
| Abstract: | Despite increased national health expenditure in health facilities in Indonesia, health outcomes remain poor. The aim of our study is to examine the factors determining the relative efficiency of hospitals. Using linked national data sources from facility, households, and village-based surveys, we measure the efficiency of 200 hospitals across fifteen provinces in Indonesia with output oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Inputs include the number of doctors, nurses and midwives, other staff, and beds while outputs are the number of outpatient visits and bed-days. We run truncated regression in second stage DEA and one stage SFA analysis to assess contextual characteristics influencing health facilities performance. Our results indicate a wide variation in efficiency between health facilities. High-performing hospitals are in deprived areas. Hospitals located in less concentrated health facilities, in Java and Bali Island, high coverage of insurance scheme for the poor perform better than in other geographical location. We find an inconclusive impact of quality of care, and ownership on efficiency. This paper concludes by highlighting the characteristics of hospitals that have the potential to increase efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, hospitals, frontier analysis, data envelopment analysis, stochastic frontier analysis, Indonesia |
| JEL: | C50 I10 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lee:wpaper:1801&r=cse |
| By: | Caroline Mothe (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Thuc Uyen Nguyen-Thi (CEPS/INSTEAD - Centre d'Etudes de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-Economiques / International Networks for Studies in Technology, Environment, Alternatives, Development - Centre d'Etudes de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-Economiques / International Networks for Studies in Technology, Environment, Alternatives, Development) |
| Abstract: | The antecedents of environmental innovation and the impact of openness on technological innovation have been well studied, yet the role of external knowledge search remains largely unknown. This study explores whether six dimensions of open search (external R&D, acquisition, R&D cooperation, and three types of external information sourcing) enhance firms' radical and incremental innovation with environmental effects (EI) when used either sporadically or persistently. It shows that the temporal dimension of openness matters. Persistent open knowledge search efforts are associated with a firm's propensity to introduce EI, more so than sporadic search. Furthermore, the different types of knowledge search have heterogeneous effects on different types of EI. It also shows that persistent innovation is more relevant in the case of radical EI. |
| Keywords: | Search,Environmental innovation, Incremental/radical, Openness,Persistence |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01609129&r=cse |
| By: | Cadar, Otilia; Badulescu, Daniel |
| Abstract: | The challenges of the economy and of the modern society based on knowledge are closely related to the success of firms, their ability to generate new, innovative products and services, in a steady pace and in a large, diverse structure in order to ensure performance and long-term welfare. In a global world where countries compete to produce and promote the market for quality and convenient products for the consumers, the innovation capacity of a country and the innovative capabilities of companies acquire a special importance. Numerous studies have analyzed the determinants of innovation of the innovative activities in companies, focusing in particular on organizational and technological capabilities and associated strategies required for successful innovation. There are different types of measuring innovation at the firm level, and in this paper we chose four main groups inspired by the typology promoted by OECD and Eurostat: product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, marketing innovation. To remain competitive in the long term, companies must consider all these areas, introduce new products to market, improve the quality of the existing products, upgrade or purchase new production technologies. Based on statistical reports of world and national organizations, our research highlights an extremely diverse and heterogeneous picture of the performance innovation indicators in Europe and the situation in Romania, by comparison both with the EU average, with countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but also with their own performance in prior periods. |
| Keywords: | innovation, innovative firms, performance, EU, Romania |
| JEL: | L25 M21 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:82801&r=cse |
| By: | Ermanno Tortia |
| Abstract: | Contemporary literature dealing with the governance of the exploitation of common-pool natural resources was initiated by Elinor Ostrom in 1990, and has been growing fast ever since. On the contrary, within the same research stream, the study of the presence and economic role of common resources in entrepreneurial-organizational is, to date, under-researched. This work endeavours some attempt to fill this gap. Firstly, by spelling out a new-institutionalist framework for the analysis of the accumulation and governance of common capital resources within organizational boundaries. Secondly, by considering co-operative enterprises as the organizational form that, on the basis of historical record, and of behavioural and institutional characteristics, demonstrated to be most compatible with a substantial role for common and non-divided asset-ownership and with its governance thereof. The economic forces influencing the optimal level of self-financed common capital resources in co-operatives are enquired. Also their governance is brought under the spotlight, evidencing: (i) the constraints that need to be fulfilled, and the potential benefits arising out of their presence; (ii) the compatibility and mutual adaptability between democratic governance in co-operatives and the governance of non-divided assets. |
| Keywords: | Co-operative enterprises, Indivisible reserves, Common resources, Rivalry, Non-excludability, Capital accumulation, Governance |
| JEL: | P13 P14 P48 P51 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpeu:1790&r=cse |
| By: | Rosen Valchev (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | While international portfolios are still heavily biased towards home assets, the home bias has exhibited a clear downward trend in the last few decades. Interestingly, the underlying rise in foreign investment has been primarily directed to just a handful of OECD countries, and has not given rise to an across the board increase in all foreign investments. To understand the evolution of the home bias, this paper develops a dynamic model of information acquisition and portfolio choice. The dynamic framework introduces two new endogenous forces due to the fact that asset payoffs depend on the future asset prices and hence on the future information sets. First, there is a measure of endogenous unlearnable uncertainty in asset payoffs which generates decreasing returns to information when agents are sufficiently well informed about an asset, and hence gives a reason to diversify information and portfolios. In addition, the dynamic framework introduces a strategic complementarity in learning, due to the “beauty contest” of dynamic asset markets, which is absent in the benchmark static model where learning is purely a strategic substitute. As a result of both of these new endogenous forces, the model can explain the high overall level of the home bias, its decline over time and the fact that the rise in foreign investment has been coordinated on just a handful of destination countries. Moreover, the model predicts that the home bias decline is linked to the fall in information costs, and I find direct evidence of this in the data. |
| Keywords: | Home Bias, Information Choice, Portfolio Choice, Dynamics |
| JEL: | F3 G11 G15 D8 D83 |
| Date: | 2017–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:941&r=cse |
| By: | Ugur, Mehmet |
| Abstract: | Direct and indirect public support (subsidies and tax relief) for business R&D in the UK is higher than most other OECD countries. Nevertheless, total business R&D expenditure as percentage of GDP in the UK (1.7%) is relatively low compared to OECD countries (2.43%). This policy brief summarizes the findings from an ESRC-funded research project on productivity and employment effects of R&D investment; and on whether direct public support has had additionality effects in terms of increasing the funded firms’ R&D investment. The findings suggest that the bot the effects of R&D on productivity and employment and the effect of subsidies on private R&D effort are heterogeneous and non-linear. Therefore, we call for well-targeted R&D subsidies, new conditionality clauses taking account of past performance, and industry-specific targets for R&D investment. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; R&D; Employment; Productivity; Public Policy |
| JEL: | D24 J23 O30 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2018–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gpe:wpaper:19096&r=cse |
| By: | Eddi Fontanari |
| Abstract: | The new agri-food market scenario is considered a detrimental factor for the competitiveness and financial equilibria of the agricultural cooperatives. According to this vision, as a result of the saturation and globalization process, the shift of the specific investment at the forward level of the supply chain (i.e., for the brand development, or for R&D activities) would be a serious threat for the cooperative model. These assumptions come from a transaction cost and property rights-based framework. The results of these studies are surely insightful and valuable, but they should be integrated with the strengths in terms of knowledge integration (and coordination) assured by the agricultural cooperative model. This work is aimed at updating the function/justification of modern agricultural cooperatives. Firstly, a theoretical contribution mingling the knowledge-based theory of the firm with the social innovation approach in agriculture will be defined. Secondly, two case studies will be discussed. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural cooperatives, Agri-food, Innovation |
| JEL: | Q13 O31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpeu:1791&r=cse |
| By: | Wim Naudé (Maastricht University, Maastricht School of Management and UNU-MERIT/MGSoG, Maastricht, The Netherlands and IZA-Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany); Paula Nagler (Erasmus Research & Business Support, Erasmus University Rotterdam and UNU-MERIT/MGSoG, Maastricht, The Netherlands.) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship in Germany has been stagnating. As a result, the effectiveness of technological innovation to improve labor productivity weakened, which has been implicated in rising income inequality and poverty. In this paper we provide an overview of technological innovation and labor productivity growth from 1871. From this we show that over the past three decades the economy has found it increasingly difficult to transform technological innovation into labor productivity growth: in glaring contrast to earlier periods. Despite higher spending on R&D and more personnel than ever working in research labs, labor productivity growth continues to decline. Two interrelated reasons are offered for this phenomenon. The first is that the national innovation system itself has certain weaknesses. The second is entrepreneurial stagnation. We discuss the weaknesses of the innovation system and the nature and causes of entrepreneurial stagnation. We call for policies that will improve the innovation system, educational and managerial capabilities, venture capital investments, and the contestability of markets. Strengthening social protection and raising real wages are important supportive measures. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Germany, Innovation, Social Protection, Industrial Policy |
| JEL: | D31 L26 O33 O38 O52 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2018-02&r=cse |
| By: | Tommaso Ciarli (SPRU, University of Sussex, UK); Maria Savona (SPRU, University of Sussex, UK); Jodie Thorpe (Institute of Development Studies, UK); Seife Ayele (Institute of Development Studies, UK) |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes the foundations of an analytical framework to map different innovation pathways and explain how innovation leads to inclusive structural change in low-income countries. Innovation pathways depend on how actors, interactions, and variables affect the origin of innovation; the uptake of the innovations (adoption and diffusion); the impact of this diffusion on upgrading, structural change and inclusion; the complementarity between these processes; the potential trade-offs between structural change and inclusion. The paper offers a set of novel applications to test the proposed framework, through different examples of innovation pathways: (a) international technology transfer, based on an extensive systematic literature review; (b) product and process innovation in the dairy sector in Kenya, based on a secondary case study; (c) an organisational innovation in the provision of antiretroviral treatment in Mozambique, also a case study; (d) a systematisation of metrics and indicators of innovation, structural change and inclusion and an empirical exploration of their relationship. The learning generated will support a multidisciplinary, multi-methods research agenda to map the dynamics around innovation, structural change, and inequality and generate an integrated platform of evidence on these processes. In doing so, we respond to the recently increasing demand coming from international institutions, inter-departmental research funds, NGOs and national ministries, for better knowledge to shape a more effective innovation policy for sustainable and inclusive development in low income countries. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Technological Upgrading; Structural Change, Inclusion, Low Income Countries (LICs) |
| JEL: | O1 O13 O14 O33 Q13 I15 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2018-04&r=cse |
| By: | Shukhrat Kholmuminov (Banking and Finance Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan); Shayzak Kholmuminov (Tashkent State University of Economics); Robert E Wright (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | Since the early years of independence in 1991, a central topic of higher education in Uzbekistan has been how to fill the gap left by the reduced government funding at public higher education institutions (HEIs). The majority of the Uzbek universities, as in many other countries, have responded to the decline in public allocations through charging significantly increased tuition fees. Therefore, the revenue structure of public HEIs has changed from full government funding to mostly tuition funding over the last decade. Utilising resource dependence theory (RDT), this study empirically investigates whether or not increased institutional reliance on tuition fees as a main source of revenue has augmented the share of institutional expenditures dedicated to educational activities at public HEIs in Uzbekistan over the period 2000-2013. Drawing on a 14-year panel of university-level data and employing an instrumental variable approach that acknowledges the potential endogeneity of institutional tuition revenue, the analysis suggests that institutional expenditures for educational expenses are considerably increased as institutions became more dependent on tuition revenue for their financially sustainable operation. This finding is consistent with the predictions of RDT. Robustness of the empirical findings is also checked utilising several diagnostic models, and the results revealed that the IVs applied during the TSLS estimations are valid and they simultaneously uncorrelated with the error term. |
| Keywords: | resource dependence theory, higher education finance, Uzbekistan |
| JEL: | I21 P20 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1703&r=cse |