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on Economics of Strategic Management |
| By: | Thomä, Jörg; Zimmermann, Volker |
| Abstract: | In the present paper, various groups of innovating German SMEs are empirically identified according to their use (or non-use) of in-house R&D, their reliance on external sources of knowledge, and the degree of internal interactive learning that they employ.In order to account for non-R&D innovation activities, we apply the STI/DUI concept as a theoretical starting point. This distinguishes between (1) the science, technology, innovation (STI) mode with its strong emphasis on formal processes of in-house R&D and (2) the doing, using, interacting (DUI) mode with its focus on experience-based knowledge and interactive learning. On this basis, the empirical results indicate that three groups associated with different modes of learning and innovation exist within the German SME sector: the supplier-dependent DUI group, the customer-oriented DUI group and the STI/DUI group. The corresponding findings confirm that SMEs innovate differently depending on the specificities of their knowledge environments. In order to evaluate this in terms of innovation policy, we examine how these learning modes among innovating SMEs relate to overall company performance. Our main observation is that each learning mode is likely to positively affect performance, at least to some degree. There isno differ-ence in economic performance between the three learning modes as long as non-high-growth SMEs are considered. Hence, in large parts of the SME sector, it is economically rational to choose a non-R&D-oriented mode of learning and innovation. The paper con-cludes with some policy implications of these findings. |
| Keywords: | Modes of learning,R&D,Non-R&D innovation,Interactive learning,SMEs |
| JEL: | M21 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:172019&r=all |
| By: | Fanti, Lucrezia; Guarascio, Dario; Tubiana, Matteo |
| Abstract: | Relying on a unique integrated database, this work explores the relationship between labour productivity, on one side; intensity and characteristics of companies’ skills need and degree of skill mismatch, on the other. The analysis focuses on a representative sample of Italian limited liability companies observed during the years 2012, 2014 and 2017. First, companies acknowledging the need to update their knowledge base display a higher productivity vis-à-vis other firms. Second, when it comes to the skill need distinguished by competence/knowledge domains (management, STEM, social and soft skills, technical operatives and humanities) it emerges that companies looking for technical operative and social skills show lower labour productivity as compared to other firms. On the contrary, companies characterized by a need in managerial, STEM or humanities-related skills show higher productivity. Third, the ability to match the skill need via new hiring is always positively correlated with firms’ productivity. This result is confirmed across all the adopted specifications. |
| Keywords: | labour productivity, skill mismatch, firm-level heterogeneity, knowledge- base, organizational capabilities |
| JEL: | D22 D80 J24 |
| Date: | 2019–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:95694&r=all |
| By: | Jaelani, Aan |
| Abstract: | This article will describe the transformation of higher education which is undergoing an expanded mission to include economic and social development as well as competence, cultural reproduction, and research and the shift from the individual to the organizational focus. In this case, the triple helix model emphasizes the relationship between universities, industry, and government as a development strategy to meet social capital and technological gaps, so that this model can provide optimal conditions for university innovation. By analyzing the institutional theory that has four stages of development in the process of institutionalizing the model, it can be understood that the pattern of material practices that are built socially, historically, assumptions, values, beliefs and rules by which individuals produce and reproduce their material subsistence, managing time and space, and giving meaning to their social reality. This article concludes that the institutional logic that is expected to work includes trust in scientific and technological innovation as a key to growing economic prosperity, market orientation in academic graduation without leaving local culture, enhancing and protecting intellectual property rights in the industry, and the ability of institutions in market competition. |
| Keywords: | higher education, triple helix, institutional logic, entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | I23 L53 O15 O30 |
| Date: | 2019–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:95752&r=all |
| By: | Iyad Dhaoui (Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies) |
| Abstract: | Efficiency is becoming one of the central preoccupations of health sector due to mounting pressures on health care resources since many years. However, assessing efficiency at cross-country level has not been often directly evaluated by given inputs or outputs. In the first stage of the two-stage performance analysis, this paper assesses the technical efficiency of 18 health systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method for the years 1997, 2005 and 2014. We used both an input and an output-oriented approaches to measure the technical efficiency of those systems and we conducted a cluster analysis in terms of health production efficiencies and health outcomes of various countries upon three sub-periods in order to make the division of health production patterns of these countries clearer. The paper also analyzes the allocative efficiency upon the two approaches. In the second stage, the paper analyzes the determinants of health efficiency using a Tobit regression. Descriptive analysis shows that life expectancy has increased since many years, although the important variations in terms of economic development among the considered sample. The DEA results indicated that the average efficiency scores for all health systems were, respectively for the years 1997, 2005 and 2014, 79% and 83.6% and 78.7%, under the input-oriented approach; and 98.2%, 98.5% and 97.9% according to the output-oriented approach. Results showed that efficient frontier includes countries with good health outcomes and those with modest health outcomes. In essence, the empirical evidence rejects some hypotheses, such as the low-income countries cannot be a reference in terms of health efficiency. Cluster analysis showed that both countries on efficiency frontier and countries far from this frontier are different from year to year. Analysis revealed also that some countries may learn from countries which are more economical in their allocation of health resources; and more spending is not necessary the best option. For the Tobit model, results upon the two approaches revealed that private expenditure as a percentage of GDP and control of corruption impact positively and significantly efficiency scores while public spending as a percentage of government expenditure has a negative effect. Adult literacy rate and population density have a positive and non-significant impact. Moreover, results showed no correlation between the efficiency of health system and the income group to which a country is belonging, and we cannot judge this efficiency through the gross national income per capita. |
| Date: | 2019–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1320&r=all |
| By: | Hsieh, Chih-Sheng; König, Michael; Liu, Xiaodong |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a structural model for the coevolution of networks and behavior. The microfoundation of our model is a network game where agents adjust actions and network links in a stochastic best-response dynamics with a utility function allowing for both strategic externalities and unobserved heterogeneity. We show the network game admits a potential function and the coevolution process converges to a unique stationary distribution characterized by a Gibbs measure. To bypass the evaluation of the intractable normalizing constant in the Gibbs measure, we adopt the Double Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to sample from the posterior distribution of the structural parameters. To illustrate the empirical relevance of our structural model, we apply it to study R&D investment and collaboration decisions in the chemicals and pharmaceutical industry and find a positive knowledge spillover effect. Finally, our structural model provides a tractable framework for a long-run key player analysis. |
| Keywords: | Double Metropolis-Hastings algorithm; Key players; network interactions; R&D collaboration networks; stochastic best-response dynamics; strategic network formation; Unobserved heterogeneity |
| JEL: | C11 C31 C63 C73 L22 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13911&r=all |
| By: | Sampson, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the origins and consequences of international technology gaps. I develop an endogenous growth model where R&D efficiency varies across countries and productivity differences emerge from firm-level technology investments. The theory characterizes how innovation and learning determine technology gaps, trade and global income inequality. Countries with higher R&D efficiency are richer and have comparative advantage in more innovation-dependent industries where the advantage of backwardness is lower and knowledge spillovers are more localized. I estimate R&D efficiency by country and innovation-dependence by industry from R&D and bilateral trade data. Calibrating the model implies technology gaps, due to cross-country differences in R&D efficiency, account for around one-quarter to one-third of nominal wage variation within the OECD. |
| Keywords: | International wage inequality; Ricardian comparative advantage; Technology gaps; Technology investment; Trade |
| JEL: | F11 F43 O14 O41 |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13799&r=all |
| By: | Ueki, Yasushi; Tsuji, Masatsugu |
| Abstract: | Information and communication technologies (ICTs) generate externalities. A firm adopted an ICT will encourage its partner firms to adopt the compatible ICT to benefit fully from its own ICT investment. Thus, the firm and its partner firms who are collaborative and willing to adopt ICTs are like to transform their collaborations into digital based. Because small group activities for continuous improvement will develop organizational routines for information sharing within and between firms, firms promoting such activities are like to adopt ICTs. This study examines these hypotheses by using a survey data collected in Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2017. Results of two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimations present (1) significant relationships of customer's ICT investments and quality control circle with own ICT investment decision or planning and (2) significant relationships of the adoption of ICTs with data sharing within and between firms and effective data use. The findings suggest that (1) benefits from ICTs can be diffused along production networks even if firms reactively adopt ICTs and (2) policies for promoting ICT adoption, in tandem with quality management will improve the operation of entire production networks. |
| Keywords: | Information and communication technology (ICT),management information system (MIS),network effect,two-stage least squared,Southeast Asia |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itsm19:201732&r=all |
| By: | Luckeneder, Sebastian; Giljum, Stefan; Krisztin, Tamás |
| Abstract: | Against the backdrop of steadily increasing global raw material demand, the socio-economic implications of metal ore extraction in developing countries are of major interest in academic and policy debates. This work investigates whether mining activities relate to the economic performance of mining regions and their surrounding areas. Usually, subnational impact assessments of mining activities are conducted in the form of qualitative in-field case studies and focus on a smaller sample of mining properties and regions. In contrast, we exploit a panel of 32 Mexican, 24 Peruvian and 16 Chilean regions over the period 2008 - 2015 and, in doing so, relate mine-specific data on extraction intensity to regional economic impacts. The study employs a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) with heteroskedastic errors to provide a flexible econometric framework to measure the impact of natural resource extraction. The results suggest that mining intensity does not significantly affect regional economic growth in both short-run and medium-run growth models. Popular arguments of the mining industry that the extractive sector would trigger positive impulses for regional economic development cannot be verified. Rather, the findings support narratives that mining regions do not benefit from their wealth in natural resources due to low labour intensity, loose links to local suppliers and profit outflows. |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus045:7114&r=all |
| By: | Enrietti, Aldo; Geuna, Aldo; Nava, Consuelo R.; Patrucco, Pier Paolo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | By discussing the relation between the traditional Marshallian/Jacobian approach and Klepper’s concept of spinoffs and their role, this paper tries to explain the early genesis and later evolution of the Italian automotive industry, based on the for mation of the Torino’s car cluster from the late nineteenth century. Historical analysis and econometric models are integrated to identify key factors that enabled the creation and success of the automotive industry in Turin. Specifically, we investigate agglomeration economies, the role of spinoffs and institutional factors such as the level and importance of local education. Based on original archival research, we built a new database of all Italian automobile companies. Replication of Klepper’s (2007) and Boschma and Wenting’s (2007) models shows no particular influence of the Turin cluster and no early entry advantages. Our model, which integrates and extends previous contributions, confirms the existence of a spinoffs effect, and in particular the positive effect of inherited technical skills embedded in pilots. We find support also, for positive agglomeration effects at the regional level and inter industry externalities from aeronautics, a metropolitan cluster effect and the significance of metropolitan education. |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201901&r=all |
| By: | Badran, Mona Farid |
| Abstract: | The current study aims at analyzing the impact of technological change and innovations on the labor market in Egypt. Using the panel data of Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 1998, 2006, and 2012 as well as the initial year of ELMPS 1988, a quadratic form of equation for employment is estimated and two approaches were applied. The first one is collaborated by applying the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation method and taking the difference between the rounds of the ELMPS database; three regressions were estimated for the following, namely total labor force (males and females), a regression for male workers as well as another regression for female workers on wage and wage squared. The second approach is estimated by applying the panel model techniques using the Fixed Effects Model as well as the Random Effects Model to analyze the impact of technological change on the Egyptian labor market. Results of the study reveal that the impact of technological change on employment is evident in the years 2006 and 2012 causing job polarization in the Egyptian labor market as revealed in the first approach. Moreover, the findings show that in the second approach there exists a J-shaped relationship between employment growth and wage and wage squared as control variables. The present study provides an overview of the related literature; moreover, it addresses and analyzes the impact technological change has on the labor market. Finally, the paper provides policy recommendations for forward-looking labor market policies in Egypt. |
| Keywords: | technological change,labor market,skills,digital economy,MENA,Fixed Effects Model,Random Effects Model,3rd Industrial Revolution,4th Industrial Revolution,Egypt |
| JEL: | J21 J24 L96 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itsm19:201735&r=all |