nep-cse New Economics Papers
on Economics of Strategic Management
Issue of 2023‒12‒11
three papers chosen by
João José de Matos Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior


  1. There are different shades of green: heterogeneous environmental innovations and their effects on firm performance By Gianluca Biggi; Andrea Mina; Federico Tamagni
  2. Key Enabling Technologies (KETs): Firms’ Key to Radical Innovation? By Colin Wessendorf; Nils Grashof
  3. Widening or closing the gap? The relationship between artificial intelligence, firm-level productivity and regional clusters By Nils Grashof; Alexander Kopka

  1. By: Gianluca Biggi; Andrea Mina; Federico Tamagni
    Abstract: Using a firm-level dataset from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (2003-2016), this study explores the characteristics of environmentally innovative firms and quantifies the effects of pursuing different types of environmental innovation strategies (resource-saving, pollution-reducing, and regulation-driven innovations) on sales, employment, and productivity dynamics. The results indicate, first, that environmental innovations tend to be highly correlated with firms’ technological capabilities, although to varying degrees across types of environmental innovation, whereas structural characteristics are less significant. Second, we observe heterogeneous effects of different types of environmental innovation on performance outcomes. We find no evidence that any type of environmental innovation fosters sales growth while pollution-reducing and regulation-driven innovations boost employment growth. Moreover, both resource-saving and pollution-reducing innovations bring about productivity advantage.
    Keywords: Environmental Innovation; Green Investments, Resource-saving, Pollution-reduction, Envi- ronmental compliance; Firm performance.
    Date: 2023–11–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2023/42&r=cse
  2. By: Colin Wessendorf; Nils Grashof
    Abstract: This study analyses the influence of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) on radical innovation at the firm-level in 27 EU countries. KETs are a group of six technologies that are considered to be promising for Europe’s industrial competitiveness and innovativeness because they are horizontal and widely combinable, representing properties of General Purpose Technologies. We test this by investigating whether KET knowledge promotes the emergence of radical innovation in firms and whether regional specialization in KETs can moderate this relationship. Based on a unique firm-level database, our results show that KETs generally facilitate the emegence of radical innovation and that firms lacking KET knowledge in particular can benefit from being located in regions specialised in KETs. However, when focusing on the six individual KETs, the results get markedly heterogeneous and point to differences in the influence of engineering-oriented and science-based KETs. Our results therefore call for tailored, KET-specific, approaches – both in research and policy.
    Keywords: Radical Innovation, Recombinant Novelty, Knowledge Creation, General Purpose Technologies, Key Enabling Technologies, Firm-Level
    JEL: L25 O31 O33 R10
    Date: 2023–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:atv:wpaper:2303&r=cse
  3. By: Nils Grashof; Alexander Kopka
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as a key technology for economic growth. However, the impact of AI on firm productivity has been under researched – particularly through the lens of inequality and clusters. Based on a unique sample of German firms, filling at least one patent between 2013 and 2019, we find evidence for a positive influence of AI on firm productivity. Moreover, our analysis shows that while AI knowledge does not contribute to productivity divergences in general, it increases the productivity gap between laggard and all other firms. Nevertheless, this effect is reduced through the localisation in clusters.
    Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Inequality, Productivity, Clusters, Patents, Firm-level
    JEL: O18 O30 R10
    Date: 2023–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:atv:wpaper:2304&r=cse

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