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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2026–08–17
fifteen papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | mohammed khaouja (LRMD FEG Settat - Laboratoire de Recherche en Management et Développement - Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion, ERMOT - Laboratoire "Etudes et recherches en Management des Organisations et des Territoires" [Fez] - USMBA - Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah); Sanaa Dfouf; Kaoutar Errakha; Hanan Elharissi (FEG SETTAT - Faculté d’Économie et de Gestion de Settat); Fekkak Hamdi |
| Abstract: | University-industry technology transfer (UITT) is essential for converting academic research into commercial use, yet traditional strategies often fail to address the knowledge gap. Literature suggests that institutional inertia, communication barriers, and ineffective marketing strategies hinder the commercialization of technology. This study proposes a conceptual framework that incorporates AI-driven marketing to enhance knowledge dissemination, market identification, and stakeholder engagement within the technology transfer process. This systematic literature review amalgamates insights from UITT, AI marketing applications, and knowledge management systems. A qualitative analysis of peer-reviewed literature from 2017 to 2025 identifies trends, deficiencies, and emerging patterns, leading to an integrated framework that assesses technology transfer strategies and the implementation of AI marketing across diverse sectors, leveraging the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The investigation demonstrates that AI-enhanced marketing can significantly bolster UITT through five AI-enhanced marketing capabilities: precise client segmentation, predictive analytics of market trends, tailored communication, improved knowledge management, and streamlined digital outreach. This methodology fosters reciprocal knowledge exchanges, positioning AI as a facilitator between market insights and university research aims while refining technology presentations for industry stakeholders. Moreover, the study highlights critical concerns regarding data privacy, implementation expenses, technical complexities, and the necessary proficiency in AI and technology transfer. |
| Keywords: | research initiatives, Collaboration university-industry technology transfer AI-enhanced marketing innovation knowledge sharing economic growth strategic partnerships research initiatives entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial mindset, Collaboration, strategic partnerships, economic growth, knowledge sharing, innovation, AI-enhanced marketing, technology transfer, university-industry |
| Date: | 2026–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05638557 |
| By: | Tham, Wing Wah; Baslandze, Salomé; Sojli, Elvira; Liu, Leo |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interaction between process and product innovations and their distinct role in firm growth dynamics. We differentiate empirically and theoretically two types of process innovations: foundational processes that advance production technology and cost-reducing processes that enhance existing production efficiency. We develop an innovation model of product varieties with quality heterogeneity to illustrate how these innovations impact firm growth differently and highlight how process innovation induces product innovation. By analyzing millions of patent texts from 1900 to 2020, we classify innovations into product, cost-reducing process, and foundational process innovations. We find that foundational processes lead to sustained firm growth, especially through their effect on subsequent product creation. R&D-intensive firms focused on ``deep-tech'' innovations have an advantage in creating foundational processes, resulting in superior product quality. Using patents linked to FDA-approved drugs, we show that firms with a comparative advantage in creating foundational processes, due to greater knowledge and technological stock, tend to produce higher-value products. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Patents; Firm growth; Process innovation |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19858 |
| By: | Jabri Nada (Université Hassan 1er [Settat]); Hanine Sanae (Université Hassan 1er [Settat]) |
| Abstract: | Abstract In a global context characterized by recurrent ecological and economic crises, the blue economy stands out as a strategic lever for developing new models of sustainable and resilient growth. Innovation lies at the heart of this transformation, mobilizing maritime ecosystems that integrate technological, social, territorial, and environmental challenges. This study provides a critical and theoretical international literature review of the innovations implemented within marine ecosystems and tested through the evolution of the blue economy via a qualitative, critical, and synthetic methodological approach (theoretical and thematic analysis). The objectives are threefold: (1) to provide a state of the art of existing knowledge on the link between "innovation and sustainability" within the blue economy as a resilient ecosystem; (2) to identify entrepreneurial resilience factors in coastal environments; and (3) to propose a conceptual model explaining the relationship between these key concepts. This review helps fill a theoretical gap concerning the interactions among ecosystems, innovation, and resilience, while opening new research and policy avenues to support the economic transitions of coastal zones. Keywords: Blue Economy; Sustainable Innovation; Resilience; Ecosystems; Sustainability |
| Keywords: | Blue Economy Sustainable Innovation Resilience Ecosystems Sustainability, Blue Economy, Sustainable Innovation, Resilience, Ecosystems, Sustainability, African Scientific Journal |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05626904 |
| By: | Yu Chang (NPU - Northernwest Polytechnical University [Xi'an]); Linwei Li (NPU - Northernwest Polytechnical University [Xi'an]); Ruiqi Wei (EM - EMLyon Business School) |
| Abstract: | Emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) characterized by strong entrepreneurial orientation (EO) can generate cross-border value through their innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking in international operations. However, evolving global dynamics and rising geopolitical tensions have increased pressures of cross-border stigmatization, significantly hindering EMNEs' ability to leverage their EO. Grounded in paradox theory and organizational virtue, the study aims to explore how EMNEs can navigate the EO paradoxes within cross-border stigma contexts. Through an abductive longitudinal case study of a leading Chinese-headquartered valve manufacturing firm, we find that as stigma labels evolve from product to technology and finally to identity, they trigger three phase-specific EO paradoxes: expansion vs. contraction, innovation vs. commodification, and autonomy vs. control. To navigate these salient tensions, the firm enacts organizational virtue as a strategic practice. Specifically, we identify a mechanism where temperance-oriented values articulation guides the firm's strategic actions through a dual process—internal capability development and external differentiation—both underpinned by the micro-mechanisms of emotional and desire temperance. With these findings, the study identifies a stigmatization trajectory from product to technology and further to identity stigma. It also reveals EO paradoxical tensions across different developmental stages of EMNEs under cross-border stigmatization. Furthermore, our study extends virtue research into the field of entrepreneurship at the organizational level. It establishes temperance as a source of strategic practice that enables sustainable international entrepreneurship by effectively balancing EO, thereby providing a virtue perspective for strategic management in complex environments. |
| Keywords: | Emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs), Paradox theory, Temperance-oriented entrepreneurship, Organizational virtue of temperance, Cross-border stigma, Entrepreneurial orientation paradox |
| Date: | 2026–06–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05704520 |
| By: | Camuffo, Arnaldo; Gambardella, Alfonso; Pignataro, Andrea |
| Abstract: | We develop a model for analyzing firm innovation strategies, distinguishing between the exploitation of established firm-level paradigms (which we call †theories†) and the exploration of new paradigms. Central to the model is the role of speed. The empirical analysis of a sample of all US public firms with at least one patent between 1980 and 2021, reveals that the speed at which firms exploit innovations within their existing paradigms is positively correlated with their exploration of new technological areas, an increase in patent output relative to R&D, and an increase in firm size over time. The model identifies three drivers of innovation success: search speed within existing theories, the probability of discovering new theories, and the scale of firm resources. High search speed increases early-stage productivity and resource accumulation, increasing the likelihood of discovering new theories and sustaining growth. Among other things, our model provides an explanation for the hyper-growth of many high-tech companies today. Policymakers should consider interventions that accelerate search-enhancing technologies and foster theory generation across industries, promoting equitable growth and reducing disparities in innovation capacity. |
| Keywords: | Innovation |
| JEL: | L21 L26 M13 M21 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19849 |
| By: | Zhang, Min; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | Innovation is key for economic growth and well-being. The capacity for innovation, however, is profoundly influenced by the quality of local institutions. Although the impact of national institutions on innovation is well-documented, the effects of subnational institutional variations on innovation remain underexplored. This paper studies the impact of government agency reforms, designed to enhance local government effectiveness, on the innovation performance of city-regions in China. We examine the adoption of these reforms between 2009 and 2016 as an exogenous shock to regional institutions. Our analysis identifies a positive and significant relationship between improvements in institutional quality and the innovation performance of Chinese city-regions, particularly pronounced in regions with medium to high levels of innovation. The results are robust to a series of checks including placebo and endogeneity tests and potential confounding policies. This research highlights the critical role of government institutions in driving innovation across China, bringing to the fore important regional variations in the adoption of government agency reforms that are defining the country’s innovation landscape. |
| Keywords: | Institutions; China |
| JEL: | R11 O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19583 |
| By: | Bergeaud, Antonin; Deter, Max; Greve, Maria; Wyrwich, Michael |
| Abstract: | We investigate the causal relationship between inventor migration and regional innovation in the context of the large-scale migration shock from East to West Germany between World War II and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Leveraging a newly constructed, century-spanning dataset on German patents and inventors, along with an innovative identification strategy based on surname proximity, we trace the trajectories of East German inventors and quantify their impact on innovation in West Germany. Our findings demonstrate a significant and persistent boost to patenting activities in regions with higher inflows of East German inventors, predominantly driven by advancements in chemistry and physics. We further validate the robustness of our identification strategy against alternative plausible mechanisms. We show in particular that the effect is stronger than the one caused by the migration of other high skilled workers and scientists. |
| Keywords: | Patents; Migration; Germany; Innovation |
| JEL: | H10 N44 P20 D31 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19837 |
| By: | Benkert, Jean-Michel; Letina, Igor |
| Abstract: | We provide a model of investment in innovation that is dynamic, features multiple heterogeneous research projects of which only one potentially leads to success, and in each period, the researcher chooses the set of projects to invest in. We show that if a search for innovation starts, it optimally does not end until the innovation is found—which will be never with a strictly positive probability. |
| Keywords: | Innovation |
| JEL: | D83 O31 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19732 |
| By: | D’Alessandro, Francesco (Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna); Santarelli, Enrico (Department of Economics, University of Bologna); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how regional technological relatedness and local AI knowledge influence regional innovative activity, as measured by patenting activity. Using a novel three-way longitudinal dataset and leveraging a deep learning-based identification of AI patents, we show that two broad mechanisms operate in parallel. First, in accordance with the extant literature, technologies that are cognitively close to a region’s existing patent portfolio enjoy higher patenting activity, confirming that relatedness remains a strong and persistent predictor of innovative output. Second, local AI endowments are positively associated with patenting across technological fields, even after conditioning on relatedness, indicating that AI plays an enabling and cross-cutting role in a given regional innovation system. Moreover, the interaction between relatedness and AI turns out to be negative and statistically significant, implying that AI attenuates the extent to which local innovative efforts depend on the technology’s proximity to the regional portfolio. In sum, AI appears to enhance overall local innovative activity while reducing its reliance on pre-existing regional knowledge structures. |
| Keywords: | Artificial Intelligence, AI, technological change, regional innovation, relatedness |
| JEL: | O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18817 |
| By: | Bilgin, Nuriye Melisa; Faia, Ester; Ottaviano, Gianmarco |
| Abstract: | We examine how upstream firms’ technology adoption affects the performance and adoption decisions of downstream partners. Using business-to-business data with administrative records on advanced technology adoption, we find gains in productivity, performance, adoption probabilities of firms connected to the adopter, relatively to those that are not. Identification combines staggered event studies, balanced panels of pre-existing relationships, and recentering methods to address expected exposure within the network. Gains vary along firm size, centrality, technology quality, but do not systematically increase with input exposure, suggesting that knowledge spillovers may induce organizational adjustments. Adoption by competitors is associated with short-run negative effects. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19804 |
| By: | Barwick, Panle; Kwon, Hyuk-soo; Li, Shanjun; Wang, Yucheng; Zahur, Nahim Bin |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of industrial policies (IPs) on innovation in the global automobile industry. We compile the first comprehensive dataset linking global IPs with patent data related to the auto industry from 2008 to 2023. We document a major shift in policy focus: by 2022, nearly half of all IPs targeted electric vehicles (EV)-related sectors, up from almost none in 2008. In the meantime, there has been a clear technological transition from internal combustion engine (GV) technologies to EV innovations. Our analysis finds a positive relationship between policy support and innovation activity. At the country level, a one-standard-deviation increase in five-year cumulative EV-targeted IPs is associated with a four-percent rise in new EV patent applications. Firm-level analyses (using OLS, IV, and PPML) indicate that a ten-percent increase in EV financial incentives received by automakers and EV battery producers leads to a similar four-percent increase in EV innovations. We confirm the importance of path dependence in the direction of technology change in the automobile industry but find no evidence that EV-targeted IPs stimulate innovation in GV technologies. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Patent |
| JEL: | L52 L62 O31 Q48 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19660 |
| By: | Degryse, Hans; De Jonghe, Olivier; Gambacorta, Leonardo; Huylebroek, Cédric |
| Abstract: | Theory offers conflicting predictions on whether and how lenders’ sectoral specialization would affect firms’ innovation activities. We show that the sign and magnitude of this effect vary with the degree of “asset overhang†across sectors, which is the risk that a new technology has negative spillovers on the value of a bank’s legacy loan portfolio. Using both patent data and micro-level innovation survey data, we find that lenders’ sectoral specialization improves innovation for firms operating in sectors with low asset overhang, but impedes innovation for firms operating in sectors with high asset overhang. These results hold for two distinct measures of asset overhang and using bank mergers as a source of exogenous variation in bank specialization. We further show that these heterogeneous effects arise through financial contracting. Overall, our findings provide novel insights into the dual facets of bank specialization and, more broadly, the link between banking and innovation. |
| Keywords: | Bank specialization; Bank lending; Corporate innovation; Financial frictions |
| JEL: | G20 O30 L20 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19606 |
| By: | Anna D’annunzio (UNINT - Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma = University of International Studies of Rome); Yassine Lefouili (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Bruno Jullien (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Leonardo Madio (Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how horizontal mergers affect firms' incentives to invest in R&D leading to the development of new products. We characterize the impact of a merger to monopoly and a 3-to-2 merger on equilibrium innovation efforts and consumer surplus, absent efficiency gains and spillovers. We show that a 3-to-2 merger directly alters the outsider's innovation incentives by shifting its best-response function upward, and we analyze how this mechanism affects merger outcomes for innovation and consumer surplus. Finally, we examine how efficiency gains and remedies modify post-merger innovation efforts. |
| Keywords: | R&D Investments, Amp, Product Innovation, Horizontal Mergers |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05680914 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | The ability of innovative start-ups to scale is a key driver of productivity and economic growth. This paper examines the factors associated with successful scaling among start-ups founded between 2000 and 2025 in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). It distinguishes between growth-oriented firms (raising at least USD 50 million) and rising superstars (valuations above USD 1 billion), comparing their characteristics across innovation, finance, market expansion, talent, and local ecosystems. Differences in scaling outcomes relate to the timing and commercialisation of innovation (rather than inventive capacity per se), the depth of late-stage financing, and the ability to mobilise managerial capabilities and acquisitions. Scaling events are also associated with distinct ecosystem spillovers, though these depend on ecosystem depth and type of scaling event. Overall, scaling is a cumulative, selective process in which firms progressively overcome interrelated constraints, underscoring the need for stage- and ecosystem-specific scale-up policies. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovation, scale-up gap, scale-ups, start-ups, unicorns, venture capital |
| JEL: | G24 G28 L25 L26 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2026/08-en |
| By: | Motloutsi, Veronica; Viriri, Serestina; Samuels, Alexander |
| Abstract: | Digital transformation is widely presented as a pathway to financial inclusion, entrepreneurial growth, and sustainable development, yet its developmental effects remain uneven in emerging economies. This tension is particularly evident in South Africa’s fintech entrepreneurial ecosystem, where a relatively sophisticated financial sector and expanding digital innovation coexist with persistent inequality, skills shortages, fragmented institutional support, and regulatory complexity. Existing digital transformation research has largely focused on firm-level adoption, business model innovation, and technology-enabled change, offering limited explanation of how broader ecosystem conditions shape sustainable development outcomes in contexts such as South Africa. In response, this article develops a Critical Realist Digital Transformation Capacity Framework to explain how digital transformation may contribute to sustainable development within South Africa’s fintech entrepreneurial ecosystem. Drawing on digital transformation theory, capacity development theory, entrepreneurial ecosystem scholarship, and critical realism, the article argues that digital transformation is not a self-executing technological process but a contextually mediated and capacity-dependent phenomenon. It identifies institutional capacity, human capacity, and policy capacity as the key generative mechanisms through which digital technologies may support financial inclusion, ecosystem resilience, entrepreneurial participation, and broader economic development. By integrating these literatures, the article extends global information technology scholarship beyond technology-centric and firm-level accounts and offers an African-centred, mechanism-based explanation of digitally enabled development. The framework provides a conceptual foundation for future empirical research and a diagnostic lens for policymakers, regulators, and ecosystem actors in South Africa and other emerging-market settings. The study contributes to information systems theory by introducing Digital Transformation Capacity as a higher-order theoretical construct that explains how institutional, human, and policy capacities mediate the relationship between digital transformation and sustainable development. |
| Date: | 2026–07–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:87vbp_v2 |