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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2026–09–07
four papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Galiano, Angelo Maurizio; Dell'Erba, Giuseppe; Costantiello, Alberto; Leogrande, Angelo |
| Abstract: | Europe measures the innovative performance of its regions largely by counting patents, and allocates public resources accordingly. This paper asks what regional patenting actually reflects, drawing on Regional Innovation Scoreboard data for 245 European regions observed annually between 2016 and 2023. Three candidate drivers are considered: the research effort of firms, the intensity of formal collaboration between the research base and industry, and the propensity to protect intangible assets through trademarks. Business research effort emerges as the dominant correlate throughout, science–industry collaboration as a weaker but consistent one, and trademark activity as a positive one, suggesting that firms which protect brands are not forgoing patents but exercising a single appropriation capability across several instruments. Two findings carry implications beyond measurement. Regional innovative capacity proves remarkably immobile: differences between regions account for roughly 95 per cent of the variation in the data, and differences within a region over the eight years for the remainder, so the short-run movements on which policy evaluation typically relies carry very little information, and the returns to innovation investment should be sought over horizons far longer than a programming cycle. And when the 245 regions are grouped into four innovation profiles rather than treated as a single population, the relationship that holds on average holds almost nowhere in particular: it is strong among leading and lagging regions, statistically absent in the largest group, and displaced by brand-led appropriation in a fourth group of 27 regions whose innovation is real but largely non-technological. Uniform innovation policy prescriptions and uniform managerial benchmarks are correspondingly difficult to justify. |
| Date: | 2026–08–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:jhr8t_v1 |
| By: | Maczulskij, Terhi |
| Abstract: | Abstract This study examines the effects of the 2004 European Union enlargement on firm productivity and innovation in Finland. Using linked employer–employee and firm-level data, the analysis exploits increased access to workers from the ten new EU member states (EU10). To address the endogenous geographic distribution of immigrants, I construct an instrumental variable based on historically predetermined migration patterns. The results show that increased EU10 employment raises firm labor productivity, the probability of having a granted patent, and STEM employment, while effects on other innovation outcomes are more limited. The responses also differ across sectors. In manufacturing, EU10 employment increases process innovation but reduces STEM employment, whereas in services it increases labor productivity and the probability of having granted patents. Overall, the findings suggest that immigration-induced labor-supply changes can improve firm performance and affect selected dimensions of innovation, with the effects varying across sectors and innovation margins. |
| Keywords: | EU enlargement, Firms, Immigration, Innovation, Instrumental variables, Productivity |
| JEL: | D22 F22 O30 |
| Date: | 2026–08–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:145 |
| By: | Shakti Shree Manivannan; Brinda Viswanathan (Professor at Madras School of Economics, Chennai.) |
| Abstract: | Self-employment dominates and continues to increase its share in India’s employment landscape whether agricultural or non-agricultural. A large part of it is necessity-driven and undertaken for survival, as opposed to entrepreneurial self-employment driven by innovation and opportunity. By incorporating gender-specific effects, this study uncovers sources of disparities in gross value-added (GVA) based on gender of the proprietor, using data from India’s Unincorporated Non-Agricultural Enterprises (UNAEs) survey for 2023-24. Cross-tabulations reveal a pronounced gender gap in firm performance: female-led UNAEs are disproportionately concentrated in the lowest GVA quartile. Lower-GVA firms have less educated proprietors and operate from household premises as own account workers; features that typically characterise female proprietors. Quantile regression analysis of the log transformed GVA shows that, controlling for other covariates, compared to urban men, urban women close in by the top quartile, while rural women close the gap by nearly one-half between the 25th and 75th percentiles. The median regression model, allowing for proprietor- and firm-level factors to differ across male-and female-led enterprises, further shows that female proprietors diverge from male proprietors primarily in hiring patterns, business location, and industry choice, while education and social background have relatively uniform effects across genders. This relatively underexplored analysis of UNAEs also highlights that data limitations permit only a minimal assessment on the role of gender composition of hired workers. Length: 44 pages |
| Keywords: | Unincorporated non-agricultural enterprises, Gross Value Added, Gendered Performance, Quantile Regression Classification-JEL: : J16, L26, O17 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2026-310 |
| By: | E. Annette Balaoing-Pelkmans (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman) |
| Abstract: | This discussion paper examines the emerging Pax Silica initiative from the perspective of the Philippine Tatak Pinoy Strategy (TPS) and associated consultations involving the semiconductor, electronics, and IT-BPM sectors. It argues that the developmental significance of Philippine participation will depend less on investment attraction alone than on whether the country can progressively deepen domestic technological, engineering, and organizational capabilities within emerging semiconductor and AI-related ecosystems. Drawing from stakeholder consultations and comparative industrial-policy literature, the paper identifies fragmented institutional support systems, weak cross-agency coordination, financing constraints, workforce mismatches, and discontinuities in government-industry collaboration as major barriers to industrial upgrading. At the same time, the consultations also point to the gradual expansion of higher-value capabilities in engineering services, cloud systems, cybersecurity, analytics, industrial software, and advanced digital operations. The paper argues that semiconductor and AI-related industries are substantially more coordination-intensive than earlier generations of export manufacturing. Long-term competitiveness increasingly depends on workforce systems, applied research capability, supplier development, financing systems, digital infrastructure, and sustained institutional coordination across firms, universities, industry organizations, and government agencies. From this perspective, Pax Silica should be approached not simply as an investment-attraction initiative, but as a potential platform for long-term capability deepening, ecosystem integration, and institutional learning. |
| Keywords: | industrial upgrading; semiconductor ecosystems; artificial intelligence; Tatak Pinoy Strategy; capability deepening; institutional coordination; industrial policy; Philippines |
| JEL: | O14 O25 O38 L52 F63 O53 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:202606 |