nep-cse New Economics Papers
on Economics of Strategic Management
Issue of 2025–06–16
six papers chosen by
João José de Matos Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior


  1. Deep tech entrepreneurship in Europe and the crucial role of RTOs fostering impactful industrial spin-offs By Grande Sergio; Rufino Asier; Petit Laurence; Basilio Oihana
  2. European Digital Innovation Hubs Network's activities and customers By Carpentier Elodie; D'adda Diego; Nepelski Daniel; Stake Johan
  3. Transformative and Subsistence Entrepreneurs: Origins and Impacts on Economic Growth By Ufuk Akcigit; Harun Alp; Jeremy Pearce; Marta Prato
  4. Assessing innovation in the nascent value chains of climate-mitigating technologies By Zachary H. Thomas; Ellen D. Williams; Kavita Surana; Morgan R. Edwards
  5. Patent pledge and technological innovation: the "good faith" of Tesla By Ziming Wang
  6. Escaping product market rivalry through innovation By Dandan Xia; Bruno Cassiman; David Wehrheim

  1. By: Grande Sergio (European Commission - JRC); Rufino Asier; Petit Laurence; Basilio Oihana
    Abstract: This report, focused on deep tech entrepreneurship in Europe and the crucial role of Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) in fostering impactful industrial spin-offs, aims to explore the role that deep tech spin-offs and RTOs, through their Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), play in driving innovation, creating different types of impact including the creation of new value chains, and addressing the high-risk nature of technology commercialization. One of the core objectives of this study is to analyse the challenges and opportunities that deep tech spin-offs face, particularly in terms of team creation and evolution over time, as well as their challenges in attracting talents, and analysing the types of impact generated by industrial deep tech spin-offs.The study methodology includes a comprehensive literature review, a wide stakeholder consultation, data collection from 29 TTO Circle member organizations and 49 of their most impactful industrial deep tech spinoffs, data analysis, synthesis, and recommendations. These recommendations are further validated through stakeholder feedback obtained during validation meetings and webinars.This study, therefore, provides a roadmap for how deep tech entrepreneurship can drive Europeâs economic renewal, directly addressing the concerns and recommendations of the Draghi report, and offering concrete strategies to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of global innovation.
    Date: 2025–04
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc141029
  2. By: Carpentier Elodie (European Commission - JRC); D'adda Diego (European Commission - JRC); Nepelski Daniel (European Commission - JRC); Stake Johan (European Commission - JRC)
    Abstract: The European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) Network of digital innovation intermediaries, established in 2023, aims to accelerate the adoption of advanced digital technologies among SMEs and Public Sector Organisations across European regions. Covering nearly 90% of European regions, the EDIH Network provides tailored digitalisation support services, including AI, cybersecurity, and high-performance computing. As of September 2024, EDIHs have reached over 200, 000 participants and/or companies through 5, 000 events, delivering over 18, 000 services. EDIHs operate close to their customers, with a broad regional but limited international service coverage. The Digital Maturity Assessment Tool (DMAT) reveals that firms' digitalisation processes follow a structured path, with digital business strategy driving development and human-centric digitalisation and data management becoming central at higher levels of maturity. 90% of firms show an increase in their digital maturity level score after EDIH interventions.
    Date: 2025–04
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc140547
  3. By: Ufuk Akcigit; Harun Alp; Jeremy Pearce; Marta Prato
    Abstract: This paper explores the symbiotic relationship between transformative entrepreneurs and inventors, which is crucial for economic growth. We utilize microdata from Denmark to demonstrate that while the relationship between IQ and general entrepreneurship tends to be negative, it is strongly positive among transformative entrepreneurs. Transformative entrepreneurs, often with higher IQ and education levels, significantly drive R&D and business growth, thereby providing substantial opportunities for inventors. In contrast, average entrepreneurs are more influenced by their family’s entrepreneurship background. Our economic model links these dynamics to overall economic progress, highlighting how higher education influences career paths in entrepreneurship and invention. We identify talent misallocation caused by unequal education access, particularly affecting lower-income families. Our findings indicates the most effective policies strengthen the interplay between higher education, innovation, and entrepreneurship to foster transformative businesses and achieve long-run economic growth.
    JEL: J24 O31 O38 O47
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33766
  4. By: Zachary H. Thomas; Ellen D. Williams; Kavita Surana; Morgan R. Edwards
    Abstract: Accelerating climate-tech innovation in the formative stage of the technology life cycle is crucial to meeting climate policy goals. During this period, competing technologies are often undergoing major technical improvements within a nascent value chain. We analyze this formative stage for 14 climate-tech sectors using a dataset of 4, 172 North American firms receiving 12, 929 early-stage private investments between 2006 and 2021. Investments in these firms reveal that commercialization occurs in five distinct product clusters across the value chain. Only 15% of firms develop end products (i.e., downstream products bought by consumers), while 59% support these end products through components, manufacturing processes, or optimization products, and 26% develop business services. Detailed analysis of the temporal evolution of investments reveals the driving forces behind the technologies that commercialize, such as innovation spillovers, coalescence around a dominant design, and flexible regulatory frameworks. We identify three patterns of innovation: emerging innovation (e.g., agriculture), characterized by recent growth in private investments across most product clusters and spillover from other sectors; ongoing innovation (e.g., energy storage), characterized by multiple waves of investments in evolving products; and maturing innovation (e.g., energy efficiency), characterized by a dominant end product with a significant share of investments in optimization and services. Understanding the development of nascent value chains can inform policy design to best support scaling of climate-tech by identifying underfunded elements in the value chain and supporting development of a full value chain rather than only end products.
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2506.00010
  5. By: Ziming Wang
    Keywords: Patent pledge, intellectual property strategy, ecosystem, invention diffusion, electric vehicles, Tesla
    JEL: O30 O32 O34
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg2510
  6. By: Dandan Xia; Bruno Cassiman; David Wehrheim
    Abstract: This study leverages advanced text-analysis techniques to investigate how increased product market rivalry, induced by Chinese import competition, affects innovation among incumbent U.S. firms in the electronic and electrical appliance industry. We measure the similarity between the product descriptions of U.S. firms and those of Chinese importers, thus capturing firm-level competitive pressure. Employing a continuous difference-in-differences framework, we compare innovation outcomes of U.S. firms more directly competing with Chinese importers to those facing lower competitive pressure, over a five-year period before and after initial Chinese market entry. We find that incumbent U.S. firms significantly increase their quality-weighted patent production, create more newproduct patents, and strategically diversify into new technological and business segments when confronted with heightened competition. Our findings highlight the role of import-driven rivalry in stimulating strategic innovation and illustrate how text-based similarity measures can effectively quantify firm-level competition, providing novel methodological tools for strategy scholars.
    Date: 2025–05–23
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:765722

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