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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2025–12–01
seven papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Massimiliano Mazzanti (Università degli studi di Ferrara); Alessandro Montanaro (Università degli studi di Ferrara); Fabiola Onofrio (Università degli studi di Ferrara); Emy Zecca (Università degli studi di Ferrara) |
| Abstract: | This work investigates sustainability-oriented innovation among Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the broader context of the European twin transition toward sustainability and digitalization. Based on survey data from 740 manufacturing firms, it analyses the diffusion of research and development activities, digital technologies, and circular economy practices across firm sizes and regions. The results reveal a persistent dualism: medium and large firms, mostly located in northern regions, show higher levels of innovation and digital adoption, while smaller firms remain limited by financial and structural constraints. Circular innovation largely focuses on efficiency measures, whereas advanced strategies such as eco-design remain rare. Digitalization acts as both a driver and an enabler of sustainable transformation but progresses unevenly across territories. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:1225 |
| By: | Paul Winter; Hilary Devine; John Janssen; Chris Thompson (The Treasury) |
| Abstract: | New Zealand has not seen the same growth in productivity as comparable countries. Increased capital intensity and higher levels of innovation are pathways to greater productivity growth that are closely connected. Investment in more technologically sophisticated capital could contribute to productivity improvements along both pathways at once. New Zealand has relatively low capital intensity, with the high cost of capital a contributing factor. Though New Zealand’s investment rate has tracked with other advanced economies, it has not kept pace with rising labour utilisation, leaving the country capital shallow. Innovation increases an economy’s productivity by allowing for a more efficient mix of capital and labour. Improved technology is one route to greater innovation. Technology can be created anew or adopted from elsewhere. Neither creation nor adoption is unambiguously preferable from a productivity perspective. The optimal combination of creation and adoption in supporting productivity depends on context. We set out a number of reasons why adoption through capital investment may be an important path to innovation in New Zealand. New Zealand creates technology at a lower rate than comparable economies, in part because its Research and Development (R&D) expenditure is lower. New Zealand also struggles to convert R&D activity into outputs and broader productivity benefits. Although some business R&D appears an exception to this rule, New Zealand-specific evidence is limited, which makes it difficult to be definitive about the productivity benefits of R&D. Adopting and adapting new technologies, including through capital investments, typically costs less than creating them. Adopting new technologies is shown to have strong positive effects on productivity, and could potentially benefit a large share (up to 95%) of New Zealand firms. Given New Zealand’s struggle to create technology, greater adoption from overseas could form a crucial part of the country’s optimal approach to innovation. At the same time, a dynamic and, to some extent, complementary relationship may exist between creation and adoption – suggesting stronger adoption of new technology may enhance domestic scientific activity. Despite adopting some general-purpose digital technologies at a pace similar to comparable countries, there are signs that technology diffusion (the aggregate economy-wide rate of firm-level technology adoption) is low and slowing. To better understand opportunities for increasing diffusion, we capture in a framework the key factors that affect diffusion and their links to capital investment. We organise the framework around three firm-level factors: exposure and access to new technology, incentives to adopt new technology, and capacity to adopt new technology. We find there are four common channels that directly affect technology diffusion and capital intensity: importing, foreign investment, input costs, and access to finance. New Zealand appears, based on initial assessment, to be weaker than the OECD average across all four channels. Improvements on these channels and across framework settings (such as, competition), could boost productivity growth by lifting both capital intensity and innovation. The fundamental implication is that policy focussing exclusively on technology creation may miss a key pathway to greater innovation: diffusion through new capital investment. Equally, policies exclusively focussed on capital intensity may miss the role of investment in increasing innovation and lifting the technological sophistication of the capital stock. |
| JEL: | D24 E22 O3 O4 O56 O57 |
| Date: | 2025–10–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzt:nztans:an25/12 |
| By: | Woolford Jayne (European Commission - JRC); Haegeman Karel (European Commission - JRC); Hazelkorn Ellen; Cavicchi Alessio; Kroll Henning |
| Abstract: | "Debates upon the place-based dynamics of transformative innovation insist upon directionality across regional, national and EU innovation policies and ecosystems, and multi-actor, -funding and -sector synergies. The potential role and contribution of higher education to boost Europe’s competitiveness is reflected across numerous EU policy initiatives that seek to strengthen their entrepreneurial and innovative capacity and their integration into transformative territorial innovation, recognising the interaction between innovation and education policies, both locally and transnationally, as key in maximising capabilities.The engagement of education actors and the nature of skills and human capital requirements will be context-specific or place-based, varying depending not only on the specific territorial challenge and reality, but also the capacity, experience, culture, governance and incentives of different higher education systems and individual institutions. An understanding of the ecosystem and its various constituent parts and their inter-connections, including that of the entire education and innovation system within the broader organisational and policy context, is vital in ensuring directionality and alignment of multiple actors and functions. Frameworks for reflection and pathways for action for higher education within place-based transformative innovation have therefore been proposed, to support higher education and other territorial actors to re-think their activities and portfolio in relation to the changing educational and innovation paradigms and to support and drive systemic transformation." |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:trater:202502 |
| By: | Eugenie Dugoua; Jacob Moscona |
| Abstract: | We examine the economics of climate innovation and its role in the clean technology transition. It outlines the incentives, market failures, and policy levers that shape the development and diffusion of clean technologies; traces global patterns in technology development and deployment; and highlights frontier challenges and open questions related to climate adaptation, critical mineral supply chains, artificial intelligence, and geopolitics. The analysis explores the role of effective climate policy, stressing the relevance of coordinated approaches that match instruments to technology maturity and local context. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Innovation, R&D, Clean Energy, Energy Transition, Industrial Policy, Adaptation, Critical Minerals, AI |
| Date: | 2025–11–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2135 |
| By: | Antelo, Manel; Bru, Lluís |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the commercialization of an external, quality-enhancing (product) innovation within a vertically related market, comparing outright sale and licensing. Licensing may involve a royalty of per-unit or ad valorem type and potential adopters are two downstream firms that source a core input from a single upstream supplier. The analysis reveals that the patentholder’s incentive to license the innovation, particularly through per-unit royalties, outweighs that of an outright sale. This form of technology transfer, however, is shown to potentially reduce consumer and social welfare compared to the pre-innovation state, thus providing a rationale for public policy interventions aimed at restricting royalty-based technology transfer. |
| Keywords: | Vertical industry, quality-enhancing product innovation, sale versus licensing, two-part tariff contracts, per-unit royalty, ad-valorem royalty, welfare |
| JEL: | L13 O32 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126850 |
| By: | Mahmut Zeki Akarsu (College of Economics and International Trade, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea); Cassidy Hruz (Department of Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida); Zeynep Yom (Department of Economics, Villanova School of Business, Villanova University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how firms adjust their innovative activities during recessions and whether they learn from past downturns. Using COMPUSTAT data linked with patent and citation information, we analyze U.S. firms across four major recessions and test whether R&D expansion in one recession predicts R&D investment in the next. Exploiting recessions as exogenous shocks to the economy for identification, we find that firms performing above the median during the 2001 recession invested substantially more in R&D during the Great Recession. These learning effects are stronger for small firms, firms with high bond ratings, and those in high-technology or high-opportunity sectors, and weaker in concentrated industries. Earlier recessions also have a persistent, though gradually diminishing, effect on later downturns. Instrumental-variables and propensity-score-matching analyses confirm that these patterns reflect a learning mechanism consistent with creative accumulation. |
| Keywords: | R&D, innovation, patents, business cycles, COMPUSTAT |
| JEL: | E32 G30 O32 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vil:papers:62 |
| By: | Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti; Cristina Peñasco; Rok Spruk |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of “green regulations” i.e. those aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change and environmental externalities, on innovation, using a novel regulatory database covering the period 2008 – 2022 for Spain. The database identifies regulations at both the national and regional levels through textual analysis. Employing a panel data approach, we assess how different types of environmental regulations—particularly those related to renewable energy—affect firm-level innovation activities. Our findings indicate that national level green regulations have a positive effect on innovation, whereas regional level regulations show mixed or negligible impacts. Importantly, the interaction between national and regional regulations, measuring the simultaneous production of legal texts at both levels can foster innovation but at a reduced pace with respect to the sole production of regulation at the national level. Given the results for regional-level regulation, our results provide evidence in favour of the hypothesis that regulatory fragmentation due to unequal, overlapping, inconsistent or conflicting procedure across jurisdictions may diminish these benefits. |
| Keywords: | Green Regulation, Innovation, Porter Hypothesis, Renewable Energy, Business |
| JEL: | K32 Q5 O44 O13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:1016 |