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on Innovation |
| By: | Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque (Cedeplar-UFMG); Leandro Alves Silva (Cedeplar-UFMG); Luciano Póvoa (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | This article presents results based on special tabulations prepared by IBGE, using data from PINTEC in order to focus on the interaction between firms and universities in the Brazilian industry. The basic hypothesis states that the relevance of universities as a source of information to the firms’ innovation activities is greater when firms are engaged in R&D activities (both internal and external). The hypothesis is not rejected neither for the general industry nor for inter-sectorial analysis. |
| Keywords: | systems, industrial R&D, universities |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td264&r=ino |
| By: | Frambach, Ruud T. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Herk, Hester van; Agarwal, Manoj K. |
| Abstract: | Diffusion patterns of products are known to differ significantly between countrie. Studies that mainly focused on consumer contexts in European countries show that culture has a significant effect on innovation diffusion and consumer innovativeness. In the present research we focus on adoption intentions of individual managers operating in a business-to-business context, for two telecommunication innovations. We expect rational motives to drive the adoption process more than national-cultural values. The study contains data from more than 3,200 respondents in 22 countries worldwide, including less developed countries. Results reveal that individual-level variables and economic characteristics of a country drive adoption more than national culture. Moreover, this effect seems stronger for the relatively newer and more expensive innovation. |
| Keywords: | international adoption; innovation; national culture; managers; worldwide survey |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2004-14&r=ino |
| By: | Massimiliano Mazzanti (University of Ferrara); Roberto Zoboli (CERIS-DSE, National Research Council of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The paper addresses the dynamic-incentive effect of environmental policy instruments when innovation is uncertain and occurs in very complex industrial subsystems. The case of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) is considered focusing predominantly on the effects of the European Directive adopted in 2000 which stipulated economic instruments as free take-back, and on the voluntary agreements in place in many EU countries. The ELV case study is an example of a framework where policy-making faces an intrinsic dynamic and systemic environment. Coherent sequences of single innovations taking place in both upstream (car making) and downstream (car recycling/recovery) of the ELV system can give rise to different “innovation paths”, in accordance with cost-benefit considerations, technological options and capabilities associated to the different industrial actors involved. The impact of economic instruments on innovation paths, in particular free take-back, is considered. Deficiencies or difficulties concerning the transmission of incentives between different industries can prevent the creation of new recycling/recovery/reuse markets, giving rise to other less preferable and unexpected outcomes. The implication for policy is a need for an integrated policy approach, as enforceable VAs, in order to create a shared interindustry interest for innovation and to reduce the possible adverse effects which economic instruments exert on innovation through cost benefit impacts on key industrial and waste-related agents involved in the ELV management system. These advantages should be taken into account vis à vis the emergence of Integrated Product Policy (IPP) as a leading concept of EU environmental policy and the associated shift from "extended producer responsibility" to "extended product responsibility". |
| Keywords: | ELV, Induced innovation, Dynamic efficiency, Economic instruments, Recycling |
| JEL: | L62 O13 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.80&r=ino |
| By: | Ignazio Musu (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the problems related to assigning or denying intellectual property rights to biotechnological innovation, with particular reference to agro-biotechnologies and the relations between developed and developing countries. There are two types of problems to consider. First, the aim of protecting property rights on innovations is to create incentives towards research and innovation in general, which in some cases may be beneficial to society, in others not so. If the assignment of an intellectual property right does not guarantee the potential beneficial use of new knowledge, not assigning rights would not prevent its potentially dangerous utilization. Secondly, the holder of an intellectual property right has a power of exclusion which limits access by others to the newly produced knowledge. However, the production of new knowledge is very often a process which starts from a base of existing knowledge. Hence, discouraging access to existing knowledge also means discouraging the process of producing new knowledge. Paradoxically then, in protecting intellectual property we obtain the opposite result to the one expected and desired. Moreover, the holder of an intellectual property right may end up with excessive market power when commercializing the innovation. This paper will try to show that these problems cannot be solved, as sometimes is suggested, by denying protection of property rights on innovations, but by improving the procedures for awarding these rights and accompanying them with other measures such as liability rules governing potential damage and also antitrust measures. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights, Biotechnology, Patent system |
| JEL: | O30 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.83&r=ino |
| By: | Massimiliano Mazzanti (University of Ferrara); Giulio Cainelli (University of Bari and CERIS-CNR); Susanna Mancinelli (University of Ferrara) |
| Abstract: | The main idea behind this paper is that social capital is not, as generally suggested by the socio-economic literature, an individual attitude towards something which does not imply privately appropriable economic benefits. Actually, SC might and should be interpreted as a public component of an investment which implies private and public benefits entangled with each other. In order to put forward this idea, a dynamic theoretical model that assumes social capital as the public component of the impure public good R&D is developed. It shows that the ‘civic culture’ of the district area in which the firm works is not sufficient as an incentive to increase its investment in social capital, because this investment strictly depends on the economic convenience of investing in the impure public good. Social capital /networking dynamics might positively and complementarily evolve only if the opportunity cost of investing in innovation is sufficiently low. We consequently focus our attention on a specialized industrial district located in the Emilia Romagna region – the biomedical district of Mirandola (Modena) – characterised by a strong pattern of innovative activity. Using a proxy for innovative activity as dependant variable, we observe that R&D and networking/social capital arise as complementary driving forces for innovation outputs. When empirical evidence confirms that this complementarity plays a key role, and consequently strong links exist between market and non-market dynamics relating to firms, the role for policy actions targeted to social capital is larger. The policy effort should be targeted toward both market and non-market characteristics taken together, rather than solely to the production of (local) public goods (social capital) or innovation inputs as independent elements of firm processes. The input of SC alone is not sufficient to ensure innovation and growth: economic incentives matter. On the other hand, whenever SC dynamics are crucial for R&D private investments, the effect of economic incentives depends on the presence and degree of their complementarity. |
| Keywords: | Social capital, R&D, Technological innovation, Industrial districts |
| JEL: | O32 D92 H49 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.84&r=ino |
| By: | Yasuyuki Todo; Satoshi Shimizutani |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates both the determinants and the impact of overseas subsidiaries' R&D activities, using firm-level panel data for Japanese multinational enterprises. We distinguish between overseas innovative and adaptive R&D and find substantial differences between the two types of R&D. The evidence suggests that overseas innovative R&D aims at the exploitation of foreign advanced knowledge, and by doing so, it helps to raise the productivity of the parent firm. In contrast, the primary role of overseas adaptive R&D is to enhance the productivity of overseas subsidiaries through the use of parent firms' knowledge. In addition, we find no complementarity between home and overseas innovative R&D, i.e., no evidence that overseas innovative R&D raises the marginal effect of home R&D on home productivity. |
| Keywords: | overseas R&D activities, multinational enterprises, total factor productivity |
| JEL: | F23 O30 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:hstdps:d05-91&r=ino |
| By: | Nuno Crespo; Maria Paula Fontoura |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence about FDI spillovers to domestic firms has provided mixed results. This global evaluation has recently been complemented with the analysis of the factors that determine the existence, dimension and sign of FDI spillovers. We survey the arguments that support these factors and analyze the empirical evidence already produced. FDI spillovers depend on many factors, frequently with an indeterminate effect. Absorptive capacity of domestic firms and regions are a precondition for incorporating the benefits of FDI spillovers. Concerning the remaining factors, the results suggest opposite effects or, in some cases, are still insufficient to legitimate decisive conclusions. |
| Keywords: | productivity; spillovers; FDI; determinant factors. |
| JEL: | O12 F23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp62005&r=ino |
| By: | David Popp |
| Abstract: | This paper uses patent citation data to study flows of knowledge across time and across institutions in the field of energy research. Popp (2002) finds the level of energy-saving R&D depends not only on energy prices, but also on the quality of the accumulated knowledge available to inventors. Patent citations are used to represent this quality. This paper explores the pattern of citations in these fields more carefully. I find evidence for diminishing returns to research inputs, both across time and within a given year. To check whether government R&D can help alleviate potential diminishing returns, I pay special attention to citations to government patents. Government patents filed in or after 1981 are more likely to be cited. More importantly, descendants of these government patents are 30 percent more likely to be cited by subsequent patents. Earlier government research was more applied in nature and is not cited more frequently. |
| JEL: | O33 O38 Q40 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11415&r=ino |
| By: | Ernst R. Berndt; Adrian H. B. Gottschalk; Matthew W. Strobeck |
| Abstract: | In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agency is responsible for regulating the safety and efficacy of biopharmaceutical drug products. Furthermore, the FDA is tasked with speeding new medical innovations to market. These two missions create an inherent tension within the agency and between the agency and key stakeholders. Oftentimes, communications and interactions between regulated companies and the FDA suffer. The focus of this research is on the interactions between the FDA and the biopharmaceutical companies that perform drug R&D. To assess the current issues and state of communication and interaction between the FDA and industry, we carried out a survey of industry leadership in R&D and regulatory positions as well as senior leadership at the FDA who have responsibility for drug evaluation and oversight. Based on forty-nine industry and eight FDA interviews we conducted, we found that industry seeks additional structured and informal interactions with the FDA, especially during Phase II of development. Overall, industry placed greater value on additional communication than did the FDA. Furthermore, industry interviewees indicated that they were willing to pay PDUFA-like fees during clinical development to ensure that the FDA could hire additional, well-qualified staff to assist with protocol reviews and decision-making. Based on our survey and discussions, we uncovered several thematic opportunities to improve interactions between the FDA and industry and to reduce clinical development times: 1) develop metrics and goals at the FDA for clinical development times in exchange for PDUFA like fees; 2) establish an oversight board consisting of industry, agency officials, and premier external scientists (possibly at NIH or CDC) to evaluate and audit retrospectively completed and terminated drug projects; and 3) construct a knowledge database that can simultaneously protect proprietary data while allowing sponsor companies to understand safety issues and problems of previously developed/failed drug programs. While profound scientific and medical challenges face the FDA and industry, the first step to reducing development times and associated costs and facilitating innovation is to provide an efficient regulatory process that reduces unnecessary uncertainty and delays due to lack of communication and interaction. |
| JEL: | I1 H11 K23 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11425&r=ino |
| By: | Amanda H Goodall (Warwick University Business School) |
| Abstract: | If the best universities in the world – who have the widest choice of candidates – systematically appoint top researchers as their vice chancellors and presidents, is this one form of evidence that, on average, better researchers make better leaders? This paper addresses the first part of the question: are they currently appointing distinguished researchers? The study documents a positive correlation between the lifetime citations of a university’s president and the position of that university in a world ranking. The lifetime citations are counted by hand of the leaders of the top 100 universities identified by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in their ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities’ (2004). These numbers are then normalised by adjusting for the different citation conventions across academic disciplines. The results are not driven by outliers. This paper posits the theory that there are two central components involved in leading research universities: managerial expertise and inherent knowledge. It is suggested here that active and successful researchers may have greater inherent knowledge about the academy that in turn informs their role as leader. |
| Keywords: | leadership, research university presidents, citations, world university rankings. |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2005–06–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0506003&r=ino |