|
on Innovation |
| By: | Wong, Poh Kam; Lee, Lena; Foo, Maw Der |
| Abstract: | Prior studies have found that knowledge gained from work experience is a way to gather insights for business opportunity recognition. However, little is known about the specific types of knowledge that lead to business founding. Utilizing concepts from knowledge spillovers and from the opportunity recognition literatures, this paper argues that through an organization’s technological innovation activities, employees develop specialized knowledge that provides them with the entrepreneurial opportunities to found new businesses. Besides highlighting the positive relationship between technological innovation activities in organizations and the propensity of individuals leaving the organizations to start new businesses, this paper also provides a more fine-grained explanation of the types of technological innovation activities that can lead to business founding. We argue that knowledge acquired through product innovations is more easily appropriated by individuals for commercial uses, while knowledge acquired through process innovations must be integrated with other parts of the organization to be valuable. This study proposes that product innovation activities in an organization more so than process innovation activities in an organization are related to new business founding. Implications for opportunity exploitation and ways to appropriate knowledge spillovers are discussed. |
| JEL: | M0 M00 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2617&r=ino |
| By: | Christopher Palmberg |
| Abstract: | Nanotechnology has been proposed as the next general purpose technology and engine for growth for the 21th century. Increasing public R&D investments are foremost reflected in the growth of scientific publications, while nanotechnology still is in an uncertain phase of development with various directions of commercialization pending. This paper focuses on the challenge, modes and outcomes of nanotechnology as an emerging science-based field in Finland. The paper contributes by interrogating how challenges and modes of nanotechnology transfer differ across universities and companies and determine outcomes broadly defined. It uses an extensive survey data covering university and company researchers in the Finnish nanotechnology community. The results show significant differences in the perceptions of researchers across these organisations, and highlight specific challenges and modes as determinants of outcomes. The specificities of nanotechnology are also assessed in this context. |
| Keywords: | nanotechnology, technology transfer, Finland, survey data |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2007–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1086&r=ino |
| By: | Thomas Giebe (Institute of Economic Theory I, Humboldt University at Berlin Spandauer Str. 1, 10099 Berlin, Germany. thomas.giebe@wiwi.hu-berlin.de); Elmar Wolfstetter (Institute of Economic Theory I, Humboldt University at Berlin Spandauer Str. 1, 10099 Berlin, Germany. elmar.wolfstetter@rz.hu–berlin.de) |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the licensing of a non–drastic process innovation by an outside innovator to a Cournot oligopoly. We propose a new mechanism that combines a restrictive license auction with royalty licensing. This mechanism is more profitable than standard license auctions, auctioning royalty contracts, fixed–fee licensing, pure royalty licensing, and two-part tariffs. The key features are that royalty contracts are auctioned and that losers of the auction are granted the option to sign a royalty contract. Remarkably, combining royalties for winners and losers makes the integer constraint concerning the number of licenses irrelevant. |
| Keywords: | patents, licensing, auctions, royalty, innovation, R&D, mechanism design |
| JEL: | D21 D43 D44 D45 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:199&r=ino |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Glänzel, Wolfgang; Hussinger, Katrin |
| Abstract: | The growing importance of technology relevant non-publication output of university research has come into the focus of policy-makers’ interest. A fierce debate arose on possible negative consequences of the increasing commercialization of science, as it may come along with a reduction in research performance. This paper investigates the relationship between publishing as a measure of scientific output and patenting for German professors active in a range of science fields. We combine bibliometric/technometric indicators and econometric techniques to show that patenting positively correlates with, first, the publication output and, second, with publication quality of patenting researchers. |
| Keywords: | academic inventors, patents, publications |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5473&r=ino |
| By: | Cerquera Dussán, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the incentives to undertake uncertain R&D initiatives in a dynamic duopoly network industry. It is shown that network externalities positively affect the incentives to invest in R&D. In the model, competition resembles a preemption race and, therefore, market performance implies an overinvestment in R&D in comparison with the social optimum. Moreover, network externalities have an important impact in the dynamic evolution of the industry. Although in the long-run a single firm dominates the market (i.e. wins the race), short-run competition is very fierce and concentrated on neck-and-neck technological configurations. This short-run competition is fiercer and longer, the higher the level of network externalities. Policy measures that increase technological diffusion (i.e. mandatory licensing), increase the level of competition and/or prolong the short-run competition have an important positive impact on consumer welfare and on firms’ R&D incentives. |
| Keywords: | Network externalities, Innovation, Imperfect Competition, Dynamic Games |
| JEL: | C73 D85 L13 O31 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5487&r=ino |
| By: | Christine Greenhalgh; Mark Rogers |
| Abstract: | Economists view intellectual property rights (IPRs) as policy tools for encouraging innovation. There are many types of IPRs and of institutions concerned with their administration. We begin by outlining how these complex and varied rights are supposed to work and how they interact with other characteristics of firms and markets. We then survey the available literature on patents, trade marks and copyright to assess the value of these IPRs to firms and the costs to firms of acquiring and defending their rights. The paper concludes with suggestions for topics requiring further research to better inform public policy in this field. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Intellectual Property, Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:319&r=ino |
| By: | H. Peyton Young |
| Abstract: | New products and practices take time to diffuse, a fact that is often attributed to some form of heterogeneity among potential adopters. People may realize different benefits and costs from the innovation, or have different beliefs about its benefits and costs, hear about it at different times, or delay in acting on their information. This paper analyzes the dynamics arising from different sources of heterogeneity in a completely general setting without placing parametric restrictions on the distribution of the relevant characteristics. The structure of the dynamics, especially the pattern of acceleration, depends importantly on which type of heterogeneity is driving the process. These differences are sufficiently marked that they provide a potential tool for discriminating empirically among diffusion mechanisms. The results have potential application to marketing, technological change, fads, and epidemics. |
| Keywords: | Diffusion, Innovation, Learning |
| JEL: | O33 D8 M3 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:303&r=ino |
| By: | Toole, Andrew A.; Czarnitzki, Dirk |
| Abstract: | Do academic scientists bring valuable human capital to the companies they found or join? If so, what are the particular skills that compose their human capital and how are these skills related to firm performance? This paper examines these questions using a particular group of academic entrepreneurs – biomedical research scientists who choose to commercialize their knowledge through the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research Program. Our conceptual framework assumes the nature of an academic entrepreneurs’ prior research reflects the development of their human capital. We highlight differences in firm performance that correlate with differences in the scientists’ research orientations developed during their academic careers. We find that biomedical academic entrepreneurs with human capital oriented toward exploring scientific opportunities significantly improve their firms’ performance of research tasks such as “proof of concept” studies. Biomedical academic entrepreneurs with human capital oriented toward exploring commercial opportunities significantly improve their firms’ performance of invention oriented tasks such as patenting. Consistent with prior evidence, there also appears to be a form of diminishing returns to scientifically oriented human capital in a commercialization environment. Holding the commercial orientation of the scientists’ human capital constant, we find that increasing their human capital for identifying and exploring scientific opportunities significantly detracts from their firms’ patenting performance. |
| Keywords: | Academic Entrepreneurship, SBIR Program, Human Capital, Biotechnology |
| JEL: | D21 J24 L65 O32 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5498&r=ino |
| By: | Christine Greenhalgh; Mark Rogers |
| Abstract: | This paper uses novel data on trade mark activity of UK manufacturing and service sector firms to investigate whether trade marks improve the profitability and productivity of firms. We first analyse Tobin`s q, the ratio of stock market value to book value of tangible assets. We then investigate the relationship between trade mark activity and productivity, using a value added production function. Finally we examine interactions between firms IP activity, to explore creative destruction and growth via innovation. We find trade marks are positively related to both Tobin`s q and to productivity. Also in the short run greater IP activity by other firms in the industry reduces the value added of the firm, but this same competitive pressure has later benefits via productivity growth, also reflected in higher stock market value. This describes the Schumpeterian process of competition through innovation, restraining profit margins while increasing product variety and quality. |
| Keywords: | Trade Marks, Market Value, Productivity, Manufacturing, Services |
| JEL: | O30 L60 L80 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:300&r=ino |
| By: | Julia S. Cheney; Sherrie L.W. Rhine |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the characteristics of closed-system and open-system prepaid cards. Of particular interest is a class of open-system programs that offer a set of features similar to conventional deposit accounts using card-based payment applications. The benefits that open-system prepaid cards offer for consumers, providers, and issuing banks contribute to the increased adoption of these payment applications. Using these cards, consumers can pay bills, make purchases, and get cash from ATM networks. At the same time, consumers who hold prepaid cards need not secure a traditional banking relationship nor gain approval for a deposit account or revolving credit. By offering prepaid cards, issuing banks may meet the financial needs of consumers who may not otherwise qualify for more traditional banking products and these banks may do so with a card-based electronic payment application that essentially eliminates credit risk for the bank. |
| Keywords: | Payment systems |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpdp:06-07&r=ino |
| By: | Ioana Popovici (Department of Economics, Florida International University) |
| Abstract: | Open source (OS) licenses differ in the conditions under which licensors and OS contributors are allowed to modify and redistribute the source code. While recent research has explored the determinants of license choice, we know little about the impact of license choice on project success. In this paper, we measure success by the speed with which programming bugs are fixed. Using data obtained from SourceForge.net, a free service that hosts OS projects, we test whether the license chosen by project leaders influences bug resolution rates. In initial regressions, we find a strong correlation between the hazard of bug resolution and the use of highly restrictive licenses. However, license choices are likely to be endogenous. We instrument license choice using (i) the human language in which contributors operate and (ii) the license choice of the project leaders for a previous project. We then find weak evidence that restrictive licenses adversely affect project success. |
| Keywords: | open source software, property rights, copy-left |
| JEL: | L86 K39 O30 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fiu:wpaper:0704&r=ino |
| By: | Ferrer, Julian; Ríos, Manriquez |
| Abstract: | Knowledge management represents a field study with a growing interest in several areas. By this, it is necesary to make a detailed analyss about possible impacts in diferent perspectives. Specially, universities must be considered as knowledge managers in its own nature, under their main functions: research, academics, continue education. This work has a main objetive to determinate the KM organizational impact in universities. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge management; higher education; university |
| JEL: | D83 I21 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2622&r=ino |
| By: | Müller, Bettina |
| Abstract: | Academic spin-offs are one way in which employability of university graduates is reflected. Using the ZEW spinoff-survey, this paper studies empirically the impact of human capital on the success of academic spinoffs founding in knowledge and technology intensive sectors. The focus is thereby on the composition of human capital which is described according to whether or not the founders have studied several subjects and whether or not they all come from the same research establishment. Additionally the impact of having founded as a team is analyzed. Success is measured by employment growth. The findings suggest that it is advantageous to found within a team, but that the human capital composition both for single entrepreneurs and team foundations is rather irrelevant. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Human Capital, Entrepreneurship, Spin-off |
| JEL: | C12 L25 M13 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5474&r=ino |