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on Innovation |
| By: | Fidel Pérez Sebastián (Universidad de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | This paper searches for the determinants of government-funded R&D. The goal is to disentangle whether the efficiency considerations overwhelmingly emphasized by the theoretical literature are indeed the main driving force behind public R&D expenditures. Another goal of the paper is to assess whether other types of innovation policy such as the degree of patent protection can have an impact on private R&D. I find that there are important differences between rich and poor nations at this respect. In particular, R&D-specific efficiency factors are not significant to explain public R&D in rich nations, whereas related variables such as the access to private credit and knowledge spillovers are important in less developed economies; in rich countries, public innovation effort can be better explained by the political economy variables that determine the size of governments. Private R&D, on the other hand, depends in high income economies on R&D policies that try to improve R&D efficiency, but is highly determined by government size in less income nations. Results suggest that more research on political economy theories of innovation is essential to understand R&D investment. |
| Keywords: | R&D, policy, market failures, political factors |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2011-17&r=ino |
| By: | Russell Thomson (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, and Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA), The University of Melbourne); Elizabeth Webster (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, and Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA), The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we consider why firms sometimes choose an external development path for their own inventions, despite the costs of contracting and the risks of opportunistic behaviour and expropriation. We model the probability that firms adopt an external development strategy using survey data from over 2700 Australian inventions. Our results indicate that firms pursue external development strategies in response to perceived project-level risk about the technical feasibility of the invention, especially when suported by confidence in the patent system. Our findings also confirm that small to medium size enterprises, highly leveraged large firms and firms with few co-specialized assets are more likely to pursue an external development strategy. |
| Keywords: | Outsourcing R&D, managing technological risk, licensing innovation |
| JEL: | O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2011n19&r=ino |
| By: | Ashish Arora; Lee G. Branstetter; Matej Drev |
| Abstract: | This paper documents a shift in the nature of innovation in the information technology (IT) industry. Using comprehensive data on all IT patents granted by the USPTO from 1983-2004, we find strong evidence of a change in IT innovation that is systematic, substantial, and increasingly dependent on software. This change in the nature of IT innovation has had differential effects on the performance of the IT industries in the United States and Japan. Using a broad unbalanced panel of US and Japanese publicly listed IT firms in the period 1983-2004, we show that (a) Japanese IT innovation relies less on software advances than US IT innovation, (b) the innovation performance of Japanese IT firms is increasingly lagging behind that of their US counterparts, particularly in IT sectors that are more software intensive, and (c) that US IT firms are increasingly outperforming their Japanese counterparts, particularly in more software intensive sectors. The findings of this paper thus provide a fresh explanation for the relative decline of the Japanese IT industry in the 1990s. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence consistent with the hypothesis that human resource constraints played a role in preventing Japanese firms from adapting to the shift in the nature of innovation in IT. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Technological change, IT industry, Software innovation, Japan |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd11-199&r=ino |
| By: | Purificacion Vicente Galindo (University of Salamanca, Spain, and CIEO, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal); Teresa de Noronha Vaz (CIEO, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Eric de Noronha Vaz (Institute of Statistics and Information Management, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and CIEO, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | Portuguese strategic choices regarding innovation and R&D policy have, over the past two decades, produced various positive achievements, in which the regions of Lisbon and Algarve have taken the lead, and are the only ones in the country to converge towards the European average growth rate. Regarding the other Portuguese regions - despite significant national growth rates in the 1990s as well as a successful attempt to cope with the EMU -, these are lagging behind the EU average with respect to gross production, investment or employment generation. Meanwhile, one of the greatest public policy efforts was to diffuse much of the European funds across the entrepreneurial sector. After a long pathway, it is now timely to evaluate the firms' contribution to national and regional growth, their obstacles and impacts. For the purpose of this paper, innovation is used here as a major contributor to the policy evaluation process referred to above. Our investigation aims to explain the present performance of Portuguese firms located throughout the country and to explore those innovation determinants that have a region-specific connotation. To provide a thorough investigation, our analysis defines, on a regional basis, a set of firmsâ?T behavioural patterns regarding innovation. In our modelling, we employ a new methodology, viz. the External Logistic Biplot method, which is applied to an extensive sample of innovative institutions in Portugal. Variables such as 'Promoting knowledge', 'Management skills', 'Promoting R&D', 'Knowledge transfer', 'Promoting partnership & cooperation', and 'Orientation of public measures' have been identified as crucial determinants in earlier studies and are now used to describe regional institutional profiles. Such profiles exhibit a great variety in the way they combine these determinants to promote regional innovation. The creation of a <I>gradient of capacity to dynamically innovate</I> associated with each firm makes it possible to analyse the innovation gradient of each region in Portugal. Our paper presents and systematically investigates these findings and then reaches some policy conclusions. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Firms' Performance; Regional Innovation Systems; Principal Coordinates Analysis; External Logistic Biplot; Voronoi Diagram; Dissimilarity Matrix |
| JEL: | O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110106&r=ino |
| By: | Naghavi, Alireza (University of Bologna); Strozzi, Chiara (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study theoretically and empirically the role of the interaction between skilled migration and intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection in determining innovation in developing countries (South). We show that although emigration from the South may directly result in the well-known concept of brain drain, it also causes a brain gain effect, the extent of which depends on the level of IPRs protection in the sending country. We argue this to come from a diaspora channel through which the knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad can flow back to the South and enhance the skills of the remaining workers there. By increasing the size of the innovation sector and the skill-intensity of emigration, IPRs protection makes it more likely for diaspora gains to dominate, thus facilitating a potential net brain gain. Our main theoretical insights are then tested empirically using a panel dataset of emerging and developing countries. The findings reveal a positive correlation between emigration and innovation in the presence of strong IPRs protection. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property rights, migration, technology transfer, brain gain, diaspora |
| JEL: | O34 F22 O33 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5864&r=ino |
| By: | Zhang, Rui; Sun, Kai; Delgado, Michael; Kumbhakar, Subal |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of Research and Development (R&D) on the productivity of China's high technology industry. In order to capture important differences in the effect of R&D on output that arise from geographic and socioeconomic differences across three major regions in China, we use a novel semiparametric approach that allows us to model heterogeneities across provinces and time. Using a unique provincial level panel dataset spanning the period 2000-2007, we find that the impact of R&D on output varies substantially in terms of magnitude and significance across different regions. Results show that the eastern region benefits the most from R&D investments, however it benefits the least from technical progress, while the western region benefits the least from R&D investments, but enjoys the highest benefits from technical progress. The central region benefits from R&D investments more than the western region and benefits from technical progress more than the eastern region. Our results suggest that R&D investments would significantly increase output in both the eastern and central regions, however technical progress in the central region may further compound the effects of R&D on output within the region. |
| Keywords: | China; Research and Development; Productivity; Semiparametric smooth coefficient model |
| JEL: | C14 L00 |
| Date: | 2011–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32507&r=ino |
| By: | Valente, Simone |
| Abstract: | An established result of the endogenous growth literature is that laissez-faire equilibria in expanding-varieties models are suboptimal due to the rent-effect: monopolistic pricing drives the equilibrium quantity of each intermediate input below the efficient level, implying that it is optimal to subsidize final producers. This paper shows that, if scale effects are eliminated by introducing R&D spillovers, normative prescriptions change. Since the laissez-faire economy under-invests into R&D activity, the share of resources devoted to intermediates' production increases and this reallocation effect contrasts the rent-effect. In many scenarios, including the polar case of logarithmic preferences, the reallocation effect surely dominates. The equilibrium quantity of each intermediate exceeds the optimal level and the optimal policy consists of taxing, instead of subsidizing fi nal producers because fi scal authorities must redirect the extra-output generated by under-investment towards R&D activity. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Growth; Scale Effects; R&D Externalities; Optimal Policy; |
| JEL: | O41 O31 |
| Date: | 2011–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32473&r=ino |
| By: | Thomas Cleff (Pforzheim University); Klaus Rennings (Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)) |
| Abstract: | In environmental policy first mover advantages for environmental technologies are often taken for granted. It is a popular view to see the state as a political entrepreneur who introduces a certain environmental policy instrument, e.g. feedin tariffs for renewable energies, and thus becomes the world market leader or the lead market for the respective technology. Against this background, this paper wants to find out if the idea of first mover advantages can be justified by theories and empirical evidence from industrial organization and business management studies. After a review of theoretical and empirical papers we see that first mover advantages are not confirmed by empirical evidence. Thereby the successful innovator is not necessarily the first but very often one of the early movers within the competition of different innovation designs. We show that the success of a timing strategy depends on country-specific lead market potentials, on market and technology characteristics and on the regime of the country-specific regulation. On this basis we derive options for environmental innovation strategies for firms under different circumstances of markets, technologies and regulations. We will see different implications for practical innovation management and innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | Lead markets, environmental innovation, first mover advantages,innovation strategies |
| JEL: | Q55 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp11-01&r=ino |
| By: | Malwina Mejer |
| Abstract: | Intensification of university-industry interactions raises concerns about the potential negative impact it may have on the pace of scientific progress. This paper analyzes the relationship between academic patenting, research collaboration and quality of scientic output in a panel of 268 patenting and non-patenting life-science researchers from five universities in Belgium. Results suggest that scientists benefit from research collaboration with industry as witnessed by higher productivity and higher annual citation frequencies. Patenting positively correlates with higher quality of scientific output, except when industry is directly involved in the patenting process. In contrast to previous studies we do not end a positive relationship between patenting and citations. |
| Keywords: | patenting; scientific publication; quality; collaboration |
| JEL: | I21 I23 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/93568&r=ino |
| By: | Laborda, Leopoldo; Guasch, Jose Luis; Sotelsek, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Increasingly, entrepreneurship is being discussed and considered as a source of high economic growth and competitiveness. A conceptual process of creative construction that characterizes the dynamics between entrants and incumbents can prove quite useful to analyze the impact of countries'entrepreneurship capital on economic performance and can be a guide for economic policy. This paper applies a Stochastic Frontier Analysis approach to test the hypothesis that entrepreneurship capital promotes economic performance by serving as a conduit of knowledge spillovers. In addition, kernel density functions are employed to analyze convergence (or divergence) in the efficiency estimated for individual countries. The empirical evidence and results here tend to support the hypothesis. Specifically, the empirical analysis shows that the rate of expenditure on research and development in relation to new businesses registered has a positive and significant effect in increasing technical efficiency. These factors facilitate the dissemination of existing knowledge, develop entrepreneurship capital, and thus provide the missing link to economic performance -- entrepreneurship capital. The authors also show the trends and dynamics of changes in countries’ technical efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Labor Policies,E-Business,Knowledge for Development |
| Date: | 2011–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5739&r=ino |