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on Innovation |
| By: | Jing-Yuan, Chiou |
| Abstract: | Intellectual giants provide broad shoulders for subsequent inventors. Their unfinished inquiry, however, also casts shadow on the prospect of future research. This paper incorporates this shadow effect into a two-stage innovation process and shows that patenting the first-stage result (the basic invention) may enhance the second-stage innovation. It is optimal to reject patent protection to the basic invention only when this beneficial effect does not arise, and when it is essential to preserve the pioneering inventor's incentive to continue research activities. |
| Keywords: | Cumulative Innovation; Patentable Subject Matter; Probabilistic Patents; Search; Shadow Effect |
| JEL: | O34 O31 K39 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37033&r=ino |
| By: | Emmanuel Duguet (ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l'Utilisation des Données Individuelles Temporelles en Economie - Université Paris XII - Paris Est Créteil Val-de-Marne : EA437 - Université Paris Est Marne-la-Vallée) |
| Abstract: | We study, at the firm level, whether the incremental R&D tax credit increases the private funding of R&D. In order to answer this question, we use the yearly surveys of the Ministry of Research over the period 1993-2003, as well as the corresponding firm-level tax files. The main issue is whether the firms would have increased their R&D expenditures without this tax incentive. We make use of the Rubin methodology. In a first step, we study the determinants of the probability to benefit from the R&D tax credit, that is the selection process at work in the recipients' sample. We find that the probability to obtain a R&D tax credit increases with the R&D/Sales ratio and decreases with the direct R&D subsidies. Once we have evaluated the probability to get the R&D tax credit, we are able to correct for the selection bias. In a second step, we evaluate the effect of the incremental R&D tax credit on the private funding of research (once subtracted the direct subsidies from all the ministries). We find that, overall, the tax credit adds to the private funding of R&D: 1 Euro of tax credit would give slightly more than one Euro of total R&D. We also find that the incremental R&D tax credit increases the growth of the number of researchers. |
| Keywords: | tax credit, evaluation, research and development |
| Date: | 2012–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00674546&r=ino |
| By: | Allen, Stuart D. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Layson, Stephen K. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); L, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a systematic analysis of the net economic benefits associated with the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We offer a derivation of producer and consumer surplus to estimate economic benefits. Fundamental to the implementation of these models is a specific value of the elasticity of demand, but in its absence we estimate what its value would be when the benefit-to-cost ratio associated with public support of the SBIR program equals unity. We infer from these calculations, and from general knowledge about the ability of SBIR-funded firms to exploit their monopoly position, that the SBIR program likely generates positive net economic benefits to society. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Technology; SBIR Program; Benefit-to-cost Ratio; Program Evaluation; Producer Surplus; Consumer Surplus |
| JEL: | H43 O22 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2012_004&r=ino |
| By: | Stuart McDonald (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Mohamad Alghamdi; Bernard Pailthorpe |
| Abstract: | In a seminal paper, Goyal and Moraga-Gonzalez (2001) use an undirected network to characterize knowledge flows between firms engaging in research in an oligopolistic market. In their paper, firms are regarded as inhabiting a research joint venture (RJV), if they share the same edge of the network. These firms are allowed an R&D spillover of 1; the outside firms (firms not sharing an edge in the network) are permitted a constant knowledge spillover that is less than one. We begin our paper by showing that this last assumption has important consequences when dealing with R&D networks of size greater than or equal to six firms. We present examples of topologically non-equivalent networks that have the same degree of connectivity and generate identical outcomes in terms of R&D effort, firm profits and total welfare. We then modify their model so that R&D spillovers decrease as the number of shortest paths increases between any two firms. We show that under product differentiated Cournot and Bertrand competition, we have different outcomes for all economic variables. We also show that R&D effort increases with respect to the number of collaborative links if firms are in a weakly competitive market, whereas it declines if firms are in a more competitive market where products are closer substitutes. We also find that in more competitive markets there is a conflict between the stability and the efficiency of RJVs. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:454&r=ino |
| By: | Moodysson, Jerker (CIRCLE, Lund University); Zukauskaite, Elena (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with institutional conditions in regional innovation systems; how institutions affect the organization of innovation activities among firms, and in what ways regional policy initiatives can be supportive. The analysis draws on data on innovation networks and activities in the life science, media, and food industries. The theoretical framework takes account of the ways in which regional policies are able to impact individuals’ and organizations’ action in relation to each other by being internalized. It is argued that such ability is decisive for the success or failure of the policy initiative. Three cases of regional policy targeting the promotion of innovation in different industries in Sweden are analyzed. |
| Keywords: | regional innovation systems; knowledge; institutions; innovation; policy |
| JEL: | O38 O52 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2011_013&r=ino |
| By: | Hiroyuki Kasahara; Katsumi Shimotsu; Michio Suzuki |
| Abstract: | To what extent does a tax credit affect firms' R&D activity? What are the mechanisms? This paper examines the effect of the 2003 Japanese tax credit reform on firms' R&D investment by exploiting cross-sectional variation across firms in the changes in the effective tax credit rate between 2002 and 2003. When we use the benchmark sample to estimate the first-difference equation between 2002 and 2003, our estimate for the elasticity of R&D investment with respect to the effective tax credit rate is 2.05% with a standard error of 0.60, and the estimated effect of the R&D tax credit on R&D investment is significantly larger for small firms with relatively large outstanding debts. When we use different methods and different samples, we find mixed evidence for the positive effect of the R&D tax credit, but an interaction term between the effective tax credit rate and the debt-to-asset ratio is always estimated to be significant for small firms, providing robust evidence for the role of financial constraint in determining the effect of the R&D tax credit. |
| Keywords: | R&D, Tax Credit, Fnancial Constraint, Japan |
| JEL: | D22 H25 H32 K34 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd11-220&r=ino |
| By: | Chaminade, Cristina (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Using firm-level data collected through a survey and case studies in 2009-2010, this article systematically compares the patterns of globalization of innovation in regions with different institutional thickness. The paper shows that these patterns differ substantially across regions and discusses relationship between regions, institutional frameworks and different forms of globalization of innovation. |
| Keywords: | regional innovation systems; institutional thickness; global innovation networks; Europe; China; India; Brazil; South Africa |
| JEL: | F23 F59 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2011_015&r=ino |
| By: | Donatella Baiardi (Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Pavia) |
| Abstract: | The paper explores the relationship between per capita income and three air pollutants, CO, NMVOCs and SOx, using a novel dataset based on the Italian regions. Given the central role of technological progress in long-term environmental problems, we empirically investigate the influence of innovation on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The estimation results validate the EKC hypothesis for the three air pollutants considered. Furthermore, the influence of innovation on the inverted-U-shaped curve identified by the theoretical literature is empirically confirmed too. |
| Keywords: | Air pollutants, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Italian regions, Technological Progress. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pav:wpaper:156&r=ino |
| By: | Audretsch, David B. (Indiana University); Leyden, Dennis P. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Economic development practitioners and scholars recognize the link between universities and regional economic development. It is predicated on the spillover of knowledge from universities to commercialization. The literature has focused on the supply side, which involves university research and technology transfer mechanisms. We examine the role played by the demand for university-based knowledge and university-developed technology. We identify links between businesses and the university as a key conduit facilitating the spillover of knowledge using data on the Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We provide supply-side evidence on university research relationships and how the use of knowledge and technologies that flow from a university impact economic growth. We identify the role that SBIR-funded businesses play in the spillover of knowledge from the creating organization to where that knowledge is used and commercialized. Our results suggest that knowledge is systematically transmitted through university-related research. |
| Keywords: | Economic development; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Licensing; SBIR program; University research |
| JEL: | L26 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2012–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2012_003&r=ino |
| By: | Roberto Alvarez; Gustavo Crespi; Conrado Cuevas |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of two public programs, FONTEC and FONDEF, aimed at fostering innovation in Chilean firms. With the cooperation of several public agencies, participants and non-participants in these programs during the period 1995-2000 were identified from a large panel of firms in the manufacturing sector. From this information, the effect of the programs could be determined using propensity score matching (PSM) and differences in differences (DID) in a multiple treatment setting. Results show that these programs have generally been associated with increases in employment and productivity, but the impact is heterogeneous across programs and indicators of firm performance. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Science & Technology :: Research & Development, Public Sector, IFD, CTI, innovation, policy evaluation, employment, wages, productivity |
| JEL: | D22 L2 O3 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:62658&r=ino |
| By: | O.A. Carboni |
| Abstract: | This paper employs individual firm data in order to check the existence of industry-spatial effects alongside other microeconomic determinants of R&D investment. Spatial proximity is defined by a measure of firms’ industry distance based on trade intensity between sectors. The spatial model specified here refers to the combined spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances (SARAR). In modelling the outcome for each location as dependent on a weighted average of the outcomes of other locations, outcomes are determined simultaneously. The results of the spatial two stage least square estimation suggest that in their R&D decision firms benefit from spillovers originating from neighbouring industries. |
| Keywords: | spatial weights; spatial dependence; spatial models; R&D |
| JEL: | O10 O31 R11 C31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201204&r=ino |
| By: | Rekers, Josephine V. (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | What are the forces that shape the adoption of innovations? This question has been sidelined in a largely production-centric literature on the economic geography of innovation. Inspired by Weber’s dual concern with procurement and distribution activities in the location of industry, this paper examines the new nature of distances products must overcome en route to the market, and the resources that are necessary to do this successfully. Building on findings in sociology, this paper suggest a consumption-centric perspective and future research on innovation in the knowledge-based economy, which foregrounds the significance of actors that are able to validate new products. |
| Keywords: | innovation adoption and diffusion; consumption; sociology of scientific knowledge; Alfred Weber; knowledge economy |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2011_014&r=ino |
| By: | Stuart McDonald (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Joanna Poyago-Theotoky |
| Abstract: | This paper performs a comparison of two well known approaches for modelling R&D spillovers associated with investment in E-R&D, namely dAspremont-Jacquemin and Kamien-Muller-Zang. We show that there is little qualitative difference between the models in terms of total surplus delivered when selecting the optimal tax regime when there is precommitment under cooperative regimes in which firms coordinate expenditures to maximize joint profits. However, under non-cooperative regimes there is marked difference, with the model of Kamien- Muller-Zang leading to higher taxation rates when firms share information. Furthermore, we argue that the Kamien-Muller-Zang model is of questionable validity when modelling R&D on emissions reducing technology due to counter intuitive results showing a positive relationhip between R&D spillovers and emissions taxes. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:455&r=ino |
| By: | Chaminade, Cristina (CIRCLE, Lund University); Plechero, Monica (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The access to global innovation networks (GINs) has been extremely unequal across regions around the globe. While certain regions are considered knowledge hubs, able to link to global knowledge flow, other still remain marginalized, pointing out to the role of regional innovation systems in the emergence and development of GINs. Using firm-level data collected through a survey and case studies in 2009-2010, this article systematically compares the patterns of global networks in the ICT industry in a selection of European and non-European regions. Contrary to what we expected, the results show that GINs may emerge in regions which are neither too innovative nor institutionally thick (like Tier 1) nor too thin (like Tier 3). |
| Keywords: | globalization; innovation networks; regions; Europe; India China |
| JEL: | O32 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2012_002&r=ino |
| By: | Priit Vahter (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham); James Love (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham); Stephen Roper (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Centre, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Traditionally, literature on open innovation has concentrated on analysis of larger firms. We explore whether and how the benefits of openness in innovation are different for small firms (less than 50 employees) compared to medium and large ones. Using panel data over a long time period (1994-2008) from Irish manufacturing plants, we find that small plants have on average significantly lower levels of openness, a pattern which has not changed significantly since the early 1990s. However, the effect of ‘breadth’ of openness (i.e. variety of innovation linkages) on innovation performance is stronger for small firms than for larger firms. For small firms (with 10-49 employees) external linkages account for around 40 per cent of innovative sales compared to around 25 per cent in larger firms. Small plants also reach the limits to benefitting from openness at lower levels of breadth of openness than larger firms. Our results suggest that small firms can gain significantly from adopting an open innovation strategy, but for such firms appropriate partner choice is a particularly important issue. |
| Keywords: | Open innovation; SMEs; boundary-spanning linkages; learning effects; Ireland |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sme:wpaper:113&r=ino |
| By: | Giorgio Matteucci (Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "Antonio Ruberti" Sapienza, Universita' di Roma); Pierfrancesco Reverberi (Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "Antonio Ruberti" Sapienza, Universita' di Roma) |
| Abstract: | It is widely argued that international arbitrage, or parallel trade (PT), trades off static against dynamic efficiency so that, compared with a national exhaustion regime of intellectual property rights, worldwide consumer surplus rises at the expense of R&D investment. We show that this common wisdom is rather the exception than the rule. Indeed, quality investment often rises under international exhaustion, since it strengthens vertical differentiation between the original product and parallel imports. In this case, there is no trade-off at all, so that encouraging PT improves welfare, or the reverse trade-off occurs where investment increases and consumer surplus declines, while PT has ambiguous welfare effects. We find that, when allowed to use dual pricing, the R&D firm artificially restores national exhaustion. We also find that the expected trade-off never occurs under non-linear pricing and when the foreign country is regulated, although in such cases welfare rises when PT is banned. |
| Keywords: | Parallel trade; Intellectual Property Rights; R&D investment; Vertical contract; Regulation |
| JEL: | L12 L43 F15 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:wpaper:2011-5&r=ino |
| By: | [no author] |
| Abstract: | Regulation in pharmaceutical markets is pervasive in most countries, especially in Europe. The nature of existing regulations is diverse, as they serve a number of purposes: guaranteeing safety, efficacy and security of drug usage; but also ensuring patients access to treatment, preserving affordability and fostering pharmaceutical innovation. A number of regulatory interventions are purposely designed to bring about more efficient pharmaceutical markets. These interventions are ultimately intended to increase welfare for patients today and patients tomorrow. Welfare today requires ensuring patients access to existing pharmacological treatment at an affordable cost. Welfare tomorrow requires ensuring a continued effort on research and development to produce pharmaceutical innovations that respond to currently unmet medical needs. The chapters of this thesis focus on a number of regulatory interventions that attract notable attention due to their effect on access, affordability and innovation. These include the regulation of pharmaceutical parallel trade, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and off-patent pharmaceutical markets. By assessing the impact of public interventions on market outcomes and patients welfare, this thesis aims at contributing to the debate about optimal regulation of pharmaceutical markets. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:euiflo:urn:hdl:1814/20696&r=ino |
| By: | Stergios Athanassoglou (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change); Valentina Bosetti (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change) |
| Abstract: | Optimal R&D investment is defined by deep uncertainty that can only partially be addressed through historical data. Thus, expert judgments expressed as subjective probability distributions are seen as an alternative way of assessing the potential of new technologies. In this paper we propose a simple decision-theoretic framework that takes into account ambiguity over expert opinion and helps decision makers visualize the full range of R&D outcomes given a particular level of ambiguity. Our model is intuitive, captures decision makers' ambiguity attitudes, and enables simple sensitivity analysis across levels of ambiguity. We apply our framework to original data from a recent expert elicitation survey on solar technology. The analysis suggests that ambiguity plays an important role in assessing the potential of a breakthrough in solar technology given different R&D investments. |
| Keywords: | Ambiguity, Expert Elicitation, Convex Optimization, Solar Energy |
| JEL: | C61 D81 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.04&r=ino |
| By: | Jacques Kibambe Ngoie (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Arnold Zellner (Booth School of Business, University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the production process of scientific outputs and its implications on the U.S. economy using variants of a disaggregated Marshallian Macroeconomic Model (MMM). Federal spending on scientific activities produces innovation which we measure using the number of patents awarded. Additionally, this study makes use of the Bass diffusion model to investigate how innovative patents generate new products that attract new firms in existing sectors of the U.S. economy. Firms are assumed to be Bayesian learners while forming expectations about product prices. Using a set of policy simulations, this research provides measured information on how selected science policies may affect sectoral growth of the U.S. economy. Moreover, issues such as bifurcation pertaining to dynamic models are thoroughly addressed in this paper. Among others, our findings suggest that federal spending on applied research has larger shortrun growth enhancement effects than spending on development or basic research. The return of current federal spending on applied research depends largely on past spending on basic research, something that is well captured through the lag structure imposed in our model. Recipients of federal grants for basic research often lay foundation for outstanding applied research. |
| Keywords: | Disaggregated Marshallian Macroeconomic Model, Bass Diffusion Model, Transfer Functions, and Bayesian Learners |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201207&r=ino |
| By: | Santamarmía, Lluís; Nieto, María Jesús; Miles, Ian |
| Abstract: | The ways in which manufacturing firms come to offer services to customers – servitisation or servicisation – are attracting considerable attention. This paper examines an innovation survey of Spanish firms in order to investigate one aspect of this phenomenon: the introduction of new or improved services by manufacturers. Specifically, the paper analyses the determinants of service innovations in manufacturers and determines whether they differ from those of product or process innovations in these same firms. The study finds that almost 20 percent of the firms in the sample have introduced such services in the recent past and that important differences exist between service and product (goods) innovations, with service innovations being particularly related to human resource development and closer links to customers. This suggests that service innovation by manufacturers has much in common with the innovation patterns detected in service sector firms. Intriguing differences across manufacturing sectors are also noted, with the lowest- and highest-tech sectors reporting more service innovations than the medium-tech sectors |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Manufacturing; Service; Servitisation; |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:carlos:info:hdl:10016/13490&r=ino |
| By: | MORIKAWA Masayuki |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between the use of stock options and productivity by employing firm-level panel data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities. According to the analysis, the use of stock options has a positive impact on firm productivity. Productivity steadily increases after the adoption of stock options. In addition, we found suggestive evidence that R&D investment increases after the introduction of stock options. These results imply that the deregulation on the use of stock options in 1997 and the subsequent legal reforms have had positive contributions to the productivity performance of Japanese firms. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:12011&r=ino |
| By: | Barbera, David; Consoli, Davide |
| Abstract: | The persistent uncertainty that looms over the search for solutions to health problems offers important conceptual insights for the study of technological change. This paper explores the notion of hybridization, namely the embodiment of multiple competing operational principles within a single medical device, as strategy to deal with the practical shortcomings due to said uncertainty. The history of the development of the hybrid artificial disk affords the elaboration of an alternative view of hybridization and, at the same time, the articulation of a dualism between medical science as area of basic research (e.g. what disease is) and as practical knowledge (e.g. how disease can be tackled). |
| Keywords: | Medical innovation; Hybridization; Uncertainty; Technological evolution; Implantable medical devices |
| Date: | 2011–12–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201112&r=ino |
| By: | Kawakami, Momoko |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the process of creation of the netbook market by Taiwanese firms as an example of a disruptive innovation by latecomer firms. As an analytical framework, I employ the global value chain perspective to capture the dynamics of vertical inter-firm relationships that drive some firms in the chain to change the status quo of the industry. I then divide the process of the emergence of the netbook market into three consecutive stages, i.e. (1) the launch of the first-generation netbook by a Taiwanese firm named ASUSTeK, (2) the response of the two powerful platform leaders of the industry, Intel and Microsoft Intel, to ASUSTeK’s innovation, and (3) the market entry by another powerful Taiwanese firm, Acer, and explain how Taiwanese firms broke the Intel-centric market and tapped into the market-creating innovation opportunities that had been suppressed by the two powerful platform leaders. I also show that the creation of the netbook industry was an evolutionary process in which a series of responses by different industry players led to changes in the status quo of the industry. |
| Keywords: | Taiwan, Information services industry, Computer, Industrial technology, Marketing, Market share, Industrial management, Disruptive innovation, Latecomer firms, Global value chains, The PC industry |
| JEL: | L63 O51 O53 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper325&r=ino |
| By: | Brandt, Tasso (Fraunhofer ISI); Schubert, Torben (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we argue that the emergence of the dominant model of university organization, which is characterized by a large agglomeration of (often loosely affiliated) many small research groups, might have an economic explanation that relates to the features of the scientific production process. In particular, we argue that there are decreasing returns to scale on the level of the individual research groups, which prevent them from becoming to large, while we argue for positive agglomeration effects on the supra-research-group-level inside the university. As a consequence an efficient university organization would precisely consist of tying together many small individual research groups without merging them. Basing our empirical analysis on a multilevel dataset for German research institutes from four disciplines we are able to find strong support for the presence of these effects. This suggests that the emergence of the dominant model of university organization may also be the result of these particular features of the production process, where the least we can say is that this model is under the given circumstances highly efficient. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration effects; scientific production; returns to scale; university organization; efficiency |
| JEL: | D24 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2012_001&r=ino |
| By: | Vincent Mangematin (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Khalid Errabi (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)) |
| Abstract: | There is growing academic and policy interests in the factors that underpin the formation and the growth of clusters, especially for such 'hyped up' scientific and technological fields as the nanotechnologies. This paper analyses the determinants of scientific cluster growth (measured by the number of publications that emanate there from), distinguishing between structural effects (i.e. initial cluster size, scientific field composition and geographic location) on the one hand and its scientific variety, organizational diversity and degree of openness (in terms of collaboration with outside actors) on the other. Overall, scientific variety enhances clusters growth, but organizational diversity slows it down. However, patterns of growth are different in Asia, Europe and North America. It seems that cluster evolution is highly contingent on national systems of innovation and on the history of collaboration amongst local actors. Policy makers and cluster strategists must design specific policies by zone, and should not simply attempt to replicate best practices from one zone to another. Slow growth may reflect also 'elitist' strategies - those based on quality rather than on numbers |
| Keywords: | cluster growth; nanotechnology; scientific district; publication |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00526701&r=ino |