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on Innovation |
| By: | Massimiliano Volpi (Natural Environment Research Council, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, SN2 1EU, Swindon, United Kingdom.) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigated the role Universities play as sources of information for companies' innovation. This study compared the explanations proposed by the 'open innovation' literature with those suggested by the 'resource view' of the firm, concluding that the way 'open innovation' variables have been constructed should be questioned and the 'resource view' theory should be augmented with innovation motivations, as companies rely on universities to source knowledge not generally available within companies' technological paradigm. |
| Keywords: | green economy; environmental innovation; open innovation; universities. |
| JEL: | O32 Q55 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0514&r=ino |
| By: | Jens Horbach (University of Applied Sciences, Augsburg.) |
| Abstract: | Eco-innovations lead to less environmental impacts or to a reduction of energy use and are therefore crucial for climate protection. Recently, the determinants of eco-innovation activities have been widely explored for single countries but there is still a lack of country comparisons mainly because of data restrictions. In 2009, a special module on eco-innovation has been included in the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) allowing a comparison of the determinants of eco-innovation in 19 different European countries. Our analysis especially focuses on Eastern European transformation countries because the determinants of eco- innovation in these countries have not yet been systematically analyzed. Concerning the introduction of eco-innovation, the econometric analysis shows that regulation activities seem to be more important for Eastern European countries. This is especially the case for 'traditional fields'such as air, noise, soil, water, recycling or dangerous substances. Except energy saving measures, environmentally related subsidies seem to be quantitatively more important for the Eastern European countries pointing to the lower financial performance of the respective firms. Furthermore, Eastern European countries are more relying on competitors and external R&D as information sources indicating a technology transfer from West to East. |
| Keywords: | eco-innovation, probit models, country analysis. |
| JEL: | Q55 O33 C25 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0714&r=ino |
| By: | Tambo, Justice A.; Wünscher, Tobias |
| Abstract: | Innovation is essential for agricultural and economic development, especially in today’s rapidly changing global environment. While farmers have been recognised as one of the key sources of innovation, many studies on agricultural innovations continue to consider farmers as adopters of externally-driven innovations only. Based on cross-sectional data from 409 farm households, this study, in contrast, analyses the innovation-generating behaviour among rural farmers in northern Ghana. Inspired by two innovation theories – induced innovation and innovation systems – we focus on the determinants of innovation behaviour. Employing recursive bivariate probit and endogenous treatment-regression models which control for selection bias, we find that participation in Farmer Field Fora, a participatory extension approach with elements of the innovation systems perspective, is a key determinant of innovation behaviour in farm households. Other important determinants are education, climate shocks and risk preferences. These results are robust to alternative specifications and estimation techniques. We conclude that policies for the generation of innovations among farmers should focus on education, and on building innovation capacity through institutional arrangements that permit interactions and learning between stakeholders. |
| Keywords: | Determinants, Farmer Field Fora, farmer innovation, Ghana, induced innovation, innovation systems, Agribusiness, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty, Q12, Q16, |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc14:170351&r=ino |
| By: | Giovanni Marin (CERIS-CNR, National Research Council of Italy, Milan.); Alberto Marzucchi (CERIS-CNR, National Research Council of Italy, Milan.); Roberto Zoboli (CERIS-CNR, National Research Council of Italy, Milan.) |
| Abstract: | Eco-innovation is an explicit aim of major EU policy strategies. Many environmental policies de facto require firms to eco-innovate to comply with policy requirements, while the overlap between policy-driven and market-driven eco-innovation strategies is increasingly important for many firms. Barriers to eco-innovation can then emerge as a critical factor in either preventing or stimulating EU strategies, policy implementation, and 'green strategies' by firms. In this paper, we propose a taxonomy of EU SMEs in terms of barriers to eco-innovation. The aim is to discriminate among SMEs on how they differ in terms of perception of barriers and engagement in environmental innovation, thus highlighting the need to look at eco-innovation barriers in relation to firms' attitudes, technological and organizational capabilities, and strategies. We identify six clusters of SMEs. These clusters include firms facing 'Revealed barriers', 'Deterring barriers', 'Cost deterred' firms, 'Market deterred' firms, 'Non eco-innovators' and 'Green champions'. The clusters show substantial differences in terms of eco-innovation adoption. We show that our proposed taxonomy has little overlap with sector classifications. This diversity should be taken into account for successful environmental innovation policies. |
| Keywords: | eco-innovation, barriers to innovation, firm behaviour. |
| JEL: | O33 Q55 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0614&r=ino |
| By: | Lynne G. Zucker; Michael R. Darby |
| Abstract: | Research on intellectual property has focused on formal legally recorded rights that we call deeded, most often measured by granted patents. Meanwhile, other “defacto” IP (mainly purposive secrecy and natural excludability) has become more important because of the increasing closeness of commercial technologies to cutting edge science. A “corporate-academic” model has developed and become institutionalized over the last three decades which emphasizes attracting the best and brightest scientists, providing them with a commensurate increase in autonomy including initiation of bench-level collaborations with top university scientists in which valuable tacit knowledge is transferred in both directions. We provide suggestive evidence that both firm and university scientists learn from these collaborations, e.g., both types of scientists experience sharply higher patenting rates once they have engage in university-firm collaborations. We propose and test two indicators of adoption of the corporate-academic model, whether or not the firm has ever: (a) co-authored an article with a university scientist and (b) applied for (an eventually granted) patent with non-patent references, where these references are used importantly to cite scientific articles and other scientific materials. Both were robustly positive and statistically significant across four measures of U.S. high-tech firm success (publishing, patenting, obtaining venture capital, and going public) for six broad S&T areas (bio/chem/med, information technology, nanotechnology, semiconductors, other science, and other engineering). Star scientists publication as or with firm employees, SBIR grants received, and citation-weighted patents and articles all played comparatively supporting roles in the empirical estimates. We concluded that the most successful high-tech firms have adopted a strategy of operating near the edge of the scientific envelope where high levels of tacit knowledge provide substantial natural excludability reducing or preventing entry of imitators. |
| JEL: | J44 L25 L63 L64 L65 M13 O31 O32 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20249&r=ino |
| By: | Sodam Baek (College of Engineering, Seoul National University); Kibae Kim (College of Engineering, Seoul National University); Jorn Altmann (College of Engineering, Seoul National University) |
| Abstract: | As IT technology advanced, a new style of innovation emerged, in which a leading innovation company invites end-users to its open software service platform. With respect to this type of innovation, a lot of innovation studies were performed to understand the structure of the interaction among users and the platform provider from the perspective of network science. By concentrating only on the internal mechanisms among agents, the previous studies miss to consider innovation through collective intelligence. A platform provider plays an important role in the innovation. In this research, we investigate the structure of a service network with empirical data gathered from Salesforce.com AppExchange and discuss the role of a platform provider in innovation through collective intelligence. Our results suggest that the platform provider led the innovation in the initial period and, then, third party developers became gradually innovation leaders. Our findings are expected to re-orient the research focus from internal mechanisms to the role of platform providers. |
| Keywords: | Software Service Platform, Platform-as-a-Service, Network Analysis, Salesforce.com, Open Innovation. |
| JEL: | D85 L14 L15 L86 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snv:dp2009:2014112&r=ino |
| By: | Massimiliano Corradini (Dipartimento di Economia, Università di Roma Tre); Valeria Costantini (Dipartimento di Economia, Università di Roma Tre and SEEDS - Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamic Studies.); Massimiliano Mazzanti (Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Ferrara and SEEDS - Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamic Studies.); Susanna Mancinelli (Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Ferrara and SEEDS - Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamic Studies.) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a theoretical model in order to study how investment decisions in innovation taken by a single agent are influenced by environmental externalities produced by investment decisions taken by other agents. The model acts in a dynamic framework, where knowledge stock represents the capital good on which investment decisions are taken over time. Knowledge stock is considered as an impure public good which results in both public and private benefits. We first show that the reaction function between one representative agents' investments in innovation and the other agents' investments in the public characteristic of the impure public good has a positive slope under general conditions. We also find that its sensitiveness is affected by the elasticity of substitution in the benefit function as well as by the degree of complementarity between public and private characteristics. |
| Keywords: | impure public good, environmental externality, innovation. |
| JEL: | D21 H41 O33 Q53 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0814&r=ino |
| By: | Shaopeng Huang (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde); Darryl Holden (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | We consider, both theoretically and empirically, how different organization modes are aligned to govern the efficient solving of technological problems. The data set is a sample from the Chinese consumer electronics industry. Following mainly the problem solving perspective (PSP) within the knowledge based view (KBV), we develop and test several PSP and KNV hypotheses, in conjunction with competing transaction cost economics (TCE) alternatives, in an examination of the determinants of the R&D organization mode. The results show that a firm's existing knowledge base is the single most important explanatory variable. Problem complexity and decomposability are also found to be important, consistent with the theoretical predictions of the PSP, but it is suggested that these two dimensions need to be treated as separate variables. TCE hypotheses also receive some support, but the estimation results seem more supportive of the PSP and the KBV than the TCE. |
| Keywords: | Problem-solving perspective, knowledge-based view, firm boundaries |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1405&r=ino |
| By: | Oscar M. Valencia |
| Abstract: | R&D intensity for small firms is high and persistent over time. At the same time, small firms are often financially constrained. This paper proposes a theoretical model that explains the coexistence of these two stylized facts. It is shown that self-financed R&D investment can distort the effort allocated to different projects in a firm. In a dynamic environment, it is optimal for the firm to invest in R&D projects despite the borrowing constraints. In addition, this paper shows that beyond a certain threshold, effort substitution between R&D and production appears. When transfers from investor to entrepreneur are large enough, R&D intensity decreases with respect to financial resources. Conditional on survival, the more innovative and financially constrained firms are, faster they grow and exhibit higher volatility. Classification JEL: O41, 031, D86 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:828&r=ino |
| By: | Claudia Parisi (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Mauro Vigani (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Emilio Rodríguez Cerezo (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | Innovation is at the centre of the EU's growth strategy for the coming decade (EU2020). New technologies and their adoption by EU farmers are essential in maintaining European agriculture competitive in a global world. Within this context, nanotechnology represents an innovative technology with great potentials in many areas of applications as diverse as medicine, biotechnology, electronics, materials science and energy technologies. Furthermore, nanotechnology is showing a great potential in the agricultural sector, in particular for the development of more precise and effective methods for disease diagnosis and treatment in crop plants. The purpose of the workshop "Workshop on nanotechnology for the agricultural sector: from research to the field", held at JRC-IPTS (Seville) on 21st and 22nd November 2013, is to review the state-of-the-art of R&D of nanotechnology for the agricultural sector and to analyse possible markets and commercial pipeline of products. The scope is on nanotech-based products with applications in crop production (e.g. applications in plant protection products, fertilisation, soil structure, nano-sensors for biotic and abiotic stresses). This workshop brought together leading scientists, key stakeholders and experts, in order to promote the presentation of research and industry results and the discussion of experiences. |
| Keywords: | Nanotechnology, Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Risk assessment, Regulation, Food security, Innovation |
| JEL: | O13 O31 O34 Q13 Q16 Q18 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc89736&r=ino |
| By: | Claudia Ghisetti (Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Ferrara and SEEDS - Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamic Studies.); Francesco Quatraro (GREDEG-CNRS University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France) and BRICK, Collegio Carlo Alberto (Torino).) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical investigation of the effects of environmental innovations (EIs) on environmental performances, as proxied by the environmental productivity (EP) measure. We focused on sectoral environmental productivity of Italian Regions by exploiting the Regional Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts(Regional NAMEA). Patent applications have been extracted by the Patstat Database and assigned to the environmental domain by adopting three international classifications of green technologies: the WIPO IPC green inventory, the European Patent Office climate change mitigation technologies classification (Y02) and the OECD ENV-Tech indicators. Econometric results outline that regions-sectors characterized by higher levels of green technologies (GTs) are actually those facing better environmental performance. These positive effects directly stem from the introduction of GT in the same sector, as well as from the introduction of GT in vertically related sectors. |
| Keywords: | environmental performance, regional NAMEA, environmental innovation, green technologies, vertical relatedness. |
| JEL: | O33 Q53 Q55 Q56 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:1014&r=ino |
| By: | Borthwick, F A; Barnes, A P; Lamprinopoulou-Kranis, C |
| Abstract: | This paper compares innovation systems in three main Scottish livestock sectors: dairy, beef, and sheep, using the uptake of Estimated Breed Values (EBVs) across these three sectors. We apply an innovation systems approach to identify systemic challenges within these sectors. Barriers to the adoption of genetic techniques in all three sectors were identified through interviews with national experts and via a stakeholder workshop. Three types of barrier emerged: practical barriers – such as low fertility rates for artificial insemination in sheep; social barriers such as farmer’s scepticism; and market/supply chain barriers, such as limited information flow to farmers within the beef and sheep sectors. We use the innovation system failures framework developed by Weber and Rohracherb (2012) to identify the broad failures within these sectors such as information asymmetries, infrastructure and institutional failures. We show the dairy sector avoids some of these challenges, particularly practical barriers, and market/supply chain barriers. The attributes of the dairy innovation system which enable this are discussed such as data collection management, information on bulls frequently published, and the involvement of breed societies. Finally, solutions are suggested to resolve these innovation systems failures in the livestock sectors. |
| Keywords: | Innovation systems, Estimated Breed Values, Dairy, Beef, Sheep, Systemic failures, Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q1, |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc14:169745&r=ino |
| By: | Polterovich, Victor; Tonis, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The concepts of absorptive capacity and innovative capability have been introduced to describe abilities of a country to imitate and, accordingly, to create more advanced technologies. In this paper we suggest new indicators of these two abilities. To calculate them, we develop an endogenous growth model and an estimation procedure that combines both calibration and econometric approaches. The choice of parameters is based on WDI, ICRG and Barro–Lee statistical data for the period of 1981-2005. As a result, the model generates trajectories of 63 countries and, for most of them, gives qualitatively correct pictures of their evolution dependently on their initial states as well as on their absorptive capacity and innovative capability indicators. In particular, club convergence is demonstrated. The calculations affirm our hypotheses about shapes of absorptive capacity and innovative capability dependence on the relative productivity level, human capital, institutional quality and some other factors. |
| Keywords: | imitation, innovation, catching-up development, foreign direct investment, human capital, equilibrium, evolution of countries distribution |
| JEL: | O33 O41 O43 O57 |
| Date: | 2014–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:56855&r=ino |