nep-ino New Economics Papers
on Innovation
Issue of 2016‒01‒29
fourteen papers chosen by
Uwe Cantner
University of Jena

  1. Leading R&D Investors for the Dynamics of Innovation Ecosystems By Mafini Dosso; Fernando Hervas; Antonio Vezzani
  2. Innovator Mobility in Finland and Denmark By Bagger, Jesper; Maliranta, Mika; Määttänen, Niku; Pajarinen, Mika
  3. Innovation & the professional service firm: Insights into the Locus, Patterns, and Tensions of Innovation in a Fast-Growing Information Technology Consultancy in New Zealand By Lee, Darren
  4. China's pursuit of environmentally sustainable development: Harnessing the new engine of technological innovation By Wei Jin; ZhongXiang Zhang
  5. Evaluation of Research and Innovation Policies: The Case of Russian Universities By Mikhail A. Gershman; Galina A. Kitova
  6. Technological drivers of R&D location By Mafini Dosso; Antonio Vezzani
  7. Immigrant Diversity and Complex Problem Solving By Abigail Cooke; Thomas Kemeny
  8. Climate, Technological Change and Economic Growth By George Adu and Paul Alagidede
  9. Technological Progress, Employment and the Lifetime of Capital By Raouf Boucekkine; Natali Hritonenko; Yuri Yatsenko
  10. Digital Entrepreneurship Barriers and Drivers - The need for a specific measurement framework By Marc Bogdanowicz
  11. Farmers’ Adaptation: What Factors Affecting Agricultural Innovations? By Anastasova-Chopeva, Minka; Nikolov, Dimitre; Yovchevska, Plamena
  12. Are clusters more resilient in crises? Evidence from French exporters in 2008-2009 By Philippe Martin; Thierry Mayer; Florian Mayneris
  13. Long tails in the tourism industry : towards knowledge intensive service suppliers By Christian Longhi; Sylvie Rochhia
  14. Long-run estimates of interfuel and interfactor elasticities By Chunbo Ma; David I. Stern

  1. By: Mafini Dosso (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Fernando Hervas (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Antonio Vezzani (European Commission – JRC - IPTS)
    Abstract: This Policy brief discusses the key role of large R&D investors in the dynamics of innovation ecosystems. In a context of accelerated technological change and increasing global competition, firms should develop complex innovative solutions requiring the interaction of multiple-players. Therefore, knowledge integration becomes a key strategic dimension to keep the edge in the global competition and ecosystems of innovation are privileged ‘places’ where it can be organised in a way that ensures the creation of a higher collective value. Evidence shows that leading R&D investors can play a pivotal role in the establishment and development of such ecosystems, by bringing the necessary assets (resources, knowledge, capabilities and leadership) to activate their dynamics (along the three dimensions of interdependence, integration and initiative). This brief identifies a number of policy interventions to support the functioning of such innovation ecosystems and calls to tailor the interventions in accordance to the stage of development of the given ecosystem.
    Keywords: ecosystem of innovation, corporate R&D, knowledge integration
    Date: 2015–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc97270&r=ino
  2. By: Bagger, Jesper; Maliranta, Mika; Määttänen, Niku; Pajarinen, Mika
    Abstract: Abstract Workers have different abilities in research, development and innovation (R&D&I) activities. Firms have different “prospects for innovation”. Innovation is facilitated by matching innovators, i.e. workers that are specialized in R&D&I to firms with good prospects for innovation. Aggregate productivity growth requires that firms with the best prospects for innovation are quickly matched to innovators. The mobility of innovators is also important for positive knowledge spillovers to materialize. We use Finnish and Danish linked employer-employee data to study labour mobility, focusing on innovators. For Finland, Denmark is an interesting benchmark country because its labour market is generally considered very flexible. We find that overall labour mobility is significantly lower in Finland than in Denmark. However, relative to other occupation groups, innovators are actually more mobile in Finland than in Denmark. In Finland, innovators tend to cluster in firms that are among the most productive in their industry.
    Keywords: Research and development, innovation, occupational choice, labour mobility, innovator mobility, resource allocation
    JEL: J24 J62
    Date: 2016–01–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:48&r=ino
  3. By: Lee, Darren
    Abstract: This research investigated the locus of innovation through a time-frame of ten years for a fast growing, privately-owned New Zealand information technology professional service consultancy firm. Emergent patterns related to the firm’s innovations were analysed along with the classic consultancy conundrum - the management of tension between future-focused innovations or present-day profits. An in-depth single case study approach was employed where the units of analysis were each innovation of the firm. Semi-structured interviews of 23 current employees involved in innovation activities across all levels of the organisation were conducted. This led to the discovery that less innovation occurred at the inception of the firm where the priority was to sustain the business in the short term. As the firm matured, the rate of innovations increased. The locus of innovation shifted from Top-down to Bottom-up as the firm grew. Further analysis showed that Top-down innovations had a higher likelihood of resource allocation and scaling at the firm. The consultancy conundrum is a constant tension that will continue to exist for the firm. The firm employs a number of “semi-structures” both formal and informal in nature to manage that tension. The findings of this research present a case for an inverse pattern of innovation for privately-owned professional service firms – where innovation occurs at the later stages of the firm’s growth life-cycle.
    Keywords: Innovation, Consultancy, New Zealand,
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwmba:4933&r=ino
  4. By: Wei Jin (School of Public Policy and Management, Zheijang University); ZhongXiang Zhang (College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University)
    Abstract: Whether China continues its business-as-usual investment-driven, environment-polluting growth pattern or adopts an investment and innovation-driven, environmentally sustainable development holds important implications for both national and global environmental governance. Building on a Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans growth model that features endogenous technological change induced by R&D and knowledge stock accumulation, this paper presents an exposition, both analytically and numerically, of the mechanism underlining China’s economic transition from an investment-driven, pollution-intensive to an investment and innovation-driven, environmentally sustainable growth path. We show that if R&D technological innovation is incorporated into China’s growth mechanism, then at some tipping point in time when marginal welfare gain of R&D for knowledge accumulation becomes equalized with that of investment for physical asset deployment, China’s economy will launch capital investment and R&D simultaneously and make a transition to a sustainable growth path along which consumption, capital investment, and R&D have a balanced share of 5: 4: 1, consumption, capital stock, and knowledge stock all grow at a rate of 4.9%, and environmental quality improves at a rate of 2.5%. In contrast, if R&D technological innovation is not harnessed as a new growth engine, then China’s economy will follow its business-as-usual investment-driven growth path along which standalone accumulation of dirty physical capital stock will lead to a more than 200-fold increase in environmental pollution.
    Keywords: endogenous technological change; sustainable development; economic growth model; China’s economic transition
    JEL: Q55 Q58 Q43 Q48 O13 O31 O33 O44 F18
    Date: 2016–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:1601&r=ino
  5. By: Mikhail A. Gershman (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Galina A. Kitova (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: In recent years, evaluation and impact assessments (IA) of research and innovation (R&I) policies have become of interest both to researchers and policy makers. The latter use the results of such assessments when developing new regulations and monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of policies already in place. The practice and methodology of policy evaluation and IA are characterised by the diversity of approaches used and the existence of a number of unresolved methodological problems. At the same time, efforts are being made to define conceptual frameworks for policy evaluation and IA, categorise relevant studies and cases, and draft recommendations. This paper looks at public policies and programmes aimed at stimulating R&I in Russian universities. For this purpose, 299 universities were surveyed in 2013-2014 to reveal their demand for the relevant policies in 2006-2012 and the effects they had. Based on survey results we assess the impact of the policies on universities and suggest recommendations regarding the improvement of state regulations and further conduction of similar assessments.
    Keywords: university; research and innovation; policy; evaluation; impact assessment; Russia.
    JEL: O38
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:57sti2016&r=ino
  6. By: Mafini Dosso (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Antonio Vezzani (European Commission – JRC - IPTS)
    Abstract: We discuss the link between corporate R&D internationalization strategies and the countries' technological specialisation. Technological proximity and a country specialisation in emerging technologies are key technological determinants for the location of foreign R&D investments of MNCs. These results imply that countries' technological profiles shape the type of R&D activities they are able to attract. Important policy implications reside in the fact that emerging technologies often derive from the use of existing technologies for new purposes and that radical innovations steam from the (re)combination of mature and emerging technologies from different domains are presented. Accordingly, countries willing to attract R&D-based investments should facilitate the cross-fertilization of existing and new fields and industries.
    Keywords: International Knowledge seeking, Multinational Corporations (MNCs), Patents, Emerging Technologies, Technological Proximity
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc98311&r=ino
  7. By: Abigail Cooke; Thomas Kemeny
    Abstract: In the growing literature exploring the links between immigrant diversity and worker productivity, recent evidence strongly suggests that diversity generates productivity improvements. However, even the most careful extant empirical work remains at some remove from the mechanisms that theory says underlie this relationship: interpersonal interaction in the service of complex problem solving. This paper aims to `stress-test' these theoretical foundations, by observing how the relationship between diversity and productivity varies across workers differently engaged in complex problem solving and interaction. Using a uniquely comprehensive matched employer-employee dataset for the United States between 1991 and 2008, this paper shows that growing immigrant diversity inside cities and workplaces offers much stronger benefits for workers intensively engaged in various forms of complex problem solving, including tasks involving high levels of innovation, creativity, and STEM. Moreover, such effects are considerably stronger for those whose work requires high levels of both problem solving and interaction.
    Keywords: immigration, diversity, complex problem solving, spillovers, productivity, human capital
    Date: 2016–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:16-04&r=ino
  8. By: George Adu and Paul Alagidede
    Abstract: This paper investigates the incentive for developing adaptation technology in a world with changing climate within the directed technical change framework. Consistent with the market size effect, we show that technological change will tend to be biased in favour of the sector that employs the greater share of the work force over time, when the inputs are sufficiently substitutable. An economy with dominant climate sensitive sector can maintain sustained economic growth if it is capable of undertaking frontier innovations in the form of adaptation technology that increases the productivity of the inputs employed in the climate sensitive sector.
    Keywords: climate change, Climate sensitive sector, economic growth, Technological change
    JEL: O31 O32 O33 O44 Q55
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:572&r=ino
  9. By: Raouf Boucekkine (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM) - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Natali Hritonenko (Prairie View - A&M University); Yuri Yatsenko (School of business, Houston Baptist University - Houston Baptist University)
    Abstract: We study the impact of technological progress on the level of employment in a vintage capital model where: i) capital and labor are gross complementary; ii) labor supply is endogenous and indivisible; iii) there is full employment, and iv) the rate of labor-saving technological progress is endogenous. We characterize the stationary distributions of vintage capital goods and the corresponding equilibrium values for employment and capital lifetime. It is shown that both variables are non-monotonic functions of technological progress indicators. Technological accelerations are found to increase employment provided innovations are not too radical.
    Keywords: vintage capital,technological progress,employment,compensation theory
    Date: 2015–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01247351&r=ino
  10. By: Marc Bogdanowicz (European Commission – JRC - IPTS)
    Abstract: This report explores the concept of Digital entrepreneurship and 18 current measurement frameworks that support the empirical analysis of entrepreneurship, its determinants, performance and impacts. The report points at the current strengths and weaknesses of the existing measurement frameworks to address the issues of Digital entrepreneurship, and indicates possible ways forward.
    Keywords: ICT, Innovation, ICT Innovation, Entrepreneurship, ICT Entrepreneurship, Digital entrepreneurship, Measurement framework
    JEL: D01 L26 M13 O32 O33
    Date: 2015–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc96465&r=ino
  11. By: Anastasova-Chopeva, Minka; Nikolov, Dimitre; Yovchevska, Plamena
    Keywords: Agricultural innovations, intentions, socio-demographic factors, economic profile, innovative groups, Agricultural and Food Policy,
    Date: 2015–10–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa147:212249&r=ino
  12. By: Philippe Martin (Département d'économie); Thierry Mayer (Département d'économie); Florian Mayneris (Institut de recherches économiques et sociales)
    Abstract: Clusters have already been extensively shown to favor firm-level economic performance (productivity, exports, innovation etc.). However, little is known about the capacity of firms in clusters to resist economic shocks. In this paper, we analyze whether firms that agglomerate in clusters and firms that have been selected to benefit from the « competitiveness cluster » industrial policy, implemented in France in 2005, have performed better on export markets during the recent economic turmoil. We show that, on average, both agglomeration and the cluster policy are associated with a higher survival probability of firms on export markets, and conditioning on survival, a higher growth rate of their exports. However, these effects are not stronger during the 2008-2009 crisis; if anything, the opposite is true. We then show that this weaker resilience of competitiveness cluster firms is probably due to the fact that firms in clusters are more dependent on the fate of the « leader », i.e. the largest exporter in the cluster.
    Keywords: Clusters; Competitiveness clusters; Exports; Crisis; Resilience
    JEL: F1 R10 R11 R12 R15
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/55oar0vhn18ot8rb6sekvvcvt7&r=ino
  13. By: Christian Longhi (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Sylvie Rochhia (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: This paper analyses the effects of the Internet on the organizations and the markets in the tourism industry. It enlightens its deepening impact on incumbent organizations and markets from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 though the analysis of the dynamics of the long tail, i.e. of the distribution of activities in tourism. Innovation is gone from exploitation to exploration of the long tail, towards the emergence of non-profit or for-profit Knowledge Intensive Service Suppliers allowing ‘prosumers’ to find solutions to run themselves their activities, through users generated resources. Contrasting results appear, the growing autonomy of the tail from the head of distribution in the tourism industry, i.e. the development of global innovative market places inside the long tail itself, but still the reemergence of power laws, of tails within the tails as the basic shapes of activities in this platform economy. Skewed distributions appear indeed as the ‘normal’ characteristic of the economic activity, the traditional market one as well as the so-called ‘sharing’ one, which stands as a new form of the globalization
    Keywords: Tourism, Knowledge Intensive Service Suppliers, Sectoral Systems of Innovation and Production, Long Tail, Organization of the Industry, Internet
    Date: 2015–12–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01248302&r=ino
  14. By: Chunbo Ma (School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia); David I. Stern (Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University)
    Abstract: Meta-analyses of interfuel and capital-energy elasticities of substitution show that elasticity estimates are dependent on the type of data – time series, panel, or cross-section – and the estimators used. Econometric theory suggests that the between estimator might generate the best estimates of long-run elasticities but no existing estimates of elasticities of substitution have used it. Alternatively, Chirinko et al. argued in favor of estimating long-run elasticities of substitution using a long-run difference estimator. We provide estimates of China’s interfuel and interfactor elasticities of substitution using the between and long-run difference estimators. To address potential omitted variables bias, we add province level inefficiency and national technological change terms to our regression model. The results show that demand for coal and electricity in China is very inelastic, while demand for diesel and gasoline is elastic. With the exception of gasoline and diesel, there are limited substitution possibilities among the fuels. Substitution possibilities are greater between energy and labor than between energy and capital. The results are quite different to some previous studies for China but coincide well with the patterns found in meta-analyses for long-run estimates of elasticities of substitution.
    Keywords: energy; substitution; elasticity; demand; China
    JEL: D24 Q40
    Date: 2016–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:1602&r=ino

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