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on Innovation |
| By: | Johannes van der Pol; Jean-Paul Rameshkoumar; Sarah Teulière; Thierry Bazerque |
| Abstract: | In France, Regions do not make their own innovation policies, this is the role of the State. A Region implements national policies and uses grants and subsidies to create and dynamize innovation eco-systems important for its economic development. The Region’s role is therefore largely influential. In order to influence one needs to how and when to exert this influence. A precise understanding of an innovation eco-system is therefore of vital importance. On the occasion of the venue of a Nobel laureate to the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine the regional counsel aimed to connect her with the regional innovation eco-system around her research. The purpose of this paper is to show methods and techniques using patents, scientific publications and non-patent literature citations that can help with the identification of an innovation eco-system and how to integrate a researcher into this eco-system. |
| Keywords: | NPL ; Technology Intelligence ; Patents ; innovation networks |
| JEL: | R11 O34 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:bdxewp:2021-04&r=all |
| By: | WASHIMI Kazuaki (Bank of Japan) |
| Abstract: | With the declining birthrate and ageing population and a decline in the working age population in Japan, Japanese firms face the need to strengthen innovation including the digital domain. Expectations are particularly high for startups as they play a vital role in creating innovative technology. In recent years, there have been a number of initiatives such as expediting patent examinations and introducing an open innovation tax incentive in Japan. It is expected that venture capital (VC) funds will play a pivotal role in providing financing for growth so that startups can continue research and development. On the other hand, due in part to data constraints, there has been limited research on startup innovation on a comprehensive scale and virtually no earlier literature on the impact of VC investments on innovation by portfolio companies in Japan. This paper summarizes those two issues with a focus on the number of patent applications as a proxy for innovation, and it also discusses challenges that lie ahead. First, taking a look at patent applications by startups, around 40 percent of startups have applied for a patent—albeit with significant variation across firms—which appears a much higher proportion than existing firms. An estimate of the impact of VC investments on innovation suggests that in about 60 percent of cases, the number of patent applications by portfolio companies significantly increased compared to a control group. While care should be taken in interpreting those studies as the results vary from firm to firm, these successful cases reflect the possibility that financing and management support including intellectual property management from VC funds could have contributed to an increase in patent applications. Challenges ahead include: (1) expanding investments in VC funds by institutional investors; (2) increasing opportunities for startups to go public in a way that encourages sustainable growth; and (3) establishing intellectual property strategies while maintaining and developing professional human resources in relevant areas. |
| Keywords: | Venture Capital; Innovation; Synthetic Control; Bayesian Structural Time Series |
| JEL: | G24 M13 O3 |
| Date: | 2021–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boj:bojron:ron210312a&r=all |
| By: | Naudé, Wim (University College Cork); Nagler, Paula (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we describe the historical co-evolution of innovation and economic growth in Germany since 1871. The country's rise as an industrial power in the late 19th century, through its innovation and entrepreneurial performance, is contrasted with the post-World War II period. This latter period, although it contained the German economic miracle, was nevertheless a period during which innovation went into relative decline. We document this decline and offer four broad, interrelated explanations: (i) an innovation system locked into incremental innovation, (ii) a slowdown in the diffusion of technology, (iii) weaknesses in the education system, and (iv) entrepreneurial stagnation. Implications for policy are noted. Our paper contributes to the growing literature attempting to understand the decline in business dynamism that characterises many advanced economies. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, inequality, innovation, productivity, technology |
| JEL: | D31 L26 O33 O38 O52 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14154&r=all |
| By: | Emile Cammeraat (OECD); Lea Samek (OECD); Mariagrazia Squicciarini (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on the relationship between innovation, human capital endowment and upgrading, organisational capital (OC) and labour productivity. In addition to assessing correlations, it uses a Heckman selection model to address causal links and to account for the ways in which skills and investment in R&D affect the probability of innovating. The analysis finds that innovative output, the proportion of OC-related workers, investment in training (especially in informal training) and physical capital intensity are positively and significantly related to productivity. In most estimates ICT skills, cognitive skills and the presence of highly skilled workers in an industry also emerge as having a significant and positive relationship with productivity. ICT skills further appear to indirectly shape productivity, through a positive relationship with innovation. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, ICT, Innovation, Labour Productivity, Organisational Capital, Patent, R&D, Skills, STEM, Training |
| Date: | 2021–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaac:103-en&r=all |
| By: | Neuhäusler, Peter; Rothengatter, Oliver; Feidenheimer, Alexander |
| Abstract: | In this study, we contribute to the evaluation of the performance of the German science and research system by analyzing the dynamics of transnational patent filings of German inventors in an international comparison over the past 20 years. Besides country-specific analyses, we further differentiate our findings by 38 high-technology fields including aggregate categories (high-level, leading-edge and less R&D intensive). In addition to country comparisons, which are analyzed in each years' report of this series trends, we also provide international co-patenting trends, dig deeper into patent activities of the German federal states and look at patent dynamics in public research. This year's largest focus is set on trends in EUIPO trademark filings, where we apply a newly developed classification to get a more detailed look a field-specific trends in trademarks. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:efisdi:42021&r=all |
| By: | Rho, Yeirae; Fabrizi, Simona; Lippert, Steffen |
| Abstract: | We investigate the determinants of firm absorptive capacity, with a particular focus on the effect of employee characteristics, and study how it affects a firm’s ability to generate new knowledge. Using administrative and national survey data on individuals and businesses, we first estimate absorptive capacity measures for New Zealand firms. We then show that the share of employees with international experience and the average skill level of employees have a positive impact on a firm’s learning capabilities, and that the positive effect of employees with international experience is greater if the firm also has a highly skilled workforce overall. We finally find that a firm's absorptive capacity is highly positively correlated to the likelihood of the firm innovating. |
| Keywords: | Absorptive capacity, knowledge spillover, innovation, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | D20 D22 D24 O31 |
| Date: | 2021–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:106407&r=all |
| By: | Robbiano, Simone |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically analyzes whether a prominent place-based innovation policy, the institution of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), has affected the treated region innovative capacity. By relying on the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) approach and Italian NUTS-3 regional panel data, the innovative development of the latter, proxied by (per-capita) fractional count of patents, is compared with a set of Italian NUTS-3 control ones. Results suggest that the establishment of IIT has impacted on the regional innovative output, on average, by about 22.5 more patents for million inhabitants per year in the post-intervention period. The paper also provides evidence of knowledge spillovers from IIT in the hosting region. In addition, positive effects on the regional endowment of high-skilled human capital as well as regional growth are also documented. Finally, these results are robust to a variety of placebo permutation tests as well as several sensitivity checks, or when considering a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach. Finally, the paper may provide useful insights to inform policy makers about the marginal benefits of additional research funding by highlighting the stream of private and social returns, against which the opportunity cost of the intervention must be compared. |
| Keywords: | Public Research Institutes; Regional Development; Growth; Innovation; Human Capital; Knowledge Spillovers; Knowledge Accumulation; Synthetic Control Method. |
| JEL: | I23 I25 J24 O10 O15 O18 O30 O31 R10 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:106386&r=all |
| By: | Lach, Saul; Neeman, Zvika; Schankerman, Mark |
| Abstract: | We study how to design an optimal government loan program for risky R&D projects with positive externalities. With adverse selection, the optimal government contract involves a high interest rate but nearly zero co-financing by the entrepreneur. This contrasts sharply with observed loan schemes. With adverse selection and moral hazard, allowing for two levels of effort by the entrepreneur, the optimal policy consists of a menu of at most two contracts, one with high interest and zero self-financing, and a second with a lower interest plus co-financing. Calibrated simulations assess welfare gains from the optimal policy, observed loan programs, and a direct subsidy to private venture capital firms. The gains vary with the size of the externalities, cost of public funds, and effectiveness of the private VC industry. |
| Keywords: | Mechanism design; Innovation; R&D; Entrepreneurship; Additionality; Government finance; Venture capital |
| JEL: | E6 F3 G3 |
| Date: | 2020–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:105873&r=all |
| By: | Duleep, Harriet (College of William and Mary); Jaeger, David A. (University of St. Andrews); McHenry, Peter (College of William and Mary) |
| Abstract: | We present a novel theory that immigrants facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship by being willing and able to invest in new skills. Immigrants whose human capital is not immediately transferable to the host country face lower opportunity costs of investing in new skills or methods and will be more exible in their human capital investments than observationally equivalent natives. Areas with large numbers of immigrants may therefore lead to more entrepreneurship and innovation, even among natives. We provide empirical evidence from the United States that is consistent with the theory's predictions. |
| Keywords: | immigration, innovation, entrepreneurship, human capital |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J39 J61 L26 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14188&r=all |
| By: | Richard G. Lipsey (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the sources of the finance that has enabled technological evolution, distinguishing between sources in the private, or for-profit, sector (FPS) and sources in the public or not-for-profit sector (NPS). We investigate the roles that agents in each sector have played, both directly and indirectly, in financing the creation and evolution of twelve major technologies that were innovated between the late 19th and early 21st centuries, many of which have been labelled GPTs. To document this, we describe the development of our selected technologies in some considerable detail. Although much of this is already well known, what has not been done, to the best of our knowledge, is to emphasise for all these developments the extent to which agents in the NPS and FPS provided the supporting finance. Studies of the physical location of R&D, inventions and innovations typically give heavy weight to the FPS and much less to the NPS. However, when we study the sources of the finance that enabled these tenological developments, this greatly increases the relative weight attached do the NPS compared with that of the FPS. We distinguish four trajectories in the evolution of any new technology: the invention trajectory covers the scientific and technological developments that precede the emergence of an identifiable technology; the efficiency trajectory is the time path of the cost of producing a unit of the service provided by the technology; the applications trajectory is comprised of the technological products, processes, and forms of organization that depend on it; the diffusion trajectory is the spread of the technology to uses in other places and other times, both nationally and internationally. For each of these trajectories in each of our 12 technologies we indicate which developments were financed mainly by the NPS, mainly by the FPS, or by some combination of both. We divide our technologies into five main groups (groups that were discerned after completing our case studies rather than being imposed a priori): Group 1, little NPS support except for the applications trajectory, the internal combustion engine; Group 2, NPS support mainly for the invention trajectory, refrigeration; Group 3, NPS support mainly for the efficiency and applications and diffusion trajectories, railways, automobiles, aircraft and agriculture; Group 4, NPS support mainly for the invention and efficiency trajectories, the iron steam ship; Group 5, NPS Support for all trajectories, electricity, computers, the Internet, and lasers. After reporting on each of our 12 technologies, we suggest lessons that are drawn from them and are appropriate to industrial policy. For example, when there is much uncertainty about the technology early on, as it is so often and was with refrigeration, certain practical components of it need to be demonstrated by agents in the NPS before those in the FPS can foresee profitable investments in the technology. In such cases NPS support is needed early in the invention trajectory. After completing our case studies, we draw several lessons that seem appropriate to most or all of them. Two examples follow. First, the more does a technology depend on science, the larger the place for NPS support for the relevant trajectories. Second, major technologies have significant co-evolutionary complementarities amongst themselves. As a result, NPS support in the development trajectories of any one technology has significant positive and often difficult-to- 3 foresee, impacts, on the development trajectories of other technologies, including some that were not directly supported by NPS themselves. NPS investments can also help to create positive feedbacks through these indirect impacts by creating further complementarities that subsequently operate on the originally supported technology. Thus, calculations of the “return to NPS support†for a particular technology typically underestimate that return, unless they take account of the impact on the entire interconnected, complementary system. The work concludes that dismissing industrial policy with statements such as ‘governments cannot pick winners’ relies on an empty slogan to avoid detailed consideration of the actual complicated, multifaceted relationships between the private and public sectors in encouraging the inventions and innovations that are the root of economic growth. |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp21-04&r=all |
| By: | Zyontz, Samantha; Pomeroy-Carter, Cassidy |
| Abstract: | CRISPR, a breakthrough technology that can modify or screen DNA in almost any organism, has profoundly influenced innovation in a range of applications. Recognizing the importance of CRISPR, the 2020 Nobel Prize winning technology, the EFI commissioned this project to map the research, innovation, and diffusion activity of CRISPR across countries. This report provides four new databases that capture the population of publicly available information on CRISPR academic articles, patent families, companies, and clinical trials geographically, temporally, and across application areas. The data show that Germany actively participates in the CRISPR ecosystem but countries appear to focus on different niche areas consistent with their existing academic, business, and cultural environments at the time CRISPR was introduced. These results suggest several implications for German CRISPR innovation strategies. E.g. Germany is well positioned for a niche strategy of creating quality solutions for the biggest CRISPR challenges. Further could the support for German academic and corporate partnerships encourage translation from labs to commercialization. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:efisdi:122021&r=all |
| By: | Barbara Biasi; David J. Deming; Petra Moser |
| Abstract: | This chapter summarizes existing evidence on the link between education and innovation and presents open questions for future research. After a brief review of theoretical frameworks on the link between education, innovation, and economic growth, we explore three alternative policies to encourage innovation through education: expanding access to basic skills, improving the quality of education, and investing in universities. We also review the literature on the role of innovation for education. We conclude by outlining possible avenues for future research. |
| JEL: | I20 I23 L26 O30 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28544&r=all |
| By: | Johannes van der Pol; Jean-Paul Rameshkoumar |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to present a method that allows researchers and analysts to reduce the number of false positives in a patent query. Patents are not only used for prior art searches but increasingly for competitive analyses and the analysis of the evolution of technology. When these case focus on specific technological domains, non-experts will aim to identify patents related to their focus-technology. In certain cases this can require complex queries to contain thousands of patents. It then becomes difficult to identify false positives. We present a method that allows researchers and analysts to refine their query on large datasets. |
| Keywords: | Patent Query ; Patents ; Competitive Intelligence ; Technology Mapping |
| JEL: | C80 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:bdxewp:2021-05&r=all |
| By: | van Criekingen, Kristof; Freel, Mark; Czarnitzki, Dirk |
| Abstract: | The concept of Open Innovation (OI) has breathed new life into both empirical research and industry practice concerned with distributed and collaborative modes of innovating. Certainly, the volume of OI research and its impact on practice has been remarkable. However, equally remarkable is the lack of balance. With few exceptions, the stories of OI are positive stories. A unbalanced focus on successes leads to open innovation imperatives and the conclusion that, for most firms, openness is good, and more openness is better. In this paper, we nuance this perception by empirically investigating the relationships between innovation openness and its effects on project abandonment and delays. Using survey data from Belgium, we find that open innovation strongly associates with an increased risk of both project abandonment and project delays. |
| Keywords: | Open innovation,collaboration,project abandonment |
| JEL: | O31 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21006&r=all |
| By: | Bugden, Dylan |
| Abstract: | Ecological modernization refers to the process through which the state and industry resolve ecological crises through radical improvements in resource efficiency and the substitution of environmentally harmful industrial processes for less harmful ones without undermining existing relations of economic production. While numerous studies cast doubt on the theory of ecological modernization, existing analyses do not fully address the theory’s core hypothesis on the relationship between technological innovation and environmental impacts. I resolve this problem by using newly available global patent data on environmental technologies across 35 countries from 1982-2016. Results demonstrate that as a nation’s technology sector increases its development of environmental technologies, its per capita ecological footprint declines. However, the marginal effect of technological development is too small to offer a meaningful path toward ecological sustainability through technological innovation alone. I conclude by remarking on the implications of this study for social theory and environmental policy. |
| Date: | 2021–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:sedf9&r=all |
| By: | Alberto Galasso; Mark Schankerman |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of an institution that pools patents across geographical markets on the licensing and adoption of life-saving drugs in low- and middle-income countries. Using data on licensing and sales for HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis drugs, we show that there is an immediate and large increase in licensing by generic firms when a patent is included in the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). The effect is heterogeneous across countries. The findings are robust to identification strategies to deal with endogeneity of MPP patents and countries. The impact on actual entry and sales, however, is much smaller than on licensing, which is due to geographic bundling of licenses by the MPP. More broadly, the paper highlights the potential of pools in promoting technology diffusion in developing countries. |
| JEL: | I18 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28545&r=all |
| By: | Federica Rossi (Birkbeck, University of London, UK); Ana Colovic (NEOMA Business School, France); Annalisa Caloffi (University of Florence, Italy); Margherita Russo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy) |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:img:wpaper:49&r=all |
| By: | David Baltimore; Robert Conn; William H Press; Thomas Rosenbaum; David N Spergel; Shirley M Tilghman; Harold Varmus |
| Abstract: | Scientific research in the United States could receive a large increase in federal funding--up to 100 billion dollars over five years -- if proposed legislation entitled the Endless Frontiers Act becomes law. This bipartisan and bicameral bill, introduced in May 2020 by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Congressmen Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI), is intended to expand the funding of the physical sciences, engineering, and technology at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and create a new Technology Directorate focused on use-inspired research. In addition to provisions to protect the NSF's current missions, a minimum of 15\% of the newly appropriated funds would be used to enhance NSF's basic science portfolio. The Endless Frontier Act offers a rare opportunity to enhance the breadth and financial support of the American research enterprise. In this essay, we consider the benefits and the liabilities of the proposed legislation and recommend changes that would further strengthen it. |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2103.09614&r=all |
| By: | Burcu Ozgun; Tom Broekel; |
| Abstract: | Variations in the frequency and tone of news media are the focus of a growing literature. However, to date, empirical investigations have primarily confirmed the existence of such differences at the country level. This paper extends those insights to the subnational level. We provide theoretical arguments and empirical support for systematic regional variations in the frequency and sentiments of news related to innovation and new technologies. These variations reflect regional socio-economic structures. We find that the average newspaper circulating in urban areas features more news on innovation and new technologies than media in more rural areas. Similar endings hold for locations in East Germany and to a certain degree for regions with low unemployment. The sentiments of innovation and new technology news are negatively associated to the unemployment rate, and they tend to be lower in regional newspapers than in national ones. Overall, our results suggest a strong link between the regional socioeconomic conditions and how newspapers circulating in these places report on innovation and new technologies. |
| Keywords: | innovation, technology, news media, sentiment analysis, topic modeling |
| JEL: | O33 R12 L82 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2110&r=all |