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on Innovation |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (RMIT University); Karlsson, Charlie (Jönköping International Business School) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze how the location of firms influences their innovation outcomes, particularly the complexity of the outcomes. Using three waves of the Community Innovation Survey in Sweden for a balanced panel of firms from 2006 to 2012, we identified a range of innovation outcome categories, i.e. simple and complex (low-, medium-, highly-complex) innovation outcomes. The backbone of such categorization is based on how firms introduce a combination of Schumpeterian types of innovations (i.e. process, product, marketing, and organizational). Then we consider three regional characteristics that may affect the innovation outcomes of firms, i.e. (i) qualified labor market thickness, (ii) knowledge-intensive services thickness, and (iii) knowledge spillovers extent. We find that regional characteristics do not affect firms’ innovation outcomes in terms of their degree of complexity ubiquitously. They are only positively associated with those firms that introduce the most complex innovation outcomes. For firms with less complex innovation outcomes, regional factors seem not to play a pivotal role. For these innovators, internal resources as well as formal collaboration with external partners have a significant role. |
| Keywords: | innovation outcome; location; agglomeration economies; knowledge spillovers; Community Innovation Survey |
| JEL: | D22 L20 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2021_001&r=all |
| By: | Gu, Grace (University of California Santa Cruz); Malik, Samreen (New York University AD); Pozzoli, Dario (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School); Rocha, Vera (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | While recent work has documented a nexus between international trade and firm innovation, the underlying mechanisms explaining _rms' innovation in response to import competition are thus far poorly understood. To identify such mechanisms and their economic relevance, we use longitudinal linked employer-employee data from Denmark (1995-2012) and conduct analyses at both the firm and worker levels. We first show that import competition triggers a significant increase in innovation. Approximately 40 percent of the innovation effect is attributable to the increase in the share of R&D workers; 14 percent of this increase in the share of R&D workers is due to within-firm worker switching to R&D jobs, while 80 percent is explained by between-firm worker reallocation. Furthermore, we show that having a larger degree of between-firm worker reallocation to R&D jobs relative to within-firm switching is associated with more innovation. The salience of between-firm reallocation is further confirmed by a worker-level analysis, and its importance to innovation is underscored when we extend our analysis to Portugal. |
| Keywords: | Import competition; Innovation; Between-firm worker reallocation; Within-firm worker reallocation |
| JEL: | F12 F14 O31 |
| Date: | 2021–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2021_009&r=all |
| By: | Elert, Niklas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | In the wake of the corona crisis, the European Union must regain lost ground and create more favorable conditions for inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The best way to achieve this goal is by increasing the Union’s innovativeness. This effort requires extensive and broad-based institutional reforms aimed at strengthening the incentives for entrepreneurship. Innovative entrepreneurship requires collaborations with numerous agents that provide those skills and resources that the entrepreneur is lacking: inventors, key personnel, demanding customers, and early and later-stage financiers. Based on this ecosystem perspective, we propose reforms in the following six broad areas: (i) the rule of law and property rights, ii) taxation, iii) savings and finance, iv) labor market regulations and social security, v) entry and exit barriers in product markets, and (vi) human capital for entrepreneurship. The reforms would likely strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity at a time when it is needed more than ever. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; European Union; Innovation; Institutions; Policy reform; Regulation; Self-employment |
| JEL: | L26 L50 M13 O38 O52 P14 |
| Date: | 2021–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1384&r=all |
| By: | Schubert, Torben (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The effects of establishing foreign-based subsidiaries on firm performance have long been debated, where empirical evidence hints at gains in terms of costs reductions, productivity or growth. Yet, little is known about the effects on innovative capabilities at the home base. Using a matched-employer-employee panel dataset of the Swedish Community Innovation Surveys (CIS) between 2008 and 2014, we estimate whether the employee share at subsidiaries abroad affects product innovation performance at home. Our results show the effects are positive on average. However, there is also evidence of detrimental effects of having employees abroad on innovation. In particular, for excessive shares of employees at foreign location, we provide evidence of an inverted u-shape between the probability to introduce product innovations and the share of foreign employment. Moreover, we show that the benefits of foreign employment are larger for firms with a more nationally diverse workforce at the home base. Our results are robust to a wide variety of robustness checks. |
| Keywords: | Internationalization; Innovation; Diversity |
| JEL: | M14 M16 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2021_003&r=all |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Johansson, Dan (Örebro University School of Business); Karlsson, Johan (Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO)) |
| Abstract: | We examine the conceptualization of entrepreneurs in neo-Schumpeterian growth theory, which has reintroduced entrepreneurs into mainstream economics. Specifically, we analyze how neo-Schumpeterians relate to the contradiction between the entrepreneur-centered view of Schumpeter (1934) and the entrepreneurless framework of Schumpeter (1942), with the two frameworks entailing vastly different economic and policy implications. The analysis is based on a review of approximately 750 peer-reviewed articles over the period 1990–2018. The articles were identified using text mining methodology and supervised machine learning. The results show that the literature leans towards Schumpeter (1942); innovation returns are modeled as following an ex ante known probability distribution. By assuming that the outcomes of innovation activities are (probabilistically) deterministic, the Schumpeterian entrepreneur becomes redundant. In addition, the literature abstracts from genuine uncertainty, thus evading central issues regarding the economic function of the entrepreneur, especially with respect to disruptive innovations, ownership, and profits. To incorporate genuine uncertainty, the literature needs to adopt a broader conceptual foundation that goes beyond equilibrium modeling. |
| Keywords: | creative destruction; economic growth; entrepreneur; innovation; judgment; bibliometric analysis; Knightian uncertainty |
| JEL: | B40 O10 O30 |
| Date: | 2021–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2021_003&r=all |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Johansson, Dan (Örebro University School of Business); Karlsson, Johan (Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO)) |
| Abstract: | We examine the conceptualization of entrepreneurs in neo-Schumpeterian growth theory, which has reintroduced entrepreneurs into mainstream economics. Specifically, we analyze how neo-Schumpeterians relate to the contradiction between the entrepreneur-centered view of Schumpeter (1934) and the entrepreneurless framework of Schumpeter (1942), with the two frameworks entailing vastly different economic and policy implications. The analysis is based on a review of approximately 750 peer-reviewed articles over the period 1990–2018. The articles were identified using text mining methodology and supervised machine learning. The results show that the literature leans towards Schumpeter (1942); innovation returns are modeled as following an ex ante known probability distribution. By assuming that the outcomes of innovation activities are (probabilistically) deterministic, the Schumpeterian entrepreneur becomes redundant. In addition, the literature abstracts from genuine uncertainty, thus evading central issues regarding the economic function of the entrepreneur, especially with respect to disruptive innovations, ownership, and profits. To incorporate genuine uncertainty, the literature needs to adopt a broader conceptual foundation that goes beyond equilibrium modeling. |
| Keywords: | Creative destruction; Economic growth; Entrepreneur; Innovation; Judgment; Bibliometric analysis; Knightian uncertainty |
| JEL: | B40 O10 O30 |
| Date: | 2021–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1385&r=all |
| By: | Eliana Barrenho (Paris and Imperial College Business School.); Eric Gautier (Toulouse School of Economics); Marisa Miraldo (Imperial College Business School,); Carol Propper (Imperial College Business School); Christiern Rose (School of Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of a physician network on medical innovation using novel matched patient-physician-hospital panel data. The data include every relevant physician and all patients in the English NHS for 15 years and physicians’ workplace histories for more than 20. The dynamic network arising from physician mobility between hospitals over time allows us to separate unobserved physician and hospital heterogeneity from the effect of the network. We build on standard peer-effects models by adding cumulative peer behaviour and allow for particularly influential physicians (‘key players’), whose identities we estimate. We find positive effects of peer innovation take-up, number of peers, and proximity in the network to both pioneers of the innovation and key players. Counterfactual estimates suggest that early intervention targeting young, connected physicians with early take-up can significantly increase aggregate take-up. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, medical practice, networks, peer-effects |
| Date: | 2020–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:638&r=all |
| By: | Philippe Larrue (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This report assesses the potential for mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) to contribute to the sustainable transition in Norway, and examines the challenges and opportunities that MOIPs would present. As part of a series of MOIP national case studies, the report finds that MOIPs could contribute significantly to alleviating some of the long-standing limitations of Norway’s innovation system, acknowledging the country’s strong advantages for mission-orientation and its innovative policy experimentations, such as the Pilot-E scheme and the CLIMIT programme. It proposes two options for Norway’s future MOIP approach, with corresponding recommendations. Under a ‘scaling-up’ option, Norway would develop a system to manage the implementation of cross-agency schemes in relevant challenge areas. A ‘levelling-up’ option would involve the programming of a pilot mission in the four-year investment plan of the next edition of Norway’s Long Term Plan, with support from high-level policy and political actors. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Science and technology, Societal challenges |
| JEL: | O14 O25 O38 Q55 |
| Date: | 2021–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaac:104-en&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Abramo; Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo; Ida Mele |
| Abstract: | The massive shock of the COVID-19 pandemic is already showing its negative effects on economies around the world, unprecedented in recent history. COVID-19 infections and containment measures have caused a general slowdown in research and new knowledge production. Because of the link between R&D spending and economic growth, it is to be expected then that a slowdown in research activities will slow in turn the global recovery from the pandemic. Many recent studies also claim an uneven impact on scientific production across gender. In this paper, we investigate the phenomenon across countries, analysing preprint depositions. Differently from other works, that compare the number of preprint depositions before and after the pandemic outbreak, we analyse the depositions trends across geographical areas, and contrast after-pandemic depositions with expected ones. Differently from common belief and initial evidence, in few countries female scientists increased their scientific output while males plunged. |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2102.05360&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Abramo; Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo |
| Abstract: | University-industry research collaboration is one of the major research policy priorities of advanced economies. In this study, we try to identify the main drivers that could influence the propensity of academics to engage in research collaborations with the private sector, in order to better inform policies and initiatives to foster such collaborations. At this purpose, we apply an inferential model to a dataset of 32,792 Italian professors in order to analyze the relative impact of individual and contextual factors affecting the propensity of academics to engage in collaboration with industry, at overall level and across disciplines. The outcomes reveal that the typical profile of the professor collaborating with industry is a male under age 40, full professor, very high performer, with highly diversified research, and who has a certain tradition in collaborating with industry. This professor is likely to be part of a staff used to collaborating with industry, in a small university, typically a polytechnic, located in the north of the country. |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2103.14859&r=all |
| By: | Klimczuk, Andrzej; Felix, Jorge |
| Abstract: | Social entrepreneurship is usually understood as an economic activity which focuses at social values, goals, and investments that generates surpluses for social entrepreneurs as individuals, groups, and startups who are working for the benefit of communities, instead of strictly focusing mainly at the financial profit, economic values, and the benefit generated for shareholders or owners. Social entrepreneurship combines the production of goods, services, and knowledge in order to achieve both social and economic goals and allow for solidarity building. From a broader perspective, entities that are focused on social entrepreneurship are identified as parts of the social and solidarity economy. These are, for example, social enterprises, cooperatives, mutual organizations, self-help groups, charities, unions, fair trade companies, community enterprises, and time banks. Social innovation is a key element of social entrepreneurship. Social innovation is usually understood as new strategies, concepts, products, services, and organizational forms that allow for the satisfaction of needs. Such innovations are created in particular in the contact areas of various sectors of the social system. For example, these are spaces between the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. These innovations not only allow the solving of problems but also extend possibilities for public action. |
| Keywords: | Aging and Entrepreneurship; Aging and Innovation; Entrepreneurship in Aging Population; Older People As Social Entrepreneurs and Social Innovators; Social and Solidarity Economy and Aging Populations |
| JEL: | J14 J18 O35 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:105981&r=all |
| By: | Andrea Borsato |
| Abstract: | The paper extends the research started with Borsato (2020). I develop an agent-based, stock-flow consistent growth model to analyze the interplay between income distribution, innovation and productivity growth. Results still show that the mounting shrinkage of the labour share impacts negatively upon firm's innovative effort. Additionally, I question the neoclassical belief on the negative interest-elasticity of investments, since decreases in the rate of interest are not associated with increases in capital accumulation. Finally, the panel cointegration analysis based on US manufacturing industries corroborates the theoretical predictions for the period 1958 - 2011. |
| Keywords: | Secular Stagnation; Innovation dynamics; Income distribution; Agent-based SFC models; US manufacturing industries; Panel cointegration analysis. |
| Date: | 2021–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2021/09&r=all |
| By: | Sharon Belenzon; Larisa C. Cioaca |
| Abstract: | Firms invest in scientific research to increase their chances of landing lucrative procurement contracts with the U.S. government. This is an important, but understudied channel through which the government encourages corporate research, particularly when other market mechanisms are insufficient. Using data on $2.3 trillion in contracts matched to 4,323 publicly traded manufacturing firms from 1980 through 2015, we estimate the effect of procurement contracts on upstream (scientific publications) and downstream (patents) corporate R&D. We document a positive effect of contracts on publications, and show that the effect is stronger when market incentives are weak. Procurement contracts encourage publications that: (i) are not used in the firm's internal inventions, (ii) spill over to rivals' inventions, and (iii) are not protected by patents. However, the effect has weakened over time, because the U.S. government has emphasized reduced cost and increased efficiency and transparency in contract awards. Following such policy reforms as the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994, the share of R&D contracts in all contracts declined from a high of 25 percent in 1998 to 7 percent in 2015, while the share of commercial contracts grew from 6 percent to 14 percent over the same period. Our results imply that the reorientation of government procurement toward commercially proven technologies has contributed to the withdrawal of corporations from participating in scientific research. |
| JEL: | O3 O31 O32 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28644&r=all |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (RMIT University); Obchonka, Martin (Australian Center for Entrepreneurship Research); Audretsch, David B. (Indiana University) |
| Abstract: | Impactful, growth-oriented entrepreneurship is a major research and policy focus. Building on arguments put forward by Jane Jacobs more than 50 years ago, we propose that local knowledge spillovers in a city are enhanced by human agency in that city (e.g. local psychological openness). This effect is critically amplified by the catalyst function of a favorable structural city environment that not only connects these agentic people (via urban density), but also facilitates the production and flow of new knowledge for these connected agentic people (via a diverse industry mix). This three-way interaction effect was confirmed in our empirical investigation of quality entrepreneurship across the MSAs (cities) in the US, using a large-scale dataset of the psychological profiles of millions of people. Local openness shows a robust positive effect on the level of quality entrepreneurship. This effect is further strengthened by a favorable structural city environment (i.e. high density and diversity) by up to 35%. Reviving Jacobs’ people focus, the results indicate that the best performing cities in terms of knowledge spillovers and economic performance are those that are not only home to, and attract, agentic people, but also empower these people by means of a physical and industrial city landscape that enables them to act in more innovative and entrepreneurial ways, as envisioned by Jacobs. We discuss the policy implications of our findings and an agenda for future research. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Cities; Jacobs externalities; Knowledge Spillovers; Diversity; Density; Personality traits; Openness; Geographical psychology |
| JEL: | D83 D91 L26 O18 |
| Date: | 2021–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2021_002&r=all |