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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2013‒01‒19
eight papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Ozgen, Ceren (VU University Amsterdam); Nijkamp, Peter (VU University Amsterdam); Poot, Jacques (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | To investigate econometrically whether cultural diversity of a firm's employees boosts innovation, we create a unique linked employer‐employee dataset that combines data from two innovation surveys in The Netherlands with administrative and tax data. We calculate three distinct measures of diversity. We find that firms that employ fewer foreign workers are generally more innovative, but that diversity among a firm's foreign workers is positively associated with innovation activity. The positive impact of diversity on product or process innovations is greater among firms in knowledge-intensive sectors and in internationally‐oriented sectors. The impact is robust to accounting for endogeneity of foreign employment. |
| Keywords: | immigration, innovation, cultural diversity, knowledge spillovers, linked administrative and survey data |
| JEL: | D22 F22 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7129&r=knm |
| By: | Harhoff, Dietmar |
| Abstract: | Innovation processes within corporations increasingly tap into international technology sources, yet little is known about the relative contribution of different types of innovation channels. We investigate the effectiveness of different types of international technology sourcing activities using survey information on German companies complemented with information from the European Patent Office. German firms with inventors based in the US disproportionately benefit from R&D knowledge located in the US. The positive influence on total factor productivity is larger if the research of the inventors results in co-applications of patents with US companies. Moreover, research cooperation with American suppliers also enables German firms to better tap into US R&D, but cooperation with customers and competitors does not appear to aid technology sourcing. The results suggest that the “brain drain” to the US can have upsides for corporations tapping into American know-how. |
| Keywords: | technology sourcing; knowledge spillovers; productivity; open innovation |
| JEL: | O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:msmdpa:14327&r=knm |
| By: | Olfa KAMMOUN; Mohieddine RAHMOUNI |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the relationship between appropriation instruments and the innovation activity and other determinants of the innovation behavior of firms in Tunisia. It focuses on studying the factors that determine the appropriation of innovation results like the value of sales of the firms, networking, science-industry linkage, competitive pressure and demand pull. To this end, we propose an econometric analysis of various hypotheses tested in a sample of 586 Tunisian firms. We find significant interaction effects between appropriability and R&D activity. The results confirm that patenting is primarily driven by firm-level factors, not by industry affiliation. Access to external knowledge and firm\'s specific characteristics are the most factors linked to the innovation protection. Firms that use appropriation instruments have a higher probability of investing in R&D than the other ones. Indeed, the capability to integrate external knowledge and performing R&D (networking, science-industry linkage, cooperation with other firms, belonging to a group) is related to the use of appropriation instruments. |
| Keywords: | Appropriation instruments, patents; Innovation; development; absorptive capacity |
| JEL: | O12 O30 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2013-01&r=knm |
| By: | Pilar Beneito (University of Valencia and ERI-CES); María E. Rochina-Barrachina (University of Valencia and ERI-CES); Amparo Sanchis (University of Valencia and ERI-CES) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the role of learning through experience in Research and Development (R&D) activities in strengthening firms’ capabilities to achieve innovation outcomes. Using a production function approach, we estimate a count-data model using a panel dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990-2006. We find that the number of years of engagement in R&D activities is positively associated with the achievement of product innovations. Our results highlight that experience in R&D is an additional technological asset to be considered for a good management practice. In particular our findings indicate that the relationship between firms’ R&D experience and product innovations is non-linear, that is, that experience has a positive effect on the probability to achieve product innovations, but at a decreasing rate. In addition, our results suggest that, although large firms are more efficient than SMEs in converting R&D investment into product innovations, SMEs obtain more efficiency gains from R&D experience than large firms. |
| Keywords: | R&D experience, learning, product innovation, count data, SMEs |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eec:wpaper:1302&r=knm |
| By: | Valentina Bosetti; Cristina Cattaneo; Elena Verdolini |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of skilled migration on two measures of innovation, patenting and citations of scientific publications, in a panel of 20 European countries. Skilled migrants positively contribute to the knowledge formation in host countries as they add to the pool of skills in destination markets. Moreover, they positively affect natives' productivity, as new ideas are likely to arise through the interaction of diverse cultures and diverse approaches in problem solving. The empirical findings we present support this prediction. Greater diversity in the skilled professions are associated with higher levels of knowledge creation, measured either by the number of patents applied for through the Patent Cooperation Treaty or by the number of citations to published articles. This finding is robust to the use of different proxies for both the explanatory variables and the diversity index in the labour force. Specifically, we first measure diversity with a novel indicator which uses information on the skill level of foreigners’ occupations. We then check our results by following the general literature, which measures skills by looking at the foreigners’ level of education. We show that cultural diversity consistently increases the innovation performance of European Countries. Keywords: cultural diversity, innovation, skilled migration, knowledge production function, Europe JEL: F22, J24, O31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:469&r=knm |
| By: | Bernstein, Shai (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of going public on innovation by comparing the innovative activity of firms that went public with firms that withdrew their IPO filing and remained private. NASDAQ fluctuations during the book-building phase are used as an instrument for IPO completion. Using patent-based metrics, I find that the quality of internal innovation declines following the IPO and firms experience both an exodus of skilled inventors and a decline in productivity of remaining inventors. However, public firms attract new human capital and acquire external innovations. The analysis reveals that going public changes firms' strategies in pursuing innovation. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:2126&r=knm |
| By: | Pacher, Sebastian (Maastricht University) |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:maastr:urn:nbn:nl:ui:27-31195&r=knm |
| By: | Murphy, Gavin; Siedschlag, Iulia; McQuinn, John |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of the strictness of employment protection legislation on innovation intensity. To this purpose, we use a panel of annual data from OECD countries over the period 1990-1999 and estimate difference-in-difference models to explain the variation of innovation intensity between industries within countries. Our estimates indicate that stricter employment protection legislation led to significantly lower innovation intensity in industries with higher job reallocation rates or higher layoff propensities. Further, we find that the strictness of employment regulations on the use of temporary contracts had a stronger impact on innovation intensity than the strictness of employment protection for regular contracts. Our findings are robust to additional industry covariates and to other labour market institutions that may affect innovation performance and industry job reallocation propensity. In addition, our sensitivity analysis indicates that our results are not driven by the particular measures of employment protection legislation and industry layoff propensity that we use or by any country in our sample. |
| Keywords: | data/employment/labour market/protection/reallocation/regulation |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp445&r=knm |