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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2015‒03‒13
twelve papers chosen by Laura Ştefănescu Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Gianni Guastella; Frank van Oort |
| Abstract: | In agglomeration studies, the effects of various regional externalities related to knowledge spillovers remain largely unclear. To explain innovation clustering, scholars emphasize the contribution of Localized Knowledge Spillovers (LKS) and, specifically when estimating the Knowledge Production Function (KPF), of (interregional) research spillovers. However, less attention is paid to other causes of spatial heterogeneity. In applied works, spatial association in data is econometrically related to evidence of research spillovers. This paper argues that, in a KPF setting, omitting spatial heterogeneity might lead to biased estimates of the effect of research spillovers. As an empirical test, a spatial KPF is estimated using EU25 regional data, including a spatial trend to control for unexplained spatial variation in innovation. Accounting for geographical characteristics substantially weakens evidence of interregional research spillovers. |
| Keywords: | Generalized Additive Models, Knowledge Spillovers, Regional Innovation, European Union |
| JEL: | R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1506&r=knm |
| By: | Leppälä, Samuli (Cardiff Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a Cournot oligopoly model with R&D spillovers both within and across industries. The aim is to provide an appropriate theoretical foundation for three different hypotheses regarding the impact of the local production structure on innovation and output, as well as addressing mixed empirical results in this area. Both the effective R&D and total industry output are shown to increase with the variety of industries, which is aligned with Jacobs externalities. With respect to the concentration, the outcome is more ambiguous, where it depends on the variety, both spillover rates, and the R&D efficiency. If the variety is limited, then partial support is given to both Marshall-Arrow-Romer externalities in the case of effective R&D, and to Porter externalities in the case of the total industry output. The use of a relative rather than an absolute measure of variety is also shown to be important. |
| Keywords: | concentration; innovation; knowledge spillover; regional economy; variety |
| JEL: | O33 R11 L13 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2015/3&r=knm |
| By: | Aldieri, Luigi; Vinci, Concetto Paolo |
| Abstract: | This study contributes to existing literature on firms’ innovative activity examining the influence of both internal firms’ physical and R&D capital, and external national and international knowledge spillovers. The paper presents a cross national analysis of United States, Japan and Europe based upon a new dataset composed of 879 worldwide R&D-intensive manufacturing firms. The empirical results suggest that the effect of R&D capital stock on firms’ innovation output is always positive. The effects of international R&D spillovers are positive in Japan and USA and negative in European economic area, while the national R&D spillovers has the opposite impact |
| Keywords: | R&D spillovers; Innovation; Cross-national analysis |
| JEL: | C23 O33 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62541&r=knm |
| By: | Dessi, Roberta; Yin, Nina |
| Abstract: | This paper explores a new role for venture capitalists, as knowledge intermediaries. A venture capital investor can communicate valuable knowledge to an entrepreneur, facilitating innovation. The venture capitalist can also communicate the entrepreneur's innovative knowledge to other portfolio companies. We study the costs and benefits of these two forms of knowledge transfer, and their implications for investment, innovation, and product market competition. The model also sheds light on the choice between venture capital and other forms of finance, and the determinants of the decision to seek patent protection for innovations. Our analysis provides a rationale for the use of contingencies (specifically, patent approval) in VC contracts documented by Kaplan and Stromberg (2003), and for recent evidence on patterns of syndication among venture capitalists. |
| Keywords: | venture capital, knowledge intermediaries, contracts, innovation, competition, patents. |
| JEL: | D82 D86 G24 L22 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:29010&r=knm |
| By: | Paola Manzini (University of St Andrews and IZA); Marco Mariotti (Queen Mary University of London); Christopher J. Tyson (Queen Mary University of London) |
| Abstract: | In the context of the two-stage threshold model of decision making, with the agent’s choices determined by the interaction of three “structural variables,” we study the restrictions on behavior that arise when one or more variables are exogenously known. Our results supply necessary and sufficient conditions for consistency with the model for all possible states of partial knowledge, and for both single- and multi- valued choice functions. |
| Date: | 2015–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:wpecon:1503&r=knm |
| By: | Heyen, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Technological innovation is a key strategy for tackling environmental problems. The required R&D expenditures however are substantial and fall on self-interested countries. Thus, the prospects of successful innovation critically depend on innovation incentives. This paper focuses on a specific mechanism for strategic distortions in this R&D game. In this mechanism, the outlook of future conflicts surrounding technology deployment directly impacts on the willingness to undertake R&D. Apart from free-riding, a different deployment conflict with distortive effects on innovation may occur: Low deployment costs and heterogeneous preferences might give rise to 'free-driving'. In this recently considered possibility (Weitzman 2012), the country with the highest preference for technology deployment, the free-driver, may dominate the deployment outcome to the detriment of others. The present paper develops a simple two stage model for analyzing how technology deployment conflicts, free-riding and free-driving, shape R&D incentives of two asymmetric countries. The framework gives rise to rich findings, underpinning the narrative that future deployment conflicts pull forward to the R&D stage. While the outlook of free-riding unambiguously weakens innovation incentives, the findings for free-driving are more complex, including the possibility of super-optimal R&D and incentives for counter-R&D. |
| Date: | 2015–03–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0584&r=knm |
| By: | Crespi G.A.; Tacsir E.; Vargas F. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Innovation is fundamental for economic catching-up and raising living standards. Evidence demonstrate a virtuous circle in which RD spending, innovation, productivity, and per capita income mutually reinforce each other and lead to long-term, sustained growth rates and may foster job creation. Previous evidence highlights that Latin America and the Caribbean LAC has great potential to benefit from investment and policies that foster innovation. However, one important limitation of previous research on innovation in LAC is the absence of harmonised and comparable indicators across the different countries. This seriously limits the possibility to infer policy conclusions that are not affected by country specificities with respect to data quality and coverage. Also, most of this research is focused on estimating firm level correlations without attempting to identify market failures or other limitations which harm innovation investment or which could guide policy. In this paper, a wide range of innovation indicators are analysed in order to describe the innovation behaviour of manufacturing firms in LAC using the Enterprise Survey ES database. Our objective is to understand the main characteristics of innovative firms in LAC and to gather new evidence with regard to the nature of the innovation process in the region. In this paper we apply a structural model based on Crepon, Duget and Mairesse 1998, to estimate the determinants of innovation RD and its impact on total factor productivity. We pay special attention to whether there is heterogeneity in the effects of investments in innovation on productivity and whether there is any evidence of spillovers that could guide policy design. We found strong evidence concerning the relationships between innovation input and output, and innovation output and productivity. We found that private returns to innovation depend on the type of innovation, being larger for product than process innovation. Furthermore, we found some evidence that spillovers are stronger in the case of product than process innovation. It was also found that innovation returns are higher for the most productive firms. This increasing relationship between returns and productivity is not consistent with an interpretation that financial constraints cause more harm to low productivity firms. However, it is consistent with alternative interpretations about the lack of innovation opportunities in the case of low productivity firms or that low private returns are the results of poor appropriability. |
| Keywords: | Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes; Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General; |
| JEL: | O12 O14 O31 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014092&r=knm |
| By: | Jürgen Bitzer (University of Oldenburg - Department of Economics & ZenTra); Erkan Gören (University of Oldenburg - Department of Economics); Sanne Hiller (Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of immigrant employees for a firm’s capability to absorb international knowledge. Using matched employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1996 to 2009, we are able to show that non-Danish employees from technological advanced countries contribute significantly to a firm’s economic output through their ability to access international knowledge. The empirical results suggest that the immigrants’ impact increases if they come from technological advanced countries, have a high educational level, and are employed in high-skilled positions. |
| Keywords: | R&D Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Level Analysis, Foreign Workers, Immigrants |
| JEL: | D20 J82 L20 O30 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:49&r=knm |
| By: | Lilas Demmou; Andreas Wörgötter |
| Abstract: | The labour market in Russia is very flexible. Firms adjust to economic shocks through wage cuts, working hour reductions and minimisation of non-wage labour costs. Workers react by changing jobs. This results in a high and stable overall employment rate, but also high wage inequality, informality and labour turnover, which limits incentives for firms to invest in human capital and productivity improvements.<P> While educational attainment is very high, the education system needs to be strengthened to respond to the needs of a skill-based economy. School-employer cooperation is low and opportunities for higher education are unequally distributed. Adequate funding for education institutions is not assured everywhere while inefficiencies persist.<P> Private spending on innovation is very low and Russia underperforms in terms of scientific outputs and patents. Support for low-tech innovation and technology adoption, especially among SMEs is narrow because of a bias towards large and high-tech projects, which however are only loosely related to Russian manufacturing capacity. Reform of the public R&D sector is incomplete, notably with respect to strengthening funding on a competitive basis.<P>Stimuler la productivité en Russie : Les compétences, l'éducation et l'innovation<BR>Le marché du travail en Russie est très flexible. Les entreprises s’ajustent face aux chocs économiques grâce à une réduction des salaires, des heures de travail, et des coûts non salariaux. Les travailleurs réagissent en changeant d'emploi. Il en résulte un taux d'emploi global élevé et stable, mais également un niveau élevé des inégalités salariales, de l’emploi informel et du taux de rotation de la main d’oeuvre, ce qui limite les incitations pour les entreprises à investir dans le capital humain et l'amélioration de la productivité. Bien que le niveau de scolarisation soit très élevé, le système d'éducation doit être renforcé pour répondre aux besoins d'une économie fondée sur les compétences. La coopération entre les entreprises et le système éducatif est faible et les opportunités d’accès à l’éducation supérieure sont inégalement réparties. Un financement adéquat des établissements d’enseignement n'est pas assuré sur l’ensemble du territoire alors que des zones d’inefficacités persistent. Les dépenses privées consacrées à l'innovation sont très faibles et les performances de la Russie en termes de production scientifiques et de brevets sont insatisfaisantes. Le soutien aux innovations à faible contenu technologique et à l'adoption des technologies, en particulier dans les PME, est faible en raison d'un biais en faveur des grands projets et des projets high-tech, qui ne sont cependant que faiblement liés aux capacités de production manufacturière russe. La réforme du secteur public de la R&D est incomplète, notamment en ce qui concerne le rôle joué par les financements accordés sur des principes de compétitivité. |
| Keywords: | human capital, education, innovation, active labour market policies, flexibility, inequality, PISA, VET, life-long learning, labour turnover, skills matching, collective bargaining, trade unions, unemployment benefits, prestations de chômage, adéquation des compétences, convention collective, capital humain, inégalités, PISA, politiques actives du marché du travail, innovations, rotation de la main d’oeuvre, enseignement et formation professionnelle, éducation, syndicats, flexibilité, formation continue |
| JEL: | I2 J21 J24 J31 J50 J60 O3 |
| Date: | 2015–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1189-en&r=knm |
| By: | Michael S. Kinch (Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial, Assessoria de Assuntos Econômicos, Brazil.); Julio Raffo (Economics and Statistics Division, World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.) |
| Abstract: | An analysis of FDA-approved new molecular entities reveals dynamism in terms of new innovation. An assessment of the first patent for each drug reveals that the pharmaceutical industry, particularly large, established companies in North America, tend to dominate the field. Over the past 10-15 years, European and Asian organizations have begun to close the gap. A dynamic inventive environment in drug discovery is suggested by the fact that NMEs for biologics or awarded to biotechnology companies often have inventors from the pharmaceutical and academic sectors. Whereas inventors continue to found biotechnology companies at a steady rate, recent trends suggest these inventors more often come from the private sector. |
| Keywords: | FDA, Patent, Intellectual Property, Firm founder. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:24&r=knm |
| By: | Maya Shatzmiller |
| Abstract: | The adoption of paper in the early days of the Islamic rule changed literacy practices in the Middle East and eventually around the world, yet the circumstances of its adoption and its impact on the Middle Eastern economy are not well known or understood. This study determines that paper use was linked to an increase in purchasing power and to a shift in cultivation patterns from cereals to textile plants. It shows that the decline in the price of paper and books played a role in the standardization of the Arabic language and in the transition from oral to written practices, the formation of new knowledge, and the spread of literacy. The result was improvement in human capital and rising labor productivity, especially in manufacturing. Finally, the flow of paper documents in the economy changed norms of contract enforcement. |
| Keywords: | Medieval Middle East, economic change, purchasing power, prices and wages, Agricultural shift, literacy, Human Capital, technology |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0064&r=knm |
| By: | Zhang, Wei; Kato, Edward; Bhandary, Prapti; Nkonya, Ephraim M.; Ibrahim, Hassan Ishaq; Agbonlahor, Mure Uhunamure; Ibrahim, Hussaini Yusu |
| Abstract: | This research has been undertaken to improve our understanding of stakeholders’ knowledge and perception about ecosystem services (ES), which provides a valuable means of gaining insight into the opportunities and constraints that face ES management in a multiuser landscape. Land use preferences are influenced by a variety of motives, attitudes, and values intrinsic to every individual’s decisionmaking. Knowledge can affect attitudes and behavioral intentions, and a positive attitude toward the environment has been found to predict conservation practices. |
| Keywords: | Ecosystem services, rural areas, Communities, Land use, Forest, awareness, perception, knowledge, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1418&r=knm |