nep-knm New Economics Papers
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy
Issue of 2015‒09‒05
five papers chosen by
Laura Ştefănescu
Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor

  1. Types of knowledge and diversity of business-academia collaborations: Implications for measurement and policy By Havas, Attila
  2. Commercial success of innovation: the roles of R&D cooperation and firm age By Koski, Heli
  3. The effect of public support on R&D employment in small firms By V. DORTET-BERNADET; M. SICSIC
  4. Same Place, Same Knowledge – Same People? The Geography of Non-Patent Citations in Dutch Polymer Patents By Dominik Heinisch; Önder Nomaler; Guido Buenstorf; Koen Frenken; Harry Lintsen
  5. R&D policies in France: New evidence from a NUTS3 spatial analysis By Montmartin, B.; Herrera, M.; Massard, N.

  1. By: Havas, Attila
    Abstract: Analysis of business-academia (B-A) collaborations typically relies on a single method, addressing one or two major research questions. In contrast, this article tackles both R&D and innovation collaborations among businesses and academia relying on information using multiple methods and multiple sources of information to offer insights on dynamics and qualitative features of these co-operation processes. Interviews conducted in Hungary – in line with other research findings – have also confirmed that (i) motivations, incentives for, and norms of, conducting R&D and innovation activities diametrically differ in business and academia; and (ii) different types of firms have different needs. Thus, more refined policy measures are to be devised to promote B-A collaboration more effectively, better tuned to the needs of the actors, based on a relevant taxonomy of their co-operations. Evaluation criteria for academics should also be revised to remove some major obstacles, currently blocking more fruitful B-A co-operation. Several findings can be generalised beyond the cases considered, suggesting the need for a deeper understanding of the role of intermediaries in the Triple Helix and for broader comparative analysis of innovation policies. The research design to analyse B-A collaborations always needs to be tailored to the innovation system in question, just as the concomitant policy recommendations.
    Keywords: Types of knowledge; Diversity in business-academia collaboration; Multiple methods to map business-academia collaborations; STI policy implications
    JEL: I23 I28 O33 O38 O52
    Date: 2014–12–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65908&r=all
  2. By: Koski, Heli
    Abstract: Data comprising 1790 Finnish firms and covering the years 2006-2012 suggest that turnover from innovative sales per employee were higher for both young firms - particularly for young innovative companies (or YICs) - and older incumbents that had broad innovation collaboration involving vertical, horizontal and institutional partners. Younger firms with simultaneous horizontal and vertical innovation collaboration tend to also generate higher turnover due new products and services, while this type of collaboration did not appear statistically significant in innovation production function for older incumbents. Our data further indicate that not only the relationship between inventor age and patentable inventions at the inventor level is inversely u-shaped – as previous studies report - but also the relationship between employee age structure and the generation of commercially successful products and services at the firm level follows the same pattern. High education of employees distinguished particularly the top performers from others at the highest 0.9 quantile of turnover from innovative sales per employee. Furthermore, firms with relatively highly educated employees and broad innovation collaboration had clearly higher returns from innovative sales per employee than other firms, while none of the innovation collaboration types was statistically significantly related to the innovation output of firms with relatively low education of employees.
    Keywords: innovation performance, R&D cooperation, human capital
    JEL: L2 O31 O32
    Date: 2015–08–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:30&r=all
  3. By: V. DORTET-BERNADET (Insee); M. SICSIC (Insee)
    Abstract: Between 2003 and 2010, total R&D public support (tax incentives and subsidies) targeted at SMEs increased by more than 300%: in 2010 it amounted to almost 2 billion euros, of which 26% (nearly 500 million euros) were perceived by very small businesses (fewer than 10 employees). This sharp increase is mainly explained by two reforms of the R&D tax credit (in 2004 and 2008) and a new public program dedicated to young innovative enterprises launched in 2004. An aggregate analysis shows that the share of R&D personnel financed by public funding has been multiplied by four for very small businesses, from 14% in 2003 to 49% in 2010. This change was accompanied by a decline of privately funded R&D personnel employed by very small businesses (and other SMEs to a lesser extent). An econometric analysis of a panel of small firms active in R&D intensive sectors tends to confirm this agregate finding at the firm level: R&D public support appears to have a positive impact on highly qualified and R&D employment but the impact on the associated labor costs appears to be significantly lower than the increase of the public financing, particularly from 2008.
    Keywords: R&D tax credit, subsidies, public policy evaluation, difference-in-differences
    JEL: O38 H25 C23
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2015-11&r=all
  4. By: Dominik Heinisch; Önder Nomaler; Guido Buenstorf; Koen Frenken; Harry Lintsen
    Abstract: It has long been argued that geographic co-location supports knowledge spillovers. More recently, this argument has been challenged by showing that knowledge spillovers mainly flow through social networks, which may or may not be localized at various geographic scales. We further scrutinize the conjecture of geographically bounded knowledge spillovers by focusing on knowledge flows between academia and industry. Looking into citations to non-patent literature (NPL) in 2,385 Dutch polymer patents, we find that citation lags are shorter on average if Dutch rather than foreign NPLs are cited. However, when excluding individual and organizational self-citations, geographically proximate NPLs no longer diffuse faster than foreign NPLs. This suggests that knowledge is not “in the air” but transferred by mobile individuals and/or direct university-industry collaboration. Our findings moreover suggest an important role of international conferences in the diffusion of recent scientific knowledge.
    Keywords: Non-patent literature, citation lags, knowledge spillovers, university-industry interaction, polymer industry.
    JEL: O33 R10 L65
    Date: 2015–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1526&r=all
  5. By: Montmartin, B.; Herrera, M.; Massard, N.
    Abstract: The French policy-mix for R&D and innovation has deeply evolved in recent years and is nowadays, one of the most generous and market-friendly system in the world. This paper investigates the (evolutive) effects of this policy-mix by using a unique database containing information on the amount of R&D tax credit, regional, national and European subsidies received by firms in all French metropolitan NUTS3 regions over the period 2001-2011. By estimating a Spatial Durbin model with regimes and fixed effects, we provide new evidence on the efficiency of the French policy-mix. First, a yardstick competition between NUTS3 regions for R&D investment driven by negative spatial spillovers is found. Second, it seems that national subsidies are the only instrument able to generate a significant leverage effect on privately-financed R&D. Third, due to the context of spatial competition, the three other policies studied (Tax Credit, Regional and European subsidies) do not generate significant leverage or crowding-out effect. Fourth, we highlight the presence of structural breaks in our data that correspond to the last two important reforms of the French tax credit. Consequently, the effect of R&D policies and especially R&D tax credit are likely to change over time and influence ex-post evaluation results.
    Keywords: ADDITIONALITY;FRENCH POLICY-MIX;PRIVATE R&D INVESTMENT;SPATIAL PANEL
    JEL: H25 O31
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gbl:wpaper:2015-11&r=all

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