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on Small Business Management |
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Issue of 2010‒04‒17
23 papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Gantumur, Tseveen (DIW); Stephan, Andreas (JIBS) |
| Abstract: | To quickly adapt to technological change and developments, and thus remain competitive, firms increasingly resort to the use of external technology. This paper investigates whether and to what extent the acquisition of external disembodied technology affects the efficiency and productivity in innovation of technology acquiring firms. Using the stochastic frontier analysis combined with a difference-in-difference matching approach and firm-level panel from the German Innovation Survey for the period 1992-2004, we find that manufacturing firms that acquire disembodied technology experience more growth in innovative productivity than nonacquiring firms do. Thus, this study provides evidence on complementarity between internal and external R&D in innovation production, which is attributed by increasing returns to R&D scale and increasing technical efficiency. Moreover, we find that firm size significantly contributes to innovative efficiency and productivity of external technology acquirers. |
| Keywords: | Technology Acquisition; Innovative Efficiency; Innovative Productivity; SFA; Difference-in- Difference Matching |
| JEL: | L24 L25 L60 O30 |
| Date: | 2010–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0222&r=sbm |
| By: | Lesley Potters (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | This research investigates deals with the impact of various innovation activities on innovation output by using Spanish CIS3 data on 3,247 innovative firms and applying several Knowledge Production Functions. It is confirmed that different innovation activities lead to differences in both the propensity to innovate and innovation output, depending on the technological characteristics a firm has. In general, internal R&D leads to product innovation, while machinery acquisition leads to process innovation. Size, group belonging and protection of innovations are important determinants for innovation output, but show either a positive or negative relation, depending again on the firm's innovation strategy. |
| Keywords: | R&D, innovation, Knowledge Production Function, double sample selection |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:200910&r=sbm |
| By: | Raquel Ortega-Argilés (JRC-IPTS); Peter Voigt (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | This report discusses business R&D in SMEs in the light of a systematic review of publicly available information on industrial R&D, its common trends and related emerging issues. A number of factors towards better understanding of SME trajectories, specifics in terms of their R&D activities, and the attendant main challenges of SMEs are thus examined along their main boundaries. Company size, the life cycle stage of individual firms, the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in the EU, the lack of access to finance in Europe compared to the US, limited capabilities of SMEs, internationalisation/globalisation effects, intellectual property rights, and the effect of administrative burdens are considered in particular. In general, achieving a suitable support mix for business R&D in SMEs and embedding it in local, regional, national and European research and innovation systems remains an open but crucial question on the way towards achieving the Lisbon objectives. |
| Keywords: | business R&D, SMEs |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:20097&r=sbm |
| By: | Athreye, Suma (UNU-MERIT, and Brunel University) |
| Abstract: | It is commonly believed that the business environment in developing countries does not allow productive technology-based entrepreneurship to flourish. In this paper, we draw on the experience of Indian software firms where entrepreneurial growth has belied these predictions. This paper argues that the business models chosen by Indian firms were those that best aligned the country's abundant labour resources and advantages to global demand. Many potentially higher value added opportunities struggled to attain success, but the qualitative value of experimental failures and the capability gaps they exposed was invaluable for collective managerial learning in the industry. Second, the paper also shows that the presence of growth opportunities and the success of firms stimulated institutional evolution to promote entrepreneurial growth. Last we show that the distinctive aggregate contribution of entrepreneurial firms was that they outperformed business houses and multinational subsidiaries in their more productive use of available capital resources whilst achieving similar levels of growth in output and employment. This paper draws upon an earlier shorter paper co-authored with Mike Hobday and titled 'Overcoming Development Adversity: How Entrepreneurs Led Software Development in India'. |
| Keywords: | technology entrepreneurship, institutions and economic development, Indian software, intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | L26 L86 O10 O34 I28 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2010008&r=sbm |
| By: | Hagedoorn, John (UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University); Wang, Ning (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | The mixed picture of extant research on the relationship between internal and external R&D prompts us to ask such a question: under what conditions is there complementarity or substitutability between different R&D strategies? The goal of this paper is to contribute to the empirical literature by advancing and testing the contingency of the relationship between internal and external R&D strategies in shaping firms‘ innovative output. Using a panel sample of incumbent pharmaceutical firms covering the period 1986-2000, our empirical analysis suggests that the level of in-house R&D investments, which is characterized by decreasing marginal returns, is a contingency variable that critically influences the nature of the link between internal and external R&D strategies. In particular, internal R&D and external R&D, through either R&D alliances or R&D acquisitions, turn out to be complementary innovation activities at higher levels of in-house R&D investments, whereas at lower levels of in-house R&D efforts internal and external R&D are substitutive strategic options. These findings are robust to alternative specifications and estimation techniques, including a dynamic perspective on firm innovative performance. |
| Keywords: | Complementarity, Substitutability, Internal R&D, External R&D, Innovative Output, Pharmaceutical Industry, Biotechnology |
| JEL: | O32 L24 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2010005&r=sbm |
| By: | Alex Coad; Werner Hölzl (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | Recent research has led to the empirical regularity that firm growth rate distributions are heavy tailed. This finding implies that a few firms experience spectacular growth rates and decline, but that most firms have marginal growth rates. The literature on high-growth firms shows that high-growth firms are the central drivers of job creation in the economy but are neither clustered in high technology sectors nor are necessarily young and small. The evidence on the determinants of firm growth confirms that firm growth is difficult to predict. The finding that firm growth is well approximated by a random process does not only reflect the heterogeneity at the firm level but is also associated with the low persistence of growth rates over time. |
| Keywords: | firm growth |
| Date: | 2010–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2010:i:361&r=sbm |
| By: | Flavio Lenz-Cesar; Almas Heshmati (Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program(TEMEP), Seoul National University) |
| Abstract: | R&D cooperation has received great attention among industrialists, decision makers and researchers as it facilitates research collaboration, information sharing, reduced R&D cost, and affects R&D resource allocation, advancement and competitiveness of the national industry, employment and survival of firms. This paper introduces an econometric approach for identifying the factors that lead firms to cooperative innovation. The determinants of firms cooperation in innovation were defined according to empirical findings on a dataset from the internationally standardized Korean Innovation Survey 2005, captured in a multivariate probit regression model. The model identified the determinants on firms¡¯ likelihood to participate in cooperation with other organizations when conducting innovation activities. The aim of this model was to subsidize further research applying agent-based modeling to simulate innovation networks in the Korean manufacturing sector in order to test different policy strategies on fostering cooperation in innovation. |
| Keywords: | Collaborative R&D, multivariate probit models, Korean innovation survey |
| JEL: | C35 C71 D20 L20 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snv:dp2009:200927&r=sbm |
| By: | Seong-Sang Lee; Yeonbae Kim (Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program(TEMEP), Seoul National University) |
| Abstract: | With the premise that patent data are reliable indicators of innovativeness, the empirical analysis of R&D?patents relationship is useful for monitoring the efficiency of the innovation process. This paper extends the research on the relationship between R&D spending and patent counts by estimating the impact of efficiency parameters. A data set from 1255 firms with nonzero R&D expenditures in Korea was studied. Results show that the difference in firms¡¯ innovative performance is attributable to firm-specific characteristics, including propensity to patent and firm size, and differences in efficiency parameters. They also indicate that firms that conduct patent searches before starting R&D activities obtain an average of 13.9% more patents with an increase of one unit on the ¡®patent search¡¯ scale. Results also show the importance of the role of IP managers and revenue splitting policy for employee-inventors in the innovation process. |
| Keywords: | Incentive for employee-inventor, Innovation process, Innovative performance, IP manager, preliminary patent search, R&D-patents relationship |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snv:dp2009:200924&r=sbm |
| By: | Honjo, Yuji; Kato, Masatoshi; Okamuro, Hiroyuki |
| Abstract: | This paper explores research and development (R&D) financing of start-up firms. Using a sample from an original survey conducted in 2008, we identify whether initial funds and founder-specific characteristics relate to R&D investment of start-up firms in Japan. It is found that internal finance is positively associated with R&D investment. It is also found that founders with higher educational background, prior innovation output and academic affiliation tend to raise more funds for R&D. On the other hand, we provide evidence that the effects of founders' human capital are mediated by investment opportunities, which would indicate that R&D investment of start-up firms depends heavily on investment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Founder, Human capital, Internal finance, R&D, Start-up |
| JEL: | G30 M13 O32 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2009-15&r=sbm |
| By: | Michael Peneder (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an integrated set of innovation taxonomies for firms and sectors. It discards the practice of representing industries by some average behaviour, instead characterising them by the distribution of diverse innovation modes at the firm level. The theoretical focus is on (i) Schumpeter's distinction between "creative" and "adaptive response", and (ii) differences regarding technological opportunities, appropriability conditions and the cumulativeness of knowledge. Applying statistical cluster analysis, the empirical identification is based on the micro-data of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) for 22 European countries. The final cluster validation highlights the simultaneous diversity and contingency of firm behaviour with distinct technological regimes exhibiting systematic differences in the distribution of heterogeneous firms. |
| Keywords: | Technological regimes, innovation modes, sectoral taxonomy, industry classification, cluster analysis |
| Date: | 2010–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2010:i:362&r=sbm |
| By: | Ana Pérez-Luño (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Ramón Valle-Cabrera (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | While there is robust empirical evidence that firm patenting is positively associated with various measures of overall performance and competitiveness, less is known about what determines the patenting choice. For this reason, this paper examines whether R&D expenditure and the type of knowledge used in the invention determine the decision to patent. With this aim, we use a sample of firms and the European Patent Office to analyse how the combination of R&D expenditure and knowledge codifiability, observability and simplicity influences the patent decision. Our results contribute to the literature and assist R&D managers by showing that both R&D and codified knowledge have a positive impact on the number of inventions patented by a firm, while observable knowledge has a negative impact on patents. Furthermore, we find that the effect of R&D expenditure on the propensity to patent inventions is negatively moderated by knowledge observability and simplicity. |
| Keywords: | : R&D, patents, knowledge, invent |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpbsad:10.01&r=sbm |
| By: | Sarah Kösters (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Economics, Graduate College "The Economics of Innovative Change"); Martin Obschonka (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Developmental Psychology) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates economic and subjective effects of public business assistance delivered to nascent entrepreneurs in Germany. Employing cluster analysis, we explore the actual scope and intensity of business assistance used. Then we analyze predictors of take-up and perceived usefulness taking into account the different patterns of utilized assistance. Finally, we assess economic effects by studying subsequent business performance employing propensity score matching. We cannot reveal that business assistance translates into better start-up performance. However, we find that a lack of personal entrepreneurial resources predicts take-up of business assistance in general as well as perceived usefulness of comprehensive business assistance. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, business assistance, policy evaluation, entrepreneurial resources, big five |
| JEL: | O38 L26 H59 |
| Date: | 2010–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-025&r=sbm |
| By: | Andersson, Martin (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Johansson, Börje (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a framework to appreciate the observed heterogeneity of firm size distributions and the entry and exit of products and firms associated with it. It is based on a model where new products are introduced by innovating firms in a quasi-temporal setting of monopolistic competition. The rate at which a firm innovates, according to a firm-specific Poisson process, is assumed to be influenced by the firm’s past experience and cumulated knowledge assets. The model assigns a fundamental role to entrepreneurship of existing and potential firms. The empirical analysis is based on detailed firm-level export data, which describes firm size in terms of products and markets, and firm dynamics in terms of changes in the supply pattern (varieties and markets) of existing firms in combination with entry/exit of firms. The empirical results are consistent with the model. First, the modeled innovation process imply a persistent distribution of heterogeneous firms. Second, the invariant size distribution of firms is associated with significant micro-dynamics, where firms continuously add and subtract varieties from their product mix, and new firms may enter while some exit. Third, an econometric analysis where firms’ introduction of new varieties is explained by firm attributes provides support for the assumption of a firm-specific and state-dependent stochastic innovation process. |
| Keywords: | innovation; firm heterogeneity; size distribution; entry; exit; dynamics; |
| JEL: | F12 L11 L26 O31 |
| Date: | 2010–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0211&r=sbm |
| By: | Raquel Ortega-Argilés (JRC-IPTS); Maria-Cristina Piva (Universita Cattolica di Milano); Lesley Potters (JRC-IPTS); Marco Vivarelli (Universita Cattolica di Milano) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the link between R&D and productivity across the European industrial and service sectors. The empirical analysis is based on both the European sectoral OECD data over the period 1987-2002 and on a unique micro longitudinal database consisting of 532 top European R&D investors over the six-year period 2000-2005. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the R&D stock has a significant positive impact on labour productivity; this general result is largely consistent with previous literature in terms of the sign, the significance and the magnitude of the estimated coefficients. More interestingly – both at sectoral and firm levels - the R&D coefficient increases monotonically (both in significance and magnitude) when we move from the low-tech to the medium and high-tech sectors. This outcome means that corporate R&D investment is more effective in the high-tech sectors and this may need to be taken into account when designing policy instruments (subsidies, fiscal incentives, etc.) in support of private R&D. However, R&D investment is not the sole source of productivity gains; technological change embodied in gross investment is of comparable importance on aggregate and it is the main determinant of the productivity increase in the low-tech sectors. Hence, an economic policy aiming to increase productivity in the low-tech sectors should support the overall capital formation. |
| Keywords: | R&D, productivity, high-tech sectors, innovation and industrial policy |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:20099&r=sbm |
| By: | Bala Subrahmanya, M. H. (Indian Institute of Science); Mathirajan, M. (Anna University); Krishnaswamy, K. N. (Indian Institute of Science) |
| Abstract: | This paper probes the drivers, dimensions, achievements, and outcomes of technological innovations carried out by SMEs in the auto components, electronics, and machine tool sectors of Bangalore in India. Further, it ascertains the growth rates of innovative SMEs vis-a-vis noninnovative SMEs in terms of sales turnover, employment, and investment. Thereafter, it probes the relationship between innovation and growth of SMEs by (i) estimating a correlation between innovation sales and sales growth, (ii) calculating innovation sales for high, medium, and low growth innovative SMEs and doing a one-way ANOVA, and (iii) ascertaining the influence of innovation sales, along with investment growth and employment growth on gross value-added growth by means of multiple regression analysis. The paper brings out substantial evidence to argue that innovations of SMEs contributed to their growth. |
| Keywords: | technological innovations, sales growth, auto components, electronics, machine tools, Bangalore |
| JEL: | L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2010007&r=sbm |
| By: | Peter Voigt (JRC-IPTS); Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | R&D and the entire innovation process are likely to be affected by the current crisis. Apart from changes in R&D spending, as any crisis usually provides also chances it may stimulate a new wave of networked / open innovation and in this regard lead to 'creative destruction' as Schumpeter called it. Thus, high-technology manufacturing is far better-positioned to face the crisis compared to low-tech manufacturing, which is assumed to fare especially badly. The figures of R&D expenditure are assumed to evolve accordingly. And small companies and particularly those which are financially restricted (many SMEs) are supposed to suffer most. In general, the downturn is supposed to accelerate the shift of EU manufacturing towards higher value-added, highly integrated, and internationally oriented sectors. Assumed that the latter tends to be characterised by higher R&D-intensity this in turn may have a positive impact on R&D investment figures. But, as structural changes usually happen slowly, this leverage effect may appear just in the long-run. Empirical evidence from a series of recent business surveys [mainly capturing R&D-performing / higher R&D-intensity sectors] suggests that the perception as well as the funding of corporate R&D and innovation activities are holding up fairly well so far which suggests an anti-cyclic firm behaviour in terms of R&D engagement in the light of the current economic and financial crisis. For 2008/09 the estimates of R&D expenditure changes differ significantly among the sources – mainly due to the corresponding assumption on the further evolvement of the current financial and economic crisis with the estimate of 4.1% for EU – based on the JRC-IPTS' IRMA-Survey – well in-between. However, across the sources, the corridor for the R&D investment change is assumed to be above the corresponding assumptions on GDP and sales growth. Evidence suggests that the impact of the crisis on R&D activities and the correspondingly assumed adjustments of firm strategies is sector specific. However, looking at micro level, there is no unique company strategy obvious commonly applied to face the crisis. In fact, some companies leave their R&D engagements unchanged, others cut them down, and a third group even accelerates their R&D and innovation activities (inclusive a significant leveraging of spending on R&D). In this regard experiences from past downturns suggest that companies having the farsightedness and the courage to invest more in R&D and innovation activities while others are cutting back have a significant advantage in the inevitable upswing that will come. Market rewards will follow – but not immediately. |
| Keywords: | corporate strategy, R&D and innovation, R&D spending, economic crisis |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:200912&r=sbm |
| By: | Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello (JRC-IPTS); Constantin Ciupagea (Institute of World Economy and Romanian Centre for Economic Modelling); Keith Smith (Australian Innovation Research Centre, University of Tasmania); Alexander Tübke (JRC-IPTS); Mike Tubbs (Innovomantex Ltd and Ashcroft International Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether there are differences in private R&D investment performance between the EU and the US and, if so, why. The study is based on data from the 2008 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. The investigation assesses the effects of several very distinct factors that can determine the relative size of the overall R&D intensities of the two economies: these are the influence of sector composition (structural effect) vis-à-vis the intensity of R&D in each sector (intrinsic effect) and the company demographics. The paper finds that the lower overall corporate R&D intensity for the EU is the result of sector specialisation (structural effect) - the US has a stronger sectoral specialisation in the high R&D intensity (especially ICT-related) sectors than does the EU, and also has a much larger population of R&D investing firms within these sectors. Since aggregate R&D indicators are so closely dependent on industrial structures, many of the debates and claims about differences in comparative R&D performance are in effect about industrial structure rather than sector R&D performance. These have complex policy implications that are discussed in the closing section. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development intensity, EU-US R&D gap, size of firms |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:200911&r=sbm |
| By: | Raquel Ortega-Argilés (JRC-IPTS); Andries Brandsma (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The average firm size of the top R&D investors among US-based companies is smaller than that of the EU-based firms. Does this help to explain why the US has a greater R&D intensity, or is the higher firm size in the EU, just as its lower R&D intensity, determined by the sectors in which the top R&D investors are operating? Using data on the top-R&D investors from the 2006 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, the size differential between R&D performers in the EU and US is more closely examined. A first observation is that, despite great differences between sectors, the overall distribution of companies' R&D investments in both economies is remarkably similar, as opposed to the distribution of the R&D/sales ratios of the same two sets of companies. The notion that size plays a role, independent of the sectoral composition of R&D, is then confirmed by regression analysis. In the US as well as in the EU, smaller sized Scoreboard companies tend to spend a larger proportion of their income from sales on R&D. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development intensity, EU-US R&D gap, size of firms |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:20092&r=sbm |
| By: | Julian P. Christ |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes with empirical findings to European co-inventorship location and geographical coincidence of co-patenting networks. Based on EPO co-patenting information for the reference period 2000-2004, we analyze the spatial configuration of 44 technology-specific co-inventorship networks. European co-inventorship (co-patenting) activity is spatially linked to 1259 European NUTS3 units (EU25+CH+NO) and their NUTS1 regions by inventor location. We extract 7.135.117 EPO co-patenting linkages from our own relational database that makes use of the OECD RegPAT (2009) Files. The matching between International Patent Classification (IPC) subclasses and 44 technology fields is based on the ISI-SPRU-OST-concordance. We confirm the hypothesis that the 44 co-inventorship networks differ in their overall size (nodes, linkages, self-loops) and that they are dominated by similar groupings of regions. The paper offers statistical evidence for the presence of highly localized European co-inventorship networks for all 44 technology fields, as the majority of linkages between NUTS3 units (counties and districts) are within the same NUTS1 regions. Accordingly, our findings helps to understand general presence of positive spatial autocorrelation in regional patent data. Our analysis explicitly accounts for different network centrality measures (betweenness, degree, eigenvector). Spearman rank correlation coefficients for all 44 technology fields confirm that most co-patenting networks co-locate in those regions that are central in several technology-specific co-patenting networks. These findings support the hypothesis that leading European regions are indeed multi-field network nodes and that most research collaboration is taking place in dense co-patenting networks. |
| Keywords: | co-patenting, co-inventorship, networks, linkages, co-location, RegPAT |
| JEL: | C8 O31 O33 R12 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:wpaper:y:2010:i:31:p:1-40&r=sbm |
| By: | José García-Quevedo (Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) and Dpt. of Political Economy and Public Finance, University of Barcelona); Francisco Mas-Verdú (Dpt. of Economics and Social Sciences, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB)); José Polo-Otero (CYD Foundation and Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB)) |
| Abstract: | PhD graduates hold the highest education degree, are trained to conduct research and can be considered a key element in the creation, commercialization and diffusion of innovations. The impact of PhDs on innovation and economic development takes place through several channels such as the accumulation of scientific capital stock, the enhancement of technology transfers and the promotion of cooperation relationships in innovation processes. Although the placement of PhDs in industry provides a very important mechanism for transmitting knowledge from universities to firms, information about the characteristics of the firms that employ PhDs is very scarce. The goal of this paper is to improve understanding of the determinants of the demand for PhDs in the private sector. Three main potential determinants of the demand for PhDs are considered: cooperation between firms and universities, R&D activities of firms and several characteristics of firms, size, sector, productivity and age. The results from the econometric analysis show that cooperation between firms and universities encourages firms to recruit PhDs and point to the existence of accumulative effects in the hiring of PhD graduates. |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2010-2&r=sbm |
| By: | Ha, Joonkyung (Hanyang University); Jin Kim, Yong (Ajou University); Lee, Jong-Wha (Asian Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a theoretical model and empirical evidence to explain the observation that a country in which the level of technology approaches the technology frontier tends to rely more on technology creation than adoption, and to invest more in basic research than in development. The model shows that technology creation involves both basic and development research processes while technology adoption uses only the latter process. Thus, research and development (R&D) investment in our model involves three different processes: basic research in technology creation, development in technology creation, and development in technology adoption. The results suggest first, that the rate of growth is positively correlated with the level of basic research activities in the technology creation sector, if one country’s technology gap with the technology frontier is small enough. Second, an increase in the efficiency of the education system for highly skilled workers raises the level of basic research and the rate of growth. Third, verifying these theoretical results, empirical analyses using panel data of Japan; Republic of Korea; and Taipei,China show that the narrower the technological distance to the frontier, the higher the growth effect of basic R&D, indicating that the share of basic R&D matters for economic growth. Last, these also show that the quality of tertiary education has a significantly positive effect on the productivity of R&D. |
| Keywords: | Basic research; technology creation; technology adoption; economic growth |
| JEL: | O31 O47 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0163&r=sbm |
| By: | Novero Serena (Ceris - Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth, Turin, Italy) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this work is to present a methodology useful to verify the impact of public interventions directed to support the technological innovation in local groups of SMEs. In the last decades, in several agglomerations of firms, some difficulties emerged, related to the small-medium enterprises gaps in innovation, to their low competitiveness and to the rising of distinct historical heritages in specific areas. To overcome them, some public interventions have been put into place, aimed at supporting the local units’ development, and at sustaining the growth of the area. The work examines two central points of this mechanism. Is it possible to evaluate the effects and the utility of the above mentioned public actions on the involved SMEs? Which is the methodology that is appropriate for such an evaluation? In the economic literature these questions are linked to the “evaluation problem”. This work suggests four methodologies (statistical - descriptive analysis and the application of regression, Probit and difference in difference models) to achieve these targets and, before that, it discusses the type of data that should be collected to apply them. |
| Keywords: | Firms’ Technological Innovation, Public interventions evaluation, Impact analysis methodologies |
| JEL: | C31 C35 D92 H71 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:cerisp:200903&r=sbm |
| By: | Hall, Bronwyn H. (University of California at Berkeley, UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University); Mairesse, Jacques (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and CREST); Mohnen, Pierre (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and CIRANO) |
| Abstract: | We review the econometric literature on measuring the returns to R&D. The theoretical frameworks that have been used are outlined, followed by an extensive discussion of measurement and econometric issues that arise when estimating the models. We then provide a series of tables summarizing the major results that have been obtained and conclude with a presentation of R&D spillover returns measurement. In general, the private returns to R&D are strongly positive and somewhat higher than those for ordinary capital, while the social returns are even higher, although variable and imprecisely measured in many cases. |
| Keywords: | returns to R&D, innovation, social returns, spillovers |
| JEL: | O30 C23 C81 D24 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2010006&r=sbm |