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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Mark Sanders; Jaap Bos; Claire Economidou |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we present a model of the industry life cycle that drives and is driven by R&D. In the model, firms have the option to improve the quality of their output or to invest R&D resources in efficiency gains. Faced with this tradeoff, less mature industries, in which young firms dominate, opt for quality improvements instead of efficiency improvements, whereas more mature industries will do both. This switch is endogenous and depends on the level of quality achieved. We explore these two hypotheses empirically using a panel of manufacturing industries across six European countries over the period 1980-1997. Our empirical results provide support for the model's predictions. |
| Keywords: | Growth, Life Cycle, Innovation, Stochastic Frontier Analysis, Manufacturing Industries |
| JEL: | C23 L23 L60 O32 O47 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0718&r=tid |
| By: | Lisa Lynch |
| Abstract: | Using a unique longitudinal representative survey of both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing businesses in the United States during the 1990's, I examine the incidence and intensity of organizational innovation and the factors associated with investments in organizational innovation. Past profits tend to be positively associated with organizational innovation. Employers with a more external focus and broader networks to learn about best practices (as proxied by exports, benchmarking, and being part of a multi-establishment firm) are more likely to invest in organizational innovation. Investments in human capital, information technology, R&D, and physical capital appear to be complementary with investments in organizational innovation. In addition, nonunionized manufacturing plants are more likely to have invested more broadly and intensely in organizational innovation. |
| Keywords: | organizational innovation, productivity, human capital, technological change |
| JEL: | D2 J24 M5 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:07-18&r=tid |
| By: | Giancarlo Corò (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Stefano Micelli (Department of Business, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This essay examines the situation and the lines of development of industrial districts from the point of view of local systems of innovation. First of all, this article points out to the modernity factors of the district model – which are ascribable to the supply chain economy, to entrepreneurial dynamics and to the importance of geography as a competitive resource – through the analysis of recent contributions of economic literature that examined the emerging organizational models in knowledge economy. Secondly, the outcomes of recent research on leading companies of Italian industrial districts will be presented, looking at three particularly topics of ongoing changes: the process of international opening of the value chain, the technological conditions of competitive advantage, the relationship between strategies and economic performance. Finally, some considerations on the issue of policies will be developed. Such considerations underline the need to re-think the traditional models of local governance of development and suggest to look at the new external district economies, based on service economies, on much more considerable investments in training, technological and cultural activities and, finally, on more aware institutional actions with reference to the association of companies in innovation projects. |
| Keywords: | Industrial districts, Innovation Systems, Entrepreneurship, Global Value Chain |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:04_07&r=tid |