nep-tid New Economics Papers
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics
Issue of 2008‒12‒21
four papers chosen by
Rui Baptista
Technical University of Lisbon

  1. Playing In Between: Patents’ Brokers In Markets For Technology By Alberto Di Minin; Mario Benassi
  2. A percolation model of the product lifecycle By Frenken, Koen; Silverberg, Gerald; Valente, Marco
  3. Labour Force Paths as Industry Linkages: A Perspective on Clusters and Industry Life Cycles By Mika Maliranta; Tuomo Nikulainen
  4. Firm Turnover and Productivity Growth in the Canadian Retail Trade Sector By Baldwin, John R.; Gu, Wulong

  1. By: Alberto Di Minin (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Mario Benassi (Università Statale di Milano)
    Abstract: We here argue that patent brokers do not only stay in between supply and demand of innovation, but play in between executing complex transactions and taking entrepreneurial risk. In doing so they serve a support function to R&D managers of firms adopting various approaches to technological change. We discuss how economic and sociological theories explain brokerage and its existence. Our qualitative analysis of the current practice of patent brokerage in the U.S. finds only partial evidence in support of such argumentations. We conclude with our own proposition, suggesting that even in very dense environments, the bridging role of intellectual property intermediaries is that of market makers, who leverage their specific investment to play in between technology demand and supply.
    Keywords: Open Innovation intermediaries patents intellectual property
    Date: 2008–08–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sse:wpaper:200802&r=tid
  2. By: Frenken, Koen (Urban & Regional research centre Utrecht (URU), Utrecht University); Silverberg, Gerald (UNU-MERIT, and IIASA); Valente, Marco (Department of Economics, University of L’Aquila)
    Abstract: The product lifecycle model can be understood as a three-stage model of technological development associated with a particular product technology. In the explorative stage many different designs are developed, in the development stage products become standardized into a dominant design, and in the mature stage only incremental changes occur within the dominant design. Although the product lifecycle model is widely accepted and often applied in empirical research, innovation scholars have failed to develop systematic theoretical models that explain the different stages of technological development along the lifecycle. In this study, an attempt is made to contribute to product lifecycle theory by developing a theoretical model based on percolation dynamics. The model combines the concept of increasing returns to adoption with information diffusion among consumers within social networks. The main contribution of the model is that it replicates the three stages of the product lifecycle as an outcome of a single elementary process. The model also replicates the S-shaped diffusion curve and the occurrence of an industry shakeout.
    Keywords: mathematical models, percolation model, diffusion, social networks, product lifecycle, dominant design
    JEL: C15 L11 L15 O14 O33
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008073&r=tid
  3. By: Mika Maliranta; Tuomo Nikulainen
    Abstract: ABSTRACT : We make several findings related to the dynamics of labour markets and industry life cycles in our analysis, which makes use of longitudinal employer-employee data that cover the whole working age population in Finland. Firstly, we find that across industry transitions of the employed are common. Secondly, employment transitions portray a network of industry linkages where specific industry clusters can be identified, as well as labour flow paths with long backward and forward linkages. Thirdly, most of the upstream labour mobility linkages are end up in the education industry, which thus seems to be an “ancestor” of the most of the industries. On the other hand, we find eight totally isolated industries that had no distinct backward or forward linkages in the labour markets. Finally, we show that the labour flows are a significant indicator for industry life cycles.
    Keywords: employment transitions, industry clusters, industry life cycle
    JEL: J23 J63 L16
    Date: 2008–12–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1168&r=tid
  4. By: Baldwin, John R.; Gu, Wulong
    Abstract: This paper examines firm turnover and productivity growth in the Canadian retail trade sector. Firm turnover occurs as the competitive process shifts market share from exiting firms and existing firms that contracted to entering firms and existing firms that expanded. There is considerably more firm turnover in the retail sector than in the manufacturing sector and more of it comes from entry and exit. Moreover, contrary to the manufacturing sector where only part of overall productivity growth comes from firm turnover and the re-allocation of resources from the less to the more productive, all of the aggregate productivity growth comes from this source in the retail sector. This suggests that the much-discussed Wal-Mart effect on retail sector productivity mainly comes from the Wal-Mart-created competitive pressure that shifts market share from exitors and declining incumbents to entrants and growing incumbents. Foreign-controlled firms contributed 30% of labour productivity growth and 45% of multifactor productivity growth in the retail trade sector in the period from 1984 to 1996, which are mainly due to the entry of foreign-controlled firms and expansion of more productive foreign-controlled existing firms.
    Keywords: Manufacturing, Retail and wholesale, Economic accounts, Productivity accounts
    Date: 2008–12–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp5e:2008053e&r=tid

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