nep-tid New Economics Papers
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics
Issue of 2015‒04‒11
four papers chosen by
Fulvio Castellacci
Universitetet i Oslo

  1. What do firms know? What do they produce? A new look at the relationship between patenting profiles and patterns of product diversification By Giovanni Dosi; Marco Grazzi; Daniele Moschella
  2. Eco-innovation and firm growth: Do green gazelles run faster? Microeconometric evidence from a sample of European firms By Alessandra Colombelli; Jackie Krafft; Francesco Quatraro
  3. Has ICT polarized skill demand? Evidence from eleven countries over 25 years By Guy Michaels; Ashwini Natraj; John Van Reenen
  4. Innovation in Business Group Firms: Influence of Network Diversity By Kerai, Anita; Sharma, Sunil

  1. By: Giovanni Dosi; Marco Grazzi; Daniele Moschella
    Abstract: In this work we analyze the relationship between the patterns of firm diversification, if any, across product lines and across bodies of innovative knowledge, proxied by the patent classes where the firm is present. Putting it more emphatically we investigate the relationship between "what a firm doe" and "what a firm knows". Using a newly developed dataset matching information on patents and products at the firm level, we provide evidence concerning firms' technological and product scope, their relationships, the size-scaling and coherence properties of diversication itself. Our analysis shows that typically firms are much more diversified in terms of products than in terms of technologies, with their main products more related to the exploitation of their innovative knowledge. The scaling properties show that the number of products and technologies increase log-linearly as firms grow. And the directions of diversification themselves display coherence between neighboring activities also at relatively high degrees of diversification. These findings are well in tune with a capability-based theory of the firm.
    Date: 2015–01–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2015/05&r=tid
  2. By: Alessandra Colombelli; Jackie Krafft; Francesco Quatraro
    Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of eco-innovation on firms’ growth processes, with a special focus on gazelles, i.e. firms’ showing higher growth rates than the average. In a context shaped by more and more stringent environmental regulatory frameworks, we posit that inducement mechanisms stimulate the adoption of green technologies, increasing the derived demand for technologies produced by upstream firms supplying eco-innovations. For these reason we expect the generation of green technologies to trigger sales growth. We use firm-level data drawn from the Bureau van Dijk Database, coupled with patent information obtained from the OECD Science and Technology Indicators. The results confirm that eco-innovations are likely to augment the effects of generic innovation on firms’ growth, and this is particularly true for gazelles, which actually appear to run faster than the others.
    Keywords: Gazelles, Eco-Innovation, firms’ growth, Inducement mechanisms, derived demand, WIPO Green Inventory
    JEL: L10 L20 O32 O33 Q53 Q55
    Date: 2015–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:3:d:0:i:88&r=tid
  3. By: Guy Michaels; Ashwini Natraj; John Van Reenen
    Abstract: We test the hypothesis that information and communication technologies (ICT) “polarize” labor markets, by increasing demand for the highly educated at the expense of the middle educated, with little effect on low-educated workers. Using data on the US, Japan, and nine European countries from 1980–2004, we find that industries with faster ICT growth shifted demand from middle educated workers to highly educated workers, consistent with ICT-based polarization. Trade openness is also associated with polarization, but this is not robust to controlling for R&D. Technologies account for up to a quarter of the growth in demand for highly educated workers.
    Keywords: technology; skill demand; polarization; wage inequality
    JEL: J24 O33 J23
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:46830&r=tid
  4. By: Kerai, Anita; Sharma, Sunil
    Abstract: Extant research on influence of ownership structure on innovation suggests a positive relationship between business group affiliation and innovation. While it is true that firms affiliated to business groups seem to benefit from availability of internal capital, determinants that influence the process of innovation have not been examined. This Paper aims to study the influence of network diversity on innovation for firms affiliated to a business group. We draw upon literature on resource based and principal-agency literature to study nature of knowledge exploration and exploitation by business group firms. We argue that network diversity impacts nature of innovation by business group firms.
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:13335&r=tid

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