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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Rammer, Christian; Kinne, Jan; Blind, Knut |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the micro-location pattern of innovative and non-innovative firms in Berlin using detailed information on the firms' addresses and their local environment. The study employs a unique, representative panel data set of Berlin-based firms from manufacturing and services covering a five-year period (2011-2015) and applying the standard concepts and measurement approaches used in the Community Innovation Surveys. While controlling for firm size, age and sector, we find product innovators and R&D performing firms located closer to research infrastructures, start-ups and other firms from the same industry. They tend to prefer more dynamic neighbourhoods and avoid very densely populated areas. For process innovators, no significant differences from non-process innovators are found. Firms are more likely to introduce new-to-market innovations if other firms in their direct neighbourhood had introduced such innovations in the previous period, but also if firms with such innovations have moved out of their neighbourhood. The 'creative environment' of a firm in terms of bars, cafes, clubs, leisure facilities or cultural locations does not seem to be linked to the innovative activity of firms. |
| Keywords: | Microgeography,Innovation,Location Decision,Berlin,Knowledge Spillovers |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 R12 R39 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16080&r=tid |
| By: | Crass, Dirk; Rammer, Christian; Aschhoff, Birgit |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes how geographical clustering of beneficiaries might affect the effectiveness of public innovation support programs. The geographical proximity of firms operating in the same industry or field of technology is expected to facilitate innovation through knowledge spillovers and other localization advantages. Public innovation support programs may leverage these advantages by focusing on firms that operate in a cluster. We investigate this link using data from a large German program that co-funds R&D projects of SMEs in key technology areas called 'Innovative SMEs'. We employ three alternative cluster measures which capture industry, technology and knowledge dimensions of clusters. Regardless of the measure, firms located in a geographical cluster are more likely to participate in the program. Firms being part of a knowledge-based cluster significantly increases their chance of receiving public financial support. We find no effects, however, of geographical clustering on the program's effectiveness in terms of input or output additionality. |
| Keywords: | Innovation,Government Policy,Regional Government Analysis |
| JEL: | C35 H50 O31 O32 O38 R59 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16083&r=tid |
| By: | Matthijs Janssen |
| Abstract: | After an era of generic support for economic development and innovation, narrowly targeted transformation policy is back on the table. Recent advances in the fields of new industrial policy and transition thinking converge on the idea that achieving structural change requires governments to take an active role in overcoming inertia. Rather than just leveraging R&D investments and setting framework conditions, policy makers are urged to participate in the development of socio-economic systems around particular technologies. Associated policy support typically involves a diverse portfolio of system-specific interventions. The emergence of transformative policy, in this paper characterized by being selective, process-oriented and multi-instrumental, poses severe challenges to rising standards of public accountability. Evaluation methods for calculating the ‘bang for the buck’ of R&D-leveraging measures are ill-suited when policy mixes are supposed to enact economic transformation. We argue that, in order to see if aptly chosen policy design is bringing about actual change, assessments should gauge policy contributions to building up technological innovation systems (TIS). The TIS-literature provides a concrete but untapped basis for tracking how policy efforts affect conditions favoring the creation and diffusion of new economic activities. This premise leads us to introduce a scheme for structuring analyses concerned with (the links between) the organization, orientation and aggregate impact of transformative policy. We test it in a tentative assessment of the Dutch ‘Topsector approach’. Besides facilitating continuous policy learning, our assessment scheme also serves to strengthen policy maker’s ability to legitimize the adoption of heterodox economic approaches. |
| Keywords: | economic development, innovation policy, policy mix, technological innovation system, structural change, directionality |
| JEL: | O25 O38 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uis:wpaper:1605&r=tid |
| By: | Marco Di Cataldo; Andrés Rodríguez-Pose |
| Abstract: | The European Union promotes development strategies aimed at producing growth with “a strong emphasis on job creation and poverty reduction”. However, whether the economic conditions in place in EU regions are ideal for the generation of high- and low-skilled employment and labour market inclusion is unclear. This paper assesses how the key factors behind EU growth strategies – infrastructure, human capital, innovation, quality of government – condition employment generation and labour market exclusion in European regions. The findings indicate that the dynamics of employment and social exclusion vary depending on the conditions in place in a region. While higher innovation and education contribute to overall employment generation in some regional contexts, low-skilled employment grows the most in regions with a better quality of government. Regional public institutions, together with the endowment of human capital, emerge as the main factors for the reduction of labour market exclusion – particularly in the less developed regions – and the promotion of inclusive employment growth across Europe. |
| Keywords: | social exclusion; employment; skills; regions; Europe |
| JEL: | J64 O52 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:68510&r=tid |
| By: | Zobel, Ann-Kristin (eth zurich); Lokshin, Boris (Organisation and Strategy); Hagedoorn, John (Organisation and Strategy; Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses how firms’ degree of openness and innovativeness influence their use of formal and informal appropriation mechanisms. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and design rights are formal appropriation mechanisms. Secrecy, lead-time, and complexity are examples of informal appropriation mechanisms. Both external search breadth and depth are positively associated with firms’ use of informal appropriation mechanisms, while only external search breadth is positively associated with formal appropriation mechanisms. Firms’ degree of radical (incremental) innovation orientation is negatively (positively) associated with their use of formal appropriation mechanisms. Analysis of the joint impact of openness and innovativeness, suggests that for radical innovators it is external search breadth (rather than depth) that has a positive association with the use of informal appropriation mechanisms. In contrast, for radical innovators external search depth (rather than breadth) is associated with the use of formal appropriation mechanisms. For incremental innovators, external search breadth (rather than depth) is associated with the use of both formal and informal appropriation mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Appropriation Mechanisms, Formal Appropriation, Informal Appropriation, External Search Openness, Incremental Innovators, Radical Innovators |
| JEL: | O34 O31 O32 K11 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2016040&r=tid |
| By: | Uwe Cantner (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Tina Wolf (University of Southern Denmark, Department of Marketing and Management) |
| Abstract: | Earlier studies have shown that entrepreneurs play a key role in shaping regional development. Innovator networks where these entrepreneurs are members of have been identified as one among many critical factors for their firms' success. This paper intents to go one step further and analyses in how far differing characteristics of these networks lead to different firm performances along the early stages of the organizational life cycle (nascent stage, emergent stage, early growth stage). A sample of 149 patenting (innovative) firms in Thuringia is analysed, using data from the commercial register and the German patent office. The results show that there is an inverted u-shaped relationship between the chances of a firm to survive and the connectivity of the network the firms are connected to but only in the later stage of the early organizational life cycle; while the structure of the ego-network never plays a role. A quite central position in the network shows-up to be unfavourable. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Networks, Inventor, Patents, Survival |
| JEL: | L25 L26 O30 L14 |
| Date: | 2016–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2016-021&r=tid |
| By: | Germana Giombini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo); Francesco Perugini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo"); Giuseppe Travaglini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo") |
| Abstract: | With the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the new millennium in many European countries, and especially those of the Southern Europe, a structural change in the way the economy grows took place. In this essay we use the growth accounting methodology to measure the contribution of different factors to economic growth in some European countries and in the U.S. and to isolate the determinants of the European slowdown during the Great Recession. The focus on Italy suggests that the slowdown of the Italian economy is structural and affects both the non-ICT and ICT sectors. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Labour market Policies; Productivity; Competitiveness; Growth Accounting |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J60 O30 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:16_06&r=tid |
| By: | Richard Fabling (Independent Researcher); Arthur Grimes (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | We estimate whether there are productivity gains from ultrafast broadband (UFB) adoption and whether any gains are higher when firms undertake complementary organisational investments. Using an IV strategy based on proximity to schools (that were targeted in the UFB roll-out), we find that the average effect of UFB adoption on employment and (labour and multifactor) productivity is insignificantly different from zero, even for firms in industries where we might expect the returns to UFB to be relatively high. Conversely, we find that firms making concurrent investments in organisational capital specifically for the purpose of getting more from their ICTs appear to experience higher productivity growth, at least in first-difference specifications. Firms making these joint (UFB-organisational) investment decisions are significantly more likely to report other positive outcomes from their ICT investments, consistent with the identified relationship with productivity being causal. |
| Keywords: | Ultrafast broadband adoption, fibre-to-the-door, productivity, organisational change, complementary investments |
| JEL: | D22 L23 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:16_22&r=tid |
| By: | Tuukka Mäkitie (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway); Allan D. Andersen (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway); Jens Hanson (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway); Håkon E. Normann (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway); Taran M. Thune (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway) |
| Abstract: | The development and deployment of clean energy technologies must be accelerated to avoid a more than 2-degree warmer world, which poses a major policy challenge. Utilization of the vast resources concentrated in established sectors is one possible way to advance clean technology industries. However, prior research on energy transitions tends to emphasize competition and conflict between established sectors and clean-tech industries. There is thus a need for studying how established sectors may positively contribute to clean-tech industries. We propose an extended analytical framework of the technological innovation systems (TIS) approach to study how established sectors influence clean-tech industries, and present new definitions and indicators. We present a case study of oil and gas sector and offshore wind power industry development in Norway. Our results show that while the oil and gas sector has several positive implications for offshore wind power, wavering priorities and commitment of diversified oil and gas firms to the new industry have negative implications. We conclude by discussing the relevance of our findings for policy and research targeting the development of clean-tech industries. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20161208&r=tid |
| By: | Taran Thune (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway); Magnus Gulbrandsen (TIK Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the question of how hospital employees contribute to the generation of innovations and to what extent hospitals function as a conducive environment for innovative work. The motivation behind this exploratory study was primarily to identify the diversity of innovation activities in hospitals, with the goal of developing and testing a survey tool that can adequately capture this diversity. Although conceptual and empirical research on the characteristics of medical and health related innovations has been carried out, the role of hospitals in such innovations is more often assumed rather than empirically tested. We argue that innovation in public hospitals is still not well understood and contribute to understanding through a pilot study carried out in four public hospitals in Norway. A preliminary analysis indicates that there are different modes of innovative work in hospitals, as suggested by some of the literature, and that different kinds of employees are involved in distinct sets of activities. The survey tool that we developed seems to be able to capture the diversity of innovation-related activities, but there were problematic aspects related to the sampling and recruitment of respondents. Suggestions for further exploration and testing are discussed. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20161211&r=tid |
| By: | Fiorini, Matteo; Hoekman, Bernard; Malgouyres, Clément |
| Abstract: | Policy reforms targeting the services sectors influence the process of structural transformation and economic development. This paper used sector-level panel data for 24 transition economies for the 1990-2012 period to analyze the impacts of services policy reforms on employment in downstream manufacturing sectors. We find that negative effects on manufacturing employment are mitigated or disappear for countries with better economic governance and higher levels of human capital. The decline in manufacturing employment is observed only in the first decade of transition. The estimated negative effect of policy reforms is of a contemporaneous nature; it does not persist along the lag structure. |
| Keywords: | economic reform; employment; service-sector policies; structural transformation; transition economies |
| JEL: | F16 F66 J23 P21 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11694&r=tid |
| By: | Köllner, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between growing import penetration and manufacturing employment growth in 12 OECD countries between 1995 and 2011, accounting for various model specifications, different measures of import penetration and alternate estimation strategies. The application of the latest version of the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) that has become available only recently allows to measure the effect of increasing imported intermediates according to their country of origin. The findings emphasize a weak positive overall impact of growing trade on manufacturing employment. However, intermediate inputs from China and the new EU members are substitutes to manufacturing employment in highly developed countries while imports from the EU-27 act as complements to domestic manufacturing production. A three-level mixed model implies that the hierarchical structure of the data only plays a minor role, while controlling for endogeneity leaves the results unchanged. |
| Keywords: | Import Penetration,Manufacturing,Labor Markets,Hierarchical Mixed Model |
| JEL: | E24 F16 J23 L60 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wuewwb:135&r=tid |
| By: | Giorgio Calcagnini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo"); Germana Giombini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo); Giuseppe Travaglini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical and empirical models provide ambiguous responses on the relationship among labor regulation, innovation and investment. Labor regulation tends to raise frms' adjustment costs. But, also labor regulation stimulates firms to make innovations and investments to recover productivity in the long-run. In this paper we present a neo- Schumpeterian endogenous growth model, which explains how these opposite forces operate over time, and why a stricter labor regulation may positively affect innovation and investment. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth model; Labor regulation; Innovation; Investment |
| JEL: | O4 J5 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:16_04&r=tid |
| By: | Lazkano, Itziar (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Pham, Linh (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the role of a fossil fuel tax and research subsidy in directing innovation from fossil fuel toward renewable energy technologies in the electricity sector. Using a global firm-level electricity patent database from 1978 to 2011, we find that the impact of fossil fuel taxes on renewable energy innovation varies with the type of fossil fuel. Specifically, a tax on coal reduces innovation in both fossil fuel and renewable energy technologies while a tax on natural gas has no statistically significant impact on renewable energy innovation. The reason is that easily dispatchable energy sources like coal-fired power plants need to complement renewable energy Technologies in the grid because renewables generate electricity intermittently. Our results suggest that a tax on natural gas, combined with research subsidies for renewable energy, may effectively shift innovation in the electricity sector towards renewable energy. In contrast, coal taxation or a carbon tax that increases coal prices has unintended negative consequences for renewable energy innovation. |
| Keywords: | Electricity; Energy taxes; Renewable; coal; natural gas technologies |
| JEL: | L90 O30 Q40 |
| Date: | 2016–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2016_016&r=tid |