More is not always better: Effects of collaboration breadth and depth on radical and incremental innovation performance at the project level

This study investigates the effect of project-level collaboration breadth (i.e., the number of collaboration partner types) and collaboration depth (i.e., the intensity of the interactions with these partners) on the incremental and radical innovation performance of innovation projects. The econometric analyses, based on a Community Innovation Study sample of 218 innovation projects conducted in German manufacturing companies, reveal inverted U-shaped relationships between collaboration breadth and radical innovation performance and between collaboration depth and incremental innovation performance. These curvilinear effects speak to the high sensitivity of innovation projects to the extent of collaborative activity, which implies that practitioners should exert caution in managing collaborative innovation projects. This study contributes to the understanding of project-level open innovation and to the overall understanding of the performance effects of innovation collaboration, which, following recent assertions in the literature, could be flawed by analyses conducted at the organizational level.     

Bridging distant technological domains: A longitudinal study of the determinants of breadth of innovation diffusion

The diffusion of innovations is identified as an important aspect of technological and social change. Innovations diffuse through segmented networks of knowledge that limit the flow of knowledge from any one technological domain to any other. Despite this segmentation, some organizations are capable of developing pieces of knowledge that overcome these limitations. Within this context, we develop four hypotheses regarding specific R&D strategies that affect a firm’s ability to develop inventions that diffuse beyond the firm’s technological boundaries. Specifically, we examine how a firm's scientific intensity, technological collaborations, technological diversity, and internal focus impact breadth of innovation diffusion. We use two of the main determinants of innovation diffusion, namely, the relative advantage and the observability, as theoretical mechanisms to build our arguments. We empirically test our hypotheses on longitudinal data from the industries of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and chemicals. Our findings show that the extent to which the knowledge embedded in a firm’s inventions diffuses in distant technological areas is positively related to the firm’s scientific intensity and to its extent of collaboration, but it is negatively related to its technological diversity.     

Post-acquisition integrative versus independent innovation: A story of dueling success factors

Technological acquisitions have become a popular complement to internal innovation in order to overcome the time-compression diseconomies of internal innovation. As such, acquisition success greatly depends on the expeditious leveraging of target knowledge. Confounding our understanding of leveraging target knowledge is that targets play two distinct innovative roles post-acquisition: conduct innovative activities in conjunction with acquirers (integrative innovation) and continue innovative activities independent of acquirers (independent innovation). To understand how factors differentially affect these two types of innovation, I connect two disparate concepts: relative absorptive capacity and selective intervention. I develop theory and find evidence that while relative absorptive capacity creates the communication capabilities that accelerate integrative innovation, it simultaneously deteriorates the information asymmetries between targets and acquirers leading to greater opportunities for acquirer intervention into target innovative activities that delay independent innovation.     

Non-technological regulatory effects: Implications for innovation and innovation policy

This paper considers the link between public policy and innovation and contributes to the notion that public policies that do not directly address innovation carry along important implications for it. It explores the role of regulation for innovation and innovation policy by emphasizing the importance of non-technological regulatory effects for innovation and their potential as an input for innovation policy. The output of in depth interviews with stakeholders from the detergents industry is combined with various sources of secondary data and reveals a variety of non-technological novelties attributed to regulation that are relevant to innovation. These results are then matched against the objectives of innovation policy, an exercise that gives better insights on the policy links between regulation and innovation policy and concludes on the domains of complementarities between the two. We find that that regulatory policy can contribute to the achievement of targets set by innovation policy while innovation policy measures can facilitate the compensation of negative regulatory implications for innovation.     

Creativity and regional innovation: Evidence from EU regions

We analyse the role of creative workers in the region as a source and foundational element of regional innovation in the European Union. We show the empirical relevance of this factor – which we label inspiration – within the structure of a recursive model of regional innovation for a set of 83 European regions. We show that, when differentiated from the presence of regional intelligence – as measured by the availability of human capital – and from technological infrastructure, inspiration, along with the degree of development of national and regional institutions, has the strongest direct and indirect effects on regional patenting activity.     

Sources of ideas for innovation in engineering design

This paper explores the sources of ideas for innovation in engineering design. It shows that engineering designers involved in complex, non-routine design processes rely heavily on face-to-face conversations with other designers for solving problems and developing new innovative ideas. The research is based on a case study and survey of designers from Arup, a leading international engineering consultancy. We examine the role of different mechanisms for learning about new designs, the motivations of designers, problem-solving and limits to designers’ ability to innovate. We explore how the project-based nature of the construction sector shapes the ways in which designers develop new ideas and solve problems. We suggest that among the population of designers in Arup, there are a number of different design strategies for innovating and that these can have important implications for how design is managed. We locate our approach in the research on innovation in project-based firms, outlining patterns of innovation in firms that survive on the basis of their success in winning and managing projects.     

Approaching the innovation frontier in Korea: the transition phase to leadership

As leading East Asian latecomer firms begin to compete on the basis of new product development and in-house research and development (R&D), they appear to confront a difficult strategic dilemma. Should they compete as R&D and brand leaders on the international stage or should they continue with their tried and tested formula of low cost catch up competitiveness? Most studies of East Asian firms focus on catch up innovation processes. By contrast, this paper focuses on the challenges facing latecomer firms in the transition phase from catch up to leadership status, in order to assess the ‘strategic dilemma’ argument and examine the nature of transition innovation. Based on in-depth interviews with leading Korean firms, the paper contends that the strategic dilemma argument is a misleading oversimplification of the main innovation challenges facing most Korean firms as they become more technologically advanced. Most of the major exporters (or chaebol) offer a portfolio of products, some of which are technologically advanced and others less advanced. Corporate innovation strategies tend to be executed in relation to the needs of specific products (or closely related product families) rather than ‘the firm’ in its entirety. In addition, many firms in many product areas have yet to reach the innovation frontier stage and even the leading chaebol continue to produce large volumes of products under sub-contracting and licensing agreements. Firm strategies tend to embody a mix of leadership, ‘followership’ and latecomer positions according to the product portfolio of the company in question. The study identifies various strategic options and difficulties facing Korean firms during the transition process and points to promising future research on latecomer transition.     

Three frames for innovation policy: R&D,systems of innovation and transformative change

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is shaped by persistent framings that arise from historical context. Two established frames are identified as co-existing and dominant in contemporary innovation policy discussions. The first frame is identified as beginning with a Post-World War II institutionalisation of government support for science and R&D with the presumption that this would contribute to growth and address market failure in private provision of new knowledge. The second frame emerged in the 1980s globalising world and its emphasis on competitiveness which is shaped by the national systems of innovation for knowledge creation and commercialisation. STI policy focuses on building links, clusters and networks, and on stimulating learning between elements in the systems, and enabling entrepreneurship. A third frame linked to contemporary social and environmental challenges such as the Sustainable Development Goals and calling for transformative change is identified and distinguished from the two earlier frames. Transformation refers to socio-technical system change as conceptualised in the sustainability transitions literature. The nature of this third framing is examined with the aim of identifying its key features and its potential for provoking a re-examination of the earlier two frames. One key feature is its focus on experimentation, and the argument that the Global South does not need to play catch-up to follow the transformation model of the Global North. It is argued that all three frames are relevant for policymaking, but exploring options for transformative innovation policy should be a priority.     

Mobilizing innovation for sustainability transitions: A comment on transformative innovation policy

The topics addressed in this paper concern the (much-needed) transition to sustainability and what role (innovation) policy can play in speeding up such changes. In their Discussion Paper Schot and Steinmueller (2018) argue that the existing theorizing and knowledge bases within the field of innovation studies are “unfit” for this task and that a totally new approach is required. This paper takes issue with this claim. Policy advice, it is argued, needs to be anchored in the accumulated research on the issue at hand, in this case, innovation. The paper therefore starts by distilling some important insights on innovation from the accumulated research on this topic and, with this in mind, considers various policy approaches that have been suggested for influencing innovation and sustainability transitions. Finally, the lessons for the development and implementation of transformative innovation policy are considered. It is concluded that the existing theorizing and knowledge base in innovation studies may be of great relevance when designing policies for dealing with climate change and sustainability transitions.     

研发模式、知识距离对企业绿色创新的影响

将企业研发模式分为自主研发和合作研发,探讨研发模式和知识距离对企业绿色创新的影响,选取2013-2019年制造业上市公司数据为样本进行实证检验.研究结果表明,自主研发和合作研发显著正向影响企业绿色创新,合作研发对企业绿色创新的促进作用较强,自主研发次之;知识距离与企业绿色创新显著负相关,知识距离越大,越不利于企业绿色创新;企业间知识距离较近条件下合作研发对驱动企业绿色创新的效果优于自主研发,企业间知识距离较远条件下自主研发更有利于企业绿色创新.     

The effects of offshore production on onshore innovation: Evidence from Japanese multinationals

This paper examines a largely unexplored channel of the effects of offshore production on onshore (domestic) innovation performance. We combine a comprehensive dataset mapping the global operations of Japanese multinational firms with patent statistics to measure innovation. The study finds that increased offshore production have little effects on onshore innovation performance once properly correcting a simultaneity bias. Furthermore, we find some weak evidence of increased offshore production downgrades the quality of innovation, measured by citations. Consistent with other studies, we find that an increase in overseas R&D is the main driver of innovation creation for multinational firms.     

The impact on innovation performance of different sources of knowledge: Evidence from the UK Community Innovation Survey

This paper considers two main categories of knowledge sources and their impact on the innovation performance of enterprises: own-generation through R&D versus knowledge transfers via bought-in resources for innovation purposes, external collaborations on R&D, and internal sources within the company. The national and international dimensions of both internal networks and external collaborative agreements are explored, as is the interaction between R&D and other sources. Data from two UK Community Innovation Surveys allow for the lagging of relevant variables. Our results suggest that, while intra-company knowledge sources, own-generation, and bought-in R&D matter in innovation performance, the benefits of joint innovation efforts in the form of cooperation are less clear. The international dimension of internal networks is highly relevant, and interactions between the own-generation of knowledge and external sources increase the innovation potential of enterprises.     

Measuring the returns of R&D—An empirical study of the German manufacturing sector over 45 years

Motivated by recent statistics that show significant growth in labor productivity, this paper seeks to analyze the long-term relationship between domestic R&D, knowledge stock and productivity dynamics. Time series data of the German manufacturing industry is used to estimate a variable cost function with the stock of knowledge being dependent upon current and past R&D spending. The estimates indicate that 50% of the effects of R&D on the knowledge stock appear within 4 years. However, the rate of return on R&D are shown to be drastically declining; recent rates of return on R&D are estimated to have reached an all-time low spanning the last 45 years. Current yields of R&D are only one third compared to the sixties. In conclusion, though the productivity slowdown of the seventies seems to have been overcome, this is not attributed to R&D investments.     

Emergent innovation systems and the delivery of clinical services: The case of intra-ocular lenses

This paper is an exploration of the dynamics of technical change in medicine. We argue that innovation in medicine is a process that is distributed across time, space and epistemic and institutional domains; that it entails the entrepreneurial effort of creative individuals as well as the emergence of correlated understanding among heterogeneous agents whose rules of interaction are contingently instituted in socio-economic systems along unfolding scientific and technological trajectories. We illustrate our arguments through an in-depth analysis of a major ophthalmologic innovation - the intra-ocular lens - that has literally transformed the treatment of cataract in the developed world and has the potential to do so in many developing countries. We investigate the advancement of clinical knowledge about the disease, the development of effective technological capabilities and the co-evolution of the supply capacity and demand of a micro-innovation system emerged along a specific sequence of interrelated problems, and associated solutions, which engaged scientists, technicians, practitioners, regulators and patients alike over a period of around three decades.     

Highly cited leaders and the performance of research universities

There is a large literature on the productivity of universities. Little is known, however, about how different types of leader affect a university's later performance. To address this, I blend quantitative and qualitative evidence. By constructing a new longitudinal dataset, I find that on average the research quality of a university improves some years after it appoints a president (vice chancellor) who is an accomplished scholar. To try to explain why scholar-leaders might improve the research performance of their institutions, I draw from interview data with 26 heads in universities in the United States and United Kingdom. The findings have policy implications for governments, universities, and a range of research and knowledge-intensive organizations.     

Co-operative ties and innovation: Some new evidence for UK manufacturing

Drawing upon survey data from 436 firms, this paper explores the impact of co-operative ties upon levels of innovation (both product and process) in five UK manufacturing industries. Unlike a number of previous studies in this area, the data itself captures both the scale and multi-dimensional nature of both co-operation and innovation. The paper finds evidence to support the hypothesis that vertical co-operative ties are a significant factor in explaining firms’ levels of innovative performance. However, the empirical analysis suggests that it is the strength of such ties - and not just their existence - which are important with stronger dyadic relations between firms having a positive and significant impact upon levels of innovation. The analysis also finds that in some sectors, horizontal co-operative ties are (albeit to a lesser extent) also important.     

小企业集群创新网络的知识溢出效应分析

本文从网络观研究了小企业集群及其创新网络的基本内涵和结构，从集群整体和集群成员两个方面揭示了小企业集群创新网络产生和创新网络中知识溢出的经济性和存在意义，分析了集群知识溢出的途径和影响因素，以及知识溢出的动态控制机制。     

Absorptive capacities approaches for investigating national innovation systems in low and middle income countries

This review article covers some of the founding literature that helps develop our understanding of the National Innovation System (NIS) concept. Subsequently, several versions of NIS, including system-functional approaches, are discussed and compared with narrow research and development (R&D) and market-based approaches. Finally, the article contends that the system-functional and other narrow approaches are limited in application to the developing low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, it makes a case for more inclusive absorptive capacity approaches and explains how they might be more relevant in investigating the NIS of an LMIC. Such approaches suggest LMICs be strategic in building their innovation base and plead for strong local conditions (capacities) to produce knowledge as well as capture and improvise on incoming knowledge from abroad. The research is important as it provides insights into analyzing and capturing innovation processes in LMICs, which are prime candidates for development and innovation studies and practice.     

Internationalization of innovation systems: A survey of the literature

While there is a large literature on the internationalization of economic activity (including R&D) at the corporate level, there are not many studies of the degree of internationalization of innovation systems. The few studies that exist show that national innovation systems are becoming internationalized, even if the institutions that support them remain country-specific. To the extent that the far more numerous studies of internationalization of corporate R&D discuss innovation systems at all, they point to the continued importance of national institutions to support innovative activity, even though that activity is itself becoming increasingly internationalized.     

互联网发展与技术创新：专利生产、更新与引用视角

本文在理论上分析互联网发展对技术创新的可能影响机制,利用2007—2014年我国230个地级市的面板数据,通过主成分分析法构建了互联网发展指数。并进一步应用工具变量法实证研究了互联网发展对技术创新产生的影响及其内在传导机制。本文采用1984年各城市每百人固定电话数量与电信投资量的交互项作为研究的工具变量。实证表明：（1）无论从专利数据还是城市创新指数来看,互联网发展都显著促进了技术创新;（2）互联网发展加速了专利的折旧速度,有利于提高创新知识的更新速度;（3）互联网发展加快信息的传播,提升了专利的国内外引用,显著增加了创新知识的溢出。本文为我国“互联网＋”行动计划、创新型国家建设奠定了理论与事实基础。