Patterns of preservation, restructuring and survival: science and technology policy in Russia in post-Soviet era

This paper analyses the role of S&T policy in the adjustment and restructuring of Russian S&T system in the post-Soviet period. The principal argument is that the adjustment of S&T system in Russia has been evolving between ‘preservation of S&T potential’, its restructuring, and survival strategies developed by researchers and R&D organisations. Interaction of these factors explains much of the pace and patterns of restructuring of Russian S&T system observed in the post-Soviet period. The model that emerged is the post-Soviet R&D model, which is relevant for Russia and also for other CIS. The paper analyses strategic options available to Russian policy makers.     

Spillovers in the production of knowledge: A meta-regression analysis

The production of knowledge was subjected to quantitative analysis in the second half of the twentieth century, following Arrow (1962). The determinants of knowledge and the externalities present in the innovation process were discussed with immediate policy influence. In particular, the presence and strength of the spillover of the pool of past knowledge has encouraged high subsidization of R&D in the most developed countries. We survey the empirical literature on the spillover effect in the production of knowledge and implement a meta-analytic regression. We discover that the average spillover effect is less than but close to one and is highly significant. We also find that the spillover effect tends to be greater when the estimation of knowledge production accounts for foreign inputs, and it tends to be lower when the estimation includes only rich economies, regional data are used, and the pool of knowledge is not the patent stock.     

基于B-SECI模型的颠覆性创新过程解构：知识创造视角

知识创造是创新主体不断吸收与转化知识,并将不同领域的显性知识和隐性知识进行有效利用的过程。从知识创造视角出发,构建了契合颠覆性创新特征的SECI改进模型(B-SECI),根据知识转移流动和创造演化等维度对颠覆性创新的发展特征与演化过程进行解构,旨在更能精准把握颠覆性创新演化的内在机理。研究发现,颠覆性创新主要包含隐性知识与显性知识,遵循社会化、外显化、组合化和内隐化等过程,并在具体形式上经历了创意社会化、方案外显化、技术雏形化以及最终的产品商业化阶段。     

Post-Soviet science: Difficulties in the transformation of the R&D systems in Russia and Ukraine

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was among the foremost leaders of world science, thanks in large part to its heavy involvement in military programmes. The USSR developed a large research infrastructure but it lacked effective mechanisms for the commercialization of research results. The main aim of the transformation of R&D systems in the post-Soviet states in the 1990s and early 2000s was the re-orientation of scientific activities away from military and towards civilian goals. Analysis of statistical data at the macro-level suggests that this attempt was not particularly successful. Indeed, most newly independent states could not even preserve a ‘critical mass’ of scientific activities in order to remain among the list of significant producers of research results. In the post-Soviet countries (and in this paper we focus on Russia and Ukraine as the largest states of the region), inputs from the R&D system have failed to generate wealth-creating outputs because of a systemic inability to use the resources for generating commercially viable results effectively. All post-Soviet countries, including Russia and Ukraine, urgently need not only a major transformation within the R&D system, but also important changes in the wider ‘environment’. It is important to stress that, in recent years, changes in R&D have been determined not only by the general economic situation itself but also by the general policy of the post-Soviet states. While Russia has expressed ambitions to regain its former influence as a great power and to use S&T to achieve this goal, Ukraine has no clearly determined objectives for the development of its national science system. However, both countries face certain common problems. The development of relevant institutes and the stimulation of demand for R&D results from the side of industry, broader involvement in the international division of scientific work, and the introduction of adequate legal protection for intellectual property rights are all of critical importance for S&T institutes and other research organizations in Russia and Ukraine. This paper shows that the reforms in the R&D sector have been relatively modest and rather unsystematic over the last one and a half decades. The key challenges, which relate to the inertia and the negative aspects of the previous period (for example, a extremely low level of replacement of aging manpower, largely outdated scientific equipment in research laboratories, and institutional mechanisms that are not relevant to the market economy), pose serious problems for the transformation of the R&D systems in both countries, despite new possibilities and a willingness to increase financial support for R&D.     

SELECTIVITY IN FUNDING: EVALUATION OF RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA

Selectivity and concentration in research funding has become unavoidable in Australia today. Some of the reasons for this are reviewed relative to international economic, scientific/technical and conceptual developments. The resulting need to develop an evaluative culture in and for Australia is discussed. The reasons for undertaking evaluations are outlined, and a working definition of ‘research evaluation’ that may be suitable within the Australian context is developed. The parameters that may deserve consideration in designing an evaluation are detailed, and a series of conceptual and practical guidelines are forwarded. Several barriers to implementing evaluations that may apply to Australia are addressed. Finally, the implications of the concept ‘accountability’ for both the recipients of government support and government itself are briefly raised.     

Organisational knowledge creation strategies: A conceptual framework

The main purposes of this article are to identify the dimensions of organisational knowledge creation strategies (EICE model: exploration, institutional entrepreneurship, combination, exploitation) and to clarify the relationship between the organisational knowledge creation strategies and its knowledge asset. For these purposes, guided by knowledge-based view and knowledge creation theory, we propose an EICE model and explore its effect on the knowledge asset. We further suggest the managerial implications and theoretical implications. The main managerial implication is that the knowledge creation strategies model may help manager to make effective strategies for knowledge creation within the organisation. The main contributions to organisation theory are extending Nonaka's knowledge creation theory to form a new strategic model for knowledge creation.     

Regulatory policy, value of knowledge assets and innovation strategy: The case of the Orphan Drug Act

The U.S. Orphan Drug Act provides R&D incentives to drug-makers that go beyond statutory patent protection. The study explores the act's effect on financial returns to innovation and on the strategy of orphan drug development. Results indicate that the financial return to orphan drug development is positive. The findings suggest that when market size is small and cumulative innovation is an important phenomenon the policy that extends effective patent duration or subsidizes R&D activity improves incentives to innovate.     

Professional guilds, tension and knowledge management

Scientific research is a crucial success factor for knowledge intensive firms and is often a joint effort of scientists and managers. However, scientists and managers belong to different “professional guilds,” subscribing to different belief systems and valuing different types of incentives. These differences give rise to tension between scientists and managers. We integrate a large body of literature from knowledge management to develop a new theoretical model predicting that this organizational tension is affected by environmental factors such as the degree of industry munificence, firm-specific factors like knowledge-management policies, and the individual roles of boundary spanners within the firm. Further, we argue that this tension can lead to positive or negative outcomes.     

The disaggregated technology production function: A new model of university and corporate research

Technology and the process that produces it, research and development (R&D), are typically characterized as homogeneous entities. In reality, the typical industrial technology is composed of three elements: a generic technology base, supporting infratechnologies, and proprietary market applications (innovations). The first two have public good characteristics, and therefore, explicitly modeling them is essential for public policy purposes. The fundamental relationships among these elements require a technology production function that captures the supporting roles of the public good elements in creating proprietary applied technology. These critical quasi-public technology goods are supplied to a significant extent by exogenous (external) sources: central corporate research labs, government labs, and increasingly, universities. The expanding university role beyond basic research complicates the structure and functioning of the national R&D establishment and increases the need for a more accurate model of technological change to better inform R&D policy.Moreover, in assessing the resulting applied technology's impact on economic growth, both the general and partial equilibrium literatures enter the technology variable into a production function with the common “production” assets (physical capital and labor). Such models obscure an important distinction between technology and these production assets—namely, the fact that technology is primarily a “demand-shifting” asset. As such, its role is correctly specified only when combined with the other major demand-shifting asset, marketing. Allocations to these two assets vary across competing firms implying a spatial model of competition, while still providing traceability to the exogenous sources of public good technology elements, such as universities.     

The French defence industry in the knowledge management era: A historical overview and evidence from empirical data

In the defence industry the recent development of a ‘market for technology’, the creation of new European high-technology companies as well as transformations in government agencies have driven firms to reposition their technological and organizational skills. Our objective is to show that the transformations that have occurred in the past 10 years have not only redefined skills and the organization of production, but also have given a more strategic place to knowledge management (KM) practices. We provide a contextual and historical overview based on qualitative interviews, in order to better understand the relation between KM and innovative behaviour in this industry. We build an original industrial and technological database comprising various samples that provides quantitative information concerning KM and innovative practices. The results of the statistical analysis reveal the specificity of firms in this industry. Taking account of the size of these firms and their technological intensity, we show that the behaviour of defence industry firms in terms of KM practices, differs from that of other firms. This is evident from their technological performance, and innovation and patenting intensity. This structural tendency is explained as an innovative behaviour in the French national innovation system rather than merely a ‘trend’.     

Commercialization of disruptive innovations: Literature review and proposal for a process framework

The challenges of disruptive innovations have gained significant attention from both academics and practitioners, commercialization being one of the most critical phases. At the same time, however, it is the less studied area of disruptive innovation. Therefore, this article examined scholarly papers on the commercialization of disruptive innovations through a multidisciplinary systematic literature review. It resulted in the analysis of 64 high-quality peer-reviewed academic articles. The analysis highlighted the commercialization models and main constructs that are affecting the commercialization process: market orientation, market learning, user's involvement, market configuration, adoption networks and stakeholders, and innovation transference. The study evidences how commercialization has evolved from a later stage in innovation to influence even the early phases of innovation, characterized in turn by exploration, learning and ecosystem creation activities. Additionally, the analysis led to a proposition that established an integrated commercialization model for high uncertainty innovations. The model has three phases: 1) Concept/value proposition validation, 2) Business model validation & Market creation, and 3) Creating sales in the majority market. Lastly, the article contributes to a better understanding of commercialization processes in high uncertainty innovations, bridging also the academic-practitioner divide.     

Distributed R&D, cross-regional knowledge integration and quality of innovative output

We explore the impact of geographic dispersion of a firm's R&D activities on the quality of its innovative output. Using data on over half a million patents from 1127 firms, we find that having geographically distributed R&D per se does not improve the quality of a firm's innovations. In fact, distributed R&D appears to be negatively associated with average value of innovations. This suggests that potential gains from access to diverse ideas and expertise from different locations are, on average, offset by difficulty in achieving integration of knowledge across multiple locations. To investigate whether the innovating teams that do manage cross-fertilization of ideas from different locations achieve more valuable innovations, we analyze innovations for which there is evidence of such knowledge cross-fertilization along any of the followings dimensions: knowledge sourcing from other locations within the firm, having at least one inventor with cross-regional ties, and having at least one inventor that has recently moved from another region. Analysis along all three dimensions consistently reveals a direct positive effect cross-regional knowledge integration has on innovation quality, as well as a positive interaction effect of cross-regional knowledge integration and distributed R&D for innovation quality. More generally, our findings provide new evidence regarding the importance of cross-unit integrative mechanisms for achieving superior performance in multi-unit firms.     

OECD研究与开发资助模式演化及其启示

OECD的大多数国家的研究与开发资助经历了"科学政策时代"、"科学和技术政策时代"、"科学、技术和创新政策时代",知识生产(knowledge production)的指导思想也从"国际领先知识"转向"知识创造财富","新的知识生产方式" 是OECD资助的一个必然趋势。它意味着,如果政府仍然用老的政策工具和行政结构来规划和安排科技政策,那么老式的技术政策将会提高政府失灵的风险,政府在制定科技政策时应该通过激励企业对R&D的投入,调整R&D的资助结构和方式。     

R&D spillovers from subsidized firms that fail: Tracing knowledge by following employees across firms

Public R&D subsidies aim to target particularly risky R&D and R&D with large externalities. One would expect many such projects to fail from a commercial point of view, but they may still produce knowledge with social value. Such knowledge is likely to be embodied in workers or teams of workers. I test for knowledge diffusion from subsidised technology firms transmitted through the labor market. The specific case analysed is a series of Norwegian IT-programs so far considered unsuccessful. It has been argued that know-how built up during the programs still ‘fertilize’ the IT-industry. I find limited support for this claim.     

Behavioural additionality of R&D subsidies: A learning perspective

The use of R&D grants as a policy instrument has been motivated by economic arguments of market failure. Neo-classical econometric studies have analysed the additionality of one Euro of subsidies on both the investments of companies in the R&D process and the output of that R&D process. More recently, behavioural additionality has been launched as a third form of additionality. In contrast to input and output additionality, behavioural additionality is related to changes in the processes that take place within the firm. In this paper, we analyse the determinants of the behavioural additionality of R&D grants. To explain the mechanism through which behavioural additionality is obtained, we use organizational learning theory as a guide to formulate our hypotheses. Hypotheses are tested using a telephone survey of 192 recipients of R&D grants provided by the IWT in Flanders in 2001–2004, matched to a sample of 84 firms that undertake innovation activities but which had never had a grant bid accepted. We find that congenital learning and interorganizational learning lead to increased behavioural additionality. However, these learning effects decrease with the number of subsidized projects that are undertaken by the company.     

Foresight for public procurement and regional innovation policy: The case of Lombardy

Public procurement can be a major source of innovation. The potential benefits of public procurement might be fully exploited through the acquisition not only of appliances which are already available in the market, but also of new appliances which are tailored to the specific needs of the local community and might be exported as well to the international markets. In this way, public procurement might allow to improve the services delivered to the local community and to increase the technological competitiveness of the local industrial and research system. In this context, regional foresight might help identify both long-term societal needs and the patterns of evolution of emerging technologies that can match these needs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, trough the recent experience of the regional government of Lombardy, the role of foresight for enhancing public procurement and innovation policy at the regional level.     

Co-operative R&D: why and with whom?: An integrated framework of analysis

Firms use R&D partnerships to access knowledge and build global R&D networks. This article develops an integrated framework to examine the determinants of the choice of partners with which firms co-operate on R&D. This resource-based perspective underscores the interactions between three major questions: why co-operate, who does and with whom? It argues in particular that the choice of partners is dictated by the complementary resources which the latter command. The framework is then expanded to predict the relative efficiency of R&D co-operation with different partners, including suppliers, clients, rivals, academic institutions and foreign firms. The empirical analysis, which is based on responses to France’s version of the second European community innovation survey (CIS-2), strongly supports the overall framework of analysis.     

数字化转型对国家创新体系的影响与对策研究

数字化转型正在推动整个经济社会发生深刻变革，尤其对国家创新体系的演化产生深远影响。本文在阐释信息技术的演进历程及其对经济社会的影响和构建国家创新体系的分析框架的基础上，重点分析了数字化转型对国家创新体系产生的影响。研究认为：在创新主体方面，主体类型更加丰富多样且主体间形成跨地域、跨组织、高效互动的创新网络；在创新资源方面，数据既是创新活动的核心投入要素，也是提高资源配置效率的重要工具；在创新机制方面，数字化技术打破了传统以学科、创新链为边界的组织机制，形成一体化融通发展趋势；在创新环境方面，数字化转型带来优化政策、法律法规以应对创新治理、伦理困境及其他风险的新需求。最后，围绕上述变化和特点，在采取敏捷治理方式、促进公共数据开放共享、改进创新组织机制、发展数字基础设施等方面提出了相关政策建议。     

MNCs’ offshore R&D networks in host country's regional innovation system: The case of Taiwan-based firms in China

China has become a hot spot of R&D internationalization and a growing number of Taiwan-based firms have indeed set up R&D units in China. Taking into account China's substantial regional variations in economic development, innovation capacity, and knowledge productivity, such notions as regional innovation system (RIS) and local innovative milieu may become more relevant to the study on relationships between China and its inward R&D internationalization. Therefore, the key issue for this paper is what locational advantages of an RIS within a host country affect the network linkages and networking strategy of multinational corporations’ (MNCs’) offshore R&D units. The paper aims to enrich the current understanding of R&D internationalization in several ways. First, the paper attempts to examine the R&D networking underlying R&D internationalization by Taiwan-based firms in China, with particular reference to the sub-national level inside China. Second, the paper tries to establish a link between the literature of R&D internationalization and that of RIS, with a modified version of Dunning's eclectic paradigm. Efforts are made to map the relationship between foreign subsidiaries’ local R&D networks and their host RISs inside China. Third, the paper takes advantage of a government databank to adopt a quantitative approach, the Seemingly Unrelated Bivariate Probit Regression model, with foreign subsidiaries as the unit of analysis, to highlight the role played by some aspects of the RIS in determining the local R&D networking of Taiwanese subsidiaries in China. Our evident shows that MNCs’ offshore R&D units that purse home-based technology exploitation strategy, the mainstream strategy regarding the developing host country, tend to be located in a host region with a strong knowledge application and exploitation subsystem, while an RIS with a strong knowledge generation and diffusion subsystem, within such a developing country as China, may induce MNCs’ local R&D units to pursue home-base technology augmenting strategy. On balance, not only the location choice but also the local R&D linkages of MNCs’ offshore subsidiaries are related to appropriate fits between the RIS and the subsidiaries’ innovation network inside the host country.     

Foreign direct investment in industrial research and development: A study of German MNCs

This paper reports on the international research and development (R&D) investments of German multinational corporations (MNCs). Based on a detailed empirical survey of laboratory sites established by 49 German MNCs, we examine (i) the level and pace of R&D internationalization, (ii) the motivations and mandates of overseas R&D laboratories, as well as (iii) the strength of the laboratories’ internal and external ties. Participating firms account for about 46% of all German enterprises with international R&D activities and approximately 66% of the nation's privately funded R&D expenditures in 1999. The findings indicate that the timing and organization of German owned overseas R&D investments more closely resemble Japanese or French than US or Swedish firms. Furthermore, in line with prior studies, German MNCs increasingly invest in international R&D for resource as opposed to market-seeking motives. The paper also finds significant differences with regard to the laboratory's mission and its geographical location on one hand, and its internal and external embeddedness, on the other.