Influencing scientists’ collaboration and productivity patterns through new institutions: University research centers and scientific and technical human capital

This paper analyzes the effect of university research centers on the productivity and collaboration patterns of university faculty. University research centers are an important subject for policy analysis insofar that they have become the predominant policy response to scientific and technical demands that have not been met by extant institutions, including academic departments, private firms, and government laboratories. Specifically, these centers aim to organize researchers from across the disciplines and sectors which, collectively as a research unit, possess the scientific and technical capacity relevant to scientific and technical goals of the sponsoring agencies. In this paper, we measure the productivity and collaboration patterns of university researchers affiliated with a relatively large-scale and “mature” university research center to discern the effects, if any, of the center mechanism on individual scientists and engineers. Based on an analysis of longitudinal bibliometric data, the results from this case study demonstrate affiliation with the center to be effective at enhancing overall productivity as well as at facilitating cross-discipline, cross-sector, and inter-institutional productivity and collaborations.     

美国国家实验室科研特征的情报计量学分析

选取美国能源部、航空航天局(NASA)、国防部下属19家国家实验室,从论文总量、资助机构、作者来源、国内外合作研究、科学设施与装置的利用情况及论文影响力几个方面分析美国典型国家实验室的科研特征.研究发现,美国典型国家实验室的科研活动以政府主管部门为其主要资助机构,国防相关部门为重要资助来源,以灵活多样的人才聘用形式(双聘人员)聚集相关领域的优势科研人员展开研究,科研合作具有较显著的开放性和国际化特征,注重科学设施与装置的开放和共享利用,且科研产出成果的影响力高.     

A framework and databases for measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems

Scholarly literature on the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has increased sharply over the past five years. The surge in interest has also heightened the demand for robust empirical measures that capture the complexity of dynamic relationships among ecosystem constituents. We offer a framework for measurement that places collaborative relationships among entrepreneurs, firms, government agencies, and research institutions at the center of the ecosystem concept. We further emphasize the four roles of the federal government as a catalyst, coordinator, certifier, and customer in shaping these relationships. Despite the central importance of these firm-government interactions, there is surprisingly little research on suitable methodologies and appropriate data for systematically and reliably incorporating them into measures of ecosystem health. Our study aims to address this gap in the literature by first developing a conceptual framework for measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems and then describing an array of accompanying databases that provide rich and detailed information on firms and their relationships with government organizations, accelerators, and research institutions. A major advantage of our approach is that all the underlying databases are drawn from non-confidential, publicly available sources that are transparently disclosed and regularly updated. This greatly expands the potential community of scholars, managers, and policymakers that may independently use these databases to test theories, make decisions, and formulate policies related to innovation and entrepreneurship.     

Beyond industry–university links: Sourcing knowledge for innovation from consultants, private research organisations and the public science-base

This paper explores the use of specialist knowledge providers as sources of information in the innovation activities of manufacturing and service firms. Specialist knowledge providers are consultancies, private research organisations and the public science-base (i.e., universities and the government research laboratories). These may be engaged by firms in co-operative arrangement for innovation or as informal sources of information. We find, as anticipated, that amongst other factors specialist knowledge providers are more likely to be engaged by firms with more open approaches to innovation, those with high levels of absorptive capacity, those with greater social capital and networking capabilities, as well as by those with deeper commitments to innovation. Overall, the use of specialist knowledge providers tends to complement firms’ own internal innovation activities and to complement other external sources of knowledge. Moreover, the individual types of specialist knowledge providers tend to complement rather than substitute for one another. Beyond this we find significant differences in the types of specialist knowledge providers used by manufacturing and service firms. Although service firms are more likely than manufacturers to use specialist knowledge providers, they are more likely to engage consultants, whilst their links with research-based organisations, including the public science-base, are weaker. We ask whether there is a case for increasing the extent to which the public science-base undertakes activities that are relevant to innovation in the services.     

Technological innovation in developing countries: a review of the literature

The recent literature on the role of science and technology in developing countries is reviewed in order to assess the extent of our current knowledge concerning the sociological factors affecting the development of indigenous scientific and technological innovations. Existing studies provide some preliminary evidence in favor of the hypothesis that inadequate linkages between institutions in the various sectors of developing societies inhibit the development and utilization of indigenous technological innovations.In general, relationships between government research organizations and the potential users of their technological innovations are absent or unsatisfactory. Academic research tends to be oriented toward the interests of the international scientific community. The substantial literature on the problems of indigenous technological transfer in India suggests that inadequate coordination between different sectors of that society is in part responsible for its failure to develop its potential for technological innovation.Recent attempts to stimulate the production and diffusion of indigenous technology in developing countries by creating new types of research institutes in the university and coordinating agencies in the government are discussed. Systematic evaluations of these programs are lacking, but coordinating agencies have often performed poorly because of insufficient power to influence the policies of other organizations.A sociological approach based on interorganizational analysis is suggested for future studies of this problem. This literature identifies the optimal characteristics of coordinating organizations at the government level and of research utilizations systems which link research organizations to their clients at the local level.A bibliography comprising 102 references classified by region is included.     

A Framework and Databases for Measuring Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Scholarly literature on the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has increased sharply over the past five years. The surge in interest has also heightened the demand for robust empirical measures that capture the complexity of dynamic relationships among ecosystem constituents. We offer a framework for measurement that places collaborative relationships among entrepreneurs, firms, government agencies, and research institutions at the center of the ecosystem concept. We further emphasize the four roles of the federal government as a catalyst, coordinator, certifier, and customer in shaping these relationships. Despite the central importance of these firm-government interactions, there is surprisingly little research on suitable methodologies and appropriate data for systematically and reliably incorporating them into measures of ecosystem health. Our study aims to address this gap in the literature by first developing a conceptual framework for measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems and then describing an array of accompanying databases that provide rich and detailed information on firms and their relationships with government organizations, accelerators, and research institutions. A major advantage of our approach is that all the underlying databases are drawn from non-confidential, publicly available sources that are transparently disclosed and regularly updated. This greatly expands the potential community of scholars, managers, and policymakers that may independently use these databases to test theories, make decisions, and formulate policies related to innovation and entrepreneurship.     

R&D determinants: Accounting for the differences between research and development

The determinants of R&D are an important topic of innovation studies. The classical Schumpeterian hypotheses about the influence of size and market power have been complemented with the role played by industry determinants, such as demand pull, technological opportunity and appropriability, in determining R&D investments. However, R&D has always been considered as a whole, even though research and development activities differ in many aspects. We take advantage of a new panel database of innovative Spanish firms (PITEC) to distinguish between research and development efforts of firms. We analyze the differentiated role played by traditional R&D determinants in driving research and development. Results show that demand pull and appropriability have a higher effect on development, while technological opportunity is more influential for research. Differences are statistically significant, important in magnitude, and robust to the use of different indicators for demand pull, technological opportunity and appropriability, and to several robustness checks.     

高校技术转移对科研产出的影响效应研究——科研资助的中介作用与调节作用

技术转移作为高校社会服务职能的重要体现形式，对高校科研活动究竟产生了何种影响是学术界关注的热点问题。本文以2008-2014年中国106所“211”及省部共建高校为样本，研究了高校技术转移对其论文产出和专利产出的影响效应，并对不同来源的科研资助（政府资助和企业资助）在高校技术转移与科研产出关系中的中介作用和调节作用分别进行了实证检验。结果表明：（1）高校技术转移对论文产出的影响不显著，而对专利产出具有显著正向影响；（2）高校技术转移对其获取政府资助和企业资助均具有显著的正向影响，政府资助和企业资助在高校技术转移与专利产出关系中发挥积极的中介作用；（3）政府资助对高校技术转移与论文产出的关系具有显著的负向调节作用，而企业资助对高校技术转移与专利产出的关系具有显著的负向调节作用。     

Government policies towards industrial innovation: a review

Existing economic theories show that continuing innovation, diffusion, and technical and managerial improvement are necessary for economic growth and international competitiveness in the industrially advanced countries. But knowledge of why, where and how governments should intervene in the processes of industrial innovations stems more from trial and error than from systematic empirical information of the nature and extent of the hindrances to economically and socially desirable innovations, and of the effectiveness of alternative government policies to remove them. Nonetheless, past empirical studies do offer some clues.Differences amongst industrial sectors. The sources of new technology vary widely amongst inustrial sectors: in the costs of innovation, in the relative importance of outside suppliers of equipment and materials, of large and small firms, and of full-time R & D departments as compared to part-time innovative activities (sect. 7, 8). Similarly, the conditions for successful innovation vary amongst sectors (sect.6). Thus, government policies designed to influence innovation are likely to act with different intensities in different industries.The management of innovation. Nonetheless, there are some features common to innovation in different industries. Considerable costs beyond R & D are often necessary before the innovations reach commercial use (sect.4). And the following managerial characteristics are in general associated with successful innovation: a deliberate policy of seeking innovations; close and careful attention to customer requirements; good personal communications both within the firm and with outside sources of relevant knowledge; a style of management that is ‘organic’ and ‘participatory’ rather than ‘hierarchical’ and ‘authoritarian’; strong project leadership; and a strong engineering capability (sect. 6).R & D managers are still unable to predict the outcome of R & D projects to a useful degree of accuracy and, in the literature on methods of project selection, very little attention is paid to market uncertainties. Furthermore, a greater use of conventional investment appraisal criteria in deciding on R & D projects may re-inforce the already observed tendency in industry towards short-term, low-risk projects, to the neglect of longer-term, high-risk projects (sect. 5).Governments should therefore examine whether the benefits of policies towards education and management advisory services for innovation might outweigh their costs. They may also have a significant role to play in financing longer-term research that is basic to the development of industrial technology (subsect. 12.5).The nature of market and production demands. The direction of industrial innovation is often very sensitive to market and production demands (sect. 3). This fact, together with the high degree of market uncertainty facing innovating firms (sect. 5), suggest that governments can potentially influence both the pace and the direction of industrial innovation through their influence on the scale of industrial, consumer and public service demands. However, this potential influence will become real only if users of innovations are able to specify the innovations that they need, or to evaluate those that they get. This is generally the case for industrial demand, but not in consumer and public service markets, where fashion, insensitivity to users' needs and lack of technical competence often prevail. Government-funded technological institutes and laboratories are ideally placed to provide such technical competence (sub-sect. 12.3).Economic incentives and rewards for innovation. A whole range of economic factors are said to influence the resources, the incentives and the rewards for innovation: for example, the degree of monopoly or the degree of competition, the patent system, the level of profits, the level of taxation, and the level of demand. The empirical evidence on the effects of most of these factors on industrial innovation is either inconclusive or non-existent. However, in the USA a close relationship has been observed between growth of industry sales and growth of industry-financed R & D activities (sect. 10). The rate of growth of demand is also one of the key factors influencing the rate of diffusion of innovations amongst their potential population of users (sects. 11, 12.2).The government-financed scientific and technological infrastructure. Scientific and technological knowledge from outside of innovating firms is often crucial to the completion of successful innovations, and three UK studies show that a significant proportion of this outside knowledge comes from government-financed technological institutes and laboratories, and from the universities (sect. 3). If the same is true in other countries, it should be an essential feature of any government policy towards industrial innovation to know how effectively government-funded laboratories and universities provide supportive knowledge to industry, and how government laboratories should be organised and financed (subsect. 12.4).Direct government-financing of innovative activities in industry. Governments specifically finance R & D activities in industrial firms, although these expenditures are less than those for general industrial development (sect. 13). These R & D activities in industry are relatively more important in France and UK, than in F.R. Germany and the Netherlands.In the four countries, more than 70% of all civilian government R & D activities related to industry are spent on aircraft, space, nuclear energy and electronics (subsect. 14.4). In all these high technologies, governments attempted in the 1960's to implement ‘policies for innovation’, involving government procurement, industrial mergers and attempts at European co-operation, in addition to the financing of R & D (subsect. 14.5). Government expenditures on civilian R & D related to other industrial sectors are very much smaller in all four countries (subsect 14.4).Where should governments intervene? A, number of attempts have been made to develop a formal framework of criteria to assist governments in deciding where they should intervene in industrial innovation. They all run into the following difficulties: dealing with multiple policy objectives; assessing national costs and benefits; comparing with alternative policies, choosing appropriate policy instruments (sect. 17).How should governments intervene? Very little information is available on the effectiveness of various policy instruments that have been used by governments in order to promote innovation in industry. Although it is often possible to measure the inputs into such policies, the measurement of their outputs (or results) is more difficult. Nonetheless, detailed studies would enable some such measurements to be made, and internationally comparable studies would increase the range of experiences and the number of cases that could be examined (sect. 18).Why should governments intervene? A full appreciation of the nature and scale of hindrances to industrial innovation, on which governments should act to remove, requires direct information on what innovations are (or are not) being introduced by industry, and why they are (or are not) being inyroduced. This information can best be obtained from analyses of the behaviour of industrial firms. They would differ from most existing innovation studies that concentrate on asking how firms must behave in order to make successful innovation, by asking what innovations are attempted, and why firms are stimulated to attempt them (sect. 19).     

政企关系与产能过剩:基于中国制造企业微观视角

中国企业产能过剩的成因一直是经济学界的热门研究问题。但是,以往研究大多站在宏观行业视角或者政府视角,鲜有从企业微观视角来研究中国企业产能过剩的前因。本文基于资源基础观和制度理论的整合视角,研究了民营制造企业的政企关系如何影响其产能利用率。基于对2005年世界银行的中国营商环境调查数据进行分析,结果发现民营制造企业的政企关系与其产能利用率之间具有U型关系。研究还发现这种U型关系在地方经济增速趋势较差时期,以及企业内部治理水平较低的情况下更加显著。本文研究丰富了有关中国企业产能过剩的研究,对微观企业与宏观政策制定者都有着较大的启示意义。     

政府的引导作用对于集群中企业创新绩效的影响:基于国内科技园区数据的实证研究

本文主要研究在强调企业"自主创新"的政策环境下,政府的作用对于集群内部企业的创新行为有什么重要的影响,并分析和比较不同的企业规模以及不同性质集群内部的企业的创新绩效。本文调研了国内不同区域的企业集群,并对回收的量表采用回归分析,分析的结果显示集群内部规模较小的企业比大规模企业有较高的创新水平;软件工业园性质的企业集群比其他性质的集群创新水平要高;政府的直接帮助政策并不能够提高集群内部企业的创新水平,而政府对于集群内部竞争环境的创造和维护、以及增加集群地域吸引力和加强信息服务的一些政府措施,则有利于提高集群内部企业的技术和创新能力。     

A taxonomy of public research bodies: A systemic approach1

Nowadays the governments of industrialised countries, in the presence of reduced public resources, have to assign clear objectives to public research laboratories to increase the competitiveness of firms. The purpose of this article is to analyse the public research bodies of the National Research Council of Italy in order to pinpoint the main typologies operating in the national system of innovation (NSI). This research shows four main types of research institutes as drivers of NSI. The results can supply useful information to policy makers on the behaviour of these structures and on their strengths and weaknesses.     

Technological intensity: Concept and measurement

Technological intensity, the degree to which scientific research effort contributes to an industry's productivity increase and/or revenue enhancement, is commonly measured by the industry's ratio of own-performed research to its output. If this R&D/output percentage is taken as an indicator of the need for public support, it is seriously misleading: an industry benefits as well by research undertaken by the foreign affiliates of its member firms, by its first- and higher-round suppliers, and by university and government laboratories. This view is supported by evidence from Canada.     

Developing countries as exporters of industrial technology

The literature on technical change has unduly neglected the possibilities of technological progress in LDCs. Preliminary examination shows, however, that a number of semi-industrialized LDCs are experiencing rapid technological change (mainly adaptive) and are even manifesting the ability to compete in international markets for the sale of technology for a wide range of industrial activities. Scattered data on five types of commercial technology exports — tumkey projects, consultancy, direct investment, licensing, training shows that India, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong have succeeded in selling different types of expertise to other LDCs. This paper links the different types of comparative advantage showed by these LDCs to their varying experience of industrial activity. India has the most diverse and sophisticated technology exports, because it has protected domestic ‘learning’ in the broadest spectrum of industrial, especially capital goods, manufacturing. Others, like Brazil, have greater industrial output but lesser technological capability because they have not protected ‘learning’ against massive incursions by foreign enterprises. The comparative advantage of LDCs in exporting technology is greatest where the pace of change is slow, where large R&D expenditures are not required and where detailed engineering capability is crucial in transferring technology. It is envisaged that in these areas, some LDCs will increasingly undertake technology sales not only to the Third World but also to developed countries. The costs and benefits of this are briefly examined.     

What determines the location choice of R&D activities by multinational firms?

We analyse 446 location decisions of R&D activities by multinational firms incorporated in the European Union over 1999–2006. Our results suggest that on average, the location probability of a representative R&D foreign affiliate increased with agglomeration economies from foreign R&D activities, human capital, proximity to centres of research excellence and the research and innovation capacity of the region. Further, our evidence suggests that in comparison to European multinational firms, the effects of patents intensity and proximity to centres of research excellence were stronger in the case of North American multinational firms. While government R&D expenditure intensity increased the probability of location of R&D activities by European multinational firms in the region, it did not have a significant effect on the probability of location of R&D activities by North American multinational firms.     

Government as entrepreneur: Evaluating the commercialization success of SBIR projects

Thinking of government as entrepreneur is a unique lens through which to view a subset of government actions. The lens is not a template for an evaluation of government policy; rather, it is a characterization that underscores the government's purposeful intent, ability to act in new and innovative ways, and willingness to undertake policy actions that have uncertain outcomes. Our focus is on the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We argue that the innovative action of government - the innovative use of public resources through the SBIR program to target and support research in small firms - does lessen innovation barriers that cause small firms to underinvest in R&D. However, this government action is subject to entrepreneurial risk, namely the a priori uncertainty that the funded research will result in a commercialized product, process, or service. We quantify the uncertainty that the government accepts in the context of innovation supported by the SBIR program; or stated alternatively, we quantify the probability that a project funded by the SBIR program will fail to commercialize its results. Our empirical results show that the entrepreneurial risk that characterizes the SBIR program is, on average, somewhat more than the probability of failing to get heads on the toss of a fair coin. Importantly, however, our evidence shows that there is a large range in the entrepreneurial risk that the government accepts—across the projects, the predicted probability of failure covers essentially the entire range from 0 to 1.0.     

弹性化政府治理：政府改革的崭新视角

弹性化政府治理理论源于对西方政府治理问题的拓展性研究和政府改革面临的现实问题客观推动,弹性化政府治理理论主张的废除机构的永久性、人事管理的弹性化和政策制定的大胆创新为我国政府改革运动进一步向纵深方向发展提供了一个可供借鉴的崭新视角。     

新能源汽车产业政府补助与市场融资的创新激励效应

本文选取2015-2018年新能源汽车产业110家上市公司面板数据,探索政府补助与市场融资及其协同配合对企业研发创新影响的差异性。结果显示,新能源汽车产业政府补助对企业研发创新具有显著激励效应,市场融资并未显著促进企业研发创新,政府补助与市场融资协同配合能有效促进新能源汽车产业研发创新。通过进一步研究发现,处于不同新能源汽车产业链阶段的企业,政府补助对中上游企业研发创新的激励效应更大,而市场融资对下游企业研发创新的激励效应更大,政府补助与市场融资协同配合对中上游企业研发创新的激励效应更大。同时,相对于国有企业,新能源汽车产业政府补助与市场融资及其两者协同配合对非国有企业研发创新的激励效应更大。本文在一定程度上丰富了创新激励与政府干预理论,并为政府扶持新能源汽车产业精准设计创新政策提供理论指导。     

中国企业创新40年

论文回顾了中国企业40年来的创新历程,在区分不同阶段创新特征的基础上,对未来创新趋势进行了展望。首先,研究对40年来企业创新的总体特征做出了判断。其次,按照经济发展阶段和政策特征将过去40年的创新历程区分为不同的阶段,并详细总结了各个阶段企业创新取得的成就、存在的问题和当时的创新政策。最后,研究对中国企业创新方向和学术研究的方向进行了展望。     

产学研联盟与企业技术多元化——基于发明专利567信息的研究

产学研联盟一直是中国政府促进技术创新的一项重要国策。产学研联盟如何影响我国企业的创新,现有文献尚未给出一致的答案。不同于以往研究,本文基于发明专利IPC分类信息,研究了产学研联盟影响创业板公司技术创新的作用机理,以此来检验产学研联盟的政策效果。在使用“匹配法和双重差分模型”之后,本文研究发现,产学研联盟对于企业技术多元化具有显著的积极影响。在使用动态分析模型后,进一步发现这一积极作用具有明显的滞后效应。本文为我们深入认识产学研联盟政策的实际效果提供了理论基础和经验证据,并为政府和企业完善产学研联盟和进一步深化自主创新提供了决策依据和政策建议。