Intra-plant diffusion of new technology: Role of productivity in the study of steel refining furnaces

This paper examines intra-plant diffusion of new technology in the Japanese steel industry. The introduction of the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) was the greatest breakthrough in steel refining in the last century. Using unique panel data, the paper estimates total factor productivity by technology type, and associates the estimates with intra-plant diffusion. The paper finds that intra-plant diffusion accounts for about a half of the industry productivity growth. Large plants are likely to adopt the new technology earlier, but retain the old technology longer, than their smaller counterparts.     

Multinationality, foreignness and institutional distance in the relation between R&D and productivity

This paper empirically examines to what extent being foreign and part of a multinational affects the endogenous relation between R&D and productivity. Our findings indicate that multinationals obtain in general higher R&D returns. Also, there is a negative foreignness effect in that domestic-owned multinationals outperform foreign subsidiaries. However, these effects are somehow moderated by the institutional distance between the home and host countries. These results, obtained for a panel of UK firms, are largely consistent with a set of hypotheses derived from the institutional and international business theories.     

R&D, knowledge spillovers and company productivity performance

Using company accounts data for 5 countries (US, UK, Japan, France and Germany) we analyse the relationship between intangible assets and productivity. We integrate the company data with industry information on tangible and intangible investments and skill composition of the labour force. The industry data are summarised in two different taxonomies, factor and skill intensive groups, which account for differences in the knowledge intensity and innovative activities within sectors. The results provide evidence of higher productivity in R&D and skill intensive industries. This can be interpreted as evidence in favour of the presence of spillover effects.     

Technology adoption,consumer inattention and heuristic decision-making: Evidence from a UK district heating scheme

This paper contributes to the debate on the energy efficiency paradox according to which consumers fail to adopt cost-effective, energy efficient technologies over less efficient technologies and therefore fail to reduce energy consumption. Both traditional and behavioural theories are used to investigate the decision-making process of residential consumers with empirical evidence based upon a specially designed quasi-experimental survey of 784 households on the decision to connect to a district-heating system, a more energy efficient alternative to individual heating systems. The results suggest an internal discount rate of around 36 per cent for homeowners, a signal that consumers undervalue future energy costs. We also find the household’s decision to be negatively affected by years of payback up to around 7–8 years. Our findings suggest that neglecting consumer inattention and heuristics can lead to biases which cast doubt on the existence of the energy efficiency paradox. We believe that these results help to explain why some consumers are unlikely to invest in energy efficient technology, particularly those on low incomes.     

Joint ventures and technology adoption: A Chinese industrial policy that backfired

To spur technology transfer, emerging market policymakers often require foreign firms to form joint ventures (JVs) with domestic firms. Through knowledge spillovers, JVs may reduce technology acquisition costs for domestic firms. Yet domestic firm rents from JVs could discourage innovation through a cannibalization effect. Which force dominates is an empirical question. I address it with novel data on China's auto sector. In response to fuel economy standards requiring firms to upgrade technology or sacrifice quality, firms with JVs reduced quality and price relative to their counterparts. Consistent with cannibalization, firms with JVs drive the negative effect.     

Innovation and productivity among heterogeneous firms

This paper examines the links between firm innovation and productivity using the largest cross-country panel dataset assembled for this purpose to date. We use harmonized and comparable data on a total of 40,577 small, medium and large firms surveyed in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) and provide some support for the reported patterns previously found in the innovation literature. Our results indicate that estimates from studies using cross-section data may be upward biased but nevertheless, innovative firms are significantly and economically more productive in both the manufacturing and services sectors.     

Entrepreneurial orientation, technology transfer and spinoff performance of U.S. universities

This paper adopts a resource-based perspective to understand why some universities are more successful than others at generating technology-based spinoff companies. In this respect, we derive eight hypotheses that link attributes of resources and capabilities, institutional, financial, commercial and human capital, to university spinoff outcomes. Using panel data from 1980 to 2001, our econometric estimators reveal evidence of history dependence for successful technology transfer to occur although faculty quality, size and orientation of science and engineering funding and commercial capability were also found to be predictors of university spinoff activity. We conclude by drawing implications for policy makers and university heads.     

Modelling the joint impact of R&D and ICT on productivity: A frontier analysis approach

This study explores the channels through which technological investments affect productivity performance of industrialized economies. Using a Stochastic Frontier Model (SFM) we estimate the productivity effects of R&D and ICT for a large sample of OECD industries between 1973 and 2007, identifying four channels of transmission: input accumulation, technological change, technical efficiency and spillovers. Our results show that ICT has been particularly effective in reducing production inefficiency and in generating inter-industry spillovers, while R&D has raised the rate of technical change and favoured knowledge spillovers within sectors. We also quantify the contribution of technological investments to output and total factor productivity growth documenting that R&D and ICT accounted for almost 95% of productivity growth in the OECD area.     

Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices: an exploratory study

We present quantitative and qualitative evidence on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices (TTOs). Our empirical results suggest that TTO activity is characterized by constant returns to scale and that environmental and institutional factors explain some of the variation in performance. Productivity may also depend on organizational practices. Unfortunately, there are no quantitative measures available on such practices, so we rely on inductive, qualitative methods to identify them. Based on 55 interviews of 98 entrepreneurs, scientists, and administrators at five research universities, we conclude that the most critical organizational factors are faculty reward systems, TTO staffing/compensation practices, and cultural barriers between universities and firms.     

The global crisis and firms’ investments in innovation

The longer term impact of the global crisis depends on how business innovation capacities were affected. Understanding which firms suffered most is essential for developing adequate post-crisis recovery policies. This paper provides first quantitative evidence on these questions based on an original firm-level dataset for eight Latin American countries in 2008-2009. We find the crisis led many firms to stop ongoing innovation projects. Probit regression results show that firms with access to public funding were less likely to abandon these investments. Younger firms and businesses supplying foreign multinationals or suffering export shocks were more likely to do so.     

Research tool patents and free-libre biotechnology: A suggested unified framework

This paper proposes a unified conceptual framework to analyze the multiple role and consequences of patents in the case of biotechnology research tools. We argue that the knowledge/information and independent/complementary nature of research tools define heterogeneous frameworks in which the patent system plays different roles. In particular, using the analogy with the free-libre open source movement in software, we show that patents can promote open innovation by ensuring the freedom of some pieces of knowledge. A strong conclusion of the paper is therefore that, against common belief, an adequate use of the patent system may contribute to preserving freedom of access to upstream research tools within a framework that we call free-libre biotechnology.     

Information ambiguity,patents and the market value of innovative assets

Research and development (R&D) is often essential for firms’ profitability and growth. At the same time, R&D is long-term and risky. We show that innovation activities lead to information ambiguity about the future value of firms’ assets. This effect appears to be more pronounced for small and less reputed firms. Information ambiguity further lowers firms’ market value and, in particular, the market value of innovative assets. We further show that high quality patents mitigate the negative effect of information ambiguity to some extent.     

In search of a useful theory of the productive potential of intellectual property rights

Mainstream theory, which has informed the belief systems regarding the operation as well as the predicted social and economic effects of IPR systems, cannot explain why the IPR system generates different performance results and varying potential for growth across the firms, sectors and nations participating in the IPR system. This paper sketches a theory of the ‘productive potential of intellectual property rights’ which is able to do just that. Focusing on the ‘rules of the game’ embedded in the institutional IPR environment and the ‘play of the game’ within the alternative institutions of IPR governance, the paper emphasizes the importance of the nature or quality of the relationships among IPR stakeholders and the contribution of such relationships to the processes of financial and non-financial value creation and distribution from IPRs. The central role of cooperation, asymmetric relationships, and the effective resolution of conflicting interests amongst stakeholders is addressed. It is suggested that the proposed framework provides a better starting point for the design of IPR policy and management.     

The effect of financial constraints, absorptive capacity and complementarities on the adoption of multiple process technologies

This paper investigates the factors affecting the multiple adoption of new process technologies in manufacturing. We focus our attention on the effect of both financial resources and absorptive capacity on the decision to introduce the technology. We argue in favour of a negative effect of financial constraints and provide reasons for a differential effect of internal and external R&D on innovation adoption. Additionally, the methodology allows us to consider the possible complementarities arising when firms adopt several new process technologies. Our results show that financial constraints are dependent on the technology analyzed, whereas only internal R&D investments are strong predictors of adoption. We are also able to present evidence that the three technologies analyzed (numerically controlled machines, computer aided design and robotics) are, to some extent, complementary.     

Understanding productivity dynamics: A task taxonomy approach

As job markets have been polarizing, firms have been changing their labor inputs. By using matched employer–employee data for Portugal, we examine whether labor market polarization has occurred within or across firms and how labor input upgrades have contributed to overall productivity growth. We develop a firm taxonomy based on worker's occupational data. Firms can be focused on one task – Abstract, Manual or Routine – on a combination of tasks, or none. Results show that Abstract firms are the most productive and their share has increased over time. Manual firms, the least productive, have had a stable share throughout the period. Routine firms have seen their share decline over time. The dynamic decomposition of the estimated productivity reveals that productivity growth is propelled by increased market shares of the most productive incumbents and exiting of the least productive, especially for Abstract firms. Notwithstanding these productivity growth drivers, they fail to avert the productivity stagnation observed in Portugal between 2004 and 2009 due to the overall decline in productivity of incumbent firms, especially Routine. We discuss the policy implications of our results which are relevant to other European economies also lagging behind in terms of knowledge and innovation capabilities.     

If star scientists do not patent: The effect of productivity, basicness and impact on the decision to patent in the academic world

We run an Event History Analysis on a sample of Italian researchers in the field of Materials Science, aiming at understanding how the characteristics of the research trajectories followed by scientists in academia affect their opportunities to do development of industrial applications. Results of our estimates suggest that all measures of academic performances have a dual effect, although different in magnitude. Scientists that are moving along applied research trajectories find it easier to produce industrial applications than their colleagues engaged in the quest for very fundamental understanding. We interpret our results by suggesting that, for the former, more academic research results in more exploitable results, hence in more chances to patent; for the latter, more academic research makes it just more unlikely that they will find the time to produce industrial applications. Similar results apply for the low versus high research impact.     

Assessing the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices: parametric and non-parametric evidence

We present evidence on the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices (TTOs) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier estimation (SFE). U.K. TTOs are found to exhibit low-levels of absolute efficiency. There also appear to be decreasing returns to scale, implying that TTOs may need to be reconfigured into smaller units. The development of regionally-based sector focused TTOs is also advised. Consistent with qualitative evidence from U.S. TTOs, we find that there is a need to upgrade the business skills and capabilities of U.K. TTO managers and licensing officers.     

Technology, security, and policy implications of future transatlantic partnerships in space: Lessons from Galileo

Policy makers seek to identify an institutional framework that facilitates the commercialization of publicly funded R&D, while simultaneously addressing innovation market failure. In the space industry, the formation of such a framework is complicated by national security considerations and the fact that numerous sovereign nations are often included in the commercialization process. This paper analyses how multi-public partnerships with industry can promote commercially viable space programs, resolve market failures, and address transatlantic security concerns. The benefits and policy implications of the formation of such transatlantic multi-public-private partnerships (TMP³) are illustrated based on a case study of the design of a major European public-private project in the space industry: the Galileo space-based navigation system.     

Selective search, sectoral patterns, and the impact on product innovation performance

The shift toward more open and interconnected innovation activities has been a major topic in recent academic and practitioner discussions. Firms must connect their in-house R&D activities with external partners, such as leading customers or universities, to increase the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Hence, management needs to define where to search for valuable knowledge in its environment. In this paper we argue that knowledge search has to reflect the heterogeneity of various knowledge sources with regard to the knowledge they can provide and how these sources can be activated. We hypothesize that search strategies driven by science, suppliers and the product market will contribute differently to innovation success with new-to-market versus imitated products. Moreover, we explore the effect of these types of knowledge search within different sectoral patterns of innovation. Our empirical analysis rests on a sample of almost 5000 firms from five Western European countries. The results support our hypotheses and highlight the potentials and shortcomings of different types of knowledge search.