Sources of innovation and industry-university interaction: Evidence from Spanish firms

In this paper we use a sample of Spanish innovative firms to identify the determinants of R&D cooperation agreements between five types of partners: firms that belong to the same group; customers and suppliers; competitors; universities; public research centres. We focus on the determinants of R&D cooperation between innovative firms and universities. We used the Spanish version of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS-3) to obtain data about the R&D cooperation of 4150 innovative firms in Spain. To obtain empirical evidence about the determinants of this cooperation, we adopted an integrated approach that enables us to compare the effects of sectorial and individual determinants on the choice of partners. Our results show that a firm's cooperation activities are closely linked to the characteristics of the industry and the characteristics of the firm. These include R&D intensity, size, whether the firm belongs to a group, product and process innovation, and access to public funds for R&D activities. Internal R&D and agreements with customers, suppliers and competitor partners also increase firm's propensity for R&D cooperation with universities.     

Concentration on the few: mechanisms behind a falling share of innovative firms in Germany

Innovation activities in the German business sector showed two opposing trends over the past two decades: While total innovation expenditures grew substantially, the number of firms conducting innovation activities fell sharply. In this paper, we explore the mechanisms behind the declining trend in the share of innovation active firms. Considering both input (R&D activities) and output (introduction of innovations), we model innovation decisions as a multi-stage process using continuous-time Markov chain analysis. We base our analyses on a 14-year panel from the German part of the Community Innovation Survey. Our results show that smaller firms and firms in sectors with less innovation competition are more likely to stop innovating. We also show that better financial situation and public funding can mitigate the trend towards a falling share of innovating and R&D-performing firms.     

Environmental innovation and R&D cooperation: Empirical evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper explores the relationship between firms’ R&D cooperation strategies and their propensity to introduce environmental innovations.Previous literature has supported that environmental innovations differ from other innovations as far as externalities and drivers of their introduction are concerned, highlighting mainly the importance of regulation to trigger them. Using data from the Community Innovation Survey on Spanish manufacturing firms (PITEC), this paper investigates specificities that affect rather how they are developed, and in particular the higher importance of R&D cooperation with external partners.The econometric estimations, controlling for selection bias, suggest that environmental innovative firms cooperate on innovation with external partners to a higher extent than other innovative firms. Furthermore, cooperation with suppliers, KIBS and universities is more relevant than for other innovators, whereas cooperation with clients does not seem to be differentially important. Finally, the results bespoke of a substitution effect between cooperation activities and the internal R&D effort.     

Same but different? Research and technology organizations,universities and the innovation activities of firms

Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) and universities are important elements of countries’ innovation systems. As they are both halfway between science and industry, they are often considered to be the same thing. However, recent studies have stressed the differences between the two. In this paper, we analyze the innovative characteristics (impacts and types of innovation and internal R&D investments) of firms that collaborate with RTOs versus universities. Our study is based on statistical analysis of Community Innovation Survey micro-data (CIS 2012). Our results suggest that firms that see RTOs as more important sources of knowledge than universities have a higher probability of developing service innovation, invest less in internal R&D but are less likely to introduce new, groundbreaking innovations into the market. These results have significant policy and management implications, especially regarding the different but complementary contributions offered respectively by RTOs and universities.     

Intellectual property infringements due to R&D abroad? A comparative analysis between firms with international and domestic innovation activities

This paper aims to analyse the risk of intellectual property (IP) infringements by competitors from abroad and in particular to consider whether this risk is higher for international innovating firms. We distinguish three different types of IP infringements from abroad: the usage of firms’ technical inventions, product piracy, and copying of corporate names and designs. Our analysis rests on the German data from the Europe-wide Community Innovation Survey (CIS). We use a unique data set of about 900 observations, which are retrieved from two survey waves. While the earlier wave contains information about international and domestic innovation activities, the later wave reports IP infringements. In a second analysis, the likelihood of infringements from innovation host countries and no-innovation host countries abroad is examined. Before the empirical analysis, an exploratory study was carried out in China with interviews of German firms with innovation activities in China and with a legal advisor for small and medium-sized German enterprises. The results show that firms with international R&D activities are increasing their chances of losing technological knowledge to their local competitors abroad. R&D activities in countries with weak intellectual property rights increase the risk for all types of IP infringements compared to domestic R&D activities. Infringements by competitors from the host country are driven by the production of new produces in this country. Export intensity is the major driver of infringements from no-innovation host countries. R&D activities in China and North America also increase the risk of an infringement. However, firms that innovate only in their home country experience significantly more product piracy cases than international innovating firms.     

Technological cooperation,R&D outsourcing,and innovation performance at the firm level: The role of the regional context

Much has been said about the role that technological networking activities play on the innovative performance of firms, but little is known about how the regional context influences the efficiency of such networking activities. In this paper we hypothesize that the transformation of firms’ networking activities into innovation may vary depending on the regional environment in which the firm is located. For Spanish manufactures in the period 2000-12 and through the use of a multilevel framework, we obtain that after controlling for the firm’s characteristics, the regional context has not only a direct effect on firms’ innovation performance, but it also conditions the returns to firms’ networking activities, although differently in the case of cooperation and outsourcing. Cooperating in innovation activities is more beneficial for those firms located in a knowledge intensive region, whereas R&D outsourcing seems to be more profitable for firms in regions with a low knowledge pool.     

Determinants of industry-academy linkages and, their impact on firm performance: The case of Korea as a latecomer in knowledge industrialization

This paper utilizes the Korea Innovation Survey data to identify the determinants of industry-university and industry-government research institute (IUG) cooperation, and its impact on firm performance. First, we find that among the determinants of IUG cooperation, traditional firm characteristic variables of size and R&D intensity are not significant, while participation in national R&D project turns out be most significant and robust in both cooperation modes. This is in contrast to the results from the cases in European countries and reflects the significance of government policies in promoting IUG cooperation in latecomer economies. Second, with regard to the impact of IUG cooperation, we conspicuously find no significant impact on the innovation probability of firms when we control the possible endogeneity, such that already innovative firms would participate more at such cooperation modes. This implies that the IUG cooperation cannot guarantee the success of a firm in technological innovation. Rather, it may have an influence on the selection or direction of the research projects of a firm. When we limited the analysis to innovative firms, we do find a positive impact of the IUG cooperation on patents generated from new product innovation but find none in terms of volume of sales or labor productivity. These results seem to reflect the still transitional nature of the national innovation system (NIS) and knowledge industrialization in Korea.     

中低技术企业的创新模式与创新绩效研究――基于中国制造业创新调查的实证分析

本文利用2009年中国企业创新调查数据,首先对中低技术企业进行界定,并在此基础上分析了中低技术企业与中高、高技术企业在创新模式和创新绩效方面的差异。结果发现：（1）行业内部企业R&D研发强度存在高度的异质性,中低技术行业内存在相当比例的高R&D研发强度企业,中高、高技术行业内同样也存在相当比例的中低R&D研发强度企业。企业创新模式除了存在行业差异,基于企业R&D投入强度的企业类型差异也非常明显。（2）从创新绩效看,相对于同行业内的中高和高技术企业,中低技术企业在产品创新方面表现较差;但在服务创新方面并没有显著差别;在过程创新在某些方面甚至优于中高和高技术企业。     

R&D cooperation and failures in innovation projects: Empirical evidence from French CIS data

The second French Community Innovation Survey (CIS) indicates that 14% of R&D collaborating firms had to abandon or delay their innovation projects due to difficulties in their partnerships, an outcome which we term “cooperation failures”. Controlling for sample selection on the cooperation decision, our estimates show that firms collaborating with competitors and public research organizations (PROs), especially when they are foreign, are more likely to delay or stop an innovation project because of difficulties encountered in their R&D partnerships. More surprisingly, firms collaborating with their suppliers also face a higher risk of “cooperation failures”. At least for PROs, firms can reduce the risk of “cooperation failures” through previous experiences in partnerships. Larger firms and group subsidiaries are less likely to face “cooperation failures”, and so do firms in industries with a strong appropriability regime.     

Cooperation in innovation activities: The importance of partners

This paper analyses the importance of cooperation partners for the development of innovation activities. We contribute to the literature on cooperation in innovation activities that seeks to identify the characteristics differentiating cooperative from non-cooperative firms by proposing a different approach to this problem. We distinguish firms according to their evaluation of cooperation partners in the development of innovation activities. We apply a probit selection model to account for the firm's decision to cooperate (or not). The data we use come from the Portuguese Third Community Innovation Survey. Our estimation results show that firms from high-technological industries, with higher levels of absorptive capacity and of innovation investment, who give importance to incoming spillovers management, and who cooperate with firms from the same group or with suppliers, place greater value on cooperation partners in the innovation process. Additionally, we also find that the factors influencing the importance attributed to cooperation activities are different from the ones behind the decision to cooperate.     

What hampers innovation? Revealed barriers versus deterring barriers

Innovating firms are likely to face several challenges and experience different types of barriers. In this paper we argue that it is necessary to distinguish between two kinds of barriers to innovation. The first corresponds to what we describe as revealed barriers and reflects the degree of difficulty of the innovation process and the learning experience consequent on the firm engaging in innovation activity. The second type of impediment, which we label deterring barriers, encompasses the obstacles that prevent firms from committing to innovation. We use data from the 4th UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS4) to investigate the relationship between firms’ engagement in innovation and their assessment of the barriers to innovation. We show that the relationship is curvilinear in the case of costs and market barriers. These results have important implications for innovation policy and innovation management.     

Do innovative firms pay higher wages? Micro-level evidence from Brazil

This paper explores the relationship between innovation and wages using Brazil’s employer–employee census (RAIS) and a novel measure of innovation derived from the share of technical and scientific occupations of workers. The results show a robust and positive wage premium associated with innovative firms. The decomposition of this innovation-related wage premium suggests that it is larger for workers in manufacturing, although also positive and significant for those in agriculture and services; and larger for large firms. More importantly, the paper explores the causality between innovation and wages. First, we find some empirical support for “self-selection” — firms that innovate already pay higher wages before becoming innovators. Second, we find strong evidence of wage increases associated with starting innovation activity, which are persistent for three years after firms start innovating. Innovation pays off also for workers.     

The innovative behaviour of tourism firms—Comparative studies of Denmark and Spain

Tourism firms operate in a competitive sector where innovating is often a condition for survival. This article presents a theoretical framework for understanding tourist firms’ innovative behaviour and innovation systems in tourism. The innovativeness of tourism firms and its determinants are investigated by analysing quantitative as well as qualitative data comparing Spain and Denmark. A taxonomy of tourism firms is suggested and the firms’ characteristics which influence their innovativeness are presented. Additionally, the role of innovation networks is discussed, as is the role of innovation systems. The article suggests that large size, professionalism, but also entrepreneurship among small tourism firms are important determinants of innovation. Varied innovation networks are another determinant as are supportive innovation systems. These determinants favour Spanish firms, which are more innovative than Danish ones. In the final section, policy recommendations are presented.     

The dynamics of abandoned innovation activities: Learning from failure or learning to prevent failure?

We contribute to the literature on abandonment and innovation by showing the dynamic nature of the linkage between abandoned innovation activities and subsequent innovation outcomes at firm level. Based on a balanced panel of Spanish manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2016, we demonstrate that abandoning innovation not only leads to more successful innovation, but that there is an explicit time dimension to this. Firms which have prior experience of abandonment have stronger positive effects of more recent abandoned innovation activities on innovation output. However, these effects are largely restricted to prior experience from – and implementation in – the early (conception) phases of the innovation process. While firms systematically develop abilities to prevent failure, there is little evidence of learning from failure in terms of innovation abandonment.     

Cooperative R&D and firm performance

We analyse the impact of R&D cooperation on firm performance differentiating between four types of R&D partners (competitors, suppliers, customers, and universities and research institutes), and considering two performance measures: labour productivity and productivity in innovative (new to the market) sales. Using data on a large sample of Dutch innovating firms in two waves of the Community Innovation Survey (1996, 1998), we examine the impact of R&D cooperation in 1996 on subsequent productivity growth in 1996–1998. The results confirm a major heterogeneity in the rationales and goals of R&D cooperation. Competitor and supplier cooperation focus on incremental innovations, improving the productivity performance of firms. University cooperation and again competitor cooperation are instrumental in creating innovations generating sales of products that are novel to the market, improving the growth performance of firms. Furthermore, customers and universities are important sources of knowledge for firms pursuing radical innovations, which facilitate growth in innovative sales in the absence of formal R&D cooperation.     

Factors affecting university-industry R&D projects: The importance of searching, screening and signalling

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the determinants of research cooperation between firms and Public research organisations (PROs) for a sample of innovating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The econometric analysis is based on the results of the KNOW survey carried out in seven EU countries during 2000. In contrast to earlier works that provide information about the importance of PROs’ research, we know the number of firm/PRO collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. This allows us to study the determinants of firm collaboration with PROs in terms of both the propensity of a firm to undertake R&D projects with a university (do they cooperate or not) and the extent of this collaboration (number of R&D projects). Two questions are addressed. Which firms cooperated with PROs? And what are the firm characteristics that might explain the number of R&D projects with PROs? The results of our analysis point to two major phenomena. First, the propensity to forge an agreement with an academic partner depends on the ‘absolute size’ of the industrial partner. Second the openness of firms to the external environment, as measured by their willingness to search, screen and signal, significantly affects the development of R&D projects with PROs. Our findings suggest that acquiring knowledge through the screening of publications and involvement in public policies positively affects the probability of signing an agreement with a PRO, but not the number of R&D projects developed. In fact, firms that outsource research and development, and patent to protect innovation and to signal competencies show higher levels of collaboration.     

战略柔性对企业获取创新收益的影响研究

 在快速变化的环境中,创新对企业保持竞争优势有重要的作用。然而,创新企业有时会无法获取创新的收益。本文认为企业的战略柔性会对企业获取创新收益产生重要影响。其中协调柔性能够帮助企业获取创新的收益,尤其是突变创新的收益;而资源柔性的影响却较为复杂：资源柔性可以帮助企业获取渐进创新的收益,而对企业获取突变创新的收益则有着不利的影响。     

Innovation paths and the innovation performance of low-technology firms—An empirical analysis of German industry

This paper analyses innovation paths and the innovation performance of low-technology firms in comparison to medium- and high-technology firms. Firstly, it shows that low-, medium- and high-technology sectors consist of a considerable mix of low-, medium- and high-technology firms. Thus, it is necessary to look at the firm level when analysing how innovation patterns differ depending on the level of R&D intensity. Secondly, the product and process innovation performance of low-technology firms in German industry is analysed based on data from 1663 firms in the German Manufacturing Survey 2006, applying a set of both product and process related innovation output indicators. The empirical results show that low-technology manufacturing firms lag behind their medium- and high-tech counterparts regarding their product and service innovation performance, to a large degree on purely definitional grounds, but that they seem to perform equally well and in some respects even better at process innovation.     

How much difference is there between industrial district firms? A net value creation approach

We argue that industrial district firms possess a number of shared resources that explain the competitive superiority of these firms. These factors include common reputation, intensity of exchange and combination of resources, and participation of the local institutions. Using these shared resources we aim to address an unsolved question in the industrial district literature, namely, the internal heterogeneity of the clustered firms. Our empirical research drew upon a sample of 288 Spanish manufacturing firms belonging to industrial districts. Findings suggest that, even assuming a certain degree of homogeneity among internal district firms, they develop their own particular relationships and networks and, as a result, exploitation of the shared resources is irregular. These differences can therefore be used to explain the differences in value creation among firms.     

The economic impact of technological and organizational innovations. A firm-level analysis

By using firm-level data provided by the last round of the (Italian) Community Innovation Survey (CIS4) this paper explores (in a manufacturing-services comparative framework) the relationship between technological and non-technological innovations and their impact on firms’ performances. The empirical evidence presented shows that including the organizational dimension of innovation provides a much more comprehensive picture of the variegated universe of innovation in both macro-sectors. Four distinct innovation modes have been identified on the basis of the ways firms combine technological and non-technological innovations. These different modes of innovation are present and relevant in both manufacturing and service sectors and have been found to have a differentiated impact on firms’ performances. Strategies characterized by the joint introduction of product, process and organizational innovations have been found to give to both manufacturing and service firms a clear competitive advantage vis à vis both non-innovating firms and firms with a narrow approach to innovation. A few significant differences between services and manufacturing firms in the relevance and economic impact of different types of innovation strategies have also been found.