Not all technologies are created equal for stakeholders: Constituency statutes,firm stakeholder orientation and investments in technology generality

Previous research has analyzed the effect of stakeholder orientation on the amount of technological investment firms make but has ignored its effect on the characteristics of that investment. To address this gap, we explored the impact of stakeholder orientation on the degree of generality of a firm's technological investment. More general technologies (i.e., technologies easily deployable in a wider range of industries) are more likely to promote major changes in the firm's scope. However, these changes undermine the value of stakeholders’ past relationship-specific investments, which are tailored to a certain firm scope. Therefore, more stakeholder-oriented firms will invest in less general technological assets to reduce stakeholder concerns and opposition. This negative effect will be stronger in more uncertain industries, where stakeholders are more concerned that firms might use technology generality to change their scope following the realization of previously unforeseen contingencies. However, it will be weaker in more competitive industries, where stakeholders tend to make less relationship-specific investments and are less concerned with changes in firm scope triggered by an increase in technology generality. We test our hypotheses by exploiting the enactment of constituency statutes in 34 U.S. states during the period 1976–2000 as a plausibly exogenous variation in firms’ stakeholder orientation.     

Innovation activities, use of appropriation instruments and absorptive capacity: Evidence from Spanish firms

This article empirically investigates the relationship between innovation activities of firms, their use of appropriation instruments and their absorptive capacity. We study a wide range of manufacturing and service industries, not just high-tech, and a wide range of innovation activities, not just R&D. We use multilevel logit models for complex samples to disentangle industry from firm-specific effects. We find that within an industry, firms that invest in appropriation instruments to reduce outgoing spillovers tend to conduct more R&D and downstream activities than firms that do not. Acquisition of technology is not related to the use of appropriation instruments. The effects of incoming spillovers (measured through absorptive capacity) on innovation activities of firms are industry specific and stronger for firms that invest in appropriation instruments. For this type of firm, both the capability to scan the external environment for technology and the capability to integrate new technology are related to the innovation activities. For firms that do not invest in appropriation instruments, only scanning capabilities are related.     

Global value chains and domestic innovation

This paper explores how changes in both position and participation in Global Value Chain (GVC) networks affect firm innovation. The analysis combines matched patent-firm data for Japan with measures of GVC network centrality and GVC participation using the OECD Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) Tables over the period from 1995 to 2011. We find that Japan's position in GVCs has shifted from being at the core of Asian value chains towards the periphery relative to other countries in the network, i.e., becoming less “central”. We use China's accession to the World Trade Organization as an instrumental variable for changes in Japanese centrality. Our analysis shows that increases in Japanese sectors' forward centrality – i.e. as a key supplier - tend to be positively associated with increasing firms' patent applications in these sectors and that firms in key hubs within GVCs, specifically as key suppliers, appear to benefit from knowledge spillovers from downstream markets.     

Do firms in clusters invest in R&D more intensively? Theory and evidence from multi-country data

This study aims to evaluate whether firms located in clusters invest more intensively in research and development (R&D) than their non-clustered counterparts. Specifically, it proposes a model of firm R&D and tests empirically its implications for the effect of being located in a cluster on firm R&D intensity. The key ideas underlying the theory are as follows: (1) due either to natural excludability or to a high degree of stickiness of R&D-opportunity-bearing technological knowledge, geographical proximity per se is limited in the (automatic) spillover of knowledge with promising R&D opportunities to nearby firms; (2) geographical proximity may, however, help enhance the effectiveness or efficiency of knowledge exchange through market mechanisms (e.g., through contract R&D, R&D collaboration); (3) potential advantages (or disadvantages) in firm R&D of being located in a cluster also depend on the degree of asymmetry in technological competence among firms located in the cluster. The key ideas are supported by an empirical analysis of a multi-industry, multi-country data set compiled by the World Bank. In particular, the results show that being located in a cluster per se actually has a negative effect on firm R&D intensity, which is in contrast to the conventional wisdom of pure or automatic localized knowledge spillovers, as far as firm R&D intensity is concerned.     

R&D spillovers through RJV cooperation

We investigate how R&D spillovers propagate across firms linked through Research Joint Ventures (RJVs). Building on the framework developed by Bloom et al. (2013) which considers the opposing effects of knowledge spillovers and product market rivalry, we extend the model to account for RJV cooperation. Since the firm’s decision to join a RJV is endogenous, we build a model of RJV participation. The outcome equations and RJV participation are then jointly estimated in an endogenous treatment regression model. Our main findings are that the adverse effects of product market rivalry are mitigated if firms cooperate in RJVs; and that RJV participation allows firms to better absorb technological spillovers and, thus, create value.     

Geographical clustering and firm growth: Differential growth performance among clustered firms

This paper investigates the effect of being located in a cluster on firm growth. In particular, it focuses on the differential growth effect of being located in a cluster, or a growth divide among clustered firms, based on the idea that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, advantages of geographical clustering are not randomly or equally available to clustered firms. Due to the intense competition among clustered firms for resources such as creative talent, firms who are more attractive to the resources are more likely to entice better resources and hence achieve higher growth. Our empirical analysis of firms in nine industries across six countries shows that being located in a cluster per se does not have a positive effect on firm growth and that domestic technological leaders with a sufficient technological distance to the global technological frontier show differentially higher growth due both to the attractiveness to promising resources and to the opportunity for incoming knowledge spillovers from global technological leaders.     

Spatial collocation and venture capital in the US biotechnology industry

Biotechnology firms operate in a high-risk and high-reward environment and are in a constant race to secure venture capital (VC) funds. Previous contributions to the literature show that the VC firms tend to invest locally in order to monitor their investments and to provide operating assistance to their target firms. Further, biotechnology is a knowledge-based industry that tends to exhibit spatial clusters, and the firms in such industries may collocate to benefit from gaining access to local markets for specialized inputs (e.g., skilled researchers) and from local knowledge spillovers and network externalities. If such gains exist, we expect that the collocated firms should exhibit positively correlated performance, including in their ability to attract venture capital funds. The purpose of this paper is to empirically measure the strength and spatial extent of the relationships among the amount of funds raised by proximate biotechnology firms. We model these relationships with a spatial autoregression (SAR) model, and we control for characteristics of the biotechnology firms and the VC firms that provide their funds as well as site-specific factors. Based on our fitted SAR model, we find that the amount of venture capital raised by a particular biotechnology firm is significantly influenced by the number of VC firms and the VC funding levels raised by biotechnology firms located within a 10-mile radius, but these relationships are not statistically significant beyond this range.     

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.     

Competition favors the prepared firm: Firms’ R&D responses to competitive market pressure

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the long-debated relationship between market competition and firm research and development (R&D) by investigating the effect of competitive market pressure on firms’ incentives to invest in R&D. The paper shows that a firm's R&D response to competitive market pressure depends primarily on its level of technological competence or R&D productivity: firms with high levels of technological competence tend to respond aggressively (i.e., exhibit a higher level of R&D efforts) to intensifying competitive market pressure, while firms with low levels of technological competence tend to respond submissively (i.e., exhibit a lower level of R&D efforts). The differential effect of competitive market pressure on firm R&D, conditioned primarily by the level of firms’ technological competence, is empirically supported by unique firm-level data from the World Bank. Furthermore, the role of firm-specific technological competence in conditioning the R&D-competition relationship is more evident and statistically more significant for firms facing consumers whose utility is relatively more elastic to product quality than to price.     

Who is tech savvy? Exploring the adoption of smartphones and tablets: An empirical investigation

The present analysis performs a Multinomial Probit Model in order to observe which mobile technology qualifies across individuals. The findings indicate that individuals in family businesses prefer to combine both tablets and smartphones in their purchases, rather than separately. Younger individuals report an adoption preference towards smartphones, while older individuals are inclined towards tablets. The theoretical contributions encompass both the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the social cognitive theory (SCT). Individuals working in a family business exhibit a curious behaviour and they are becoming early adopters. TAM helps explain this behaviour as they tend to try new novelties exploring the potential usefulness they might derive; these technological advancements allow them to connect with customers and partners. By contrast, SCT helps gain a better understanding on young and old individuals' behaviour. The younger generations seem to be easily influenced by their peers with a tendency to technologies which are fun and allow them to build connections. Older individuals are equally influenced by their peers, with the difference that their social circle being more mature (e.g., business owners, professionals). This combined with the complexity of the technology orients them into adopting tablets more easily than smartphones.     

Employees' entrepreneurial human capital and firm performance

We introduce a new measure of human capital, defined as employees' former involvement in entrepreneurship. Such entrepreneurial human capital (EHC) complements traditional human capital measures accumulated through work experience and education. Using detailed longitudinal register data, we track the previous years of entrepreneurial experience for the population of employees in Swedish private sector firms. We provide evidence that higher EHC among employees is associated with significantly higher levels of firm productivity. The baseline result implies that a 10 % increase in employees being former entrepreneurs increases firm-level productivity by 3.9 %. Additionally, we provide evidence that heterogeneity in employees' previous entrepreneurial experience (e.g., the reason for entering and exiting entrepreneurship, type of venture, length of entrepreneurial experiences, and relatedness of technology) influences the impact of EHC on productivity. The results are shown to be robust to various estimation techniques, alternative definitions of EHC, and other performance measures.     

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.     

Productivity impact of technology spillover from multinationals to local firms: Comparing China's automobile and electronics industries

This study compares the impact of innovative activities of multinationals on local firms in China's automobile and electronics industries. In the automobile industry we find that both multinationals and local firms in the assembly industry have vertical spillovers to local parts supply firms. In contrast, in the electronics industry, only a small amount of vertical spillover effects from local firms can be found. Furthermore, we find that horizontal spillovers exist in neither the automobile industry nor the electronics industry.     

Chilling effects of patent trolls

We find that non-practicing entities (NPEs) exhibit a unique legal strategy of sequential rounds: (1) subject to the same patent, NPE plaintiffs file approximately seven follow-on lawsuits after the initial lawsuit; and (2) when a firm is sued by NPEs, the likelihood of its technology peers being sued increases by 14 % in the subsequent year. Defendants' technology peers experience significant market value losses around the lawsuit filing date. Moreover, defendants' technology peers respond to NPE litigation risk by increasing R&D investments to develop workaround technologies. However, the increase in R&D incrementally generates fewer patent citations or patents with lower values. Thus, our results highlight broader wealth effects and corresponding real effects of NPE-initiated litigation on defendants' technology peers. These results provide sharp contrasts to the insignificant wealth and real impacts on defendants' technology peers if litigations are initiated by practicing entities (PEs). The new evidence informs the current regulatory and policy debates pertaining to NPEs.     

Why do firms publish? A systematic literature review and a conceptual framework

In this paper, we address the question of ‘Why do firms publish scientific papers?’. Research examining the competitive advantages that firms accrue from investment in R&D has provided evidence that such efforts can be associated with the voluntary disclosure of research findings in scientific publications. This form of scientific openness occurs despite potentially undermining the value-capturing process by generating knowledge spillovers and hindering the use of other instruments for protecting intellectual property (patents and secrecy). Our understanding of what leads firms to engage in scientific publishing remains relatively limited, however. We address this gap by presenting a systematic review of 164 studies examining firm publishing. We then develop a conceptual framework that outlines five incentives for firms to engage in publishing: (i) accessing external knowledge and resources; (ii) attracting and retaining researchers; (iii) supporting IP strategies; (iv) building the firm's reputation; and (v) supporting commercialization strategies. Mechanisms that relate incentives to publish to firms' major stakeholders – i.e. academia, industry, investors, users, and institutions – are also outlined in the framework. We conclude by setting out an agenda for future research.     

Innovation and inter-city knowledge spillovers: Social,geographical, and technological connectedness and psychological openness

Knowledge spillovers across economic agents are central to the process of technological innovation. Yet, the mechanisms by which spillovers travel and manifest as innovation are poorly understood. To fill that gap, we study how knowledge spillovers emanating from other cities (knowledge pools) diffuse and get absorbed. We refine the notion of connectedness by comparing three mechanisms through which knowledge spillovers occur between cities (geographically, technologically, and socially via social media links). We also examine how local psychological openness facilitates this diffusion and absorption process. Using 360 U.S. cities as our empirical context, we find geographically mediated and socially mediated (but not technologically mediated) knowledge spillovers to show positive relationships with the rate of patenting. Moreover, results confirm a positive moderation effect of psychological openness on the relationship between socially mediated knowledge spillovers and the rate of patenting. By providing a more comprehensive test of knowledge spillover mechanisms, our study indicates that the often-quoted physical proximity to knowledge pools remains a robust driver. However, a city's virtual connection to knowledge pools (e.g., via social media links between people) also matter, particularly if that city is psychologically more open. This catalyst of local openness might occur because open populations better absorb inflowing knowledge and utilize it more effectively via key innovators. We discuss implications for research and policy with a particular focus on virtual human (vs. geographically bounded) connectedness and psychological openness as intertwined key areas of a new human geography of innovation.     

鬼针草的统计分类研究

  Hooker (1882) has reported three varieties in Bidens pilosa species i. e., pilosa      Proper, Linn. bipinnata Linn. and decomposita Wall. Clarke  (1876) has included      var. decomposita into B. pilosa proper. Taxonomic position of varieties pilosa proper      and bipinnata is much confusing in literature. Babu (1977)has raised varieties pilosa      proper and bipinnata as distinct species level into B.  pilosa and  B.  bipinnata      respectively. The present taximetric study also justified the distinction of these varieties      as specific level.      Hooker has reported three varieties of species B. pilosa i.e., pilosa proper Linn., bipinnata Linn., and decomposita Wall. from the Himalayan region of India.  Clarke (1876) has included var. decomposita into B. pilosa proper. During taxonomic work on the family Compositae author has found that taxonomic position of var. pilosa proper and bipinnata is much confusing in literature. Babu (1977) has raised varieties pilosa proper and bipinnata as distinct species level.  Looking to this discretion, it was de-eided to use taximetrics in interpreting taxonomic status of these taxa.     

Transfers of user process innovations to process equipment producers: A study of Dutch high-tech firms

A detailed survey of 498 high technology small and medium-sized enterprises in the Netherlands shows process innovation by user firms to be common practice. Fifty-four percent of these firms reported developing entirely novel process equipment or software for their own use and/or modifying these, both at significant private expense. Twenty-five percent of the user innovations in our sample were transferred to commercializing producer firms. Many transfers were made without any direct compensation. Very importantly from the perspective of effective diffusion of user innovations, innovations with higher commercial potential - and more general appeal for users - are much more likely to be transferred to producers. The pattern we document of frequent innovation by individual user firms at substantial cost, followed in many cases by voluntary, no-charge information spillovers to producers, suggests that “open source economics” may be a general pattern in the economy.     

中国水筛属种子特征研究

本文采用光学显微镜和扫描电镜对我国水蒒属植物14个居群的种子特征进行     了研究。通过石蜡切片，在光学显微镜下观察了种子的内部结构。     本文的研究结果，认为种间居群的差异比较显著，种内的居群特征比较类似，将我国水蒒     属植物14个居群定为4种，即有尾水蒒Blyxa echinosperma (C. B. Clarke) Hook. f.,无尾水蒒B. aubertii Rich.,光滑水蒒B. leiosperma Koidz.,水蒒B. japonica (Miq.) Maxim-。     

Does local knowledge spillover matter for firm productivity? The role of financial access and corporate governance

Global productivity growth has either stagnated or declined, despite continued technological innovations with the rise of knowledge-intensive intangibles that arise from the growth of knowledge stock (R&D activities). Understanding the root causes of this paradox in the context of growing economies requires an investigation of whether local knowledge diffusion can explain firm-level productivity differences, including key constraining factors like sources of financing or corporate governance structure. Using financial data of 7970 Indian firms over a 20-year period and clustering firms across industries, we assess the impact of R&D stock that is external to the firm through estimating both within (intra) and between (inter) industry spillovers. We find that both R&D and non-R&D-performing firms benefit from ‘between industry’ spillovers. We further show that firms with better access to finance achieve higher productivity, not only through their own R&D capital stock but also via both types of industry-level knowledge spillover. We allow for the two key sources of international spillovers namely import intensity and FDI. While import-intensive firms experience lower productivity, FDI mitigates this adverse productivity effect across knowledge-intensive exporting firms. The paper concludes that financially unconstrained firms and firms with greater corporate board connectedness derive positive industry-level spillover effects, reflecting intra- and inter-industry as domestic spillover or local value-chain effect in the literature on technological innovation.