Entrepreneurship in Cities

Impactful, growth-oriented entrepreneurship is a major research and policy focus. Building on arguments put forward by Jane Jacobs more than 50 years ago, we propose that local knowledge spillovers in a city are enhanced by human agency in that city (e.g. local psychological openness). This effect is critically amplified by the catalyst function of a favorable structural city environment that not only connects these agentic people (via urban density), but also facilitates the production and flow of new knowledge for these connected agentic people (via a diverse industry mix). This three-way interaction effect was confirmed in our empirical investigation of quality entrepreneurship across the MSAs (cities) in the US, using a large-scale dataset of the psychological profiles of millions of people. Local openness shows a robust positive effect on the level of quality entrepreneurship. This effect is further strengthened by a favorable structural city environment (i.e. high density and diversity) by up to 35%. Reviving Jacobs’ people focus, the results indicate that the best performing cities in terms of knowledge spillovers and economic performance are those that are not only home to, and attract, agentic people, but also empower these people by means of a physical and industrial city landscape that enables them to act in more innovative and entrepreneurial ways, as envisioned by Jacobs. We discuss the policy implications of our findings and an agenda for future research.     

创新漏斗视角下开放性和独占性机制对企业创新绩效的影响研究

开放性有利于企业获取更多的创新机会,但开放式创新过程中也需要考虑独占性损失的风险,因为独占性对企业创新新颖性和效率等绩效存在重要的影响。本研究旨在剖析独占性机制和开放性对创新漏斗不同阶段的创新绩效的影响。整合企业跨界搜索理论与知识保护理论,基于332家广东省制造业企业的问卷调查数据,探讨开放性与独占性机制对创新漏斗不同阶段的创新绩效影响。研究发现：正式独占性机制的使用负向影响创新漏斗创意形成阶段的创新效率,半正式独占性机制的使用有利于提升创新漏斗创意形成阶段的创新效率,而非正式独占性机制则有助于创新漏斗创意形成和新产品开发与商业化阶段的创新新颖性的提升;另外,创新新颖性通过创新漏斗整个阶段的横向合作开放性来解释,尤其是与高校科研院所的合作,与竞争对手合作开放性对新产品开发与商业化阶段的创新新颖性积极正相关,而垂直合作开放性则对新产品开发与商业化阶段的创新效率具有正相关关系。     

创新开放度、知识获取与高新技术企业成长

激烈的竞争环境推动企业实施开放式创新战略突破组织边界,通过获取丰富的外部知识来弥补自身不足以促进企业成长,但学界对创新开放度、企业成长与知识获取三者之间关系的理论分析和实证研究不足,为此,以国内316家高新技术企业为样本,运用结构方程模型研究验证三者之间的关系。结果表明：创新开放广度与深度对高新技术企业成长的影响具有差异性,不同类型知识获取的中介作用也有所不同。其中,创新开放广度对企业成长没有显著影响,而创新开放深度对企业成长具有正向影响;创新开放广度对显性知识获取没有显著影响、对隐性知识获取具有正向影响,而创新开放深度对显性知识获取与隐性知识获取均有正向影响;显性知识获取对企业成长的影响并不显著,而隐性知识获取在创新开放广度与企业成长之间具有完全中介作用、在创新开放深度对企业成长的正向影响中起部分中介作用。从而得到如下启示：企业要重视开放式创新战略,合理高效利用开放式创新网络;不断提高创新开放深度,有效控制创新开放广度;重视从多种途径获取知识,尤其是隐性知识。     

Regional knowledge spillovers: Fact or artifact?

The explanation of different levels of innovation and their spatial distribution represents the central focus of the analysis. The empirical literature documents the incidence of spatial autocorrelation in patenting activities and interprets them as evidence for knowledge spillovers. Alternatively, the authors propose the spatial pattern of input variables in innovation processes as driving forces of patenting autocorrelation. They analyze 51 Nuts 1 regions in Europe and find that the high degree of spatial autocorrelation exhibited by patent applications can be explained comprehensively by the spatial location of the input factors in the knowledge production function. These are traditional indicators on R&D investments and human capital from Eurostat and proxy variables on social capital from the European Values Study. This finding has important implications for the scope of an autonomous regional innovation policy.     

三重知识溢出与新兴经济体创新升级

综合考究本土外资知识溢出、逆向知识溢出和本土内资知识溢出对新兴经济体的系统性影响,有助于深度认识知识溢出体系在国内创新升级中所扮演角色,发现创新拐点。文中通过构建理论模型论证了三重知识溢出的整体关联性,并在异质性样本条件下实证了该整体与我国创新升级之间的内在关联。结果显示：整体视角下,三重知识溢出对国内创新升级的总效应、直接效应和间接效应均表现为正向促进作用;分视角下,源于一带一路沿线国家的外资知识溢出和本土内资知识溢出组合在总效应方面正向促进国内创新升级,但本土外资知识溢出的直接效应以及逆向知识溢出发挥的间接效应与国内创新升级表现为负相关;来自非沿线国家的三重知识溢出总效应对国内创新升级同样表现出正向促进作用,但逆向知识溢出的直接效应表现为抑制作用;此外,所有样本检验结果均表明知识溢出方和知识接收方之间技术差距有益于促进国内创新升级,但双方的人力资本差距与国内创新升级负相关。     

知识溢出效应、创新意愿与创新能力——来自战略性新兴产业企业的实证研究

通过选取我国战略性新兴产业122家企业339名管理者或研发人员的有效样本数据,本文分析了开放式创新背景下,知识溢出效应、创新意愿与创新能力三者之间的内在关联。研究结果表明,知识溢出效应和创新意愿均对创新能力具有显著正向影响;同时,知识溢出效应对创新意愿的影响随着知识溢出效应的增强而变化,两者呈倒U型曲线关系;企业的研发新颖度在知识溢出效应与创新能力之间具有部分中介作用。本研究揭示了企业知识溢出效应与创新能力之间的内部作用机理,不仅拓展了知识溢出和企业创新等相关领域的理论空间,同时也为战略性新兴产业企业在开放式创新环境下有效增强知识溢出效应、提升创新绩效提供了实践指导。     

Reconceptualizing the paradox of openness: How solvers navigate sharing-protecting tensions in crowdsourcing

The paradox of openness describes the fundamental tension between knowledge sharing and knowledge protection in open innovation. While sharing is vital for value creation, protecting is critical for value appropriation. Prior research has examined this paradox of openness from the perspective of the seeking firm, focusing on the firm-level challenges of inbound open innovation. In this article, we complement that research by illuminating the tensions between sharing and protecting in individual-level outbound open innovation, where we argue that the paradox of openness is most prevalent, yet much less well understood. Drawing on the experience of individual participants, or solvers, in intermediated crowdsourcing contests, we analyze textual data from 2,149 answers to five open-ended narrative questions embedded in a large-scale solver survey, as well as 43 in-depth interviews of solvers. Our findings indicate that individual solvers face fundamental sharing-protecting tensions that carry considerable economic and psychological costs. We also document how solvers attempt to navigate the paradox of openness by employing three formal and four informal value appropriation practices. They build elaborate configurations of these practices, which they tailor to the idiosyncrasies of each contest. They also dynamically adjust these configurations over time, as the contest and the interaction with the seeker unfold. We end by outlining how these findings contribute to a more multifaceted conceptualization and a richer understanding of the paradox of openness.     

创新开放度对开放式创新绩效的作用机理

在已经揭示的创新开放度与创新绩效关系基础上,通过文献分析将变量进行细分,并且引入对开放式创新有重要影响的两个中介变量——创新导向与商业模式,构建起更加综合的理论模型并对其进行操作化转换。然后收集大样本问卷调查数据,采用结构方程模型(SEM)对模型进行实证检验与修正,深化了对创新开放度与开放式创新绩效之间作用机理的理解。结论表明:创新导向和商业模式在创新开放度与开放式创新绩效之间扮演了中介角色,虽然细分的创新开放度(探索式创新开放度和开发式创新开放度)对开放式创新绩效的影响最终依然以财务指标的形式表现出来,可是它们的绩效贡献存在差异很大的形成机制。     

Externalities of openness in innovation

Discussion of open innovation has typically stressed the benefits to the individual enterprise from boundary-spanning linkages and improved internal knowledge sharing. In this paper we explore the potential for wider benefits from openness in innovation and argue that openness may itself generate positive externalities by enabling improved knowledge diffusion. The potential for these (positive) externalities suggests a divergence between the private and social returns to openness and the potential for a sub-optimal level of openness where this is determined purely by firms’ private returns. Our analysis is based on Irish plant-level panel data from manufacturing industry over the period 1994–2008. Based on instrumental variables regression models our results suggest that externalities of openness in innovation are significant and that they are positively associated with firms’ innovation performance. We find that these externality effects are unlikely to work through their effect on the spread of open innovation practices. Instead, they appear to positively influence innovation outputs by either increasing knowledge diffusion or strengthening competition. Our evidence on the significance of externalities from openness in innovation provides a rationale for public policy aimed at promoting open innovation practices among firms.     

Clusters,convergence, and economic performance

This paper evaluates the role of regional cluster composition in regional industry performance. On the one hand, diminishing returns to specialization in a location can result in a convergence effect: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be declining in the level of economic activity of that industry. At the same time, positive spillovers across complementary economic activities can provide an impetus for agglomeration: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be increasing in the “strength” (i.e., relative presence) of related industries. Building on Porter (1998, 2003), we develop a systematic empirical framework to analyze the role of regional clusters – groups of closely related industries operating within a particular region – in the growth of regional industries. We exploit data from the US Cluster Mapping Project to examine the effects of agglomeration within regional clusters after controlling for convergence at the region-industry level. Our findings suggest that industries located in a strong cluster register higher employment and patenting growth. Regional industry growth also increases with the strength of related clusters in the region and with the strength of similar clusters in adjacent regions. We also find evidence of the complementarity between employment and innovation performance in regional clusters: both the initial employment and patenting strength of a cluster have a separate positive effect on the employment and patenting growth of the constituent industries. Finally, we find that new regional industries emerge where there is a strong cluster. These findings are consistent with multiple types of externalities arising in clusters, including knowledge, skills, and input–output linkages.     

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.     

知识管理、机制创新与研发型企业成长

构建知识管理-机制创新的二维分析框架,对传统企业、科技型中小企业、技术先进型服务企业、企业类新型研发机构4种企业组织形态进行对比分析,研究影响企业长期成长的因素及原因,得出推动企业可持续发展的经验。研究发现:(1)传统企业以获取短期盈利为目标,依靠规模化生产、降低运营成本来获取市场份额,内生创新动力不强,在成长性上不如研发型企业;(2)企业类新型研发机构是研发型企业最优组织形态,既能发挥科技型中小企业的知识管理优势,也能融合技术先进型服务企业的体制优势;(3)构建开放型嵌入式知识网络管理系统,采用低成本、开放式、共享化的资源配置机制,实施柔性化的人才引培机制是企业类新型研发机构实现可持续发展的关键。     

企业创新开放度的多维性与关联性研究综述

开放式创新模式已成为知识经济时代企业创新战略的重要选择,如何正确认识和度量创新开放度是提升企业创新能力和创新绩效的关键之一。在对现有研究成果的理论分析基础上,本文从创新开放度的概念出发,系统归纳了创新开放度的度量方法,阐释了创新开放度构念的多维特性,认为创新开放度概念涵盖了外部创新源、组织模式、知识治理三个维度,并重点对三个维度的特点及其相互关系进行了系统分析,首次提出可将创新开放度作为潜因子型多维构念进行测度等观点,为进一步完善创新开放度的测度方法、提高测量准确度提供了新的思路,对后续的实证研究具有重要的理论启示和现实意义。     

集群企业开放度对创新绩效的影响机制: 基于浙江三个集群的实证研究

在现有文献分析基础上,基于集群特征, 构建了以网络中心性和吸收能力作为调节变量、以知识获取作为中介变量的集群企业开放度对其创新绩效影响机制模型。选取浙江省3个产业集群中116家企业作为研究对象,采用回归分析等多种统计方法进行实证验证。结论表明：第一,知识获取在集群企业开放度对创新绩效的影响中起到中介作用,即集群企业开放度是通过影响知识获取进而影响创新绩效。第二,知识吸收能力在企业创新绩效形成过程的不同阶段中起到调节作用,其中潜在吸收能力有利于强化企业从创新开放度中获取知识,而现实吸收能力则在企业将获取的知识转化为创新绩效的过程中起到正向调节作用。第三,网络中心性越高,集群企业开放宽度对企业知识获取的正向效应越显著。研究结果有助于中国集群企业推进开放式创新的政策选择。     

The “human side” of open innovation: The role of employee diversity in firm-level openness

The use of external knowledge for innovation (i.e., inbound or outside-in open innovation) has received substantial attention in the innovation literature. However, the “human side” of open innovation is still poorly understood. We consider the role of employee characteristics with respect to predicting firm-level openness. Drawing on the human capital, learning and creativity literatures, we theorize that knowledge diversity of the firm’s employees is positively associated with employees’ ability to identify and absorb external knowledge, which aggregates to increased firm-level openness—that is, firms’ use of external knowledge in their pursuit of innovation. Based on a combination of three data sources, namely, two survey data sources and register data, we find support for our hypothesis that employees’ educational diversity is positively associated with firm-level openness. However, we find no direct association between employees’ work history diversity and firm-level openness but rather—as also hypothesized—a conditional relationship based on educational background, which implies that diverse work history only has a positive impact at higher levels of educational diversity. To reduce endogeneity concerns, we undertake a series of robustness checks.     

我国高校R＆D知识溢出的实证研究——以高技术产业为例

区域创新体系中地理媒介知识溢出，已经成为新经济增长理论和新经济地理等学科研究的主要课题。本文依据空间计量经济学理论，运用知识生产函数模型框架，以高技术产业为例，对我国高等院校R＆D知识溢出的空间范围和程度进行了实证研究，结果表明区域内高等院校对于高技术产业的知识溢出是正向的、显著的，但溢出程度较低；相邻区域之间的高技术创新具有空间依存性，一个区域高技术产业的知识生产不仅增加自身区域的知识存量，而且会溢出到邻近区域，引起邻近区域知识存量的增加。依据实证结果，本文提出了强化知识生产与溢出的政策性建议。     

Product innovation rumors as forms of open innovation

Prior studies of open innovation have highlighted the effects of different flows of knowledge between firms and external partners—such as flows of software code, technical solutions, or new product ideas—and how firms face a “paradox of openness” about how open to be to external sources while also appropriating value. There are increasingly flows of more provisional knowledge as well, in the form of product innovation rumors exchanged within online technology blogs. Our study objective was to understand how product innovation rumors are used by firms as both inflows and outflows of provisional knowledge and their effect on the innovation process. Using interview data within a high-technology firm whose forthcoming products were the subject of rumor within technology blogs, we develop propositions regarding how inflows of product innovation rumors affect innovation decisions (while addressing concerns about appropriability and intrafirm knowledge flows) and how outflows from firms may affect stakeholders outside the firm (through selective revealing and influence of technology blog editors). Product innovation rumors in part address the paradox of openness by forming an informal means of open innovation alongside formal processes, and we suggest further research opportunities in this domain.     

A framework of industrial knowledge spillovers in big-science centers

We employed the grounded theory method to construct a framework describing the distinctive mechanisms through which big-science centers generate industrial knowledge spillovers in the economy. Our focus is on large-scale big-science installations typically associated with experimental physics. We draw on social network, social capital, and inter-organizational learning theories to examine knowledge spillovers accruing to industrial partner companies in big-science-industry dyads. The context for the study is provided by CERN’s new particle accelerator project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In addition to building a grounded theory framework for the study of industrial knowledge spillovers, our study demonstrates the distinctive potential that big-science centers offer as a source of knowledge spillovers in national innovation systems.     

Knowledge protection strategies of multinational firms—A cross-country comparison

International knowledge spillovers, especially through multinational companies (MNCs), have recently been a major topic of discussion among academics and practitioners. Most research in this field focuses on knowledge sharing activities of MNC subsidiaries. Relatively little is known about their capabilities for protecting valuable knowledge from spilling over to host country competitors. We extend this stream of research by investigating both formal protection strategies (e.g. patenting) as well as strategic ones (secrecy, lead time, complex design). We conceptualize the breadth of firm's knowledge protection strategies and relate it to the particular situation of MNC subsidiaries. Moreover, we argue that their approaches differ with regard to host country challenges and opportunities. We address these issues empirically, based on a harmonized survey of innovation activities of more than 1800 firms located in Portugal and Germany. We find evidence that MNCs prefer broader sets of knowledge protection strategies in a host country with fewer opportunities for knowledge sourcing (Portugal). In Germany, though, they opt for narrower sets of knowledge protection strategies if they invest in innovation activities themselves. We deduce that these results are due to a need for reciprocity in knowledge exchanges to benefit fully from promising host country knowledge flows.     

网络开放、战略先行与集群企业吸收能力构建——基于浙江产业集群的实证研究

 面对全球价值链锁定问题,越来越多的学者开始强调吸收能力对集群企业升级的关键作用。按照能力来自于经验的逻辑,从外部网络和内部创新两个方面认为开放网络为集群企业提供了多元化的新知识,拉动集群企业的知识吸收经验;战略先行意味着集群企业积极地进行新市场、新产品的开发,有利于推动集群企业的知识吸收经验;并且网络开放所提供的多元化的新知识为企业带来的新的成长机会,从而强化了集群企业的战略先行,因而战略先行成为影响“网络开放－吸收能力”关系的中介变量。利用浙江省5个制造业产业集群中的196家集群企业的实地调查数据,证实了网络开放和战略先行对集群企业吸收能力构建的积极作用,以及战略先行对“网络开放－吸收能力”关系的中介效应。