The policy implications of the globalisation of innovation

The paper develops a taxonomy of the globalisation of innovation based on three categories: (a) the international exploitation of technology produced on a national basis; (b) the global generation of innovations; (c) the global technological collaborations. The most evident changes implied by the increasing globalisation of innovation and technology are the tougher and increased competition and the greater collaboration between actors, both across and within national boundaries. The advantages, just as the costs, of these tendencies can be substantial, leading to a higher risk of `winners and losers'. The paper analyses the different impact that each category might have on the economic and innovative performance of countries and regions, with the aim of defining the implications for national policies. It is suggested that public policies play a different role in each of the three processes of the globalisation of innovation and that a single strategy does not exist, neither from a firm's nor from a government's perspective. The paper emphasis that none of the three categories in this taxonomy renders national policy obsolete. On the contrary, public policies are necessary on a far wider range than those currently implemented in the majority of countries.     

State ownership and technology adoption: The case of electric utilities and renewable energy

Technology adoption is crucial to address pressing public policy issues such as climate change, but the role of ownership structure in adoption decisions is not well understood. The low-carbon energy transition in the electricity industry is a case in point. Following market liberalization, the electricity industry in many countries is now characterized by a co-existence of state-owned and private utilities. We bring together the economic literatures on innovation and ownership to derive hypotheses of how ownership could affect renewable energy adoption by utilities. Focusing on data from incumbent utilities in the European Union (EU) during 2005–2016, we test these hypotheses using regression analyses and qualitative analysis of investment rationales for ten utilities. Results suggest that in the EU, state-owned utilities have a higher tendency to invest in renewables. We find evidence that state ownership interacts with the existence of pro-adoption policies and state enforcement capabilities. Based on our findings, we discuss broader implications for the role of state-owned enterprises in technological change in the energy sector and beyond.     

区域经济政策促进城市群经济平衡增长研究进展述评

在中国追求区域协调发展和城镇化健康发展的大背景下,城市群平衡增长要同时实现整体增长与缩小内部增长差距两大目标．然而．区域经济政策对这两个目标实现的促进机制与效果问题却长期困扰着决策层。本文系统整理了国内外有关区域经济政策促进城市群经济平衡增长领域的理论与实证文献．按照作用对象将区域经济政策归纳为城市间要素流动、投入一产出联系、技术扩散和转移支付四个维度,发现各维度区域经济政策对城市群整体增长的促进机制与促进效果比较明确．但是对城市群内部增长差距缩小的促进机制与促进效果均存在争议．争议主要集中于政策间交互作用和城市间功能与分工差异。但从经济学框架上对这种政策复合作用问题进行系统分析的文献并不多．而利用系统仿真方法研究城市群发展的文献为考察区域经济政策簇复合作用效果提供了方法支持。     

Opening the black box: The adoption of innovations in the voluntary sector—The case of Indonesian civil society organisations

Despite the considerable attention paid to research into the adoption of technological innovations in the public and private sectors, little attention has been paid to such research in organisations within the voluntary or third sector. As a result, many things remain unknown: the patterns of uptake and adoption in the voluntary sector; the process of the transformation, both within the organisations and in the implementation of the innovation; and the implications of such uptake. This paper attempts to address these problems by focusing on civil society organisations (CSOs) as a subset of groups within the voluntary sector. At a theoretical level, this research is concerned with the diffusion of innovation and its effects on the practice of social movements in general, and of CSOs in particular. Using the experiences of CSOs in Indonesia, as a latecomer economy, these concerns are explored through the analysis of two related empirical issues: (i) the links between innovation and organisational performance and (ii) the construction of innovation diffusion and impacts in organisations that define those links.     

National Identity and the Informational Welfare State: Turkey and Malaysia Compared

Researchers have found a number of economic, technological, and political factors to be associated with the diffusion of information technology in developing countries. But cultural factors generally, and national identity in particular, have almost never been viewed as consequential. Castells and Himanen's 2002 study of the information society in Finland, in which the authors identify Finnish national culture as an impetus to the development of the country's informational welfare state, is the most prominent exception to this pattern. This article provides a critical overview of Castells and Himanen's research and revises their conceptual framework to focus on the specific choices states make in constructing their national identities and the effects of these choices on information policy and information technology diffusion. It demonstrates the value of this revised framework through a comparison of the historical trajectories of Turkey and Malaysia's nation-building projects, the incentives these projects have created for the two countries’ social and political elites, and the public information policies and programs that have resulted.     

生态产品价值实现地方经验上升为国家政策的机制分析——浙江丽水案例

【目的】地方经验上升为国家政策是中国公共政策研究的重要议题,现有研究主要关注经济政策与社会政策的上升与扩散,缺乏对多重属性政策创新扩散完整过程的考察。【方法】基于政策创新扩散视角,聚焦兼具经济社会双重政策属性的生态产品价值实现政策,尝试构建此类政策创新扩散的分析框架,深入考察中国首个生态产品价值实现机制试点城市浙江丽水地方经验创新扩散的完整过程,以厘清生态产品价值实现地方经验上升为国家政策的动态机制。【结果】研究发现：①经济社会双重属性的存在为生态产品价值实现政策的创新扩散营造合规空间,从而在中央与地方的双向推动下呈现特殊创新扩散机理。②生态产品价值实现地方创新受经济社会发展需求、政策企业家、自然资源禀赋的内部推动及政策网络中纵向环境与横向经验的外部形塑。③生态产品价值实现地方经验的上升表现为螺旋上升机制,正式科层制度与半结构化制度捷径是内嵌于这一机制的两大核心架构。【结论】基于此,在未来生态产品价值实现地方经验的创新扩散中应充分发挥政策企业家作用,因地制宜把握并创造政策网络中横向、纵向交流机会,并争取正式科层制的支撑,从而实现降低改革成本,推动生态文明建设的目标。     

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).     

Some determinants of cost distributions in the process of technological innovation

Industrial research and development (R&D) is a set of activities within the broader set of decisions and activities: the process of technological innovation (TI). It is technology transfer (commercialization of the innovation) that leads to technology diffusion that permits production and employment expansion and hence economic growth — an important goal of industrial policy. Firms' managements and government policy- makers should recognize the close relationships among the phases of TI and direct their policy, planning, budgeting and control decisions to the complete process. Many policies currently focus their attention to only one or a few points (such as R&D).In this study we conducted a detailed cost analysis of a limited number of innovation projects and studied the distributions of TI cost over the process phases. We find that almost half of TI costs are devoted to R&D, which implies that government support of this phase is important. Different cost patterns emerge when we classify innovations by industrial sectors, firms' sizes and project complexity. Complex innovations require larger and more variable (risky) R&D budgets. Smaller firms need more assistance in technology transfer. These are only a few important policy implications. This study emphasizes the importance of post-R&D phases and concludes that differential industrial policy may be required for technological innovations.     

Environmental innovations in services: Manufacturing–services integration and policy transmissions

This paper investigates the relevant factors behind the almost unexplored realm of environmental innovation in services, using a dataset of 8161 Italian service firms. Specifically, we test whether manufacturing-services integration matters for environmental innovations. In addition, taking account for the heterogeneity of the service industries, we analyse whether environmental policies for manufacturing transmit ‘induced innovation’ effects to services. Our findings show that: (i) the drivers of environmental innovations related to carbon abatement and energy efficiency differ across industries, and (ii) cooperation, training, environmental management systems and public funding play key roles in these processes. The integration of services and manufacturing through push and pull-effects, and the environmental policy transmission effect from manufacturing to services, generally do not seem to have a positive impact on the diffusion of environmental innovations.     

Science,technology and innovation policies in small and developing economies: The case of Central America

In the last decade, there has been an increasing recognition among Central American policy makers of the central importance of science, technology and innovation (STI) for inclusive and sustainable economic growth, based on higher productivity. This paper aims to study current STI policies in those countries and explore whether this increasing acknowledgement has come along with new and more active policies. Empirical evidence collected through questionnaire-based interviews with high-level government officials in each country shows that Central American governments have built public organisations and institutions to support STI, such as laws, national plans and a wide variety of policy instruments. Yet available science and technology indicators illustrate that the results are still meagre. This paper identifies eight barriers faced by these governments when designing and implementing STI policies.     

Policies to promote user innovation: Makerspaces and clinician innovation in Swedish hospitals

As it becomes apparent that users are an important source in innovation in society and in organizations, scholars are realizing that user-directed innovation policy might contribute to improving social welfare. How such policy might be designed, however, is uncertain, as are the costs and benefits of such policies. It is also not clear whether there is a problem for user-directed policy to solve, or what that problem is.As a first empirical step to answering these questions, we report the results of providing hospital clinicians with access to ‘makerspaces’, i.e. staffed facilities with prototyping tools and the expertise in using them.Findings suggest that almost all innovations developed in the makerspaces are user innovations; that the potential returns from the innovations developed in the makerspaces’ first year of operation are more than tenfold the required investment; and that most of the innovations would not have been developed without access to makerspaces. Due to lack of diffusion, only a limited share of potential returns is realized.This suggests not only that there are problems of non-development and under-development that policy can solve and that doing so supports social welfare. It also suggests makerspaces as an effective form of user-supporting innovation policy.     

Users as innovators in developing countries: The global sources of innovation and diffusion in mobile banking services

This paper examines the extent to which users in developing countries innovate, the factors that enable these innovations and whether they are meaningful on a global stage. To study this issue, we conducted an empirical investigation into the origin and types of innovations in financial services offered via mobile phones, a global, multi-billion-dollar industry in which developing economies play an important role. We used the complete list of mobile financial services, as reported by the GSM Association, and collected detailed histories of the development of the services and their innovation process. Our analysis, the first of its kind, shows that 85% of the innovations in this field originated in developing countries. We also conclude that, at least 50% of all mobile financial services were pioneered by users, approximately 45% by producers, and the remaining were jointly developed by users and producers. The main factors contributing to these innovations to occur in developing countries are the high levels of need, the existence of flexible platforms, in combination with increased access to information and communication technology. Additionally, services developed by users diffused at more than double the rate of producer-innovations. Finally, we observe that three-quarters of the innovations that originated in non-OECD countries have already diffused to OECD countries, and that the (user) innovations are therefore globally meaningful. This study suggests that the traditional North-to-South diffusion framework fails to explain these new sources of innovation and may require re-examination.     

国外反垄断与竞争政策的演进及对我国的启示

随着经济全球化发展和技术创新日益加快,各国和经济体的反垄断法与竞争政策也在发展变化。深入探索这些变化,对我国反垄断法和竞争政策体系的构建、发展和完善,具有重要作用。     

经济全球化中西方国家技术政策新动向

本文从理论和经验两方面概括性地介绍了西方经济学者关于经济全球化条件下国家技术政策的研究 ,揭示了西方国家技术政策的演进趋势。     

Resolving the patents paradox in the era of COVID-19 and climate change: Towards a patents taxonomy

This paper revisits the patents debate and considers the role of intellectual property rights and their impact on society in the context of inventions designed to protect global common pool resources (CPRs) such as public health and the environment. A review of the theoretical and empirical literature suggests that there has never been a clear consensus among researchers on the benefits of the patent system and intellectual property rights. As Robinson notes, “The patent system introduces some of the greatest of the complexities in the capitalist rules of the game and leads to many anomalies.” We explore these anomalies by specifying a taxonomy of patents for different classes of inventions, including inventions to protect CPRs. This includes vaccines and inventions that reduce externalities, such as, CFC gases and greenhouse gas emissions. In these instances, the effectiveness of innovations depends critically on rapid global diffusion. Our theoretical analysis utilises Ostrom's CPR dilemma to analyse the complexities surrounding innovation and CPRs.We find that the effectiveness of innovations to protect CPRs depends on industrial characteristics and the wider regulatory environment. Empirical evidence is brought to bear on these conclusions via 2 case studies that each embodies a natural experiment; one on vaccines pre- and post-TRIPS and one on environmental technologies to reduce CFC gases and CO₂ emissions with and without an agreed UN Protocol. The insights gained are explored in our policy section. Our analysis suggests the need for a more nuanced approach to patent policy that is embedded in the wider context of innovation systems and takes account of the anomalies raised by CPRs. For CPR protecting innovations subject to positive network externalities, we advocate that policy should prioritise diffusion over private incentives for R&D and use alternative policies to patents to stimulate investment in R&D.     

Examining the roles of government policy on innovation

Research has shown that government policies and regulations can promote or hinder innovation. Policies and regulations that are stringent and focused can potentially stimulate significant and fundamental changes in product and process technology. However, policies and regulations can create obstacles and restrictions that sometimes pose a hindrance to innovation. Thus, while a number of innovation diffusion policies have been practiced in an incremental and ad hoc manner in many developed and developing countries, absent a set of research propositions, little empirical work has been well-positioned to investigate the effectiveness of these policies. In reviewing the existing literature on policy and innovation, it is possible to propose several research propositions regarding the role of government policy in promoting and sustaining innovation through the mediating factors, namely, the firm's willingness, capacity, and opportunity to change. In addition, the current state of the field on the theory and practice of innovation offers the opportunity to suggest propositions for investigating how government policies impact two different types of innovation, namely incremental and radical innovations. These research propositions offer implications for the policy makers and managers in general.     

环境政策、制度质量和可再生能源技术创新——基于32个国家的实证分析

可再生能源技术创新是促进能源转型和经济高质量发展的重要一环。已有研究多从国内经济因素探讨环境政策对可再生能源技术创新的影响,较少从制度层面以及开放的国际视域开展研究。本文利用1998—2016年32个国家的面板数据,运用多元回归分析方法,首先引入政策强度计量政策严格性,探索国内外环境政策对本国可再生能源技术创新的动态影响,其次选用制度质量作为制度环境优劣的度量指标,探讨制度因素对环境政策效果的调节作用。研究发现：①国内外环境政策对本国可再生能源技术创新均存在正向影响,但这种影响存在一定的时间滞后期;②国外环境政策对本国可再生能源技术创新的影响早于国内环境政策,国外环境政策的“政策溢出”效应存在;③制度质量正向调节国内环境政策对本国可再生能源技术创新的影响,制度质量的提高能够增强环境政策的创新激励效应。研究结论可为中国进一步优化环境政策体系、推动可再生能源发展提供科学依据。     

我国环境政策的困境分析与改革趋势

环境问题已经成为当今世界面临的共同问题,制约着经济社会发展、威胁着人类的生存,许多国家纷纷采取各种手段治理环境污染。其中,环境税作为环境保护手段之一已被越来越多的国家所采用。虽然我国已经在税收政策中涉及到几个方面的环境税收政策,但我国现有的环境税收政策暴露出的种种弊端说明目前的环境税收政策没有很好地,有效地发挥环保作用。这就要求政府相关部门尽快改革原有的环境税收制度．制定新的符合国情的环境税收政策以促进环保事业的发展。     

The intra-firm diffusion of complementary innovations: Evidence from the adoption of management practices by British establishments

This paper presents a simple profitability-based decision model to show how synergistic gains generated by the joint adoption of complementary innovations may influence the firm's adoption decision. For this purpose a weighted index of intra-firm diffusion is built to investigate empirically the drivers of the intensity of joint use of a set of complementary innovations. The findings indicate that establishment size, ownership structure and product market concentration are important determinants of the intensity of use. Interestingly, the factors that affect the extent of use of technological innovations do also affect that of clusters of management practices. However, they can explain only part of the heterogeneity of the benefits from joint use.     

技术体制对FDI溢出效应的影响:基于中国制造业的计量分析

本文从技术体制这个新的视角,分析了影响FDI行业内溢出效应以及FDI技术扩散的因素。基于对我国28个制造行业1999年到2002年面板数据的计量统计分析,得到结论:对于FDI总的溢出效应,行业技术机会越少、知识基础越倾向于应用科学、行业的技术轨道流动性越弱,FDI溢出效应越容易发挥;当地企业的吸收能力对FDI溢出具有明显的促进作用;创新独占性和外部知识可获得性对FDI溢出效应的影响在本文的统计结果中并不显著。而技术体制对FDI技术扩散的作用则略有不同:技术机会、创新独占性和技术轨道流动性的反向作用在统计结果中十分显著,其他技术体制因素对FDI技术扩散的影响在本文的统计分析中没有得到体现。这一结论对我国的引资和我国本土企业的技术追赶具有重要意义。