|
on Economics of Strategic Management |
|
Issue of 2010‒01‒23
fifteen papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Marco Bettiol (University of Padova); Maria Chiarvesio (University of Udine); Stefano Micelli (University of Venice) |
| Abstract: | The concept of upgrading plays an important role within the global value chain (GVC) theoretical framework (Gereffi et al. 2005). The globalization of supply chains and the presence in the market of low cost producers coming from emergent economies pose serious threats for business that based their competitive advantages on efficiency and manufacturing. Although the literature gathered important results in highlighting the economic impact of upgrading, little research has been done on how design is used as a strategic tool for product innovation within the firm (Ravasi and Lojacono 2005) and how it improves the capability of the firm to upgrade within global value chain. This paper aims at shedding light on the evolution of the role of design in the firm's strategy and value creation. We decide to focus our research on Italian Small and Medium firms (SMEs), with a special interest on those coming from Italian Industrial Districts. The aim of this paper is twofold: a) to study how design is evolving within leading firms and which are the implications of this changes in terms of knowledge creation and sharing, b) to analyse and investigate the relation between design and company's performance. To this end, the authors have assessed the data collected by TeDIS survey, which for over a decade has studied the evolution of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises. The results highlight two particularly significant issues: a) medium-sized companies have a clearer design strategy than in the past and there is a gradual convergence between innovation models based on technology and those based on aesthetics; b) the capacity to invest in a more structured design function enables companies to achieve positive results in terms of both growth and of income generation within global value chains. |
| Keywords: | Upgrading, Global Value Chain, Industrial Design, Industrial Districts, Small and Medium Firms, Italy |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0108&r=cse |
| By: | EL ELJ, Moez |
| Abstract: | In the context of economic globalization and of the internationalization of R&D activity, innovation is becoming one of the most important assets for corporations in developed and emerging countries as well. The aim of this research is to analyze the main determinants of technological innovation of Tunisian firms on the basis of the innovation survey conducted by Tunisian Ministry of Scientific Research, Technology and Skills Development in 2005. Precisely, we analyze the effects of the external technological factors and In house R&D effort variables on innovation performances of Tunisian firms. We, then attempt to explore these relationships and see if they are affected by other moderator variables linked to exportation intensity and foreign capital share. In our estimation, we utilize the binomial logit model. Our preliminary results show that R&D activity is not the only explanatory factor of the innovation. In addition, Tunisian firms with high export ratio as well as firms with significant foreign capital participation are found to be not innovating since they depend primarily on the innovations conducted abroad. |
| Keywords: | Technological Innovation; Technological opportunities; R&D in Developing Countries; Logit Regression with Interactive variables |
| JEL: | O55 O33 O31 C25 |
| Date: | 2009–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18128&r=cse |
| By: | Wan-Hsin LIU |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether knowledge transferred from different sources matter differently for carrying out different innovation outcomes, using a firm-level dataset collected in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in China. It also investigates whether companies in the PRD in China tend to innovate in a similar way as companies in the Asian Newly Industrialised Economies (NIEs) did decades ago. Our estimation results suggest that companies in the PRD, as companies in the Asian NIEs, strongly rely on sourcing from their OEM customers but not on own R&D activities to implement innovative processes to increase production efficiency. In contrast, they engage in own R&D activities in order to develop innovative products, to realise higher innovation sales and to create new knowledge qualified for patenting. In addition to own R&D activities, they rely on sourcing knowledge from different sets of sources to support them to carry out the last three types of innovation outcomes |
| Keywords: | innovation, knowledge transfer, knowledge production function, flying geese model, China |
| JEL: | O1 O3 R1 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1578&r=cse |
| By: | Danguy, Jérôme (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management); de Rassenfosse, Gaétan (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management); van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | This paper re-visits the empirical failure to establish a clear link between R&D efforts and patent counts at the industry level. It is claimed that the “propensity-to-patent” concept should be split into an “appropriability propensity” and a “strategic propensity”. The empirical contribution is based on a unique panel dataset composed of 18 industries in 19 countries over 19 years. The results confirm that the R&D-patent relationship is affected by research productivity, appropriability propensity and strategic propensity factors. The observed increase in the propensity to file for patents is much stronger for supranational (that is, triadic or regional) patents than for priority filings, suggesting that the current patent hype is essentially the result of a globalization phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | Propensity to patent; strategic propensity; appropriability; research productivity |
| JEL: | O34 O38 P14 |
| Date: | 2010–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:eibpap:2009_007&r=cse |
| By: | Scopelliti, Alessandro Diego |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the relationship between competition and economic growth, in the theoretical framework described by endogenous growth models, but with a specific interest in the policy implications. In this perspective, the key issue in the debate can be presented as follows: do competition policies always create the best conditions for promoting innovation and growth? Or do they also produce some disincentives for the investment decisions in R&D, such to limit the development of industries with higher innovation? In order to answer these questions, the paper presents a survey of the theoretical literature on competition and growth and it discusses the main models of endogenous growth, both the ones based on horizontal innovation, such as Romer (1990) or Rivera-Batiz and Romer (1991), and the ones based on vertical innovation, like Aghion and Howitt (1992) or Aghion, Dewatripont and Rey (1997). In particular, specific attention is paid to the most recent models of Schumpeterian growth, which show the existence of a non-linear relationship between competition and growth, by considering either the initial degree of competition (Aghion, Blundell, Bloom, Griffith and Howitt, 2005) or the distance from the technological frontier. (Acemoglu, Aghion and Zilibotti, 2006). Finally, the review of the previous models of endogenous growth allows to draw some conclusions about further and possible developments of research on the relation between product market competition and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | expanding product varieties; increasing product quality; incentives for innovation; creative destruction; escape-competition effect; distance to frontier |
| JEL: | O41 O34 O33 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20079&r=cse |
| By: | Björn Bartling (University of Zurich); Ernst Fehr (University of Zurich); Klaus M. Schmidt (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | In recent decades, many firms offered more discretion to their employees, often increasing the productivity of effort but also leaving more opportunities for shirking. These “high-performance work systems” are difficult to understand in terms of standard moral hazard models. We show experimentally that complementarities between high effort discretion, rent-sharing, screening opportunities, and competition are important driving forces behind these new forms of work organization. We document in particular the endogenous emergence of two fundamentally distinct types of employment strategies. Employers either implement a control strategy, which consists of low effort discretion and little or no rent-sharing, or they implement a trust strategy, which stipulates high effort discretion and substantial rent-sharing. If employers cannot screen employees, the control strategy prevails, while the possibility of screening renders the trust strategy profitable. The introduction of competition substantially fosters the trust strategy, reduces market segmentation, and leads to large welfare gains for both employers and employees. |
| Keywords: | job design, high-performance work systems, screening, reputation, competition, trust, control, social preferences, complementarities |
| JEL: | C91 D86 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:297&r=cse |
| By: | Aurora A.C. Teixeira (CEF.UP, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto; INESC Porto); José Miguel Silva (MIETE, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | A literature survey covers the state-of-the-art of a certain investigation field and is a critical evaluation that can help define new research and facilitate the understanding of the area by new researchers of that scientific field. Although there are already some excellent attempts to provide a survey in the Economics and Management of Innovation area, these are in general qualitative. Using bibliometric tools, which help to explore, organize and analyze large amounts of information, we characterize, in a quantitative way, the published literature in innovation area. Based on the 1047 abstracts of the articles published between 1974 and 2007 in the innovation area’s ‘seed journal’ we observed that the themes that have grown the most in recent years were “Open innovation, Copyrights, Intellectual Property Rights, Open Software”, “University-Industry Relations and Transfer of Technology and Knowledge”, and “Entrepreneurship, Incubation, Spin-offs and Entrepreneurial Universities”. In contrast, themes such as “Learning and Experimentation, Troubleshooting”, “Development of new Products, Processes, Markets, Organizational”, “Cooperation in R&D+I”, “Multinational/International trade in the process of innovation”, and “Management Policy of Science and Technology “, noted a marked decline. |
| Keywords: | Survey; Innovation; Bibliometrics |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:355&r=cse |
| By: | Louise Curran; Soledad Zignago |
| Abstract: | After a long period of domination by the industrialised countries of the North, international trade is today driven by the dynamism of developing countries. This work seeks to analyse how the EU is performing in the light of this emerging competitive threat, by comparing the EU’s export performance on the world market with that of its key competitors between 1995 and 2004. The figures show that the EU has performed particularly well in the more upmarket, expensive and high tech levels of the market. Most notably, Europe is the market leader in up-market products, with almost 31% of the world market in 2004 (versus 20% of the market for all goods). In addition, there is evidence that the EU’s recent enlargement has helped it to maintain a strong performance, thanks to an increasing division of labour within the region. The new member states have become important suppliers of intermediate goods to key EU producers, and in particular German firms, thus becoming increasingly vital to EU competitiveness. |
| Keywords: | EU; competitiveness; market shares; export prices |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2009-11&r=cse |
| By: | Igor Sloev (Humboldt University Berlin) |
| Abstract: | The paper explores incentives for strategic vertical separation of firms in a framework of a simple duopoly model. Each firm chooses either to be a retailer of its own good (vertical integration) or to sell its good through an independent exclusive retailer (vertical separation). In the latter case a two-part tariff is applied. Retailers compete in quantities, goods are perfect substitutes and firms' cost functions are quadratic. I show that the equilibrium outcome crucially depends on the degree of (dis)economies of scale and asymmetry of costs. Two asymmetric equilibria arise, in which one firm separates while another integrates, under conditions that both firms' cost functions exhibit a sufficiently high diseconomies of scale, or extreme asymmetry of costs. Under a moderate asymmetry of costs a unique equilibrium exists in which the firm with the lower degree of diseconomies of scale separates, while its rival integrates. With the degree of diseconomies of scale low for both firms in the unique equilibrium both firms separate. |
| Keywords: | Vertical oligopoly; Vertical Separation; Vertical Integration, Delegation |
| JEL: | L22 L42 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:296&r=cse |
| By: | Gabor Bekes; Jorn Kleinert; Farid Toubal |
| Abstract: | Technological and informational spillovers from multinational firms can be particularly beneficial to domestic firms especially in less developed economies. The technological superiority and management experience of foreign multinational firms yield various opportunities for learning. Yet, the importance of foreign firm’s spillovers might vary with respect to the different intensities of the linkage between the multinational and the domestic firm, the differences in firms’ absorptive capacity and their ability to face competition. We show using firm-level Hungarian data that positive spillovers from multinationals depend on the level of productivity and the exporting status of the domestic firm. Larger and more productive firms are more able to reap spillovers from multinationals than smaller and less productive firms. The export status, in contrast, is of minor importance. |
| Keywords: | FDI; multinationals; productivity; spillover; quantile regression |
| JEL: | F23 D21 D24 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2009-31&r=cse |
| By: | Chen , Taotao (School of Economics and Management); Kokko, Ari (China Economic Research Center); Gustavsson Tingvall, Patrik (China Economic Research Center) |
| Abstract: | Using a fixed effect variance decomposition model, we estimate SUR models to analyze FDI spillovers from contagion and spillovers from competition on local firms in China. While the former type of spillover mainly depends on the degree of foreign presence in the local industry, the latter kind is related to how foreign and local firms interact. The main conclusion is that FDI has been beneficial for the Chinese economy, but that spillovers are not evenly distributed across firms and industries. Spillovers from contagion tend to exhibit an inverse U-shaped pattern with respect to the degree of foreign presence at the industry level, whereas spillovers from competition exhibit a more linear pattern with respect to the level of technological sophistication in foreign firms. Industries with high absorptive capacity and/or high efficiency are the ones best equipped to take advantage of spillovers from foreign-owned firms. Moreover, there are signs of substantial competition between foreign-owned firms: an increase in the foreign capital share in an industry seems to have a stronger effect on incumbent foreign-owned firms than on domestic firms. |
| Keywords: | Spillovers; China; FDI; Fixed effect variance decomposition |
| JEL: | C33 F21 F23 O53 |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hacerc:2010-012&r=cse |
| By: | Pedro Rui Mazeda Gil (CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Paulo Brito (Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão and UECE, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa); Óscar Afonso (CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a tournament model of horizontal and vertical R&D under a lab-equipment specification. A key feature is that the overall growth rate is endogenous, as the splitting of the growth rate between the intensive and the extensive margin is itself endogenous. This setup gives rise to strong inter-R&D composition effects, while making economic growth and firm dynamics closely related, both along the balanced-growth path and transition. The model hence offers a (qualitative) explanation for the negative or insignificant empirical correlation between aggregate R&D intensity and both firm size and economic growth, a well-known puzzle in the growth literature. |
| Keywords: | endogenous growth, vertical and horizontal R&D, firm dynamics, transitional dynamics |
| JEL: | O41 D43 L16 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:356&r=cse |
| By: | José Miguel Silva (MIETE, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto); Aurora A.C. Teixeira (CEF.UP, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto; INESC Porto) |
| Abstract: | Last decades observed a considerable increase of literature devoted to innovation-related studies. This area is characterized by fruitful interdisciplinary and there is not a single discipline that embraces all aspects of innovation. From the analysis of nearly 60.000 references, included in the 1442 articles published in the area’ seed journal, we concluded that the Economics and Management of Innovation discipline presents a lower degree of autonomy as its dependency upon broader and core scientific areas such as Economics is rather high - about a third of the references were made to articles published in top (mainstream) journals of Economics. Nevertheless, the apparent large dependency on the mainstream, the most influential authors are associated with heterodox approaches, namely the evolutionary approach (e.g., Richard R. Nelson) and the European approach to innovation (e.g., Keith Pavitt and Chris Freeman). |
| Keywords: | State-of-the-art; Innovation; Bibliometrics |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:354&r=cse |
| By: | Giuseppe Arbia; Michele Battisti; Gianfranco Di Vaio |
| Abstract: | This article provides an empirical assessment of the growth experiences of European regions, during the period 1991-2004, by taking into account the spatial effects due to both institutions and geography. These effects have been modeled by means of specific controls and by using a non-conventional spatial weight matrix. Results favour a model dealing with substantive spatial externalities. Within this framework, the country-specific institutions are strongly and positively related to the regional productivity’s growth rate. In addition, the geo-institutional proximity increases the spatial dependence of the regional output per worker and raises the speed of convergence. By contrast, the pure geographical metrics is underperforming, while underestimating the convergence dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Regional growth, income convergence, institutions, geography, spatial effects. |
| JEL: | C21 O40 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pia:wpaper:72/2009&r=cse |
| By: | Pamina Koenig; Florian Mayneris; Sandra Poncet |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the presence of local export spillovers on both the extensive (the decision to start exporting) and the intensive (the export volume) margins of trade, using data on French individual export flows, at the product-level and by destination country, between 1998 and 2003. We investigate whether the individual decision to start exporting and exported volume are influenced by the presence of nearby product and/or destination specific exporters, using a gravity-type equation estimated at the firmlevel. Spillovers are considered at a fine geographical level corresponding to employment areas (348 in France). We control for the new economic geography-type selection of firms into agglomerated areas, and for the local price effects of firms agglomeration. Results show evidence of the presence of export spillovers on the export decision but not on the exported volume. We interpret this as a first evidence of export spillovers acting through the fixed rather than the variable cost. Spillovers on the decision to start exporting are stronger when specific, by product and destination, and are not significant when considered on all products-all destinations. Moreover, export spillovers exhibit a spatial decay within France: the effect of other exporting firms on the export decision is stronger within employment areas and declines with distance. |
| Keywords: | Firm-level export data; product and destination specific spillovers; agglomeration |
| JEL: | F1 R12 L25 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2009-18&r=cse |