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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2011‒05‒24
eleven papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Azele Mathieu |
| Abstract: | This article reviews the literature on knowledge transfer mechanisms (KTMs) used in university-industry interactions. The literature may be articulated around four dimensions: (i) the relative importance of KTM as perceived by the involved stakeholders, (ii) the factors affecting the organisation of university-industry interactions, (iii) the interrelatedness of different KTMs and, (iv) the impact of increased university-interactions on traditional academic missions. An outstanding fact stemming from this review is that spin-offs and patents are not considered by the university and the industry as the most important KTMs. Traditional KTMs, such as publications or collaborative research however, are perceived as more significant ways of transferring knowledge. A large variety of factors influence the use of a KTM (for instance, characteristics of researchers or of the involved firms). While some trends may be outlined, not much is known so far about the interweaving of different KTMs. Consequently, no simple model of knowledge transfer between universities and the business sector is possible, and should certainly not be restricted to “new” KTMs. As regards to the risks of increased reliance of university on the business sector, I suggest that those risks could be limited under some conditions. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge transfer mechanisms; University-industry interactions; Impact on academic research |
| JEL: | L30 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/85726&r=cse |
| By: | Ejsing, Ann-Kathrine (Danish Insurance Association); Kaiser, Ulrich (University of Zurich); Kongsted, Hans Christian (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the relative contribution of mobile scientists who leave academia for the private sector on the subsequent innovative performance of the firms they join. We use data on the population of Danish firms and their R&D workers for the period 1999-2004 and measure innovation performance by the (value-adjusted) number of patent applications at the European Patent Office. We compare the efficacy of mobile former university scientists to the effects of mobile workers hired from other firms as well as immobile workers on the innovation performance of their employer. Our main result is that mobile university scientists contribute substantially more to innovation than R&D workers hired from other firms who, in turn, contribute slightly less to industrial innovation than recent university graduates. By contrast, immobile workers add little to the innovative activity of their employer. We also find that the contribution of mobile R&D workers to innovation depreciates fairly rapidly. These findings provide us with three main managerial implications: Firstly, hiring scientists from universities is a way of boosting a firm's innovative activity. Secondly, because hires from academia receive lower wages on average than hires from private sector firms, this implies that hiring R&D workers from academia may be a cost-effective way of improving innovation performance. Thirdly, firms need to take measures in order to further public-private researcher interaction to prevent the depreciation of the knowledge stock of their employees. |
| Keywords: | labor mobility, technology transfer, innovation, patents |
| JEL: | O33 O34 C23 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5691&r=cse |
| By: | Katchova, Ani L.; Woods, Timothy A. |
| Abstract: | This study examines the role that food consumer cooperatives play in the local food networks. Data are collected from three case studies with leading food cooperatives and a national survey of the general managers of food cooperatives. We identify the emerging business practices in local sourcing as a differentiation and member recruitment strategy for food cooperatives. Our analysis identifies several clusters of strategies used for local food procurement, based on the extent to which the co-op is involved in procurement activities upstream (at the farm), mid-stream (at the distribution center) or downstream (at the food cooperative). The results also show that when compared to other grocers, food co-ops have clear advantages in working with local producers and oftentimes play a key role in the producersâ business viability. |
| Keywords: | Food consumer cooperatives, local foods, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing, Q13, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103918&r=cse |
| By: | Sdiri, Hanen; Ayadi, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | Innovation is widely recognised as a key driver of economic growth and competitiveness. But, some works focus especially on analyzing the determinants and the effects of innovation while distinguishing between its various types (product innovation, process innovation, radical innovation and incremental innovation). The analysis of the determinants is certainly important, but few research efforts testing the way in which firms make the decision to innovate. Based on a sample of 108 Tunisian service firms, the purpose of the paper is to explain the way in which firms make the decision to innovate: simultaneous (one-stage model) or sequential (two-stage model). We find that the two-stage model has a statistically-significant advantage in predicting the innovation. In practice, the sequential model illustrates well the innovation making-decision procedures. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Decision making; Service sector. |
| JEL: | O32 O31 L80 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30898&r=cse |
| By: | Mueller, Elisabeth |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how companies of immigrant entrepreneurs in knowledgeintensive industries differ from companies of native entrepreneurs with respect to start-up characteristics, firm survival and innovative performance. I focus on immigrants from the 'recruitment countries' of south and southeast Europe, who arrived in Germany mainly in the 1970s to fill labor shortages. They are the largest immigrant group in Germany and can be reliably identified via ethnic name coding. Immigrant entrepreneurs are less than half as likely to found a company in a knowledge-intensive industry as native entrepreneurs. Firms owned exclusively by immigrants tend to be smaller and have higher exit rates. After controlling for resources, I found no differences in patenting activity compared to firms owned exclusively by natives. Firms in mixed immigrant/native ownership have no size disadvantage. In that group, exit rates are higher in services but not in manufacturing, and, again, there are no differences in patenting when resources are taken into account. The lower participation of immigrant entrepreneurs in knowledge-intensive industries can be explained by lower education levels, while smaller firm sizes suggest more limited access to capital. -- |
| Keywords: | immigrants,innovation,entrepreneurship,knowledge-intensive industries |
| JEL: | O32 O34 M13 J15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11030&r=cse |
| By: | Hiroyuki Okamuro; Junichi Nishimura |
| Abstract: | Despite various expected advantages, university-industry research collaboration (UIC), a relationship between two different worlds, often faces serious difficulties. Thus, the performance of UIC depends on the research partners' strategies to bridge the gaps between them according to the institutional environment. In Japan, UIC has developed rapidly since the late 1990s based on drastic institutional changes regarding universities. We pay special attention to the role of the university intellectual property (IP) policy introduced after 2003 and empirically examine its impact on the performance of UIC projects. A clear and equitable IP policy that can be applied flexibly to the needs of partners would be optimal for a UIC to be efficiently managed. Otherwise, the project might face serious conflicts of interests and low incentive for cooperation. Using a sample of Japanese firms from our original survey, we find that the IP policy of partner universities indeed has a positive and significant impact on various performances of UIC projects, controlling for firm and project characteristics and considering potential selection bias from UIC participation. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property, research collaboration, small business, Japan |
| JEL: | D23 L24 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd11-189&r=cse |
| By: | Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque (Cedeplar-UFMG); Gustavo Britto (Cedeplar-UFMG); Otávio Silva Camargo (Cedeplar-UFMG); Glenda Kruss (HSRC-SA) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to broaden the horizon as well as to shed further light on the studies of interaction between firms and universities in a global context. Its starting point is thus a review of two different strands of the literature on innovation. First, the literature on interaction by Klevorick et al (1995) and Nelson (1993), and second, the more recent literature on Global Innovation Networks (GINs) by Ernst ( 2006) and The Economist Intelligence Unit ( 2007). These strands share a common problem: each has a blind spot in relation to the core focus of the other strand. The literature on interaction does not consider the international dimension in any depth, and the GINs literature does not integrate the university dimension adequately. This paper addresses the common weakness through a combination of the two approaches, searching for interactions between firms and universities globally. In doing so, the paper also puts forward a tentative framework on global interaction between firms and universities. |
| Keywords: | interactions between firms and universities, National Innovation Systems, Global Innovation Networks. |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td419&r=cse |
| By: | Hiroyuki Okamuro; Junichi Nishimura |
| Abstract: | Contractual and organizational characteristics of university-industry research collaboration (hereafter UIC) are keys to its success. In this respect, government can play essential roles in UIC: Public subsidy for research and development (hereafter R&D) is not only an important financial support for UIC, but may also be a useful channel to promote trust along with contractual agreements and information sharing among the members, which results in effective coordination and thus the success of UIC. However, few empirical studies investigate the latter role of public R&D subsidy in UIC. Thus, using original survey data, this paper empirically examines and find that public R&D subsidy improves coordination in UIC, including trust formation, contractual agreements, and communication quality between the partners as well as commitment by the partners. |
| Keywords: | pubic subsidy, R&D, research collaboration, university, contract, trust |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd10-183&r=cse |
| By: | Wilson Suzigan (DPCT-Unicamp); Márcia Siqueira Rapini (Cedeplar-UFMG); Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | An international research on interactions between universities and firms is an opportunity to investigate this subject beyond the developed countries. This project involves 12 countries from three continents: Africa (South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda), Asia (South Korea, China, India, Thailand and Malaysia) and Latin America (Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil). This paper introduces a theoretical framework to deal with this broad set of countries, their different levels of NSI formation and their different levels of development. This framework may help public policies to understand the role of universities for a country search for an “active insertion in the international division of labor”. |
| Keywords: | interactions between firms and universities, National Innovation Systems, catch up processes. |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td420&r=cse |
| By: | Savedoff, William D. |
| Abstract: | Many different strategies have been proposed to improve the delivery of health care services, from capacity building to establishing new payment mechanisms. Recent attention has also asked whether improvements in the way health care services are governed could make a difference. These approaches ask which factors -- such as rules and institutions -- influence the behavior of the system in ways that are associated with better performance and outcomes. This paper reviews the concept of governance as it is used in the literature on private firms, public administration, international development and health. It distinguishes between indicators that measure governance determinants from those that measure governance performance in order to propose a framework that is analytically coherent and empirically useful. The framework shows how these indicators can be used to test hypotheses about which governance forms are more useful for improving health system performance. The paper concludes by proposing specific measures of governance determinants and performance and describes the instruments available to collect and interpret them. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Governance Indicators,National Governance,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Economics&Finance |
| Date: | 2011–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5655&r=cse |
| By: | Mogens Hobolth |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s the European Union has struggled to increase integration in the sovereignty sensitive areas of justice and home affairs and foreign policy. The aim of this paper is to enhance our understanding of what patterns of cooperation have been established between the member states, and why. I do so by analysing the case of short-stay visa policy. Visas are a corner stone of EU’s border control, regulating access to the Union’s area of freedom, security and justice. It is moreover an instrument used in foreign and diplomatic relations. As a field where the member states’ cooperation is particularly intense it is an ‘extreme case’ well-suited for drawing out empirical patterns and developing theoretical concepts. The paper is based on a network analytical approach and a new dataset of all the EU/Schengen member states’ mutual consular visa assistance agreements. This I use to document the extent and pattern of cooperation from 2005 to 2010. I show that the member states rely intensively on each other’s consular services. They mainly share sovereignty in four distinct regional clusters – a Nordic, Benelux, Southern European and an emerging Central Eastern. France and Germany are at the centre of the network. To explain this structure of cooperation I discuss the relative merits of realist, liberal intergovernmentalist and constructivist approaches. I show how they each identify important dynamics but emphasise the relative merits of a constructivist perspective. I put forward a new concept of ‘regional imagined communities’ which explains cooperation by the existence of shared identities owing to regional commonalities in language and state-building histories. I argue that the concept improves our understanding of European integration in visa policy, and suggest it might hold wider potential for explaining dynamics of collaboration in other sovereignty sensitive policy areas. |
| Keywords: | Regional imagined communities, Intensive transgovernmentalism, Sovereignty, Justice and home affairs, European foreign policy, Schengen, Visa, Consular cooperation |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eiq:eileqs:34&r=cse |