nep-cse New Economics Papers
on Economics of Strategic Management
Issue of 2017‒10‒22
sixteen papers chosen by
João José de Matos Ferreira
Universidade da Beira Interior

  1. Cooperating with Universities and R&D Organizations: Mainstream Practice or Peculiarity? By Roud Vitaliy; Valeriya Vlasova
  2. Firms' Innovation Strategy under the Shadow of Analyst Coverage By Bing Guo; David Pérez-Castrillo; Anna Toldrà -Simats
  3. Sources of Knowledge Used by Entrepreneurial Firms in the European High-Tech Sector By Sara Amoroso; David B. Audretsch; Albert N. Link
  4. Firm-level Human Capital and Innovation: Evidence from China By Xiuli Sun; Haizheng Li; Vivek Ghosal
  5. Intramural and external R&D: Evidence for complementary or substitutability By Dolores Añón Higón; Juan A. Mañez; Juan A. Sanchis
  6. The Impact of Ethnic Communities on Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Sweden By Tavassoli, Sam; Trippl, Michaela
  7. Heterogeneity in the Internationalization of R&D: Implications for anomalies in finance and macroeconomics By Grüning, Patrick
  8. Impact of human capital on opportunity entrepreneurship in Colombia, Chile and Ecuador By Geovanny Castro Aristizabal; Luis Eduardo Giron Cruz; Daniel Soto Cuadros
  9. Entry Barriers and Technological Innovation in Broadband By Tedi Skiti
  10. Where Are Migrants from? Inter- vs. Intra-Provincial Rural-Urban Migration in China By Su, Yaqin; Tesfazion, Petros; Zhao, Zhong
  11. Evolution of EU corporate R&D in the global economy: intensity gap, sectors' dynamics, specialisation and growth By Pietro Moncada Paternò Castello
  12. European R&D networks: A snapshot from the 7th EU Framework Programme By Sara Amoroso; Alex Coad; Nicola Grassano
  13. What Drives Spatial Clusters of Entrepreneurship in China? Evidence from Economic Census Data By Zheng, Liang; Zhao, Zhong
  14. Global value chains, national innovation systems and economic development By Jan Fagerberg; Bengt-Åke Lundvall; Martin Srholec
  15. Effects of Top Management Team Characteristics on Corporate Charitable Activities: Evidence from the Board for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in China By Xin Huang; Koichi Nakagawa; Jie Li
  16. Measuring the gradualist approach to internationalization By M\'onica Clavel; Jes\'us Arteaga-Ortiz; Rub\'en Fern\'andez-Ortiz; Pablo Dorta-Gonz\'alez

  1. By: Roud Vitaliy (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Valeriya Vlasova (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper develops an integrated framework to examine the determinants of industry-science cooperation in the general process of developing innovation. Based on the literature review and using firm-level data on innovation strategies of 805 manufacturing enterprises in Russia we investigate what are the incentives to firms (1) to cooperate with universities and R&D organizations and (2) to choose a particular mode of interaction that ranges from purchasing S&T services to a full scale original R&D aimed at creating new-to-market innovation. We suggest that a broad range of intramural and external determinants, including competition regime, absorptive capacity, technological opportunities, appropriability conditions, public support, as well as barriers to the practical application of R&D results influence the firm’s decision on cooperation with knowledge producers. The findings indicate that the scale of industry-science linkages in Russian manufacturing is limited and generally hampered by low propensity of business to the R&D-based innovation strategies
    Keywords: Science-industry cooperation; Innovation strategy; Firm-level; Manufacturing; Russia
    JEL: D22 D83 L2 O31
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:75sti2017&r=cse
  2. By: Bing Guo; David Pérez-Castrillo; Anna Toldrà -Simats
    Abstract: We study the effect of analyst coverage on firms’ innovation strategy and outcome. By considering three different channels that allow firms to innovate: internal R&D, acquisitions of other innovative firms, and investments in corporate venture capital (CVC), we are able to distinguish between the pressure and information effect of analysts. Using the data of US firms from 1990 to 2012, we find evidence that: i) an increase in financial analysts leads firms to cut R&D expenses, and ii) more analyst coverage leads firms to acquire more innovative firms and invest in CVC. We attribute the first result to the effect of analyst pressure, and the second to the informational role of analysts. In line with the previous literature, we also find that analyst coverage has a negative effect on firms’ future patents and citations; however, this negative effect becomes not significant when firms’ in-house R&D spending and external innovation channels are taken into account. We find that more financial analysts encourage firms to make more efficient investments related to innovation, which increase their future patents and citations. We address endogeneity with an instrumental variables approach and a difference-in-differences strategy where exogenous variation in analyst coverage comes from brokerage house mergers.
    Keywords: financial analysts, innovation, corporate venture capital, acquisition
    JEL: G34 G24 O31
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6574&r=cse
  3. By: Sara Amoroso (European Commission - JRC); David B. Audretsch (Indiana University); Albert N. Link (Bryan School of Business and Economics University of North Carolina-Greensboro)
    Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between an entrepreneur’s experience and education and his/her reliance on alternative sources of knowledge for exploring new business opportunities. The extant literature that is at the crossroads between sources of knowledge and the experiential and intellectual base of an entrepreneur (i.e., dimensions of his/her human capital) suggests that it is through experience and through education that an entrepreneur obtains knowledge. Using information on a sample of high-tech manufacturing firms across 10 European countries, we explore heterogeneities in the influence of experience, age, and education of the firm’s primary founder on the perceived importance of (i.e., use of) alternative sources of knowledge. We find that the association of these characteristics differs significantly across sources of knowledge, and across European regions. Education is positively related to the importance of knowledge from research institutes and internal know-how, while age is negatively related to the importance of research institutes and positively related to publications and conferences. On the one hand, in South/East European countries, the importance of internal know-how is positively associated with age and education, but negatively associated with experience. On the other hand, the characteristics of primary founders of North/West European firms are more linked to the importance of the participation to funded research programmes. This source of knowledge is related positively with age and education and negatively with experience.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Knowledge; Experience; Education; Human Capital
    JEL: L26 J24 D83
    Date: 2017–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201703&r=cse
  4. By: Xiuli Sun; Haizheng Li; Vivek Ghosal
    Abstract: Understanding the factors that may produce a sustained rate of innovation is important for promoting economic development and growth. In this paper, we examine the role of human capital in firms’ innovation by using a large sample of manufacturing firms from China. We use two firm-level datasets from China: one from metropolitan cities, and one from provincial small and medium sized cities. Patent applications are used as the measure of innovation. Human capital indicators used include skilled human capital (number of highly educated workers), general manager’s education and tenure, and management team’s education and age. We find that skilled human capital has a significant positive effect on firms’ innovation, while the management team’s age has a significant negative effect on innovation. The General Manager’s tenure plays a significant positive role in firm innovation in metropolitan cities, while it is the General Manager’s education that has a positive and significant effect on firms’ innovation in small and middle cities. We also find that the effect of R&D on patents is insignificant for firms in large cities, but it is positive and significant in the smaller and medium sized cities. We conclude by noting some policy issues for promoting innovation in developing economies.
    Keywords: human capital, education, innovation, patents, R&D, economic development, Asia, China
    JEL: J24 I25 D21 D22 L13 O32 O33
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6370&r=cse
  5. By: Dolores Añón Higón (Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia (Spain).); Juan A. Mañez (Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia (Spain).); Juan A. Sanchis (Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia (Spain).)
    Abstract: The aim of this study is to ascertain the impact of two firm innovation strategies – namely, intramural R&D and external R&D, including either contracted R&D and import of technology, upon total factor productivity (TFP). In order to evaluate these effects we consider robust estimates of TFP through a GMM approach where we account for the diverse innovation strategies carried out by firms (intramural only, external only or both). Using data for Spanish manufacturing firms drawn from the Encuesta de Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE), over the period 1991-2014, our results suggest that inhouse R&D and external R&D are complementary strategies only for large fims in high tech sectors. For the rest of firms, both strategies turn out to be substitutive.
    Keywords: intramural R&D, external R&D, complementarity, substitutability, TFP
    Date: 2017–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eec:wpaper:1706&r=cse
  6. By: Tavassoli, Sam (RMIT University); Trippl, Michaela (University of Vienna)
    Abstract: This paper seeks to provide novel insights into the effects of ethnic communities on immigrants’ entrepreneurial activities. We investigate to what extent the decision of an employed immigrant to become an entrepreneur is associated with his or her embeddedness in ethnic networks in the host region. We capture such embeddedness through various mechanisms. Using longitudinal registered-data from Sweden and employing a Logit model, we find that merely being located in an ethnic community does not have an influence on immigrant entrepreneurship; rather what matters is being located in ethnic communities that have a high share of entrepreneurs themselves.
    Keywords: Immigrants; entrepreneurship; ethnic communities; embeddedness; social capital
    JEL: D83 J61 M13
    Date: 2017–10–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2017_017&r=cse
  7. By: Grüning, Patrick
    Abstract: Empirical evidence suggests that investments in research and development (R&D) by older and larger firms are more spread out internationally than R&D investments by younger and smaller firms. In this paper, I explore the quantitative implications of this type of heterogeneity by assuming that incumbents, i.e. current monopolists engaging in incremental innovation, have a higher degree of internationalization in their R&D technologies than entrants, i.e. new firms engaging in radical innovation, in a two-country endogenous growth general equilibrium model. In particular, this assumption allows the model to break the perfect correlation between incumbents' and entrants' innovation probabilities and to match the empirical counterpart exactly.
    Keywords: Heterogeneous innovation,Technology spillover,Endogenous growth,Creative destruction,International finance
    JEL: E22 F31 G12 O30 O41
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:185&r=cse
  8. By: Geovanny Castro Aristizabal; Luis Eduardo Giron Cruz; Daniel Soto Cuadros (Faculty of Economics and Management, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali)
    Abstract: The present study finds the main factors that influence entrepreneurship in Colombia, Chile and Ecuador, based on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor -GEM, 2014- and the Entrepreneurship Activity Rate -TEA-. For this, initially, the multivariate method of Multiple Correspondence Analysis was used. Subsequently, a binomial logit model was estimated for each of the countries. It was found that both formal and informal human capital are determinant to generate entrepreneurship by opportunity. Likewise, experience, empirical knowledge, gender and age. Finally, by including in the model the technological level of the sector (medium-high), it was estimated that Chile has a greater impact on entrepreneurship. given the current situation of diminishing tensions with the US government.
    Keywords: Cuba, Entrepreneurship opportunity, Logit models, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Human Capital, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile.
    JEL: J24 L26 Y40
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ddt:wpaper:29&r=cse
  9. By: Tedi Skiti (Fox School of Business, Temple University)
    Abstract: In this article, I present causal effects of institutional entry barriers to new firms on incumbents’ technological innovation. In particular, I investigate the effect of entry barriers to municipal providers on incumbents’ technology deployment in the U.S. broadband industry. I use a spatial regression discontinuity design for private incumbents’ investment behavior and different entry regimes as sharp cutoffs for municipal entry threat. I collect and combine unique firm-level data on cable investment decisions and state-level data on legal entry barriers. I find that in markets with these entry barriers incumbents invest less in new technologies. Specifically, I find that the local entry barriers lead to a 20% lower technology adoption rate by cable incumbents because of reduced entry threat. These results imply that institutions that restrict entry of new firms can lead to significantly decreased technological innovation and lower internet quality across local markets, not only by deterring new firms but also by altering incumbents’ strategic investment in broadband networks.
    Keywords: Innovation, Entry Barriers, Broadband, Municipal, Spatial Discontinuity
    Date: 2017–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1711&r=cse
  10. By: Su, Yaqin (Hunan University); Tesfazion, Petros (Central College); Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China)
    Abstract: Using a representative sample of rural migrants in cities, this paper investigates where the migrants in urban China come from, paying close attention to intra-provincial vs. inter-provincial migrants, and examining the differences in their personal attributes. We find that migrants who have come within the province differ significantly from those who have come from outside of the province. Using a nested logit model, we find that overall, higher wage differentials, larger population size, higher GDP per capita, and faster employment growth rate are the attributes of a city that attract migrants from both within and outside province. In addition, moving beyond one's home province has a strong deterrent effect on migration, analogous to the "border effect" identified in international migration studies. We also explore the role of culture, institutional barrier, and dialect in explaining such a pronounced "border effect".
    Keywords: rural-urban migration, inter- vs. intra-provincial migration, border effect, China
    JEL: J62 O15
    Date: 2017–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11029&r=cse
  11. By: Pietro Moncada Paternò Castello
    Abstract: The Thesis is composed by three complementary research investigations on the economic and policy aspects of EU corporate R&D.Collectively, the work first reviews the theoretical and empirical literature of corporate R&D intensity decomposition; it then investigates the EU R&D intensity and its decomposition elements comparatively with most closed competitors and with emerging economies over the period 2005-2013. Finally, it inspects further some key aspects that can be associated to the EU R&D intensity gap: sectoral dynamics and the resulting sectoral and technological specialisations as well as the drivers for R&D investment growth across sectors and firms' age groups of top R&D investing firms over time. These studies also address the possible policy implications that derive from their outcomes.The investigations rely on literature as well as on company data, mainly from nine editions (2006-2014) of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. For analytical purposes they use literature review, meta-analysis, descriptive statistics, R&D intensity decomposition computational approach, Manhattan distance and Technological Revealed Comparative Advantage metrics, and a multinominal logit regression model. The results of these three research works are novel in several aspects. It indicates that literature results on R&D intensity decomposition differ because of data and methodological heterogeneities, and that the structural cause is the main determinant of EU R&D intensity gap if sector compositions of the countries are considered. It inspects how the use of different data sources and analytical methods impact differently on R&D intensity decomposition results, and what the analytical and policy implications are.The empirical research results of this Thesis confirm the structural nature of the EU R&D intensity gap. In the last decade the gap between the EU and the USA has widened, whereas the EU gap with Japan has remained relatively stable. In contrast, the emerging countries' R&D intensity gap compared to the EU has remained relatively stable, while companies from emerging economies are considerably reducing such gap. Besides, as novel contribution to the state of the art of the literature, this Thesis uncovers the differences between EU and US by inspecting which sectors, countries and firms are more accountable for the aggregate R&D intensity performance of these two economies, and it finds a high heterogeneity of firms' R&D intensity within sectors. Furthermore, it shows that there is a bigger population of both larger and smaller US top R&D firms which invest more strongly in R&D than competitors, and that the global R&D investment is concentrated in a few firms, countries and industries. Finally, the research founds a slightly higher EU R&D shift over sectors compared to the US, but not strongly enough towards high-tech sectors. Also, the EU has an even broader technological specialisation than its already broad industrial R&D sector specialisation, while the USA leads by number of technological fields belonging mostly to the industrial R&D sectors of its specialisation. Furthermore, the EU has been better able than the USA and Japan to maintain its world share of R&D investment even during the years of economic and financial crisis. Lastly, the study also indicates that firms make a complementary use of capital expenditures and R&D intensity for their R&D investment growth strategies and it reveals that there are differences in their use between firms' age classes across sectors. Overall, the main results of the Thesis suggest that to reach a more positive R&D dynamics and boost its competitiveness, the EU should adapt its industrial structure and increase the weight of high R&D intensive sectors. A focus on creating the conditions for firm creation and growth in new-emerging innovative sectors is advised together with favouring the exploitation of the full capacity of EU leading - but mature - sectors to also absorb high-technology from other sectors.
    Keywords: Corporate R&D intensity decomposition; EU corporate R&D intensity gap; Top world R&D investors; Corporate R&D distribution; Sectors' dynamics; Sector specialisation; Technological specialisation; R&D investment growth; EU industry; EU R&D policy; Literature survey; Empirical analysis
    Date: 2017–10–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/258776&r=cse
  12. By: Sara Amoroso (European Commission - JRC); Alex Coad (CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business School, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú); Nicola Grassano (European Commission – JRC)
    Abstract: Recent empirical studies have investigated the territorial impact of Europe’s research policies, in particular the contribution of the European Framework Programmes to the integration of a European Research Area. This paper deepens the analysis on the integration and participation of peripheral regions, by focusing on the differences in intensity and determinants of inter-regional collaborations across three groups of collaborations. We consider collaborations among more developed regions, between more and less developed regions, and among less developed regions. Building on the recent spatial interaction literature, this paper investigates the effects of physical, institutional, social and technological proximity on the intensity of inter-regional research collaboration across heterogeneous European regions. We find that the impact of disparities in human capital and technological proximity on regional R&D cooperation is relevant and differs across subgroups of collaborations. Moreover, despite the efforts of integrating marginal actors, peripheral regions have lower rates of collaborations.
    Keywords: European Research Area, spatial interaction modelling, R&D collaboration, regional integration
    JEL: O38 L14 F15 R15
    Date: 2017–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201705&r=cse
  13. By: Zheng, Liang; Zhao, Zhong
    Abstract: Since Chinese government initiated economic reform in the late 1970s, entrepreneurship and private sectors have emerged gradually and played an increasingly important role in promoting economic growth. However, entrepreneurship is distributed unevenly in China. Using micro data from 2008 economic census and 2005 population census, this paper explains spatial clusters of entrepreneurship for both manufacturing and services. For both sectors, entrepreneurship (measured by new private firms) tends to emerge in places with more relevant upstream and downstream firms. Moreover, Chinitz's (1961) theories are also supported for manufacturing: small upstream and downstream firms seem to be more important for manufacturing entrepreneurship. For both sectors, entrepreneurship is positively related to city size, the share of young adults and the elderly population, and foreign direct investment. More migrants are also found to promote service entrepreneurship. Our paper is the first to consider both manufacturing and service entrepreneurship in China and should be of interest to both local and national policymakers who plan to encourage entrepreneurship.
    Keywords: New Firm Formation,Entrepreneurship,Marshallian Effect,Chinitz Effect,China
    JEL: L26 L60 L80 R10 R12
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:127&r=cse
  14. By: Jan Fagerberg (Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK), University of Oslo & Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University); Bengt-Åke Lundvall (IKE, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University); Martin Srholec (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education-Economics Institute (CERGE-EI), Charles University, Prague and Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University)
    Abstract: This paper deals with the role of global value chains (GVC) and other aspects of “openness” for economic development. To analyse the issue a comprehensive framework that allows for the inclusion of a range of relevant factors including not only different form of openness, such as GVC participation, but also technological and social capabilities, is developed. The analysis is based on evidence from 125 countries, including many developing nations, over the period 1997-2013. It is shown that economic growth reflects the strength of the national innovation system and that GVC participation is not the potent driver of economic growth that tends to be assumed.
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20171012&r=cse
  15. By: Xin Huang (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Koichi Nakagawa (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Jie Li (School of Management, Shanghai University)
    Abstract: Employing data from Chinese companies listed on the board for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the research examines the relationship between top management team (TMT) characteristics and corporate charitable activities in China. My findings confirm: 1) Firms less engaged in charitable activities are likely to have TMTs characterized by more educational specialty in science and engineering, and more functional background in output functions; 2) TMT age heterogeneity has a significant and positive effect on corporate charitable activities, while TMT educational specialty heterogeneity has a negative influence on corporate charitable activities; 3) TMT age, tenure, educational level and these heterogeneities of tenure, educational level and functional background have little or no influence on corporate charitable activities. Based on the upper echelons theory, the study can provide evidence for further research on top management teams and corporate social responsibility in an emerging economy.
    Keywords: top management team; charity; heterogeneity; corporate social responsibility; Chinese companies
    JEL: M54 M12 M14
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1730&r=cse
  16. By: M\'onica Clavel; Jes\'us Arteaga-Ortiz; Rub\'en Fern\'andez-Ortiz; Pablo Dorta-Gonz\'alez
    Abstract: The objective of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature on internationalization, in relation to the absence of objective and measurable performance indicators on the process of how firms sequentially enter external markets. To that end, this research develops a quantitative tool that can be used as a performance indicator of gradualness for firms entering external markets at a sectoral level. The performance indicator is based on firms' export volume, number of years of exporting, geographic areas targeted for export, and when exports were initiated for each area. Additionally, the indicator is tested empirically in the Spanish wine sector. The main contribution of this study is the creation of an international priority index which serves as a valuable and reliable tool because of its potential use in other industry sectors and geographic areas, allowing us to analyze how geographically differentiated internationalization strategies develop.
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1710.03526&r=cse

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