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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2018‒05‒07
twelve papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Livio Romano (Centro Studi Confindustria, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides first empirical evidence of the joint effects that innovation strategies and human resource management practices exert on firm growth. By exploiting unique information from a large sample of Italian manufacturing companies in the very recent years, it shows that investing in technology and implementing performance-based pay policies are both positively associated with a significant turnover, employment and labor productivity growth premium. However, their joint adoption does not necessarily sum the two effects. In particular, performance-based rewards boost growth of non-innovators and of firms pursuing relatively simple innovation strategies, centered around the acquisition of embodied technology. For firms strongly relying on R&D as an additional lever for product and process upgrading, the estimated effect of having in place monetary incentive mechanisms is null or even negative. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity, Innovation, Management Practices, Firm Growth |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201803&r=cse |
| By: | José Niño-Amézquita (Regional Center for Productivity and Innovation of Boyaca); Fedor Legotin (Ural State University of Economics); Oleg Barbakov (Tyumen Industrial University) |
| Abstract: | Our paper examines one of the key aspects of the organizational economics – the factors of economic success and sustainability of the pharmaceutical small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. Indian pharmaceutical industry is known for its high fragmentation and weak generic based R&D initiatives. The study uses inflation adjusted cross section data for 20 SMEs in the year 2013-2014 and applies OLS regression model with robust standard errors. It has found that exports, R&D expenditure, and previous year profits have exercised positive impact on SMEs' growth. The negative, yet statistically significant influence of advertising and marketing expenditure highlights the need to rethink about strategic management policies of SMEs. Our results suggest that SMEs are required to pay more attention towards the global market expansion and value creation through R&D investment, as a part of their long-term growth and survival strategy. |
| Keywords: | R&D,economic success,sustainability,pharmaceutical industry,economic growth |
| Date: | 2017–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01735846&r=cse |
| By: | Benjamin Montmartin (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques); Marcos Herrera (National University of Salta (Argentine) (CONICET)); Nadine Massard (Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)) |
| Abstract: | Based on a spatial extension of an R&D investment model, this paper measures the macroeconomic impact of the French R&D policy mix on business R&D using regional data. Our measure takes into account not only the direct effect of policies but also indirect effects generated by the existence of spatial interaction between regions. Using a unique database containing information on the levels of various R&D policy instruments received by firms in French NUTS3 regions over the period 2001-2011, our estimates of a spatial Durbin model with structural breaks and fixed effects reveal the existence of a negative spatial dependence among R&D investments in regions. In this context, while a-spatial estimates would conclude that all instruments have a crowding-in effect, we show that national subsidies are the only instrument that is able to generate significant crowding-in effects. On the contrary, it seems that the design, size and spatial allocation of funds from the other instruments (tax credits, local subsidies, European subsidies) lead them to act (in the French context) as beggar-thy-neighbor policies. |
| Keywords: | Policy mix evaluation; R&D investment; Spatial panel; French Nuts3 regions |
| JEL: | H25 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7rrsl07p559bjr85tr7hsft1o9&r=cse |
| By: | Girum Abebe; Margaret S. McMillan; Michel Serafinelli |
| Abstract: | We quantify foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers by comparing changes in total factor productivity (TFP) among domestic plants in districts that attracted a large greenfield foreign plant and districts where greenfield FDI was licensed but not yet operational. Treated and untreated districts have similar trends in TFP prior to the opening of the large greenfield foreign plant. Over the four years starting with the year of the opening, TFP of domestic plants is 8% higher in treated districts. Using an alternative identification strategy that exploits the assignment of land for FDI by the Ethiopian Government, we obtain similar results. Foreign plants also attract new economic activity to treated districts. Exposure to foreign firms enhances domestic firms’: (i) production processes; (ii) managerial and organizational practices; (iii) logistics and; (iv) knowledge about exporting. Knowledge transfer is more likely among labor or vertically linked firms but also occurs outside these channels. |
| JEL: | D24 F21 R10 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24461&r=cse |
| By: | Kun Jiang; Wolfgang Keller; Larry D. Qiu; William Ridley |
| Abstract: | This paper studies international joint ventures, where foreign direct investment is performed by a foreign and a domestic firm that together set up a new firm, the joint venture. Employing administrative data on all international joint ventures in China from 1998 to 2007—roughly a quarter of all international joint ventures in the world—we find, first, that Chinese firms chosen to be partners of foreign investors tend to be larger, more productive, and more likely subsidized than other Chinese firms. Second, there is substantial technology transfer both to the joint venture and to the Chinese joint venture partner, an external, intergenerational technology transfer effect that this paper introduces. Third, with technology spillovers typically outweighing negative competition effects, joint ventures generate on net positive externalities to other Chinese firms in the same industry. Joint venture externalities are large, perhaps twice the size of wholly-owned FDI spillovers, and it is R&D-intensive firms, including the joint ventures themselves, that benefit most from these externalities. Furthermore, the positive external joint venture effect is larger if the foreign firm is from the U.S. rather than from Japan or Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, while this effect is virtually absent in broad sectors that include economic activities for which China’s FDI policy has prohibited joint ventures. |
| JEL: | F23 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24455&r=cse |
| By: | Lee Branstetter; Britta Glennon; J. Bradford Jensen |
| Abstract: | The location of US multinational foreign R&D has shifted significantly to include emerging markets in addition to traditional Western R&D hubs, resulting in two challenges for multinationals: (1) how to transfer knowledge across geographic distances, and (2) how to facilitate learning when local knowledge sources in given technological areas are inadequate. This paper argues that to overcome these challenges, multinationals utilize home country inventors on foreign affiliate inventor teams – and in particular on teams in locations with insufficiently specialized local knowledge stocks – to facilitate knowledge transfer. Empirical analysis of a comprehensive dataset of US multinational R&D and patenting activity provides robust support for this argument. The findings have important implications for understanding how countries can gain expertise in technical areas and how poor countries can escape the knowledge trap, and they provide insight into management of increasingly dispersed multinational global R&D networks, particularly in locations with relatively unspecialized local inventors. |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O57 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24453&r=cse |
| By: | Iain M. Cockburn; Rebecca Henderson; Scott Stern |
| Abstract: | Artificial intelligence may greatly increase the efficiency of the existing economy. But it may have an even larger impact by serving as a new general-purpose “method of invention” that can reshape the nature of the innovation process and the organization of R&D. We distinguish between automation-oriented applications such as robotics and the potential for recent developments in “deep learning” to serve as a general-purpose method of invention, finding strong evidence of a “shift” in the importance of application-oriented learning research since 2009. We suggest that this is likely to lead to a significant substitution away from more routinized labor-intensive research towards research that takes advantage of the interplay between passively generated large datasets and enhanced prediction algorithms. At the same time, the potential commercial rewards from mastering this mode of research are likely to usher in a period of racing, driven by powerful incentives for individual companies to acquire and control critical large datasets and application-specific algorithms. We suggest that policies which encourage transparency and sharing of core datasets across both public and private actors may be critical tools for stimulating research productivity and innovation-oriented competition going forward. |
| JEL: | L1 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24449&r=cse |
| By: | IWAMOTO Koichi; INOUE Yusuke |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the results of a study group which I held in 2017 to look at the development of small and medium enterprises (SME) competitiveness using the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2016 and of related research. In Japan, it is rare to find complete IoT systems introduced in the production process of SMEs. The simple reason is that SME managers do not understand IoT, which can have two interpretations. The first one is the managers do not understand the complex technology. The second one is they do not understand the merits of the technology for their own companies. The study group adopted four SMEs as model cases, and fully conducted a trial and error process from the beginning of discussions to the introduction of IoT, which aims to have all SME managers consider this issue as their own matter. The discussions of the study group focused on the SMEs' production process in 2016, and focused on the production service companies in 2017. Also, some local governments will start support the introduction of IoT to SME in 2018 in the same manner. |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rpdpjp:18008&r=cse |
| By: | Viete, Steffen; Erdsiek, Daniel |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the returns to mobile information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace are contingent on granting employees autonomy over the structure of their workday through trust-based work time arrangements (TBW). Our regression analysis is based on a production function framework and exploits fine-grained firm survey data on ICT use and organisational practices for 1,045 service firms in Germany. We find empirical support for the argument that the returns to mobile ICT are higher when TBW allows for discretion over when, where and how to perform work-related tasks. The finding holds when we account for more limited forms of workplace flexibility, suggesting that the high degree of formal employee autonomy under TBW drives the complementarity between mobile ICT and organisational practices. |
| Keywords: | mobile information and communication technologies,ICT,trust-based work time,work organisation,complementarity,productivity,firm performance |
| JEL: | D22 L22 M10 O33 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:18013&r=cse |
| By: | Arouri, Hassan; Ben Youssef, Adel; Quatraro, Francesco; Vivarelli, Marco |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the growth dynamics of young small firms (in contrast with larger and older incumbents) in a developing country context, using a unique and comprehensive dataset of non-agricultural Tunisian companies. Our results suggest that significant differences between young and mature firms can be found as far as the drivers of their growth are concerned. The key finding being that - while consistently with the extant literature Gibrat’s law is overall rejected - the negative impact of the initial size is significantly larger for young than mature firms. This result has interesting policy implications: since smaller young firms are particularly conducive to employment generation, they can be considered good candidate for targeted accompanying policies addressed to sustain their post-entry growth. |
| Keywords: | firm’s growth,young firms,Gibrat’s law,Tunisia |
| JEL: | O12 L26 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:197&r=cse |
| By: | Arouri, Hassan (National Institute of Statistics, Tunisia); Ben Youssef, Adel (University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, and GREDEG-CNRS); Quatraro, Francesco (University of Torino, and Collegio Carlo Alberto); Vivarelli, Marco (UNU-MERIT, and Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the growth dynamics of young small firms (in contrast with larger and older incumbents) in a developing country context, using a unique and comprehensive dataset of non-agricultural Tunisian companies. Our results suggest that significant differences between young and mature firms can be found as far as the drivers of their growth are concerned. The key finding being that - while consistently with the extant literature Gibrat's law is overall rejected - the negative impact of the initial size is significantly larger for young than mature firms. This result has interesting policy implications: since smaller young firms are particularly conducive to employment generation, they can be considered good candidates for targeted accompanying policies addressed to sustain their post-entry growth. |
| Keywords: | firm's growth, young firms, Gibrat's law, Tunisia |
| JEL: | O12 L26 |
| Date: | 2018–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2018019&r=cse |
| By: | Joel Cariolle (FERDI - Fondation pour les Etudes et Recherches sur le Développement International); Maëlan Le Goff (Banque de France - Banque de France - Banque de France); Olivier Santoni (FERDI - Fondation pour les Etudes et Recherches sur le Développement International) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the impact of fast Internet on firm performance in developing and transition economies. Over the last three decades, international connectivity has been boosted by the laying of more than 300 submarine telecommunications cables (SMC). Almost all coastal developing and transition countries are plugged into the global Internet, so the remaining structural impediments to the Internet economy’s growth are twofold: first, the digital isolation induced by the distance of Internet users from key telecommunications infrastructures; and second, the country’s exposure to SMC outages. We therefore adopt an instrumental variable (IV) approach reflecting these two sources of digital vulnerability. Exploiting the hierarchical structure of the World Bank Enterprise Survey dataset, multilevel IV estimations are conducted on a large sample of firms from more than 2,600 locations in some 60 developing and transition countries. They stress the large local impacts of an increase in the local incidence of email use by firms, induced by a lesser digital vulnerability, on a firm’s average annual sales and sales per worker, and, to a lesser extent, on temporary employment. Estimated relationships are robust across a range of alternative sampling and specifications. |
| Keywords: | NICT,submarine cables,infrastructures,telecommunications,firm performance |
| Date: | 2018–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01758660&r=cse |