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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2021‒02‒01
seven papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Antoine Goujard; Pierre Guérin |
| Abstract: | The rapid internationalisation of the Polish economy has helped develop competitive export-led manufacturing and services sectors fostering robust growth and productivity performance. However, the benefits of this development have been unequal. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), some regions and social groups have lagged behind. Poland’s integration into world trade has largely focussed on downstream activities of value chains and relatively labour-intensive products that incorporate little domestic value added. The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has put additional pressures on SMEs. A broad range of well-coordinated policies is required to boost SMEs’ internationalisation and their productivity, while easing labour reallocation during the ongoing recovery. Providing stronger support for training programmes in smaller firms and within small firms’ networks would help them upgrade the skills of their workforce, notably for their managers, and ease new technology adoption and internationalisation. Streamlining regulations on start-ups and limiting regulatory and tax barriers to firm expansion would raise firm entry and growth. Strengthening post-insolvency second chance policies for honest entrepreneurs would ease resource reallocation and the adaptation of SMEs to an uncertain and rapidly changing international environment. Improving transport and digital infrastructure would lower trade costs and raise productivity. Ensuring that innovation policies adapt to smaller firms would boost their innovativeness and ease their integration in national and international value chains. |
| Keywords: | Digitalisation, Global Value Chains (GVCs), Poland, Productivity, SMEs |
| JEL: | F1 F2 F6 L1 O3 |
| Date: | 2021–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1654-en&r=all |
| By: | Torsten Heinrich (Faculty for Economics and Business Administration, Chemnitz University of Technology); Jangho Yang (Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford); Shuanping Dai (School of Economics, Jilin University) |
| Abstract: | Understanding the microeconomic details of technological catch-up rocesses offers great po-tential for informing both innovation economics and development policy. We study the economictransition of the PR China from an agrarian country to a high-tech economy as one examplefor such a case. It is clear from past literature that rapidly rising productivity levels played acrucial role. However, the distribution of labor productivity in Chinese firms has not been com-prehensively investigated and it remains an open question if this can be used to guide economicdevelopment. We analyze labor productivity and the dynamic change of labor productivity infirm-level data for the years 1998-2013 from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database. Wedemonstrate that both variables are conveniently modeled as L Ì evy alpha-stable distributions,provide parameter estimates and analyze dynamic changes to this distribution. We find thatthe productivity gains were not due to super-star firms, but due to a systematic shift of theentire distribution with otherwise mostly unchanged characteristics. We also found an emergingright-skew in the distribution of labor productivity change. While there are significant differencesbetween the 31 provinces and autonomous regions of the P.R. China, we also show that there aresystematic relations between micro-level and province-level variables. We conclude with someimplications of these findings for development policy. |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tch:wpaper:cep040&r=all |
| By: | Enrico Santarelli (Department of Economics, University of Bologna – Department of Economics and Management, University of Luxembourg); Jacopo Staccioli (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Institute of Economics, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa); Marco Vivarelli (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands – IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Using the entire population of USPTO patent applications published between 2002 and 2019, and leveraging on both patent classification and semantic analysis, this papers aims to map the current knowledge base centred on robotics and AI technologies. These technologies will be investigated both as a whole and distinguishing core and related innovations, along a 4-level core-periphery architecture. Merging patent applications with the Orbis IP firm-level database will allow us to put forward a threefold analysis based on industry of activity, geographic location, and firm productivity. In a nutshell, results show that: (i) rather than representing a technological revolution, the new knowledge base is strictly linked to the previous technological paradigm; (ii) the new knowledge base is characterised by a considerable – but not impressively widespread – degree of pervasiveness; (iii) robotics and AI are strictly related, converging (particularly among the related technologies) and jointly shaping a new knowledge base that should be considered as a whole, rather than consisting of two separate GPTs; (iv) the U.S. technological leadership turns out to be confirmed. |
| Keywords: | Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, General Purpose Technology, Technological Paradigm, Industry 4.0, Patents full-text |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0016&r=all |
| By: | Luis Aguiar (UZH - University of Zürich [Zürich]); Philippe Gagnepain (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | We attempt to identify and measure potential knowledge spillovers in the French urban transport sector, which is strongly regulated and where a few large corporations are in charge of operating several urban networks simultaneously. We build and estimate a structural cost model where the service is regulated by a local government and is provided by a single operator. Knowledge spillovers are directly linked to the know-how of a specific corporation, but they also depend on the incentive power of the regulatory contract which shapes the effort of the local managers. Exerting an effort in a specific network allows a cost reduction in this network, but it also benefit other networks that are members of the same corporation. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' absorptive capacity, which is their in-house knowledge power in order to optimally benefit from spillovers. We find that diversity of knowledge across operators of a same corporation improves absorptive capacity and increases the flow of spillovers. Simulation exercises provide evidence of significant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge spillovers,Absorptive capacity,Cost incentives,Effort,Diversity of knowledge,Public transport |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03110851&r=all |
| By: | Torsten Heinrich; Jangho Yang; Shuanping Dai |
| Abstract: | Understanding the microeconomic details of technological catch-up processes offers great potential for informing both innovation economics and development policy. We study the economic transition of the PR China from an agrarian country to a high-tech economy as one example for such a case. It is clear from past literature that rapidly rising productivity levels played a crucial role. However, the distribution of labor productivity in Chinese firms has not been comprehensively investigated and it remains an open question if this can be used to guide economic development. We analyze labor productivity and the dynamic change of labor productivity in firm-level data for the years 1998-2013 from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database. We demonstrate that both variables are conveniently modeled as L\'evy alpha-stable distributions, provide parameter estimates and analyze dynamic changes to this distribution. We find that the productivity gains were not due to super-star firms, but due to a systematic shift of the entire distribution with otherwise mostly unchanged characteristics. We also found an emerging right-skew in the distribution of labor productivity change. While there are significant differences between the 31 provinces and autonomous regions of the P.R. China, we also show that there are systematic relations between micro-level and province-level variables. We conclude with some implications of these findings for development policy. |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2012.14503&r=all |
| By: | Sirio Aramonte; Matthew Carl |
| Abstract: | Following periods of intense technological innovation, R&D is a critical driver of technology diffusion, but it is subject to frictions that can lower it below the level firms would undertake otherwise. We study whether sentiment can counterbalance these frictions and thus strengthen the link between firm-level R&D and lagged aggregate innovation. We find a positive answer for low-tech firms, which represent the main conduit for technology diffusion. The effect is stronger in the presence of informational externalities, that is when the results of experimentation funded by a company are observable by competitors. In contrast to the literature on sentiment and capital expenditures, the effect is weaker for financially constrained firms. |
| Keywords: | investor sentiment, technological innovation, R&D |
| JEL: | G02 G31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:916&r=all |
| By: | Elisabetta Raguseo (Polito - Politecnico di Torino [Torino]); Claudio Vitari (AMU - Aix Marseille Université); Federico Pigni (GEM - Grenoble Ecole de Management) |
| Abstract: | Big data has gained momentum as an Information Technology that is capable of supporting organizational efforts to generate new and better business value. We here contribute to the emerging literature on big data analytic (BDA) solutions by investigating the moderating roles of firm size and industry concentration in the relationship between BDA solutions and firm profitability. Using a unique panel data set that covers 13 years, from 2004 to 2016, which contains information about 176 firms, we provide robust econometric empirical evidence of the negative moderating effects of industry concentration and the positive moderating effects of firm size on the relationship between the use of BDA solutions and firm profitability. Our findings provide strong empirical evidence on the business value of BDA as well as the essential role played by contextual conditions that managers should consider. |
| Keywords: | IT business value,big data analytics,firm profitability,econometric analysis,industry concentration,firm size |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03032504&r=all |