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on Innovation |
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Issue of 2009‒09‒05
thirteen papers chosen by Steffen Lippert Massey University Department of Commerce |
| By: | Cassiman, Bruno; Veugelers, Reinhilde; Zuniga, Pluvia |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the diversity of the types of links of firms to science and their effect on innovation performance for a sample of Belgian firms. While at the industry level links to science are highly related to the R&D intensity of the sector, we show that there exists considerable heterogeneity in the type of links to science at the firm level. Overall, firms with a science link enjoy superior innovation performance, in particular with respect to innovations that are new to the market. At the invention level, our findings confirm that patents from firms engaged in science are more frequently cited and have a broader technological and geographical impact, but we show that it is crucial to distinguish between direct science links at the invention level and indirect science links at the firm level to encounter these distinct positive effects of science links. |
| Keywords: | Innovation,cooperation,patents,forward citation,science,industrial innovation |
| JEL: | O32 O34 L13 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:200930&r=ino |
| By: | Sofka , Wolfgang; Grimpe, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Searching for external knowledge has frequently been characterized as crucial for firm success. However, little is known about how the direction of search strategies influences innovation performance. In this paper, we argue that firms need to specialize their search strategy and that its effectiveness is moderated by R&D investments and potential knowledge spillovers from a firm's environment. Based on a sample of more than 5,000 firms from five European countries, our results show that being open for innovation generally pays off. However, both moderating factors have a crucial role to play: On the one hand, in-house R&D investments are most effective when combined with a market-oriented search strategy. On the other hand, a technologically advanced environment requires firms to reach out to scientific knowledge sources in order to access novel knowledge and to enhance innovation performance. We develop targeted management recommendations based on these results. |
| Keywords: | Open innovation,search strategies,innovation management |
| JEL: | L60 O32 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09016&r=ino |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Hussinger, Katrin; Schneider, Cédric |
| Abstract: | While often presumed in academic literature and policy discussions there is little empirical evidence showing that academic patents protect more basic inventions than corporate patents. This study provides new evidence on the basicness of academic patents using German professor patents linked to patent opposition data from the European Patent Office (EPO). Patent oppositions are the most important mechanism by which the validity of patents filed at the EPO can be challenged. Controlling for patent value, asymmetric information and diverging expectations between the opposition parties, the likelihood of a potentially litigious situation and the relative costs of opposition versus settlement, we find that academic patents are opposed less frequently than a control group of corporate patents. This suggests that academic patents cover rather basic inventions with a low immediate commercial value not threatening current returns of potential plaintiffs. The effect is weaker for academic patents in collaboration with the business sector, which suggests that those patents are evaluated as more applied by owners of potentially rival technologies. |
| Keywords: | academic inventors,intellectual property rights,patent oppositions |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09029&r=ino |
| By: | Aschhoff, Birgit |
| Abstract: | This study provides insights into the effects of public R&D grants on R&D input and output of firms from Germany. Previous research has shown that the allocation of R&D project grants is rather stable regarding the pool of beneficiaries. The question is whether this participation pattern can be justified by its realized effects. In addition, the impact of the grant size on the effects is investigated. Therefore, I allow to a certain extent for heterogeneous treatment effects in these two dimensions. Using a sample of about 8,500 observations, a non-parametric matching approach with multiple treatments is applied to estimate the effects of public R&D grants on firm's R&D input. The results show that particularly frequently given grants as well as medium and large grants are suitable to increase the scope of firm-financed R&D plans. For the analysis of the effects on firm's R&D output the R&D expenditures are disentangled in R&D which would have been spent in the absence of the grant and publicly induced R&D, including the grant and the effect on private R&D expenditures. Basically both types of R&D are equally productive in terms of innovative output. For the statement that a rather stable pattern of program participation leads to a lower effectiveness of the instrument no evidence has been found. |
| Keywords: | R&D,Public Subsidies,Innovative Performance,Germany |
| JEL: | C20 H32 O38 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09032&r=ino |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Hussinger, Katrin; Schneider, Cédric |
| Abstract: | Against the background of the so-called European paradox, i.e. the conjecture that EU countries lack the capability to transfer science into commercial innovations, knowledge transfer from academia to industry has been a central issue in policy debates recently. Based on a sample of German scientists we investigate which academic inventions are patented by a scientific assignee and which are owned by corporate entities. Our findings suggest that faculty patents assigned to corporations exhibit a higher short-term value in terms of forward citations and a higher potential to block property rights of competitors. Faculty patents assigned to academic inventors or to public research institutions, in contrast, are more complex, more basic and have stronger links to science. These results may suggest that European firms lack the absorptive capacity to identify and exploit academic inventions that are further away from market applications. |
| Keywords: | academic inventors,university-industry technology transfer,intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09028&r=ino |
| By: | Ben Youssef, Slim; Zaccour, Georges |
| Abstract: | We consider in this paper a duopoly competing in quantities and where firms can invest in R&D to control their emissions. We distinguish between effort carried out to acquire first-hand knowledge (original R&D)and effort to develop an absorptive capacity to be able to capture part of the knowledge developed by rival. There are also free R&D spillovers between firms. We show that a regulator can reach the social optimal outcome by implementing a taxation and subsidy policy. The regulator subsidizes at a higher rate original R&D effort than its absorptive capacity counterpart when the free spillovers are high, and the contrary may occur when the free spillovers are low. When the cost of original research is lower than the one of absorptive research, or when the learning parameter of the latter is low, then the socially optimal level of original research is higher than the one of absorptive capacity. We have the opposite result when the cost of absorptive capacity is lower than the one of original research and when the learning parameter is high. |
| Keywords: | Pollution Control; Original R&D; Absorptive Capacity; Taxes and Subsidies; Social Optimum |
| JEL: | D62 H23 C72 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16984&r=ino |
| By: | Zimmermann, Jörg; Grimpe, Christoph; Sofka, Wolfgang |
| Abstract: | Young firms with the ability to internationalize early and decisively have received much attention in recent academic discussion. However, relatively little is known about the underlying processes that enable them to skip several stages of the internationalization process. We contribute to this research stream by establishing theoretical links with the emerging open innovation paradigm of firms optimizing their R&D activities by interconnecting them with external partners such as leading customers, universities or specialized suppliers. Based on a sample of more than 2,500 firms in Germany we contrast young and mature firms with regard to the effect of open innovation strategies on internationalization performance. Our results show that both the breadth and depth of search strategies for external knowledge help young firms to enter international markets. Once they have entered these markets, though, the drivers for success seem to shift from general knowledge sourcing to targeted and specific ones. |
| Keywords: | New ventures,internationalization,innovation,search strategies,entrepreneurship |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09017&r=ino |
| By: | Prokop, Jacek; Regibeau, Pierre; Rockett, Katharine |
| Abstract: | The authors examine the timing and quality of product introduction in an R&D stopping game, where they allow for horizontal and vertical differentiation in the product market. They observe that discontinuous changes in introduction dates can occur as firms' abilities as researchers change. Further, the authors observe differences in the social optimality of entry patterns depending on the underlying research abilities of the firms. Minimum quality standards and novelty requirements can play a role in correcting these suboptimal patterns of entry. The authors find that increasing the novelty requirement does not necessarily increase either the profits or, consequently, the investment levels of the initial innovator, contrary to much of the cumulative innovation literature. When the research abilities of the firms differ, either the high ability firm or the low ability firm may be the first mover. Policy interventions have much more ambiguous welfare effects in this asymmetric case, as they can change the order of entry. |
| Keywords: | Innovation,minimum quality standards,novelty requirements,stopping game |
| JEL: | L15 L16 O31 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:200933&r=ino |
| By: | Weber, T.A.; Neuhoff, K. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of firm-level innovation in carbonabatement technologies on optimal cap-and-trade schemes with and without price controls. We characterize optimal cap-and-trade regulation with a price cap and price floor, and compare it to the individual cases of pure taxation and simple emissions cap. Innovation shifts the trade-off between price- and quantity-based instruments towards quantity-based emissions trading schemes. More specifically, an increase in innovation effectiveness lowers the optimal emissions cap, and leads to relaxed price controls unless the slope of the marginal environmental damage cost curve is small. Because of the decrease in the emissions cap, innovation in abatement technologies can lead to a higher expected carbon price, so as to provide sufficient incentives for private R&D investments. The expected carbon price decreases once innovative technologies are widely used. |
| Keywords: | Carbon Emissions; Carbon Taxes; Cap-and-Trade; Environmental Regulation; Induced Technological Innovation; Price Caps; Price Floors; Prices vs. Quantities |
| JEL: | H23 Q28 Q54 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2009–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0932&r=ino |
| By: | Aschhoff, Birgit |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at which firms receive R&D project grants and how this public support evolves over time by considering in particular firm's previous participation. The question of the allocation of public R&D funding is becoming particularly important when it comes to identifying the effects of subsidies. Using firm-level data on German manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service firms, it turns out that participation in the funding scheme shows a rather high level of continuity. This is also confirmed by applying a multivariate approach. Firms who received funding in the past are more likely to be selected for public funding again. Moreover, a firm's size and knowledge capabilities increase the probability of entering the scheme. It is also revealed that in an analysis of the allocation of grants it is important to control for the overall supply of corresponding subsidies. |
| Keywords: | R&D,Public Subsidies,Program Participation,Germany |
| JEL: | C20 H32 O38 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:08018r&r=ino |
| By: | Squicciarini, Mariagrazia |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the role of Science Parks (SPs) as seedbeds of innovation. It investigates whether and to what extent locating inside a science park relates to the innovative output of tenant firms. The simple assessment methodology proposed relies on count data models, uses patents as innovation performance indicators, and exploits original data regarding the Finnish science parks, their main characteristics, and the data of 252 SP tenant firms, including their patenting activity over the period 19702002. Among other results, the study suggests that both within and among SPs interaction and spillover effects exist, and points out the way in which they relate to firms' innovative output. Results are robust to controlling for the existence of innovation lags. Parks' first mover disadvantages also emerge, as well as non-negligible matching phenomena whereby firms' and parks' characteristics matter jointly. |
| Keywords: | Science Parks,knowledge spillovers,innovation,patents,firm performance |
| JEL: | L29 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:200932&r=ino |
| By: | Rennings, Klaus; Markewitz, Peter; Vögele, Stefan |
| Abstract: | In the discussion on innovations for sustainable development, radical innovations are frequently called for in order that the transformation of society to a system perceived as sustainable can succeed. The reason given for this is the greater environmental efficiency of these innovations. This hypothesis is, however, not supported by empirical evidence. Against the background of a globally increasing use of coal-burning power plants and the environmental impacts to be expected, the hypothesis that radical innovations are superior to incremental innovations is reviewed on the basis of fossil fuel power plants. This paper examines the diffusion of incremental and radical innovations in the field of power plants and the basic obstacles with which these innovations were confronted. To give an example, Pressurised Pulverised Coal Combustion (PPCC) as a radical innovation and supercritical coal-fired power plants as an incremental innovation are compared. An ex-post analysis of the German R&D portfolio in the past three decades in the field of power plants environmentally shows that technologies which were radical innovations had great difficulties in becoming accepted by possible investors. The future potential of radical innovations in the field of power plant technology is to be regarded as relatively low, especially due to comparatively high cost-pressure, the reluctance of utilities to take risks and the temporal dynamics of technological progress facilitating incremental innovations on the basis of conventional reference technology. The conclusion for future R&D work in the sector of large-scale power plants is that an innovation is more likely to succeed the more it follows established technological trajectories. In the context of energy market liberalisation, hardly any radical innovations are expected in this field of technology. The findings of this paper may also be helpful in evaluating risks or probabilities of success of technologies being developed. As an example technological trajectories currently favoured in CO2 capture are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Radical innovations,incremental innovations,carbon capture storage,coal power plants |
| JEL: | Q01 Q55 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09021&r=ino |
| By: | Grimpe , Christoph; Fier, Heide |
| Abstract: | Existing literature has confined university technology transfer almost exclusively to formal mechanisms, like patents, licenses or royalty agreements. Relatively little is known about informal technology transfer that is based upon interactions between university scientists and industry personnel. Moreover, most studies are limited to the United States, where the Bay-Dole-Act has shaped the institutional environment since 1980. In this paper, we provide a comparative study between the United States and Germany where the equivalent of the Bay-Dole-Act has come into force only in 2002. Based on a sample of more than 800 university scientists, our results show similar relationships for the United States and Germany. Faculty quality which is however based on patent applications rather than publications serves as a major predictor for informal technology transfer activities. Hence, unless universities change their incentives (e.g., patenting as one criterion for promotion and tenure) knowledge will continue to flow out the backdoor. |
| Keywords: | informal university technology transfer, cross-country comparison |
| JEL: | J61 O33 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09033&r=ino |