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on Innovation |
| By: | Alex Bell; Raj Chetty; Xavier Jaravel; Neviana Petkova; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We characterize the factors that determine who becomes an inventor in America by using de-identified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records. We establish three sets of results. First, children from high-income (top 1%) families are ten times as likely to become inventors as those from below-median income families. There are similarly large gaps by race and gender. Differences in innate ability, as measured by test scores in early childhood, explain relatively little of these gaps. Second, exposure to innovation during childhood has significant causal effects on children's propensities to become inventors. Growing up in a neighborhood or family with a high innovation rate in a specific technology class leads to a higher probability of patenting in exactly the same technology class. These exposure effects are gender-specific: girls are more likely to become inventors in a particular technology class if they grow up in an area with more female inventors in that technology class. Third, the financial returns to inventions are extremely skewed and highly correlated with their scientific impact, as measured by citations. Consistent with the importance of exposure effects and contrary to standard models of career selection, women and disadvantaged youth are as under-represented among high-impact inventors as they are among inventors as a whole. We develop a simple model of inventors' careers that matches these empirical results. The model implies that increasing exposure to innovation in childhood may have larger impacts on innovation than increasing the financial incentives to innovate, for instance by cutting tax rates. In particular, there are many "lost Einsteins" - individuals who would have had highly impactful inventions had they been exposed to innovation. |
| Keywords: | inventor, America, innovation |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1519&r=ino |
| By: | Moschner, Sandra-Luisa; Herstatt, Cornelius |
| Abstract: | Prior research has shown that investing into startups through corporate venturing is a sufficient tool for inter-organizational learning, harvesting innovation and engaging in entrepreneurial activities. Recently, a new model of open innovation collaboration between incumbents and startups has gained popularity in practice. In corporate accelerator programs both partners collaborate to advance entrepreneurial products by leveraging their complementary resource bases. In our study we, firstly, analyze the underlying external and internal motives that impel established firms to initiate a corporate accelerator and, secondly, which personnel is responsible for this. Further, we examine the adoption of the corporate accelerator practice for collaborating with new firms. In order to shed light onto the phenomenon, we use interview data from ten corporate accelerators (30 interviews with program managers, corporate employees and startups) from various industries in Germany. By drawing on institutional theory our findings show that the diffusion of the open innovation collaboration practice is either imitatively or normatively driven, depending on the position of the initiator. Further, we demonstrate, that incumbents adopt a corporate accelerator program for sourcing external exploitative or explorative knowledge. However, the degree of adoption of the practice is low and, thereby, not internalized. Although the corporate accelerator has still a short history and many programs follow a trial-and-error approach regarding program structures, established firms seem not to be interested primarily in promoting the collaborative usage of complementary assets with startups. It resembles a rather symbolic action utilizing open innovation collaboration as a marketing tool to let the incumbent's innovation activity glitter more. Therefore, we conclude that established firms seem to practice entrepreneurial washing with corporate accelerators similarly to green-washing activities in the field of corporate social responsibility. |
| Keywords: | corporate accelerator,open innovation collaboration,incumbent,startups,complementary resources,degree of adoption,symbolic action |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:102&r=ino |
| By: | Christian Longhi (Université Côte d'Azur; CNRS, GREDEG) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to identify the forms and dynamics of the organizational structures of high-tech clusters overtime. Since Markusen (1996), it is well acknowledged that diversity is an emergent property of clusters, but the interactions between local and non-local actors of the clusters are difficult to trace because of lack of relevant data. The cluster policies developed to fix the network failures between the heterogeneous actors – large and small firms, universities, research institutes – of the current processes of innovation provide new information opportunities. In France, Competitiveness Clusters work as a "factories of project"; the information they produce on collective R&D projects applying for subsidies provides a proxy of local and non-local relations of the clusters. Social network analysis is used to infer the organizational structure of the collective learning networks and trace their dynamics. The case studies considered are Sophia-Antipolis and Rousset, two high tech clusters which belong to the same Competitiveness Cluster, 'Secure Communicating Solutions' in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region. The paper highlights the decoupling of the two clusters overtime as a consequence of distinctive organizational structures. The diversity of the dynamics of the collective learning networks which emerges through the analysis of the collective R&D projects in the two high tech clusters shows that knowledge creation and innovation can follow different paths and questions the public policies implemented. |
| Keywords: | Cluster Policy, Competitiveness Cluster, Collective Learning Networks, Innovation, Social Network Analysis, Sophia Antipolis, Rousset |
| JEL: | R11 R58 L2 L52 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2017-42&r=ino |
| By: | Kul B Luintel; Mosahid Khan |
| Abstract: | Research and Development (R&D) activities of emerging countries (EMEs) have increased considerably in recent years. Recent micro studies and anecdotal evidence points to industrialized countries as the sources of knowledge in EMEs. In this context, we examine ideas production and international knowledge spillovers in a panel of 31 EMEs by accounting for six diffusion channels and two types (national versus USPTO) of patent filings. Knowledge spillovers to EMEs accruing from (i) the industrialized world, (ii) the emerging world, (iii) different country and regional groups, (iv) selected bilateral cases, and (v) those within the regional clusters of EMEs, are modeled. Spillovers from the industrialized world appear robust via geographical proximity and disembodied channels only. Other conduits, including trade flows, are either insignificant or not robust. Spillovers from the emerging world are virtually non-existent. Analyses of regional clusters of EMEs do not support any role of language, culture or geographical characteristics in knowledge diffusion. Overall, the breadth and depth of knowledge spillovers to EMEs appear extremely moderate; however, we find pockets (specific countries and certain groups) generating positive spillovers. A carefully choreographed policy focusing on such pockets might be fruitful. We hope that this study (i) complements the micro literature, (ii) furthers the existing macro literature and (iii) provides some new policy insights. Our results are robust to a range of robustness checks, including the estimators – a cointegration approach versus a simple fixed effects OLS estimator. |
| Keywords: | ideas production, diffusion, scale effects, panel integration and cointegration |
| JEL: | O30 O40 O47 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6737&r=ino |
| By: | Santosh Kumar Sahu (Assistant Professor, Madras School of Economics); Sunder Ramaswamy (Visiting Distinguished Professor of Economics, Madras School of Economics); Abishek Choutagunta (Institute of Law and Economics, Universität Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | This study re-examines the relationship between export performance and productivity in manufacturing firms in India for the period 2003-2015, using firm level information. Departing from the earlier studies on India economy, we argue that product innovations boost export performance of the economy. The hypothesis being that, in the post-economic-reforms era competitive export market scenario, productivity alone, without product innovation and participation in R and D cannot drive export performance. We observe that the argument of highly productive firms entering the export market without reallocating resources towards innovation and R and D seems to be invalid in our sample. Nevertheless, we find in our sample, that productivity as a selection criterion coupled with advertising and marketing strategies explains participation in R and D in boosting exports. |
| Keywords: | Export Performance, Innovation, Productivity, Manufacturing firms, India |
| JEL: | D20 D24 L16 L6 L60 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2017-159&r=ino |
| By: | Sari Pekkala Kerr; William R. Kerr; Tina Xu |
| Abstract: | We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk attitudes and goals and aspirations of entrepreneurs. Within each area, we separate studies by the type of entrepreneurial behavior considered: entry into entrepreneurship, performance outcomes, and exit from entrepreneurship. This literature shows common results and many points of disagreement, reflective of the heterogeneous nature of entrepreneurship. We label studies by the type of entrepreneurial population studied (e.g., Main Street vs. those backed by venture capital) to identify interesting and irreducible parts of this heterogeneity, while also identifying places where we anticipate future large-scale research and the growing depth of the field are likely to clarify matters. There are many areas, like how firm performance connects to entrepreneurial personality, that are woefully understudied and ripe for major advances if the appropriate cross-disciplinary ingredients are assembled. |
| JEL: | D03 D81 D86 L26 M13 O3 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24097&r=ino |
| By: | Giebel, Marek; Kraft, Kornelius |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of individual banks' liquidity shocks during the recent financial crisis of 2008/2009 on the innovation activities of their business customers. Individual banks' liquidity shocks are identified by the degree of interbank market usage. We use a difference-in-differences approach to identify the effect of interbank reliance during the crisis on total innovation expenditures in comparison to the periods before. Our results imply that those firms which have a business relation to a bank with higher interbank market reliance reduce their innovation activities during the financial crisis to a higher degree than other firms. |
| Keywords: | financial crisis,financial constraints of banks,financing of innovation,innovation activity |
| JEL: | G01 G21 G30 O16 O30 O31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17064&r=ino |
| By: | Sara Biancini; Pamela Bombarda |
| Abstract: | Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protect firms from imitation and are considered crucial to promote innovation and technological diffusion. This paper examines the impact of IPR on import sourcing decisions of multinationals. We consider a framework in which firms offshore production of an intermediate good in a developing country. Firms can either decide to import the intermediate from vertically integrated producers, or from independent suppliers. In both cases, offshoring part of the production process embodies a risk of imitation. The model predicts that, under reasonable assumptions, stronger IPR encourage by a larger extent the imports of intermediates through vertical integration. Using U.S. Related-Party Trade database, we find empirical evidence supportive of the positive link between level of IPR and the relative share of imports from vertically integrated manufacturers. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property rights, MNF, FDI, outsourcing, international trade |
| JEL: | F12 F23 O34 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6769&r=ino |
| By: | Ganguli, Ina (University of Massachusetts–Amherst); Lin, Jeffrey (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); reynolds, nicholas (brown university) |
| Abstract: | We show evidence of localized knowledge spillovers using a new database of multiple invention from U.S. patent interferences terminated between 1998 and 2014. Patent interferences resulted when two or more independent parties simultaneously submitted identical claims of invention to the U.S. Patent Office. Following the idea that inventors of identical inventions share common knowledge inputs, interferences provide a new method for measuring spillovers of tacit knowledge compared with existing (and noisy) measures such as citation links. Using matched pairs of inventors to control for other factors contributing to the geography of invention and distance-based methods, we find that interfering inventor pairs are 1.4 to 4 times more likely to live in the same city or region. These results are not driven exclusively by observed social ties among interfering inventor pairs. Interfering inventors are also more geographically concentrated than inventors who cite the same prior patent. Our results emphasize geographic distance as a barrier to tacit knowledge flows. |
| Keywords: | Localized knowledge spillovers; multiple invention; patents; interferences |
| JEL: | O30 R12 |
| Date: | 2017–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:17-44&r=ino |
| By: | Goeldner, Moritz; Kruse, Daniel J.; Herstatt, Cornelius |
| Abstract: | Organizations in the humanitarian sector often face problems that are hard to solve owing to their complexity and high hidden solution knowledge. We investigate two problem-solving governance mechanisms in the case of floods in Indonesia. In our study, we compare the costs and benefits of two open innovation tools for identifying social innovation: an innovation contest and the lead user method. An innovation contest is a challenge among participants, who submit potential solutions to a problem that is posted in an open call. In contrast, the lead user method is a structured search process to identify innovators who have already developed solutions for their own needs or those of their peers. While innovation contests have seen significant attention, there is very little evidence that the lead user method is a suitable tool to identify social innovation. In our study, the contest yielded more than twice as much submissions as the lead user method (60 vs. 25). Our analysis reveals that concepts obtained by the lead user method score significantly higher in overall quality as well as regarding use value, feasibility, degree of elaboration, and social impact. The concepts' novelty do not significantly differ between the two groups. We discuss these findings against the background of the humanitarian sector being torn between capacity overload and the need to overcome a one-size-fits-all approach. By transferring two recognized governance forms for innovation identification from the private sector to the humanitarian sector, we introduce a new path towards empowering local innovators to solve humanitarian challenges. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:101&r=ino |
| By: | Philippe Aghion; Ufuk Akcigit; Ari Hyytinen; Otto Toivanen |
| Abstract: | In this paper we merge three datasets - individual income data, patenting data, and IQ data - to analyze the determinants of an individual's probability of inventing. We find that: (i) parental income matters even after controlling for other background variables and for IQ, yet the estimated impact of parental income is greatly diminished once parental education and the individual's IQ are controlled for; (ii) IQ has both a direct effect on the probability of inventing an indirect impact through education. The effect of IQ is larger for inventors than for medical doctors or lawyers. The impact of IQ is robust to controlling for unobserved family characteristics by focusing on potential inventors with brothers close in age. We also provide evidence on the importance of social family interactions, by looking at biological versus non-biological parents. Finally, we find a positive and significant interaction effect between IQ and father income, which suggests a misallocation of talents to innovation. |
| JEL: | I24 J18 J24 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24110&r=ino |
| By: | Najda-Janoszka, Marta |
| Abstract: | Opportunity stands for a central category for entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurial identity is defined with the core reference to opportunity. Meanwhile extant studies highlight important challenges when it comes to discuss the very nature of opportunity. A promising approach to reconcile discovery and creation perspectives is to embrace the notion of time. Thus the aim of this conceptual article is to contribute to existing body of knowledge by providing a dynamic perspective for understanding and investigating entrepreneurial opportunities. |
| Keywords: | window of opportunity, opportunities, time, entrepreneurship, industry life cycle, entrepreneurial orientation |
| JEL: | L25 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83438&r=ino |
| By: | Marcin Bielecki (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; Narodowy Bank Polski) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a microfounded model featuring frictional labor markets that generates procyclical R&D expenditures as a result of optimizing behavior by heterogeneous monopolistically competitive firms. This allows to show that business cycle fluctuations affect the aggregate endogenous growth rate of the economy. Consequently, transitory shocks leave lasting level effects. This mechanism is responsible for economically significant hysteresis effects that increase the welfare cost of business cycles by two orders of magnitude relative to the exogenous growth model. I show that this has serious policy implications and creates ample space for policy intervention. I find that several static and countercyclical subsidy schemes are welfare improving. |
| Keywords: | business cycles, firm dynamics, search and matching, innovation, endogenous growth |
| JEL: | E32 J63 J64 O3 O40 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2017-26&r=ino |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi; Guido de Blasio; Mara Giua |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates a program of subsidies for Collaborative Industrial Research (co-)funded by the EU Cohesion Policy in Italy mobilizing over 1 billion euros. This program anticipated in the 2007-2013 funding cycle some of the key features of Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) programmes, offering evidence-based insights on potential challenges to the practical application of the S3 approach. The programme was not successful in boosting investments, value added or employment of beneficiary firms. The collaborative dimension of the projects added limited value and a more generous level funding would have not improved effectiveness. However, positive impacts emerged in low tech sectors. |
| Keywords: | Cohesion Policy, Smart Specialisation, Policy Evaluation, Innovation, European Union |
| JEL: | O18 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:769&r=ino |
| By: | Patrick Lehnert (University of Zurich); Curdin Pfister (University of Zurich); Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of an R&D-specific labor supply shock produced by the establishment of tertiary vocational education institutions teaching and conducting applied R&D, the Universities of Applied Sciences, on the R&D personnel of private firms. We apply a difference-in-differences model, exploiting a quasi-natural experiment in the 1990s in Switzerland, the staggered establishment of these institutions. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the Swiss Earnings Structure Survey, we can precisely measure the R&D personnel of private firms, i.e., how much R&D personnel a firm employs and how much a firm spends on its R&D personnel in terms of wages. The education-driven labor supply shock has positive effects on both the percentage of R&D personnel and the wages paid to this personnel. Our assessments of effect heterogeneity suggest that these effects are driven by firms with 50 to 99 employees and firms in the manufacturing sector increasing their R&D personnel. |
| Keywords: | Innovation incentives, R&D, research institutions, skills |
| JEL: | I23 J24 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0141&r=ino |