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on Innovation |
| By: | Avdeitchikova, Sofia (Lund University); Schwaag Serger, Sylvia (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, countries, regions, municipalities and the EU Commission have introduced a significant number of innovation policy initiatives under the banner of ‘missions’, ‘societal challenges’, sustainability and ‘transformation’, or systemic change. In parallel, there has been a rapidly growing body of literature seeking to analyze or assess these real-world manifestations of attempts to pivot innovation policy towards environmental and societal challenges. The aim of this chapter is to provide a reflexive overview of state of the art of the knowledge on transformative innovation policy design and implementation. To contribute real-world, real-time learning for planned or ongoing policymaking, we also synthesize lessons and insights from recent policy initiatives in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, with the purpose of distilling them into policy-relevant observations. Based on these, we draw conclusions on what recent experiences from trying to design and implement transformative innovation policies in the respective national and institutional contexts tell us about the role of innovation policy, and implicitly, the role of the state, in driving transformation. |
| Keywords: | innovation policy; transformation; societal challenges; public policy |
| JEL: | H11 I28 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2024–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_001&r=ino |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Sandström, Christian (Jönköping International Business School); Stenkula, Mikael (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | The notion that society should be organized around large so-called missions has gained momentum in public debate, and the reemergence of active industrial policy across the world has been inspired by academic scholars promoting the idea of Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIPs). The volume Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy: Questioning the Mission Economy provides a comprehensive assessment and normative critique of the efficacy of such policies. Besides the introductory chapter, it consists of 16 chapters distributed across three overarching themes: theoretical perspectives, empirical evidence, and alternative paths. This paper provides some additional analysis, pins down the most important general conclusions and suggests future research questions. Today’s economies are highly dependent on a well-functioning process of decentralized experimentation, selection, and screening. Instead of large scale MOIPs, governments should strive to create an institutional framework that levels the playing field for potential entrepreneurs while encouraging productive entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Mission-oriented policies; Innovation policy; New industrial policy; Moonshots; Rent seeking; Public choice |
| JEL: | H50 L26 L52 O31 O38 P16 |
| Date: | 2024–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1484&r=ino |
| By: | Davide Antonioli (University of Ferrara); Alberto Marzucchi (Gran Sasso Science Institute); Francesco Rentocchini (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Seville; Department of Economics Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM), University of Milan); Simone Vannuccini (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the unexplored relationship between robot technology adoption and product innovation. We exploit Spanish firm-level data on robot adoption and use a staggered timing difference-in-differences, supported by an instrumental variable approach. Instead of an enabling effect, we find a negative association between robot adoption and the probability to introduce product innovations, as well as their number. The result is particularly significant for larger, established, and non-high-tech firms. In line with industry evolution models, we rationalise and interpret the findings suggesting that a key mechanism at work in the robotisation-innovation nexus are diseconomies of scope fuelled by capacity-increasing investments. We also discuss whether industrial robots in our data feature enabling capabilities at all. Our results have important implications for understanding the role of robots in firms’ operations and strategies, as well as for policy design. |
| Keywords: | robots, automation, product innovation, diseconomies of scope, Spain |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-01&r=ino |