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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2013‒06‒04
24 papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Ghisetti,Claudia; Marzucchi,Alberto; Montresor,Sandro |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects that knowledge sources external to the firm have on its environmental innovations (EIs). Using the CIS 2006-2008, we refer to both the probability to introduce an EI and the number of EI-typologies adopted by firms. We estimate the impact of the “depth” and “breadth” of knowledge sourcing. In addition, we test for the moderating role of the firm's absorptive capacity. In general, knowledge sourcing has a positive impact on both types of EI-performance. However, a broad sourcing strategy reveals a threshold, over which the propensity to introduce an EI diminishes. Cognitive constraints in processing knowledge inputs that are too diverse could explain this result. Absorptive capacity generally helps firms in turning broadly sourced external knowledge into EI. Conversely, internal innovation capabilities and knowledge socialization mechanisms seem to diminish the EI impact of knowledge sourced through intense external interactions. The possibility of mismatches between internal and external knowledge and problems in distributing the decision-makers’ attention between the two could explain this result. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Innovation, Open Innovation, Absorptive Capacity |
| JEL: | Q55 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201301&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Compulsory licensing is an important institutional innovation that improves the knowledge governance and can help fostering the pace of generation of technological knowledge and the rate of introduction of technological innovations. Recent advances in the economics of knowledge have confirmed the medieval wisdom according to which to make knowledge it is necessary to stand on giants’ shoulders. The generation of new technological knowledge is possible only if the stock of existing knowledge can be used as an input. All barriers and delays in the access to existing knowledge risk to reducing the capability to generate new technological knowledge. Intellectual property right regimes based upon exclusivity may increase the incentives to generate new technological knowledge but reduce the efficiency and the actual viability of the knowledge generation process. The costs of the reduction in the access to existing knowledge are larger the larger the scope of application of new technology. Compulsory licensing for technological knowledge can increase the rate of generation of new technological knowledge. The paper contributes the debate with a simple model that enables to identify the correct levels of royalties for compulsory licensing in both product and knowledge markets. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201207&r=knm |
| By: | Ivan Savin (DFG Research Training Program "The Economics of Innovative Change", Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute of Economics); Abiodun Egbetokun (DFG Research Training Program "The Economics of Innovative Change", Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the existing literature on strategic R&D alliances by presenting a model of innovation networks with endogenous absorptive capacity. The networks emerge as a result of bilateral cooperation over time between firms occupying different locations in the knowledge space. Social capital is ignored, and firms ally purely on the basis of knowledge considerations. Partner selection is driven largely by absorptive capacity which is itself influenced by cognitive distance and investment allocation between inventive and absorptive R&D. Cognitive distance between firms changes as a function of the intensity of cooperation and innovation. Within different knowledge regimes, we examine the structure of networks that emerge and how firms perform within such networks. Our model replicates some stylised empirical results on network structure and the contingent effects of network position on innovative performance. We find networks that exhibit small world properties which are generally robust to changes in the knowledge regime. Second, subject to the extent of knowledge spillovers, certain network strategies such as occupying brokerage positions or maximising accessibility to potential partners pay off. Third and most importantly, absorptive capacity plays an important role in network evolution: firms with different network strategies indeed differ in the build-up of absorptive capacity. |
| Keywords: | absorptive capacity, agent-based modeling, cognitive distance, dynam- ics, innovation, knowledge spillovers, networks |
| JEL: | C61 C63 D83 D85 L14 O33 |
| Date: | 2013–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2013-022&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli,Cristiano; Colombelli, Alessandra (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of external knowledge and internal stocks of knowledge in the generation of new technological knowledge. It relies on the notion of recombination and brings together three concepts: the appreciation of current expenses in R&D activities; the analysis of the role of the stock of knowledge composition; the identification of the role of external knowledge available in the regional proximity. The empirical section is based upon a panel of companies listed on the main European financial markets for the period 1995–2006. The econometric analysis considers patents as a measure of the knowledge out put and, on the right hand side, next to R&D expenditures, the stock of knowledge internal and external to each firm. The results confirm that the stock of internal knowledge and the access to external knowledge play a key role in assessing the actual capability of each firm to generate new knowledge. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201303&r=knm |
| By: | Colombelli Alessandra; Krafft.Jackie; Quatraro Francesco (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the effects of the properties of firms’ knowledge base on the survival likelihood of firms. Drawing upon the analysis of the patterns of co-occurrence of technological classes in patent applications, we derive the coherence, variety and cognitive distance indexes, accounting respectively for technological complementarity, differentiation and (dis)similarity in the firms’ patent portfolios. The results of our analysis are in line with the previous literature, showing that innovation enhances the survival likelihood of firms. In addition, we show that the search strategies at work in the development of firms’ knowledge base matter in reducing the likelihood of a failure event. Knowledge coherence and variety appear to be positively related to firms’ survival, while cognitive distance exerts a negative effect. We conclude that firms able to exploit the accumulated technological competences have more chances to be successful in competing durably in the market arena, and derive some policy implications concerning the role of public intervention in the orientation of search efforts in local contexts. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201209&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli,Cristiano; Crespi, Francesco; Scellato, Giuseppe (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes the analysis of the persistence of innovation activities, as measured by different innovation indicators and explores its past and path dependent characteristics. The study provides new insights on the role of R&D investments in innovation persistence and analyses differentiated patterns of persistence across product and process innovation, by accounting for complementarity effects between the two types of innovative behaviour. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 451 Italian manufacturing companies observed during the years 1998-2006, and exploits both descriptive techniques such as Transition Probability Matrix and econometric methods based on dynamic probit models. Results highlight the relevance of innovation persistence. The highest level of persistence is found for R&D-based innovation activities, witnessing the actual presence of significant entry and exit barriers. Moreover, we obtain more robust evidence of persistence for product innovation than for process innovation when complementarity effects between the two types of innovation are accounted for. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201213&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli, Cristiano; Barbierini Amidei, Federico; Fassio, Claudio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The grafting of the tools of communication studies on the economics of knowledge helps to investigate the mechanisms of knowledge governance. The actual economic benefits stemming from knowledge externalities depend on the characteristics of a) their sources, b) the context in which spillovers take place, c) the possible recipients. In the Italian experience between 1950-1992, state owned enterprises (SOE) have been one of the most effective mechanisms of knowledge governance. Italian SOE were very effective emissaries of knowledge externalities as they imitated the US corporate model of intramuros R&D laboratories and yet were characterized by an objective function based upon output maximization under the constraint of average profitability. Their support to the growth of the system was crucial not only with respect to the creation of basic infrastructure but also as active players in implementing effective mechanisms of knowledge governance. Research activities carried out by SOE were mainly based in upstream industries, with multiple user-producer interactions with firms active in downstream industries, and aimed at implementing a knowledge base characterized by high levels of generic content and a wide scope of application. Moreover the specific objective function of SOE favoured higher levels of knowledge generation than exploitation. These characteristics helped disseminate relevant knowledge externalities that played a strong and positive role on total factor productivity in the second part of the XX century in Italy. Their role was stronger than the knowledge externalities stemming from research activities carried out by private firms. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201210&r=knm |
| By: | Wladimir Raymond; Jacques Mairesse; Pierre Mohnen; Franz Palm |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces dynamics in the R&D to innovation and innovation to productivity relationships, which have mostly been estimated on cross-sectional data. It considers four nonlinear dynamic simultaneous equations models that include individual effects and idiosyncratic errors correlated across equations and that differ in the way innovation enters the conditional mean of labor productivity: through an observed binary indicator, an observed intensity variable or through the continuous latent variables that correspond to the observed occurrence or intensity. It estimates these models by full information maximum likelihood using two unbalanced panels of Dutch and French manufacturing firms from three waves of the Community Innovation Survey. The results provide evidence of robust unidirectional causality from innovation to productivity and of stronger persistence in productivity than in innovation. |
| JEL: | C33 C34 C35 L60 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19074&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli, Cristiano; Crespi, Francesco; Scellato, Giuseppe (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes the analysis of the persistence of innovation activities, as measured by total factor productivity (TFP) and explores its internal and external determinants stressing its path dependent characteristics. The external conditions, namely the quality of local knowledge pools and the strength of the Schumpeterian rivalry, together with the internal conditions, that is the actual levels of dynamic capabilities, as proxied by the levels of wages and the size of firms, exert a specific and localized effect upon the persistent introduction of innovations. A Multiple Transition Probability Matrixes (MTPMs) approach has been implemented to grasp the contingent effects of external effects on the long-term innovation persistence. The empirical analysis of the dynamics of firm level TFP for a sample of about 7000 Italian manufacturing companies observed during the years1996-2005 is based on both the comparison of different transition probability matrixes and on dynamic discrete choice panel data models. The evidence provided by the test of MTPMs in sub-periods suggests that innovation persistence is path dependent, as opposed to past dependent. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201211&r=knm |
| By: | Tucker, C.E. (Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economics Center) |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubtil:2012030&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli,Cristiano; Gehringer, Agnieszka (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the demand pull effects on sector-level total factor productivity growth. Such effects stem from the knowledge interactions carried by the market Transactions of intermediate inputs between competent customers and innovative suppliers. Both knowledge interactions and transactions are substantial ingredients in making the competent demand operate the positive impact on productivity growth of the entire economic system. The demand pull hypothesis is, thus, rejuvenated through the focus on the inter-sectoral linkages between competent users and innovative producers. In the empirical analysis based on a dynamic panel technique, we implement intermediate flows from input-output tables, qualified by productivity increases downstream, in order to investigate their joint influence on the upstream growth of productivity. The evidence Union of the derived demand-driven influence regarding the European (EU) over the period 1995-2007 is strong and positive, but varies between three EU innovation systems, EU core, East and South. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201301&r=knm |
| By: | Akçomakn Semih (TEKPOL, Middle East Technical University, and UNU-MERIT); Akdeve, Erdal (School of Management, Yıldırım Beyazıt University); Findik, Derya (TEKPOL, Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a novel taxonomy of firms based on specialization versus diversification in production and markets. Firms may choose to specialize on few production activities or alternatively may build expertise in many activities. There is an accompanying decision when firms sell their products: whether to serve few or many markets. We argue that the location on the specialization-diversification spectrum significantly affects how firms manage innovation. For a sample of 90 innovator ICT firms in Ankara we find that cooperation structure, sources of innovation and funding of R&D display statistically significant different patterns according to the specialization-diversification taxonomy. |
| Keywords: | management of innovation, core competency, expertise building, R&D, ICT |
| JEL: | O32 L22 L86 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2013024&r=knm |
| By: | PH Spies (Institute for Futures Research, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | Innovation is the transformation of a new idea or scientific discovery into technology through introducing, applying, and integrating it in common practice. The outcome is that people can progressively do more with the same effort, produce different outcomes with the same artefacts and produce outcomes in new and novel ways. Historically this process favoured the (largely Western-style) industrial world and today some 85 percent of global wealth is owned by just 10 percent of the global population. Empoverished people seem to find themselves in a low level human development trap. The focus of this working paper is on innovation management in less-developed poor communities. Its central hypothesis is that endemic (human-centred) technological innovation rather than ‘technology transfer’ (artefact-centred innovation) can help to alleviate this situation. Two concepts from the natural sciences serve as metaphors for the intrinsic systemic and embodied nature of sustainable technological innovation: • ‘Ecosystem’ to highlight the determining role of interactivity with the circumstances under which people exist; and • ‘Endemic’ to highlight the importance of intrinsic innovativeness as both an outcome and a cause of human development. The paper postulates that the innovation challenge is perhaps less procedural and more conceptual, namely to discover the recursive link between technological innovation and human development. It approaches technological innovation as a holistic, human-centred, systemic process. It argues that effective application of technological artefacts is only possible with the support of a complex system of socio-economic conditions. An outline for conceptualising, planning and managing innovation for human development is presented in the concluding sections of the paper. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, human development, ecosystem, endemic, competence, motivation |
| JEL: | I3 O3 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers185&r=knm |
| By: | Simon Forge (SCF Associates Ltd); Colin Blackman (Camford Associates); Itzhak Goldberg (CASE (Center for Social and Economic Research)); Federico Biagi (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The objective of the study is to document the existence of innovation gaps between the EU and its main competitors in specific ICT sub-sectors – namely web services, industrial robotics and display technologies –and to explore the role of government policies in Europe’s future needs for innovation in information and communication technologies (ICT) through a comparison with the USA and Asian countries. Our analysis shows that rather than there being a simple innovation gap with the EU lagging behind the USA, a more nuanced picture emerges in which firms in different countries have strengths in different sub-sectors and in different parts of the value chain. A key lesson from the analysis of the three subsectors is the critical importance of higher education, particularly elite university research, and of local networks as generated by clusters. Governments can also encourage innovation through appropriate intellectual property and competition laws and, more generally, through the development of a business environment conducive to innovation. Finally, Governments can have a very important role through the funding of early-stage innovation |
| Keywords: | ICT, Innovation policy, Industrial policy |
| JEL: | L5 L6 L8 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc81448&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Ferraris Gianluigi (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper elaborates an agent based simulation model (ABSM) to explore the endogenous long-term dynamics of technological and structural change determined by Schumpeterian reactions to unexpected changes in the system that are made possible by the actual availability of Marshallian knowledge externalities that are at the heart of economic growth. From this viewpoint ABSM, as a form of artificial cliometrics, provides the opportunity to explore the role of endogenous knowledge externalities for the long run dynamics of the system. The results of the simulations confirm that endogenous knowledge externalities have powerful effects on the equilibrium conditions of the system dynamics at the micro, the meso and the macro levels. At the micro-level the reaction of firms caught in out-of-equilibrium conditions yields successful effects with the introduction of productivity enhancing innovations only when and where positive pecuniary knowledge externalities are actually available. At the meso-level the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of endogenous knowledge externalities affect the structural characteristics of the system. Endogenous centrifugal and centripetal forces re-shape continually the structure of the system. At the macro system level the out-of-equilibrium process leads, to step-wise increase of productivity for the system as a whole, while individual commons are exposed to nonliner patterns of output growth characterized by significant oscillations that take the typical form of long waves, familiar to the Schumpeterian analysis of business cycles. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201202&r=knm |
| By: | Cappelli, Riccardo; Montobbio, Fabio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Using data on inventor citations and inventor collaborations, this article analyses changes in geographical patterns of knowledge flows between European regions during the period 1981-2000. It shows that inventor collaborations become less geographically localized, while inventor citations become more localized. The European integration process has a significant effect on reducing barriers to knowledge flows between new and old EU members. For inventor citations, this effect relates only to the EU enlargement of 1995 and is confined to knowledge flows from Austria, Finland and Sweden to old EU members. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201309&r=knm |
| By: | Fatma M. Utku-İsmihan (TEKPOL, Science and Technology Policy Studies, Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | The importance of knowledge for long-run economic growth has long been an important research area for economists and policy makers. This paper attempts to analyze the impact of knowledge on economic growth in Turkey over the 1963-2010 period, by using a production function approach. In contrast to early studies, which have analyzed the impact of a single dimension of knowledge on economic growth, a knowledge index is constructed to see the impact of various dimensions of knowledge with a single and comprehensive measure of the “level” of knowledge in the economy. Moreover, time series methods -such as cointegration and impulse response analysis- are used to analyze the role of knowledge on economic growth in Turkey. The empirical results indicate that higher level of knowledge had a positive impact on the growth rate of Turkish economy over the sample period. It is, therefore, necessary to create an economic environment that is conducive to enhance the level of knowledge and hence economic growth in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge, Economic Growth, Turkey |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:stpswp:1207&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Crepax Nicola; Fassio Claudio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of the evolution of the academic chairs of an academic system is a promising area of investigation. The exploration of the evolution of the size and the disciplinary composition of the stock of academic chairs in Italy in the years 1900- 1959 provides an opportunity to understand the contribution of scientific knowledge to economic growth. The basic assumption is that knowledge is not a homogeneous activity, but rather a bundle of highly differentiated disciplines that have a differentiated impact on economic growth. Advances in scientific knowledge are likely to have a direct, positive effect on economic growth according to their fungibility, appropriability and complementarity with other sources of technological knowledge and hence exploitation conditions. Advances in scientific knowledge that can be converted into technological knowledge with high levels of fungibility, appropriability and complementarity have a higher chance to affect economic growth. The econometric analysis confirms that advances in engineering and chemistry, as proxied by the number of chairs, had much a stronger output elasticity than in other scientific fields. These results have important implications for research policy as they highlight the differences in the economic effects of academic disciplines. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201206&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli,Cristiano; Gehringer,Agnieszka (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper elaborates the microeconomic foundations of the demand pull hypothesis stressing the role of vertical knowledge externalities stemming from the complementarity between know ledge interactions and user-producer transactions. The increase in the demand can pull the rate of technological change in the system when it concerns the derived demand of innovative sectors. In this framework, technological change is an emergent property of any dynamic system, where external knowledge made available by each agent plays a key role in the introduction of innovations by each other agent. Demand pulls the introduction of innovations when and where it comes from innovative customers. Using input output tables that grasp user-producer interactions, the paper provides an empirical test of these hypotheses for 15 European countries in the years 1995-2007. The evidence confirms that the in crease of total factor productivity of the upstream supplying sectors is positively influenced by the sector-level derived demand, according to the rates of introduction of innovations and to the intensity of their user-producer interactions. The policy implications of the analysis enable to elaborate and implement the notion of a ‘competent’ public demand. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201214&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Fassio Claudio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the paper is to contribute the debate on the accountability of the academic system. To this it grafts the recent advances of the economics of knowledge into the economics of the academic system. The paper elaborates and tests the hypothesis that there are different types of academic knowledge that exert different effects on economic growth. The recent advances of the economics of knowledge enable to appreciate the differences among types of academic knowledge in terms of appropriability, fungibility and cumulability, field of application and with respect to the specificities of the generation process. Building upon these bases, distinctions can be made between knowledge in hard sciences, social sciences, humanities and medical sciences. The hypotheses are tested on OECD data about the numbers of university graduated students in the years 1998-2008 in 16 countries with a simple production function. The results stress the differences in the output elasticity of each discipline and confirm their wide differences in the capability to contribute economic output. The policy implications are important: public support to the academic system, advocated to support economic growth, should not be spread uniformly across academic disciplines but rather focus the academic fields that are better able to contribute economic growth.. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201203&r=knm |
| By: | Mario D. Tello (Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) |
| Abstract: | Este trabajo resume la política en Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (CTI) en el Perú, particularmente en el sector de servicios. Dicha política no has sido prioritaria para los gobiernos de las últimas dos décadas. Adicionalmente, los indicadores CTI están entre los más bajos de América Latina (AL). El sistema nacional CTI (SINACYIT) es desarticulado y basado en programas que promueven actividades de innovación en los sectores primarios y manufacturados sin ninguna estrategia específica de innovación que la sustente. En el caso de servicios, la política fue orientada en proveer infraestructuras para las herramientas de tecnologías de información y comunicaciones (TIC) bajos los principios de acceso universal, asequibilidad, fomento de la competencia privada, y convergencia tecnológica y de servicios en concordancia con la evolución y desarrollo de las tecnologías de información y comunicación. Estos hechos conjuntamente con las magnitudes inadecuadas de los indicadores CTI sugieren la necesidad de replantear la estrategia de la política STI y de sus arreglos institucionales. |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes the science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in Peru focusing in the services sector. Consistent with some other survey studies, STI policy in Peru has not been a priority for the different government administrations of the last two decades. Further, STI indicators are among the lowest ones of Latin American Countries (LAC). The national STI system (SINACYIT) has been built in a disarticulated way and STI policy was concentrated on some particular programs and funds oriented basically to foster firms’ innovation activities of primary and manufactured sectors without a specific and previously designed innovation strategy. In the case of services, policy was oriented in providing information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure under the principles of universal access, affordability, fostering private competition, technological convergence in concordance with the evolution and development of ICT. These facts together with the inadequate figures of STI indicators suggest the need to rethink STI policy strategy and its institutional arrangement. |
| Keywords: | Innovación, productividad laboral, ciencia, tecnología e innovación. |
| JEL: | O14 O54 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pcp:pucwps:wp00353&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The slow growth of advanced economies since the late 90s is interpreted as the transient and apparent consequence of the discontinuity engendered by the sequence of institutional, technological and structural changes towards a knowledge intensive economy. The origins of such discontinuity can be grasped with an interpretative frame based upon the grafting of the localized technological change approach on the Heckesher-Ohlin model of international trade. This approach enables to identify the gale of information and communication technologies as the result of the efforts to cope with the institutional changes and their effects in terms of a strong bias towards knowledge intensive activities and the decline role of capital in advanced economies. The identification of the bias in technological change provides the tools to understand the determinants of the rapid transformation of the economic and social structure of the advanced economies more and more centered on the intensive use of knowledge as a production factor. The bias accounts for the apparent and transient decline of the rates of growth of output and labor productivity. This interpretative framework enables to grasp the foundations of regime shift in the growth of advanced economies and helps to spell out the significant risks of the dangerous transition to a knowledge economy. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201204&r=knm |
| By: | Guerzoni, Marco; Aldridge, Taylor; Audretsch, David B; Sameeksha, Desai (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Scientific breakthroughs emanating from universities can be a trigger for the emergence of new industries such as in the paradigmatic case of biotechnology. Obviously, not all research conducted in the universities leads to radical departure from the existing technological trajectories. When a patent protection is granted to a discovery, it is possible to construct a proxy for the originality of the discovery based on patent citations. Patent originality has been long recognized in fostering the emergence of new technologies and industries. However, while a large body of literature exists measuring the impact of patent originality on a broad range of measures of firm performance, this paper aims at investigating the conditions driving patent originality. In particular, in providing the first empirical examination of the determinants of patent originality, this paper finds that the research context, as reflected by the funding source for the scientist, influences the extent to which intellectual property protected by a patent is original. Eventually, we propose that university scientists funded by their university, which has a more fundamental mission, have a higher propensity to generate patents that are more original. By contrast, university scientists funded either by industry or other non-university organizations have a lower propensity to generate more original patents. |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201219&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli, Cristiano; Fassio, Claudio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes the large literature on the university industry relations providing unique historic evidence on the positive effects of academic spillovers as proxied by chairs, distinguished by disciplinary field, on total factor productivity growth. The analysis impinges upon an original data-base on the evolution of the size and the disciplinary composition of the stock of academic chairs in Italy in the years 1900-1959. The results confirm the contribution of academic knowledge to economic growth and the positive effects of the public support to the academic system. At the same time they shed new light on the differentiated impact of the different disciplines on economic growth. The increase in the number of chairs in engineering and chemistry contributed to total factor productivity growth more than any other discipline. This is consistent with the historic context characterized by the radical transformation of a backward agricultural economy into a highly industrialized and rich one. The results of this cliometric analysis of a case where the corporate mode of knowledge governance had not yet been introduced confirm the viability of the academic mode of knowledge governance. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201212&r=knm |