|
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
|
Issue of 2013‒12‒06
ten papers chosen by Fulvio Castellacci Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) |
| By: | Peters, Bettina; Roberts, Mark J.; Vuong, Van Anh; Fryges, Helmut |
| Abstract: | Using firm-level data from the German manufacturing sector, we estimate a dynamic, structural model of the firm's decision to invest in R&D and quantify the cost and longrun benefit of this investment. The model incorporates and quantifies linkages between the firm's R&D investment, product and process innovations, and future productivity and profits. The dynamic model provides a natural measure of the long-run payoff to R&D as the difference in expected firm value generated by the R&D investment. For the median productivity firm, investment in R&D raises firm value by 3.0 percent in a group of hightech industries but only 0.2 percent in low-tech industries. Simulations of the model show that cost subsidies for R&D can significantly affect R&D investment rates and productivity changes in the high-tech industries. -- |
| Keywords: | R&D demand,Innovation,Productivity,Dynamic structural model |
| JEL: | L60 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13089&r=tid |
| By: | Thomas Grebel (Economics Deprtment, TU Ilmenau); Lionel Nesta (Ofce) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the conditions under which R&D investment by rival firms may be negatively or positively correlated. Using a two-stage game the influence of spillovers and product substitution is investigated. It is shown that under Cournot competition, the sign of the R&D reaction function depends on four types of environments in terms of the level of product substitution and of spillovers. We then test the prediction of the model on the world’s largest manufacturing corporations. We assume that firms make oblivious R&D investments based on the R&D decision of the average rival company. We then develop a dynamic panel data model that accounts for the endogeneity of the decision of the mean rival firms. Results corroborate the validity of the theoretical model. |
| Keywords: | Process R&D, Spillovers, Product substitution, Reaction function, GMM |
| JEL: | D43 L13 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fce:doctra:1322&r=tid |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (CSIR, Blekinge Inst of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how the influence of firm-level innovation determinants varies over the industry life cycle. Two sets of determinants are distinguished: (1) determinants of a firm’s innovation propensity, i.e. the likelihood of being innovative and (2) determinants of its innovation intensity, i.e. innovation sales. By combining the literature emphasizing firms’ internal resources (micro level) with the research strand on the role of the industry context (meso-level), the paper develops hypotheses about the relative importance of firm-level innovation determinants over the industry life cycle. Estimation of a firm-level model of innovation in Sweden, while acknowledging the stage of the life cycle of the industry a firms belongs to, shows that the importance of the determinants of innovation propensity and intensity are not equal over the stages of an industry’s life cycle. |
| Keywords: | Determinants of innovation; innovation intensity; innovation propensity; Industry Life Cycle (ILC); Community Innovation Survey (CIS4) |
| Date: | 2013–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bthcsi:2012-011&r=tid |
| By: | Schubert , Torben (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) And CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden); Andersson , Martin (CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden and Blekinge Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | There is consistent evidence in the literature that average employee age is negatively related to firm-level innovativeness. This observation has been explained by older employees working with outdated technological knowledge and being characterized by reduced cognitive flexibility. We argue that firms can mitigate this effect through employee turnover. In particular turnover of R&D workers is deemed a vehicle for transfer of external knowledge to the firm, which can compensate for lower cognitive flexibility and up-to-date knowledge among older workers. We use a matched employer-employee dataset based on three consecutive CIS surveys for Sweden to test our predictions. Our results suggest a) that overall employee age impacts negatively on product innovation activities (both in terms of propensity and success), b) that the effect of em-ployee staying rate (measured by the share of employees that remain in the firm from one year to the next) on innovation follows an inverted U-shape implying an ‘optimal’ level of employment turnover, and c) that this ‘optimal’ value is lower for firms with older employees. The latter suggests that firms with older employees can at least partially compensate an aged workforce by increased employment turnover. |
| Keywords: | ageing; employee age; innovation; firm performance; R&D; human capita |
| JEL: | D22 J21 J24 L25 |
| Date: | 2013–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2013_029&r=tid |
| By: | Wixe, Sofia (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School); Andersson, Martin (Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a conceptual discussion of relatedness, which suggests a focus on individuals as a complement to firms and industries. The empirical relevance of the main arguments are tested by estimating the effects of related and unrelated variety in education and occupation among employees, as well as in industries, on regional growth. We show that for regional productivity growth, occupational and educational related variety matter over and above industry relatedness. This supports the conceptual discussion put forward. The potential of productive interactions between employees in a region is greater when there is related variety in their ‘knowledge base’. We also find that related variety in industries is positive for employment growth but negative for productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | Relatedness; variety; occupation; education; regional growth |
| JEL: | J24 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0332&r=tid |
| By: | Lerner, Josh; Tirole, Jean |
| Abstract: | A major policy issue in standard setting is that patents that are ex-ante not that important may, by being included into the standard, become standard-essential patents (SEPs). In an attempt to curb the monopoly power that they create, most standard-setting organizations require the owners of patents covered by the standard to make a loose commitment to grant licenses on reasonable terms. Such commitments unsurprisingly are conducive to intense litigation activity. This paper builds a framework for the analysis of SEPs, identifies several types of inefficiencies attached to the lack of price commitment, shows how structured price commitments restore competition, and analyzes whether price commitments are likely to emerge in the marketplace. |
| Keywords: | Standards, licensing commitments, standard-essential patents, royalty stacking, FRAND, hold ups and reverse hold ups. |
| JEL: | D43 L24 L41 O34 |
| Date: | 2013–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:27713&r=tid |
| By: | Heger, Diana; Hussinger, Katrin |
| Abstract: | Classical patent literature assumes that patents grant well-defined legal rights to exclude others from practicing an invention. In this scenario, start-up companies benefit from the exclusive right to commercialize patent-protected inventions and the certification effect of patents which signals the ventures' 'quality' to investors. If the decision about patent applications is pending at the patent office patent rights become probabilistic and both effects may not realize. We show that start-up companies are reluctant to launch new products if patents are pending. Further, pending patents attract risk-seeking investors (venture capitalists), while more cautious investors (banks) do not react on pending patents. -- |
| Keywords: | start-ups,patents,probabilistic patents,pending patents,access to finance,new product launch |
| JEL: | L26 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13095&r=tid |
| By: | Schwiebacher, Franz |
| Abstract: | Thickets of partially overlapping patent rights raise costs to secure IPR for innovation. Fragmented IP ownership raises coordination costs to resolve mutual blockades. Inadvertent patent infringement poses the risk of fruits from investments to be exploited. A gap in economic commitment levels may be exploited if capital-intensive innovators have more invested application-specifically than inadvertently infringed IPR owners. I study whether fragmentation or heterogeneous capital-intensities among owners of overlapping patents affect propensities to invest in innovation. I find that firms with small patent portfolios are less likely to invest in innovation if IPR is fragmented. Firms with large patent portfolios are less likely to invest in innovation if cited patent owners have smaller stocks of fixed capital. This suggests that effects of patent thickets on innovation are not evenly spread among innovating firms. -- |
| Keywords: | Investment in innovation,Complementary assets,IP hazards |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13096&r=tid |
| By: | Prud'homme, Dan |
| Abstract: | Although China became the world's leading patent filer in 2011, patent quality is still a serious issue in the country. This article first provides a statistical snapshot of this situation and then discusses how China's network of patent-related policies and practices in certain cases actually contributes to this problem and hampers innovation. The article also looks at the negative consequences of poor patent quality, paying special attention to the impacts on foreign companies in China. |
| Keywords: | patent quality; patent quality metrics; China's patent policy; China's innovation policy; indigenous intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | K11 O25 O31 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:51714&r=tid |
| By: | Idrissa Sibailly (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X, LEI - Laboratoire d'Economie Industrielle - Centre de Recherche en Économie et STatistique (CREST)) |
| Abstract: | Clean technologies implemented by polluters subject to environmental regulation are often developed and patented by specialized technology suppliers. This paper investigates the impact of the environmental regulation stringency on the diffusion of patented clean technologies when the polluters (i.e. the potential licensees) compete in imperfectly competitive markets. We show that the polluters' willingness to pay for clean technology and the diffusion of such technology (i.e. the extent to which it is privately disseminated through licensing) depend not only on the regulatory stringency and the technological efficiency, but also on the polluters' competitive environments. More stringent regulations (e.g., higher carbon taxes) or increased technological efficiency (e.g., supported by more R&D subsidies) do not necessarily induce more diffusion of efficient clean technologies. Indeed, as the returns to implementing a clean technology increase, so do the technology supplier's incentives to sell fewer licenses so as to extract more rent from each of its licensees. |
| Keywords: | Clean technology, Environmental Regulation, Oligopoly, Licensing |
| Date: | 2013–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00911453&r=tid |