Are complementary reforms a “luxury” for developing countries?

This paper investigates the impact of complementarity reforms on growth and how it depends on GDP per capita. Based on reform data for six policy areas compiled from various sources during the period 1994–2006 for over 100 countries, we compute composite indicators of reform level and complementarity. We provide qualitative justification for the existence of pair-wise complementarities among policy areas. We then use cross-section and panel data estimates to test the effect of reform level and complementarity on GDP per capita growth. We found reforms to be positively related and their dispersion (or the inverse of complementarity) negatively related to growth, controlling for initial conditions, monetary stability and other structural and institutional variables, as well as endogeneity of reform level and complementarity. We show that the effect of policy complementarity is a stronger condition for sustainable growth in developing than in advanced countries, to conclude that complementary reforms are not a ‘luxury’ for developing countries.     

From information technology to bioinformatics: Evolution of technological capabilities in India

This paper explores a trend in the development of innovation in emerging economies: exaptive technological capabilities. A growing proportion of innovation is originating in emerging economies that, being resource-constrained in a dynamic and uncertain environment, requires leveraging existing capabilities and recombining with new knowledge resources. An evolutionary biology model is applied to a process model whereby initial technological capabilities are renewed by the firm given an external selection event. Using a detailed case study across 6 years, this paper investigates the exaptation process of Information Technology (IT) capabilities into bioinformatics by an Indian IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Findings suggest that just leveraging existing technological capabilities alone is a model set for failure. Such a tactic ignores the environment of the new technology application area. By investing in the needed complementary resources, TCS corrected its initial path to open source their software and offer consulting services on how to utilize the software and, thus, create intellectual property. These insights are valuable not only for the innovation management of traditional IT services to life sciences, but more broadly for firms in emerging economies that hope to renew and build exaptive technological capabilities to enter unforeseen new application areas by leveraging existing technological capabilities.     

A mathematical programming approach to constructing composite indicators

Composite indicators (CIs) have been widely accepted as a tool for performance monitoring, benchmarking, policy analysis and public communication in various fields. To a large extent, the usefulness of a CI depends heavily on the underlying weighting and aggregation schemes. In this paper, we propose a mathematical programming approach to constructing composite indicators. The proposed approach uses two sets of weights that are most and least favourable for each entity to be evaluated and therefore could provide a more reasonable and encompassing CI. We apply the proposed approach to develop a CI for modeling the sustainable energy development of eighteen APEC economies and present the results obtained.     

Technological specialization and economic performance in oecd countries

The paper investigates the growing sectoral specialization in technological activities of OECD countries (measured using patent data) and its impact on countries innovative-and economic performance in the 1975-1990 period. Aggregate indicators of sectoral specialization are introduced, showing the extent to which countries concentrate their innovations in few fields, or spread them across several sectors. A general positive relationship us found between the degree of specializatin in technology and higher rates of growth, while specialization in electronics-related fields in not associated to better economic or technological performances.The position of individual countries in these patterns is also examined, showing that specialization has been an element of the catching-up process of the past decades, which has led to a growing economic convergence among OECD countries.     

Digital Economy Development,Institutional Quality and Upstreamness of Global Value Chains

By building a composite index for measuring national digital economy development and sectoral digital intensities, this paper derives metrics of industry-level digital economy penetration under the framework of specialization within global value chains (GVCs), systematically analyzes the mechanisms through which digital economy development affects GVCs upstreamness, and examines the moderating effect of institutional quality. The study shows that different dimensions of digital economy development significantly boost GVCs upstreamness, a conclusion that holds even after accounting for endogeneity through dynamic panel models with instrumental variables based on past data. Further research shows that technological innovation capabilities and resource allocation efficiency have gradually become important channels for digital economy development to boost GVCs upstreamness. Adding indicators on institutional quality reveals that greater institutional quality not only directly promotes GVCs upstreamness but also reinforces the impact of digital economy development on higher GVCs positioning.     

Changes in National Technological Competitiveness: 1990, 1993, 1996 and 1999

Georgia Tech's Technology Policy and Assessment Center, with support from the US National Science Foundation, has been generating High-Tech Indicators (HTI) — measures of national technology-based export competitiveness since 1987. This paper reports the HTI results for 33 nations in 1999 in comparison with those of 1990, 1993 and 1996. HTI includes four 'input indicators' and a key 'output indicator' — technological standing. We construct a new composite input indicator here and examine its predictive capability. Input indicators for 1990 and 1993 show intriguing relationships to 1999 technological standing. We compare the indicators for various groups — leading and emerging Western economies, rapidly developing Asian economies, former Eastern Bloc nations and lagging Latin American countries. The USA presently exhibits a dominant position, but signs strongly point toward increasingly broad-based competition in technology-based products.     

Changes in National Technological Competitiveness: 1990, 1993, 1996 and 1999

Georgia Tech's Technology Policy and Assessment Center, with support from the US National Science Foundation, has been generating High-Tech Indicators (HTI) — measures of national technology-based export competitiveness since 1987. This paper reports the HTI results for 33 nations in 1999 in comparison with those of 1990, 1993 and 1996. HTI includes four 'input indicators' and a key 'output indicator' — technological standing. We construct a new composite input indicator here and examine its predictive capability. Input indicators for 1990 and 1993 show intriguing relationships to 1999 technological standing. We compare the indicators for various groups — leading and emerging Western economies, rapidly developing Asian economies, former Eastern Bloc nations and lagging Latin American countries. The USA presently exhibits a dominant position, but signs strongly point toward increasingly broad-based competition in technology-based products.     

技术动态性、组织学习与技术追赶: 基于技术生命周期的分析

组织学习的研究说明，环境动态性越强，组织学习越重要。从技术动态性和组织学习角度出发．根据技术生命周期(TLC)，对发展中国家的技术追赶战略进行了研究。结果表明，在TLC的不同阶段，技术动态性强弱存在差异，相应地，对于处于不同发展阶段的技术实施技术追赶，追赶者应该具备的组织学习能力也不相同。成熟期和导入期技术是追赶者进行技术追赶的两个机会窗口，这两个机会窗口之间存在着逻辑递进关系，当组织学习能力较弱时，应优先选择成熟期技术进行追赶，当组织学习能力得到提升后，再选择导入期技术进行追赶，直至实现技术追赶的目标。     

International comparison of technological activities and specializations: a patent-based monitoring system

Based on patent-based indicators, this study aims to an analyze the positions of a number of western contries in a broad spectrum of technology fields. Particular attention is focused on the Netherlands. Patent-based indicators reflect results of research and developement activities and may provide an insight into developement of possible economic interest. Earlier studies have shown a positive correlation between a country's patent position and the development of, for instance, foreign trade. We applied patent indicators to analyze a country's patenting activity in a field of technology as compared with the world average (or an average for a specific group of countries). It indicates to what extent a country 'specializes' in that field. Such an analysis yields a country's 'profile' as an 'inventor country'. Monitoring all fields, covering the whole area of technology for an extended period of time, by patent analysis provides an insight into the technological position of a particular country relative to other countries. The results of the analysis performed in this study are represented in a specific graphical form, covering both absolute and relative ('specializations') technological activites. Thus a monitoring system useful for technology policy and research and developement management is constructed.     

International comparison of technological activities and specializations: a patent-based monitoring system

Based on patent-based indicators, this study aims to an analyze the positions of a number of western contries in a broad spectrum of technology fields. Particular attention is focused on the Netherlands. Patent-based indicators reflect results of research and developement activities and may provide an insight into developement of possible economic interest. Earlier studies have shown a positive correlation between a country's patent position and the development of, for instance, foreign trade. We applied patent indicators to analyze a country's patenting activity in a field of technology as compared with the world average (or an average for a specific group of countries). It indicates to what extent a country ‘specializes’ in that field. Such an analysis yields a country's ‘profile’ as an ‘inventor country’. Monitoring all fields, covering the whole area of technology for an extended period of time, by patent analysis provides an insight into the technological position of a particular country relative to other countries. The results of the analysis performed in this study are represented in a specific graphical form, covering both absolute and relative (‘specializations’) technological activites. Thus a monitoring system useful for technology policy and research and developement management is constructed.     

The technological capabilities of nations: The state of the art of synthetic indicators

Composite synthetic indicators of the technological capabilities of nations have been used more frequently over the last years becoming a sort of Olympic medal table of the innovation race. The European Commission, specialised United Nations Agencies, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and individual scholars have developed several of these measurement tools at macroeconomic level. All these indicators are based on a variety of statistical sources in order to capture the multidimensional nature of technological change. This paper reviews these various exercises and: i) it brings into light the explicit and implicit assumptions on the nature of technological change; ii) it discusses their pros and cons; and iii) it explores the consistency among the results achieved. Most of the final rankings at the country level are fairly consistent, but significant discrepancies for some nations emerge. The value of synthetic indicators of technological capabilities for public policy, company strategies and economic studies is finally discussed.     

On the evolution of technological specialization patterns in emerging countries: comparing Asia and Latin America

This paper explores the role of technological opportunity and cumulativeness in the evolution of technological specialization patterns (TSP) in catching-up processes. Concretely, I assume that opportunity induces mobility while cumulativeness leads to diversification and stability. The empirical analysis uses patent data indicators for nine Asian and Latin American countries between 1978 and 2012. The paper shows that, during economic liberalization (although with different timings), emerging countries caught up and redefined the path of technological accumulation for Asian and Latin American countries. With the exception of Hong Kong, all the countries increased their technology share, but they ran in different directions. Asian countries made greater relative efforts in dynamic technologies, while Latin American countries focused on stagnant technologies. In this sense, Asian countries achieved a more successful performance, building new technological bases and taking a technological leap in some of the more dynamic technologies. Meanwhile, Latin American countries left their technological bases unchanged. The paper also shows that, at the beginning of the catching-up cycle, the TSPs were turbulent. Afterwards, cumulativeness in the technological choice induced the diversification and stabilization of the TSPs.     

Measuring economic freedom: an alternative functional specification and subsequent ranking

ABSTRACT

The widely cited Economic Freedom of the World index is an aggregate measure of economic freedom calculated by using a simple arithmetic mean of scores over five sub-dimensions: (1) size of government, (2) legal structure and security of property rights, (3) access to sound money, (4) freedom to trade internationally and (5) regulation of credit, labour and business. The use of a simple arithmetic mean implicitly assumes that the different sub-dimensions are ‘perfect substitutes’. To explore the implications of this assumption, we compute an aggregate economic freedom score and ordinal ranking of countries, by taking a geometric mean of the five sub-dimensions. For this alternative specification, the marginal impact of each sub-dimension on the aggregate score is no longer independent of the other sub-dimension scores. Consequently, countries with inconsistent levels of economic freedom across sub-dimensions are ‘punished’ to a greater degree than are countries with less variability across sub-dimensions. Our alternative specification results in considerable movement in terms of country rankings. The geometric mean measure does not appear to explain economic growth as well as the arithmetic mean measure.     

基于技术追赶的企业技术能力微观结构研究

在文献评述的基础上,界定了基于技术追赶的企业技术能力概念,剖析了企业技术能力微观结构。认为基于技术追赶的企业技术能力是指在致力于搜索、选择、获取、吸收和改进现有技术的过程中,有效地学习、积累和使用技术知识的能力。技术后进地区或国家的企业通过对技术知识的不断学习、积累和使用,企业技术能力沿着搜索、选择、获得、吸收、改进五阶段模式螺旋式上升。     

Exploring technological resilience at the country level with patents

Resilience is critical to stabilise and reduce shocks and create advantages over competitors in environments with dramatic change and unexpected crises. There is no generally agreed-upon definition of technological resilience, and there is not yet a well-developed theory of technological resilience at the country level. The objective of this paper is to contribute to technological resilience research based on patent indicators by analyzing OECD countries’ technological resilience. This paper provides a framework to analyze the quality of selected patent indicators used for estimating technological crisis. More specifically, four sets of patent indicators, i.e. collaboration, knowledge, diversity, and legal protection, are employed to evaluate technological resilience, which is characterised as crisis probability, intensity, and duration. We found that higher technological coverage leads to higher crisis probability, more original technology leads to higher crisis intensity, and interpersonal collaboration enhances the chance of passing a crisis.     

Conditional factors Pushing catch-up across developed and emerging countries in the nanotechnology sector, 2000–2010

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to test national and sectorial technological and innovation capability factors, as well as social capability indicators, which could explain a possible conditional convergence across countries in nanotechnology within the context of a model of innovative technological knowledge β convergence. Based on growth convergence models, our proposal also takes into account the Schumpeterian theory, the National System Innovation –NSI– approach, and particularly the sectorial system of innovation and the technological catch-up hypothesis, as well as theoretical and empirical literature on conditional convergence. The findings allow us to confirm that new nanotechnology knowledge convergence is conditioned by a higher growth rate of technological capabilities in nanotechnology: growth from the initial level of patents granted, cumulative knowledge, and links to technological and scientific activities. Finally, as regards social capabilities, only the institutional weakness variable (corruption index) associates negatively with β convergence. As an emergent paradigm, we realize that convergence and catch-up are starting processes, which could allow less technologically developed countries to benefit from higher growth of some of the factors identified.     

The relationship between a firm's patent quality and its market value — The case of US pharmaceutical industry

This study examined the relationships between corporate market value and four patent quality indicators - relative patent position (RPP), revealed technology advantage (RTA), Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of patents (HHI of patents), and patent citations - in the US pharmaceutical industry. The results showed that RPP and patent citations were positively associated with corporate market value, but HHI of patents was negatively associated with it, while RTA was not significantly related to it. Thus, if pharmaceutical companies want to enhance their market value, they should increase their leading positions in their most important technological fields, cultivate more diversity of technological capabilities, and raise innovative value of their patents. In addition, this study found that market value of pharmaceutical companies with high patent counts was higher than that of pharmaceutical companies with low patent counts, and suggested that pharmaceutical companies with low patent counts should increase RPP in their most technological fields, decrease HHI of patents, or raise patent citations to further enhance their market value. Furthermore, this study developed a classification for the pharmaceutical companies to divide them into four types, and provided some suggestions to them.     

National capacities to absorb and institutionalize external science and technology

This article describes a conceptual model of kechnology absorption and adaptation leading to a country's export-based conipetitiveness in high-technology products, and the results of the model's application to empirical data on 29 countries. The model is one output of a recently-completed, five-year investigation of indicators of high-technology development. The model's seven conceptual variables were operationalized by combining statistical data with expert-derived measures to produce composite indicators.

The seven indicators include four “leading” or infact indicators that are expected to be predictive of a nation's competitiveness, in high-techndogy products i n approximately 15 years, and three output indicators of current competitiveness: world market share, national emphasis on high technology products for export, and recent rate of change in world market share. Extensive assument of the validity and reliability of the indicators leads to the conclusion that the model is a useful tool, for both policy and research.     

Technological diversification, complementary assets, and performance

Most research on technological diversification or complementary assets has been carried out in isolation when assessing their effects on performance. In this study, we posit that technological diversification and performance are positively linked and that specialized complementary assets have a moderating effect on this relationship. This study also finds that different specialized complementary assets have distinctive moderating effects on the relationship between technological diversification and performance. We conclude that maintaining a coherent relationship between technological diversification and specialized complementary assets give firms generates competitive advantage.     

A tale of two countries: Directed technical change,trade and migratory movements

We propose a North-South model that reconciles trade and production strategies, flows of innovators and the path of economic divergence, or convergence, between countries. We explain the mechanisms behind these forces and show how the technological and economic gaps can be reversed if southern countries stop imitating northern goods and, instead, produce complementary goods. Such a strategy of complementarity on production yields the necessary incentives to innovators to engage in research in southern countries, which enhances the catching-up process between countries. It is also shown that migratory movements of unskilled labor between countries are also relevant to understand the dangers and benefits of different trade strategies for economic growth. This paper suggests a positive (negative) correlation between technological innovation in the North (South) and the level of substitutability in production, while under complementarity, technological innovation catches up in the South, therefore fostering the economic catching up process. A positive correlation between inflows of skilled and unskilled labor and substitutability of production between countries is also verified.