基于DEA模型的高技术产业R&D效率评价

作为创新的"孵化器",高技术产业的RD效率问题至关重要。从区域与行业交叉的视角出发,选取RD活动人员折合全时当量和RD经费内部支出作为投入指标,有效发明专利数和新产品销售收入作为产出指标,运用DEA模型研究了中国高技术产业5个行业在17个省市的RD活动效率,运用层次聚类分析对17个省市加以聚类。研究结果表明:中国高技术产业RD效率普遍偏低,没有任何一个省市的5个高技术产业均处于较高的RD效率上;区域间发展很不平衡,高技术产业行业差异比较明显;个别省市的5个高技术产业的RD效率都很低;传统"创新"大省RD效率并不突出,存在严重的资源浪费。针对存在的问题,从追求效率、追求精益、协同发展和加强政策引导等方面提出了对策与建议。     

基于GM(1,1)模型的“十四五”时期化工行业科研人才需求分析

科技创新是化工行业的发展命脉所在,人才是其根本支撑因素。通过梳理2009至2021年间《中国统计年鉴》中代表性化工产业的相关数据,利用GM(1,1)模型对“十四五”时期中国化工行业的研究与试验发展经费与人员全时当量进行预测,并结合实际情况对我国化工行业的科研人才培养问题提出相关建议:第一,以制度构建为主导,实现研究试验经费的高效使用;第二,以成果转化为检验,构建转化链细分的人才培养模式;第三,以待遇保障为基础,尊重科研人才具有的知识价值。     

创新驱动产业转型升级研究——基于中国1998-2016年省域面板数据

为了探究创新驱动产业转型升级的作用机制,构建了创新投入与创新产出对产业转型升级内涵质量与外显效应的影响模型,并提出研究假设。基于中国1998-2016年省域面板数据,借助Eviews 9.0计量软件,采用固定效应模型进行实证研究。结果表明,所提出的研究假设均得到验证。创新产出对产业转型升级内涵质量具有积极影响,创新产出的各表征变量(专利授权数、技术市场合同成交金额、新产品销售收入)每增长1%,产业转型升级内涵质量的表征变量人均国内生产总值将提高0.014 8%～0.051 1%。创新投入对产业转型升级外显效应具有积极影响,创新投入的各表征变量(R&D经费内部支出、R&D人员全时当量)每增加1%,产业转型升级外显效应的表征变量产业结构层次系数将提高0.007 1%～0.010 5%。因此,创新能够驱动产业转型升级,但创新投入与创新产出对产业转型升级的影响机制并不相同。研究结果为创新驱动产业转型升级问题的研究提供了一个新的研究范式,对实施创新驱动发展战略、促进产业转型升级有借鉴意义。     

中国民营工业企业科技创新活动状况研究

分析了我国民营工业企业拥有的科技活动人员数，科技活动经费的筹集情况，企业的科技机构数，科技活动项目数专利申请情况以及R＆D项目数和经费筹集情况等。指出民营企业存在新产品的产值比重较低，在新产品开发方面存在相对劣势，技术创新的激励不到位，不能够有效吸引人才的问题。     

科技金融对创新效率影响的实证研究——基于中国高技术产业省级面板数据

基于中国东部、中部、西部以及全国2007~2016年高技术产业的省级面板数据，以科技经费投入和技术人力投入作为投入指标，以专利数量和新产品的产值作为产出指标，首先使用DEA方法计算了不同地区高技术产业的创新效率。以企业自主创新投入、政府支持、科技信贷和风投支持作为科技金融指标，使用面板模型实证分析了科技金融对于高技术产业创新效率的影响。结果表明，考察期内，中国不同地区高技术产业的创新效率均有所提升；科技金融的发展在一定程度上提升了高技术产业的创新效率，但是外商直接投资对于创新效率产生了一定的抑制作用。最后针对本文结论提出了相关建议。     

国际技术溢出渠道对技术创新影响的比较研究

文章借鉴经典C-D 生产函数模型， 构建包括 R＆D 人员全时当量、R＆D 经费内部支出和 FDI、 ODI、 进口贸易、 出口贸易4 种国际技术溢出渠道等变量的双对数回归模型， 利用 2007～2016 年中国省际面板数据将以上变量对技术创新的影响进行了对比研究。 研究发现，R＆D 经费内部支出对技术创新的提升作用相对较弱；R＆D 人员全时当量和 FDI 的技术溢出对我国技术创新的影响以促进作用为主；ODI 的逆向技术溢出只在中部地区对技术创新起到了较弱的促进作用； 进口贸易和出口贸易的技术溢出对技术创新的影响多以抑制作用为主。 基于上述结论， 本文提出了包括科学规划经费支出、资方向、 积极实施 “走出去” 战略进行ODI 及主动开发并完善内市场的政策建议。     

高技术产业发展的影响因素及其数据检验

本文运用统计数据分析了经济发展水平、科技投入包括资金投入与人力资源投入，企业制度与企业规模等对高技术产业发展影响。此外，对于一些不能获得统计数据的因素，通过调查问卷，分析其是否存在影响作用以及不同影响因素重要性的排序。通过分析发现我国高技术产业具有向东部经济发达地区进一步集聚，以及大型化的趋势。高技术产业的科技投入也具有边际效益递减的规律，大型企业在高技术产业发展中具有主导作用，在众多影响因素中，大多数调查对象认为制度因素是影响高技术产业发展最重要的因素。     

产学研合作对高技术企业创新绩效的影响——基于中国2006~2015年数据的实证分析

企业创新绩效在很大程度上会受到创新模式的影响.本文运用2006~2015年的统计数据,通过实证研究检验了产学研合作对高技术企业创新绩效的影响,结果发现高等学校研发对高技术企业创新绩效的贡献最大,其次是企业内部研发的贡献,而研发机构的贡献相对最小.从要素作用角度分析,高等学校研发人员的贡献最大,而企业和研发机构的研发人员贡献紧随其后,政府支出的研发经费的贡献要大于企业支出的研发经费贡献,技术市场成交额对创新绩效具有正向影响.研究结果表明,政府和企业应加大对高等学校的研发资金支出,企业和研发机构应充分利用研发资源优势,合理分配和使用研发资金,通过加强产学研合作提高高技术企业创新绩效.     

基于突变级数的高技术产业自主创新能力评价及障碍诊断——以我国30 省市区为例

科学的自主创新能力评价方法对提升高技术产业自主创新至关重要，是厘清高技术产业创新障碍的首要手段。基于无需赋权的突变级数法，兼顾创新投入、产出和环境要素，本文构建高技术产业自主创新能力评价模型考量我国30 省市自主创新能力。结合GIS 技术绘制我国高技术产业自主创新能力分布图，分类研究了区域自主创新能力状况。运用突变级数与障碍因子诊断相结合得出改进障碍因子模型，以剖析各地区自主创新能力的主要障碍因子。研究表明：突变级数法可有效评价高技术产业自主创新能力；我国高技术产业自主创新能力从西部向东部沿海地区不断增强； 开发经费额、 总产值和技术成交额是限制高技术产业自主创新能力提高的普遍性“短板因素”。最后本文针对各省市高技术产业自主创新能力分布及主要障碍等提出相应对策和建议。     

投入结构对我国科技产出的效应分析

科技产出不仅受投入资本和研发人员数量影响,也受投入结构影响。通过收集我国1990～2012年间科技产出、投入总量和结构数据,运用生产函数分析了投入结构对科技产出规模和要素效率的影响。研究发现：研发支出、试验发展支出、企业研发投入、高校研发人员等比例扩大对科技产出规模具有显著正向效应,应用研究支出、政府科技投入、高校研发支出、研究机构人员等比例对产出规模呈负向效应;研发人员与资本具有明显的替代关系,研发支出、基础研究支出、机构研发支出、企业研发支出、试验发展人员和企业研发人员等比例提高对研发人员效率有正向效应,但对资金效率呈负向效应,随后,模拟分析了投入结构调整对科技产出的影响。     

Creating or destroying value through mergers and acquisitions: A marketing perspective

A majority of mergers and acquisitions are horizontal, combining companies within the same industry. They are most frequently motivated by a desire to achieve revenue and profit growth through market expansion or by adding new product lines, with cost efficiencies being a secondary agenda. However, the modest body of literature on post-merger performance using marketing metrics indicates that marketing objectives such as sales revenue and market share growth are rarely achieved. This paper reports on a detailed study of 45 M&A deals undertaken to develop a deeper understanding of how marketing performance is affected by mergers and acquisitions. Our results show that marketing performance improved along two dimensions — sales revenue growth, and a reduction in selling, marketing and administrative costs as a percentage of sales revenue, suggesting the realisation of synergies in these areas — economies of scale and scope. However, these benefits did not follow through into better returns on sales suggesting that the marketing cost economies are not sufficient to outweigh cost diseconomies in other parts of the business.     

Engineering New-Product Success: The New-Product Pricing Process at Emerson

Emerson Electric Co. is a diversified manufacturer with $14 billion in sales. The Emerson Price Improvement Team is an internal consulting group that serves the 60+ Emerson divisions. The team's mission is to help divisions achieve their financial and market objectives by providing pricing skills, tools, and project assistance that improve a division's pricing practices. This paper discusses an implementation of the Price Improvement Team's New Product Pricing Process at Fisher-Rosemount, a business unit of Emerson. Fisher-Rosemount is the world's leading supplier of process control systems, and measurement instrumentation. One of the eight Fisher-Rosemount divisions planned to introduce a new process sensor at a price of $2,650. After completing the New Product Pricing Process, Fisher-Rosemount increased the planned sensor price 19%, introducing it at a price of $3,150, resulting in a fifth-year operating profit improvement of $11 million. The New Product Pricing Process enabled the division to gain a detailed understanding of customer perceptions of product value; determine a key design specification for the new product; reduce cannibalization of its existing and highly profitable sensor by positioning the new product to optimize the total product portfolio; predict unit sales, revenue, and profitability for a range of market scenarios; and confidently set the right product price. Achieving optimal revenue and profitability, in a manner consistent with the company's business strategy, is a goal of the process. Equally important, the process ensures that customers receive fair value-based pricing while enabling the supplying company to maintain overall industry price equilibrium.     

How Does Technological Regime Affect Performance of Technology Development Projects?

In this study, we examine how technological regime affects the performance of technology development projects (i.e., project quality, sales, and profit). Technological regime is defined as the set of attributes of a technological environment where the innovative activities of firms take place. Technological opportunity, appropriability of innovations, cumulativeness of knowledge and capabilities, and closeness of knowledge base to basic sciences (versus applied sciences) are attributes of technological regime. Using data from 381 firms across five industries, we show that high levels of technological opportunity, appropriability, and closeness of knowledge base to basic sciences are associated with higher project performance. Cumulativeness is associated with higher project quality, but not higher sales and profit. We also show that the effect of technological opportunity on project performance is moderated by two other determinants of technological regime: cumulativeness and nature of knowledge base. We find that cumulativeness has a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between technological opportunity and project performance, while closeness of knowledge base to basic sciences positively moderates the effect of technological opportunity on project performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for new product development research and practice.     

Using System Dynamics to assess the impact of RFID technology on retail operations

The application of item-level radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in retail supply chains creates cost savings and promises large potential benefits from revenue growth. However, the economic assessment of the impact on improved store operations, labor utilization, and increased sales is still not fully explored. We propose to use System Dynamics as a structural modeling and simulation approach to integrate conventional return on investment evaluations. Building on previous research about RFID technology in retail supply chains, we developed a model based on the case exploration of a leading Italian apparel retailer. Simulations show that RFID implementations are profitable whenever they contribute to increase sales, especially when a fashion retailer is focused on clerk-assisted sales strategies. Sales growth results from the dynamic and integrated impacts of RFID technology on better inventory control, faster inventory turnover, and longer time available for store personnel to assist consumers as an effect of more efficient backroom operations.     

Do Retailers Really Profit from Ambidextrous Managers? The Impact of Frontline Mechanisms on New and Existing Product Selling Performance

When manufacturers introduce a new product to the market, downstream retail partners are faced with inherent trade‐offs. Retail sales personnel have to support the new product's introduction with substantial sales efforts but also sell the existing products in stock, before storage and devaluation costs spin out of control. This study shows how retail sales managers can guide sales personnel's performance of new and existing product selling, respectively. The authors argue that a manager may prioritize selling new products, existing products, or both (i.e., have an ambidextrous selling orientation). Based on data gathered from sales representatives and company databases of a large European consumer electronics retailer, the authors perform a time‐lagged partial least squares analysis to test empirically their conceptual model. The authors find that ambidextrous sales managers outperform their singular‐oriented counterparts if they properly align their orientation with a frontline management mechanism consisting of task autonomy, performance feedback, and employee age. More specifically, ambidextrous managers promote net profit obtainment if they grant their sales employees task autonomy and give little performance feedback. In addition, a remarkable finding is that older sales agents tend to outperform their younger counterparts when working under an ambidextrous manager. The authors discuss the implications of these findings.     

Breakeven Time on New Product Launches: An Investigation of the Drivers and Impact on Firm Performance

The ability to break even faster on new product projects is becoming increasingly critical for firms in fast‐moving industries where continually reinvesting in research and development efforts matters greatly for survival. However, most research to date has focused on studying the impact of two primary innovation outcomes: sales and profits. The exclusive emphasis on sales and profit may be warranted for certain types of goods such as durable goods, but when examining the effects of new products in fast‐moving consumer goods or in the entrepreneurial sphere, where cash to cash matters greatly for survival, it is critical for both researchers and practitioners to not only consider the profits and sales generated by the new product but also the time to breakeven. This paper develops a theoretical framework using the competency‐based literature to examine the effects of innovation drivers (customer idea source, speed to market, product quality, and product newness) on breakeven time (BET) and project profits, and their subsequent impact on firm performance. A three‐stage least square estimation method was employed using longitudinal data on 945 new product development projects and launches in the morning (breakfast) foods category. The results clearly pinpoint that for successful product innovation, managers need to consider the time taken to breakeven on new product development. Specifically, the results demonstrate that speed to market and product quality shorten BET, but customer idea source extends BET. Second, the analysis also empirically demonstrates that BET is an equally effective predictor of firm performance as project profits in the short run, but significantly a stronger predictor of firm performance in the long run (t + four years), suggesting that BET should be regarded as a superior leading indicator of firm performance versus product profitability for fast‐moving consumer goods segment. This is an important finding that suggests firms that recoup their cash investments more quickly experience greater short‐term and significantly more long‐term success.     

MULTIPROJECT STRATEGY AND SALES GROWTH: THE BENEFITS OF RAPID DESIGN TRANSFER IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

This paper explores the impact on sales growth of different product development strategies, especially an approach that focuses on the coordination of multiple projects that overlap in time and share critical components. The data for our analysis comes from the automobile industry, although the principles we discuss should apply to any industry where firms compete with multiple product lines and where the sharing of components among more than one distinct product is both possible and desirable. Some firms compete by trying to develop ‘hit’ products in isolation, with little or no reuse of components or coordination with other products. Another way to compete is to leverage a firm’s investment in new technologies across as many new products as possible as quickly as possible, while the technologies are still relatively new. This paper proposes a typology that captures this effect by categorizing product development strategies into four types: new design, rapid (or concurrent) design transfer, sequential design transfer, and design modification. An analysis of 210 projects from the automobile industry between 1980 and 1991 indicates that firms utilizing the rapid design transfer strategy—quickly leveraging new platform components across multiple projects–increased sales more than when they or their competitors did not use this strategy. The study’s results suggest that not only the sharing of technology among multiple projects but also the speed of technology leveraging are important to sales growth. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementing the lead user method in a high technology firm: A longitudinal study of intentions versus actions

The customer or user's role in the new product development process is limited or nonexistent in many high technology firms, despite evidence that suggests customers are frequently an excellent source for new product ideas with great market potential. This article examines the implementation of the Lead User method for gathering new product ideas from leading edge customers by an IT firm that had not previously done much customer research during their new product development efforts. This case study follows the decision‐makers of the firm through the process, where the end result is the generation of a number of useful product concepts. Besides the ideas generated, management at the firm is also impressed with the way the method makes their new product development process more cross‐functional and they plan to make it a part of their future new product development practices. Approximately one year later the firm is revisited to find out if the Lead User method has become a permanent part of their new product development process. The authors find, however, that the firm has abandoned research on the customer despite the fact that several of the lead‐user derived product concepts had been successfully implemented. Management explanations for their return to a technology push process for developing new products include personnel turnover and lack of time. Using organizational learning theory to examine the case, the authors suggest that the nontechnology specific product concepts generated by the lead users were seen as ambiguous and hence overly simplistic and less valuable by the new product development personnel. The technical language spoken by the new product personnel also increased the inertia of old technology push development process by making it more prestigious and comfortable to plan new products with their technology suppliers. The fact that the firm was doing well throughout this process also decreased the pressure to change from their established new product development routine. The implications for these finding are that: 1) it is necessary to pressure or reward personnel in order to make permanent changes to established routines, and 2) researchers should be careful at taking managers at their word when asking them about their future intentions.     

The Effect of Sales Force Adoption on New Product Selling Performance

Although several studies have suggested that the sales force is a major contributing factor to new product success, few studies have focused on new product adoption by the sales force, particularly with respect to its relationship with selling performance. The present article presents empirical evidence on the impact of sales force adoption on selling performance. We defined sales force adoption as the combination of the degree to which salespeople accept and internalize the goals of the new product (i.e., commitment) and the extent to which they work hard to achieve those goals (i.e., effort). It was hypothesized that the impact of sales force adoption on selling performance will be contingent on supervisory factors (sales controls, internal marketing of the new product, training, trust, and supervisor's field attention), and market volatility. Therefore, this article also provides evidence of the conditions under which sales force adoption of a new product is more or less effective in engendering successful selling performance. The hypothesized relationships were tested with data provided by 97 high technology firms from The Netherlands. The results show that sales force adoption is positively related to selling performance. This finding suggests that salespeople who simultaneously exhibit commitment and effort will achieve higher levels of new product selling performance. Outcome based control, internal marketing and market volatility are also positively related to new product selling performance. The effect of sales force adoption on selling performance is stronger where outcome based control is used and where the firm provides information on the background of the new product to salespeople through internal marketing. Training and field attention weaken the adoption‐performance linkage. These findings may indicate that salespeople in The Netherlands interpret training as “micromanaging” and field attention as “looking over their shoulder.” We conclude with implications of our study for research and managerial practice.     

Perspective: The Evolution of R&D Conduct in the Pharmaceutical Industry

During the past three decades, a series of changes in the market environment have altered the structure of the pharmaceutical industry. While these changes have benefitted the generic drug sector, the effect on the branded drug sector has been detrimental. In sum, these changes have shortened the product life cycles for branded drugs by shifting market share to generic drugs sooner. As a result, it is more challenging for branded drugs to meet return on investment expectations because sales revenue has decreased. This study examines change in the pharmaceutical industry through the lens of the Structure‐Conduct‐Performance paradigm. While research and development intensity has remained stable during the past three decades, new product introductions have shifted to favor brand extension drugs over new, innovative drugs. This change in conduct, reflecting the structural changes that have impacted the industry, indicates a transformation in managers' expectations for returns from investment in new drug development. From a performance standpoint, in the latter part of the period studied, we find a positive relationship between stock return and the introduction of brand extensions reflecting the stock market's approval of the change in product strategy. Our discussion concludes that emerging structural changes may help offset the challenges faced by the branded drug sector and ultimately drive additional changes in the branded sector's conduct.