Technology Sourcing and Strategic Foreign Direct Investment

Empirical evidence suggests that technological spillovers are limited by distance. The present paper investigates the implications of this observation for the investment decisions of a technologically leading and lagging firm, located in different countries. Technological spillovers may induce “technology sourcing” foreign direct investment by the less advanced firm, as it seeks to upgrade its technology. Our main result, however, is that there may be strong incentives for the leading firm to undertake strategic investment abroad in order to prevent technology sourcing by the lagging firm. We analyze how trade costs, the technology gap between firms, technological spillovers, and the ability of a firm to transfer technology between plants affect the two firms’ entry decisions.     

Foreign Direct Investment, Licensing, and Incentives for Innovation

In a two-period duopoly model, this paper considers a foreign firm's choice between licensing and FDI and studies the relative impact of these modes of technology transfer on the incentives for innovation of that firm and its domestic rival. Relative to licensing, FDI limits technology spillovers to the domestic firm but dissipates more rents in the product market. Internalization allows the foreign firm to build on an existing technological advantage. While the local firm develops its best technology if initial licensing is followed by FDI, the foreign firm transfers the most efficient technology under FDI in both periods.     

Coordination Costs,Market Size,and the Choice of Technology

Impact of coordination costs and market size on a firm's choice of technology is studied in a general equilibrium model in which finns engage in oligopolistic competition. A firm establishes an organizational hierarchy to coordinate its production. First, it is shown that an increase in market size leads a firm to choose a more specialized technology. Second, surprisingly, a robust result is that an increase in the level of coordination efficiency leads a firm to choose a less specialized technology.     

Vertically related markets, tariffs, and technology adoption

This study considers the effect of trade policy on the time of technology adoption. Home firm is dependent on a foreign vertically integrate firm for supplies of a key input before the technology adoption and can produce the intermediate input after the technology adoption. Both firms compete by Cournot in the home final product market. I show that the decrease in the tariff on final product imports and the increase in the tariff on input imports create incentives for earlier technology adoption by home firm. While maximizing the discounted sum of welfare, the domestic government should protect home firm initially. Further, provided the cost of technology adoption declined sufficiently over time, the domestic government should stimulate the earlier technology adoption by decreasing the tariff on final product imports and increasing the tariff on intermediate product imports.     

A comparative analysis of the change in R&D efficiency: a case of R&D leaders in the technology industry

This paper measures the cumulative change in research and development (R&D) efficiency of globally leading R&D companies in the technology industry. We use Data Envelopment Analysis /Malmquist index to analyse 49 such companies. The change in R&D efficiency is analysed by decomposing the Malmquist index into ‘catch-up’ and ‘frontier shift’ indices, and by comparing cumulative indices to those at the starting period. Those cumulative indices are obtained at both a firm and an industry level. Results indicate that the overall R&D efficiency of these globally leading R&D companies declined slightly during the period 2007–2013. At a firm level, this study determines in detail how the trend of each firm in R&D activities differs from other companies.     

Information technology, organizational form, and transition to the market

The paper reviews theories of information technology adoption and organizational form and applies them to an empirical analysis of firm choices and characteristics in four transition economies: Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. We argue that two major structural changes have occurred, one concerning technology and another concerning firm ownership and boundaries, and we consider how each change may have affected the other. We estimate the impact of firm size, integration, and ownership on new information technology adoption and the impact of information technology on changes in firm boundaries and ownership, using a sample survey of 330 firms.     

Technology,Exports And Firm Efficiency In Taiwanese Manufacturing

Using firm-level data from the 1986 Census of Manufactures of Taiwan, we examine the links between technical efficiency and firm investments in technology and exports. Stochastic production frontier techniques are used to estimate the technical efficiency of firms by investments in technology as well as by export orientation. Our results indicate that accounting for firm investments in technology is critical in explaining the strong export-productivity link in the extant literature. For the group of large, high technology firms, the differences in the mean efficiencies between exporters and non-exporters are not significantly different than zero in all nine industries under study. However, for the large number of small firms that make no formal investments in technology. exporters are significantly closer to the production frontier than their counterparts that sell in the domestic market.     

Technology, agglomeration, and regional competition for investment

Abstract.  Competition for firms by region has a long-standing history, and the academic literature has debated whether such competition is efficient. We develop a model that explores technology development by firms facing regional competition for their investment and examine the endogenous determination of region policy, firm technology, and agglomeration externalities. We find a new source of inefficiency – regional competition leads firms to inefficiently distort their development and selection of production technology to improve their standing in the regional competition for their investment. We show that these inefficient firm decisions on technology and location can also weaken agglomeration externalities.     

Tariffs, licensing and market structure

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that exclusive owners of an advanced technology are always better off when producing as a monopolist than when competing against another firm. Competition against a less-efficient firm weakens the power that a host country can exert on the incumbent in the form of its tariff policy. We show that this gives a motive for a monopolist to license its technology to another foreign firm. A host country gains more from increased competition if it can induce the foreign incumbent to transfer technology to the host country firm. We show that the host country can do so by tariff commitment. We also discuss the implications of bargaining under licensing and Bertrand competition in the product market. Hence, this paper qualifies and extends the recent work of Kabiraj and Marjit [Protecting consumers through protection: The role of tariff-induced technology transfer. European Economic Review 47, 113-124].     

Rapid Technology Change, ‘Technological Visions’, Corporate Organisation And Market Structure

This paper is a contribution to the analysis of how rapid technology change influences market structure. The paper uses a simple simulation model to explore the effects of four main factors on the development of market structure. These are: (1) the variance (or unpredictability) of the technology trajectory; (2) the speed with which the organisation's ‘technological vision’ adjusts to ongoing technological developments; (3) the absorptive capacity of each division in the multi-divisional firm to experience gained in other divisions; (4) the extent to which competence-destroying innovations generate greater cost penalties for the division of a multi-divisional firm than for a comparable mono-divisional firm. Simultion results are obtained for 100 technological trajectories, and a variety of parameterisations. While there is a tendency for noisier trajectories to disadvantage the larger multi-divisional firm, there are conditions under which such a firm benefits from a noisy technological environment. When competence-destorying innovations affect the division of a multi-divisional firm no worse than the comparable mono-divisional firm, the multi-divisional firm is not disproportionately affected by a noisy trajectory. It may, however, be seriously damaged by a slow adjustment of technological vision, especially when all scale economies are dynamic (rather than static). The simulations confirm that the absorptive capacity of each division to experience from others can be critical in determining the ultimate market structure. A brief empirical motivation for the model is offered by reference to some case studies of the semiconductor industry.     

Technology choice,relative performance pay,and worker heterogeneity

We identify a new problem that may arise when heterogeneous workers are motivated by relative performance pay: if workers’ abilities and the production technology are complements, the firm may prefer not to adopt a more advanced technology even though this technology would costlessly increase each worker’s productivity. Due to the complementarity between ability and technology, under technology adoption the productivity of a more able worker increases more strongly than the productivity of a less able colleague. As a consequence, both workers’ motivation to exert effort is reduced. We show that this adverse incentive effect is dominant and, consequently, keeps the firm from introducing a better production technology if talent uncertainty is sufficiently high and/or monitoring of workers is sufficiently precise.     

Innovation,Skilled Labour,Technology And Performance In Israeli Industrial Firms

A technology index based on R&D, skilled labour and capital vintage was developed and used to characterise industrial firms by technology level, facilitating the analysis of relationships between technology and economic performance at the firm level. The results show that technology-intensive firms are important players in industrial performance, accounting for a disproportionate share of total production. Compared to other kinds of firms, technology intensive firms are larger, more productive, offer higher average salaries, generate a higher value added and a highcr profit per employee and capital. They also tend to operate in more highly concentrated industries and are more involved in external trade. While down-sized as a group, high-tech firms show net job creation during the 11-year period surveyed.     

新企业生成：回顾、演进与展望

新企业生成是创业研究谋求学术贡献的基本支撑。当前组织实践深化与技术创新驱动引发企业生成内涵、边界和行为逻辑变化，导致新企业生成研究面临方向转型与内容深化。弄清新企业生成研究的学术演化趋势和理论发展方向是应对变化的必要选择。首先，从新企业生成研究演化历程中抽取出两条主要研究思路，即要素—行为和企业创建行为规律/模式，作为指引后续文献研究的基本线索；其次，采用内容编码方式提炼出9个新企业生成研究的核心主题，并对各主题随两条主要研究思路发生的理论演进展开阐述；最后，重新回到两条思路，分别提出潜在的未来研究方向。研究成果不仅有助于研究者明晰和理解已有新企业生成研究的根基、关注焦点和演进过程，也可为未来继续在这一核心研究领域挖掘更深、更有价值的理论成果指引方向。     

Failures and Coping Strategies in Indigenous Technology Capability Process

This paper reports on a theory building effort aimed at understanding persistent difficulties with efforts at developing plant-level indigenous technology in a developing country. The firms, having obtained the technology from a donor firm or a laboratory find that implementation and adaptation issues are difficult due to tacit technology knowledge and lack of technical or managerial or market-related systems and experiences. These lead to technological failures referring to situations where serious deviations from expected opportunities and outcomes occur. The failures include loss of entry opportunities, or rejection of technology by the market, or failure at improving processes. With insights offered from 92 organizations in India we identify the different technological failures that occur and ways used to overcome these problems. Exploratory results suggest four major technological failures. (1) Failure due to inappropriate choice of technology leading to longer-than-expected time for establishing production, or inefficient production process, and/or market losses due to poor image of the poorly calibrated product. (2) Failure due to inadequate planning and support for innovation occurs when firms do not invest sufficiently in plant level data collection and analysis, thus missing important avenues for incremental innovation. (3) Failures due to inappropriate processes reveal how short-term orientation and low integration amongst different functional groups thwart the firm’s adaptive and innovative abilities. (4) Finally, failure due to product‐market mismatch and inadequate market survey occurs when market desired features are not maintained, or the incorporated changes are not cost effective. The coping strategies adopted by the firms are also discussed.     

Innovation strategies,process and product innovations and growth: Firm-level evidence from Brazil

Using World Bank ICS 2000–2002 data from Brazilian manufacturing firms, this paper identifies innovation strategies of firms – in particular internal development (“technology make”) and external acquisition (“technology buy)” – and their effect on successful process and product innovations. It subsequently explores the importance of process and product innovations for firm growth. Successful process and product innovations occur mostly through “technology buy” (mostly through the purchase of machinery and equipment), either alone or in combination with a “technology make” strategy. The option of only relying on internal development is less successful. The results on firm growth indicate that innovative performance is an important driver for firm growth. It is particularly the combination of product and process innovations that significantly improves firm growth. Both innovation and growth performance are supported by access to finance. Skills of workforce and management matter, but not necessarily tertiary education levels. The impact of international linkages on innovative and growth performance is mixed.     

Environmental regulation and technology transfers

This paper analyzes the situation in which a national government introduces environmental regulations. Within the framework of an international duopoly with environmental regulations, an environmental tax imposed by the government in the home country can induce a foreign firm with advanced abatement technology to license it to a domestic firm without this technology. Furthermore, when the domestic firm's production technology is less efficient than that of the foreign firm, the foreign firm may freely reveal its technology to the domestic firm. These improvements through the voluntary transfer of technology imply that environmental regulations have positive impacts on innovation.     

Computerization,workplace organization,skilled labour and firm productivity: Evidence for the Swiss business sector

The present study explores empirically the hypothesis that information and communication technologies, new organizational practices and human capital are important determinants of firm efficiency and performance, further that the combined use of these three factors leads to a mutual strengthening of their impact on firm performance. The analytical framework is that of a production function at firm level. The new contribution of this study to the empirical literature is that it is the first empirical study of this type for the Swiss business sector, using a rich data set at firm level for the year 1999 which were collected by means of a postal survey, and giving particular attention to the complementarity issue (several approaches) and to the endogenization of the technology and organization variables.     

核心企业主导型创业生态系统构成与运行机制:以杭州云栖小镇为例

创业生态系统研究逐渐得到学术界重视，但缺乏基于类型学角度的具体探讨，一直处于抽象层面，这一研究现状不利于理论建构。聚焦核心企业主导型创业生态系统构成、核心企业在创业生态系统运行过程中的主导作用，实证研究国内创业生态系统运行机制，以杭州云栖小镇为案例的研究显示：①核心企业基于自身核心能力及网络中心位置，联合各类主体搭建价值网络体系，通过市场化的网络治理机制与跨界开放式创新，协调多主体在创业生态系统不同阶段、不同层次的复杂交互关系，服务于系统中创业企业发展；②在核心企业主导型创业生态系统平台搭建期，通过创业支持机制发挥主导作用。在组织运行期通过资源承诺机制、全链条孵化机制与网络嵌套机制发挥主导作用。在协同获取期，通过资源共享机制、企业协同机制发挥主导作用。     

中国电信服务市场准入管制的随机试验模型分析

文章针对我国电信市场的行业特征,在充分讨论消费者选择和企业决策的基础上构建了一个N次多期迭代的基于随机试验的模型,模拟政府管制政策影响下的市场演化,以判断当前的市场准入管制是否有效率。研究结论认为:在技术存量不足和创新效率不高的条件下,依靠外国资本无法提高本国的消费者利益和最优技术存量。不仅如此,中国电信企业将因此而失去对本国市场的主导地位和控制力,所以我国暂不具备允许外资设立独资电信企业的条件。     

Openness, managerial incentives, and heterogeneous firms

This paper examines the effects of trade openness on managerial incentives and firm-level productivity by incorporating the principal-agent mechanism into the heterogeneous firm trade framework inter alia Melitz (Econometrica 71:1695?C1725, 2003). We show that opening up to trade generally leads to a steeper optimal managerial incentive scheme (and hence, higher firm productivity) via a new mechanism by which selection of heterogeneous firms into the export market plays a key role. This is because trade openness unambiguously increases the variation of firm profits by reallocating profits towards ex post low-cost exporters, leading to a higher stake of the market game faced by the principals. Interestingly, it is further shown that, whilst falling variable trade costs unambiguously increase managerial incentives, a reduction in fixed trade costs could possibly lead to weaker incentives and thus generate productivity losses due to an adverse inter-firm reallocation effect. Hence, the model establishes a causal link between the Melitz-type reallocation effect and the within-firm productivity changes, both of which have been identified as important sources of aggregate productivity gains from trade by recent empirical studies.