企业中的信息技术生产率悖论

信息技术 (IT)生产率悖论描述了从信息技术投资所获得的实际收益和期望收益的不匹配。本文综合国外最新研究进展 ,将关于企业层面的信息技术生产率悖论研究分为三个阶段 :2 0世纪 90年代中期之前为悖论的证实和解释阶段 ;2 0世纪 90年代中期悖论消失 ;2 0 0 0年以后新悖论出现。对新悖论的成因进行分析并探讨了新悖论存在的问题。最后 ,给出企业信息技术生产率悖论对我国企业信息技术投资的启示。     

The impacts of country characteristics upon the value of information technology as measured by productive efficiency

Based on the theory of production, this paper investigates information technology (IT) contribution at a country level by linking it to the complementarity/substitutability phenomena created by the joint presence of IT and the five selected national characteristics. It negates the relationship between IT value and productivity based on a comprehensive panel data set from 25 countries over the period 1997-2006, when the individual analytical method is applied and productive efficiency is used as the performance criterion. The IT productivity paradox is re-examined under the one-equation stochastic frontier production model, while the influence of the five national characteristics is tested under the two-equation stochastic frontier production model. The findings include the following: (i) The IT productivity paradox occurs in not only middle-income (developing) countries but also high-income (developed) countries. (ii) Eastern European countries gain more productive efficiency than the G7 countries when IT is considered as a production factor. (iii) Different national characteristics have impacts on a country's output and productive efficiency. (iv) The chosen national characteristics present both complementarity and substitutability phenomena in association with IT investment, however, the joint presence of national savings and IT creates the substitutability phenomenon across different frontiers. (v) In linking cross-country differences in the IT investments to stages of economic development, our complimentary qualitative analysis tends to conclude that the investments in IT in the advanced developed countries (e.g., G7) and some of the newly developed or emerging economies are likely needed to keep the pace with other competitors and maintain their status of economic development; and the IT investments in the Eastern European countries are necessary to reach the competitive level as well as to raise their economic-development level. (vi) An important policy implication is that policy makers must carefully utilize national characteristics while formulating IT investment strategies.     

信息技术革命与生产率悖论

信息技术革命无疑是人类经济史上一次意义深远的技术进步,但是统计上的观察表明,自20世纪六七十年代美国爆发信息技术革命以来,经济不仅没有得到更快的增长,而且与此前的年份相比,劳动生产率、全要素生产增长水平反而呈现出一种下降的趋势。理论上,一般把这种现象称作为“生产率悖论”。本文试图对这一悖论的几种解释进行考察和评析,以期为国内相关研究提供一个理论基础。     

Information technology and its changing roles to economic growth and productivity in Australia

In this paper we describe our investigation of the role of investment in information technology (IT) on economic output and productivity in Australia over a period of about four decades. The framework used in this paper is the aggregate production function, where IT capital is considered as a separate input of production along with non-IT capital and labour. The empirical results from the study indicate the evidence of robust technical progress in the Australian economy in the 1990s. IT capital had a significant impact on output, labour productivity and technical progress in the 1990s. In recent years, however, the contribution of IT capital on output and labour productivity has slowed down. Regaining the IT capital productivity therefore remains as a key challenge for Australia, especially in the context of greater IT investment in the future.     

Analyzing the relationships between information technology, inputs substitution and national characteristics based on CES stochastic frontier production models

This research examines four interrelated issues at the country level: the value of information technology (IT), inputs substitution and complement, the complementarity phenomenon created by IT and national characteristics, and the productivity paradox, jointly and critically from a global perspective, using the so-called productive efficiency as the performance measure. To that end, we develop the three-factor constant elasticity of substitution (CES) stochastic production frontier model and apply it to a set of panel data from 15 countries over the period 1993–2003, along with the traditional two-factor CES models, within the one- and two-equation frameworks. In the two-equation setting, six national characteristics are selected as the contributing factors of the productive efficiency. The findings include: (i) the value of IT as measured by the productive efficiency is duly recognized: (ii) the productivity paradox is found to be absent from the production process in a majority of developed and developing countries considered, rejecting the existing argument that the paradox exists only in developing economies but does not exist in developed countries; however, the developed countries have used IT capital in their production systems more productively efficiently than the developing nations; (iii) traditional capital (non-IT capital), traditional labor, and IT capital are not pairwise substitutable, contrary to the notion that they are pairwise substitutable at the firm level; (iv) constant returns to scale, as commonly assumed, are not supported by the data; (v) different national characteristics affect a country's output (represented by gross domestic product or GDP) and its productive efficiency differently; and (vi) the complementarity phenomenon is observed in most of the countries (developed and developing) under study.     

ICT investment-specific technological change and productivity growth in Korea: Comparison of 1996–2005 and 2006–2015

This paper analyses the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on the productivity growth in Korea with the dynamic general equilibrium (DGE) model including investment-specific technological change. According to the balanced growth path analysis, ICT investment-specific technological change accounts for 18.8% to labor productivity growth in 1995–2005, then 14.3% in 2006–2015, and the decline in the rate of ICT investment-specific technological change has contributed to the slow productivity growth since the mid-2000s. In cyclical fluctuations, ICT investment-specific technological shocks were significant in output variance in 1996–2005, but neutral technological shocks and non-ICT investment specific shocks became dominant in 2006–2015. In sum, it can be concluded that the impacts of ICT investment-specific technology have diminished in the growth path and cyclical fluctuations. The result that increased (decreased) ICT investment intensity with faster (slower) ICT investment-specific technological change lead to higher (lower) productivity growth indicates that Korea has been a case against the productivity paradox, and sustained technological progress in ICT and expansion of ICT usage could have boosted the productivity growth. Therefore, this study implies that facilitating ICT progress and ICT usage outside of the already well-performing ICT manufacturing can help Korean economy raise the productivity growth rate.     

The impact of information technology on supply chain capabilities and firm performance: A resource-based view

Organizations increasingly rely on information technology (IT) to improve the supply chain process. Yet, past evidence suggests that the investment in IT per se does not guarantee enhanced organizational performance. Drawing from the resource-based view, this study proposes that IT-enabled supply chain capabilities are firm-specific, and hard-to-copy across organizations. These capabilities can serve as a catalyst in transforming IT-related resources into higher value for a firm. Based on data collected from surveying supply chain and logistics managers in various industries, the present study sheds light on these issues. The findings provide a new perspective in evaluating IT investment in the supply chain process.     

出口行为如何影响企业环境绩效

本文首次采用中国制造业企业层面的能源消耗和产出微观数据,利用细分能源类型的二氧化碳排放因子换算得到微观企业环境绩效指标,即单位产出的二氧化碳排放量(二氧化碳排放强度),并试图以企业劳动生产率为桥梁,结合中国出口企业“生产率悖论现象”,研究中国企业出口行为对其环境绩效的影响机制。本文基于企业生产函数框架构建计量模型,实证结果表明:①出口造成中国企业二氧化碳排放强度显著增大,同时,排放强度随着企业出口密度的提高不断增长,出口并没有显著提升企业环境绩效,考虑不同生产函数形式后结论均较为稳健。②传统的“污染避难所问题”并不是造成中国出口企业二氧化碳排放强度更高的主要原因。③中国出口企业生产效率更低,进而导致更高的碳排放强度。④出口企业的低效率和低加成率(低利润率)进一步拖累了企业技术升级和环保投资,这是出口造成企业更为污染的重要原因。本文的研究弥补了贸易与中国微观企业层面环境绩效关系研究的缺口,从微观层面给予污染治理与减排策略以政策参考,证实了在国际贸易进程中不仅应制定宏观目标,还应直接着眼于微观企业,特别是促使出口企业提高自身的生产率,从而推动经济与环境的全面可持续发展。     

Public policy targets in EU broadband markets: The role of technological neutrality

The European Commission has recently sought to substantially revise how it regulates the telecommunication industry, with a key goal being to incentivise investment in high-speed broadband networks. Ambitious goals to incentivise investment in high-speed broadband networks have been set across the European Union, initially in the ‘Digital Agenda for Europe’ and more recently in its ‘Gigabit strategy’. These goals reflect the view of many that there are widespread and significant socio-economic benefits associated with broadband. Our analysis explores the consequence of target setting at a European level, in terms of encouraging investment and picking which technology should be adopted within the context of technological neutrality. We demonstrate that while public policy targets might implicitly favour specific technologies, especially when gigabit targets are defined, the technological choices that occur within individual Member States are shaped by the complex and dynamic interaction between a series of path dependencies that may vary significantly across as well as within Member States. Adopting an ecosystem perspective, we propose a conceptual framework that identifies the key factors associated with technological neutrality and informs a rational decision-making process.     

跨国公司R&D投资对区域创新能力影响的实证研究——基于区域创新知识生产函数的分析

随着跨国公司海外R&D投资的发展,中国的跨国公司R&D机构也在不断增多,跨国公司R&D投资对于我国经济的影响中,很重要的一方面是对于区域创新能力的影响。本文对于跨国公司R&D投资对区域创新能力的影响进行了深入的研究,在分析跨国公司R&D投资的现状的基础上,从定性和定量两个角度分析了跨国公司R&D投资对区域创新能力的影响,在定性研究中从直接效应和间接效应两方面进行论述,在定量研究中运用计量经济学模型进行研究。在跨国公司R&D投资对区域创新能力影响的分析的基础上,本文向政府和企业两方面提出了相应的对策建议。     

Information Technology Tools in New Product Development: The Impact of Complementary Resources*,†

Emergent research has examined the antecedents to using information technology (IT) in the new product development (NPD) process and the impact of IT on NPD performance. Based on the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm, this study hypothesizes that particular resources create IT capabilities that significantly enhance NPD outcomes. More specifically, this research extends previous work by investigating whether three complementary resources, namely an executive champion for IT, global engagement, and organizational innovativeness, influence IT capabilities (IT use frequency and IT replacement frequency), which in turn affect NPD outcomes (NPD task proficiency and NPD performance). To test the conceptual model, survey data were collected from 220 NPD and IT managers in a variety of large Japanese firms. The results show that an executive champion for IT and global engagement are predictors of both IT tool use and replacement frequency while organizational innovativeness contributes only to IT tool replacement frequency. The results also indicate that both IT tool use and replacement frequency have a positive effect on NPD task proficiency, which improves NPD performance. This research contributes to the literature by adding understanding of the role of IT in NPD at the firm level in four ways. First, it examines particular organizational complementary resources and their relationship to IT capabilities. Second, it examines the RBV and IT in the context of NPD, an important business process. Third, it measures IT usage in a more granular fashion (i.e., IT tool use frequency and IT replacement frequency) rather than simply IT usage as a dichotomy. Finally, through testing the proposed model with data collected from Japanese firms, this study provides empirical evidence from an Asian country to answer the call for more NPD research to be conducted in countries other than North American and Western European contexts. The findings of the study also provide implications for managers. Importantly, they indicate that an executive level champion for IT is a key influencer in facilitating IT usage and replacement, and likely can help generate awareness of and support for greater IT investments so the firm can create IT capabilities for effective NPD.     

ICT and economic development in Taiwan: analysis of the evidence

The IT-led development strategy adopted by Taiwan has been greatly recognised by other Asian newly industrialised economies (NIEs) in their own NII initiatives. This paper discusses the impact of ICT on economic growth in Taiwan based on longitudinal data over 16 years. It highlights the joint impact of national IT capabilities and national IT investment on economic growth, and the findings imply that the payoff effect of IT investment on economic growth can be achieved only through a robust national information infrastructure that supports IT adoption and application.     

The role of ICTs in the servitisation and degradation of IT professional work

Recently IT work has been subjected to management approaches that apply production methods to service work. Specialised information and communication technologies (ICTs) used by IT professionals have played an important role in this ‘service turn’, but this has not been adequately explored in the literature. Via a qualitative study of IT professionals situated across the servitised IT functions of five UK‐based organisations, this article considers how these ICTs are inscribed with managerial logics that afford control benefits to managers while undermining professional autonomy and job quality. The article makes two main contributions to the literature. Firstly, it sheds light on how ICTs introduced into organisational IT functions support managerial control objectives and impact the job quality of IT professionals. Secondly, it suggests that ICTs may infect the logic of professionalism that takes pride in the quality of the work performance with a dominant managerial logic that places an emphasis on meeting management objectives.     

A behavioral theory of governments’ ability to make credible commitments to firms: The case of the East Asian paradox

An expansive literature exists linking institutional constraints, credible commitments, and economic growth. Yet, this literature runs into difficulty when it tries to explain the East Asian “paradox:” rapid economic growth achieved by countries with low levels of formal constraints on government discretion. We use a behavioral theory of commitment to argue that the characteristics of the salient actors (governments) and their actions (policies) affect the credibility of their behaviors in ways independent of the structural underpinnings of a country’s political institutions. This behavioral theory of commitment provides a distinct but complementary lens through which to view the apparent paradox presented by these East Asian countries, and more generally provides an alternative theoretical mechanism to explain and predict governments’ ability to credibly signal their commitment to a course of action to investing firms. The success of East Asian countries in encouraging investment from both domestic and foreign firms implies that firms interpret governments’ actions as credible signals of their intention to honor their commitments to firms, consistent with the behavioral theory of commitment.     

Understanding attitude measurement: exploring meaning and use of the PATT short questionnaire

The pupils’ attitudes toward technology survey (PATT) has been used for 30 years and is still used by researchers. Since it was first developed, the validity of the questionnaire constructs has primarily been discussed from a statistical point of view, while few researchers have discussed the type of attitudes and interest that the questionnaire measures. The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge about student interpretations and the meaning of their answers in the recently developed PATT short questionnaire (PATT-SQ). To research this, a mixed methods approach was used, where the qualitative data from six interviewees (students aged 14) help to explain and interpret the quantitative data from 173 respondents (students aged 12–15). The interviewed students completed a Swedish version of the PATT-SQ 3 weeks prior a semistructured interview. The results from this study imply that the PATT-SQ survey can be used mostly as it is, but this study also shows that there are some categories that require some caution when being analyzed and discussed. For example, the gender category cannot be used as intended since it does not measure what it is supposed to and it might be gender-biased. The interest category can advantageously be reduced to four items to focus on school technology, which will indicate how deep a student’s well-developed individual interest is. And the career category seems to only detect students’ who urge a career in technology, while the other students lack knowledge about what that career might be and therefore they are not interested in such a career.     

Determinants of IT Usage and New Product Performance*

Explosive growth of information technologies (IT) has prompted interest in examining the role of IT in new product development (NPD). Through desktop software and Web‐based tools, IT has been used to aid idea generation and product testing as well as for NPD activities such as process and portfolio management. Recent research suggests, however, that a gap exists between IT availability and usage. Given the importance of IT in creating business value through the development of new products and services, the present study seeks to identify factors that affect IT usage. Further, anecdotal evidence and conceptual studies intimate that the usage of IT tools for NPD can shorten time to market, can improve product quality, and can increase productivity. However, empirical substantiation of this impact is mostly nonexistent. The current study investigates the relationship between IT usage and two measures of new product performance: speed to market and market performance. Employing a mail‐survey methodology, the study uses data from a sample of practitioner members from the Product Development & Management Association to examine the effect of project risk, existence of a champion, autonomy, innovative climate, IT infrastructure, and IT embeddedness on the extent of IT usage. These data are also used to explore the impact of IT usage on speed to market and market performance. The results indicate that project risk, existence of a champion, and IT embeddedness positively affect the extent of IT usage for NPD. Additionally, IT usage positively and significantly influences the performance of the new product in the marketplace. Surprisingly, and contrary to popular belief, IT usage does not have any impact on speed to market. An important implication of this study is that IT usage influences performance but not in the way managers expect. Specifically, IT usage does not seem to affect speed to market but rather positively impacts the performance of the new product in the marketplace. This result suggests that IT usage in NPD provides far more value to firms than previously thought and provides evidence to support greater investments in IT for product development efforts. Other implications of the study are that unless IT is embedded into the NPD process and champions for IT tools exist, chances are that IT will not be used and its benefits will not be realized.     

信息产业与中国经济增长的实证分析

信息产业对经济增长的贡献不断上升,对优化产业结构和平抑物价总水平的上涨都起到了重要的作用,已成为经济发展的主导产业部门。信息产业较高的全要素生产率增长率,使得中国技术进步的变化越来越依赖信息技术的创新和应用。在当前全球经济危机的背景下,信息技术产业依然是我国经济增长的重要源泉。     

To invest or screen efficiently: a potential conflict in relationships governed by incomplete contracts

We consider a dynamic trade relationship where quality is not contractible and potential sellers retain quality-relevant private information. We show that the presence of an investment technology to improve the incumbent seller’s innate quality may impair the efficiency of the screening process. If the conflict is effective, the buyer has to induce an inefficient screening process or reduce the productivity of the investment technology. This conflict suggests that the hold-up problem may be more severe than predicted by models of incomplete contracts that assume complete information.     

长三角政府公共资本和民营资本生产率及其经济增长效应的比较研究

近10年来长三角的公共投资（分配）过多地流向了上海、杭州、南京等大城市．导致这些城市人均资本拥有量总体大幅上升，从而引发其边际生产率递减情况的发生。而它们的资本利用效率或者技术创新水平至少是没有明显提升（或是下降），还不足以抵消其资本边际生产率下降的趋势。而位于长三角外围边缘的中小城市的资本边际收益正处于上升期却显得公共投资不足以及人均资本存量过低。倾斜式的公共资本分配政策延滞了长三角中小城市的经济发展。     

Collective Bargaining and Technological Investment: The Case of Nurses’ Unions and the Transition from Paper‐Based to Electronic Health Records

Does the presence of a unionized nursing workforce retard US hospitals’ transition from paper‐based to electronic health records (EHRs)? After tying archival data on hospitals’ structural features and health information technology (IT) investment patterns to self‐gathered data on unionism, I find that hospitals that bargain collectively with their registered nurses (RNs) appear to delay or forego the transition away from paper, consistent with existing theory and research in industrial relations and institutional economics. However, this relationship is fully mediated by a hospital's payer mix: those serving a larger share of less lucrative, elderly, disabled and indigent patients are more likely to adopt EHRs if they are unionized than if they are not, a result that holds even at the median payer mix. Indeed, this accords with research on the interplay of labour and technology as the aforementioned dynamics are driven entirely by RN‐exclusive bargaining units for whom the new IT serves as a complement rather than as a substitute in production. Given the outsized role that unions play in the US healthcare sector, the overall sluggish performance of the sector, and the expectations that policymakers have for EHRs, evidence that these unions are welfare‐enhancing should be welcome news.