The experience of technological collaborations by MERCOSUR companies

This paper examines some of the experiences in information and knowledge sharing involving MERCOSUR firm. It finds that while technological collaborations by MERCOSUR firms are relatively few, located in low-tech sectors and taking place in an environment of little innovation, they are motivated by the need to 'fuse' their own knowledge with that of partner or to improve available information. Modes of governance vary accordingly, with equity or contractual forms being used for new developments and informal agreements for improvements. Govmments and business associations can be important facilitators of technological collaborations. The analysis of technological collaborations suggested that the better prepared a corporation entered an agreement the more successful it was likely to be. It also pointed out that where interactions were intense, well intended and transparent, included personnel exchanges, were properly assessed and involved receptive participants, learning progressed smoothly and partners were satisfied. Benefits of the collaborations included new patentable and non-patentable products new factories, as well as building trust between partners. Premature termination of some collaborations was the result of financia1 limitations unrelated to the success of the collaboration.     

The knowledge bases of the world’s largest pharmaceutical groups: what do patent citations to non-patent literature reveal?

This article examines the knowledge bases of the world’s largest pharmaceutical groups by sales. It builds upon the concepts of knowledge specialisation and knowledge integration as the relevant dimensions along which knowledge bases can be mapped. The former is studied developing indicators of breadth. Breadth is measured by analysing the evolution of specialisation by scientific field over time. It hints at the widening range of bodies of scientific and technological knowledge relevant to firms’ innovative activities. Knowledge integration is studied developing indicators of depth. Depth is measured by analysing the evolution of integration across different typologies of research. It hints at the complex, non-linear interdependencies that link the scientific and technological domains. We develop the analysis on the strength of an original database of 33,127 European Patent Office patents and 41,931 citations to ‘non-patent document’ (of which 19,494 were identified as scientific articles included in the ISI databases) of the 30 largest pharmaceuticals groups during the period 1990–1997. The groups studied seem to have incrementally increased the breadth of their knowledge bases, moving towards the fields proper to the new biopharmaceutical research trajectory. At the same time, some of the groups studied exhibit remarkable depth in knowledge integration in particular fields such as biotechnology, biochemical research and neurosciences.     

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 motivations,institutions and organization of university-industry collaborations in the Netherlands

This study builds on the economics and organization literatures to explore whether and how institutions and organizational structure complement or substitute each other to create specific spaces of alignment where specific individual actors’ motivations co-exist. Focusing on university-industry collaborations, the study examines whether and how different axes of alignment of university and industry motivations are integrated in projects with specific technological objectives and organizational structures, benefitting from the presence of specific institutions designed to facilitate collaboration. Empirically, the study relies on in-depth data on 30 university-industry collaborations in the Netherlands, and provides preliminary evidence that the technological objective and organizational structure of collaboration are malleable variables allowing the integration of both partners’ objectives and expectations. Different institutional incentives for university-industry collaboration favor specific axes of alignment of motivations and certain types of collaborative projects’ design. Hence, our exploratory results suggest that specific organizational and technological structures tend to prevail in the presence of specific institutions.     

技术战略联盟中企业技术能力提高过程研究

本文根据技术所处阶段和企业技术能力强弱对比关系总结了各类技术战略联盟的特点,构建了技术战略联盟中企业技术能力提高的过程模式。研究表明,这一过程的核心在于有效地将合作企业的隐性知识整合到企业自身的技术中,并发挥自主创新能力,创造新的知识与合作企业的知识进行融合,从而进行新一轮学习。如此多次循环,企业通过不断学习,技术能力逐渐得到提升。     

数字经济时代下联盟管理能力对企业颠覆性技术创新的影响——知识流动的中介作用与知识重构能力的调节作用

随着5G网络、人工智能等新科技的推广，数字经济时代已经到来。然而，在数字经济时代下，工业企业要在新一轮科技革命中抢占先机，必须组建联盟关系推动颠覆性技术创新。基于创新联盟理论，构建联盟管理能力与企业颠覆性技术创新研究框架，通过对451份有效问卷数据的实证研究发现：①联盟管理能力对企业颠覆性技术创新有显著正向影响；②知识流动在联盟管理能力与企业颠覆性技术创新的关系中起部分中介作用；③知识重构能力调节联盟管理能力与知识流动和颠覆性技术创新之间的正相关关系。     

Technological progress and regress in pre-industrial times

This paper offers micro-foundations for the dynamic relationship between technology and population in the pre-industrial world, accounting for both technological progress and the hitherto neglected but common phenomenon of technological regress. A positive feedback between population and the adoption of new techniques that increase the division of labor explains technological progress. A transient shock to productivity or population induces the neglect of some techniques rendered temporarily unprofitable, which are therefore not transmitted to the next generation. Productivity remains constrained by the smaller stock of knowledge and technology has thereby regressed. A slow process of rediscovery is required for the economy to reach its previous level of technological sophistication and population size. The model is employed to analyze specific historical examples of technological regress.

Jared Diamond, Ten Thousand Years of Solitude, 1993.

     

Effect of proximity on recombination innovation in R&D collaboration: an empirical analysis

Recombination innovation is a process of creatively combining different knowledge domains in an invention. Recombination innovation in R&D collaboration – joint recombination process, which is integration of the organisation’s internal knowledge with the partner’s new knowledge, serves as the stepping stone of the knowledge search in the technological space. This paper tries to illuminate how different dimensions of proximity of the collaborating partners affect the probability of the collaborative innovation to be recombination innovation. Our result shows that technological proximity has a negative effect on joint recombination innovation. Geographical proximity has an inverted U-shaped effect on joint recombination innovation. The positive effect of organisational proximity on joint recombination innovation is not supported.     

China's patterns of international technological collaboration 1976–2010: a patent analysis study

This study focuses on the trajectories and patterns of China's international collaborations over the period 1976–2010, using patent statistics and association analysis methods. The results identify those government policies that have significantly encouraged changes in the scale and scope of China's collaborations since 1997. The USA and Taiwan are major international collaborators with China, and the top cooperative entities are large-scale multi-national firms, which specialise in production, sales research and development of information or electronics technology; in contrast, universities and research institutions have a negligible presence in international collaborative patenting. This study finds that although China has developed significant international collaborative networks since the 1990s, it still needs to extend these ties to an even greater range of international partners and establish a broader scope of research interests.     

Does partner type matter in R&D collaboration for product innovation?

Most firms tend to utilise various types of R&D collaboration partners simultaneously and partnerships between different types of partners show different properties. Thus, the effect of R&D collaboration may vary depending on partner types. This study considers four partner types: competitors, customers, suppliers and universities. It empirically examines the effect of R&D collaboration with each type of partner on product innovation, employing the Korean Innovation Survey data. Results show that R&D collaborations with customers and universities have a positive effect on product innovation, whereas R&D collaborations with suppliers and competitors have an inverted-U shape relationship with product innovation. This result can provide an explanation to the chaotic results of previous research and assist managers in selecting appropriate R&D partner.     

On the joint effect of technological and management innovations on performance: increasing or diminishing returns?

Most studies on innovation are aimed at covering technological innovation, neglecting other modes of innovation based on non-technological drivers. The latter, referred to as management innovation, consists of the implementation of new management practices, processes or organisational tasks. This work advances knowledge on the topic by exploring the joint effect of simultaneously introducing technological and management innovations on performance. Based on an analysis of 12,563 Spanish firms drawn from CIS data, our findings suggest that firms frequently pursue the simultaneous or joint introduction of both technological and management innovations and that integration impacts positively on a firm’s performance, evidencing an inverted U-shape that suggest positive but diminishing returns. A theoretical framework using the capability-based view embraces the emerging conversation on management innovation issues and its relationship with the well-researched technological one.     

How does knowledge network affect a firm’s explorative innovation? The contingent role of R&D collaborations

Innovation is a process of knowledge recombination [Fleming, L. 2001. “Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search.” Management Science 47: 119 p]. Extant literature highlights the importance of a firm’s knowledge base for innovation, while little is known about the structure of a firm’s knowledge base and how it affects the firm’s explorative innovation. Based upon the perspective of network analysis, we portray a firm’s knowledge base as an intra-organisational knowledge network and examine the effects of two structural features of the network – density and centralisation – on the firms’ exploratory innovation. Using a manual collected dataset of 738 Chinese automobile manufacturers, we find that a firm explores fewer new knowledge elements when the firm holds a dense knowledge network or a centralised knowledge network. More importantly, with the increase of a firm’s R&D collaborations with external actors, the negative effect of density is mitigated while the negative effect of centralisation is reinforced. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

专利联盟成员技术竞合对成员创新绩效的影响

专利联盟存在竞合现象，联盟成员技术竞合究竟是阻碍创新还是激励创新？着眼于专利联盟成员竞合网络，将技术合作划分为探索式合作和利用式合作，将技术竞争划分为学习型竞争和诉讼型竞争，以2006—2019年MPEGLA公司12个专利联盟的76个成员为研究样本，运用负二项回归实证检验专利联盟成员技术竞合对联盟成员创新绩效的影响。研究发现：探索式合作、利用式合作和学习型竞争有利于成员创新绩效提升，而诉讼型竞争不利于成员创新绩效提升；学习型竞争和诉讼型竞争对双元合作的创新激励效应均具有显著负向调节作用。     

Systems biology: A disruptive biopharmaceutical research paradigm

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project a new biological paradigm has emerged, namely systems biology. This paradigm is advancing the view that biology is essentially an information science with information operating on multiple hierarchical levels and in complex networks. A new hierarchical framework for biological knowledge is being constructed to understand the relationships between the various levels of information. Although the goal of finding new medicinal entities is central to drug discovery, the search itself has been dramatically altered in the post Human Genome era.It is our view that systems biology is a disruptive biopharmaceutical research paradigm. Biopharmaceutical knowledge production processes, knowledge dissemination processes, and even knowledge appropriation mechanisms are rapidly evolving to maximize value creation during drug discovery and development. A knowledge framework is used in this paper for conceptualizing and enabling the efficient management of these new complexities in systems biology. Fundamentally important to medical progress is ensuring that multiple innovators can equitably exploit the technological opportunities presented by systems biology. We evaluate the role of academia, government, and industry in preserving these technological opportunities.     

Does the position in the inter-sectoral knowledge space affect the international competitiveness of industries?

ABSTRACT

This paper empirically investigates how the inter-sectoral knowledge flows affect the international competitiveness of industries, once controlling for both cost and other technological factors. Using patent data on 14 manufacturing industries in 16 OECD countries over the period 1995–2009, we apply a network-based approach to capture the effect of industries' position in the flows of technical knowledge across industries, which we label inter-sectoral knowledge space. We find that (i) centrality and local clustering in the inter-sectoral knowledge space positively affect the export market shares of an industry, (ii) such two effects are rather redundant and (iii) national-level knowledge flows' impacts on international competitiveness are way stronger than international ones. Network measures of position in the knowledge space are found to be more relevant than standard technological indicators such as patent counts. Our results point to the importance of industries being well located in the stream of knowledge flows, rather than being innovative per se, and offer a novel yet robust proxy to measure technological factors affecting trade performances. In addition, we find evidence of geographical boundaries of knowledge flows.     

Exploring potential R&D collaboration partners through patent analysis based on bibliographic coupling and latent semantic analysis

The aim of the present research is to provide a new systematic methodology to explore potential Research and Development (R&D) collaboration partners using patent information. The potential R&D collaboration partners are visualised as a patent assignee level map based on technological similarity between patents by using the network analysis. The proposed framework utilises two analytic methods to measure technological similarity. The first method, bibliographic coupling analysis, measures technological similarity based on the citation relationship using patent bibliographic information. Second, latent semantic analysis is utilised based on semantic similarity using patent textual information. The fuel cell membrane electrode assembly technology field is selected and applied to illustrate the proposed methodology. The proposed approach allows firms, universities, research institutes and governments to identify potential R&D collaborators as a systematic decision-making support tool.     

Cooperation in R&D through a network,an ‘organizational gamble’? an empirical analysis of rhône poulenc rorer-gencell

This paper is based on the empirical analysis of innovation challenges to Rhône Poulenc Rorer-Gencell (RPR-Gencell) resulting from development of biotechnology in the pharmaceutical industy. These we identify as an organizational innovation involving the development of a network of partners following and/or inducing a technological innovation. RPR-Gencell represents a ‘style of innovation’ since it is based on various factors specific to the firm and corresponds to a new organizational form, the ‘tight network’ of partners. We argue that this organizational from, in the context of the development of biotechnology in the pharmaceutical industry, can be likened to an ‘organizational gamble’ associated with a ‘technological gamble’ Altogether, this ‘gamble’ dimension means that the network of partners in R&D is still a marginal organizational form. After an introduction we show that the specficities of the pharmaceutical industry especialy since the emergence of biotechnohgy have led to the emergence of a multiplicity of institutional arrangements governing cooperation in R&D. We take as a specific example that of gene therapy. Later on, we present some stylized facts to emphasize the diversity among the network organizational forms. The network of partners is an alternative to the other complex but ‘clarsical’ forms of cooperation (R&D agreements, cross-licensing, joint-ventures, mergers/acquisilions). We propose a new definition of the network based on the case of RPR-Gencell: the ‘tight network’. We distinguish between the ‘tight network’ and all the other approaches, focusing in particular on the ‘loose network’ of cooperative relationship (mostly multifirm alliances implemented with several bilateral contracts). Only two pharmaceutical companies have adopted the ‘tight network’ to govern their cooperation in R&D. We present the network ofpartners as an organizational innovation governing a technological innovation. We argue that this organizational innovation could be likened to an ‘organizational gamble’ in the case of the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, we show that the network raises several organizational issues since it short-circuits traditional strategic operations in the pharamaceutical industry. We argue that among many different reasons, RPR's technological choices (especially the priorig given to gene therapy) have influenced the creation of its network of partners. As a conclusion, we discuss the link between the organizational innovation and the technological innovation focusing on the ‘gamble’ dimension of such an innovation.     

Preferential Liberalization,Antidumping, and Safeguards: Stumbling Block Evidence from MERCOSUR

There is not yet consensus in the trade agreements literature as to whether preferential liberalization leads to more or less multilateral liberalization. However, research thus far has focused mostly on tariff measures of import protection. We develop more comprehensive measures of trade policy that include the temporary trade barrier (TTB) policies of antidumping and safeguards; studies in other contexts have also shown how these policies can erode some of the trade liberalization gains that arise when examining tariffs alone. We examine the experiences of Argentina and Brazil during the formation of the MERCOSUR over 1990–2001, and we find that an exclusive focus on applied tariffs may lead to a mischaracterization of the relationship between preferential liberalization and liberalization toward non‐member countries. First, any “building block” evidence that arises by focusing on tariffs during the period in which MERCOSUR was only a free trade area can disappear once we also include changes in import protection that arise through TTBs. Furthermore, there is also evidence of a “stumbling block” effect of preferential tariff liberalization for the period in which MERCOSUR became a customs union, and this result tends to strengthen upon inclusion of TTBs. Finally, we also provide a first empirical examination of whether market power motives can help explain the patterns of changes to import protection that are observed in these settings.     

技术多元化、行业集中度与企业绩效波动

技术多元化是企业提高核心竞争力的重要手段,在不同行业背景下,技术多元化战略对于企业绩效的稳定作用存在一定的差异.运用2009—2018年710家创业板公司IPC发明专利信息数据,采用固定面板模型,基于行业特征与行业集中度视角研究了技术多元化对于企业绩效波动的影响.研究发现:技术多元化对于企业绩效波动有明显平滑效果;在高科技行业中,技术多元化对企业绩效波动的平滑效应相对较强;行业集中度低的情况下,技术多元化对企业绩效波动的平滑效应相对较强,而在高行业集中度的情况下,平滑效应近乎无效.为企业的技术知识基础建设提供重要依据,同时为不同行业背景下的多元化产业技术生态建设提供科学的理论指导.     

基于科学的产业创新主体专利合作伙伴识别研究

近年来，发展基于科学的产业已成为全球科技和产业竞争的焦点。基于科学的产业具有开放式创新特点，产业创新主体致力于寻找合作伙伴以充分利用外部资源。专利信息涵盖丰富的技术信息、法律信息及经济信息，是创新主体寻找合作伙伴并开展创新合作的重要资源，但鲜有学者运用专利信息研究基于科学的产业创新问题。构建基于科学的产业专利合作伙伴识别研究框架，以石墨烯这一典型的基于科学的产业为例，采用专利技术组合和社会网络分析方法，从行动者网络理论的4个行动者转译环节出发，全面展现我国石墨烯产业中最具潜力的国内和跨国专利合作伙伴识别过程，以挖掘专利合作机会并提高企业竞争优势。最后，从政府、高校、企业3个层面为我国石墨烯产业创新发展提供决策参考。