Analysis of Competences for Innovation in Technology-Based Enterprise Incubators

ABSTRACT

Incubators are rated as public policy mechanisms driving innovation in companies. The purpose of this project was to ascertain the level of development of competences for innovation in Technology-Based Enterprise Incubators (TBEI) as perceived by businesspeople in associated companies. With regard to technological innovation, it was decided to use a neo-Schumpeterian approach, and with regard to competences, the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory was used, which evaluates internal attributes that contribute directly to the innovative capacity. Four constructs were taken into consideration for analyzing the development levels of competences for innovation, grounded on the model of François and colleagues (1999 François , J. P. , Goux , D. , Guellec , D. , Kabla , I. , and Temple , P. ( 1999 ). “Décrire lês Compétences pour l'innovation: une Proposition d'enquête.” In: Foray , D. , and Mairesse , J. (Eds.), Innovation et Performance, Approaches Interdisciplinaires , Editions EHESS . [Google Scholar]) and Munier (1999 Munier , F. Taille de ( 1999 ). La Firme et Innovation: Appoches Theóriques et Empiriques Fondées sur le Concept de Compétence , Thèse (Doctorat en Économie)—Estrasburgo: Université Louis Pasteur . [Google Scholar]). Competences for innovation were examined through a questionnaire that tries to identify and assess development levels of competences in TBEI. The findings were analyzed through construct reliability tests: summated scales and cluster analysis. It was noted that the means competences representing the basic resources needed for the development of the company were assessed favorably by the businesspeople, indicating the development of this competence. In terms of technical and relational competences, it was noted that the businesspeople assessed these aspects unfavorably, indicating that these competences are not well developed by the TBEI. It was also ascertained that corporate development levels and operating sectors also influence the assessment of these businesspeople in terms of competences for innovation. This leads to the conclusion that its effectiveness must be assessed as an agent of innovation, with indicators being defined to measure the effectiveness of its role as a mechanism driving technological innovation.     

Within-group heterogeneity and civil war

This study offers a bargaining model of conflict in which the government offers a transfer to an opposition group to preclude civil war. Members of the opposition are heterogeneous in income and ideology, and heterogeneity generates disagreement about whether to accept the government’s offer. We assume that the probability that the government’s offer will preclude conflict increases continuously with the number of opposition group members who agree to accept it. When within-group heterogeneity is large, the number of members who are receptive to the government’s offer is less responsive to an increase in the transfer level. In this situation, the government must substantially increase its transfer to attract the support of the opposition. Subsequently, as peace becomes more costly for the government, negotiations are likely to break down.     

Hidden persistent disasters and asset prices

This study analyzes the effects of agents’ learning about hidden persistent economic disasters on asset prices. In this study, it is assumed that aggregate consumption follows a hidden Markov regime-switching process and a representative agent infers the current regime, normal regime, or disaster regime, sequentially from the realized path of the past consumption process. In this setting, the fluctuation in the agent’s posterior probabilities of the disaster regime augments the volatility of equity returns. By utilizing the stochastic differential utility, this study demonstrates that the current model can help resolve many asset pricing puzzles including the equity premium puzzle, equity volatility puzzle, and risk-free rate puzzle simultaneously. Further, the current model predicts the counter-cyclical pattern in the equity premium and equity-return volatility on the normal regime, although asset returns are negative and highly volatile during disasters. The study also demonstrates that, if the agent’s preferences are restricted to time-additive power utility, the consideration of hidden persistent disasters deepens the asset pricing puzzles.     

REGIONAL WATER FOOTPRINTS OF THE YANGTZE RIVER: AN INTERREGIONAL INPUT–OUTPUT APPROACH

Recently, researchers have applied the multi-regional input–output (MRIO) approach to water footprint (WF) analysis. The concept of interregional input–output (R-MRIO) was developed to analyse regional issues. Researchers have concentrated on the development of global or international input–output (N-MRIO) tables. Using the N-MRIO and the R-MRIO approach allows the study of global and regional issues, respectively. The WF is an indicator influenced by trade among nations and regions. However, the treatment of imports in an R-MRIO approach differs in whether international imports are separated or combined. We evaluate the effects of the difference between these models and discuss policy implications for the Yangtze River, China. The WF calculated using the combined type model is 11% larger than that by the separated type model. This difference can be ascribed to international imports, mainly internal consumption and interregional trade. We find that this difference affects social equity in water-abundant areas.     

An exploration of the effect of doubt during disasters on equity premiums

In this note, we consider the effect on equity premiums of a representative household’s subjective expectations during disasters. In particular, we focus on the effect of doubt during disasters. We derive analytical solutions of equity premiums in the model of power utility function and conduct numerical exercises of the model of the recursive utility function. Our contribution is to demonstrate that doubt during disasters–even mild ones–generates high equity premiums.     

Agglomeration Economies and a Test for Optimal City Sizes in Japan

We estimate aggregate production functions for metrpolitan areas in Japan to derive the magnitudes of agglomeration economies. Using the estimates of agglomeration economies, we test if Japanese cities, in particular, Tokyo, are too large.J. Japan. Int. Econ.,December 1996,10(4), pp. 379–398. Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan; Socio-Economic Research Center, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 1-6-1 Ohtemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100, Japan; and Institute of Socio-Economic Planning, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan.     

An International Portfolio Optimization Model Hedged with Forward Currency Contracts

We will propose a new method for constructing an optimal portfolio in which the fund is allocated to assets and currencies of several countries. Traditionally, two or three stage method is adopted in this field. However, it neglects the risk associated with variations of the rate of return of individual assets and the exchange rate of currencies. Instead, the new method enables one to simultaneously determine the optimal amount of fund to be allocated to each asset and the amount of the forward contracts on currencies. The resulting optimization problem is apparently a nonconvex minimization problem due to the existence of product terms in the objective function. We will show, however, that a globally optimal solution can be calculated by a standard algorithm in an efficient way. Also we will demonstrate that the new method leads to a substantially better result using historical data of U.S., Japan and Germany.     

Nontraded inputs,the effective rate of protection and gross output changes

The applicability of ERP theory to models with nontraded inputs is analyzed. This results in a clarification and extension of the results on prediction of gross output changes, utilizing alternative definitions of the effective rate of protection that were made in earlier work by Corden, Ray, and Bhagwati and Srinivasan.