Innovation,productivity and foreign direct investment-induced R&D spillovers

This article examines the effect of foreign direct investment on innovation and productivity in the host and home countries. I investigate how the flows of knowledge transmitted through FDI affect the production of knowledge in both source and recipient countries, as well as how these flows affect productivity. Using patent citations within FDI as the measure of the degree of ‘access’ that one nation gains to the R&D knowledge of another, and new patents as the measure of innovation, results reveal that there are large differences in the way FDI affects innovation and productivity between countries that are technological leaders, and technological followers. Both inward and outward FDI are found to have a strong positive effect on domestic innovation and productivity in countries that are technological followers. For technological leaders, outward FDI is highly conducive to increased domestic innovation, while inward FDI seems to increase competition between domestic and foreign firms, making it more difficult to come up with new viable ideas. As for domestic productivity, inward FDI is highly beneficial for technological leaders, while outward FDI does not have a significant effect. I conclude that technological followers have much to gain from FDI-induced R&D spillovers, and therefore governments in these countries will find it worthwhile to attract foreign multinationals, while those in the more technologically advanced economies need to weigh the costs and benefits of FDI carefully.     

Patent Standards Under TRIPS and the Pharmaceutical Industries in Brazil and India

The legal and economic environment of the pharmaceuticals industry is analyzed in the context of the development of national and international legal standards for the protection of intellectual property. Empirical studies on the relationship between intellectual property laws and economic growth are used to examine the actual outcomes under differing approaches to legal protections for the industry in two countries.     

Fair,reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms and technology adoption: standard setting vs. incompatible technologies

The present paper shows that in the absence of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms, the adoption of a standard depends on the degree of network effects. If the degree of network externalities is low, patent holders may opt for developing incompatible technologies in order to avoid the entry deterrence in the downstream market and the resulting decrease in the royalty income. If the degree of network externalities is sufficiently high, patent holders may prefer developing a common standard even though it has a negative impact on the market entry in the downstream market. Generated network externalities are then sufficiently high to create additional demand compensating the losses from the entry deterrence. The application of FRAND terms eliminates the entry deterrence problem and by consequence stimulates the standard adoption. The use of the FRAND commitment has beneficial effects for consumer surplus and total welfare.     

R&D and patents: is it a two way street?

ABSTRACT

This paper provides empirical evidence on the link between firms’ R&D expenditure and patent registrations by applying the Granger causality test. We use a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990–2013. We first, examine the R&D-patents relationship in the manufacturing firms as a whole and subsequently, manufacturing was broken down into three groups of firms according to the technological level of the industries to which the firms belonged: high and medium-high (HMHT), low medium (LMT) and low (LT) technology firms. For the entire panel, our results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between R&D and patents, supporting both the traditional view and the reverse causality approach (patents cause R&D). When the sample is split into the three technology levels, we also find strong support for a bidirectional relationship in HMHT firms and weak support in LT ones. We found no evidence of this bidirectional link in LMT firms.     

Complementary Innovations And Generative Relationships: An Ethnographic Study

The paper presents an in-depth investigation on a promising innovation, kervit, in the histolical context of the booming ceramic industrial district of SassuoloScandiano (Emilia-Romagna region in Italy). The kervit was introduced and patented by a brilliant inventor operating within, and then leading, one of the first cdc companies of the booming district The innovation had strong technological advantages aqd good market potentialities, but in the middle of the 1960s, right in the stage of sharp growth of the ceramic district, it was unable to exploit its market success, nor was the inventor's company able to survive.

The joint use of the ebographic mathod and the notion of generative relationships, put forward by Lane and Maxfield (1997), marks an original contribution in the analysis both of the emergence of learning processes within a local productive system and of the role of dynamic complemwtarities in fostering the innovation dynamics.     

加强自主创新 延长专利寿命——2009年广西有效专利情况分析及对策研究

发明专利的有效状况是衡量企业、地区和国家自主创新能力和市场竞争力的重要指标。文章根据国家知识产权局《专利统计年报2009》及中外专利数年库的数据,对比分析了2009年我国有效专利的情况与广西有效专利的分布情况,指出当前文本有效专利存在的问题,并提出促进广西有效专利的初步对策。     

Changes in food consumption in Iceland, 1770–1940

Abstract

The history of food consumption in Iceland differs in many fundamental ways from that in the rest of Europe. The prominence of domestically produced dairy products, fish, meat and suet, and the insignificance of cereals until the nineteenth century, are among the most unusual features. This paper presents the first attempt to estimate total food consumption in Iceland on the basis of food supply data, covering the period 1770–1940. The data, derived from trade statistics, production statistics and the author’s current study of Iceland’s GNp, provides information on the level of consumption, on the composition and the nutritional value of the diet, and on the changing patterns of consumption. In general terms, this can be described as a transition from an animal-based to a more grain-based diet. A short discussion on the causes of dietary change, and its effects on the nutrional status of Icelanders and on population growth, concludes the paper.     

武汉光电子产业标准与专利现状及推进策略研究

在全球市场竞争中,技术标准已成为企业抢占国际分工的关键环节及重要手段。在信息产业领域,专利借助技术标准这一载体与平台,逐渐成为国际贸易的游戏规则及非关税壁垒,谁控制了专利,谁就可以控制国际市场和国际贸易,技术标准与专利的结合是发展的必然趋势。文章在调研的基础上,对武汉光电子产业的的标准与专利现状进行了分析,并结合实际问题,站在企业的视角,对企业最为关注的专利进入标准的问题,提出了在实际操作过程中应注意的一些问题及对策建议。     

Does international research and development increase patent output? An analysis of Japanese pharmaceutical firms

Internationalizing research and development is often advocated as a strategy for fostering the development of technological capabilities. Although firms conduct international R&D to tap into knowledge bases that reside in foreign countries, we argue that in order to benefit from international R&D investments firms must already possess research capabilities in underlying or complementary technologies. We examine the international R&D expansion activities, research capabilities, and patent output of 65 Japanese pharmaceutical firms from 1980 to 1991. We find that firms benefit from international R&D only when they possess existing research capabilities in the underlying technologies. In addition to refining our understanding of when international R&D enhances firm innovation, our results integrate asset‐seeking and asset‐based theories of foreign direct investment. Internationalizing R&D to tap into foreign knowledge bases is consistent with asset‐seeking theories of foreign direct investment, while the contingent nature by which firms benefit from international R&D is consistent with asset‐based theories of foreign direct investment and the notion of absorptive capacity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.