Barriers to innovation through public procurement: A supplier perspective

Public procurement is increasingly viewed as having important potential to drive innovation. Despite this interest, numerous barriers prevent the public sector from acting as an intelligent and informed customer. This paper seeks to understand how barriers related to processes, competences, procedures and relationships in public procurement influence suppliers? ability to innovate and to reap the benefits of innovation. We address this by exploiting a dedicated survey of public sector suppliers in the UK, using a probit model to investigate the influence of structural, market and innovation determinants on suppliers? perception of these barriers.     

International research strategies of multinational corporations: A German perspective

This paper explores the international research activities of multinational corporations that are related to Germany. It analyzes what role German companies and Germany as a host of foreign companies play in the growing specialization of global exploitation and generation of knowledge. The paper covers application oriented as well as strategic research for two company samples—German and non-German—on the basis of a complex indicator-based analysis (patents and publications) and microdata from business reports. The paper shows that internationalization of research and development (R&D) has increased and broadened in scope. It highlights the strong and growing differences existing between technological and scientific areas as well as between different sectors. Apparently, while the market adaptation of products is still the major driver for German companies, international knowledge seeking has become more and more important, especially in technological areas that are linked very closely to basic research. While Germany as a host of international industrial R&D is much more attractive for applied research (mechanical engineering) than for basic research, the country has still established attractiveness in selected knowledge-intensive technological areas and shows a high intensity of international cooperation. There is a high level of reciprocity in knowledge-intensive areas pointing towards a global specialization and division of labor.     

Can entrepreneurial orientation improve R&D alliance performance? An absorptive capacity perspective

Research and Development (R&D) alliance studies maintain that alliance partners’ entrepreneurial interactions that pursue innovation opportunities through collective exploitation and exploration of knowledge resources lead to alliance success. Despite the importance of productive resource exchange and generation through such interactions, performance-by-alliance mechanisms remain under-researched. In this study, we develop a theoretical framework hypothesizing that the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of alliance firms, which underlies their approach to seeking and utilizing resources productively, has a potential impact on their R&D alliance performance, depending on their absorptive capacity (AC). To specify the value creation and capture mechanism in the alliance, we adopt two performance indicators: technological competitiveness and business performance. Findings from a study of 218 small technology-intensive firms conducting R&D alliance projects show that EO translates into business performance through technological competitiveness and that AC leverages the alliance performance implications of EO. The results suggest that EO–AC complementarity is a strategic stimulant that triggers firms to extract greater benefits from R&D alliances.     

Changes in the strategic management of technology: results of a global benchmarking study

This contribution analyses main changes in the strategic management of technology of the world's most technology-intensive companies from western Europe, North America and Japan. The results presented here are based on a literature review and a survey which show the following main results: first, R&D and technology have become key cornerstones of corporate and business strategy. Second, there is a growing tendency to acquire technology from external sources throughout the sample. Third, internationalization of R&D plays a very important role in the strategies of the large companies investigated and the data shows that it will certainly gain further momentum. However, internationalization of R&D is confined to the Triad regions and is not 'global'. Based on our analysis, cornerstones of a future generation of R&D/technology management are developed.     

Foreign Companies Expand Research and Development in Germany

Original Papers

Foreign Companies Expand Research and Development in Germany     

Idiosyncrasies of the Software Development Process and Their Relation to Software Patents: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence

In Europe, the future patenting of software-related inventions has been the subject of intensive discussions for some time, since there exists a strong dispute between the supporters of the U.S. practice of allowing patents in order to increase Europe's competitiveness and the opponents postulating negative impacts of patents on the software development process. This paper presents empirical results about the idiosyncrasies of the software development process and tests hypotheses on their impact on the likelihood of patents being obstacles for software dvelopment. The paper concludes with the identification of determinants for preferences concerning different possible patent regimes in the future.     

Energiewende für die Modernisierung des Industriestandorts Deutschland nutzen

The German industrial sector is a central component of its economic success. However, its investment activities are weak in comparison internationally. There are concerns that the high costs of the energy transition — one major part of climate change policy — could decrease industrial competitiveness and Germany’s allure as an industrial production location. To prevent this, German policymakers offer substantial exemptions for energy intensive industries in order to keep costs low. This study shows that only a few industrial branches have both high energy costs and a high export intensity, however. They generally feature a comparatively old capital stock. Overall, industry benefits from the demand for climate protection technologies. This calls for a shift in current policy, which should focus on incentives for innovative low carbon technologies. Exemptions should be granted to a limited number of energy intensive industries only for a limited time.