Inside innovation persistence: New evidence from Italian micro-data

This paper contributes the analysis of the persistence of innovation activities, as measured by different innovation indicators and explores its past and path dependent characteristics. The study provides new insights on the role of R&D investments in innovation persistence and analyses differentiated patterns of persistence across product and process innovation, by accounting for complementarity effects between the two types of innovative behaviour. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 451 Italian manufacturing companies observed during the years 1998–2006. Results highlight the relevance of innovation persistence. The highest level of persistence is found for R&D-based innovation activities, witnessing the actual presence of significant entry and exit barriers. Moreover, we obtain more robust evidence of persistence for product innovation than for process innovation when complementarity effects between the two types of innovation are accounted for.     

The persistence of innovation: a panel data investigation on manufacturing firms

This paper represents a contribution to empirical debate on the persistence of innovation in the firm, by exploiting an innovative panel database that, for the first time, links three waves of the Italian Community Innovation Survey with an administrative data source providing economic and financial information for firms in the Italian manufacturing sector, 1996–2003. By using both a dynamic logistic model and a Granger causality approach, we show that in order to innovate successfully it is much more important to have an adequate flow of profits during an appropriate time span rather than high profits only during one period before innovation. Our causality tests prove the existence of a dynamic interaction between innovation and profitability: successful innovation can, in the short run, generate the profitability conditions that can then enhance the financial resources needed to reinvest in new technological opportunities, thus causing the firm to persist in its innovative behaviour. We have also shown that another important source of persistence is represented by past innovative experience. A firm with consolidated innovative behaviour would have a higher probability of future successful innovation with respect to a firm that occasionally (or accidentally) innovates. Persistence in innovation enables a firm to take advantage of substantial technological and organizational learning effects, which improve with time.     

营商环境优化与区域创新效率 ——兼论经济一体化的联合空间效应

基于营商环境影响区域创新效率的机制分析,以2011-2019年中国地级市数据为样本,构建空间动态面板模型,检验得出：①从总体看,营商环境优化是提高创新效率的重要着力点,并通过促进创新人才集聚间接提升创新效率,但同时因创新人才集聚的挤出效应引致邻近区域创新效率损失;②分区域看,外围城市营商环境优化对创新效率的直接提升效应强于中心城市,但中心城市因创新人才集聚存在创新外溢效应,因此营商环境优化的创新溢出效应更显著;③经济一体化战略放大了营商环境优化的积极作用,尤其表现在京津冀经济圈,即营商环境优化对创新效率的直接提升效应增强,且创新挤出效应也转为创新溢出效应。鉴于此,提出应通过建设协同创新平台、差异化设计营商环境考核指标、加强中心城市强强联合等策略促进营商环境优化,同时,提升区域整体创新效率。     

Determinants of persistence in innovation: evidence from the case study of the ‘Eye Microsurgery’ Complex

This study aims at determining the major factors supporting innovative persistence based on an in-depth analysis of the internal organizational processes of the state-owned medical institution, ‘Eye Microsurgery’ Complex in Moscow. I propose a systemic approach to the study of innovation activities, which incorporates aspects of evolutionary economics, institutional analysis and dynamic capabilities theory. The study explicitly incorporates the changing external environment as a factor shaping innovation dynamics. The findings suggest that at the earliest stage of the firm's development, the interaction between the nature of the technology and the nature of the demand, the presence of prolific innovators and a certain organizational structure that supports learning, effective knowledge production and accumulation are determinant of persistence in innovation. In later periods, the availability of resources (material, financial, specialized human capital), external collaborations, specific production techniques, well-organized technological diffusion, and motivational factors are the elements providing the basis for innovative persistence. Leadership plays a crucial role in supporting innovation and organizational transformation.     

Measuring and Explaining Innovative Capability: Evidence from Southeast Asia

What causes firm‐level product innovation in developing economies? This paper answers this question by emphasizing the role of process improvements that are influential in product innovation. We construct a firm‐level innovative capability score using novel, broad‐based, but detailed data on various process improvement practices obtained from firms in Southeast Asia. We then investigate the factors that may affect innovative capability. We also estimate the effect of the innovative capability score on product innovation controlling for research and development intensity and other firm characteristics. Our empirical investigation identifies a chief executive officer (CEO)'s past experience at a foreign or large firm, and buyer pressure to adopt international standards as key determinants of innovative capability. Novel and unique findings from our examination include: (i) the impact of a CEO's past experience at a foreign or large firm on the innovative capability is larger for local enterprises and small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises; (ii) the impact of share of foreign workers in the upper managerial levels only appears to be significant in foreign firms and larger firms; and (iii) buyer pressure is a more likely contributor to innovative capability compared with capital tie‐ups with multinational enterprises or joint venture buyers that capture vertical technology transfers. Finally, our empirical results show that a firm in Southeast Asia is more likely to achieve product innovation if the firm has had a higher innovative capability.     

Internal and external factors in innovation persistence

This paper contributes to the analysis of the persistence of innovation activities, as measured by total factor productivity (TFP), and explores its internal and external determinants stressing its path-dependent characteristics. The external conditions, namely the quality of local knowledge pools and the strength of the Schumpeterian rivalry, along with the internal conditions (the actual levels of dynamic capabilities, as proxied by wage levels and firm size) exert a specific and localised effect upon the persistent introduction of innovations. A multiple transition probability matrixes (MTPMs) approach has been implemented to capture the contingent effects of external factors on long-term innovation persistence. The empirical analysis of the dynamics of firm-level TFP for a sample of approximately 7000 Italian manufacturing companies observed during the years 1996–2005 is based on both the comparison of different transition probability matrixes and on dynamic discrete choice panel data models. The evidence provided by the test of MTPMs in sub-periods suggests that innovation persistence is path-dependent, as opposed to past-dependent.     

创新、企业家活动配置与长期经济增长

本文继承并扩展了熊彼特关于企业家精神的思想,把企业家活动的配置引入内生技术创新模式。在本文中,企业家活动的配置决定了一个经济的R&D投入水平,技术水平和经济增长率。不同经济活动的报酬结构决定了企业家活动的配置,而且报酬结构是内生的,并且存在历史依赖性。本文的突破包括两个方面:一是把企业家活动的配置引入宏观的分析中,考察了企业家活动的配置对宏观总量的影响;二是把企业家活动的配置对经济活动影响的一般性分析引入创新活动分析中,考察了企业家活动的配置、相对报酬结构与技术创新水平之间的动态关系。本文的政策含义是,要提高经济中R&D投入水平,进而提高技术创新水平以及经济增长率,就必须通过政治、经济、法律和文化制度创新,营造激励创新的报酬结构,促使企业家更多地从事生产性的创新活动,经济才能打破低水平均衡陷阱,趋向较发达的均衡。本文对我国实施自主创新的国家战略具有重要的政策含义。     

Dynamic models of R & D,innovation and productivity: Panel data evidence for Dutch and French manufacturing

This paper introduces dynamics in the R&D-to-innovation and innovation-to-productivity relationships, which have mostly been estimated on cross-sectional data. It considers four nonlinear dynamic simultaneous equations models that include individual effects and idiosyncratic errors correlated across equations and that differ in the way innovation enters the conditional mean of labor productivity: through an observed binary indicator, an observed intensity variable or through the continuous latent variables that correspond to the observed occurrence or intensity. It estimates these models by full information maximum likelihood using two unbalanced panels of Dutch and French manufacturing firms from three waves of the Community Innovation Survey. The results provide evidence of robust unidirectional causality from innovation to productivity and of stronger persistence in productivity than in innovation.     

Firm persistence in technological innovation: the relevance of organizational innovation

Organizational innovation favors technological innovation, but does it also influence persistence in technological innovation? This paper empirically investigates the pattern of technological innovation persistence and tests the potential impact of organizational innovation using firm-level data from three waves of French Community Innovation Surveys. The evidence indicates a positive effect of organizational innovation on persistence in technological innovation, according to the various measures of organizational innovation. Moreover, this impact is more significant for complex innovators, i.e. those who innovate in both products and processes. The results highlight the complexity of managing organizational practices with regard to the technological innovation of firms. They also add to understanding of the drivers of innovation persistence through the focus on an often forgotten dimension of innovation in a broader sense.     

企业技术创新能力成熟度模型研究

本本文借鉴软件行业评估软件开发能力的成熟度模型研究企业的技术创新能力,构建了技术创新能力成熟度等级和等级特征以及每一个等级的关键过程域和关键实践,为企业技术创新能力的发展提供了清晰的目标和路径。其次,根据技术创新过程和关键过程域,基于全面性、客观性、可操作性原则,设计了一套技术创新能力成熟度评价指标体系,并且运用模糊数学理论评价技术创新能力成熟度等级。最后,企业技术创新能力的提高要落实在具体的创新活动中,选择合适的创新模式,在一个个具体的创新活动中提高企业技术创新能力是技术创新能力成熟度模型应用研究的最终目的。所以,需要根据评价出来的成熟度等级进行创新模式的选择,企业的技术创新能力成熟度等级不同,可以选择的创新模式和创新模式组合是不一样的。     

国家创新型县（市）创新效率测度变化及影响因素研究

建设国家创新型县（市）是我国全面实施创新驱动发展战略、推动县域经济创新发展的重要举措。选取全国50个首批国家创新型县（市）作为研究对象,运用DEA模型和Malmquist指数法,对2017-2019年创新型县（市）的科技创新效率进行静态与动态分析,并利用Tobit回归模型分析创新效率影响因素。研究结果显示：2017-2019年我国县域科技创新效率整体表现较好,从各项指标看,创新型县（市）的综合技术效率、纯技术效率、规模效率和全要素生产率不断提升,说明3年来国家创新型县（市）科技创新态势持续向好;创新平台、创新主体、教育经费、创新政策均与县域科技创新水平呈显著正相关性,但经济发展水平对创新型县（市）科技创新效率的影响不大。     

创新型城市试点政策提升了科技人才集聚水平吗——来自240个地级市的准自然实验

科技人才推动城市创新发展，创新型城市试点是促进区域及国家整体创新水平提高的重要政策。以2003-2018年全国240个城市数据为样本，并将创新型城市试点设立作为一项准实验，使用倾向值匹配及连续双重差分方法实证分析试点政策对科技人才集聚水平的溢出效应及作用机制。结果表明，创新型城市试点政策能够显著提升科技人才集聚水平，但在时间上政策效应存在异质性；试点政策通过城市人力资本水平与产业结构水平两个途径作用于科技人才集聚水平。最后，从政策视角就城市人才“争夺”下如何增强人才吸引力提出建议。     

智能服务赋能创新型城市群建设路径研究 ——实体与虚拟产业集聚视角

从实体集聚与虚拟集聚双重理论视角,基于2011—2019年我国271个城市面板数据,运用门槛面板模型和中介效应模型,实证分析智能服务水平对区域创新绩效的影响及作用机制。研究结果表明：智能服务水平提升对区域创新绩效的广度和深度具有正向影响;受网络外部性影响,智能服务水平与区域创新数量呈“U型”单门槛特征,与区域创新质量呈先降后边际效应递增的双门槛特征;智能服务通过降低实体集聚要素流动的拥塞效应、增强虚拟集聚要素流动的溢出效应提升区域创新绩效。通过区域异质性分析发现,相比中西部地区、外围城市以及其它城市群,智能服务对区域创新绩效的积极效应在东部地区、中心城市以及京津冀、长三角、成渝和长江中游城市群更显著。     

The effect of offshoring on knowledge flows in the US automobile industry

This paper examines the impact of financial constraints on innovation for established firms. We make use of a direct measure of the existence of financial constraints obtained thanks to a specific survey addressed to French established firms. This is a distinctive feature of this paper as most of previous studies had to rely on proxies (like the cash-flow sensitivity), which may be subject to interpretation problems. The probability to have innovative activities and the probability to face financial constraints are simultaneously estimated by a recursive bivariate probit model. Accounting for the endogeneity of the financial constraint variable, we find that financial constraints significantly reduce the likelihood that firms have innovative activities. The probability to encounter financial constraints is explained by firms’ ex ante financing structure and economic performances.     

我国促进社会创新的政策现状与问题分析

随着全球社会问题日益严峻,社会创新成为了解决社会问题的重要途径。以往针对社会创新的研究大多聚焦于微观层面,较少从宏观政策层面出发。本文首先界定了社会创新的概念,进而以十八大以来颁布的科技创新政策为分析对象,从创新主体激励、社会利益增进、创新机制变革三个层面梳理了我国在促进社会创新方面的政策现状,最后提出存在的问题及未来展望,旨在为科技部门及其他部门进一步制定和完善相关政策提供思路。     

创新要素流动对城市群协同创新的影响——基于长三角城市群与长江中游城市群的实证

利用2006-2017年长三角城市群和长江中游城市群共41个地级市面板数据,首先,运用拓展DEA法对两大城市群协同创新水平进行测度,然后,采用空间计量模型实证考察创新要素流动对城市群协同创新的影响,进一步以互联网发展水平为门限变量,构建门限模型,探析互联网发展对创新要素在城市群流动的协同创新效应是否存在门限效应。研究发现：创新要素流动对城市群协同创新影响的总效应显著为正,空间正向溢出效应显著,且存在群际差异;在两大城市群内,创新要素流动对城市群协同创新影响呈现非线性,创新人员流动对城市群协同创新影响呈“倒U型”特征,创新资本流动对城市群协同创新影响呈“U型”关系,相应拐点在不同城市群呈现异质性。     

衡阳紫色土丘陵坡地水土保持生态经济型治理模式

以衡阳紫色土丘陵坡地为例,通过总结前人的研究成果和采集湖南环境生物职业技术学院生态研究所紫色土生态实验站部分收集整理和试验数据,从全局性、紧迫性、高效性、层次性、可持续性、创新性与多样性的角度提出了在衡阳紫色土丘陵坡地的急坡地、陡坡地、缓陡坡地其水土保持生态经济型植被恢复模式分别采用三种典型模式,即灌草模式、乔灌草模式与林果模式,以期促进该区域的生态、经济与社会的全面协调与可持续发展。     

众创空间嵌入的多层次创新生态系统：概念模型与创新机制

众创空间的快速发展引发了学者对创新空间组织和创新生态系统的进一步思考。基于对大量众创空间及创客样本的深度调查，构建了众创空间嵌入的多层次创新生态系统概念模型。研究发现，众创空间形成了一种融合创新主体功能及创新环境功能的次生生态，承担着创客与多种创新主体间的接口功能，并且向上向下横向连接了不同范围层级的创新生态圈。在多层次创新生态系统中，众创空间创新功能的实现依赖于自组织演化、开放式协同和跨层级交互3种机制。众创空间的出现和发展为创新生态系统理论提供了直接的实践依据，并丰富了创新生态系统理论的层次和内涵。     

大数据时代美国企业与学术界创新研究述评

创新成为大数据时代企业与社会发展的共同选择。以世界顶级学术期刊《哈佛商业评论》近12年发表的美国企业创新文献为研究对象，运用文献回顾法，从创新概念与类型、创新模式、创新研究视角、创新原则、创新影响因素、创新研究方法等方面进行了深入分析，总结并归纳了研究特点与规律，可为大数据时代背景下中国创新研究、企业创新发展提供借鉴与启示。     

外部研发对企业创新绩效的影响机制研究

已有研究表明，利用外部研发有助于增强企业创新能力，但对其作用机理的解释不够。从外部研发需通过内部组织发挥作用这一思路出发,以组织正式化和创新激励政策为调节变量,探讨了外部研发对企业创新绩效的影响机理，以中国549家企业为样本，运用SPSS20.0软件进行多元回归调节检验，对4者之间关系进行了实证研究。结果表明，外部研发对企业创新绩效有显著正向影响；创新激励政策正向调节外部研发与创新绩效之间的关系；组织正式化对外部研发与创新绩效的关系具有不同调节作用。与此同时，高激励能够减少组织正式化对于创新绩效的负向作用。该研究部分解释了外部研发对创新绩效的作用机理，对于促进企业创新活动，提升创新管理能力具有重要意义。