Innovation,external technical linkages and small firm commercial performance: an empirical analysis from Western New York

This paper examines the role of external service linkages in the innovation and market peformance of small manufacturing firms (SMFs). Survey data from a technological cross-section of 146 Western New York SMFs are summarized. The data suggest a helpful role for consultants in the product development efforts of innovative firms, especially those that serve foreign export markets. Several multiple discriminant models are presented, each of which suggests an interactive connection between SMF commercial performance, externa) technical links, innovation propensity and in-house R&D. It is argued that innovative SMFs that exploit specialized technical services perform significantly better than comparably sized firms that rely solely on in-house resources. It is also argued that the quality of a region's producer service environment may have a significant bearing on the growth potential of its SMF population. The paper concludes by discussing the main academic and public policy implications that flow from the empirical results.     

Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization

Serendipity – the notion of making surprising and valuable discoveries – plays a major role in the success of individuals and organizations alike. Previous research has established the importance of serendipity and identified important individual- and organizational-level antecedents. However, the literature has been dispersed and the boundaries of the concept have been blurry, leading to a lack of conceptual clarity and structure, and thus limiting validity and managerial actionability. Based on a systematic literature review, I synthesize existing management-related research on serendipity and explicate the emergence and composition of serendipity in the organizational context. I first identify three necessary conditions that differentiate serendipity from related concepts such as luck or targeted innovation: agency, surprise, and value. Then, I draw from the literature on sensemaking, event-based theorizing, and quantum-based approaches to management to conceptualize the process of cultivating serendipity in the organizational context as a process of enabling potentiality and materialization, and develop a multi-level theory of (cultivating) serendipity. This conceptualization contributes to our collective understanding of how, why, and when (i.e., under what conditions) organizations can leverage the value in the unexpected, which opens up fruitful avenues for further research.     

探索区域科技创新服务的新模式——江苏创新驿站建设展望

本文分析了江苏创新驿站建设的优势与劣势,对江苏创新驿站建设和探索区域科技创新服务的新模式进行了展望,并提出了一些对策与建议。     

Innovation Capacity and the Implementation of Eco‐innovation: Toward a Contingency Perspective

This study develops a framework by drawing on the perspectives of contingency theory to investigate how innovation capacity affects eco‐innovation. The examination covers four moderators, including customer requirement, export destination, environmental regulation and government subsidy, and focuses on the types of eco‐innovation concerning pollution and waste. A sample of 2964 manufacturing firms from the Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey is utilized to test the hypotheses. A moderated hierarchical logit method is adopted to analyze the data. The results overall suggest that the effect of innovation capacity on eco‐innovation depends on the levels of the four moderators. Specifically, the results show that innovation capacity has different effects on eco‐innovation when customers have a demand for eco‐innovation, export markets have high environmental awareness, future environmental regulations are expected, and the government provides a subsidy for environmental innovation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Regional Inequalities in Consumption Patterns: A Multilevel Approach to the Case of Italy

The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the disparities in the Italian regions on the demand side. In more detail, an attempt will be made to find if the consumption behaviour of Italian households is different in the regions. With this in mind, Istat's 2000 Italian Family Budget data set was analysed. The data in question, which were collected through a two‐stage sample over Italy's 20 regions, contains information regarding the expenses of approximately 23,000 households. In this analysis, both households and regions are considered as units: households are nested in the regions so that the basic data structure is hierarchical. In order to take this hierarchical structure into account, a multilevel model was used, making it possible for parameters to vary randomly from region to region. The model in question also made it possible to consider heterogeneity across different groups (regions), such as stochastic variation. First, regional inequalities were tested using a simple model in which households constituted the first level of analysis and were grouped according to their region (the second level). As a second step, and in order to investigate the interaction between geographical context and income distribution, another model was used. This was cross‐classified by income and regions. The most relevant results showed that there is wide fragmentation of consumption behaviour and, at the same time, various differentiated types of behaviour in the regions under analysis. These territorial differentials become clear from income class and items of consumption.     

Fearlessly Swimming Upstream to Risky Waters: The Role of Geographic Entry in Innovation

We examine the puzzling geographic pattern that shows firms entering countries with weak intellectual property rights (IPR) protection with their research and development (R&D) activities. Geographic entry into weak IPR protection countries is at odds with conventional wisdom as such an environment erodes a firm's ability to appropriate from its innovations. We offer that while the well‐established practice of spreading out a firm's value chain activities across a region has important implications for value creation, what remains unaddressed is the value appropriation aspect of such activities. We introduce a multilevel theory and maintain that operating regionally through commercialization activities (downstream activities) provides complementary assets to the upstream activities – specifically R&D activities in a country within that region – with which focal firms can appropriate more from their innovations. We find that regional downstream commercialization activities can substitute for weak IPR regimes, thereby providing firms with an alternative mechanism for protecting their intellectual property in weak IPR countries.     

创新补贴、研发投入与技术突破:机制与路径

关键核心技术缺失是当前中国实现经济高质量发展的紧要问题,而关键核心技术突破始于企业研发投入环节。本文基于对中国科技发展相关特征事实的梳理,以研发投入有效性不足为问题切入点,针对生产过程技术构建研发决策博弈模型,探讨激励企业研发投入的最优创新补贴方式,并以2010—2020年认定为高新技术企业的上市公司为样本进行实证检验。研究结果显示：一方面,创新补贴能够通过激励企业增加研发投入而促进实现技术突破;另一方面,虽然研发补贴和税收优惠与企业研发投入之间均存在显著的正反馈机制,但其激励效果会因企业规模和所有制不同而产生差异。如果补贴方式和补贴对象不能精准匹配,则其产生的创新补贴激励空隙可能会阻碍关键核心技术突破,需要政府引导企业通过“三重投资”实现技术突破。     

对"以专业化促集聚"的区域发展战略的经济学分析

区域经济专业化作为专业化发展的高级阶段,它是以人的劳动专业化、企业生产的专业化为基础而集聚形成的.文章分析了其特性和机制,指出中国区域经济发展应实施专业化的发展战略.     

创新的微观经济学:市场经济的增长引擎

如果没有生产工具的不断革新,资产阶级(即资本主义)将不复存在。相反,一成不变地固守于老式的生产方式,则是所有早期工业阶级生存的首要条件。资产阶级在其不到一个世纪的统治中所创造的生产力比其所有先辈所创造的生产力总和更为庞大、更为惊人。它所创造的奇迹,已远远超越了埃及金字塔、罗马水渠和哥德式教堂。     

The Geography of Innovation in China and India

The BRICS countries in general, and China and India in particular, are now widely regarded as the areas of the world likely to challenge the economic leadership of the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). A large part of this challenge will come from rapid technological catch‐up by China and India. Yet, despite a recent rise in interest, there is limited knowledge about how and where innovation takes place in these two leading emerging countries and to what extent the Chinese and Indian territorial systems of innovation differ from those in the EU or the US. In this article we explore the geography of innovation in China and India, concentrating on understanding key territorial‐level innovation trends by country, region and technology field, using the US and the EU as benchmarks. We find significant contrasts between the geography of innovation in China and India and that of the US and the EU. First, the degree of concentration of innovative activities in both countries is extremely high. Levels of agglomeration of innovation in the coastal provinces of China, as well as in Delhi and the South of India, significantly exceed the levels of agglomeration found in the USA and the EU. Secondly, China has witnessed a more rapid increase in the degree of concentration of innovation than India. We posit that the differences in the geography of innovation between, on the one hand, China and India and, on the other hand, between these countries and the developed world are rooted in different institutional settings, different systems of innovation and different national innovation strategies.     

大学英语教师个人发展创新模式研究之团队建设

大学英语教师繁重的教学任务一直是制约其个人发展的一大障碍。本文以北京某高校为例,从团队建设的视角探析大学英语教师个人发展创新模式,以期为大学英语教师个人发展提供可以参考的模式。     

Innovation for Inclusive Growth: Towards a Theoretical Framework and a Research Agenda

Inclusive innovation, which we define as innovation that benefits the disenfranchised, is a process as well as a performance outcome. Consideration of inclusive innovation points to inequalities that may arise in the development and commercialization of innovations, and also acknowledges the inequalities that may occur as a result of value creation and capture. We outline opportunities for the development of theory and empirical research around this construct in the fields of entrepreneurship, strategy, and marketing. We aim for a synthesis in views of inclusive innovation and call for future research that deals directly with value creation and the distributional consequences of innovation.     

Dynamic research environments: a development model

The paper outlines a model for the development of dynamic and innovative research environments in national innovation systems. The development model is based on an in-depth study and analysis of fifteen research environments selected by the Danish Council for Research Policy as examples of dynamic and innovative public research environments. According to the model, research environments follow certain stages with respect to epistemological, organizational and socio-cultural development that either enable them to advance from one stage to the next in the model or impede this advance. The consequence of the latter is either a static state or dissolution. In the long run only dynamic and innovative research environments survive. The analysis of the cases studied identifies several preconditions that have to be present in such research environments in order for them to emerge, develop and finally reach excellence. The results presented here may well be a valid tool for policy-makers, particularly in Europe where the framework conditions for public R&D are comparable to the Danish.     

Business Model Innovation for Sustainability: Towards a Unified Perspective for Creation of Sustainable Business Models

Business model innovation has seen a recent surge in academic research and business practice. Changes to business models are recognized as a fundamental approach to realize innovations for sustainability. However, little is known about the successful adoption of sustainable business models (SBMs). The purpose of this paper is to develop a unified theoretical perspective for understanding business model innovations that lead to better organizational economic, environmental and social performance. The paper examines bodies of literature on business model innovation, sustainability innovation, networks theory, stakeholder theory and product–service systems. We develop five propositions that support the creation of SBMs in a unified perspective, which lays a foundation to support organizations in investigating and experimenting with alternative new business models. This article contributes to the emerging field of SBMs, which embed economic, environmental and social flows of value that are created, delivered and captured in a value network. It highlights gaps for addressing the challenges of business model innovation for sustainability and suggests avenues for future research. © 2017 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

专创融合视域下物流专业人才培养实施路径

对物流专业专创融合的意义及融合现状进行分析,存在着理念与课程脱节、师资与项目脱钩、实践与体验脱离、平台与资源缺乏、引导与制度欠缺、形态与文化欠佳等现实问题。基于上述问题,从理念与课程融合,打造物流专业专创融合课程体系;师资与项目融合,构建物流专业专创融合实践项目体系;实践与体验融合,形成物流专业专创融合综合体验链;平台与资源融合,构建物流专业专创融合资源平台保障体系;引导与制度融合,建立物流专业专创融合制度保障体系;形态与文化融合,营造物流专业专创融合文化环境提出物流专业专创融合的实施路径。     

Effects of intellectual property rights and patented knowledge in innovation and industry value added: A multinational empirical analysis of different industries

Technological innovation drives long-term economic growth, so most countries attempt to provide an innovation-friendly environment that includes tightening protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). However, debate continues on whether strengthened IPR lead to technological development and economic growth: patents promote innovation by protecting appropriation from invention and disclosing knowledge to the public, but they also create excessive monopoly power that may impede further innovation.Using simultaneous equations with cross-country panel data from 12 countries and 3 industries (chemical, electronic, machinery), we estimated the direct effect of IPR on industry value added and the indirect effect of it through enhanced research and development (R&D). The bilateral role of IPR, as measured by patented knowledge, was used to distinguish different characteristics of industries as well as the positive and negative effects of IPR on innovation.Results suggest that IPR generally enhance industry value added, but the positive effect is mitigated with increased enforcement of IPR. Also, IPR enhanced R&D but showed a negative relationship with patented knowledge, suggesting that excessive propertization of knowledge may hinder sequential innovation. The positive role of IPR on R&D predominated in the chemical (discrete) industry and exerted negative effects in the electronic and machinery (complex) industries.     

创新驱动发展战略下中国制造业成本动因拓展研究——基于研发投入的视角

创新驱动发展战略下,企业需要更多的研发(现代成本动因)投入促进创新,然而创新的高风险性导致市场失灵,因此需要政策支持,引导创新投入。通过统计性描述或实证研究发现,税收优惠政策比会计政策更能引导企业创新投入(尤其是民营企业,而创新战略实施后国有企业创新投资增长速度更快),也促进企业完善相关会计数据;会计政策和数据的完善对考察税收政策的执行起了重要支持作用。研发费用加计扣除政策比所得税税率优惠更能促进高新技术企业研发投入,且促使其更偏向研发支出费用化处理。处于成长期的高新技术企业更偏向研发支出资本化处理,处于成熟期的高新技术企业更偏向研发支出费用化处理。盈利比负债更能促使高新技术企业研发投入。     

供应链合作价值创新:供应链管理的新模式

供应链合作价值创新是企业发挥供应链成员间合力满足顾客需求和应对市场竞争的有效方式。区分了供应链合作与供应链合作价值创新,并探讨了价值链合作价值创新的实现方式。     

质量创新:质量管理的新阶段

提出质量创新是知识经济时代质量管理学科的主要内容；探讨了质量创新的理念、内容和方法。     

The cognitive and the action-oriented elements of competence along the innovation process – evidence from R&D teams in the medical equipment sector

Abstract

Organizations are constantly searching for ways to enhance their innovative capacity and to sustain their competitive advantage. Much of the literature focuses on knowledge as the key driver for this pursuit. Unlike other studies, we define experience and knowledge as two basic elements of competence by borrowing from the experiential and cognitive learning theories and contrast their impact on the innovativeness of R&D teams. Building on the competence based perspective, we posit that the differences in competence inputs explain variations in team innovation performance along the innovation process. To test our assumptions, we analyzed the aggregated knowledge and experience levels for different technology competences of 868 employees in 49 R&D teams in a large contract-engineering corporation in the medical equipment sector. The findings reveal that technology experience is particularly fruitful within innovation implementation and is a driver for successful market introduction. The research contributes to the understanding when competence elements are especially important.