竞争战略与技术创新关系的实证研究

以272家江苏省民营制造企业为研究对象,实证研究了企业的竞争战略与技术创新的关系。研究发现:实施低成本战略的企业进行工艺创新和产品创新的倾向均不明显,实施差异化战略的企业倾向于进行产品创新,实施混合战略的企业进行工艺创新和产品创新的倾向都明显,且实施强度显著高于实施低成本战略和差异化战略的企业;总体来看,所有企业的工艺创新强度都要高于其产品创新强度,产品创新强度整体偏低,这意味着企业转型升级的重点应放在产品创新上。     

“两化融合”对企业创新的影响研究--基于企业价值链的视角

已有文献在研究“两化融合”(信息化与工业化融合)对企业创新的影响时，忽略了两个重要问题：一是，企业活动通过价值链衔接而成，信息技术或产品会渗透到不同的价值链环节；二是，企业创新活动具有多样性，在不同价值链环节的创新形式具有差异性。基于此，文章利用2012年世界银行对中国企业所做的营商环境调查，从企业价值链视角，考察了“两化融合”对企业创新的影响。研究发现：产品设计、市场营销环节与信息化的融合提高了企业产品创新投入的倾向，生产制造环节与信息化的融合提高了企业流程创新投入的倾向。进一步的研究表明，企业“两化融合”整体水平的提升能够增加企业的新产品产值，有助于企业实现经济效益。文章的研究不仅丰富了关于“两化融合”与企业创新的认识，而且对中国制造业企业创新能力的提升和经济结构的转型也具有重要的启示。     

The nonlinear effects of firm size on innovation: an empirical investigation

ABSTRACT

In conventional studies, large firms tend to emphasize more on process innovation than product innovation. This paper explores factors that could indicate a distinct pattern of firms’ innovation-size relationship: threshold size that implies a positive effect of firm size on the probability of product innovation success; cannibalization effect that creates incentives for large firms to favor product innovations; and financial constraints that have differential effects given different firm sizes. A hypothesis about a non-monotonic relationship between the proportion of product innovation and firm size is tested with nonlinear and dynamic econometric models. For the large firms, empirical evidence shows product innovations result in an overall larger share of new products in total sales, relative to existing products in which process innovations are rooted.     

高管团队行为整合对商业模式创新的影响

为检验高管团队行为整合对商业模式创新的影响作用及其路径机制,提出了高管团队行为整合的3个维度(合作行为、信息交换、联合决策)与商业模式创新间层次关系的研究假设,并利用177家企业的问卷调查数据通过层次回归分析进行检验。研究结果表明:合作行为、信息交换和联合决策对商业模式创新具有显著的正向影响;合作行为和信息交换能够通过联合决策的中介作用影响商业模式创新。     

Integration,network and industrial innovation in technology sourcing overseas M&A: a comparison between China and South Korea

ABSTRACT

Appropriate integration in technology sourcing overseas M&A is effective for acquirers to improve their innovation network positions and to promote domestic industrial innovation. We use the technology sourcing overseas M&A of Chinese and South Korean manufacturing industries as samples for empirical analysis. The results show that post-merger integration strategy should match resource characteristics between acquiring and acquired firms to promote industrial innovation through innovation network position improvement. Specifically, high-degree integration should match high-resource-similarity / low-resource-complementarity acquired firms, low-degree integration should match low-resource-similarity / high-resource-complementarity acquired firms, and moderate-degree integration should match high-resource-similarity / high-resource-complementarity acquired firms. The acquirer’s home country institutional development enhances the effect of post-merger integration. This study provides guidance for promoting industrial innovation through post-merger integration.     

Beyond product innovation: deciphering process-oriented innovators,complementarities and performance effects

Relatively little attention has been paid to the understanding of process innovation, compared to the well-researched product innovation. This paper contributes to improve our understanding of process innovation and its specific process capabilities and performance by exploring, across many industries, 4,608 process-oriented innovators. Process innovation is defined as adoption of technologically new or significantly improved production methods, including changes in equipment, organisation or methods of product delivery. Process-oriented innovators or process seekers are those firms which usually only introduce process innovation, and no product innovation. These have received less attention by scholars. Results show that process innovation without also organisational innovation complements constrains innovative performance. Complex process-based innovation complementarities result from the simultaneous development and integration of new machinery and organisational innovations.     

Analyzing the innovation process for environmental performance improvement

This paper elaborates the concept of demand articulation in product innovation to analyze innovation for environmental improvement. A conceptual framework has been developed that allows analysis of social demand articulation, the process that stimulates firms toward environmental innovation. Knowledge and information flows that raise the technological capability and awareness level of firms and consumers for environmental improvement are discerned. Their indicators have been developed based on the number of research papers and newspaper articles on environmental issues, respectively. Statistically significant results have been obtained on the role of knowledge and information flows on environmental innovations. Use of the framework on case studies revealed knowledge and information flows on local air quality and global warming led to the development of high-efficiency, low-emission automobiles. In conclusion, social demand articulation is an effective process by which knowledge and information flows mobilize the requisites needed for a successful environmental innovation.     

The dynamics of environmental innovations: three stylised trajectories of clean technology

In this article, we explore the dynamics of environmental innovations developed by firms to comply with environmental regulations. Our analysis is based on a micro-simulation model of industrial dynamics. The question arises: how do firms competing in the same industry deal with environmental issues without altering their productive efficiency or the performance of the product? We focus on clean technology which seeks to combine environmental and productive dimensions by way of innovation offsets. Our simulations show that an innovative strategy based on a good balance between environmental and productive dimensions takes more time to develop and needs to address a ‘competence destroying effect’. Finally, we study favourable conditions for the development of this type of clean technology and draw some policy implications.     

The division of innovative labour: when does customer codevelopment contribute to firm innovation performance?

ABSTRACT

Innovative firms often involve customers in their product development to drive innovation outcomes. However, few have empirically examined how this division of innovative labour affects innovation performance. Drawing on prior studies and the knowledge-based theory of the firm, we theorise conditions under which customer codevelopment benefits innovation performance. By examining panel data from Swiss firms, we provide the first empirical account of the performance effects of customer codevelopment based on a large-scale survey sample. We find that a firm's absorptive capacity reinforces the relationship between customer codevelopment and innovation performance. We elaborate on the implications of these findings for the literatures on customer codevelopment and open innovation.     

数字赋能制造企业技术创新的实现机制——基于数据生命周期理论的研究

数字技术与数据要素成为我国制造企业实现技术创新的重要手段,需从数据要素视角深入分析数字赋能制造企业技术创新的全过程机制。基于数据生命周期理论,采用探索性案例研究方法,构建了数字赋能制造企业技术创新实现机制的理论模型。研究发现,制造企业价值链上主要模块基于不同功能和目标采用不同的数字技术,形成生产流程、研发模块和营销体系全联通,在联通过程中以数据生命周期管理实现赋能,主要体现为：生产流程中,基于物联网和智能制造系统形成全流程动态反馈赋能机制,以数据的采集、传输和监控促进工艺创新;营销体系中,基于大数据技术形成全面需求双维度反向赋能机制,以数据的采集、分析和可视化促进产品创新;研发模块中,基于自身数字化升级和数字平台形成全联通赋能机制,以数据的搜寻、分享和整合促进联动创新。     

Hidden innovators: the role of non-R&D activities

Although R&D has been highlighted as the main source of firm-level innovations, a significant group of firms develop innovations without performing R&D activities. The primary goal of this study is to understand the sources of innovation in such firms. To accomplish this goal, we explore the role played by other, non-R&D activities that can lead to innovation – activities such as technology forecasting, design, use of advanced manufacturing technologies and training. Our empirical analysis is based on a representative panel of Spanish manufacturing firms. The results strongly support the view that non-R&D activities are critical factors in explaining both product and process innovations attained by any firm, especially in the case of firms not performing R&D. Academic, managerial, and policy implications are derived from these results.     

Collective learning,innovation and growth in a boundedly rational,evolutionary world

We formulate a simple multiagent evolutionary scheme as a model of collective learning, i.e. a situation in which firms experiment, interact, and learn from each other. This scheme is then applied to a stylized endogenous growth economy in which firms have to determine how much to invest in R&D, where innovations are the stochastic product of their R&D activity, spillovers occur, but technological advantages are only relative and temporary and innovations actually diffuse, both at the intra and interfirm levels. The model demonstrates both the existence of a unique long-run growth attractor (in the linear case) and distinct growth phases on the road to that attractor. We also compare the long-run growth patterns for a linear and a logistic innovation function, and produce some evidence for a bifurcation in the latter case.     

Persistence of product innovation: comparing breakthrough and incremental product innovation

In this paper we examine whether and to what extent breakthrough and incremental product innovation is persistent at the firm level. Drawing on a panel database created from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) we find that lagged breakthrough product innovation ‘new to the market’, has a significant and positive influence on firms’ ability to develop current breakthrough innovation, while this is not the case for incremental-product innovation ‘only new to the firm’. Our findings show that the dynamics of innovation persistence differ across types of (product) innovations.     

新产品推广与服务创新框架——以我国影像行业数码化为例

本文以我国影像行业数码化为例,构建了新产品推广与服务创新的框架,分析了新产品开发体系与服务创新开发体系的特点和演化规律,指出了建立服务创新体系的要点。本文发现,新产品开发中的服务创新必须建立体系,行业开发中的服务创新必须建立框架。新产品开发体系与服务创新开发体系具有融合性、增益性的特点,服务创新体系的建立和完善是不断深化的过程,一般规律为:技术服务—市场服务—管理服务—行业综合服务,且服务创新体系的建设必须抓住两个"三结合":制造商、经销商、先导用户三结合;技术开发、服务创新与行业开发三结合。行业服务创新体系是建立边缘行业的推动力,各行各业的服务创新体系都应搭建综合服务平台,以保证服务创新的不断深化,实现赶超世界先进国家服务创新体系的高效益。     

Innovation strategies,process and product innovations and growth: Firm-level evidence from Brazil

Using World Bank ICS 2000–2002 data from Brazilian manufacturing firms, this paper identifies innovation strategies of firms – in particular internal development (“technology make”) and external acquisition (“technology buy)” – and their effect on successful process and product innovations. It subsequently explores the importance of process and product innovations for firm growth. Successful process and product innovations occur mostly through “technology buy” (mostly through the purchase of machinery and equipment), either alone or in combination with a “technology make” strategy. The option of only relying on internal development is less successful. The results on firm growth indicate that innovative performance is an important driver for firm growth. It is particularly the combination of product and process innovations that significantly improves firm growth. Both innovation and growth performance are supported by access to finance. Skills of workforce and management matter, but not necessarily tertiary education levels. The impact of international linkages on innovative and growth performance is mixed.     

Impact of organizational innovation on product and process innovation

The purpose of this paper was to test the effect of organizational innovation on product and process innovation (while controlling for endogeneity). Our hypothesis was that organizational innovation should have a significant and positive impact on technical (product or process) innovation. We control for endogeneity by using a Poisson estimator that accommodates a binary endogenous regressor. We test 10 potential instruments using a battery of test criteria and settle on five. All results are presented using the five instruments to avoid expectation bias. In general we find that organizational innovation does impact technical innovation positively. With the 2009 data we find that the mean of the average treatment effect for product innovation is roughly 1.7 times that of process innovation. For the 2009–2012 data we find that the impact on product innovation is roughly 1.5 times that of process innovation. For the 2012 data, we had anomalous results for process innovation, such that organizational innovation reduced the number of process innovations by 2.3 per year. In terms of Canadian government policy, the results lend support to the view that technical innovation is not the only innovation that matters. The right policy mix may encourage firms to experiment with and adopt more organizational innovations to enhance technical innovation.     

颠覆性双元创新对数字产业技术融合的影响研究——市场与技术的联动效应

颠覆性创新是数字产业突破在位企业封锁,掌握技术主导权的核心动力。多维度的颠覆性创新政策能否真正促进数字产业技术融合度的提升,行业中其他企业又扮演何种角色？本文围绕技术与市场两个维度,基于数字产业中具有代表性智能制造业的研究数据,运用双元创新理论,探讨探索与利用两种颠覆性技术创新政策影响数字产业技术融合的异同,以及技术距离在其中的作用机制;并比较颠覆性技术双元和颠覆性市场双元之间不同的联动效应。采用逐步回归进行实证检验,研究发现：(1)颠覆性技术探索对技术融合度有显著的正向影响,且技术距离正向调节颠覆性技术探索与技术融合度间关系;(2)颠覆性技术利用与技术融合度呈倒U型关系,且技术距离正向调节颠覆性技术利用与技术融合度间关系;(3)不同的颠覆性技术创新和颠覆性市场创新联动关系对企业技术融合有着截然不同的影响,具体来说,在企业选定颠覆性技术探索战略的情境下,颠覆性市场双元对数字产业技术融合度不会产生明显的促进或抑制作用;在企业选定颠覆性技术利用战略的情境下,颠覆性市场探索对数字产业技术融合度表现出更为明显的促进作用。     

IS THERE A CURSE OF RELOCATION? ANALYSING THE CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN OFFSHORING AND THE INNOVATION PERFORMANCE OF (SMALL) FIRMS

We analyse the empirical link between offshoring activities and different dimensions of innovation performance at the firm‐level. In order to identify causal effects running from offshoring to innovation, we use a quasi‐experimental comparison group approach by means of (conditional) difference‐in‐difference estimations applied to German establishment‐level data for firms that conducted offshoring activities in the period 2007–13. We find that the international relocation of business functions has a negative impact on the firms’ propensity to be innovative in terms of product and process innovations as well as product improvements. While for larger firms the reduction in process innovations is most striking, potentially due to a lack of resources, stagnation in expertise and a reduction in intra‐organizational learning‐by‐doing associated with the relocation of some business activities, for small and medium‐sized enterprises we particularly observe a reduction in product innovations after the offshoring activity has taken place. When interpreting this ‘pessimistic’ picture on the link between offshoring and the innovation performance of firms, the reader should note that our findings for German establishments have to be assessed through the lens of a global economy in economic recession after 2008, which may have intensified the negative impact of offshoring on the firms’ innovation performance.     

Technological innovation and the demand for labor by firms in expansion and recession

ABSTRACT

With firm data from the Spanish Community Innovation Survey (CIS) for the period 2003–2014, we find a positive and significant effect of innovation in the demand for labor when firms introduce product and process innovations in the same time period. The effect of innovation on the demand for labor is countercyclical, higher in the recession, after 2008, than in the expansion, before 2008, but the probability that firms innovate in product and process is counter-cyclical, i.e. lower in the recession. Altogether, the elasticity of the demand for labor to the probability that firms introduce product and process innovations remains stable throughout the sample period, at around 0.035. Innovation contributes to stabilize average employment during the cycle, more so when the innovation is in product, alone or together with process, than when it is only in process. These results are broadly consistent with product and process innovations shifting firms’ demand and production functions upwards, but differentially in expansions (less product market competition) than in contractions (more competition).