How technological innovation affects the structure of an industry: entrepreneurship evolution in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry since 1980

Challenges faced by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, including reduced R&D productivity and the expiration of drugs that are high in demand, are recently being addressed through technological innovation. Such innovations are highly likely to change the structure and functioning of the industry. Since 2000, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have actively made strategic alliance, and technological innovations have changed the source of innovation from R&D to entrepreneurship within the industry. In this study, we identify the evolution of entrepreneurship and discuss the changes caused by technological advancements since 1980 by analysing patterns of exporting and acquiring technology data from Medtrack. Over difference period, biopharmaceutical firms have gained new knowledge and improved technology, and have implemented this newly acquired knowledge and innovation to introduce drugs to the market.     

How good are supply function equilibrium models: an empirical analysis of the ERCOT balancing market

We present an empirical analysis of a supply function equilibrium model in the Texas spot electricity market. We derive conditions for optimal bidding behavior in a spot market with ex ante bilaterally contracted sales. By estimating costs, we are able to derive a set of ex post-and ex ante-optimal supply functions and use a non-parametric behavioral model to compare our theoretically optimal supply functions to actual offers made. Our results show that with the exception of the largest generators, firms make offers with markups and markdowns far in excess of what a model of profit-maximizing behavior suggests.     

The determinants of tendering periods for PPP procurement in the UK: an empirical analysis

The procurement of infrastructure projects via public–private partnerships (PPPs) is rising globally. PPPs are, however, often characterized by lengthy tendering periods, defined as the difference between contract notice and financial close. Tendering periods are important because they account for a significant proportion of overall project delivery time. Slow tendering deters bidders and thus reduces competition for contracts. We source data on 670 PPP projects in the United Kingdom and use a duration analysis model to empirically examine factors that impact tendering period duration. Our results reveal significant sectoral variation with projects in the health and housing sectors taking significantly longer to reach financial close. We also show that, after controlling for other factors, projects with higher capital values and projects that overlap with the timing of general elections are associated with significantly longer tendering periods. We further examine the impact of the competitive dialogue procurement method and find evidence that tendering periods have increased since 2006; the year competitive dialogue was introduced. We do, however, observe a significant reduction in the time between appointment of preferred bidder and financial close post-2006. This suggests that competitive dialogue is effective in reducing the scope for negotiations by preferred bidders holding quasi-monopoly advantages.     

Spatial disaggregation patterns and structural determinants of job flows: an empirical analysis

The paper investigates the changes in job creation and destruction flows at a very disaggregated level of analysis. We analyse whether job flows at lower levels of spatial aggregation display regularities that are in line with national ones in a bid to disentangle the role of labour market institutions. Using a unique database of the population of firms in Trentino (a north‐eastern province of Italy) from 1991 to 2001, we find that: (1) job flows show a ‘fractal’ tendency, i.e. many regularities appear to be scale invariant (magnitude of flow and persistence) and that job flow magnitude is in line with the average values for Italy; (2) there are some qualifications to their ‘fractality’: the contribution of entrant firms to the job creation process is lower than the corresponding contribution at national level, as is the share of job destruction accounted for by exiting firms; and (3) firm size and age influence job flows.     

Market orientation and performance in the biotechnology industry: An exploratory empirical analysis

The purpose ofthis study was to conduct an exploratory investigation into the link between market orientation and business performance in the biotechnology sector. Based on the nature and character of the biotechnology industry, a multi-faceted scale of market orientation was derived from a preuiously tested and refined measure of the construct. Data were generated from 62 biotechnolog firms and a variety of market orientation-performance relationships were investigated, alongside other potential effects on the different dimensions of business performance. The findings indicate that market orientation is positively and signficanttly associated with three of the four performance measures examined. Implications of our findings for biotechnology industry managers are discussed and limitations of the study as well as future research directions are addressed.     

Revisiting the Porter hypothesis: an empirical analysis of Green innovation for the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Almost all empirical research that has attempted to assess the validity of the Porter hypothesis (PH) has started from reduced-form models, for example, single-equation models for estimating the contribution of environmental regulation to productivity. This paper follows a structural approach that allows testing what is known in the literature as the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ version of the PH. Our ‘Green Innovation’ model includes three types of eco-investments to explain differences in the incidence of two types of eco-innovation, which are allowed to affect labor productivity. We allow for complementarity between the two types of eco-innovations. Using a comprehensive panel of Dutch manufacturing firm-level data we estimate the relative importance of environmental regulations on eco-investment and eco-innovations. The results of our analysis show a strong corroboration of the weak and a nuanced corroboration of the strong version of the PH.     

Technology acquisition models for fast followers in high-technological markets: an empirical analysis of the LED industry

The rapid rate of technology obsolescence in many high-technology markets makes it imperative for firms to renew their technological bases constantly. Given its critical importance, the technology acquisition from the fast followers’ perspective needs to be the subject of careful analysis. This paper aims to identify the factors influencing fast-follower firms’ choice of technology acquisition model, using a multi-factorial analysis and taking into account their technological capabilities, marketing capabilities, and environmental risk tradeoffs. This study sourced data from the Securities Data Company (SDC) Platinum Database for a total of 205 instances of technological cooperation between technology holders and fast followers in the LED industry. Based on the empirical results, some significant findings were found. First, regarding technological capabilities, when fast-follower firms had greater R&D, complementary manufacturing capabilities, and technological similarities with the partners, they preferred the acquisition model that required higher resource commitments. Secondly, when fast followers had marketing channel advantages, they were more likely to choose a high resource-commitment acquisition model to obtain time-to-market benefits.     

Diversity of technology acquisition in technological catch-up: an industry-level analysis of Chinese manufacturing

Using panel data analysis for an industry-level sample of Chinese manufacturing industries from 2000 to 2009, the study examines how latecomers dynamically adapt technology acquisition strategy in terms of technology acquisition diversity during the transition process from imitation to innovation. Our research considers technology acquisition as a portfolio of technology channels and thus examines the impact of technology gap between domestic firms and foreign firms on technology acquisition strategy at the industry level. The findings reveal that technology gap positively affects technology acquisition diversity of Chinese manufacturing industries. Further, it shows that technological uncertainty weakens the positive impact of technology gap on diversity of technology acquisition.     

Mapping technological development using patent citation trees: an analysis of bogie technology

We create a generational patent citation tree to reveal the development of bogie technology in the high-speed rail industry. We cull the information in patent citations to reveal the generational development of bogie technology by analysing patent titles, patent publication dates and patent-granting regions. We then measure the development of bogie technology by calculating its technological development on-orbit rate and by mapping the stages of technological development and its regional diffusion. The results show that bogie technologies are in a period of sustained growth and this period of sustained growth will remain. Technological development is accelerating and this acceleration will persist, although the global dispersion of technology lags behind in scope and speed.     

An empirical analysis on the determinants of overweight and obesity in China

Overweight and obesity in adult populations is considered to be a growing epidemic worldwide, and appears to be rapidly increasing in China. From 1992 to 2002, the incidence of overweight in adults increased by 39.0%, while that of obesity doubled. To identify the determinants of adult overweight and obesity in China, micro-level data from a questionnaire survey entitled the ‘Preference Parameters Study,’ which was conducted by the Global Centers of Excellence programme at Osaka University, were analysed. In addition to the entire sample, data from urban and rural subsamples were also analysed in order to investigate whether the determinants of overweight and obesity differed. The results suggested that body mass index (BMI) is correlated with subjective well-being, gender, age, labour intensity and drinking and eating habits among urban respondents, and with age, monthly income, number of siblings and eating habits among rural respondents.     

Trade-mediated biotechnology transfer and its effective absorption: an application to the U.S. forestry sector

In this paper, we analyze the consequences of biotechnology innovations in the United States forest sector (logging) by modeling technology transfer embodied in trade flows and its absorption. A seven-region, seven-traded-commodity version of a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used to achieve this task. A 0.63% Hicks-neutral biotechnological progress in the source region (U.S.) has differential impacts on the productivity of the log-using sectors in the domestic as well as in the recipient regions. Since recipient regions' ability to utilize biotechnology innovations depends on their absorptive capacity (AC) and structural similarity (SS), we construct the AC and SS indices based on multiplicity of factors such as human capital endowments, skill content and social appropriateness of the new innovations. The model results show that biotechnological innovations in the U.S. forest sector result in a significant increase in timber production. Following the productivity improvements and its embodied spillover, wood products and pulp and paper sectors in the U.S. register higher productivity growth. The role of AC and SS in capturing technical change is shown to be evident. In the face of growing regulations on timber production from public forests, increasing productivity through biotechnology may be the most effective way to meet the consumer demand for forest products.     

Hypercongestion in production correspondences: an empirical exploration

This empirical contribution reviews the rather limited existing literature measuring congestion in production. It first compares current ways to measure congestion using nonparametric specifications of technologies. In particular, it focuses on the magnitude and incidence of the congestion detected in empirical studies using traditional radial efficiency measures. Thereafter, it shows the limitations of this radial measurement and how alternative measurement schemes may reveal higher amounts of congestion. Then, the new, more general methodology of measuring S-congestion is presented. In particular, we first present a numerical example to illustrate the way the S-disposable technologies allow to capture more extreme forms of congestion by setting empirically determined upper bounds to the wasting of inputs. Then, an empirical illustration is presented based on an existing sample of data. A final section concludes.     

The empirical analysis of the determinants for environmental technological change: A research agenda

Technological change is usually considered a necessary albeit not sufficient condition for a transition to sustainability. However, the empirical analysis of the determinants to environmental technological change has not received too much attention in the environmental/ecological economics literature and many open questions remain in this context. Based on a careful review of the literature, this paper argues that further analysis should address several issues at different levels: i.e., regarding the conceptual framework, the thematic scope of the studies, some methodological issues and other aspects related to the environmental policy variable. First, an integrated conceptual framework which takes into account the interplay between relevant variables influencing environmental technological change (i.e., factors internal and external to the firm and characteristics of the environmental technologies) and all the stages of this process, with a greater emphasis on the invention stage, should be developed. Other aspects should then be tackled, including a focus on several themes (i.e., a greater attention to cross-sectoral technologies, the barriers to different types of environmental technologies, the international dimension of environmental technological change and environmental technological change in small and medium size enterprises), methodological issues (combination of case studies and econometric modelling) and several issues related to the environmental policy variable.     

Keeping abreast of technology-driven business model evolution: a dynamic patent analysis approach

All firms that depend on technology for their competitive positions recognise that keeping abreast of technology-driven business model evolution is of vital importance. However, previous studies cannot offer a concrete way of profiling trends owing to the lack of quantitative data and systematic processes. We propose a dynamic patent analysis that can identify complex relationships among business method patents and visualise trends in technology-driven business model evolution. At the heart of the suggested approach is morphological analysis (MA) for structuring different types of business models at a technological attribute level and modified formal concept analysis (FCA) for investigating technological changes in business models over time. A case study of business method patents concerning electronic shopping is presented to show the feasibility of the proposed approach. We believe our method can promote consensus-building on up-to-date trends in technology-driven business model evolution, serving as a starting point for a more general model.     

Financial development and economic growth in Australia: An empirical analysis

The paper empirically examines the dynamic relationship between financial development and economic growth in Australia in terms of bank-based and market-based financial structure. A time-series approach using the VAR Model is used to provide evidence for the dynamic relationship. The paper provides empirical evidence on the causal impact of the financial market on the economic growth of the Australian economy. The results suggest that financial intermediaries and financial markets have different impacts on economic growth given their diverse roles in the domestic economy. In particular there is evidence of causality from economic growth to the development of the financial intermediaries. On the other hand, development in the financial markets causes economic growth but there is no evidence of any causality from economic growth to financial markets. The sensitivity test using different interest rates does not change the results.I Jel classification: O16, G18, G28I We would like to thank Tilak Abeysinghe and Rajagurn Gunasekaran for their helpful comments on the first draft. Also, we would like to thank the Editor, Prof. Baldev Raj, and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.First version received: October 2001/Final version received: October 2002     

Risk premium,macroeconomic shocks,and information technology: an empirical analysis

This study empirically identifies the impact of various macroeconomic factors on the default risk premium. Using monthly data for the period 1970–2010 for the US, our estimations indicate that the monetary policy aggregates, risk-free interest rate, term structure of interest rates, inflation, and the state of the business cycle influence the risk premium. The results also provide some evidence in support of the hypothesis that the development of information technology has had a decreasing impact on the risk premium. As expected, various financial crises have had substantial and long-lasting effects on the premium. The results suggest that the direct impact of the subprime crisis and Lehman’s collapse on the risk premium was as large as two and a half percentage-points for a sustainable period. Foreign financial crises, in turn, have lowered the risk premium in the US market, suggesting a flight-to-safety phenomenon.     

Modes of international activities and the innovativeness of firms: an empirical analysis based on the Japanese National Innovation Survey for 2009

We quantitatively examine the factors which account for differences in innovation output depending on the mode of international activities, employing the innovation accounting framework proposed by Mairesse and Mohnen [2001. To be or not to be innovative: An exercise in measurement. NBER Working Paper No. 8644. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research; 2002. “Accounting for Innovation and Measuring Innovativeness: An Illustrative Framework and an Application.” American Economic Review 92 (2): 226–230]. We find that internationally engaged firms use more innovation inputs and generate more innovation outputs. Firms with R&D establishments abroad show the best innovation performance. A significant part of the higher innovation performance of internationally engaged firms can be explained by their greater intra-firm knowledge spillovers, R&D intensity, perceived competitive pressure, and proximity to basic research. However, more importantly, our innovation efficiency analysis suggests that engagement in international activities increases the sales amount of innovative products though it does not necessarily raise the probability that a firm successfully develops a new product or process.     

Aggregate imports and expenditure components in the UK: an empirical analysis

This paper examines the long-run relationship between UK aggregate imports and the macroeconomic components of final expenditure, using the Johansen multivariate cointegration analysis. It is found that there are significant differences between the long-run elasticities of import demand with respect to the different components of final expenditure, over the period 1972 to 1990. An error correction model is proposed for short-run forecasting of UK aggregate imports. The short-run model appears to track the data well.     

Alleged instability of the Okun's law relationship in Australia: an empirical analysis

The determinants of the long run equilibrium unemployment rate are modelled through a cointegrating regression. The residual term, which represents the error correction mechanism, is used in the testing of a general dynamic model to obtain a simplified representation of the data generation process over the period 1968(2)–1989(2). The long period equilibrium unemployment rate, which is I(1), is shown to be related to the rate of capacity utilization, a structural change variable and the rate of capacity growth. Steady state rates of unemployment are calculated which are based on different assumptions about the magnitudes of the independent variables. In contrast to the other two variables, changes in the rate of capacity utilization are shown to have only modest effects on the steady state unemployment rate. The Okun coefficient is inversely related to the steady state unemployment rate, which accords with intuition. The statistically significant decline in the trend growth rate of non-farm GDP in the 1970s explains, in part, the apparent instability of the Okun's law relationship which is revealed in recent studies. These studies can be criticised for their conometric methodologies.