R&D strategy and innovation performance: the role of standardization

Firms now increasingly recognise the important role of R&D strategy in building technological advantage. However, few attempts have linked standardisation with specific R&D strategies in explaining innovation performance. To bridge this gap, this study empirically examines the relationships between R&D strategies, standardisation, and firms’ innovation performance. Based on a sample of 371 firms in China, we use structural equation modelling (SEM) and find that novelty-oriented R&D strategy generates greater accumulation of standardisation knowledge and standards diversity, while R&D openness only positively relates to this standardisation knowledge accumulation. Moreover, standardisation knowledge accumulation is positively related to both administrative and technical innovation performance, while a greater variety of standards only leads to higher administrative innovativeness. More importantly, our results reveal that accumulation of standardisation knowledge mediates the relationships between R&D novelty and administrative and technical innovation performances. Both the theoretical and practical implications that arise from these findings are discussed.     

Knowledge search modes and innovation performance: The moderating role of strategic R&D orientation

Prior studies implicitly assume that knowledge search modes are homogeneous, and little is known about the impacts of specific search modes on innovation. Drawing upon the knowledge search literature, we differentiate among four types of search modes and analyze their impacts on innovation performance. Moreover, we enrich the theoretical framework by recognising the moderating role of strategic R&D orientation in affecting the relationship between specific types of search modes and innovation performance. Using a unique dataset of 418 Chinese firms, we find that, except for inward licensing, value chain search, capital search, and industry-university-research institute collaboration (IUR collaboration) exert positive effects on innovation performance. Moreover, the empirical results indicate that a strategic R&D orientation amplifies the positive effects of value chain search and IUR collaboration while it mitigates the negative effect of inward licensing on innovation performance.     

The productivity effects of local R&D outsourcing: the moderating role of subsidiary mandate and internal R&D

This study examined the moderating effects of two kinds of internal R&D (parent R&D and subsidiary R&D) on the relationship between local R&D outsourcing and subsidiary productivity as internal R&D challenges the collaborative relationships in the local environment. Due to the specific feature of a subsidiary mandate, we further investigate whether two distinct kinds of internal R&D have different moderating effects between exploitation-oriented subsidiaries and exploration-oriented subsidiaries, based on a sample of longitudinal data set of 263 Taiwan-based manufacturing subsidiaries over the period 2006–2009. The empirical results show that for exploitation-oriented subsidiaries parent R&D plays a significant and negative moderating role on the impact of local R&D outsourcing based on local collaboration, while a positive moderating role is observed with parent R&D and subsidiary R&D for exploration-oriented subsidiaries.     

我国外贸技术溢出效应的国别差异分析

技术溢出是发展中国家追赶发达国家的重要路径,溢出的渠道包括国际贸易、FDI、R＆D合作、国外R＆D投资等。我们运用经拓展后的Coe＆Helpman的贸易溢出计量模型,试图将我国从商品贸易以及FDI中所获得的技术溢出纳入同一模型中加以综合分析,并对贸易带来的技术溢出效应进行国别差异分析,以判断不同类型国家对我国吸收技术溢出效应的影响。并在此基础上,提出了相应的政策建议。     

Productivity effects of trade and product innovations: an empirical analysis for 13 OECD countries

This article distinguishes two sources of productivity increases, namely product/process innovations and trade innovations. An empirical analysis for 13 OECD countries shows that product/process innovations, represented by aggregated investments in Research and Development (R&D), are major determinants for productivity growth in large industrial countries, whereas trade innovations, represented by export intensity, seem to contribute most to productivity in trade-oriented economies. These trade innovations relate to the ability to reduce transaction costs so that these trading nations specialize in the organization of production in this era of globalization where the production chain is split up in more and more component parts.     

Margin rate and the cycle: the role of trade openness

Using three datasets of French manufacturing firms, this article studies the role of trade openness, in relation with the cycle, as a determinant of company margin rate. Margin rates increase as capacity utilization tightens (and vice versa), reflecting the procyclicality of margin rates. However, high import rates are limiting this procyclicality: when capacities are tight, domestic producers may not be able to serve demand, but foreign producers may substitute for them if they are already present on the market as reflected by the level of import rates.     

Dynamics of firm's network community associations and firm's innovation performance

ABSTRACT

R&D network structures have crucial impacts on firm's innovation performance. However, most previous studies have been based on the whole or ego network perspective, few studies have investigated the influence of community structure that a firm is engaged in on its innovation performance, and it is still unclear how a firm's relation to network community affect its innovation performance. This research aims to address this gap by focusing on the dynamics of firm's network community associations, empirically investigate the relationship between dynamics of firm's network community associations and its innovation performance. Based on the unbalanced panel data of smartphone R&D network during year 2004–2017, the results demonstrate that change in community member associations and movement across communities both have inverted-U-shaped effects on firm's innovation performance. Moreover, innovation openness depth has moderating effects on the relationships between dynamics of firm's network community associations and its innovation performance.     

Location factors of international R&D activities: an econometric approach

A model is developed of the relation between adoption of an innovation by firms and firm size. Decision making is represented as a group assessment of the perceived ratio between expected returns after succesful introduction, and the risk that implementation will fail or will last too long to makc adoption worth while. In view of differences in thc assessment of uncertainty and corresponding demands on the perceived return-to-risk ratio, among influencers of decisions in the firm, decision making is taken as stochastic, with a probability of adoption related to (objective) net benefits, and probability of non-adoption related to risk. The model gives a new way of looking at the fact that small firms lag behind in the adoption of new technology. In contrast with previous models proposed by David and Davies the explanation has nothing to do with there being some critical size below which adoption is not profitable. The present model explains the adoption lag for smaller firms as the result of expected returns being proportional to size while risk of failed implementation is independent of size. The model is tested and estimated empirically on data for the adoption of computers in small scale retailing, in the Netherlands.     

The role of intermediaries on technological risk management and business development performance in Korea

This paper examines the strategic use of intermediaries by companies to better meet their technology needs from the resource-based theory and network theory perspectives. The results of this study are based on a sample of Korean IT companies and indicate the particular importance of cooperation with government support organizations and public R&D institutions in building relational assets. Intermediaries played a crucial role in enabling and facilitating joint development projects and promoting technology transfer among the companies in general.The results of this study suggest that intermediaries, as they are linked to other organizations within networks and are centrally situated within those networks where information and resource flow, can coordinate and control the exchange of information and resources within networks and enjoy timely and privileged access to such information, giving them the means to expand their strategic social capital.     

Assessing the roles that absorptive capacity and economic distance play in the foreign direct investment-productivity growth nexus

We further examine the channels through which Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) develops the national productivity of host countries. We investigate whether FDI is an effective channel of technological transfer across borders and whether that technology transfer is bi-directional: from an investing country to a host country and vice versa. In particular, an analysis is provided of whether FDI helps channel more resources towards the promotion of education activities and hence augments economic growth indirectly through augmenting the host country's absorptive capacity. Also, the analysis uses a novel approach to take into account the possibility that physical distances can act as a barrier to economic and technological interactions amongst countries, by embedding a measure of geographical distance into two specific channels: international trade and FDI. Empirical results obtained all lend strong support to these hypotheses.     

Quick and dirty technology assessment: The case of an Italian Research Centre

Technology assessment has an increasingly critical role to play, in light of the fact that technology is the ultimate source of competitive advantage for companies, and of economic and social development for nations. In this paper, we present a methodology for a “quick and dirty” technology assessment, developed with reference to a real-word case study. The case in question is that of a large Italian Research Centre, whose top management required a rapid assessment of the technological competences, resources and results of the organisation. Because technology assessment is inherently highly complex, the problem consisted in reducing the complexity to obtain a simple methodology that could be rapidly deployed in practice.In summary, this paper: (i) describes a methodology for a “quick and dirty” technology assessment, effectively implemented in practice; (ii) points out the main problems/difficulties encountered and the possible solutions; (iii) discusses the results and the validity/applicability of the formulated methodology.     

Vertical educational diversity and innovation performance

This paper uses panel data of Swiss firms to analyse the impact of education-level diversity in the workforce on innovation performance, addressing endogeneity by exploiting within-firm variation as well as variation in labour supply across regions. We find that vertical educational diversity increases the extensive margin of R&D and product innovation, particularly new product innovation. However, the relationship with process innovation, R&D intensity, and product innovation intensity is insignificant. These results are in line with the idea that vertical educational diversity enhances the creative moment of the invention phase, while it has no effect on the commercialization phase due to the relevance of coordination and communication costs relative to the gains in creativity.     

Cooperation vs. competition in R&D: The role of stability of equilibrium

We consider a model in which firms first choose process R&D expenditures and then compete in an output market. We show the symmetric equilibrium under R&D competition is sometimes unstable, in which case two asymmetric equilibria must also exist. For the latter, we find, in contrast to the literature that total profits are sometimes higher with R&D competition than with research joint venture cartelization (due to the cost asymmetry of the resulting duopoly in the noncooperative case). Furthermore, these equilibria provide another instance of R&D-induced firm heterogeneity.     

How chaebol restructuring after the 1997 crisis has affected corporate decision and performance in Korea: debt financing,ownership structure,and investment

ABSTRACT

Korean chaebol firms, characterized by excessive debt financing and overinvestment, experienced restructuring after the 1997 crisis. By reducing debt financing and thus overinvestment, they tried to reorganize financing structure and ownership structure. Chaebols’ debt reduction turns out to have improved performance. However, polarization between chaebol and non-chaebol firms has become more significant. Even after the crisis, firms that give higher cash flows to a controlling shareholder take more capital investment, indicating that agency problems still exist within chaebols. Chaebol-affiliated firms continue to be more active in R&D than non-chaebol firms. However, the pattern is limited to the group of top 10 chaebols after the crisis.

Abbreviations: KFTC: Korea Fair Trade Commission     

Innovative growth: the role of market power and negative selection

ABSTRACT

This paper relies on register-based statistical data from Finland to measure broad research and development (R&D), organizational capital (OC) and information and communication technology (ICT) investments as innovation inputs in addition to formal survey-based R&D and CIS survey data on innovations. The linked panel data are appropriate for a comparison of low-market-share (small) and large-market-share (large) firms. We analyze the productivity growth and profitability of Finnish firms with varying market power. In contrast to high-market-share firms, low-market-share firms are characterized by low profit derived from new innovations. This study suggests that in addition to imitative growth, a ‘negative selection mechanism’ explains the high productivity growth relative to the low profits.     

South African trade policy mattersTrade performance and trade policy*

South African trade policy has exerted a major influence on the composition and aggregate growth of trade. In the Apartheid period, South Africa developed a comparative advantage in capital‐intensive primary and manufactured commodities partly because of its natural resource endowments, but also because the pattern of protection was particularly detrimental to exports of non‐commodity manufactured goods. By contrast, trade liberalization from 1990 not only increased imports, but by reducing both input costs and the relative profitability of domestic sales also boosted exports. This evidence suggests that additional trade liberalization and policies that afford South African firms access to inputs at world prices could well be part of the strategy to enhance export diversification.     

Firm ownership,industrial structure,and regional innovation performance in China's provinces

This paper uses panel data between 2000 and 2010 to explore how firm ownership and regional industrial structures contribute to regional innovation performance in Chinese provinces. Specifically, we explore how the extent of specialisation and diversification in regional industrial structures at the province level fosters both Marshall–Arrow–Romer and Jacobs spillovers, as well as how foreign and state ownership influence regional innovation. We find: (i) China's regional innovation systems benefit from Jacobs but not MAR externalities, with the former spurring higher quality innovation in the form of increased invention patenting; (ii) state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises advance local innovation, with the latter again fostering higher quality innovation; and (iii) a convergence towards a combination of low specialisation and high diversity in provincial industrial structure is taking place between China's more developed inland coastal provinces and less developed inland provinces. Implications and suggestions for policy-making and future research are discussed.     

A comparative analysis of the change in R&D efficiency: a case of R&D leaders in the technology industry

This paper measures the cumulative change in research and development (R&D) efficiency of globally leading R&D companies in the technology industry. We use Data Envelopment Analysis /Malmquist index to analyse 49 such companies. The change in R&D efficiency is analysed by decomposing the Malmquist index into ‘catch-up’ and ‘frontier shift’ indices, and by comparing cumulative indices to those at the starting period. Those cumulative indices are obtained at both a firm and an industry level. Results indicate that the overall R&D efficiency of these globally leading R&D companies declined slightly during the period 2007–2013. At a firm level, this study determines in detail how the trend of each firm in R&D activities differs from other companies.     

Trade-related R&D Spillovers in Vietnamese Manufacturing

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine how Vietnamese manufacturing could benefit from R&D investment locally and from OECD countries through trade during a period marked with major trade liberalisations. Using the industry-level data during 2000–2009, it finds that the foreign R&D has accounted for the most part of the R&D spillovers in the sector, with a larger proportion earning from the other foreign industries’ R&D. The domestic industries’ own R&D has improved the sector’s total factor productivity, but in a relatively smaller magnitude compared to the foreign sources. In examining the localised effects of R&D spillovers in Vietnamese manufacturing, the results reiterate the important roles of trade-embedded foreign R&D spillovers from Japan, the US, South Korea, and Germany in the sector’s total factor productivity growth. These findings altogether give support to foreign technology diffusion as a major conduit for growth prospects in Vietnamese manufactures.     

The Damoclean tax and innovation

The paper presents a novel tax that is designed to improve the performance of research and development (R&D) investments. Ideally, the tax allows the technical efficiencies of monopoly while bringing about the desirable effects of the competitive pressure of R&D rivalry. Thus, with the tax, the state can sanction a monopoly of R&D investment in order to attain technical efficiencies and yet avoid the underinvestment in R&D that would result without competitive pressures. A critique of the tax emphasizes the problems of implementing it and offers a more practical alternative that would achieve the same desirable effects.