Maize protection in Zambia

A major preoccupation of agricultural policy makers in the 1970s has been how to obtain maximum benefit from new high-yielding seeds. ‘Tailored packages’ have been developed to suit conditions in different countries, specialized training has been arranged for farmers to help them cope with the techniques needed for the new seeds, and banks, at least in some countries, have extended their activities deeper into the rural areas. Some attempts have also been made to avoid the ‘freezing out’ of small farmers for whom the new seeds, with their demands for precise applications of water and fertilizers, were likely to be a risky business. The emphasis has been on increased output. Less effort has gone into programmes designed to deal with a problem that the high-yielding strains create once they have been grown and harvested — an increase in post-harvest losses. Estimates suggest that between 20% and 40% of the grain produced in developing countries each year ends up nourishing insects, rodents and birds or is otherwise spoiled by fungi. The food lost in Africa alone each year could feed 55 million people. India loses sufficient grain to feed 50 million people a year.The high-yielding varieties of seeds are even more susceptible to loss than traditional seeds because they cannot be kept securely in traditional storage facilities. A good example of this problem — as well as an innovation which is attracting attention from many other countries — is in Zambia where maize is the staple crop.     

Technological and non-technological innovations,performance and propensity to innovate across industries: The case of an emerging economy

Innovation in a firm may be non-technological, such as organizational and marketing innovation, and technological, such as product and process innovation. The aim of this article is to explore how different types of innovation affect the innovation development of the firm across industries. We chose Chile as an emerging market context. Our results show that only product innovations affect significantly innovation performance across industries. However, different types of propensities to innovate are affected differently by technological and non-technological innovations. We discuss implications for managers and policy makers in emerging economies, in which data tends to be scarce to develop new policy models and increase the effect of non-technological innovation on innovative performance.     

Evidence of slowing yield growth – The example of Swiss cereal yields

We analyze trends in crop yields and yield variability of barley, maize, oats, rye, triticale and wheat in Switzerland from 1961 to 2006. It shows that there have been linear increases in crop yields since the 1960s. However, yields of barley, oats, rye, triticale and wheat have leveled off in Switzerland since the early 1990s, which contrasts linear trends in cereal yields that is usually assumed for Europe. We show a relationship between the introduction of agricultural policy measures towards environmentally friendly cereal production that fostered widespread adoption of extensive farming practices and the observed leveling-off of crop yields. Thus, this paper emphasizes that agricultural policy can be an important reason for slowing crop yield growth. Agricultural policy measures will be one of the key driving forces of future crop yields. Thus, the potential leveling-off of crop yields that is indicated in this study should be considered in analyses of future land use and food supply as well as in the evaluation of agri-environmental measures and policy reforms.     

Liberalization and the growth of business‐led R&D: the case of India

Firms and organizations in India have responded to market reforms, liberalization and globalization by improving efficiency, importing technology and by increasing in‐house R&D. This paper highlights some of the evolutionary changes that have occurred since India undertook sweeping reforms in July 1991 to open its economy to foreign participation and competition. Although some authors, such as Forbes (1999), have looked at the impact of the liberalization on India's R&D and innovation, they missed a number of dimensions that have far‐reaching implications for the process of technological capability development in India. Using the concept of technological capability, this paper makes a contribution to the discourse on the changing R&D and innovation scenario in the face of on‐going liberalization in India. It concludes with three case studies, which illustrate some of the recent changes made by industrial organisations.     

新时期我国高增长行业的产业政策分析

高增长行业在推动经济增长、解决就业、促进技术进步等方面具有重要的意义。高增长行业的产业政策必须根据高增长行业自身的技术属性、初始条件和外部环境的变化进行动态的调整。本文就此提出了动态能力导向的高增长行业产业政策。与传统的产业政策相比,动态能力导向的产业政策具有动态性和创业性两方面的特征。传统产业政策的理论基础是新古典的市场失败理论,在该框架下,政府的核心功能是对产业发展进行长期计划。动态能力导向的产业政策则建构于演化理论的基础上。在该理论框架下,由于环境是不确定的、复杂的,因此,政府的作用主要不是计划,而是努力通过与企业的信息交流和互动来共同克服产业发展的障碍,并最终形成产业与环境的动态匹配;由于环境是变化的,因此,产业政策的重点不是加强既有的企业和产品,而是通过促进企业的创业性活动实现企业和产业竞争能力的培育和提升。     

Learning Capability,Technological Parity,and Innovation Mode Use*

The purpose of this research was to examine whether a firm's learning capability interacts with industry technological parity to predict innovation mode use. Learning capability is conceptualized in the current research as a firm's ability to develop or acquire the new knowledge‐based resources and skills needed to offer new products. Industry technological parity is conceptualized as the extent to which similarity and equality exist among the technological competencies of the firms in an industry. Three generic modes of innovation are considered: internal, cooperative, and external innovation. These modes reflect the development of new products based solely on internal resources, the collaborative development of new products (i.e., with one or more development partners), and the acquisition of fully developed products from external sources, respectively. The premises of this research are that (1) technological parity can create incentives or disincentives for innovating in a particular mode, depending upon the value of external innovative resources relative to the value of internal innovative resources and (2) firms will choose innovation modes that reflect a combination of their abilities and incentives to innovate alone, with others, or through others. Survey research and secondary sources were used to collect data from 119 high‐technology firms. Results indicate that firms exhibit greater use of internal and external innovation when high levels of industry technological parity are matched by high levels of firm learning capability. By contrast, a negative relationship between learning capability and industry technological parity is associated with greater use of the cooperative mode of innovation. Thus, a single, common internal capability—learning capability—interacts with the level of technological parity in the environment to significantly predict three distinct innovation modes—modes that are not inherently dependent upon one another. As such, a firm's internal ability to innovate, as reflected in learning capability, has relevance well beyond that firm's likely internal innovation output. It also predicts the firm's likely use of cooperative and external innovation when considered in light of the level of industry technological parity. A practical implication of these findings is that companies with modest learning capabilities are not inherently precluded from innovating. Rather, they can innovate through modes for which conditions in their current environments do not constitute significant obstacles to innovation output. In particular, modest learning capabilities are associated with higher innovative output in the internal, cooperative, and external modes when industry technological parity levels are low, high, and low, respectively. Conversely, strong learning capabilities tend to be associated with higher innovative output in the internal, cooperative, and external modes when industry technological parity levels are high, low, and high, respectively.     

The impact of innovation intensity,scope, and spillovers on sales growth in Chinese firms

We investigate the relationship between innovation and sales growth of firms in China. Innovation theories suggest firms create the technological knowledge needed to have market impact with their products and drive sales growth in different ways. These include: (1) through firms’ overall innovation intensity, (2) through decisions on innovation scope (depth vs. diversity), and (3) through knowledge spillovers from technological neighbors. Little research exists on how effective these approaches are for emerging market firms in pursuit of growth. To address this, we integrate and test the effects of these different knowledge creation mechanisms using data from Chinese firms over a five-year period. Findings show that innovation intensity and knowledge spillovers positively impact sales growth. We also develop and test a model capturing the non-linear impact of innovation scope. As predicted, we find a U-shaped relationship for depth of innovation and an inverted U-shaped relationship for diversity of innovation.     

Market-based reforms,synchronization and product innovation

This paper focuses on the multiple dimensions of market-based reforms and their impacts on firms’ product innovation performance in China, the largest emerging country in the world. By analyzing a data set with more than one-half-million observations on firms during China's economic transition during the period 2005–2007, we find that the progress of market-based reforms and the degree to which different dimensions of market-based reforms are conducted simultaneously, referred to as synchronization, have a positive effect on firms’ product innovation. We also find that firms with higher absorptive capacity benefit more from market-based reforms and the synchronization of different dimensions of market-based reforms.     

Indian foodgrain performance

The role of the green revolution in Indian foodgrain production has been subject to considerable misinterpretation. The author makes use of data only recently available in his estimation and analysis of drought-corrected trend rates of growth of foodgrain production. He confirms the view based on earlier data that the new cereal technologies in India have not resulted in significant increases in either the rate of growth of agricultural output, foodgrain production, or rice production. However, a structural change has occurred in wheat production in India.     

制度环境、技术复杂度与空间溢出的产业间非均衡性

制度环境作为约束区际互动的因素对于经济空间关联具有不可忽视的影响。本文系统地构建了空间溢出影响产业演化的路径体系,探索制度环境导致空间溢出产业间非均衡性的作用机制,以剖析制度影响区际经济关联的微观基础。基于中国地级地区4位数制造业的实证研究表明,地区间会通过“水平关联”“技术关联”与“投入产出关联”三条路径实现空间溢出,但受到制度环境的调节,较差的制度环境会削弱溢出效应。制度环境通过信任机制影响区际互动,对于不同溢出路径具有差异性的调节作用。技术关联和投入产出关联溢出依赖于企业间的密切互动,显著受到制度环境的调节;水平关联溢出并不一定依赖于企业间互动,受制度环境的调节作用较弱。高技术复杂度产业的发展更加依赖于具有密切技术相关性和投入产出关系的企业间协同机制,因而要求优越的制度环境支持,由此,在制度环境影响下,空间溢出在不同技术复杂度的产业间表现出非均衡性。本文结论暗含“产业促进政策悖论”:致力于促进本地发展的政策很可能因为扭曲制度环境反而成为制约发展的因素。中国推进转型发展与区域协同创新需要降低区际经济互动的交易成本,设计和建设规则透明、信息畅通、政策公平的正式制度是重点之一。     

Constraints of Internally and Externally Derived Knowledge and the Innovativeness of Technological Output: The Case of the United States

A major resource of technological innovativeness is knowledge, which can be either internally or externally derived, and constrained or abundant. We employ a longitudinal case study of U.S. industries to assess whether knowledge sources—internal or external to a country's domestic technology—affect an industry's technological innovativeness, and whether knowledge constraints affect technological innovativeness. We use more than 175,000 U.S. patents over 16 years. In contrast to the prevalent thinking that resource constraints inhibit innovation, we find trade‐related knowledge constraints are largely positively associated with the innovativeness of technological output. Moreover, although one may expect a negative relationship between internally derived knowledge based on prior technology and technological innovativeness, we find this relationship is curvilinear.     

The Unequal Effect of India's Industrial Liberalization on Firms’ Decision to Innovate: Do Business Conditions Matter?

Product‐market competition can boost industry growth if firms invest more in innovation. Using a natural policy experiment, the removal of India's License Raj, we show that firms in liberalized industries were 9% more likely to invest in R&D than firms in non‐liberalized industries. However, the impacts were not the same across firms of different size. After the reforms, firms in the top quartile were 23% more likely to invest in R&D than those in the lowest size quartile. Both productivity differences across firms and the heterogeneous impacts of business conditions on firms explain unequal effects of India's industrial liberalization reform.     

Food policy reforms for sustainable agricultural development in Uzbekistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan

Given the present conditions of demographic growth and the complicated transition toward market economies in Central Asia, the problems of food security and designing policies to achieve it without compromising economic growth are at the forefront of policy agendas in these countries. This paper reviews food policy reforms in Uzbekistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan in the context of sustainable agricultural development. Analyzing the trends in the agricultural sector during the transition period, it identifies the major impacts of policy reforms on food security and enumerates future challenges for improving food security in these countries. It finds that despite the progress made in reforming their economies toward market-oriented ones, the three countries continue to face food insecurity to varying degrees. It concludes that there is an urgent need to further expand and deepen the reform process by enabling functioning land, labor, and financial markets.     

The Nature of Diversified Business Groups: A Research Design and Two Case Studies

Diversified business groups dominate the private sectors of most of the world’s economies. Several of these economies have undergone sudden policy changes that significantly increase domestic competitive intensity. We demonstrate how the changes in corporate scope that accompany such “competitive shocks” can be used to weigh the importance of different explanations for the existence of diversified business groups. We illustrate our reasoning by studying the restructuring of two of India’s largest business groups following a comprehensive post-1991 package of policy reforms. The case studies also elucidate aspects of the restructuring process that should inform larger-sample empirical analyses.     

Competitiveness and trade potential of India’s dairy industry

India has become the world’s largest milk producer but its dairy industry lacks market access. This paper determines how world dairy policy reforms would affect dairy production and trade in India and the competitiveness of its dairy industry. We measure nominal protection coefficient for India’s dairy products to determine level and change in competitiveness between 1975 and 2001. We estimate parameters of domestic demand for and supply of raw milk and whole milk powder to determine how a world price increase would affect domestic milk production and whole milk powder exports. Results show that India’s dairy products lack export competitiveness. But with less distorted world dairy markets, India could be competitive and would emerge as a net exporter of whole milk powder, benefiting dairy industries and milk producers in India.     

Perspective: The Innovation Dilemma: How to Innovate When the Market Is Mature

Most companies have ambitious growth goals. The trouble is there are only so many sources of market growth. Markets in many countries and industries are mature and increasingly commoditized; achieving growth in market share is expensive; and acquisitions often do not work. For most companies, product development means line extensions, improvements, and product modifications, and only serves to maintain market share. Markets aren't growing, so firms increasingly compete for a piece of a shrinking pie by introducing one insignificant new product after another. The launch of a truly differentiated new product in mature markets is rare these days. As a result, development portfolios have become decidedly less innovative since the mid‐1990s, and R&D productivity is down. The answer is bold innovation—breakthrough products, services and solutions that create growth engines for the future. This means larger‐scope and more systems‐oriented solutions and service packages. Examples such as Apple's iPod are often cited. (Note that Apple did not invent the MP3 player, nor was this opportunity in a blue ocean; in fact there were 43 competitors when Apple launched!) What Apple did succeed in was in identifying an attractive strategic arena (MP3s) where it could leverage its strengths to its advantage and then to develop a solution that solved users’ problems. The result—an easy‐to‐use, easy‐to‐download MP3 system, which also happened to be “cool.” Our benchmarking studies reveal that five vectors must be in place to undertake this type of innovation to yield bolder and more imaginative development projects. First, develop a bold innovation strategy that focuses your business on the right strategic arenas that promise to be engines of real growth. Most businesses focus their efforts in the wrong areas—on flat markets, mature technologies, and tired product categories. Break out of this box towards more promising strategic arenas with extreme opportunities. Next, foster a climate and culture that promotes bolder innovation. Leadership is vital to success. If senior management does not have the appetite for these big concepts, then all your efforts and systems will fail. Senior management plays a vital role here in promoting an innovative climate in your business. Next, create “big ideas” for integrated product‐service solutions. The best methods for generating breakthrough new product ideas are identified in this paper. Then drive these “big concepts” to market quickly via a systematic and disciplined idea‐to‐launch system designed for major innovation initiatives. Just because these projects are imaginative and bold is no reason to throw discipline out the window. In fact, quite the reverse is true. Finally build a solid business case and focus on the winners. Most innovation teams don't get the facts, and consequently build weak business cases; the result is that many worthwhile innovations don't get the support they need to be commercialized. It's essential to do the front‐end homework, and so build a compelling business case. Then make the right investment decisions—evaluating “big concepts” for development when little information is available. Note that financial models don't work well when it comes to evaluating major innovations, because the data are often wrong. But other methods can be used to make these tough go/kill decisions. Illustrations and examples are provided from many industries and companies to show how to implement these five vectors.     

The Moderating Role of Tangibility in Synchronous Innovation in Services

A synchronous pattern of innovation as between technological and management innovation, for example, can help firms improve their performance. This article explores this idea with respect to servitizing companies that introduce service delivery innovation as a means of gaining competitive advantage. It finds that the degree of tangibility, an indicator of the firm’s position on the product–service continuum, affects whether and how managers recognize the need for management innovation when introducing service delivery innovation. Using a socio‐technical perspective in conjunction with insights from managerial cognition, the relationship between management innovation and two central types of service delivery innovation—technological and customer interface—is examined. Tangibility shapes the managerial cognitive structures that are related to the enterprise’s technical and social subsystems in a paradigm that is capable of demonstrating contrasting effects. Technological delivery innovation is related to management innovation in firms with high tangibility. Customer interface delivery innovation, on the other hand, relates to management innovation in firms with low tangibility. This study uses a sample of diverse firms with varying degrees of tangibility to provide support for this theory.     

Trends in innovation and productivity: The case of chemical and textile industries in the U.S.

This paper attempts to investigate an empirical linkage between technological innovation and productivity in two industries in the United States. During the period 1967—82, the chemical and textile industries experienced different rates of productivity growth. In spite of stiff competition from foreign manufacturers, American textile firms maintained a steady growth in productivity. This industry benefitted from major technological innovations occurring in industries supplying to it. The chemical industry faced crisis due to sudden changes in petroleum prices. Changes in regulatory requirements also imposed a different set of constraints on the chemical industry. Rate of innovation decreased quite severely in this industry during this time period.
Innovation indicators were developed by obtaining data on new product/process announcements in the technical literature. Panels of technical experts from the industries and academia evaluated the data for their technical novelty. The data indicate a relationship between innovation and productivity growth.     

When do firms undertake R&D by investing in new ventures?

We explore the conditions under which firms are likely to pursue equity investment in new ventures as a way to source innovative ideas. We find that firms invest more in new ventures—commonly referred to as ‘corporate venture capital’—in industries with weak intellectual property protection and, to some extent, in industries with high technological ferment and where complementary distribution capability is important. Furthermore, we find that the greater a firm's cash flow and absorptive capacity, the more likely it is to invest. Our results suggest that in Schumpeterian environments incumbents may supplement their innovative efforts by tapping into the knowledge generated by new ventures. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.