The impact of process innovations on firm's productivity growth: the case of Spain

The main aim of this paper is to investigate about the effect that a measure of the process innovation performance of a firm has on its labour productivity growth. This analysis is mainly a consequence of two considerations. The first one results from a clear differentiation of the role that product and process innovations have on a firm's performance. The second one is to assume that the knowledge capital of a firm is mainly composed by its successful research. The study demonstrates that process innovation has a positive and significant effect on firm's productivity growth. Moreover, this result is robust under a wide range of alternative specifications and, in any case, the variable behaves much better than R&D intensity. Following previous research, the detected quadratic relationship between vertical product differentiation and process innovation performance leads to the existence of some firms for which there exist a trade–off between quality and productivity.     

COMPETITION, PARALLEL IMPORTS AND COST-REDUCING INNOVATION

Incorporating parallel imports (PI), we develop a two‐country two‐firm model which relates to the incentives for cost‐reducing innovation. We show that PI may facilitate or inhibit the manufacturers' incentives to innovate. In particular, PI could encourage both firms' innovations. The difference between the manufacturer's profits under successful innovation and failed innovation is either a U‐shaped curve or an inverted U‐shaped curve in terms of the cost of engaging in PI. As these differences reflect the manufacturers' incentive to innovate, the variations in R&D investment depend on transportation cost, and firms' marginal costs before and after successful innovations.     

创新扩散时间形态的S型曲线研究

创新扩散是创新通过某种渠道随着时间在社会系统成员间传播的过程。创新扩散S型规则由两条曲线组成：一条被称为累积采用曲线,即S型曲线;另一条被称为单位时间采用量曲线,即钟形曲线。创新扩散率主要受创新特点、创新者特点和环境因素的影响。从创新扩散S型曲线的由来看,其发端于人口增长模型中的增长曲线,后由Tarde提出S型曲线规则,最后Ryan和Gross促使其成为一种研究范式。从创新扩散S型曲线成因看,“波浪效应”和“阈值模型”是两种典型的解释模型：“波浪效应”是指创新扩散过程就像波浪一样,由创新中心点向四周扩散;“阈值模型”探讨了在个人参与某项活动之前,参与该活动的其他个体必须达到的人数。未来重点围绕3个方面进行深化研究：①进一步验证S型曲线;②验证创新扩散S型曲线中的数理模型;③结合创新扩散影响因素与扩散形态,将模型应用到创新扩散预测方面。     

Inter-firm diffusion of process innovations

This paper introduces a model of the diffusion of process innovations. It predicts that the inter- firm diffusion curve, showing the proportion of firms having adopted a given innovation, will follow either a cumulative normal time path for major and technically complex innovations or a cumulative lognormal time path for simpler and less expensive innovations. This prediction is tested, with satisfactory results, against data on the diffusion of various innovations in the U.K. The model also provides a limited explanation of why some firms adopt faster than others and identifies a number of factors which will determine the aggregate speed of diffusion.     

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.     

Endogenous product versus process innovation and a firm’s propensity to export

This article provides an empirical analysis of the effects of new product versus process innovations on export propensity at the firm level. Product innovation is a key factor for successful market entry in models of creative destruction and Schumpeterian growth. Process innovation helps securing a firm’s market position given the characteristics of its product supply. Both modes of innovation are expected to raise a firm’s propensity to export. According to new trade theory, we conjecture that product innovation is relatively more important in that regard. We investigate these hypotheses in a rich survey panel data set with information about new innovations of either type. With a set of indicators regarding innovation motives and impediments and continuous variables at the firm and industry level at hand, we may determine the probability of launching new innovations and their impact on export propensity at the firm level through a double treatment approach.     

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.     

Consumers as Co-developers: Learning and Innovation Outside the Firm

This study describes a process in which a firm relies on an external consumer community for innovation. While it has been recognized that users may sometimes innovate, little is known about what commercial firms can do to motivate and capture such innovations and their related benifits. We contribute to strategy literature by suggesting that learning and innovation efforts from which a firm may benifit need not necessarily be located within the organization, but may well reside in the consumer environment. We also contribute to the existing theory on ‘user-driven innovation’ by showing what firms purposively can do to generate consumer innovation efforts. An explorative case study shows that consumer innovation can be structured, motivated, and partly organized by a commercial firm that organizes the infrastructure for consumers’ interactive learning in a public online domain.     

Country governance,corruption, and the likelihood of firms’ innovation

Using a sample of firms from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for the period 2006–2016 in emerging and developing countries, we find that corruption has a negative impact on the likelihood of innovations, thus supporting the “sanding-the-wheels” hypothesis. Our empirical results also show that corruption at the firm level, in the manufacturing industry, and in regions with the worst governance or that are more corrupt has a significant negative effect on innovation. In addition, country governance plays a particularly important role in innovative activity for corrupt firms. The policy implication is that the government or authority should strengthen the positive role of government effectiveness, rule of law, regulatory quality, and control of corruption in order to improve firms’ innovation within an environment of corruption.     

Consumers as Co-developers: Learning and Innovation Outside the Firm

This study describes a process in which a firm relies on an external consumer community for innovation. While it has been recognized that users may sometimes innovate, little is known about what commercial firms can do to motivate and capture such innovations and their related benefits. We contribute to strategy literature by suggesting that learning and innovation efforts from which a firm may benefit need not necessarily be located within the organization, but may well reside in the consumer environment. We also contribute to the existing theory on "user- driven innovation' by showing what firms purposively can do to generate consumer innovation efforts. An explorative case study shows that consumer innovation can be structured, motivated, and partly organized by a commercial firm that organizes the infrastructure for consumers' interactive learning in a public online domain.     

Productivity, innovation and R&D: Micro evidence for Italy

By exploiting a rich firm level data-base, this paper presents novel empirical evidence on the effect of process and product innovations on productivity, as well as on the role played by R&D and fixed capital investment in enhancing the likelihood of introducing innovations at the firm level. Our results imply that process innovation has a large impact on productivity. Furthermore, R&D spending is strongly positively associated with the probability of introducing a new product, whereas fixed capital spending increases the likelihood of introducing a process innovation. The latter result might reflect the fact that new technologies are frequently embodied in new capital goods. However, the effect of fixed investment on the probability of introducing a process innovation is magnified by R&D spending internal to the firm. This implies that R&D can affect productivity growth by facilitating the absorption of new technologies.     

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.     

Imported input varieties and product innovation: Evidence from five developing countries

We examine how access to imported intermediate inputs affects firm‐level product innovation in five developing counties. We combine trade data with survey data on innovation and develop a method to determine whether new inputs were essential for the product innovation. We find evidence that the number of newly imported varieties has a significant impact on product innovations that rely on new inputs and provide suggestive evidence that this effect comes from access to better quality imports. We extend our analysis to assess the consequences of the increase in the number of Chinese exporting firms on product innovation in developing countries.     

Productivity,innovation strategies and industrial relations in SMEs. Empirical evidence for a local production system in northern Italy

The paper aims to provide an original contribution to evaluating several kinds of relations between four areas of innovation activities – training, technology, organization, ICT (information and communication technologies) – and industrial relations and firm’s economic performance. Quantitative evidence for a SME‐based local production system is provided by exploiting two datasets: the first is derived from a direct survey carried out in 2005 collecting data on innovations, labour flexibility and industrial relations; the second is represented by a panel of official balance sheets data for the period 1998–2004. The analysis is divided in two consequential parts. We first examine the drivers of different innovation strategies and subsequently we exploit innovation indicators as potential drivers of firm’s productivity. The results show that training activities and organizational changes have strong links with many industrial relations indicators, thus emerging as industrial relations driven innovations. On the contrary, ICT and technological innovation seem to be more influenced by firms’ past performances than by industrial relations. The analysis on labour productivity drivers shows that training activities are the most relevant factors; then, ranked consequently, technological innovation, organisational innovations and, finally, ICT also appear to impact on productivity levels. It is worth noting that the role of ICT emerges more robustly when endogeneity is specifically addressed. Finally, the role of firm size seems here to be overshadowed by other drivers.     

高管团队职能背景与企业创新绩效 ——"精力"与"资源"的中介作用

依据高阶梯队理论、注意力基础观和资源基础观,通过引入“精力”层面的创新注意力和“资源”层面的研发投入两种创新投入,构建“高管特征-投入决策-创新绩效”研究框架,实证检验高管团队职能背景对企业创新绩效的影响及其作用机制。对我国沪深A股上市的398家技术密集型企业2013-2016年数据进行分析,研究结果显示,高管团队职能背景异质性不利于提升企业创新绩效,3种职能背景中只有“产出型”高管对创新绩效有正向影响,创新注意力和R&D 投入在高管团队职能背景对创新绩效的关系中起到双中介作用和交互作用。     

Complementarity between product and process innovation in a monopoly setting

In this article we study complementarity between market-enhancing product innovation and cost-reducing process innovation in a monopoly setting. First, we consider the possibility for a firm to alternatively invest only along one of the two directions and compare the incentives of process vs. product innovation. Then, we allow the firm to invest simultaneously in both activities, showing that both investment levels and profit are higher than in the case of individual investment. Thus, product and process innovations are complementary, and the firm always prefers the simultaneous adoption of both activities.     

Environmental Innovations and Firm Profitability: Unmasking the Porter Hypothesis

We examine impacts of different types of environmental innovations on firm profits. Following Porter’s (Sci Am 264(4):168, 1991) hypothesis that environmental regulation can improve firms’ competitiveness, we distinguish between regulation-induced and voluntary environmental innovations. We find that innovations which do not improve firms’ resource efficiency do not provide positive returns to profitability. However, innovations that increase a firm’s resource efficiency in terms of material or energy consumption per unit of output have a positive impact on profitability. This positive result holds for both regulation-induced and voluntary innovations, although the effect is greater for regulation-driven innovation. We conclude that the Porter hypothesis does not hold in general for its “strong” version, but depends on the type of environmental innovation. Our findings rest on firm-level data from the German part of the Community Innovation Survey 2008 (CIS 2008).     

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.     

Leveraging resistance to change and the skunk works model of innovation

We study a situation in which an R&D department promotes the introduction of an innovation that results in costly re-adjustments for production workers. In response, the production department tries to resist change by improving the existing technology. Resistance to change triggers competition between departments, which, in turn, spurs effort. We show that firms balancing the strengths of the two departments perform better. As a negative effect, resistance to change might distort the R&D department's effort away from radical innovations. The firm can solve this problem by implementing the so-called skunk works model of innovation where the R&D department is isolated from the rest of the organization. Several implications for managing resistance to change and for the optimal design of R&D activities are derived.     

消费者法治意识：促进还是约束中国FinTech创新*——来自P2P网贷的证据

消费者法治意识是促进还是约束了中国金融科技创新呢？在美英等国纷纷促进本国FinTech创新的背景下，这一问题既是一个理论问题，也是一个事关中国金融全球崛起的现实问题。为此，本文依据挑战/威胁、冷/热系统两大心理学理论，基于2009—2017年中国31个省市区非平衡面板数据，采用差分GMM研究这一问题。结果表明，消费者法治意识水平与FinTech创新数量、质量之间均为倒U型非线性关系，过弱或过强的消费者法治意识均不利于FinTech创新数量、质量的提升。因此，在保护消费者时，应当遵循适度原则。进一步分析发现，消费者法治意识还通过行业自律组织和研究机构建设、信贷缺口，间接影响FinTech创新数量。最后，本文就促进中国FinTech创新提出了相关建议。