THE REVOLUTION WITHIN: ICT AND THE SHIFTING KNOWLEDGE BASE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPANIES

This empirical article analyses the importance of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the technological diversification trend among the world's largest manufacturing firms during the 1980s and 1990s. The objective of the research is twofold: first, to emphasise the emerging differences among technologies when companies from different industries patent outside their traditional technological capabilities; secondly, to investigate whether the tendency among large companies from all industries to patent in ICT is distinctive when compared with the tendency to patent in other technologies. We find that technological diversification in large companies has clearly occurred in ICTs. Non-ICT specialist industries increasingly develop, rather than just utilise, the cluster of ICT-related technologies. We conclude that the development of corporate capabilities in the key technologies of the emerging ICT paradigm is more widespread than previously emphasised in the literature. One implication of this observation is that technological diversification and the information revolution may be related phenomena.     

Capitalism, profits and innovation in the new techno-economic paradigm

Innovative profits (of the kind conceptualized by Schumpeter) are today being increasingly created through international corporate networks for technological development. Such profits through innovation are encouraged by newer more flexible organizational forms, and further encouraged (unlike in the conventional perspective on profits and on the incentive to innovate) by knowledge flows between firms. Our empirical evidence, based on US patent data, shows that multinational companies are currently more likely to develop abroad technologies which are less science-based, and less dependent upon tacit knowledge. However, within the science-based industries firms may generate abroad some technologies which are heavily dependent on tacit knowledge, but normally in fields that lie outside their own core technological competencies. We find some evidence of a convergence in corporate technological diversification across large firms, facilitated by the now common spread in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) as an integrator of formerly separate technological systems. This has led smaller firms to diversify, but giant firms to consolidate activity around those technologies that have become most interrelated.     

Credit constraints,inequality and the growth gains from trade

This paper tests the hypothesis that, in the presence of credit constraints, higher wealth inequality affects negatively the growth gains from trade liberalisation. Variations in the growth rate of value added–decomposed in the growth rate of the number of establishments and the growth rate in average size–of manufacturing industries in 34 developing countries before and after trade liberalisation are used to study the effects of inequality on the difference in growth under liberalised and nonliberalised regimes. The results show that the number of firms in industries with high dependence on external finance in countries with higher inequality grow significantly slower, in both statistical and economic terms, than in industries with low dependence on external finance in countries with lower inequality following a trade liberalisation relative to the closed-economy period.     

多元化战略对管理层激励的影响--来自中国资本市场的经验证据

本文利用2001-2004年中国上市公司的数据,使用面板数据模型,对中国上市公司多元化与管理层激励之间的关系进行了检验.结果表明:现金薪酬水平与公司价值负相关,高管人员持股比例与公司价值之间是非线性关系,激励并没有发挥其应有的作用;多元化对公司价值的影响并不显著.当控制了影响多元化的公司内部因素后,我们发现国有股占主导地位的公司,多元化程度与现金薪酬之间是负向关系;多元化程度与管理层持股比例之间是正向关系.多元化程度与在职消费正相关.多元化决策是管理当局希望从多元化中获取更多的剩余收益和隐性的私人利益.     

信息不对称与多元化折价关系研究——来自中国沪市上市公司的证据

国外研究者一般认为,上市公司存在着多元化折价问题。对于我国上市公司而言,多元化折价现象是否存在以及多元化折价的影响因素有哪些,相关研究却很少。文章通过计算超额价值,发现我国上市公司也存在多元化折价现象,而信息不对称是导致多元化折价的主要因素。文章还发现,多元化扩张行为会导致信息不对称水平的上升,从而使多元化折价问题更为严重。     

技术多元化、行业集中度与企业绩效波动

技术多元化是企业提高核心竞争力的重要手段,在不同行业背景下,技术多元化战略对于企业绩效的稳定作用存在一定的差异.运用2009—2018年710家创业板公司IPC发明专利信息数据,采用固定面板模型,基于行业特征与行业集中度视角研究了技术多元化对于企业绩效波动的影响.研究发现:技术多元化对于企业绩效波动有明显平滑效果;在高科技行业中,技术多元化对企业绩效波动的平滑效应相对较强;行业集中度低的情况下,技术多元化对企业绩效波动的平滑效应相对较强,而在高行业集中度的情况下,平滑效应近乎无效.为企业的技术知识基础建设提供重要依据,同时为不同行业背景下的多元化产业技术生态建设提供科学的理论指导.     

理解企业多元化经营的新视角:控股股东的影响

多元化经营在现实企业中普遍存在,这也吸引了大量研究探寻企业多元化经营的动机。已有文献主要关注企业本身多元化经营,忽略了控股股东因素,从而存在一定的认知偏差。不同于已有文献,基于手工搜集数据,本文首次考察了控股股东多元化经营与上市公司多元化经营之间的关系及其影响因素。研究发现,首先,控股股东多元化经营与上市公司多元化经营之间存在着一定的替代关系,说明控股股东将上市公司多元化经营作为其整体多元化经营战略的一部分;其次,从影响机制上看,控股股东持有上市公司的权益在其总资产中份额越高、其他大股东持股比例越高、上市公司所处地区市场化程度越高,控股股东多元化经营与上市公司多元化经营之间的替代关系会越弱,说明那些有助于减轻控股股东对上市公司进行干预的因素将会弱化这种关系。本文为理解企业多元化经营行为以及企业与其控股股东的关系提供了新的视角。     

Two-way relationship between innovation and market structure: evidence from Indian high and medium technology firms

ABSTRACT

This study analyses a two-way relationship between innovation and market structure in Indian high and medium technology firms. We perform an empirical analysis based on a simultaneous equation model on data for 991 high and medium technology firms during 2000–2015. Patent applications and patent grants capture innovation activity of the firms. We find that the market structure has an insignificant impact on innovation. A separate analysis of neck-and-neck firms also suggests that market structure has no impact on innovation. On the other hand, patenting has a positive and significant impact on market structure in both high and medium technology firms. The study concludes that in-house technology creation is a vital source of market dominance in Indian high and medium technology firms.     

Real exchange rates and job flows: evidence from Turkey

This study investigates the effects of the real exchange rate on job flows in Turkish manufacturing industries between 2006 and 2015 using data at the four-digit NACE Revision 2 level. Using dynamic panel data models, we find that a real appreciation increases gross and net job creation rates, and that the effect of appreciation is magnified as the exposure to international competitiveness of industries increases. We think that this is because Turkish manufacturing firms import a greater share of their inputs compared to the firms in developed countries. Hence, an appreciation creates more jobs because lower imported input costs enable firms to outcompete foreign producers.     

多元化经营、企业价值与收益波动研究——以中国上市公司为例的实证研究

本文指出,马里斯关于企业利润与增长之间存在负相关关系的前提假设不适应于我国上市公司,对处于经济转轨时期的中国上市公司而言,增长与利润之间的关系可能表现出新的特征.本文的研究表明,我国上市公司的多元化对企业价值具有正效应,多元化经营可以提高企业的价值;企业的多元化对企业收益的波动具有负效应,即多元化降低了企业收益的波动程度;没有明显的迹象表明,我国上市公司的多元化经营与绩效关系之间的拐点已经出现.本研究在一定程度上解释了现阶段我国上市公司为什么普遍采取多元化经营这一模式的动机.     

The dynamic impact of intellectual capital on firm value: evidence from China

We examine the dynamic relationship between intellectual capital (measured by human capital and organizational capital) and firm value of Chinese listed firms. We do causality identification using system GMM and IV estimation, and find no significant relation between human capital and firm value, but organizational capital positively affects firm value with a lag. Our findings are robust to firms with different property rights, of different sizes, or in different industries, with the only exception of capital-intensive firms, in which human capital has a significant influence on firm value. The results imply that the improvement of organizational system plays a more important role in raising the value of a firm in a typical developing country, like China.     

Is export diversification good for profitability? First evidence for manufacturing enterprises in Germany

This article uses a tailor-made newly available data set for enterprises from manufacturing industries in Germany to investigate for the first time the links between export diversification over destination countries and goods on the one hand and the profitability of the exporting firms on the other hand. We find that profits tend to be larger in firms with less diversified export sales over goods and in firms with more diversified export sales over destination countries.     

The determinants of firms’ global diversification decisions

Why do some firms choose to be ‘born global’ and become early internationalizing firms (EIFs) while others choose to be ‘born-again global’ and develop into late internationalizing firms (LIFs)? What are the main factors impacting a firm’s decision on the timing of global diversification? Based on the theories of diversification, this study examines the role of peer influence and desire for growth on the timing of a firm’s globalization decision. We further study the idiosyncratic risk and the adoption of technological innovation hypotheses on global diversification. Our results document that innovation efficiency strongly enhances EIFs’ propensity to global diversification. On the other hand, peer pressure and idiosyncratic risk level significantly influence EIFs not to globalize. In contrast, LIFs are positively influenced by their industry peers, showing how young and mature companies respond to the market competition in a different manner.     

Impact of initial seeds on the growth of biotechnology startups: evidence from the U.S. and Japan

ABSTRACT

We assess the impact of initial seeds on the long-run growth of biotechnology startups, including the response of the capital market, in the U.S. and Japan. For this purpose, we collected a comprehensive dataset of the matched sample of listed firms from their foundations to the post-IPO period. We find that the quality of initial seeds predicts significantly both the level and the growth rate of the patent stock as well as those of the asset size of the U.S. startups, even controlling for their alliances and acquisitions, while it predicts only the level of the patent stock for the Japanese startups. Furthermore, the asset growth and the patent stock growth in turn account for the market value performances of the U.S. firms much more significantly than those of the Japanese firms. On the other hand, there are only small differences with respect to the time to IPO and the asset growth through the IPO. These results suggest that higher quality of initial seeds significantly enhanced long-run growth of biotechnology startups in the U.S. but not in Japan, and that the differences in fertility of the initial seeds and in efficiency of the capital market could significantly explain the difference.     

WTO,the Trips and Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

This paper analyzes the efficiency of firms in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry before and after the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement. The analysis reveals that the efficiency of firms has increased after the Indian legislature has passed the bill for accepting patent applications in early 1999. We find that R&D intensity and market share influence efficiency of firms. The impact of import intensity enhances inefficiency. Our result indicates absence of ownership effects after the Indian legislature had passed the bill for accepting patent applications.

     

Firm value and the diversification choice: international evidence from global and industrial diversification

Our study examines the nature of industrial and global diversification for a sample of more than 12?000 firms across 35 emerging and developed countries during the period 1991–2006. Consistent with previous studies, we find that industrial diversification, either alone or combined with global diversification, results in a reduction of firm excess value. Global diversification alone, however, does not exert a significant impact on excess value. In an analysis of the decision to diversify, we find that firms in civil law countries or less developed nations are more likely to diversify, suggesting the greater utility of internal capital markets in economies where it is difficult to raise external capital. We observe that high leverage, larger size, lower levels of growth, R&D, free cash flow, profitability and Tobin's q encourage firms to diversify industrially. Higher values of q, firm size, R&D expenditures, free cash flow and liquidity, but reduced growth rates and profitability are associated with global diversification.     

The innovation effect of dual-class shares: New evidence from US firms

The proliferation of dual-class structures in the US stock market presents a controversial trend since such shares are traditionally deemed to damage governance quality. We study the relationship between 362 firms with dual-class shares and their innovativeness using patent citations from Google Patents over the 1976 through 2006 period. We find dual-class shares have significant innovation effect in high-tech sectors, hard-to-innovate industries, firms with higher external takeover threat and firms heavily dependent on external equity financing. We also document a positive causality relationship between dual-class structures and the quality of innovation. The channel for this causal relationship is the protection mechanism by which managers can take a long-term view. From a policy perspective, regulators should promote a corporate governance system that protects corporate long-term interest for shareholders.     

Open technology innovation activity and firm value: evidence from Korean firms

Despite the importance of Open Technology Innovation Activity (OTIA) for firm value, the literature investigating effects of OTIA announcements of developing country firms is not known in international academic circles. Our study using an event study approach examines the effects of OTIA (technology import and joint R&D) announcements of firms in Korea, one of the leading developing and highly innovative countries. We find that the announcements of OTIA produce positive average abnormal returns. Interestingly, unlike the prior studies on developed country firms, OTIA with firms in the homogenous industry leads to greater firm value than that involving firms in heterogenic industries. This implies an importance of a technological fusion with external firms in different industries for value of developing country firms. In addition, this article finds no home bias that a nationality of partner firms is not essential for the relation between OTIA and value of firms.     

Corporate taxation and the efficiency gains of the 1986 Tax Reform Act

Summary The 1986 Tax Reform Act (TRA) had little effect on the overall U. S. effective capital income tax rate. However, TRA significantly reduced differences in effective taxation of corporate and noncorporate capital for a number of U. S. industries. The Mutual Production Model developed in Gravelle and Kotlikoff (1989) can be used to study the efficiency gains from the reduction in corporate tax wedges within industries. Unlike the Harberger Model, the Mutual Production Model permits both corporate and noncorporate firms to produce the same goods and, therefore, to coexist within a given industry.This paper develops an 11-industry-55-year dynamic life cycle version of the Mutual Production Model. We use this model to study the steady-state efficiency gains associated with the new law. While we do not simulate the economy's transition path, our steady-state welfare changes are those that arise from compensating transitional generations for the first-order redistribution of income associated with the Tax Reform.We find that the 1986 Tax Reform law reduces excess burden by 85 percent of our model's economy's present value of consumption. This efficiency gain reflects the Tax Reform's reduction in corporate-noncorporate tax wedges, particularly in those industries with significant noncorporate production. Measured as a flow the 1988 estimated efficiency gain from the Tax Reform Act is $31 billion.The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, Boston University, or The National Bureau of Economic Research. We are particularly grateful to Alan Auerbach, Oldrich Kyn, and an anonymous referee for very extensive and critical comments. We also thank Don Fullerton, Yolanda Henderson, Tom Woodward, and a referee for their very helpful suggestions.