The technological capabilities of nations: The state of the art of synthetic indicators

Composite synthetic indicators of the technological capabilities of nations have been used more frequently over the last years becoming a sort of Olympic medal table of the innovation race. The European Commission, specialised United Nations Agencies, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and individual scholars have developed several of these measurement tools at macroeconomic level. All these indicators are based on a variety of statistical sources in order to capture the multidimensional nature of technological change. This paper reviews these various exercises and: i) it brings into light the explicit and implicit assumptions on the nature of technological change; ii) it discusses their pros and cons; and iii) it explores the consistency among the results achieved. Most of the final rankings at the country level are fairly consistent, but significant discrepancies for some nations emerge. The value of synthetic indicators of technological capabilities for public policy, company strategies and economic studies is finally discussed.     

Indian remote sensing program: A national system of innovation?

When India launched the satellite IRS 1C in 1995 with a resolution of 6 m, it had the distinction of having the highest spatial resolution among all operational civilian remote sensing satellites in the world at that time. This world-class technological capability in remote sensing was a result of favourable organisational and institutional factors that nurtured innovation. There was a domestic need for remote sensing information for managing natural resources like land, water and forests. Since India is still largely agriculture and natural resources dominated economy, a generic technology that could be used in many sectors related to natural resources has the potential to accelerate the economic development process. This paper looks at the link between an organisational innovation that creates a world-class capability that meets a domestic need and ability of this innovation to change the larger national system. It tries to identify institutional factors that seem to inhibit innovation and suggests approaches that can create a suitable national climate for the rapid diffusion of innovation.     

印度风险投资中的政府角色及其对中国的启示

中国和印度同属于发展中国家,从某种意义上讲,两国在环境资源方面具有很大的可比性,两国在经济自由度方面,特别是在法律结构与产权保护、货币政策合理性及管制三方面自由度很接近。本文介绍了印度政府在其风险投资业发展的三个阶段中扮演的角色,总结了印度在风险投资业发展过程中的成功经验,分析了在财政、税收、参股及引进外资等方面值得中国政府借鉴之处。     

Technological paradigms,patterns of learning and development: An introductory roadmap

This paper presents an evolutionary microeconomic theory of innovation and production and discusses its implications for development theory. Using the notions of technological paradigm and trajectory, it develops an alternative view of firm behavior and learning. It is shown then how these are embedded in broader national systems of innovation which account for persistent differences in technological cappacities between countries. Finally, this bottom-up evolutionary analysis is linked with an institutional top-down approach, and the potential fruitfulness of this dialogue is demonstrated.We thank the discussants and participants at the workshop on Technology and Competitiveness in Developing Countries, Venice, 26/11/93, for their useful comments.The research leading to this work has benefited at various stages from the support of the Italian National Research Council (CNR, Progetto Strategico Combiamento Technologico e Crescita Economica) and of the International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA, Austria).     

Institutional capacity to dynamically innovate: An application to the Portuguese case

The present paper addresses the dynamics of innovation, by extending the analysis beyond a static-economic perspective. It offers a dynamic-institutional mapping of relational capacities to dynamically innovate. Its main goal is to contribute to the above-mentioned research theme by presenting a new methodology able to pinpoint different trends in the relational capacities of institutions when they are innovative. Thereby, major characteristics in the networks of innovation are identified. This investigation uses an extended set of private institutions and public organizations located in Portugal, evaluated by their WebPage contents. To this data set a new combination of multivariate statistical methods is applied to detect group performances, to compare them, and to identify gradients of capacity to dynamically innovate. The results demonstrate that this method can provide extremely useful and tailor-made information for policy evaluation at regional or national levels.     

政府信用创新——基于国债转贷政策的分析

对国债实施转贷是政府信用运作方式的一种创新.理论上,采取有偿方式运用国债资金,有利于提高政府信用资金的使用效率,但是,从审计部门国债资金审计报告及相关文献反映的情况看,这一创新的理论目标与实践效果之间存在明显差距.随着2008年国债转贷资金还本付息高峰期到来,国债资金使用低效问题将会逐步显现成为现实的信用问题,因此,从理论和实践意义上,对以国债转贷政策为内容的政府信用创新进行必要的反思,显然已是恰逢其时.     

Tracing interdisciplinarity of converging technologies at the nanoscale: A critical analysis of recent nanotechnosciences

Besides 'innovation', 'interdisciplinarity' is one of the most popular buzzwords frequently used in present-day science policy. At the same time, however, 'interdisciplinarity' is vague and misty; the term is not well defined. In order to clarify its meaning, I classify different types of interdisciplinarity. By making use of analytical classification I show that a specific type of interdisciplinarity is involved in the nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC) scenario on converging technologies (Roco-Bainbridge report of the US National Science Foundation). I argue that the NBIC scenario is based on a 'technoobject-oriented interdisciplinarity'. This type of interdisciplinarity will be contrasted with the research program of the European Union on converging technologies (CTEKS) that widens the circles of convergence and aims to promote a different ('problem-oriented') type of interdisciplinarity.     

风险投资介入、投资策略与企业异质R&D创新——基于创业新兴指数样本公司的实证研究

利用创业新兴指数样本公司,实证考察了风险投资介入及其投资策略对企业异质研发创新的影响。结果表明:我国风险投资介入并未对企业异质研发创新产生显著影响;风险投资持股比重增大能显著促进公司常规式研发创新,而对探索式研发创新无显著促进效果;联合投资策略能够促进公司常规式研发创新,而对公司探索式研发创新的促进作用并不显著;单独投资策略对公司异质研发创新的促进作用不明显。这表明,我国风险投资对战略性新兴产业常规式创新具有一定的促进作用,但对探索式创新的促进效果不明显。     

“厅地协同创新”的模式研究

“厅地协同创新”能够提供特定条件下探究培育技术创新的政策路径,有助于推动产学研合作和技术联盟升级、丰富区域经济社会发展路径,有利于创新型人才的培养和成长。“厅地协同创新”的模式对推动协同创新的演进和提升协同创新的实施效果具有重要作用。文章首先从“区域协同创新”的作用出发重点介绍了“区域协同创新”的构建模式;其次在构建模式过程中发现该模式国内外各有不同,国外协同创新的模式有：协议合作方式、立法合作方式、会议合作方式,国内“厅地协同创新”的模式有：协议合作模式、设立开发基金模式、中介模式、会议模式等;最后,研究得出这些模式对协同创新的演进和丰富协同创新的内容具有重要作用。     

论企业人力资本的特征及其财务制度安排

人力资本是知识经济形态下企业资本总量中重要的组成部分,然而在我国现行的财务制度中却没有得到体现或安排,这极不利于人力资本的经营和知识经济的发展。本在将人力资本与非人力资本进行比较的基础上,揭示出人力资本在资本形态、投资收益、产权制度等方面的特征;根据人力资本的特征提出了在资产负债、价值补偿、剩余索取权方面的财务制度安排。     

制度环境约束下的企业绩效分析——基于中国东北地区企业的实证研究

针对中国转型时期的经济增长之谜,现有研究分别基于社会关系和分权制度进行探讨。本文综合上述两种观点,将社会关系和正式制度微观化为企业的关系资本和制度资本,并进一步把关系资本细分为商业关系资本和政治关系资本,从而将宏观制度环境纳入到微观企业绩效的分析框架中。实证研究采用基于残差正态分布的有序选择模型对东北地区313家企业进行回归分析,我们发现:商业关系资本与绩效水平和绩效增长均显著正相关;政治关系资本与绩效增长呈倒U型曲线关系;制度资本与绩效水平呈二次曲线关系,而其与商业关系资本的综合效应能够显著提升企业绩效水平,促进绩效增长。     

The role of innovation in venture capital: empirical evidence from European Union and EFTA countries

This article investigates the effects of innovation attempts on the venture capital and investment activity in the cases of the selected European Union plus European Free Trade Agreement countries using annual panel data and by controlling for real income growth and business sophistication. Our findings suggest that innovation has positively significant effects on venture capital in the cases without opt-out countries (United Kingdom and Denmark); however, these effects become negative in the cases with opt-out countries. Policy implications are provided in the conclusion section of this study.     

民营企业软环境供给创新的新制度经济学诠释

这里从新制度经济学制度变迁理论的角度来诠释我国民营企业软环境供给创新。通过对我国民营企业软环境供给创新过程的分析,认为我国民营企业软环境供给创新作为一种重要的内生性资源,经过改革开放20多年来的几次变迁,已经成为促进民营企业健康发展的重要因素。     

Making a technopolis in Hyderabad, India: The role of government IT policy

This paper studies the unusual growth of the information technology (IT) industry in the Indian city of Hyderabad during the last 15 years. It examines the high-technology industry in Hyderabad using registration data from the Software Technology Park (STP) of India and the state's IT policies meant to enhance the growth of regional industry. The paper outlines factors that are required for sustained growth of IT regions and evaluates the Hyderabad IT industry and the state government's IT policy against them.     

Post-crisis business investment in the euro area and the role of monetary policy

ABSTRACT

Business investment in the euro area strongly declined during the Global Financial Crisis and the Sovereign Debt Crisis. It has not yet rebounded to its pre-crisis trend despite the very expansionary monetary policy measures of the ECB. We analyse the sluggish recovery in business investment in the euro area and the role of monetary policy in three steps. We investigate the main factors that have impeded business investment since the Global Financial Crisis. We empirically analyse how business investment has developed compared to typical patterns during other financial crises. Based on these results, we then discuss how effective monetary policy has been in stimulating business investment since the Global Financial Crisis. We conclude that business investment in the euro area has developed broadly in line with typical post-crisis patterns. Monetary policy significantly contributed to stabilize business investment at the beginning of the crises. In the aftermath of the crises, however, there seems to be little scope for monetary policy to further stimulate investment.     

Widowhood and health of elderly in India: examining the role of economic factors using structural equation modeling

Evidence on the association between widowhood and health is widely available in the literature. However, there is a dearth of analysis on the mechanism through which widowhood affects the health status of an individual, particularly in old age, specifically whether widowhood among the elderly affects their health through their economic conditions. This paper purports to establish both the direct and indirect effects of widowhood on self-reported health status among aged Indians. We examine the mediating effect of economic factors such as income, labor force participation, extent of economic independence and other economic factors in the relationship between widowhood and health status. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is employed to test specific hypotheses. We use unit level 60th round data for the year 2004 surveyed by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). The results confirm that poor economic conditions have a mediating effect on the relationship between widowhood and health and, therefore, any policy to reduce the effect of widowhood on health must be based on economic factors.     

The legacy and promise of Vannevar Bush: rethinking the model of innovation and the role of public policy

The linear model of innovation argues that innovation takes place in a unidirectional sequence, with basic research directly diffusing in marketable product or process innovations. This perspective has served society well in past decades. However, recent productivity slowdowns in developed economies and the failure of innovation policies to continue to deliver desired results have called this perspective into question. Scholars explain these slowdowns by the oversimplification of the linear model which fails to consider the complexities associated with innovation processes. Although it is generally believed that Vannevar Bush’s report Science – The Endless Frontier – was based on his belief in a linear model of innovation and the notion that basic research is the ultimate source of all innovation, an examination of Bush’s writings and his life reveals that he believed in a more sophisticated model in which basic and applied research cross-fertilize each other and in which government’s job is not so much to stimulate basic research as it is to facilitate interactions between basic and applied research for the benefit of both and the prosperity of society. This paper explicates Bush’s model of the research and innovation process, explores the implications of that model, and derives policy recommendations.     

The vanishing role of money in the macro-economy: An empirical investigation for India

The recent de-emphasizing of the role of “money” in both theoretical macroeconomics as well as in the practical conduct of monetary policy sits uneasily with the idea that inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Empirical evidence has, however, been accumulating pointing to an important leading indicator role for money and credit aggregates with respect to long term inflationary trends. Such a role could arise from monetary aggregates furnishing a nominal anchor for inflationary expectations, from their influence on the term structure of interest rates and from their affecting transaction costs in markets. Our paper attempts to assess the informational content role of money in the Indian economy by a separation of these effects across time scales and frequency bands, using the techniques of wavelet analysis and band spectral analysis respectively. Our results indicate variability of causal relations across frequency ranges and time scales, as also occasional causal reversals.     

Establishment and embedding of innovation brokers at different innovation system levels: Insights from the Dutch agricultural sector

In the systems perspective on innovation, co-operation between several different types of actors is seen as key to successful innovation. Due to the existence of several gaps that hinder such effective co-operation, the scientific and policy literature persistently points at the need for intermediary organizations to fulfill bridging and brokerage roles. This paper aims to provide an overview of the insights from the literature on such ‘innovation brokers’, and to contribute to the literature by distilling lines of enquiry and providing insights on one of the lines identified. Taking as an empirical basis experiences with different types of innovation brokers that have emerged in the Dutch agricultural sector, it identifies a number of tensions with regard to the establishment and embedding of such organizations. The paper indicates that, despite being perceived to have a catalyzing effect on innovation, innovation brokers have difficulty in becoming embedded as their clients and/or financiers find it difficult to grasp the nature and value of their activities.