R&D,Human Capital and Export Behavior of Manufacturing and Service Firms in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The paper carries out a detailed analysis of the effects of R&D and human capital as well as their interactions with innovation on export behavior of manufacturing and service firms in Ghana using a dataset of 720 firms that merges the Enterprise, Innovative Capability and the Innovation Follow-up Surveys respectively for Ghana. Using a bivariate probit regression, the results show that R&D and human capital (employees’ education, slack time and formal training) are positive and significantly related to the propensity for firms to export in Ghana. The cross derivatives (differences) for the interaction terms (R&D and innovation, and education and innovation) also showed that these interaction terms have positive effects on the likelihood for firms to export but are significant only for a negligibly small fraction of the sample. Thus, there is no much statistically significant evidence in support of the mediation role of innovation in the relationship between R&D/education and the export behavior.     

How incumbent firms foster consumer expectations, delay launch but still win the markets for next generation products

Consumers learn quality of many durable products through word-of-mouth information while firms launch new and improved products frequently in these markets. This paper examines firm incentives to invest in R&D to compete for patents in makets where consumers rely on word-of-mouth information and have expectations about the new products before launch. When its loss due to a possible entry is above a threshold, an incumbent has more incentives than a potential entrant to invest in R&D for patents. Moreover, if the current product is more profitable, its true quality is above consumer priors and the quality of the new product is below a threshold, it is optimal for the incumbent to launch the new product after a time lag. The later the optimal time of launch, the greater is the incumbent’s potential loss if entry occurs and greater its incentives is to invest in R&D versus that of the entrants. While potential entrants are generally thought to have more incentives to invest in a drastic innovation which results in a race to launch the new products, we show that the more drastic the innovation, the later the optimal time of launch and greater are the incumbent’s incentives to invest in R&D when the value added of the new product can be conveyed to all the consumers. Only when consumers are uncertain about the value added of the new product, the incumbent’s incentives are lower. We also demonstrate that by promoting consumer expectations about the new product before launch, an incumbent has more time to launch and higher probability of dominating its market.     

Knowledge spillovers, collective entrepreneurship, and economic growth: the role of universities

To improve our understanding of the role that universities play in facilitating the transmission of knowledge to private-sector business enterprises so as to generate economic growth, this article builds on the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship to develop a formal model of university-with-business enterprise collaborative research partnerships in which the outcome is both mutually desirable and feasible. This model shows that if a university seeks to act as a complement to private-sector collaborative R&D so that it will be attractive to both incumbent firms and startup entrepreneurs, it needs to structure its program so that business enterprise revenues increase and business enterprise R&D costs rise by a smaller proportion than revenues increase, if they rise at all (and a fall would be better). Such a structure is consistent with both business enterprise and university interests, but is only likely to be feasible if the university is subsidized to cover the cost of such public-private collaborative research partnerships. In the absence of such support, the university will have to cover its costs through a fee charged to participating business enterprises and that will result in the university being seen as a substitute rather than a complement to private-sector collaborative R&D, and thus the university will be seen as an unattractive partner for many business enterprises.     

R&D,firm growth and the role of innovation persistence: an analysis of Finnish SMEs and large firms

R&D investment and growth in SMEs and large firms relate in a complex way. This paper analyses what role persistence of innovation output plays in shaping that relationship. We apply a vector auto-regression model to Finnish firm-level data and summarize the lead–lag relationship and complex co-movements of R&D growth and firm growth series. We found only continuous product and process innovators to have positive associations between R&D growth and sales growth. Also the associations between sales growth and subsequent R&D growth were stronger for continuous innovators than for occasional innovators, but only for product innovators. In the case of process innovators it is the occasional innovators that exhibit a stronger association between sales growth and subsequent R&D growth. In addition, our results vary between large and small firms. We express the need for further research on innovation dynamics and growth of SMEs analysing the interactions between different innovation activities.     

Strategic Interactions,Bargaining Power and Stability of Joint Venture in an Emerging Nation

We model strategic interaction between a domestic firm and a foreign firm involved in a joint venture, incorporating negotiations over equity shares and its implications for stability in the context of an emerging country. The foreign firm has superior technology, whereas the domestic firm has better local market knowledge. Modelling simultaneous innovation effort and bargaining power over equity share, we provide a rationale for the stability of the joint venture. We find that a certain level of technological knowledge can empower the bargaining power under certain parameter configurations and assumptions, such that the firms will negotiate to agree over their equity shares and maintain the joint venture. In this context, the stability of the joint venture is always an expected outcome. We have also shown that the domestic firm’s bargaining power and knowledge acquisition directly affect the domestic firm’s R&D effort and threaten the stability of the JV. We try to justify a probable situation where the firms may negotiate hard over equity shares but still maintain the joint venture.

     

Friend or foe: Customer-supplier relationships and innovation

This study provides an empirical investigation of the impact of customer-supplier relationships on firm innovation in an interorganizational framework encompassing transaction cost economics, resource dependence theory, and the theory of incomplete contracts. Using a sample of U.S. firms for the period from 1980 to 2005, this study explores how customer concentration and customer bargaining power affect a supplier's process innovation and product innovation measured with R&D-to-assets ratio and patents (also citations), respectively. The findings imply that a concentrated customer base, which reflects a strong customer-supplier relationship as well as high switching costs, motivates suppliers to invest more in R&D and become more innovative. However, the evidence also suggests that strong customer bargaining power creates hold-up problems and forces suppliers to invest less in R&D and innovation. The results are robust to sophisticated econometric techniques that control for endogeneity and suggest heterogeneous effects of business partnerships on firm innovation.     

Technical performance and firm size: Analysis of patents and publications of U.S. firms

This study focuses on the scientific output of firms of different sizes in different industries in the U.S. Both patents, and papers and publications are used as measures of technical output. Data from two samples of firms, one consisting of 225 large firms (annual sales at least $250 million and minimum annual R&D budget of $1 million) and the other consisting of 248 small and medium sized firms (annual sales between $10 to $200 million and annual R&D budget at least $10 thousand) have been presented here. The study shows that determinants of R&D expenditure are different in firms of different sizes. For the large firms, R&D expenditure depends on net income as well as its size, measured in terms of annual sales. For small size firms, R&D expenditure is closely related with sales, rather than the net income. For large firms, R&D expenditure is related to both sales and income, the latter being more important than the former. The two output measures, patents and papers are correlated, but the correlation is not a very strong one for small firms. Patent and papers are correlated significantly with both R&D expenditure as well as annual sales. The firm's growth is not linked with patents. On the contrary, there is a negative relationship between patent and R&D growth and patent and income growth in the case of small firms. Papers are not linked with growth variables for small firms. Finally, this study confirms the hypothesis that small firms are more productive in innovation than the large firms. Small firms are more efficient than their larger competitors in terms of patents and papers per million dollars of R&D expenditure.     

Innovation,formal vs. informal R&D,and firm size: Some evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

On the basis of data from two recent surveys on innovation diffusion in Italian manufacturing industry, this paper shows that informal R&D is an important part of the total R&D undertaken by small and medium sized firms. Nevertheless, when an output indicator such as the number and the nature of the innovations introduced by firms of different size is used, it emerges that small firms have introduced mainly incremental rather than major innovations. The paper therefore suggests that systematic R&D undertaken by large firms within structured laboratories is more effective (in terms of product innovations) than occasional R&D carried out by small firms.     

Patents, knowledge spillovers, and entrepreneurship

We develop an endogenous-growth model in which we distinguish between inventors and innovators. This distinction implies that stronger protection of intellectual property rights has an inverted U-shaped effect on economic growth. Intellectual property rights protection attributes part of the rents of commercial exploitation to the inventor that would otherwise accrue to the entrepreneur. Stronger patent protection will therefore increase the incentive to do research and development (R&D) and generate new knowledge. This new knowledge has a positive effect on entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth. However, after some point, further strengthening of patent protection will reduce the returns to entrepreneurship sufficiently to reduce the overall growth rate.     

Firm size and innovation

In an innovation survey in the Netherlands, we find considerably more SMEs which perform small scale R&D than are found in the official R&D surveys. Nonetheless, SMEs appear on average to be somewhat less R&D intensive than large firms. Only when we restrict our observations to firms which perform some R&D, there is no systematic relationship between size and R&D. Among the barriers to innovation the following are particularly important to SMEs: information deficits with respect to instruments of innovation policy; a lack of capital; a lack of management qualifications; problems in finding adequate technical information, and problems in finding qualified employees.     

Innovation success of non-R&;D-performers: substituting technology by management in SMEs

This paper investigates the impact of in-house R&D and innovation management practices on innovation success in small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). While there is little doubt about the significance of technology competence for generating successful innovations, in-house R&D activities may be a particular challenge for SMEs due to high risk exposure, high fixed costs, high minimum investment and severe financial constraints. SMEs may thus opt for refraining from R&D and relying more on innovation management tools in order to achieve innovation success. We analyse whether such a strategy can pay off. Based on data from the German CIS, we find that R&D activities are a main driver for innovation success if combined with external R&D, using external innovation sources or by entering into co-operation agreements. SMEs without in-house R&D can yield a similar innovation success if they effectively apply human resource management tools or team work to facilitate innovation processes.

R&D Investments in Markets with Network Effects

We consider process R&D investments of firms in markets with network effects and incomplete product compatibility. Our results indicate that network effects increase the firms’ individual investments in R&D. The presence of network effects weakens the positive impact of R&D cooperation on firms’ R&D investments. Further, we show that R&D competition can bring socially optimal level of investment, and this is not possible in markets without network effects. Finally, our results suggest that innovation policy oriented at promoting R&D cooperation between enterprises can be counterproductive in markets with network effects and incomplete product compatibility.

     

International technology spillovers and innovation: Evidence from Taiwanese high-tech firms

This paper uses Taiwanese high-tech firms’ data from 2003 to 2007 to investigate the impacts of international technology spillovers and firms’ R&D activities on firms’ innovation performance. We also consider absorptive capability and examine whether the technology spillovers have different effect on firms' innovation performance. We choose patent application counts to measure firms' innovation performance, and adopt panel Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) with fixed-effect and random-effect models as well as System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model to estimate. The empirical findings indicate the innovation performance of high-tech firms is positively affected by their R&D efforts, export performance, and the presences of multinational corporations. Furthermore, when absorptive capacity is taken into account, the technology spillovers by exporting and technology import would affect the innovation performance more.     

Innovation,rent-sharing and the organization of labour in the federal republic of Germany

Rent seeking by unions may inhibit various kinds of investment, particularly R&D, and unionization is often negatively related to innovation across industries. Formal organization and collective bargaining may also reduce the flexibility of work organization, and hence inhibit innovation. In a sample of small- and medium-sized firms in the FRG metal-working industry, a measure of organized labour was negatively related to product innovation, but there was little evidence for rent-seeking in simultaneous estimates.     

The roles of R&;D in new firm growth

Innovative start-ups are an important driver of economic growth. This article presents empirical evidence on the effects of research and development (R&D) on new product development, interfirm alliances and employment growth during the early life course of firms. We use a dataset that contains a sample of new firms that is representative of the whole population of start-ups. This dataset covers the first 6 years of the life course of firms. It is revealed that R&D plays several roles during the early life course of high-tech as well as high-growth firms. The effect of initial R&D on high-tech firm growth is through increasing levels of interfirm alliances in the first post-entry years. R&D efforts enable the exploitation of external knowledge. Initial R&D also stimulates new product development later on in the life course of high-tech firms, but this does not seem to affect firm growth. R&D does not affect the growth rate of new low-tech firms, which seem to be driven mainly by the growth ambitions of the founding entrepreneur. The results show that R&D matters for a limited but important set of new high-tech and high-growth firms, which are key in innovation and entrepreneurship policies.

Innovation in services – how different from manufacturing?

Using standardised firm data a comparative analysis of the determinants of product and process innovation in manufacturing and services is performed. Results show that in services there are significant differences in innovation behaviour, in terms of intramural and extramural R&D. It is also found that size matters less in services than in manufacturing. Although youth has a positive effect in both cases, young service firms are more likely than young manufacturing of being pioneer innovators. The results reveal the importance of learning by doing in service process innovations, as young service firms are less likely to introduce process innovations.     

Acquisitions in a Patent Contest Model with Large and Small Firms

Big companies and small innovation factories possess different advantages in a patent contest. While large firms typically have better access to product markets, small firms often have a superior R&D efficiency. These distinct advantages immediately lead to the question of cooperations between firms. In this paper, we model a patent contest with heterogeneous firms. In a pre-contest acquisition game large firms bid sequentially for small firms to combine respective advantages. Sequential bidding allows the first large firms to bid strategically to induce a reaction of its competitor. For high efficiencies both large firms prefer to acquire immediately leading to a symmetric market structure. For low efficiencies strategic waiting of the first large firm leads to an asymmetric market structure even though the initial situation is symmetric. We also discuss two different timing setups of the acquisition stage. In all setups, acquisitions increase the chances for a successful innovation.     

Noncooperative,cooperative, and delegative R&D

We discuss alternative organizational forms of research and development in a symmetric duopoly framework. Firms play a noncooperative game at the output stage but can collaborate at the R&D stage. In the absence of patent protection, technology licensing that prevents imitative R&D may emerge as an equilibrium outcome. In general, greater probabilities of success in R&D rule out noncooperative arrangement at the R&D stage. Delegative R&D, where firms move sequentially, tends to dominate the cooperative form of R&D.Department of Economics, Monash University     

R&D innovation and the value of cash in the biotech industry

This study investigates how the market pricing of an additional dollar of cash held by biotech firms is conditional upon the industry's typical performance, R&D innovation. Under the proposed R&D innovation regime, I find i) an additional dollar of cash is priced higher if held by a firm with higher R&D innovation; ii) the role of R&D innovation is asymmetric depending on whether R&D activities move the drug discovery and development forward or backward; and iii) R&D innovation also differentiates the association between investment opportunities and value of cash observed by prior studies.     

Are Intellectual Property Rights Detrimental to Innovation?

Intellectual property rights are legal constraints that limit conditions of entry in industries where incumbents are innovators. The set of legal constraints is the same for all industries, and there is no consideration of the possibility that the externalities created by entry in a given industry may not necessarily be negative for the incumbent, or that the incumbent's R&D expenditures might actually be detrimental to new entrants. We show that one unique set of legal rules can foster innovation in some industries and be detrimental in others. Our model is illustrated by case studies from the Information and Communication Technologies industry.