基于DEA-Tobit的装备制造业上市公司经营绩效研究——来自2005～2010年装备制造业的经验数据分析

本文以2005～2010年中国装备制造业上市公司为研究主体,以其经营绩效为研究对象,利用主成分法和因子分析对指标进行筛选并剔除,构建装备制造业上市公司绩效指标体系.运用DEAMalmquist指数法对经营绩效进行评价并得出装备制造业全要素生产率的提高主要得力于技术进步,而技术效率也是影响全要素生产率的因素的结论.通过Tobit回归找出其他因素对经营绩效的影响程度.实证表明,装备制造业整体绩效并不理想,要想使装备制造业健康持续发展就需同时兼顾技术效率、技术进步的提高,同时重视公司内部的管理与决策能力,实现规模经济.     

The power of the vegetable patch: How home-grown food helps large rural households achieve economies of scale & escape poverty

This paper explores how the household’s capacity to grow food impacts their ability to achieve economies of scale in food consumption and how this impacts the geographic distribution of poverty across rural and urban areas. An accurate understanding of consumption economies of scale is vital for comparing poverty levels across households of varying size. Using Sri Lankan data on home-grown food consumption, we empirically confirm that such economies of scale exist and that large households tend to consume relatively more home-grown food than smaller households. The magnitude of these scale economies are found to be larger than those in market purchased food, but smaller than those found in housing expenditure. Consuming more home-grown food is also found to be positively correlated with per-capita calories consumed. Taking these effects into account in poverty estimates leads to a 15 per cent decline in the number of household who fall below the poverty line in rural regions.     

Scale and performance in publicly funded collaborative research and development

This paper reports the results of an extensive empirical investigation on the role of project scale (reflected in consortium size and in project budget) on various performance dimensions of publicly funded collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. Recent trends in European research policy are founded on the premise that such scale economies do exist, hence the emphasis placed on the critical mass of R&D projects. We argue that large scale in collaborative R&D confers both positive and negative effects, and thus we hypothesize an inverse U‐shaped relation between scale and performance. We only find an inverse U‐shaped effect of consortium size on networking impacts and a U‐shaped effect of project budget on goal achievement. No other statistically significant relationships were found for the remaining performance dimensions (i.e. scientific outputs, technological outputs, and research capacity impacts). More generally, and consistent with recent work on the relation between quality and quantity in academic research, our analyses offer little evidence to support the idea that increasing scale generally improves collaborative R&D performance. It appears that the simple assumption ‘bigger is better’ in European Union‐financed collaborative R&D may need to be reconsidered.     

Market Power, Scale Economies and Productivity: Estimates from a Panel of Establishment Data

This paper presents a new econometric framework that permits simultaneous estimation of price-cost margins, scale economies and productivity from a panel of establishment data. The model contains only a few, economically interesting parameters to be estimated, but it is nevertheless consistent with a flexible (translog) underlying technology, quasi-fixed capital and the presence of persistent differences in productivity between establishments. The framework is applied to study market power, scale economies and productivity differences in a number of manufacturing industries in Norway. The results reveal statistically significant, but quite small, margins between price and marginal costs in most manufacturing industries.     

The strategic management of re-innovation

Abstract
Most studies of the management of the technological innovation process cover the range of activities that culminate in the commercial introduction of a new product. In certain sectors of industry, however, especially those characterised by extended product lifecycles, continued competitiveness depends on vigorous and continuous product improvement, i.e. on the process of 're-innovation' to satisfy evolving user requirements. Ongoing research at SPRU has investigated the process of re-innovation in a number of industry sectors, and the paper presents material relating to two of the characteristic patterns of re-innovation identified in this research.
The first characteristic pattern is re-innovation combining the existing with the new. Two brief case studies are presented. In both cases, the manufacturer and customer gained significant benefits from this re-innovation strategy. For the manufacturer there were reduced development and testing costs, scale and learning curve benefits, distributed inventories of spares and servicing experience. For the customer there were familiarity benefits and reduced entry risks associated with proven reliability of parts and sub-systems.
The second, and more general pattern of re-innovation is based on the concept of the 'robust design'. This is a basic design which has sufficient inherent technological slack or flexibility to enable it to evolve into a significant design family of variants. Product design families offer the producer economies of scale in R&D, manufacturing, marketing and sales and servicing. They offer the user learning from experience, the enhanced possibility of user-inspired modifications, a wider range of price/ performance packages and rapid adaptations to changing environments. Robust designs can effectively combine economies of scale with economies of scope; they are strategically more flexible than leanly configured designs which satisfy only transient user requirements.     

The impact of agricultural research on productivity and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa

While it is widely recognized that agricultural research is a key driver of broad-based technological change in agriculture that benefits the poor in many different ways, little is known about its aggregate impacts on productivity growth and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using a polynomial distributed lag structure for agricultural research within a simultaneous system of equations framework, this paper first demonstrates that agricultural research contributes significantly to productivity growth in SSA. Productivity growth is again shown to raise per capita incomes, with income increases finally having significant poverty-reducing effects. With an aggregate rate of return of 55%, the payoffs to agricultural research are also impressive. Agricultural research currently reduces the number of poor by 2.3 million or 0.8% annually. While the actual impacts are not large enough to more than offset the poverty-increasing effects of population growth and environmental degradation, the potential impacts of agricultural research are far greater. Apart from low research investments, SSA faces several constraints outside the research system that hinder realization of potential research benefits. The results show that doubling research investments in SSA would reduce poverty by 9% annually. However, this would not be realized without more efficient extension, credit, and input supply systems.     

技术创新乘数效应的运行机理探微

技术创新乘数效应是一个有待拓展的重要理论命题。考察技术创新乘数效应的内在运行机理可以发现,技术创新乘数效应是通过规模经济、范围经济、联结经济和速度经济等形态生成的,并与福特制、丰田制和温特制等组织载体相耦合。因此,中国应通过多种路径为充分发挥技术创新乘数效应创造条件。     

Ownership Advantages, Foreign Production and Productivity: Evidence from Austrian Manufacturing Firms

Multi-plant economies of scale generated by firm-specific assets form a constituent feature of multinational firms. This paper uses a panel of Austrian manufacturing firms to test for multi-plant economies of scale by examining the dependence of labor productivity in plants of the home country on the volume of foreign production. As there is an inherent causality problem in testing this proposition, the econometric estimates use a simultaneous equation framework. The estimation results indeed indicate that firms which operate plants abroad achieve productivity advantages in domestic plants. The same holds true for affiliates of foreign multinationals.     

ICT investment-specific technological change and productivity growth in Korea: Comparison of 1996–2005 and 2006–2015

This paper analyses the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on the productivity growth in Korea with the dynamic general equilibrium (DGE) model including investment-specific technological change. According to the balanced growth path analysis, ICT investment-specific technological change accounts for 18.8% to labor productivity growth in 1995–2005, then 14.3% in 2006–2015, and the decline in the rate of ICT investment-specific technological change has contributed to the slow productivity growth since the mid-2000s. In cyclical fluctuations, ICT investment-specific technological shocks were significant in output variance in 1996–2005, but neutral technological shocks and non-ICT investment specific shocks became dominant in 2006–2015. In sum, it can be concluded that the impacts of ICT investment-specific technology have diminished in the growth path and cyclical fluctuations. The result that increased (decreased) ICT investment intensity with faster (slower) ICT investment-specific technological change lead to higher (lower) productivity growth indicates that Korea has been a case against the productivity paradox, and sustained technological progress in ICT and expansion of ICT usage could have boosted the productivity growth. Therefore, this study implies that facilitating ICT progress and ICT usage outside of the already well-performing ICT manufacturing can help Korean economy raise the productivity growth rate.     

Productivity,scale economies and technical progress in the Canadian life insurance industry

The purpose of this paper is to examine the productivity performance of the Canadian life insurance industry. We construct a measure of total factor productivity for life insurance companies and then attempt to determine the main sources of improved productivity during the period 1961–1977 by pooling time-series and cross-section data from 31 firms. We conclude that for the industry as a whole technical progress was by far the most important source of productivity growth, while scale economies, on balance, had a marginally negative impact.     

Technological diversity,related diversification,and firm performance

Previous findings that related diversification creates value have been called into question over concerns about methodology and measures. Reviewing existing theory to consider how a firm's knowledge base interacts with its product market activity, I address several of these concerns by creating a measure of technological diversity based on citation‐weighted patents. The measure indicates a firm's opportunity for corporate diversification based on economies of scope in valuable knowledge assets, is defined for both single‐ and multibusiness firms, and is not correlated with more fundamental aspects of diversification, such as the number of businesses in the corporate portfolio. Evidence from a large sample of firms shows the positive relationship between diversification based on technological diversity and market‐based measures of performance, controlling for R&D intensity and capital intensity as further indicators of the type of assets underlying diversification. Results hold when controlling for the endogeneity of diversification and performance in a cross‐sectional sample or when controlling for unobserved factors using panel data. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scale and scope economies of Australian permanent building societies in a dynamic framework

In this paper we examine the interrelationship between technological change, branching, and the multi-product cost structure of Australian Permanent Building Societies within a dynamic specification of the cost function. The results strongly support this dynamic formulation, though the speed of adjustment of costs to long-run levels is quite fast. We also find evidence of economies of scale for small societies, suggesting some potential for smaller societies to benefit from increased scale through mergers.     

How Does Technological Regime Affect Performance of Technology Development Projects?

In this study, we examine how technological regime affects the performance of technology development projects (i.e., project quality, sales, and profit). Technological regime is defined as the set of attributes of a technological environment where the innovative activities of firms take place. Technological opportunity, appropriability of innovations, cumulativeness of knowledge and capabilities, and closeness of knowledge base to basic sciences (versus applied sciences) are attributes of technological regime. Using data from 381 firms across five industries, we show that high levels of technological opportunity, appropriability, and closeness of knowledge base to basic sciences are associated with higher project performance. Cumulativeness is associated with higher project quality, but not higher sales and profit. We also show that the effect of technological opportunity on project performance is moderated by two other determinants of technological regime: cumulativeness and nature of knowledge base. We find that cumulativeness has a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between technological opportunity and project performance, while closeness of knowledge base to basic sciences positively moderates the effect of technological opportunity on project performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for new product development research and practice.     

Contingency view on technological differentiation and firm performance: evidence in an economic downturn

Although the importance of strategy for firm performance has been studied, little evidence has been offered regarding this linkage in hostile environments characterized by a lack of exploitable market opportunity and fiercer competition. This study aims to examine the viability of strategic postures of technological differentiation in such a setting using data from 1,054 samples across 32 industries in 30 countries during 2001–2002, when global economies suffered a downturn. The empirical results show that differentiation-oriented firms underperformed efficiency-oriented ones during this period. However, in the face of deteriorating market conditions, a strategic orientation toward technological differentiation, in concert with an internal commitment to R&D investment or external munificence toward technological opportunity, yields better performance. Finally, this study finds that firms with tight coupling between differentiation and efficiency outmaneuver those with a pure strategy or no strategy at the time of an economic downturn.     

The rate of hazard confronting new firms and plants in U.S. manufacturing

Three different factors are hypothesized to shape the hazard function confronting new businesses — the extent of scale economies relative to start-up size, the technological environment, and ownership structure. Using a longitudinal data base tracking the post-entry performance of more than 12,000 U.S. manufacturing establishments, a semi-parametric Cox regression model is used to estimate the hazard function. The evidence suggests that while the presence of high scale economies, a high-technological environment, and a relatively small initial start-up size tend to elevate the exposure of risk confronting new businesses, these factors apparently exert no influence on the likelihood of survival for new branches and subsidiaries established by existing enterprises.     

Experience and scale and scope economies: trade‐offs and performance in development

This paper examines how knowledge created by firm experience (learning economies) and scale and scope economies affect performance in firms' development activities. The empirical results suggest that each factor has a significant effect on development performance. Moreover, knowledge that results from greater experience within a particular technological area, when combined with knowledge spillovers from greater scope in other technological areas, significantly improves development performance. The results suggest that experience shapes and facilitates firms' abilities to absorb knowledge spillovers. Our empirical findings thus provide a more nuanced examination of the drivers of performance and have implications for the management of firms' development activities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Farm size and productivity growth in the United States Corn Belt

In recent decades, agricultural production in the U.S. has continued to shift to large-scale operations, raising concerns about the economic viability of small and midsized farms. To understand whether economies of size provided an incentive for the consolidation of production, the study estimates the total factor productivity (TFP) of five size classes of grain-producing farms in the U.S. Heartland (Corn Belt) region. Using quinquennial Agricultural Census data from 1982 to 2012 the study also compares TFP growth rates across farm sizes to gain insight into whether observed productivity differences are likely to persist. The finding of a strong positive relationship between farm size and TFP suggests that consolidation of production has contributed to recent aggregate productivity growth in the crop sector. The study estimates the extent to which sectoral productivity growth can be attributed to structural change versus other factors including technological change. The study also explores some tradeoffs associated with policies that raise the productivity of small versus large farms.     

Viewpoint: Climate impacts on agriculture: Searching for keys under the streetlight

This paper provides a critical assessment of the literature estimating the consequences of climate impacts in agriculture and the food system. This literature focuses overwhelmingly on the impact of elevated CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, higher temperatures and changing precipitation on staple crop yields. While critically important for food security, we argue that researchers have gravitated to measuring impacts ‘under the streetlight’ where data and models are plentiful. We argue that prior work has largely neglected the vast majority of potential economic impacts of climate change on agriculture. A broader view must extend the impacts analysis to inputs beyond land, including the consequences of climate change for labor productivity, as well as for purchased intermediate inputs. Largely overlooked is the impact of climate change on the rate of total factor productivity growth and the potential for more rapid depreciation of the underlying knowledge capital underpinning this key driver of agricultural output growth. This broader view must also focus more attention on non-staple crops, which, while less important from a caloric point of view, are critically important in redressing current micronutrient deficiencies in many diets around the world. The paper closes with numerical simulations that demonstrate the extent to which limited input and output coverage of climate impacts can lead to considerable underestimation of the consequences for food security and economic welfare. Of particular significance is the finding that humans in the humid tropics are likely more vulnerable to heat stress than are many of the well-adapted crops, such as rice. By omitting the impact of heat stress on humans, most studies of climate impacts greatly understate the welfare losses in the world’s poorest economies.     

THE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENT ON CAPACITY EXPANSION FOR UNCERTAIN EXPONENTIAL DEMAND WITH LEAD TIMES

We formulate a model of capacity expansion that is relevant to a service provider for whom the cost of capacity shortages would be considerable but difficult to quantify exactly. Due to demand uncertainty and a lead time for adding capacity, not all shortages are avoidable. In addition, technological innovations will reduce the cost of adding capacity but may not be completely predictable. Analytical expressions for the infinite horizon expansion cost and shortages are optimized numerically. Sensitivity analyses allow us to determine the impact of technological change on the optimal timing and sizes of capacity expansions to account for economies of scale, the time value of money and penalties for insufficient capacity.     

Does the technological sourcing decision matter? Evidence from Spanish panel data

This paper extends previous analysis of the choice between internal and external R&D to consider the effect of this decision on productivity. Existing empirical research confirms that there is a positive relationship between technological assets and firm performance. However, few works have attempted to identify whether the technological sourcing decision taken by the firm affects productivity. The main finding of this paper is that the technological strategy developed by the firm does affect productivity. This issue is particularly novel as it incorporates the technological sourcing decision taken by the firm. The results we obtain indicate that the technological sourcing decision affects the relationship between technological capital and productivity. Thus, our findings suggest that the decision between internal and external R&D matters.