Technology transfer and innovation performance: Evidence from Chinese firms

This paper explores the relationship between technology transfer activities and innovation performance with special reference to Chinese industrial firms. It is based on a recent nationwide survey covering 2334 Chinese industrial firms. The impact of technology transfer on their innovative performance was analyzed for all the responded firms and similar analyses also addressed the issue from perspectives of general industrial firms versus high-tech firms, and large firms versus small and medium firms. Several critical types of technology transfer activities were identified and both positive and negative impacts were discussed along with the Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis. The study revealed that the innovation activities in Chinese manufacturing firms could not be boosted substantially merely through the acquisition of key equipment and apparatus from abroad. The findings also suggested that Chinese firms should develop their technological absorptive capacity and transformative capacity, and foster technology transfer and communications among trading partners. Moreover, it would be crucial for Chinese firms to stress the nurturing of indigenous innovation capabilities so as to sustain their performance improvement.     

Collaborative innovation and policy support: the emergence of trilateral networks

ABSTRACT

The present article models the critical factors for a successful and evolutionarily stable National System of Innovation. We simulate a model, against the background of increasingly complex technologies, in a national process of agents’ interactions with social-dilemma characteristics. In particular, the articleinvestigates the emergence of a trilateral collaborative innovation alliance among ‘enterprise’, ‘university’ and ‘government’. We apply a tripartite evolutionary game with a replication process and explore the role and options of the public policy agent to support collaboration on innovation. We find that some policy mix, in particular, a combination of (1) public rewards for cooperation, (2) public punishment for non-cooperation and (3) settings of public cost controls and tax income from innovation, can promote broad and sustainable innovation alliances. For instance, threats of strong punishment, even with low public rewards for cooperation, may promote the formation of a collaborative innovation alliance. We run some sensitivity analyses of the results through parametric variation of two critical factors of the model, knowledge spillover and output elasticity of knowledge input. We find some qualifications for the velocity of the process.     

Vintage capital,market structure and productivity in an evolutionary model of industry growth

This paper examines the effects of inter-firm variation in vintage equipment replacement policies on industry productivity and structure using an evolutionary model based on Nelson-Winter. Traditional industry productivity measures assume a graduated replacement policy with low variation across firms in the average age of the capital stock. This approach allows for inter-firm policy variation. The first part reviews the neoclassical treatment of vintage capital investment; the second part outlines an evolutionary model of vintage replacement in the context of industry growth; and the third part presents results of simulation experiments focused on the relationship between vintage replacement patterns and industry productivity growth. Findings suggest that inter-firm differences in vintage capital investment policies may account for significant shifts in the rates of industry productivity growth and changes in market structure.     

知识流通与创新绩效关系研究--以在孵科技型小微企业为例

为探讨知识流通对科技型小微企业创新绩效的影响以及组织学习能力对其影响的调节效果,文章首先对知识流通和学习能力的相关研究文献进行了综述,设计了知识流量、创新绩效、知识专精度、组织学习能力等变量的量表,在此基础上,对科技企业孵化器中的237家在孵科技型小微企业进行了实证研究。研究结果显示,在孵科技型小微企业所能获得的知识流量越大,且知识专精度越高,越能提升企业的创新绩效;组织学习能力对于企业知识流通与创新绩效中的组织绩效和战略绩效具有正向的调节作用;建议科技企业孵化器应充分利用所掌握的资源与知识,以提升两者之间的知识流通。     

Knowledge integration methods,product innovation and high-tech new venture performance in China

Combining insights from knowledge-based theory (KBT) and the product innovation literature, this paper explores whether and how knowledge integration methods contribute to high-tech new venture performance in China’s emerging economy. Using data from 295 entrepreneurs and top executives in Chinese high-tech new ventures, we find that both the coordinated integration of knowledge and systemic integration of knowledge have positive effects on high-tech new venture performance and product innovation. Competitive intensity moderates the impact of knowledge integration methods on product innovation. Moreover, product innovation is a mediator in the relationship between knowledge integration methods and high-tech new venture performance. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Knowledge flows and innovation capability: The patenting trajectory of Taiwan's thin film transistor-liquid crystal display industry

This paper uses USPTO's patent data to present and analyse knowledge flows and innovation capability within and across Taiwan's top five major players in the thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry. Based on the empirical results, the study shows that latecomers, such as Taiwan, to the TFT-LCD industry have internalised external knowledge from the US and particularly from Japan on specific core technologies, while the knowledge relationship between source and recipient is un-intimated. One important finding of this study is that Taiwan's top five TFT-LCD manufacturers possess different knowledge sources and technology focuses. This specialised capability is most likely the cause for their positions in the market (i.e. market share). Each player has unique patenting protocol, in which the coded knowledge (i.e. patenting rate) does not act as a major indicator of innovation performance in Taiwan's TFT-LCD industry. Remarkably, the public research institute does not show its essential impact on TFT-LCD industry as it once was in most East Asian latecomer literature. This study thus provides some useful managerial implications for latecomer firms to facilitate knowledge internalisation and build endogenous innovative capabilities.     

学习型区域创新网络中知识转移的博弈分析

区域学习和创新能力是区域经济发展的关键因素,学习型区域创新网络中创新主体间的知识转移能力是区域创新和学习能力的关键。但由于创新主体间存在着委托－代理关系,知识转移的过程中普遍存在逆向选择和道德风险问题。从而在一定程度上抑制了知识资本的功能。本文通过构建博弈模型,分析了创新网络中创新主体要素间的知识转移的条件。并在此基础上提出了可行性建议。     

Property rights and information flows: a simulation approach

With the growth of the information economy, the proportion of knowledge-intensive goods to total goods is constantly increasing. Lessig (The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connected world. Vintage, New York 2001) has argued that IPRs have now become too favourable to existing producers and that their ‘winner-take-all’ characteristics are constraining the creators of tomorrow. In this paper we look at how variations in IPRs regimes might affect the creation and social cost of new knowledge in economic systems. Drawing on a conceptual framework, the Information Space or I-Space to explore how the uncontrollable diffusibility of knowledge relates to its degree of structure, we deploy an agent-based modelling approach to explore the issue of IPRs. We take the ability to control the diffusibility of knowledge as a proxy measure for an ability to establish property rights in such knowledge. Second, we take the rate of obsolescence of knowledge as a proxy measure for the degree of turbulence induced by different regimes of technical change. Then we simulate the quantity and cost to society of new knowledge under different property right regimes.

Accumulation, innovation and catching-up: an extended cumulative growth model

This paper presents an extended model of cumulative growth inwhich the effects of innovation and catching-up are considered.Innovation adds another source of cumulative growth to thatof traditional models and allows a consideration of the importanceof non-price determinants of international competitiveness.Catching-up is the major force leading to convergence in productivityowing to the effect of the diffusion of technology. The modelallows one to analyse whether cumulative forces may lead tostable growth and whether this solution generates convergencein productivity levels. The structural model is tested for aset of OECD countries over the period 1965–94.     

Direct and configurational paths of open innovation and organisational agility to business model innovation in SMEs

ABSTRACT

Discussions on opportunities and enablers have remained lacking despite the continued growth of business model innovation (BMI) research. In order to investigate the formation mechanism of BMI in small-medium enterprises (SMEs), we proposed an integrated model, which included factors derived from organisational internal resources and capabilities via the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV). Structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were utilised to test the survey data collected from 245 SMEs in China. SEM results support the hypotheses, except that on the impact of outbound open innovation on market capitalising agility and on BMI. The fsQCA analysis revealed that four configurations of open innovations and organisational agilities can sufficiently explain high levels of BMI, and two configurations of these factors lead to low BMI. The theoretical and practical implications of such findings were also provided.     

云环境下跨组织知识共享的系统动力学分析

文章对云环境下影响组织间知识共享的因素进行了综合分析,创新性地提出了组织云能力的概念,认为组织云能力是主要由云技术应用能力和云思维能力组成的组织应用云计算技术和服务的能力,知识共享双方的综合云能力是影响云环境下组织间知识共享的主要因素之一。在此基础之上用系统动力学方法研究跨组织知识共享的动态行为和因果关系,并利用Vensim PLE软件进行了仿真分析,结果表明该模型能够描述云环境下跨组织知识共享行为的演化过程,可为设计改进组织间知识转移行为的机制提供参考。     

城镇廉租房融资困境与模式创新

城镇廉租房作为一种福利性的公共产品，这种特性就决定了其与一般商品房的开发、运作模式的内核不同。在开发融资渠道上，传统意义上政府主导型嵌入式的财政资金供给模式，使得融资过程僵硬化。如何发掘更为灵活的金融制度，催生成熟的商业化融资模式，成为当前破解城镇廉租房开发建设过程中资金瓶颈的关键所在。     

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.     

Measuring emerging categories of innovation: Modularity and business model

The oft-cited dichotomy between incremental and radical innovations is less important when we have to analyze how a new technology and its social institution coevolve. In this context, besides incremental and radical innovations, C. Freeman added two more categories of technical change: one is change in the technology system and the other is change in the technoeconomic paradigm.However, as the information technology (IT) revolution progresses further, we come to need more categories of innovations. In the computer industry, the concept of “module” is becoming a solution to growing complexity. In the new IT environment, we can be proactive in demand creation. It becomes crucial, therefore, whether the creation of new “business models” has followed technical innovations. In this article, we will try to demonstrate how these different categories of innovations, i.e., modularization and new business model creation, can be measured.     

Knowledge dynamics in a network industry

In this paper, we model the impact of networks on knowledge growth in an innovating industry. Specifically, we compare two mediums of knowledge exchange: random interaction, and the case in which interaction occurs on a fixed architecture. In a simulation study, we investigate how the medium of knowledge exchange contributes to knowledge growth under different scenarios related to the industry's innovative potential. We measure innovative potential by considering the extent to which knowledge can be codified, and the available technological opportunities. Our results tend to support the conjecture that spatial clustering generates higher long-run knowledge growth rates in industries characterized by highly tacit knowledge, while the opposite is true when the degree of codification is important.     

Barriers to knowledge spillovers and regional convergence in an evolutionary model

This paper will present a multi-region/multi-country model in which inter-regional knowledge spillovers determine the growth of regions. Key parameters in the model are the learning capability of a region and the rate of knowledge generation (R&D). The intensity of spillovers depends on geographical distance between regions. The model is investigated by means of simulation techniques. What results is a core-periphery situation, the exact form of which depends on the assumed spatial structure. The impact of economic integration is investigated by introducing barriers-to-knowledge-spillovers in the model in the form of borders between countries. Contrary to the popular belief and some economic theories, we find that removing such spillover barriers may result in larger disparity of income levels between regions.     

企业技术创新中隐性知识分享的探讨

在经济全球化发展的今天,技术创新成为企业获取竞争优势和持续发展的根本途径。技术创新作为典型的知识性活动,在技术创新过程中的知识分享特别是隐性知识的分享,成为企业技术创新能力提升和积淀保证。文章根据隐性知识的特性和知识分享过程的影响因素进行了探讨,并由此提出了建立分享机制的具体措施。     

Endogenous innovation and imitation in a model of equilibrium growth

This paper provides a growth model in which innovation as well as imitation occurs. Economic growth is due to product innovations. Innovators driven by the possibility to appropriate monopoly profits do not remain in their monopolistic position forever. Latecoming imitators get into possession of the private knowledge of production through investments in R & D. Imitated products are marketed in oligopolistic markets. Imitation proves to be profitable despite a single factor market and positive imitation costs. A steady-state equilibrium with positive imitation and innovation rates as well as different market structures can be derived. Finally, the effects of industrial policy measures are discussed.     

供应链企业间知识共享的创新效应分析--关系和信任导向下的实证研究

基于关系交易理论、资源依赖理论和交易成本理论以及对国内外现有供应链知识共享相关文献的梳理和分析,建立了关系和信任导向下供应链企业间知识共享对创新绩效影响的概念模型,其中供应链企业间知识共享包括显性知识共享和隐性知识共享。结合256家供应链上下游企业的问卷数据,利用结构方程模型对上述概念模型进行了实证分析。实证分析结果表明,关系对隐性知识共享的正向影响较为显著,但其对显性知识共享的正向影响不够显著;信任对显性知识共享、隐性知识共享的正向影响均较为显著;此外,显性、隐性知识共享对创新绩效均具有显著正向影响。研究成果客观刻画了关系与信任导向下供应链企业间知识共享对创新绩效的影响路径及作用机理,将为我国企业进行供应链知识管理提供理论依据与指导。     

Collective learning,innovation and growth in a boundedly rational,evolutionary world

We formulate a simple multiagent evolutionary scheme as a model of collective learning, i.e. a situation in which firms experiment, interact, and learn from each other. This scheme is then applied to a stylized endogenous growth economy in which firms have to determine how much to invest in R&D, where innovations are the stochastic product of their R&D activity, spillovers occur, but technological advantages are only relative and temporary and innovations actually diffuse, both at the intra and interfirm levels. The model demonstrates both the existence of a unique long-run growth attractor (in the linear case) and distinct growth phases on the road to that attractor. We also compare the long-run growth patterns for a linear and a logistic innovation function, and produce some evidence for a bifurcation in the latter case.