An exercise in composite indicators construction: Assessing the sustainability of Italian regions

This paper presents a piece of research aimed at evaluating the relative sustainability of the Italian Regions. After selecting a core set of indicators, for which we referred to the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, we built a composite index and checked for its robustness. As a result we got ‘many numbers’, that is, a range of possible rankings for Italian Regions.     

Rule of Law and the Resource Curse: Abundance Versus Intensity

We examine the ‘resource curse’ using new data on historic resource stocks and an improved econometric methodology. The paper distinguishes between resource abundance (stocks) and extractive intensity (flows), focusing on relationships between resources and rule of law. Previously unavailable information on past resource stocks is estimated. We find that economically large initial natural resource stocks are associated with subsequent lower levels of rule of law and do not directly affect growth, while raw resource exports do not have a significant effect on rule of law when stocks are included in the analysis but do affect average growth rates. Sample size is maximized through the use of an EMis (expectation maximization with importance sampling) algorithm to replace missing data, minimizing the bias and inefficiency associated with listwise deletion, which commonly eliminates half or more of the available data in this setting. An earlier version of this work appeared as part of my doctoral dissertation in economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Thanks are due to my dissertation committee: Robert T. Deacon, Stephen J. DeCanio and Carol McAusland; as well as Okan Kavuncu, Henning Bohn, Kelly Bedard, Olivier Deschennes, Doug Steigerwald and numerous seminar participants as well as two anonymous referees.     

On the nature,function and composition of technological systems

This paper suggests that the economic growth of countries reflects their developmental potential which, in turn, is a function of the technological systems in which various economic agents participate. The boundaries of technological systems may or may not coincide with national borders and may vary from one techno-industrial area to another. The central features of technological systems are economic competence (the ability to develop and exploit new business opportunities), clustering of resources, and institutional infrastructure. A technological system is defined as a dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific economic/industrial area under a particular institutional infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and utilization of technology. Technological systems are defined in terms of knowledge/competence flows rather than flows of ordinary goods and services. In the presence of an entrepreneur and sufficient critical mass, such networks can be transformed into development blocks, i.e. synergistic clusters of firms and technologies which give rise to new business opportunities.     

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).     

“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。     

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.     

美国国家创新体系构成特点分析

美国作为全球头号经济强国,在技术创新与研发方面长期保持着世界领先的优势地位,形成了自己独特的创新体系。通过介绍美国国家创新体系的形成过程,分析了其特点,主要有:以企业为主体,由市场驱动;广纳全球创新人才;联邦政府发挥关键作用;引进民间资本参与;严格研发经费管理;与整体经济发展密切相关。美国国家创新体系在未来发展中,将进一步解决创新源泉和传播机制的问题,国防研发将继续发挥火车头的作用,创新能力将会继续居世界领先地位,当然,也面临诸多挑战,如,削减研发经费,研发成本越来越高,创新能力明显下降等。借鉴美国的经验,我国在创新体系建设中,应鼓励创新的减免税收优惠政策法规对所有企业一视同仁,加大对国防研发和基础研究的投入,统筹人才培养与引进政策等。     

少数民族特色产业创新与发展的对策建议

少数民族地区经济是国民经济的重要组成部分,少数民族经济发展与否,直接关系到社会主义建设事业的成败。我国实现少数民族地区经济和少数民族特色经济的共同发展,是我国少数民族经济学科研究的一个具有重要现实意义的课题。研究少数民族特色产业创新与发展的对策建议,从国家层面上讲,应该制定和适时调整相应的政策、法规,从财政、税收、金融等方面加强对少数民族特色产业创新的支持;从地方政府层面讲,也应制定和修改相应政策、规定,并强化行政管理,为少数民族特色产业提供更多的优惠政策和资金支持;从企业层面讲,应加强制度管理,增强企业自身的竞争力,适应市场经济,做大做强少数民族特色产业。     

Inadequacy of technology and innovation systems at the periphery

Inadequacy of technology is a child of structuralism; the conceptof a national system of innovation (NSI) is a child of evolutionarytheory. A dialogue between these concepts can enrich our understandingof the problems involved in building NSIs at the periphery.Celso Furtado explains the structural roots of modernisation–marginalisationpolarisation and how the orientation of technology of underdevelopedcountries is embedded in income concentration. The formationof welfare states at the periphery provides NSIs with a new‘focusing device’, helping to break the marginalisationside of the process. The combined formation of NSIs and welfaresystems is an institutional response to modernisation–marginalisationpolarisation.     

Cooperation and the efficiency of regional R&D activities

This paper investigates the relationship between the cooperativebehaviour of manufacturing establishments in a region and theefficiency of their R&D activities, using data for 11 Europeanregions. Some significant differences in the attitude towardsR&D cooperation as well as with regard to the efficiencyof R&D activities between the regions can be found. However,these two issues appear to a large degree to be empiricallyunrelated. Therefore, the role of R&D cooperation in regionalinnovation systems remains unclear.     

企业文化与技术创新方式的关系研究

在市场竞争日益激烈和不断要求变化的环境中,如何有效进行创新和选择合适的创新方式成为企业关心的核心问题。文化作为影响企业行为的一个因素,对技术创新方式有着重要的影响作用。在借鉴前人的研究基础上,以129家企业层面的数据研究四种不同类型的企业文化:团队文化、层级文化、灵活文化和市场文化对于率先创新和模仿创新两种技术创新方式的不同影响。结果表明,企业的灵活文化越强,越倾向于选择率先创新;企业的市场文化越强,越倾向于选择率先创新;企业的层级文化越强,越倾向于选择模仿创新方式。企业若要更好地增强其创新能力,就需要结合自身的文化选择适合的创新方式,从而在市场竞争中强化以及维持核心竞争力。     

On the measurement and analysis of aggregate economic activity for China: the coincident economic indicators approach

This paper reviews some of China's high-frequency economic indicators and our principal findings on their selection and use. Our aim is to develop a composite index of coincident economic indicators (coincident economic index, CEI) which can be used to obtain timely information on the present state of the China's economy and provide an appropriate measure to analyze China's short-term macroeconomic dynamics. Notably, combining industrial production, retail sales, manufacturing employment, income of financial institutions and passenger traffic volume, they work well as the method for dating business cycles for China. It shows that, over the past two decades, there was one marked recession which occurred in 1988:8 to 1989:12. In addition to this business cycle chronology we also develop a growth cycle chronology based on the deviations from trend of the CE which shows that there have been four cyclical slowdowns since 1986. Whereas GDP growth lacks cyclical movements and appears to be dominated by trend and irregular movements, in contrast to GDP, the CEI works well as a measure of cyclical dynamics and can contribute to the analysis of short-term fluctuations of Chinese economic activity relative to its long-term growth.     

Bridging the gap between technological possibilities and people:: Involving people in the early phases of technology development

Technology provides endless promising possibilities to support people's lives. In reality, it is not a matter of what is possible, but rather a matter of how and when technology will be integrated, accepted and adopted by people. However, conventionally within organizations the areas of technology development and market research are not closely related nor applied in the process of innovation and do not always share the same scope. In that sense there is a gap between the potential of technology and humankind's preferences.This paper discusses the current areas of technology development and market research in a business environment and proposes an integrated approach to bridge the gap between technology and people, in which people, rather than market sizes become central in the development of technology. In addition, it also describes how this approach of people-driven innovation is brought into practice through the development of early experience demonstrators. The core focus of this paper is on the processes and practices regarding innovation within an organization, rather than the adoption of innovation by users or the rate of the adoption of a marketed solution (Rogers, 1995 [E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, The Free Press, New York, 1995. [1]]).     

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.     

Managing technological and social uncertainties of innovation: The evolution of Brazilian energy and agriculture

This paper explores how technological, commercial and social uncertainties shaped the development of Brazilian biofuels. Technological innovation allowed the country to emerge as a global leader, but Brazil continues to struggle with major social uncertainties due to poverty and environmental concerns common in many emerging economies. Contemporary approaches to development within the innovation literature focus primarily on overcoming technological and commercial uncertainties, but only peripherally explore social uncertainties. To fill this void, we draw on Martin and Hall's framework for managing innovative uncertainties, which is based on Kuhn and Popper's approaches to the evolution and methodology of science, and extend it with Aldrich and Fiol's concept of cognitive versus socio-political legitimacy. Based on qualitative data collected in Brazil, we outline the evolution of automotive fuel ethanol and flex-fuel technology, the development of Brazilian soybean production, and castor for socially inclusive biodiesel production. We show how innovation solved some technological and commercial uncertainties and generated new opportunities, but also created additional social uncertainties that are now being addressed. Through this process, Brazil has acquired capabilities in alternative energy technologies and more sustainable agriculture, becoming an exemplar for other emerging economies. We conclude with implications for policy and industry.     

The effect of external partner heterogeneity on open innovation: the moderating role of the technological regime

There is widespread agreement that open innovation (OI) is strongly influenced by external partner heterogeneity. While previous studies have examined partner heterogeneity using quantitative analysis, the implications of a weighted assignment using an external partner heterogeneity index have received less attention. The purpose of this study is to develop a modified partner heterogeneity model. Specifically, using a questionnaire survey of Chinese firms, we develop a new method to measure partner organisational heterogeneity (POH). Then, the moderating factors of an industry's technological environment, termed the technological regime, are introduced. The empirical analysis shows that the technological regime is positively correlated with POH and OI performance. Hence, an advanced technological regime improves POH and OI performance by incorporating external resources and increasing innovation potential.