Motivation Gaps and Implementation Traps: The Paradoxical and Time-Varying Effects of Family Ownership on Firm Absorptive Capacity

We present a theoretical framework of family ownership as a driver of the heterogeneity (between-firm differences) and variability (within-firm differences over time) of absorptive capacity (AC). Building on our analysis of the multiple dimensions of family ownership influence on firm behavior and the mechanisms that can shape the firm willingness and ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit external knowledge, we introduce the concepts of motivation gap and implementation gap to explain why, paradoxically, family ownership can cause both upward and downward divergences in AC. Our contingency framework identifies conditions under which the positive and negative effects of family ownership on AC are likely to prevail and adds a temporal perspective suggesting that AC varies depending on the duration of family ownership and ownership succession.     

Who innovates with whom and why? Evidence from international collaboration in energy patenting

ABSTRACT

The use of renewable and alternative energy technologies, which have the potential to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, is limited. Common environmental policy environments may encourage inventors to share the costs and risks needed to develop high quality energy technologies. In this work, I study the propensity to collaboratively innovate by examining counts of renewable energy and alternative energy patents from 1990–2013 that have multiple inventors that are located in more than one country. Results from a gravity model framework suggest that similarity in environmental regulations is an important, positive driver of collaboration in energy technologies. I find that this impact is driven by market-based environmental policies that give inventors the flexibility to seek out international partnerships. I provide evidence that market-based environmental policy similarity may encourage collaboration across geographic and cultural distances but may not encourage collaboration across technologically dissimilar nations.     

Corruption and private participation infrastructure projects: The influence of vicarious experience and national animosity

This paper investigates the influence of vicarious experience and national animosity on the relationship between corruption and the performance of private participation infrastructure projects. Our analysis of 27,264 projects in 114 countries from 1997 to 2013 shows that higher levels of corruption are associated with higher risk of project failure. We also find that this effect is weakened by the presence of other firms from the same industry, as firms may learn from other companies how to deal with corruption. In contrast, we find the effect is strengthened by the presence of other firms from different industries. This result is due to a lower applicability of knowledge and to an increase in national animosity and discrimination from local stakeholders.     

An investigation over inbound open innovation in SMEs: insights from an Italian manufacturing sample

ABSTRACT

Building on the Open Innovation (OI) framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine the R&D inbound model of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, we focus on the impact of different horizontal R&D collaborations on product innovation and innovation performance. Hypotheses are tested using a Probit/Tobit regression on an Italian sample of 2591 manufacturing SMEs. Our analysis shows that collaborating with different horizontal R&D partners brings to different innovation outcomes. In particular, R&D collaboration with universities has a positive impact on product innovation, but not on innovation performance. Whereas, R&D collaboration with research centres and other private companies has a positive impact on both product innovation and innovation performance. Our findings provide implications for SMEs managers and entrepreneurs who have to decide between R&D partners for their innovation strategy. Avenues for future research are discussed.     

The ‘Rise of the South’: Global Convergence at Last?

This article offers a political economy review of the literatures and the empirical evidence concerning the ‘Rise of the South’. The study focuses on global convergence (in the long-term, in the last 30 years, and in the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis), economic decoupling between developing and advanced economies, and the economic strategies which may help catching-up, especially the ‘flying geese’ paradigm and industrial policies supporting manufacturing sector growth. It shows that the mainstream literature suffers from significant weaknesses; that empirical claims concerning convergence and decoupling have been exaggerated, and that flying geese-type strategies are severely limited. Examination of the drivers of growth in the South and the policies implemented in key converging countries support the claim that political economy approaches can offer valuable policy insights to countries grappling with the challenges of long-term growth and development.     

Technology from emerging markets: Why serendipity played a role in exports of Brazilian software

Brazilian software exports still do not match a relatively high local prowess in the matter. The negative country of origin image for technology products may only emphasize a tendency to avoid international exposure among entrepreneurs. I suggest that lack of self‐esteem may play an important part in hindering Brazilian competitiveness and I point out to the roots of the negative portrayal of themselves, buying in to the negative image that gives place to the country of origin effect. Much of this interpretation may be relevant to other former colonies and are applicable to other creative industries. I draw on three cases in which Brazilian software companies awaited foreigners to invite them to export and I illustrate that a strong Brazilian reluctance to expose themselves abroad may be at play. I seek to explain the roots of that reluctance in a lack of worldliness as well as in an attitude that may have psychoanalytical foundations grounded in genesis of Brazil and in the way this development affected its institutions and the people's Weltanschauung. The policy implications are significant, as expecting Brazilians technology entrepreneurs to sell technology products at fairs, may be the wrong way to go. Instead, an export policy that allows for building partnerships capable of allowing for mitigating risks, building affective relationships, and better understanding of the other will require rebalancing policies, that is, less participation in fairs and more two‐way internships, policies which are likely to render more palpable results among Brazilians and possibly among other former colonial nations.     

Production in advance versus production to order: The role of downstream spatial clustering and product differentiation

In every production process, suppliers have to decide whether an item should be produced and stored as inventory before an explicit purchase order is received (production in advance), or whether it should be produced only after such an order is received (production to order). We study the determinants of this firm-level choice. We present a simple conceptual framework to derive predictions that we subsequently test in the empirical analysis. We argue that an increment in buyers’ spatial concentration benefits production in advance more in homogenous industries than in differentiated ones, while the benefits for production to order are larger as product differentiation increases. Consequently, the propensity to adopt one of the two production modes, following an increase in the number of local downstream buyers, changes according to the degree of product differentiation of the goods. Relying on a large data set of Italian manufacturing firms, we find empirical support to our ideas.     

The impact of foreign stock markets on macroeconomic dynamics in open economies: A structural estimation

With the increased international financial integration in recent years, bilateral financial linkages between countries may have a growing influence on their real economies. This paper employs a structural two-country New Keynesian model, which incorporates a cross-border wealth channel, to estimate the effect that foreign stock market fluctuations may have on macroeconomic variables in open economy countries.The model is estimated using Bayesian methods on a sample of open economies that can potentially be affected by changes in a larger foreign stock market: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, and the Netherlands. The estimation allows for deviations from rational expectations and for learning by economic agents.The empirical results indicate important cross-country wealth effects for Ireland and Austria, from fluctuations in the U.S. and U.K. and in the U.S. and German stock markets, respectively; the wealth effect is largest in Ireland. The data favor, instead, specifications with no significant wealth effect for the remaining countries. Foreign stock price fluctuations, however, still play a role by affecting domestic expectations about future output gaps in all countries in the sample.