As times goes by. A dynamic impact assessment of the innovation policy and the Matthew effect on Argentinean firms

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to analyse the impact of public funds for innovation on firm’s capabilities, innovative dynamics and economic performance. A large stream of literature about the evaluation of public funds is focused on testing the existence of additionality effects on investments and results. This paper aims to provide evidence about other dimensions of the firm that public policy can alter, with focus on the time window between the treatment and the impact, and the role of the Matthew effect (recurrence) in this process. The empirical exercise is based on a dynamic panel data made of 1465 firms (3337 observations) that applied to the Argentinean Technological Fund (FONTAR), which is the main public fund for innovation in Argentina, between 2007 and 2016. Results show short-term effects of accessing to FONTAR on firms’ capabilities, medium-term effects on innovation efforts and long-term effects on productivity. Even though the effect on productivity is larger among recurrent firms, the differences among recurrent and non-recurrent firms are not conclusive in case of capabilities and innovation efforts. All in all, this research provides evidence about the ‘when’ of public policy and the need to look beyond input additionality effects when analysing its impact.     

A New Typology for Economic Sectors with a view to Policy Implications

This paper is an attempt to tease out a typology of economic sectors based on a systems approach to innovation and economic growth that may be useful for policy analysis. The typology explored here revolves around novel products rather than ethereal knowledge-producing entities. This insight goes back to Allyn Young (1928) and Joseph Schumpeter (1934) who argued that the introduction of new goods was the engine of economic growth. More precisely, our typology of sectors focuses on novel products which are efficiency-enhancing within and between sectors through the market mechanism. The scheme revolves around the relationship between 'Enabling' and 'Recipient' sectors (which gives the typology its name: ER), and offers a lens for viewing and interpreting a substantive part of the mechanics of modern economic growth. The last part of the paper briefly discusses a few immediate policy implications, although it has the potential for greater use and value in this regard.     

The Relationship Between Firm Size and Innovation Activity: A Double Decision Approach†

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between firm size and innovation activity using Spanish data at firm level corresponding to the manufacturing sector for the period 1990-93. This exercise is different to previous applications because we allow for different size effects in the decision to innovate and the innovation count equation, in the context of a double-hurdle approach. Several tests confirm the hurdle negbin model. We find that firm size is a relevant factor, although size effects are different in both decisions. A robust result from the different specifications estimated is the rejection of the Gilbert and Newbery hypotheses. We find out that the behaviour of firm size is neither linear in the decision nor in thc count equation. We also provide additional, and sometimes different, evidence to previous Spanish studies on R&D.     

Idea Competitions under scrutiny: Acquisition,intelligence or public relations mechanism?

Idea Competitions (ICs) are becoming a popular mechanism chosen by firms to perform Open Innovation. They are a way to engage with external sources of knowledge such as individual entrepreneurs and small firms who are asked to submit ideas and compete for a prize. However, little is known about the success of ICs as acquisition mechanisms. The researchers conducted interviews in five multinational companies to evaluate the effects of using ICs as an acquisition mechanism. Although still preliminary, the results of this study show that the success of ICs as an acquisition mechanism remains uncertain because their output (i.e. the number of ideas acquired) is often low compared to the input (i.e. the number of ideas submitted) and effort required to run them (e.g. to vet ideas). Across the cases observed, ICs appear to be more successful at identifying and acquiring early-stage ideas, particularly those outside the current business focus. The study shows that ICs deliver other functional benefits such as improved intelligence and public relations and that these need to be considered as part of the evaluation of the IC's success. The paper concludes by discussing the conditions in which ICs are implemented and the implications for Open Innovation theory.     

From necessities to imaginary worlds: Structural change,product quality and economic development

In this paper we explore how innovation and structural change affected economic development in the long run, by which we mean a period such as the one between the industrial revolution and the present. We separate the period since the industrial revolution into two sub periods, which we call ‘necessities’ and ‘imaginary worlds’ and focus on three trajectories, increasing productive efficiency, increasing output variety, and increasing output quality and differentiation. In the paper we show how a combination of the three trajectories gave rise to the transition between ‘necessities’ and ‘imaginary worlds’ and propose a mechanism of economic development which could have given rise to the type of economic system which we can observe today. To create growing output quality and differentiation higher competencies were required. These higher competencies required higher levels of education and demanded higher wages, which contributed to raise consumers' purchasing power. These phenomena, combined with the income effect of the creation of new sectors, generated the disposable income with which consumers could purchase the new, higher quality, non necessities, goods and services generated by innovation. In the paper we study the impact of several model parameters on the stability of the virtuous circle previously described.     

Systemic technology policies: Issues and instruments

In this Introduction, we review the arguments that underpinned the workshop on which the special section is grounded and provide a structured sequence for the contents of the seven selected papers that comprise the section.     

高校应对大学生网络创业问题的一些理性思考

随着大学生就业形势日益严峻,以创业带动大学生就业成为大势所趋。目前,网络创业投入小,回报快而高;市场潜力无限;加上大学生自身的智力优势,使得网络创业成为大学生创业的新途径和新模式。但是大学生的网络创业也并非一帆风顺,由于网络创业意识薄弱,对创业缺乏理性认识;缺乏创业者心态,创业技能落后;创业范围局限性大;缺乏资金支持和管理意识;技术发展后劲不足,加上创新意识缺乏,导致发展潜力不济等等,成为制约和困扰大学生网络创业的重要因素。针对这些问题,本文提出了新时期高校如何应对的一些思考和建议,主要包括：将大学生网络创业作为系统工程来对待;重视强化创业师资培养;积极推进理性和独立自主的创业文化环境的建设;反思和改革高等教育改革等。     

Performance evaluation of China's high-tech innovation process: Analysis based on the innovation value chain

The Chinese high-tech industry has developed greatly since the beginning of China's “National High-tech R&D (863) Program” and “China Torch Program”. This paper introduces a conceptual model extended from the innovation value chain model to simultaneously estimate the R&D and commercialization efficiencies for the high-tech industries of 29 provincial-level regions in China. To match reality, a network DEA incorporating both shared inputs and additional intermediate inputs is constructed to open the “black box” view of decision making units used in single-stage DEA. This study is the first attempt to link the R&D and commercialization with a solid theoretical foundation and feasible mathematical methods. The empirical findings show that most of the 29 regions have low efficiency in the commercialization sub-process compared to the R&D sub-process, although there are regional differences in China's high-tech industry. Pearson correlation shows that the R&D sub-process is not closely correlated to the commercialization sub-process in terms of efficiency. Our analysis can provide information for the formulation of policies to achieve high innovation efficiency.     

异质机构、企业性质与自主创新

本文通过放松经理人市场的完全竞争性假定,拓展了经典职业生涯模型,藉此研究了中国制度背景下的机构持股、企业性质与企业创新的关系,并基于2004—2009年923家上市公司的数据,从R&D投入和专利申请两个维度对本文拓展模型的命题进行了实证检验。结果表明:(1)异质机构对企业创新有不同的影响,证券投资基金对企业创新有显著的负效应,这种负效应在国有企业中表现得更为明显;(2)民营企业中机构投资者持股促进了企业的创新活动,国有企业中机构投资者持股与企业创新呈显著的负相关关系;(3)机构投资者整体持股对全样本企业的专利申请有不显著的正效应,而对R&D投入则有显著的负效应。     

金融创新是促进还是阻碍了经济增长——基于技术进步视角的面板分析

金融创新对经济增长的作用方向一直是不明确的,本文旨在解释清楚金融创新影响经济增长的内部机制,并对其进行验证。包括金融创新对微观技术的支持,以及进一步扩展到对宏观经济的影响。通过应用工具变量法对全球的面板数据进行处理,建立以内生经济增长理论模型为基础的计量模型进行实证研究,研究结果表明：在考虑金融创新在经济增长模型中存在内生性的情况下：与金融发展不同,金融创新单独对经济增长的作用方向是不确定的,甚至可能存在显著的抑制作用;而金融创新通过技术进步对经济增长的促进作用是显著的,并且这种作用更多地通过企业的技术进步来体现。