Globalisation and union opposition to technological change

Trade unions have a rational incentive to oppose the adoption of labour-saving technology when labour demand is inelastic and unions care much for employment relative to wages. Trade liberalisation typically increases trade union technology opposition. These conclusions are reached in a model of unionised international duopoly with two-way trade. We also find that the incentive for technology opposition is stronger in the more technologically advanced country and in the country with the larger home market, complementing earlier explanations for technological catch-up and leapfrogging.     

Firm Organization,Technology And Performance: An Empirical Study ∗

The purpose of the study is to characterize different styles of work organization in French firms and their current changes and to link them to the use of specific technologies and to firms performance. The data which are used arc of two kinds: a labor force survey (1 470 blue collar) and a business survey (7 089 firms). We show that two main variables create differences among firms' organization devices: the intensity of communication within the workshop and the level of autonomy of workers (facing technological and hierarchical constraints). The use of advanced technologies and the skill of the labor force are positively linked to both organizational variables. Therefore. ‘Communicating organization’ and organizational innovation seem to aim at creating conditions for individual and collective learning on new technologies. They also enhance the ability of the firm to adapt to changing market conditions through technological innovation and inventory reduction, These views are supported by econometric estimation.     

Editorial

This paper presents an overview of issues for future research. as identified by the papers appearing in the Special Issue on Innovation in Telecommunications. To this end. we elaborate upon the emergence of a new innovation regime in telecommunications, discuss the performance and sustainability of this new innovation regime, and reflect upon institutional choices for the regime and accompanying policy options. Further research on innovation in telecommunications is advocated, taking up a broad range of issues, including long-term industrial evolution and sustainability concerns in a wide sense.     

Analysing The Evolution Of Industry: The Relevance Of The Telecommunications Industry

This paper analyses the fundamental forces involved in the evolution of the telecommunications industry. It is suggested that there are five major forces that together drive the evolution of this industry: specialisation, competition, financial markets. endogenous consumer demand and permeable industry boundaries. An important research task is to further elaborate on the boundaries of not only the industry but of the industrial system taken as a whole.     

The Early Careers Of Engineers And The Accumulation Of Skills In The Canadian Economy

In this paper we use world cycling records to study the pattern of technological development of the track bicycle. We find that there is a strong evidence of ‘contagious’ effects among cycling records which in turn provides indirect evidence of ‘contagious’ effects among technological innovations. Interestingly, the ‘contagiousness’ of records is not a salient characteristic of track and field competitions where, arguably, technology plays a smaller role.     

Gross Investment And Technological Change

The impact of technological change upon gross investment has been relatively ignored. Building upon the foundations of the analysis of technological diffusion, an empirical model of gross investment is constructed that takes due account of technological change. This model is then tested upon a panel data set covering 185 UK firms over the period from 1984 to 1992. The results support the hypothesis that there are significant relationships of the expected signs between firm level gross investment, indicators of technological opportunity; the price of the capital goods that embody new technology, and firm and industry characteristics. There is also evidence of lagged adjustment effects in the investment process.     

The European digital single market strategy: Local indicators of spatial association 2011–2016

This paper describes the space-time dynamics of the European digital divide. The frequencies of internet and E-commerce use are considered, along with a broad range of indicators associated with the European digital single market strategy. This paper aims to investigate the spatial structure underlying these aggregate outcome indicators. An exploratory spatial data analysis is conducted in a sample of 209 regions using Eurostat data. Strong evidence for both global and local spatial autocorrelation is found for the years 2011–2016. Consistently, a North-South polarization scheme is identified with little statistical significance in the centre of Europe. This contrasts with the high income cluster found in central Europe, while low values for digital indices and income are co-located more consistently in the South, but also in the North-East. Highlights from the specific results include: areas surrounding London as a dynamic high value cluster in E-commerce, Italy to conduct few cross-border purchases, France as a consistent adopter of E-governance, and broadband rates in general to closely reflect online activities.     

Localized Technological Progress And Industry Structure: An Empirical Approach *

Modem innovation theory holds that the choice of production technique and technical porgress are unseparable activities so that technological progress can be described as localized. Based on this conception one has to expect an intra-sectoral firm heterogeneity in the production techniques applied and the technical efficiency achieved which contrasts to the presumption of intra-sectoral homogeneity as suggested by neoclassical theory. For measuring intra-industry heterogeneity an empirical tool is required which does not rest on the assumption of homogeneity, i.e. on a common production function for all firms under consideration. The method which does not require this assumption, Data Envelopment Analysis, is non-parametric, allows for firm-specific production functions and helps to determine differences in both technical efficiency and production technique applied. This tool is introduced in its basic formulation, its main features are discussed on ihe basis of modern innovation theory, and an empirical analysis for the German machinery, electronics and chemical industry is presented.     

The Dynamic ‘Diamond’: A Technological Innovation Perspective

A firm's local environment can constitute a source of national or regional cornpetitive advantage. An important question, therefore, is how these environments come about and how they can be lost. In this paper, we argue that a local environment is a function of the process of technological evolution. It is a function of how certain initial and prevailing conditions, the type of innovation, and chance events, influence the processes of uncertainty resolution, capabilities building, and survivor selection that are characteristic of technological evolution. We also argue that a region can lose its advantage when a dominant design emerges or when a technological discontinuity obsoletes the localized technological capabilities of not only manufacturers, but also of their suppliers, customers and related industries. The environment is dynamic as firms and nations, in response to their performances, also influence it by changing their strategies or policies.     

Identifying the impact of geographical proximity on spillover effect of FDI: The evidence from Indian local firms’ performance gains

This paper investigates the role of geographical proximity on FDI spillovers from foreign to Indian local firms. We use data set of the manufacturing firms between 1988 and 2018 in India, estimating the productivity based on Cobb–Douglas production function. For measuring geographical proximity, the coordinates of each firm, represented to as ‘latitude and longitude’, provided by Google maps geocoding API is used. To conduct spatial analysis, we adopted the revised ‘SINM’ (Spatial Industrial Network Model)’ with GMM estimator, and used firm based point spatial unit. The analysis, in particular, reveals that within 30 km–70 km distance the presence of FDI creates significant positive backward and negative horizontal spillovers, but gradually decaying as threshold increases. Meanwhile, the negative horizontal spillovers to Indian local firms located within industrial clusters turned to positive, and the positive backward spillovers more magnifies compared to non-clustered firms. Based on these findings, we suggested the several policy implications regarding the development of industrial cluster, FDI promotion policy, and location decision for foreign investors.