{"title":"Network externalities, product compatibility and process innovation","authors":"D. Buccella, L. Fanti, L. Gori","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2095513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2095513","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 This article augments d’Aspremont and Jacquemin’s [1988. “Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D in Duopoly with Spillovers.” American Economic Review 78: 1133–1137; 1990. “Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D in Duopoly with Spillovers: Erratum.” American Economic Review 80: 641–642] cost-reducing R&D duopoly by introducing network externalities and product compatibility and then considers the investment decision stage. For standard non-network industries, the received literature has robustly shown that the non-cooperative R&D investment decision game is, without technological spill-over, a prisoner’s dilemma with investing firms (there is a conflict between self-interest and mutual benefit of investing in R&D), and a deadlock (there is no conflict between self-interest and mutual benefit of investing in R&D) only whether the extent of technological spill-over is sufficiently high. Network externalities and product compatibility challenge this result. In fact, outcomes antithetical to those emerging in a non-network industry do exist. Under symmetric full compatibility, the game is a deadlock also without spill-over effects. Under symmetric incompatibility, the game can be a prisoner’s dilemma irrespective of the extent of the technological spill-over. From a policy perspective, the article shows that R&D subsidies or taxes can be used as social welfare maximising tools depending on the extent of the network externality and the degree of product compatibility. The work focuses on Cournot rivalry, but results hold also for price-setting firms (Bertrand rivalry).","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44291681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The nonlinear impact of FinTech on the real economic growth: evidence from China","authors":"Y. Bu, Xinghui Yu, Hui Li","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2095512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2095512","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Financial technology (FinTech) in promoting the real economy is a topic attracting much attention. This paper adopts a threshold regression model to solve the endogenous problem well and make up for the lack of empirical evidence of scientific models in existing research in this area. The empirical results show that FinTech has a significant promoting effect on real economic growth, manifested as a U-shaped relationship and double threshold effect. In the early stage of FinTech development, it will restrain economic growth. The continuous improvement will positively impact economic growth, and the result shows a law of marginal decline. Moreover, there are significant regional differences in the nonlinear characteristics. Our research has solid practical significance and contributes to the literature on the effects of FinTech on real economic growth.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41496079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barbara Bratta, Livio Romano, P. Acciari, F. Mazzolari
{"title":"Assessing the impact of digital technology diffusion policies. Evidence from Italy","authors":"Barbara Bratta, Livio Romano, P. Acciari, F. Mazzolari","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2075357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2075357","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper provides firm-level evidence on how subsidies to buyers of advanced digital production technologies work in sustaining private investments in innovation, and how such investments correlate with firms’ demand for labor. By exploiting the introduction in 2017 of a fiscal incentive granted to all Italian companies purchasing tangible goods instrumental to their digital transformation, we are able to quantify the volume of the subsidized investments within the national economy, to correlate the decision to invest with ex-ante structural and strategic characteristics of the beneficiary firms, and to evaluate the labor market effects (hirings and separations) of these investments at the firm level, for different classes of workers and firms. Overall, the analysis suggests that the policy has been so far an effective means to support the advanced digital technology transformation of the Italian production system and that such transformation has been positively correlated with employment growth at investing firms.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47730579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cobb–Douglas R&D production function, appropriability and opportunity: effects on R&D, technological progress and knowledge sharing","authors":"Mário A. P. M. da Silva","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2072307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2072307","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We consider a Cobb–Douglas production function with two firm-specific R&D resource inputs and specify the conditions under which higher knowledge spillovers cause higher technological progress in the industry. We then consider the exponential R&D production function and establish sufficient conditions for per-firm own R&D expenditures to be an increasing function of knowledge spillovers and technological opportunities. Knowledge spillovers and technological possibilities encourage R&D spending if firms’ decisions on R&D investments are strategic complements. We consider two identical firms that, prior to competition in the product market, first decide whether to reveal their R&D efforts to the other firm and second conduct cost-reducing or demand-enhancing R&D and examine the conditions under which full revelation of R&D efforts to rivals yields higher profits. Trigger strategies which require non-cooperative firms to share their R&D inputs will ensure the efficient sharing of R&D efforts. This model has new policy implications about the effects of knowledge spillovers and complementarity in R&D on the incentives to innovate and promote welfare. We present an intellectual property policy that challenges the traditional model of intellectual property as exclusive ownership rights.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45925677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The persistence and cross-persistence of R&D outsourcing: onshore and offshore strategies","authors":"Dolores Añón Higón","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2072836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2072836","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Research and Development (R&D) outsourcing has rapidly grown in recent decades but little attention has been paid to the persistence with which these contracts are carried out. In this way, this study contributes to the literature by providing new evidence on the extent of true state dependence in explaining the persistence of outsourcing R&D to a type of contractor. Further, we explicitly distinguish between offshore and onshore outsourcing strategies and study their own- and cross-state dependence. In doing so, we estimate a set of dynamic models of strategy adoption using a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms from 2005 to 2014. The data allow for the distinction between five types of contractors and their domestic or foreign origin in each of them. Our results support the idea that R&D outsourcing with a type of contractor exhibits true-state dependence although moderate, with onshore R&D outsourcing being more state-dependent than its offshore counterpart. Results also indicate the existence of cross-state dependence in both directions.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41328491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anders Kärnä, J. Karlsson, Erik Engberg, P. Svensson
{"title":"Political failure: a missing piece in innovation policy analysis","authors":"Anders Kärnä, J. Karlsson, Erik Engberg, P. Svensson","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2070843","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2070843","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Within the field of innovation studies, researchers have identified systematic failures that hamper investment in R&D, innovation, and growth. Accordingly, researchers in this field often seek to provide policy recommendations on how to alleviate these failures. However, previous discussions have often been lacking considerations to the risks of political failures, meaning that policies fail to achieve their stated goals in a systematic manner. In response to this gap, this article aims to illustrate the concept of political failure and its relevance for innovation research. This is done by both discussing how political failure can impact innovation policy and by reviewing the prevalence of any discussions of political failure among top-ranked journals on innovation for the period 2010–2019, a total of 7161 articles. The results show that consideration of political failure is scarce, with a small number of papers that have a substantial analysis of political failures. If the awareness of political failures could be increased, this could lead to better policy recommendations with a more nuanced discussion of the risks and limitations of public policy.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49554039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Schumpeterian approach to entry barrier and firm profitability: cycle time of technology","authors":"Keun Lee, Sunghoon Lee","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2067150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2067150","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Entry barrier has long been considered as a major determinant of firm profitability. Although a less competitive market structure has been commonly known as an indicator of an entry barrier, pieces of past empirical evidence are mixed. Moreover, technological factors, such as R&D intensity, have also been considered. However, no satisfactory empirical analysis has been made, mostly due to the lack of a suitable proxy variable that can reflect the technological environment of a sector. This study addresses this problem by trying a new proxy variable, cycle time of technologies (CTT), and shows, using the US firm data, that firms in a sector with a long CTT tend to enjoy higher profitability and values than others. A long CTT of a sector presents a high entry barrier against any entrant because in such sectors, an existing stock of knowledge tends to be important for a longer period of time, making new innovation continuously rely on old knowledge owned by incumbents and protected by patent rights.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46032900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Robots and labor regulation: a cross-country/cross-industry analysis","authors":"Silvio Traverso, Massimiliano Vatiero, Enrico Zaninotto","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2063122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2063122","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>ABSTRACT</b></p><p>This work discusses and empirically investigates the relationship between labor regulation and robotization. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on the relationship between the discipline of workers' dismissal and the adoption of industrial robots in nineteen Western countries over the 2006–2016 period. We find that high levels of statutory employment protection have been negatively associated with robot adoption, suggesting that labor-friendly national legislations, by increasing adjustment costs (such as firing costs), and thus making investment riskier, provide less favorable environments for firms to invest in industrial robots. We also find, however, that the correlation is positively mediated by the sectoral levels of capital intensity, a hint that firms do resort to industrial robots as potential substitutes for workers to reduce employees' bargaining power and to limit their hold-up opportunities, which tend to be larger in sectors characterized by high levels of operating leverage.</p>","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138496226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gender differences among innovators: a patent analysis of stars","authors":"Federico Caviggioli, Alessandra Colombelli, Chiara Ravetti","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2065634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2065634","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 This article examines the gender gap in patenting activities and the predominance of male innovators among outstanding inventors, so-called ‘stars'. In particular, we investigate different metrics of productivity among top inventors, identified employing different definitions with respect to the quantity and quality of output. We distinguish between prolific inventors, with high numbers of patents registered in their name, and high-quality inventors, with portfolios comprising patents with large numbers of citations. Using patent data for more than 600,000 inventors, we find that star inventors differ from the pool of non-star inventors in terms of gender: while for non-star inventors being a woman constitutes a significant disadvantage, for stars it actually presents a positive association both with quantity and quality of innovative outputs. Moreover, career length constitutes a key premium for female inventors’ productivity, but with smaller magnitudes among stars. The only exception where we observe no gender differences is among inventors with large portfolios (more than five patent families): among them, women do not display any significant gap in the quality of outputs, nor does career length provide a gendered premium.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44803976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The uneven role of users in service innovation performance","authors":"L. Rubalcaba, M. Deschryvere","doi":"10.1080/10438599.2022.2053848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2022.2053848","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper provides a conceptual and empirical framework for analyzing the role of users in innovation and performance at the firm level in the service sector. The theoretical model builds on the user innovation theory in services and proposes to distinguish between different modes and degrees of user participation that may perform differently. The empirical testing is based on a unique dataset from Finland. Results show that not all user engagement led to similar impacts: more active roles versus passive ones have a significant positive relationship with innovation output, but only specific combinations of user orientation and its intensity matter. Besides, no direct significant impacts from user orientation on productivity were found. As a managerial implication, service companies may approach users as co-innovation partners oriented to service quality and customer satisfaction rather than oriented to increase business efficiency.","PeriodicalId":51485,"journal":{"name":"Economics of Innovation and New Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45084120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}