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Multi-scale urban innovation networks are important channels for intra- and inter-city knowledge spillovers and play an important role in urban industrial innovation and growth. However, there is a lack of direct evidence on the impact of multi-scale urban innovation networks on industrial development. Drawing upon the "buzz-and-pipeline" model, this paper analyzes the impact of multi-scale urban innovation networks on industrial development by taking the automobile manufacturing industry in China's five urban agglomerations as an example. Firstly, based on the Form of Correlation between International Patent Classification and Industrial Classification for National Economic Activities (2018) and co-patents, we construct urban innovation networks on three different geographical scales, including intra-city innovation networks, inter-city innovation networks within urban agglomerations, and innovation networks between cities within and beyond urban agglomerations. Then, we employ the ordinary least squares model with fixed effects at the urban agglomeration level to explore the impact of urban multi-scale knowledge linkages on the development of the automobile manufacturing industry and the results showed that urban innovation networks at three different geographical scales have different impacts on industrial development. Specifically, intra-city innovation networks have a facilitating effect on industrial development, while both inter-city innovation networks within urban agglomerations and innovation networks between cities within and beyond urban agglomerations have an inverted U-shaped impact on industrial development. The interactions between urban innovation networks on three different geographical scales have a negative effect on industrial development. Simultaneously, the agglomeration level of urban industry plays a positive moderating role in the impacts of multi-scale urban innovation networks on industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to investigate the relationship between the knowledge spillovers and the potential for high-value inventions to emerge. We study knowledge spillovers through the lens of knowledge networks: a web of interrelated knowledge elements with structural patterns. Knowledge spillovers influence the productivity of a technology sector and hence their pattern should impact the pathways for knowledge appropriation in the sector. It is hypothesized that a robust knowledge network is associated with knowledge appropriation leading to valuable inventions. We test the hypothesis using patent citation network of 1821 patents from 78 inventions belonging to two different technological sectors. Based upon the findings, we suggest network robustness as a new metric for determining the technical value of inventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main sources of technological development are from abroad rather than domestic in many countries. The global networks for knowledge and technology flows are becoming sophisticated. This article examines how a country's embeddedness in the global knowledge spillover networks, particularly trade and FDI, is related to national innovation performance. Network closure and structural hole, the main arguments in network theory literature, represent the main objectives of our network analysis. The results are subsequently used to assess how these network characteristics are related to national innovation performance via panel negative binomial regression analysis. The findings show an overall tendency of a negative effect of network closure and a positive one of structural holes on a country's innovative outcome. In conclusion, this article not only highlights the significant role of network characteristics in national innovation performance, but also provides implications on how to leverage such network resources to improve national innovation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many firms find it challenging to develop innovations, evidenced by the ever-mounting number of university-industry research alliances. This study examines the strategic choices of actors who participate in collaborative innovation alliances involving partnerships between industry and universities (U-I) based on a stochastic evolutionary game model. White noise was introduced to reflect uncertainty and the stochastic interferences caused by the differences between actors. Using the Itô stochastic differential equation theory, we analyze stability issues of player behaviors in the evolution of a collaborative innovation alliance. The results illustrate that improvements in innovation efficiency can contribute to U-I collaborative innovation alliances. High knowledge complementarity appears to be unbeneficial to the stability of these alliances, and controlling knowledge spillovers may suppress free-rider problems from both sides of the game. Our study contributes to innovation research by providing a decision-making reference for the design of U-I cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open innovation, in the form of inbound and outbound open innovation, is an ever-increasing research field. Research into outbound open innovation (i.e., the inside-out process) focused mostly on the commercialisation of internal knowledge. However, we know very little about firms' voluntary nonpecuniary knowledge disclosure. This paper sheds light on this understudied research field by conducting a quantitative study that identifies which internal and external conditions foster firms' knowledge disclosures. The results show that firms' strategies to influence (i) the market and the competition and (ii) external spillovers are drivers of firms' knowledge disclosures. Further, the moderating roles of environmental characteristics are shown. Firms' environmental technological dynamism is found to strengthen the positive relationships between influencing external spillovers and knowledge disclosure. In contrast, the relationships between influencing the market and the competition and knowledge disclosure are negatively moderated by a firm's environmental technological dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between a firm's knowledge sourcing strategy and green innovation. The data are taken from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development REGPAT database, February 2016, relative to the European Patent Office firms' patent applications published up to December 2015. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on the moderating role of integration between different activities related to environmental performance on the relationship between knowledge sources and green innovations. The results from 240 firms indicate a shift in the focus from internal knowledge to external knowledge when developing environmental innovations. Government policies promoting more knowledge complementarity and coordination between environmental fields will help to promote more knowledge transfer, allowing more sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic History Research / Investigaciones de Historia Económica is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Historia Economica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article is devoted to the study of the influence of social capital on the ability of countries to produce innovations. The analysis of the achievements of economic science in the field of studying social capital and innovation revealed the ambiguity of views on the relationship between these categories, as well as wide discussions about the influence of the stock of social capital on the nature of economic growth. The authors associated the existing difficulties of the research process with insufficient attention of scientists to different levels and forms of manifestation of social capital, which have different potential in promoting innovation. On the basis of the methodological approach, in which individualistic and holistic ideas about economic activity are combined in the framework of institutional theory, the decomposition of public social capital into its individual and organizational levels and corresponding functional forms is carried out. On this basis, the nature of their interaction and role in the innovation process is shown. In order to quantify social capital in view of its ability to promote innovation, an integral indicator "Index of Innovative Social Capital" was constructed as a combination of three key components: close cooperation between the university and R&D, Information & communication technologies, and social capital itself. In a sample of 26 countries of different levels of development, a strong two-way direct relationship with an average degree of significance was found between the "Index of Innovative Social Capital" and GDP per capita. The presence of such dependence serves as another explanation for the unevenness of innovative development in the world, and therefore, opens up guidelines for poor countries to increase their innovative potential in view of social and institutional factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of literature mentioning the slow progress of energy technological innovation as compared to information technology (IT), but the reasons why the energy sector is perplexed by slow innovation remain unexplained. Based on a variety-expanding endogenous technological change model, this paper investigates the economic mechanism that underlines the slow pace of energy technological progress. We show that in the market equilibrium the growth rate of energy technology variety is always lower than that of IT variety, this outcome stems from both the market fundamentals where the homogeneity of end-use energy goods is less likely to harness the pecuniary externality embedded in the love-for-variety household, and the technology fundamentals where capital-intensiveness of energy technology assets inhibits the non-pecuniary technological externality associated with knowledge spillovers. We further show that the social planner allocation can raise the rate of technological progress in both energy and IT sectors, but still fails to achieve an outcome in which technological progress in the energy sector can catch up with the IT sector. Finally, using efficiency-improving revenue-neutral policy interventions that subsidize energy sectors and tax IT sectors, the decentralized market equilibrium can achieve an outcome in which both energy and IT sectors have the same rate of technological progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate econometrically whether cultural diversity at the workplace boosts innovation. Our longitudinal linked employer-employee data combines two innovation surveys, with Dutch administrative, tax and regional data. We analyse the determinants of a firm's product and process innovations with respect to the firm's internal resources, employee composition and regional agglomeration externalities. We reconfirm the findings of several other recent studies showing a positive partial correlation between innovation and cultural diversity in pooled cross-sectional data; in some cases even when accounting for reverse causation. However, no statistically significant traces of benefit for innovation from cultural diversity remain after introducing firm fixed effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Inspired by the theory of variety-expanding product innovation we derive a testable relationship of outsourcing on the growth rate of knowledge. We estimate this relationship with a firm-level dataset, which is a unique match of PATSTAT patent data and the Amadeus dataset. We find evidence that forward spillovers are stronger than backward spillovers, where forward spillovers are defined as spillovers going down the value chain from producers to users of intermediate inputs. Moreover, we conclude that inter-industry spillovers are stronger than intra-industry spillovers. This holds when considering only the more important forward spillovers as well as when considering both directions of knowledge flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological leadership has shifted at various times from one country to another. We propose a mechanism that explains this perpetual cycle of technological leapfrogging in a two-country model including the dynamic optimization of an infinitely lived consumer. In the model, each country accumulates knowledge stock over time because of domestic innovation and spillovers from foreign innovation. We show that if the international knowledge spillovers are reasonably efficient, technological leadership may shift first from one country to another, and then alternate between countries along an equilibrium path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We formalize R&D as a search process for technology improvements across different technological domains. Technology improvements from a specific domain draw upon a common knowledge base, and as such they share technological content. Moreover, different domains may rely on similar scientific principles, and therefore, knowledge about the technology improvements by one domain might be transferable to another. We analyze how such a technological relatedness shapes the direction of R&D search when knowledge generated from past search efforts disseminates to rival firms. We show that firms optimally diversify their search efforts, even toward domains that are riskier and less promising on expectation. This is amplified for higher competition intensity, i.e., higher cross-product substitutability. Our work also suggests that different sources of learning about the domains may have opposite effects on the direction of search. Higher ability to infer the potential of an explored domain prompts the clustering of searches, whereas the ability to learn across domains prompts diversification. Finally, we discuss the technological landscape properties that prompt firms to engage in a sequential R&D search, instead of a parallel competitive search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines investment decisions regarding innovation and emissions abatement in a dynamic framework, where knowledge stock is an impure public good. We take a sector perspective based on neo Schumpeterian theory that emphasises the role of both sector and innovation systems. We interpret results taking into account sector and country based institutional, market and policy conditions. Econometric outcomes, based on an original sector dataset which exploits the NAMEA source for 15 European Union (EU) countries and 23 manufacturing sectors in the time frame 1995–2006, show that innovation efforts are positively correlated to various spillover effects. Those effects include the emissions abatement of the other sectors, thus pointing out the relevance of forces which opposite typical free riding behaviour in public or mixed public good frameworks. Different reactivity strengths for different global and local emissions also allow us to disclose the specific role of technological and economic complementarity. When considering CO2 emissions, innovation is mainly triggered by national interactions, a fact which is coherent with a dominance of national innovation and policy systems in the EU. The result is also consistent with the fact that CO2 abatement technologies heavily regard energy efficiency that provides joint private and public benefits. The fact that NMVOC abatement efforts by other sectors from abroad impact R&D investments positively means that, in some cases, a realm of sectoral systems of innovation is also relevant. The different evidence between local and global externalities is surely explained not only by the different technological and economic contents, but also by the fact that the EU has witnessed different policy implementation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Complementing received research on the role of collaboration networks in fostering interorganizational learning and innovation, the authors focus on the importance of learning from other firms’ public knowledge. To this end they introduce the concept of spillover network—the network of “source” firms whose public knowledge a “recipient” firm is able to readily absorb and use as innovation input. Using patent-based data on a panel of semiconductor firms between 1976 and 2002, the authors demonstrate that firms’ innovative performance tends to be higher when their spillover network is either munificent or rich in structural holes. However, being exposed to a spillover network that is both munificent and rich in structural holes is generally counterproductive. Consistent with the insight that the value of external knowledge inputs depends on the firm-level resources with which it can be bundled, furthermore, the authors argue that the extent to which firms benefit from their spillover network hinges on specific intraorganizational factors—their scientific intensity and degree of downstream integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acs and Varga (Small Bus Econ 24:323-334, ) employ GEM cross-national, industrial-level data for nine selected European countries in order to investigate the link between entrepreneurship, agglomeration and technological growth. Testing the knowledge production function in the spirit of Jones (J Polit Econ 103:759-784, ), they find that both agglomeration and entrepreneurship exhibit a statistically significantly positive effect on technological change. This comment mainly argues that this investigation only focuses on the growth rates but leaves out the effects induced by agglomeration and entrepreneurship on the level of knowledge. This might lead to biased estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at firm-level differences in R&D intensity and sales from product innovations. R&D intensity and innovative sales are explained by a model using harmonised firm-level data from the Third Community Innovation Survey for three European countries: Belgium, Germany and Spain. For each country, the average estimates suggest that incoming knowledge spillovers, research cooperation, appropriability and human capital all exercise a positive influence on R&D intensity and, through this, on innovative sales. Quantile regressions indicate that, although there are differences between countries, the joint relative impact of incoming knowledge spillovers and research cooperation tends to increase quantile-wise in relation to that of appropriability. This suggests that strong innovators have a more open innovation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data analysis, this paper investigates the impact of returnee entrepreneurs, foreign direct investment (FDI) intensity and inter-firm employee mobility on innovation in Chinese high-tech firms. International technology spillovers and internal R&D efforts are found to jointly determine the innovation performance of Chinese high-tech firms, and we report that the presence of returnee entrepreneurs positively affects innovation. In addition, there are significant knowledge spillover effects associated with returnees and multinational enterprise (MNE) employee mobility, and the effects of these two components of international human mobility on local firms' innovation are mutually reinforcing. We also present the distinctive result that FDI intensity in an industry has a negative impact on local innovation. The findings have important implications for practitioners and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using novel data on European firms, this paper investigates the relationship between business groups and innovation. Controlling for various firm characteristics, we find that group affiliates are more innovative than standalones. We examine several hypotheses to explain this finding, focusing on group internal capital markets and knowledge spillovers. We find that group affiliation is particularly important for innovation in industries that rely more on external funding and in groups with more diversified capital sources, consistent with the internal capital markets hypothesis. Our results suggest that knowledge spillovers are not the main driver of innovation in business groups because firms affiliated with the same group do not have a common research focus and are unlikely to cite each other's patents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recent development of industrial technology in China using a rich and novel Chinese patent dataset, which allows us to get a comprehensive view of the invention activities in China. Combing patent statistics with R&D and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) indicators, we found that the R&D activities at local universities and research institutes were the most important external factors behind the increase in domestic firms' patenting activities. FDI, on the other hand, appeared to have a negative effect on domestic firm patenting, at least until foreign market demand for domestic production is established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have found that knowledge gained from work experience is a way to gather insights for business opportunity recognition. However, little is known about the specific types of knowledge that lead to business founding. Utilizing concepts from knowledge spillovers and from the opportunity recognition literatures, this paper argues that an organization’s technological innovation activities can help its employees develop specialized knowledge that provides them with the entrepreneurial opportunities to found new businesses. Besides highlighting the positive relationship between technological innovation activities in organizations and the propensity of individuals leaving the organizations to start new businesses, this paper also provides a more fine-grained explanation of the types of technological innovation activities that can lead to business founding. We argue that knowledge acquired through product innovations is more easily adopted by individuals for commercial uses, while knowledge acquired through process innovations must be integrated with other parts of the organization to be valuable. This study proposes that product innovation activities in an organization, more so than process innovation activities, are related to new business founding. Implications for opportunity exploitation and ways to exploit knowledge spillovers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German biotechnology lag illuminates the difficulties of finding appropriate organizational forms of R&D for “embryo” innovations requiring the continued involvement of basic research scientists even after innovation has advanced to the stage of commercial product development. The analysis charts the German policy shift from largely unsuccessful “corporatist” networks (1970s and 1980s) to more promising “emergent” networks (1990s) as organizational vehicles for conducting biotechnology innovation. A constant of German R&D policy for most of the 20th century, and one underlying the initial reliance on corporatist networks in biotechnology, was the tendency to exclude universities from major R&D initiatives and rely instead on specialized research institutes. The structural inflexibilities of universities, combined with the early successes of many specialized research institutes from the 1880s on, led to path-dependent reliance on the latter for 20th-century reforms of the German national innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether interpersonal networks help explain two widely documented patterns of knowledge diffusion: (1) geographic localization of knowledge flows, and (2) concentration of knowledge flows within firm boundaries. I measure knowledge flows using patent citation data, and employ a novel regression framework based on choice-based sampling to estimate the probability of knowledge flow between inventors of any two patents. As expected, intraregional and intra firm knowledge flows are found to be stronger than those across regional or firm boundaries. I explore whether these patterns can be explained by direct and indirect network ties among inventors, as inferred from past collaborations among them. The existence of a tie is found to be associated with a greater probability of knowledge flow, with the probability decreasing as the path length (geodesic) increases. Furthermore, the effect of regional or firm boundaries on knowledge flow decreases once interpersonal ties have been accounted for. In fact, being in the same region or firm is found to have little additional effect on the probability of knowledge flow among inventors who already have close network ties. The overall evidence is consistent with a view that interpersonal networks are important in determining observed patterns of knowledge diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature suggests that variations across countries, in entrepreneurial activity and the spatial structure of economies could potentially be the source of different efficiencies in knowledge spillovers, and ultimately in economic growth. We develop an empirical model that endogenizes both entrepreneurial activity and agglomeration effects on knowledge spillovers within a Romerian framework. The model is tested using the GEM cross-national data to measure the level of entrepreneurship in each particular economy. We find that after controlling for the stock of knowledge and research and development expenditures, both entrepreneurial activity and agglomeration have a positive and statistically significant effect on technological change in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a model in which a monopolist supplier can contribute to downstream product improvements by creating knowledge spillovers which downstream firms use as a substitute for their own R&D efforts. Although a market for R&D information does not exist, the supplier may appropriate an indirect return on R&D for two reasons. Sufficiently high levels of spillover information lead to greater downstream product quality, and spillover information-reduces the equilibrium sunk cost of R&D for downstream firms and thus facilitates entry. Both effects cause an expansion of downstream output and enhance the demand for the supplier's intermediate good. Given sufficiently strong incentives for supplier R&D, the locus of R&D shifts partially from the downstream to the upstream industry. R&D expenditures, technological opportunities, and downstream industry structure are determined endogenously. Weak appropriability conditions in the downstream industry enhance innovation incentives in the supply sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]