Search

This study analyses the effect of a change of focus in a traditional mission (teaching) of higher education institutions (HEIs) on the variety and intensity of knowledge exchange (KE) activities. In doing so, it bridges two partially disconnected streams of the literature in science and innovation focusing on HEI missions and heterogeneity in HEI KE activities. The work relies on a longitudinal dataset from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) comprising information on publicly funded research projects over the 2006-2013 period. Our identification strategy exploits the change in tuition fees following a 2012 reform to proxy for the increased attention to the teaching mission of English and Welsh HEIs compared to other HEIs in the UK. Results show a strong negative effect of the increase in tuition fees on the variety and intensity of KE activities by English and Welsh HEIs. Following the reform, applications for competitive research funding by English and Welsh HEIs did not change in terms of grant length, value and the number of collaborating partners.

We investigate whether firm performance is related to the accumulated stock of technological knowledge associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and, if so, whether the firm's history in 4IR technology development affects such a relationship. We exploit a rich longitudinal matched patent-firm data set on the population of large firms that filed 4IR patents at the European Patent Office (EPO) between 2009 and 2014, while reconstructing their patent stocks from 1985 onward. To identify 4IR patents, we use a novel two-step procedure proposed by EPO (2020, Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Global Technology Trends Enabling the Data-Driven Economy , European Patent Office), based on Cooperative Patent Classification codes and on a full-text patent search. Our results show a positive and significant relationship between firms' stocks of 4IR patents and labor and total factor productivity. We also find that firms with a long history in 4IR patent filings benefit more from the development of 4IR technological capabilities than later applicants. Conversely, we find that firm profitability is not significantly related to the stock of 4IR patents, which suggests that the returns from 4IR technological developments may be slow to be cashed in. Finally, we find that the positive relationship with productivity is stronger for 4IR-related wireless technology and for artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, and big data analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict between "faster, better and cheaper" and high environment uncertainty forces firms to choose between different product innovation strategies. This study shows that firms can develop strategic ambidexterity in product innovation (SAPI) through diverse product innovation strategies, by effectively exploiting internal and external resources as well as their combination. The work explores the relationship between the interplay of external knowledge sources and internal information sharing for SAPI in 600 small- and medium-sized Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The results show knowledge breadth and depth and information sharing are positively related to SAPI, which tends to increase when knowledge depth is associated with information sharing. The study contributes to new product development (NPD) literature by introducing the concept of strategic ambidexterity in product innovation, and exploring the roles of external knowledge sources and internal information sharing, and their complementarity, on the ability to develop firm-level SAPI. It further provides implications for open innovation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increasing global challenges, two paradigmatic shifts – the digital and green transitions – have gained traction due to their potential impacts on industrial ecosystems and societal inequalities. Termed the 'twin transition', these shifts underscore the synergies between technological advancements and environmental sustainability. Highlighting its importance in post-COVID-19 recovery, the special issue examines the twin transition's potential to drive industrial innovation and affect social, economic, and geographical inequalities. The seven articles in this special issue explore the impact of the twin transition on corporate innovation strategies and investment, alongside the economic, social, and geographical implications. Key findings underscore the need for diversified technological investments, especially in AI, and enhanced digital infrastructures. Policy recommendations advocate for aiding firms lagging in digitalisation and developing region-specific innovation policies. The research sets a roadmap for future inquiries into the interplay of digital and green transition, broader economic impacts, and policy-driven strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the extent to which artificial intelligence (AI) is harnessed by regions for specializing in green technologies. By considering the transformative role that AI is playing in the invention process and connecting it to the regional development of environmental technologies, we examine the relationship between green-revealed technological advantages and local AI for EU-28 (NUTS-3) regions over the period 1982–2017. Results show that AI knowledge favours the green-tech specialization of regions, provided that they were already green-tech specialized in the past. Conversely, AI even reduces this capacity in regions that have not already specialized in green technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploration is both an important part of a firm's innovation strategy and an activity that involves a high degree of uncertainty. This article investigates a duality in the exploratory component of R&D activity with regard to innovation failure: while exploration is likely to increase firms' exposure to failure, it might also provide learning opportunities to reduce failure. Our study contributes to the innovation management and organizational learning literatures by demonstrating the value of exploratory R&D for enabling two types of learning mechanisms. The first, experience-based learning, is based on the learning opportunities derived from accumulated experience in exploratory R&D: it involves improvements to procedures associated with experimentation and provides guidance for current exploration and to navigate the search space. The second, inferential-based learning, is based on the learning opportunities derived from current exploratory R&D efforts, which are associated with improved interpretation of ill-defined problems and timely responses to unstructured information. We draw on a longitudinal data set of 2226 Spanish manufacturing companies and show that, when past experience is associated with current exploration, innovation failure in the conception phase is reduced. We also find an inverted Ushaped relation between current exploratory R&D and innovation failure, in both the conception and implementation phases of innovation activities, showing that increasing levels of investment in current exploration activities attenuate the initial positive association between exploratory R&D and failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, Open Data (OD) has been promoted by governments around the world as a resource to accelerate innovation within entrepreneurial ventures. However,it remains unclear to what extent OD drives innovative entrepreneurship. This paper sheds light on this open question by providing novel empirical evidence on the relationship between OD publishing and (digital) entrepreneurship at the country-level. We draw upon a longitudinal dataset comprising 90 countries observed over the period 2013–2016. We find a significant and positive association between OD publishing and entrepreneurship at the country level. The results also show that OD publishing and entrepreneurship is strong in countries with high institutional quality. We argue that publishing OD is not sufficient to improve innovative entrepreneurship alone, so states need to move beyond a focus on OD initiatives and promotion, to focus on a broader set of policy initiatives that promote good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship education impacts students' entrepreneurial intentions. However, the role of teachers' mentorship in influencing students' entrepreneurial intentions has received little attention in the extant literature. This paper examines the impact of entrepreneurship education teachers' mentorship pedagogy on students' entrepreneurial intentions using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis on data collected from 220 students studying entrepreneurship at six UK universities. The novel results presented here demonstrate the power of entrepreneurship education teachers' mentorship to effect students' attitudes, perceived behavioural control and, subsequently, their entrepreneurial intentions. The paper integrates mentorship with the theory of planned behaviour and contributes to the ongoing efforts to improve entrepreneurship education at universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze changes in the skill content of occupations in US four-digit manufacturing industries between 1999 and 2010. Following a "task-based" approach, we elaborate a measure of non-routine skill intensity that captures the effects of industry exposure to both technology and international trade. The article adds to previous literature by focusing on both the determinants of demand for non-routine skills and their effects on industry productivity and wages. The key finding is that import competition from low-wage countries has been a strong driver of demand for non-routine skills during the 2000s. Both technology and trade with low-wage countries are associated with mild cross-industry convergence in skill intensity, while trade with high- and medium-wage countries are at the root of persistent heterogeneity across occupational groups. We also find that higher non-routine skill intensity has had, at best, a modest effect on productivity and wages, except in high-skill occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open Data (OD) utilisation has been encouraged by governments because of its potential to fuel digital innovation. Despite this, there is a paucity of study into the role of OD for SMEs, in contrast to the growing literature that has focused on the collection and sharing of OD by the public sector. As such, our study contributes to open innovation research by analysing the main capabilities needed to overcome existing barriers to successfully manage OD in SMEs. Building upon the recent SME‐oriented OI literature and adopting an interpretative absorptive capacity framework, we analyse the data collected from 30 semi‐structured interviews with experts working in UK organisations adopting OD‐based OI strategies. We find a number of core factors that shape OD acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation by SMEs. Results show that without the specific OD capabilities identified in our study, it will be difficult for SMEs to successfully use OD, which may explain why the uptake of OD by SMEs more broadly has so far been limited. These unique OD capabilities need to be better developed by OD using SMEs, if this 'raw material' for the digital economy is to be fully exploited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of human capital in reducing the barriers to firms' engagement in innovation activities. The paper distinguishes between firms facing barriers that stop them from engaging in any innovation activity, and firms that face impediments in the course of their innovation activity. We investigate whether human capital has a particularly strong impact in relation to lowering barriers among the former group of firms, since a strong skill base is likely to compensate for lack of experience in innovation-related activities or the complementary assets needed for innovation. We draw on four waves of the Spanish Innovation Survey and examine the impact of human capital on three types of obstacles to innovation: cost, knowledge and market barriers. We find that human capital has a significant impact on reducing the barriers to innovation represented by knowledge shortages and market uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at empirically investigating whether technology incubators help academic high-tech start-ups to establish collaborations with other organizations, thus increasing the competitiveness of these firms. In doing so, we take into account the specificities of academic high-tech start-ups with respect to their non-academic counterparts. We compare the effects of incubation on academic and non-academic high-tech start-ups through econometric estimates using a large sample of Italian firms. Our findings suggest that incubated academic high-tech start-ups do not enjoy any advantages in establishing collaborations with respect to their non-incubated peers. Conversely, technology incubators do help non-academic high-tech start-ups in establishing collaborations with public research organizations. We thus come to the interesting conclusion that the effects of incubation are moderated by the genetic characteristics of incubated firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners generally assert that collaborations with the open source software (OSS) community enable software entrepreneurial ventures to achieve superior innovation performance. Nonetheless, scholars have never tested this assertion. This paper takes a first step toward filling this gap. First, based on the high-tech entrepreneurship literature and the OSS research stream, we illustrate why collaborations with the OSS community should exert a positive effect on entrepreneurial ventures' innovation performance. Then, we provide a rigorous quantitative analysis of the innovation impact of these collaborations. Our econometric estimates indicate that entrepreneurial ventures collaborating with the OSS community exhibit superior innovation performance compared with their noncollaborating peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]