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In the past decades, intangibles assets have become an important source of productivity and economic growth in developed countries. Despite the transforming properties of intangibles across economies and the large and dynamic literature on the impact of intangible investments on productivity growth in frontier countries, there is not much evidence for the Latin America context. This paper contributes to the empirical literature on intangible investments along various dimensions. First, we make use of a large firm-level longitudinal data set from Peru, a Latin America middle income country, which contains separated information on intangible assets, which allow us to measure the impact of them on both wages and productivity at the firm level. Second, the analysis at the firm level and the panel structure of the data allows us to control for the endogeneity of variable inputs applying different control function approaches. In addition, the production function estimates provide us with a measure of unobservables, which we include in the wage equation to retrieve consistent estimates for the impact of intangible assets on wages. Third, our data allow us to explore how the impact of intangibles on wages and productivity is affected by the differences in the composition of the bundle of intangibles, changes in the product mix at the firm level and for the presence of imperfect competition in the labor market. We find that an increase in the share of intangible assets by one standard deviation is associated with 6.8% to 7.2% higher total factor productivity, depending on the model's specification. We also find that the capital productivity premium of intangible assets over tangible ones is substantial with estimates suggesting that intangibles are up to 2 times more productive than tangible assets. We also find that this capital productivity premium is not entirely offset by an increase in wages. Finally, we conclude that the main channels for appropriability are the specificity of the ideas generated by intangible investments at the firm level and the wage compression due to imperfect competition in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our estimates, based on large firm-level and industry-level data sets from eighteen countries, suggest that FDI and trade have strong positive spillover effects on product and technology innovation by domestic firms in emerging markets. The FDI effect is more pronounced for firms from advanced economies. Moreover, our results indicate that the spillover effects can be detected with micro data at the firm-level, but that using linkage variables computed from input-output tables at the industry level yields much weaker, and usually insignificant, estimated effects. These patterns are consistent with spillover effects being rather proximate and localized.

This short paper serves as an introduction to the special issue published in Geografiska Annaler B on the topic of innovation in the periphery. In addition to summarizing the main contributions included within the special issue, this piece reflects on the current state of knowledge in this sub-field and where the gaps are that need to be filled by research going forwards. This collection represents one step in this direction and pushes forward an interdisciplinary and varied approach to studying innovation in the periphery. There are three particular themes relating to innovation in the periphery that this piece picks up: defining peripheries, beyond technological innovation in the periphery and discourses of crisis in the periphery. It finishes with some suggestions for a roadmap, looking forward as to what the future of research in the periphery might be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovativeness of a firm not only improves its own survival chances but also can generate externalities on its neighbouring firms. We empirically examine the role of agglomeration economies in how innovativeness affects firm survival in southern Italy, using spatial weights to model spillovers. Spatial Durbin probit model estimates confirm that innovation is an important determinant of firm survival, not only for firms that are themselves innovative but also for those located close to other innovative firms. Adequate definitions of spatial scale and spatial weights are important. Spillover benefits are enhanced by agglomeration economies, but only at a very local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our estimates, based on large firm-level and industry-level data sets from eighteen countries, suggest that FDI and trade have strong positive spillover effects on product and technology innovation by domestic firms in emerging markets. The FDI effect is more pronounced for firms from advanced economies. Moreover, our results indicate that the spillover effects can be detected with micro data at the firm-level, but that using linkage variables computed from input-output tables at the industry level yields much weaker, and usually insignificant, estimated effects. These patterns are consistent with spillover effects being rather proximate and localized.

Our estimates, based on large firm-level and industry-level data sets from eighteen countries, suggest that FDI and trade have strong positive spillover effects on product and technology innovation by domestic firms in emerging markets. The FDI effect is more pronounced for firms from advanced economies. Moreover, our results indicate that the spillover effects can be detected with micro data at the firm-level, but that using linkage variables computed from input-output tables at the industry level yields much weaker, and usually insignificant, estimated effects. These patterns are consistent with spillover effects being rather proximate and localized.

This paper continues the ongoing debate on the importance of agglomeration externalities that may impact innovation development and the high-technology sector in regional economies. Previous studies suggest that the evidence for agglomeration externalities is strongly context-specific. We aimed to expand this discussion to Russian regions by utilising statistical evidence. We constructed a panel dataset with 83 regions and used various spatial econometrics and statistic techniques to test our hypothesis. Our study made two essential contributions. First, we found that regions with a high density of used high technologies tended to co-locate next to each other. Secondly, the localization of employment, sales volume, and paid wages in the electrical equipment, electronic, and optical equipment sector demonstrated a positive association with hi-tech usage density. These externalities suggest the presence of positive direct or indirect spillover effects among regions in Russia within the examined industry sector. However, the localization of investment did not display any association and, thus, does not suggest the presence of any spillover effects. These contrasting findings reveal the peculiarities of Russian business reality, such as vast territories of the country, uneven infrastructure, lack of funding, and small cooperate networks. The federal government is expected to provide appropriate financial and legal support to stimulate clustering processes and innovative activities. Recommendation for further research is provided at the end of the paper.

The merger–innovation nexus has been well studied in the theoretical literature, but empirical evidence, particularly on the spillover impacts of innovation, is limited. Merger decisions are influenced by a series of macroeconomic and behavioural factors; however, internalizing innovation spillovers and keeping a competitive edge may also explain merger activities. In this paper, we investigate the impact of innovation spillovers on the likelihood of firms to merge, using a combined panel data set of mergers among publicly traded US manufacturing firms from 1980 to 2003. Innovation is measured using R&D investments and citation-weighted patents, and innovation spillover is proxied using the technological proximity of firms and rivals' innovation. We include a series of control variables affecting merger decisions and address the potential endogeneity problem using previous R&D activities of firms. We find that innovative firms are on average more likely to merge. The results also show that within-industry inward spillovers increase the likelihood of mergers, but between-industry inward spillovers do not influence merger decisions significantly. Our main results are robust to alternative measures of innovation and spillovers as well as to different estimation methods such as propensity score matching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between innovation and employment by analyzing the factors that drive job creation processes and particularly by scrutinizing the role of innovation on the skill structure of regional labor demand. The study utilizes Finnish regional innovation (proxied with R&D expenditures) and employment data for 2000–2013. The results show statistically significant positive employment effects from local innovation activities and knowledge spillovers from other regions only on the demand for high-skilled employees. For low-skilled employees, the employment effects of local innovation activities are significantly negative, while there is no impact from knowledge spillovers from other regions. These effects are robust also for different lag structures. The findings are significant in terms of their policy implications for supporting employment; Finnish innovation policy should consider the negative impacts of innovation on low-skilled employees more explicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper continues the ongoing debate on the importance of agglomeration externalities that may impact innovation development and the high-technology sector in regional economies. Previous studies suggest that the evidence for agglomeration externalities is strongly context-specific. We aimed to expand this discussion to Russian regions by utilising statistical evidence. We constructed a panel dataset with 83 regions and used various spatial econometrics and statistic techniques to test our hypothesis. Our study made two essential contributions. First, we found that regions with a high density of used high technologies tended to co-locate next to each other. Secondly, the localization of employment, sales volume, and paid wages in the electrical equipment, electronic, and optical equipment sector demonstrated a positive association with hitech usage density. These externalities suggest the presence of positive direct or indirect spillover effects among regions in Russia within the examined industry sector. However, the localization of investment did not display any association and, thus, does not suggest the presence of any spillover effects. These contrasting findings reveal the peculiarities of Russian business reality, such as vast territories of the country, uneven infrastructure, lack of funding, and small cooperate networks. The federal government is expected to provide appropriate financial and legal support to stimulate clustering processes and innovative activities. Recommendation for further research is provided at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the role of firm ownership structure, absorptive capacity and agglomeration on firm innovation in the Chinese context. A popular co-occurrence measure is used to measure local spillovers expected to take place between similar but different industries co-located together. Relying on a large panel of Chinese firms, this paper offers three main results: (1) privately owned enterprises (POEs) are more efficient innovators than their state-owned enterprise (SOE) counterparts; (2) local spillovers from related industries enhance firm innovation, especially for firms with higher pre-existing learning abilities; and (3) despite possessing relatively high levels of absorptive capacity, POEs maintain higher innovation performance compared with their SOE counterparts. These findings help confirm the absorptive capacity thesis, but also suggest that possessing relatively higher levels of absorptive capacity, in and of itself, is not always a sufficient precondition for firms to overcome all the cognitive and technological barriers to leveraging external sources of knowledge. In line with theories of knowledge governance, one explanation for this finding is that private (government) operators develop higher (lower) quality governance procedures that ultimately enhance (hamper) their ability to integrate successfully external sources of knowledge, even after developing a high level of absorptive capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the nature and magnitude of the direct and spillover effects of transport investment and innovation expenditures on the economic growth and social development of the 26 states and the Federal District of Brazil. A novel two-equation spatial econometric model is estimated and reveals five paradoxical (unexpected) outcomes in the relationships between economic development, social development, innovation and transport investment. These paradoxes in some cases reflect spatial competition and in others negative spillovers or self-reinforcing trends in innovation and social investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most essential strategic resources of the company is the knowledge that is used and developed within the company, creating innovations, and can be transferred among other companies, organizations, industrial sectors, and countries. The key reason for this spill over is the vulnerability of knowledge transfer channels. Knowledge is quickly transmitted through the media, scientific publications, reverse engineering, R&D cooperation, interaction between staff of various firms, companies, and organizations. In addition, knowledge cannot fully belong to the organization. R&D spillovers have a positive impact on innovation development; promote access to knowledge and its dissemination on a non-profit basis which enhances R&D cooperation between different economic entities, organizations, countries in the field of innovation diffusion. The contribution of R&D spillovers to achieving innovation development, the relationship between knowledge spillovers, innovation and R&D cooperation have been thoroughly examined. Differences between knowledge spillovers, knowledge transfers, and knowledge externalities have been identified. Types of R&D spillovers and levels of knowledge spillovers have been considered. Mechanism and theories of knowledge spillovers and local competition have been analysed. Comparative, systematic and critical analysis of scientific literature has been used in order to create the theoretical background for research of R&D spillovers and their impact on innovation development and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slow growth over the last decade has prompted policy attention towards increasing R&D spending, often via the tax system. We examine the impact of R&D on firm performance, both by the firm's own investments and through positive (and negative) spillovers from other firms. We analyse panel data on US firms over the last three decades, and allow for time‐varying spillovers in both technology space (knowledge spillover) and product market space (product market rivalry). We show that the magnitude of R&D spillovers remains as large in the second decade of the 21st century as it was in the mid 1980s. Since the ratio of the social return to the private return to R&D is about four to one, this implies that there remains a strong case for public support of R&D. Positive spillovers appeared to temporarily increase in the 1995–2004 digital technology boom. We also show how these micro estimates relate to estimates from the endogenous growth literature and give some suggestions for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard narrative of entrepreneurship is one of self-employed creative individuals working out of their garage or independently owned start-up companies. Intrapreneurship--where employees are responsible for being alert to new opportunities inside firms--is another model for developing innovations. Relatively little is known, however, about the latter process through which large, complex firms engage in groundbreaking corporate entrepreneurship. This Article's focus is on these types of innovation agents. It provides a thorough account of the positive and negative spillovers of intrapreneurial firms while making the following key points: First, intrapreneurial companies utilize their economies of scale, scope, and age to deliver innovations to the masses. They transform ideas, labor, and raw materials into tangible assets that can be traded in the market. Second, in doing so they offer individual entrepreneurs opportunities to capitalize their knowledge. Sustaining entrepreneurs' prospects for supra-competitive profits is the main engine that motivates the latter to invest in discoveries in the first place. Lastly, intrapreneurial firms also serve as greenhouses for entrepreneurship through the migration of their own talented labor in the market. While these spillovers have tremendous societal benefits, they can also introduce harms. First, the race for the next breakthrough might result in anticompetitive behavior by rivals who conspire with employees-intrapreneurs to leave their firms and take with them confidential information. Second, intrapreneurs often aspire to undertake their own independent journey. In so doing, they leave secure positions and high salaries while carrying valuable knowledge and expertise. This, in return, often prompts intrapreneurial firms to act opportunistically and lock-in or lock-out intrapreneurs in restrictive and wasteful arrangements. As a solution, this Article proposes ways law can balance the positive and negative spillovers of intrapreneurship and ways the tax system can help achieve such result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of inventor mobility to drive innovation spillovers in the early semiconductor industry. I employ self-collected patent data from the infrequently studied period prior to the industry's shift to Silicon Valley (1946–1959) to track inventor movement across firms and regions. I utilize patent assignments to identify inventor moves and test for increased patenting activity for firms on both sides of a move. The results show increases to patenting after a move on both sides which taper off over a period of several months. I also use the dataset to discuss the broader patterns in the industry during this period, including overall geographic and patenting trends. • Information on inventors' employer and location can be found in patents. • Patents from before 1975 have been rarely studied until now. • Inventor mobility in the early semiconductor industry led to innovative spillovers for firms that gained and lost inventors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides empirical evidence on the role of universities’ technological transfer (TT) activities in the Italian manufacturing sector, with particular attention to the food industry. Using the UniCredit-Capitalia database (2008) for firms and data from the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) to obtain the university TT indicator, we estimate a probit model to assess the effect of universities’ TT activities on a firm’s likelihood to innovate. The role of proximity in knowledge spillovers from TT activities is also investigated. Results show that university TT activities seem to stimulate food industry firms innovation and the impact appears significantly higher than for the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the effect of TT activities on innovation appears to be geographically bounded. As regards policy implications, this study provides two insights which may help promote innovation in the food sector. First, the factors that influence innovative capability in the food sector are different from those in other sectors, suggesting the need for sector specific instruments for promoting innovation. Second, science is important in the food industry and this raises questions about the policy of mainly considering high-tech industries when promoting a closer relationship between firms and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the link between innovation and the endowments of creative and science oriented STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – workers at the level of the firm and at the city-/regional-level in Germany. It also looks into whether the presence of these two groups of workers has greater benefits for larger cities than smaller locations, thus justifying policies to attract these workers in order to make German cities ‘smarter’. The empirical analysis is based on a probit estimation, covering 115,000 firm-level observations between 1998 and 2015. The results highlight that firms that employ creative and STEM workers are more innovative than those that do not. However, the positive connection of creative workers to innovation is limited to the boundaries of the firm, whereas that of STEM workers is as associated to the generation of considerable innovation spillovers. Hence, attracting STEM workers is more likely to end up making German cities smarter than focusing exclusively on creative workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge 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.)

We analyze the potential of different knowledge stocks to decrease the technological gap between the leader in green technology inventions and its followers in order to identify if wait-and-see is a reasonable option to benefit from knowledge. Our econometric results indicate that it is difficult to decrease the technological gap and remain competitive in the generation of green technologies without timely accumulating green knowledge. Although effects from external green knowledge stocks also contribute to decrease the technological gap, the effects are moderate and they cannot compensate the lack of internal green competences. Non-green knowledge stocks even tend to increase the technological gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of scientific and technical knowledge is mostly concentrated in specific locations. Knowledge flows very easily within regions; however, scientific and technical knowledge does flow also between different regions. The aim of this article is to analyze knowledge flows between agglomerations of innovative inputs, and their effects on the innovative performance of regions. We estimate a regional knowledge production function and we test, through appropriate spatial econometric estimation techniques, the effect of both geographical and relational autocorrelation (as measured by participation to joint research networks in the European Union [EU] Sixth Framework Programme [FP6]). We adopt two selection criteria in order to define different relational “geographies” (hence spatial weights matrices), and we model the unobservable structure and link value of knowledge flows within these joint research networks. Our results confirm established evidence that knowledge flows within interregional research networks along a top-down nonsymmetrical and hierarchical structure. However, the EU enlargement - and a modified structure of incentive for collaboration activity of European institutions- changed the direction of knowledge flows toward a top-down dynamics of knowledge diffusion from coordinator to participants for “EASTWARD” research networks (whose coordinator is in the west and most participants in the east); while the contrary (a hierarchical bottom-up dynamic of knowledge transfer) is true for WESTWARD networks (whose coordinator is in the east and most participants in the west). FP6 is therefore a platform for knowledge barter exchange for EU15, while works as a mere one-way channel for knowledge diffusion from EU15 toward Central and Eastern European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains the risks and possible advantages of fragmentation in patent ownership and innovation in relation to patent thickets. Topics discussed include the rise in patent proliferation and fragmentation since the formation of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982 and the pro-patent policies of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, effects of patent thickets on research and development (R&D) operations, and the empirical framework involving patent thickets.

So far, the research on impact of innovation on employment and skills focused on effects within firms and sectors. Little attention was paid to the influence of interlinkages between sectors as a source of employment change. The main contribution of this paper to the field refers to broadening the analysis of innovation impacts to innovation spillovers from vertically linked sectors on firms' employment and skill change in user industries. The empirical analysis conclusively demonstrates an important role of innovation spillovers in the economy. Firms' employment growth is shown to benefit significantly from spillovers of product innovations in manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services. Similarly, firms that are subject to increased spillovers of product innovations as well as marketing and organisational innovations are more likely to upgrade their skill composition. Conversely, employment growth and skill composition of firms seem to be negatively affected by spillovers of process innovations in vertically linked sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management international / International Management / Gestiòn Internacional is the property of Management International 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.)

This article analyzes the influence of universities on Italian firms' probability to innovate. Using firm-level data, we focus on institutionalized technology transfer (TT) activities in universities, namely spin-offs, patents, and research contracts. Results show that TT activities play a significant role in the probability to innovate by Italian manufacturing firms located in the same province as the university. Nevertheless, the effect is not uniform: the contribution of university TT activities to the probability of firms' innovating is concentrated in certain territorial areas (North-East and Center) and sectors (science based and scale intensive) and among firms that are large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the special issue ofEINTsurveys a collection of eight papers that study innovation and productivity at the firm level and the industry level for a number of European countries. This focus is supported by the view that an innovating firm can maintain a favourable position in terms of profits, productivity and growth by following a path along which its knowledge-creation efforts have become a regular activity. The performance of an innovating firm is also affected by the firm's accession of external knowledge sources, and this gives firms an incentive to develop innovation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the combined effect of exports, innovation and external knowledge on total factor productivity growth among manufacturing firms. This paper distinguishes between frequent and temporary exporters as well as between frequent and temporary innovators. Applying a dynamic approach on an unbalanced panel consisting of 8516 Swedish firms observed over a 12-year period, the results show that among firms with permanent presence in export markets, persistent innovators have 0.5% point higher annual productivity growth than non-innovative exporters and 0.4% higher growth compared to firms that switch between being innovative or not. A similar pattern is found for the group of companies that alternates between exporting and non-exporting; however, the differences in growth rates are not statistically significant. We also show that only persistently innovative exporters and exporters with a large fraction of exports in their sales benefit from their presence in the local milieu with high knowledge intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]