1,721,044 research outputs found
Cross-Border Innovation in a Changing World: An Overview and Perspective on Future Developments
No full textBridging perspectives from complementary research streams, this chapter offers an overview of the cross-border innovation phenomenon and argues that in recent decades it has not only increased in intensity, but also changed qualitatively. The authors submit that a comprehensive understanding of these profound transformations calls for a renewed research effort that should simultaneously address the evolution of players, places, and policies. The chapter reviews the contributions offered in this book in relation to these cross-border innovation building blocks and proposes future lines of research
The cross border R&D activity of Italian business firms
No full textUsing data from the ISTAT-RS1 Survey we explore inward and outward R&D activities of different categories of firms resident in Italy in 2001-2010. From this perspective we provide detailed evidence of the role played by this country in the global creation and transmission of technology. First, foreign owned multinationals are the most active in cross-border transactions of knowledge but hold a low and decreasing share in national R&D expenditure. This trend reveals on the one hand that the Italian economy is a poorer and poorer attractor of high value added investments from abroad; and on the other hand that national companies, and particularly local SMEs not belonging to international groups, have significantly increased their R&D efforts over the past decade. Second, although outward expenditures of Italian companies increased substantially, R&D performed abroad remains a minor component of business research activities, and is due to a small number of firms investing in a few destination countries. We argue that this paucity of outward R&D activity might hinder both “asset exploiting” and “asset seeking” strategies of Italian firms. Third, we find a strong positive correlation between outward R&D and other innovative activities, including domestic research and R&D commissioned to foreign affiliates. By contrast, in the case of foreign owned firms active in Italy, we find that outward R&D is negatively correlated with intra-group technical cooperation
Will Industrial Districts Exploit B2B? A local experience and a general assessment.
Full text linkWhat are the prospects of B2B electronic commerce when production is carried out by a number of small firms specialized in single production phases? Prato, Italy, is home to thousands of textile firms as well as the locus of an early and innovative experience of a local Internet in the mid-1980s. This experience suggests that, since they fear to be imatated by their geographical proximates, geographically clustered firms may lag behind in the exploitation of information and communication technologies. Analysis of today's web sites of Pratese firms confiorms this intuition. A similar analysis of web sites is carried out for producers of fabrics worldwide. Contrary to Europe, in Asian countries geographically clustered firms exhibit little fear of information leakages. Differences in the organization of production may explain this puzzle.ICT, e-commerce, B2B, Textile Industry, Industrial Clusters, Industrial Districts, Prato.
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How remote are R&D labs? Distance factors and international innovative activities
No full textThis paper shows that value creation by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is the result of activities where geographic distance effects can be overcome. We submit that geographic distance has a relatively low impact on international research and development (R&D) investments, owing to the spiky nature of innovation, and to the unique ability of MNEs to absorb and transfer knowledge on a global scale. On the one hand, MNEs need to set up their labs as close as possible to specialized technology clusters where valuable knowledge is concentrated, largely regardless of distance from their home base. On the other, MNEs have historically developed technical and organizational competencies that enable them to transfer knowledge within their internal networks and across technology clusters at relatively low cost. Using data on R&D and manufacturing investments of 6320 firms in 59 countries, we find that geographic distance has a lower negative impact on the probability of setting up R&D than manufacturing plants. Furthermore, once measures of institutional proximity are accounted for, MNEs are equally likely to set up R&D labs in nearby or in more remote locations. This result is driven by MNEs based in Triad countries, whereas for non-Triad MNEs the effect of geographic distance on cross-border R&D is negative and significant
Measuring public innovation in the EU: the STARPIN methodology
Full text linkThis work accounts for, and synthesises the main results of, the StarPIN project — Statistical
Reporting on Public Innovation — developed by the Dipartimento di Economia, Società,
Politica (DESP) of the University of Urbino, Italy, with the support of dialogic — innovatie.
interactie, Utrecht, the Netherlands. The StarPIN project was supported by Eurostat’s Unit working
on innovation statistics. The StarPIN team was composed of Annaflavia Bianchi, Claudio Cozza,
Giovanni Marin, Robbin Te Velde, Antonello Zanfei, and Emy Zecca. Gregor Kyi and Giulio Perani
were the Eurostat project managers and Stefania Panaitescu ensured editing and support.
The project proposes a theoretical and a methodological framework for enriching the measurement
ability of public sector innovation, and discusses the implications for data collection and analysis. A
preliminary test of the framework is carried out by means of pilot applications to specific public
services.
The project focuses on public service innovation as a key locus of value creation for society,
choosing an object-based rather than the more commonly adopted subject-based approach. Issues
concerning the measurement of public service innovation are addressed in statistical terms and
consistently with the official public sector functions classifications. The approach places particular
emphasis on web-scraping to capture the technological level of websites used by public
administrations, and to evaluate the degree of innovativeness of specific services within selected
public functions. Data collected through web-scraping can be combined with administrative data at
the level of individual services. The paper presents pilot applications to specific public services in a
limited number of countries.
The paper is structured according to the following steps: First a theoretical framework is sketched for
the analysis of innovation in the public sector, focusing on service innovation and public value
creation. Second, the consistency between public functions, public institutions and public service
classifications is discussed. Third, the indicators of innovativeness are generated for selected public
services. Fourth, the paper illustrates the main lessons learnt from the pilot application of the
methodological framework, and draws implications for future research. A user manual is annexed to
the paper for replicating the pilot tests described in the paper
The links between international production and innovation: a double network approach
Full text linkThis paper examines the changing role of multinationals in the global generation, adoption and transfer of innovation. It is argued that the combination of traditional asset exploiting objectives with increasing asset seeking activities entails a transition of multinationals towards a double network structure. On the one hand multinationals are more and more characterised by the interconnection of a large number of internal units that are deeply involved in the company’s use, generation and absorption of knowledge. On the other hand, units belonging to the internal network tend to develop external networks with other firms and institutions that are located outside the boundaries of the multinational firm, in order to increase the potential for use, generation and absorption of knowledge. Extending the analysis to a more general level, it is suggested that each of the external actors with which multinationals are interconnected across countries are themselves involved in extensive webs of relationships with other firms and institutions. By becoming embedded in different local contexts, multinational firms act as bridging institutions connecting a number of geographically dispersed economic and innovation systems. As a result, they are conditioned by, and contribute to, the evolution of different contexts in which they operate.innovation, multinational firms, networks.
Surviving Competition Through Cooperation
No full textThe paper focuses on the formation, evolution and crisis of the 1989 AT&T-Italtel collaborative venture, which eventually led to a new partnership between the Italian equipment manufacturer and Siemens AG in 1994. This experience is discussed in the more general setting where the partners' mutual advantages from cooperation are defined and evolve over time, in the presence of high information asymmetry and of a turbulent competitive environment.
Multinational Firms and the Pursuit of Social Benefits
No full textIt is argued that a new actor is emerging in international business, which can be dubbed “Social Multinational”, that is a blend of international rent-creation and pursuit of social objectives. However, it would be misleading to state that the emergence of Social Multinationals will be the natural outcome of a market driven process. Too much is left to the understanding and sensitiveness of individual entrepreneurs. Signals of the emergence of this new and promising breed are still very weak. Important institutional innovations will have to be enacted to favour its strengthening and growth.multinational firms, social responsibility, spillovers
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