Economics of Science, Technology and Innovation – serie

Rethinking Regional Innovation and Change brings together papers from leading international scholars in the field of regional development and policy. Up-to-date case studies present diverse theoretical perspectives from economics, political science, geography, planning, and public policy.

William Latham Christian Le Bas Persistence of firm innovative behavior became an important topic in applied industrial organization with the publication of the seminal empirical work of P. Geroski and his colleagues (1997). Evidence that firms innovate persistently has led previous studies to focus on the determinants of innovation persistence and on its heterogeneity across industries, technologies and countries. The aims of this book are: (1) to illumine the scale and scope of the phenomenon of persistence in innovation, and (2) to account for the principal factors that explain why some firms innovates persistently and others do not. Because this book deals intensively and extensively with the subject of firm innovation persistence, which is not, as yet, a well-known term, we need to provide a nontrivial definition of it that encompasses the full range topics we want to address and aids our understanding of how they are related to each other. We begin with a careful identification of "innovation. " Our first definition is drawn from K. Pavitt (2003), "innovation processes involve the exploration and exploitation of opportunities for a new or improved product, process or service, based either on an advance in technical practice or a change in market demand, or a combination of the two. " While this definition is clear, and conforms well to both our empirical and theoretical perspectives, some elaboration may help to clarify the concept.

Biz Jets: Technology and Market Structure in the Corporate Jet Aircraft Industry traces the development of business jet aircraft from the mid-1950s through early 1993. It begins with a discussion of the technological and market opportunities existing in the period prior to the introduction of the Lockheed JetStar and the North American Sabreliner. The subsequent appearances of other biz jets -- the Learjets, HS-125s, Jet Commanders, Falcons, Gulfstreams, Citations, Challengers, Mitsubishis and derivative aircraft are treated in considerable detail. Biz Jets also covers 'planes involved in many unsuccessful attempts to enter the industry from 1955 through 1993.

This study offers a geographic dimension to the study of innovation and product commercialization and develops a conceptual model which links the location of production innovations to the sources of these knowledge inputs. The geographic concentration of this knowledge forms a technological infrastructure which promotes information transfers, and lowers the risks and the costs of engaging in innovative activity. Empirical estimation confirms that the location of production innovation is related to the underlying technological infrastructure and that the location of the knowledge inputs are mutually-reinforcing in defining a region's competitive advantage. The book concludes by considering the policy implications of these findings for both private firms and state governments. This work is intended for academics, policy practitioners and students in the fields of innovation and technological change, geography and regional science, and economic development.

The concept of localized technological change is emerging at the crossroads of different approaches to the economics of innovation and new technologies. The term "localized technological change" refers to the introduction of technological changes which make possible an increase in total factor productivity within only a limited range of techniques defined by the levels of factor intensity. This contrasts with "generalized technological change", which is defined as the global shift of all the techniques represented on the map of isoquants of the neoclassical tradition. "The Economics of Localized Technological Change" elaborates the notion of localized technology with respect to firms, factor substitution, sectors, regions and techniques. It also assesses the implications for industrial policy, technology and innovation policy. The book should be of interest to corporate policy-makers, scholars of industrial organization and economics of innovation as well as business-school students.

The evaluation of government programmes and measures in the field of technology policy has gained in significance in Germany over the past decade. A variety of evaluation studies on individual projects or programmes with different aims, approaches and methods are available. Which experiences were gained with the instrument of evaluation in this policy area? "Evaluation of Technology Policy Programmes in Germany": demonstrates trends of government policy in Germany; documents experiences with the use of various promotion instruments; represents approaches and methods, used in the past years to test the efficiency of various tools of industrial technology policy, and discusses their strengths and weaknesses; and draws conclusions for the further development of the evaluation of technology policy in selected areas. The book includes contributions by authors from recognized German institutes and consultants working in the evaluation of technology policy, and should be of interest to policy-makers and administrators, as well as researchers, scholars and students of economics, innovation research and public policy.

What are the characteristics of an environment that is conducive to technological innovation? In recent years, several studies have appeared which have emphasized the comprehensive institutional framework of innovation in various countries. These studies have focused on the institutions and actors, primarily in science and technology policy, at the national level. The present study takes as its starting point the idea that the institutional infrastructure, important users and suppliers of technology and their capabilities, policy agents and networks which tie them together differ across various fields of technology, and that the boundaries of the system may not coincide with national frontiers. This book represents an analysis of a "technological system", namely that which constitutes the context for factory automation in Sweden. From a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary perspective, a group of researchers from three Swedish research institutes analyze Sweden's performance in factory automation, including its economic impact, the role of international linkages and the policy implications.

Information theory, cybernetics and the theory of finite automata are used to model learning-by-doing, bounded rationality, routine behaviour, and the formation of teams. The non-neoclassical characterization of production developed in this book ignores the usual quantitative relationships between inputs and outputs and instead views production strictly as a problem of control and communication. The motivation for this unconventional characterization of production comes from Schumpeter's critique of neoclassical economic theory. The non-neoclassical characterization of production developed in this book is in keeping with how economic historians describe specific technological changes and how they write technological histories about particular machines, firms or industries.

This text provides a systematic treatment of technological infrastructure (TI) and Technological Infrastructure Policy (TIP) which are emerging fields of interest both for academic economists and for policy makers in both advanced and developing economies. The specific topics covered include: the role of TI in economic growth and development; the nature and definition of TI; TI-components; the relationships between TI and markets; and salient features of TIP. The study reflects the distinction made between basic and advanced TI. Basic TI involves the collective absorption of foreign technology for subsequent diffusion to domestic firms. Several chapters deal with this process with an emphasis on the supply of advisory services to small and medium enterprises. Advanced TI involves pre-competitive, co-operation research and development in cutting edge technologies undertaken by consortia of firms. Several examples of advanced TIP are given.

In this volume, the actual organization and use of information systems in American, European and Japanese firms are investigated and compared with theoretical conclusions. The results presented indicate that information and communication firms are now starting to offer the kind of business information systems predicted by the analysis. The transformation of business information systems technology can be followed in the chronicle, which is provided on diskette and which covers the development of modern IT and telecommunications industries. The data are arranged to allow researchers to reconfigure the data according to their own needs.

This volume presents a new approach to the problems of structural change and regional dynamics in the context of globalization. It is specifically focused on the experience of the European integration process. The book reviews different aspects of structural change and regional development including: increasing returns and cumulativeness in the dynamics of structural change at the regional level; technological learning and the distribution of innovative capabilities; the globalization of innovation, networks, regional diversity and the regionalization of technology policy; inter-firm cooperation, external investment and external control; endogenous credit creation, finance and regional development; and strategies for integration and strategies for competition at the European level. This collective work is intended for academics, policy practitioners and students in the fields of economic growth, structural change, regional development, regional financing and innovation, and technology policy.

The purpose of this book is to reconcile two terms that the economic tradition has opposed for a long time: the market and knowledge. The editor and contributors focus on the transformations that affect the processes of creation, accumulation and exchange of scientific, technological and commercial knowledge by organizations. The first part of this book analyzes knowledge markets basis. The first three chapters rely on the idea that knowledge is the organization's fundamental capital. Technological and scientific knowledge is becoming more fragmented. Pieces of knowledge may be articulated due to sophisticated R&D technologies. Markets for knowledge solely concern individual knowledge units which form the knowledge base of the firm. These knowledge units are capitalizable and adaptable to different contexts. The second part of this book extends these developments by providing sectoral illustrations (chemistry, bio-pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and software).Firms are focusing on their own competencies, which entails an increasing externalization of some tasks, even the more complex ones for which the recourse to an external business service is legitimated by competencies-related motivations, economies of scale and economies of scope. These knowledge providers allow firms to improve the efficiency of their innovative and productive activities. Consequently, the role of markets for knowledge is analyzed both with respect to the decomposition of the productive processes and the disintegration of the innovative ones.

Scholars in the science and technology field have not collectively questioned, much less proposed, an agenda for policy makers. Now is an appropriate time for such an undertaking. First, there is a growing belief that the U.S. national research and development system, like that of many industrial nations, is changing due to global competitive pressures and advancements in information technology and electronic commerce. Second, industry's R&D relationship with the academic research community is changing not only because of the global competition but also because of alterations in the level of government support of fundamental research. As a result, policy makers will need to rethink their approaches to science and technology issues. This volume is a collection of essays by scholars about innovative policy in the knowledge-based economy. By knowledge-based economy we mean one for which economic growth is based on the creation, distribution, and use of technology. As such, innovation policy in such an economy must enhance the creation, distribution, and use of knowledge that leads to the creation, distribution, and use of technology.This volume considers elements of an innovation policy: innovation policy and academic research, innovation policy in electronic commerce, and innovation policy and globalization issues.

It is now recognized that many of the central unresolved problems in economic policy, management and research turn on questions of knowledge. Increasingly, complex firms and agencies must ask, and answer, such difficult questions as: What is knowledge?; Where is it?; Who has it?; Does the organization lose or gain competitive advantage or effectiveness by sharing knowledge?; Where can we find the knowledge we need?; How can we measure knowledge? In a knowledge-based economy, these queries are integral to the pursuits of every policy maker, analyst and strategist. This text - a joint project between Statistics Canada and Program of Research on Innovation Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa - brings together economic, social, measurement and policy views on these critical issues. This project fits into an ongoing research programme at Statistics Canada to develop meaningful indicators for science, technology and innovation in a technology-intensive economy. It also fits into the ongoing programme at PRIME to better understand technology policy and innovation strategy.This book tells the story of the dynamic interplay between knowledge and innovation with an eye to developing tools and frameworks for managing knowledge for social and economic benefit.

This volume provides a collection of theoretical articles and empirical studies on innovation and location by focusing on the institutions and systems that mediate knowledge spillovers. The objective is to provide an international comparison using a variety of approaches. The volume is organized around the three themes. The first focuses on theoretical work that attempts to advance our understanding of knowledge externalities and systems on innovation. The second section provides empirical studies that attempt to measure these impacts. The final section considers future challenges to regional economic development policy in the face of economic integration and globalization.

This volume provides an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the nature and role of technological change in a rapidly evolving arena of economic activity that can be loosely referred to as the bio industries. These include biomedical industries that deliver goods and services used in health care, including those based on genetic engineering, as well as applications of biotechnology in other industries such as agriculture, food production and the forest industries. This volume seeks to identify and address sets of conceptual and methodological issues in analyzing innovation systems, particularly as regards the delimitation of relevant systems. The book makes an in-depth comparison of the biomedical clusters in Sweden and Ohio. It also sheds light on the emergence of new science-based technological systems.

Without a clear and organized view of where and how entrepreneurship manifests itself, policy makers have been left in uncharted waters without an analytical compass.The purpose of this book is to provide such an analytical compass for directing how public policy can shape and promote entrepreneurship. We do this in two ways. The first is to provide a framework for policymakers and scholars to understand what determines entrepreneurship. The second is to apply this framework to a series of cases, or country studies. In particular, this book seeks to answer three questions about entrepreneurship: What has happened over time? Why did it happen? And, what has been the role of government policy?The cornerstone of the book is the proposed Eclectic Theory of Entrepreneurship. The goal of the Eclectic Theory is to provide a unified framework for understanding and analyzing the determinants of entrepreneurship. The Eclectic Theory of entrepreneurship integrates the different strands from relevant fields into a unifying, coherent framework. At the heart of the Eclectic Theory is the integration of factors shaping the demand for entrepreneurship on the one hand, with those influencing the supply of entrepreneurs on the other hand. The key to understanding the role of public policy is through identifying those channels shifting either the demand for or the supply of entrepreneurship by policy instruments.The findings in this book show that, by utilizing the framework provided by the Eclectic Theory of Entrepreneurship, it is within the grasp of policymakers to identify the determinants of entrepreneurship in a particular country setting at a particular point in time. This will be essential in formulating new public policies to promote entrepreneurship and, ultimately, economic growth, job creation and international competitiveness.

A frequent complaint in literature is that services have been previously largely overlooked by innovation researchers and technology policy makers. Given the unarguable growth in the importance of the service sectors, increasing numbers of researchers and policy makers have taken a fresh look at service activities. Innovation Systems in the Service Economy: Measurement and Case Study Analysis presents contributions which increase the understanding of the role of services in the development of the division of labor in modern economics. This volume is devoted to the elaboration and understanding of the following two themes. First, service firms can be innovative in their own right, even though the process of innovation and the kinds of innovation may be different from those traditionally associated with manufacturing and other primary activities. Second, service firms and associated activities play an important role in the evolving division of creative labor which is constituted by modern innovative systems.

This work analyzes the international operations of consulting firms. Apart from developing a theoretical framework which differs from traditional theories about international trade, the main issues analyzed in this book are: success determinants when tendering for international consulting contracts; the choice between exports, acquisition of a local firm or establishing a Greenfield office when entering foreign markets; the extent and nature of knowledge transfer to emerging markets; the role of development agencies in international consulting projects; the trend towards, and consequences of, more management services included in international projects; and the effects on competition when state-owned consulting firms are allowed to operate in the international market. The empirical analysis of these issues is based on a database of individual tender documents which Swedish consulting firms have submitted abroad.

According to its proponents, the "new economy" is associated with sustainable growth, increased demand for labour and zero inflation. On the micro-level, this avenue into the future is propelled by knowledge capital, flexibility and new ways of organizing production, such as clusters and networks. Progress in information technology, together with massive deregulation on the national and the international levels, have been credited with setting this development into motion. The concept of the "new economy" has been rapidly embraced by politicians, as it seems to offer a way out of the traditional trade-off between unemployment and wage inflation. However, empirical evidence regarding the microeconomic mechanisms of the "new economy" is scarce. This work intends to narrow this gap by empirically analyzing the composition of knowledge capital and how knowledge capital is distributed across firms of different size. Moreover, the impact of knowledge capital on firms' profitability and international competitiveness is also examined.Finally, we compare cluster dynamics and the institutional set-up in Europe and the US, with the purpose of identifying regulations that seem to hinder a conducive environment for expanding and dynamic European clusters.

"Biotechnology" - the integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering for the technological application of the capabilities of microbes and cultured tissue cells - is quickly becoming pervasive and challenging, rapidly developing both new techniques and industries. This study - a joint project between Statistics Canada, the Program of Research on Innovation, Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa, and CIRANO at the University of Quebec in Montreal - brings together economic, social, and statistical views on the dynamics of this set of emerging technologies. It examines the costs as well as the benefits, and the challenges as well as the choices, of the rapidly expanding science-based world of biodiversity, biopharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics, and it provides suggestions for futurework and research. This project fits into an ongoing research program at Statistics Canada to develop meaningful indicators for science, technology, and innovation in a technology-intensive economy.The book tells the story of the inner workings of innovation systems, technological systems, and competence blocs in the production, use, and diffusion of knowledge.

This text seeks to provide an empirical and theoretical analysis of a distinct form of inter-firm collaboration in research and development (R&D): research joint ventures (RJVs). Of all types of co-operation, RJVs have received the most attention in both formal industrial organization and science and technology policy literature. The emerging theoretical economic literature on incentives of firms to join RJVs has not been followed by much empirical work. The volume attempts to fill a void caused by this lack of consistent data on the rate of RJV formation, RJV characteristics, and RJV member characteristics. Significant attention is paid to the role of RJVs in facilitating "virtual" firm diversification as necessary to pursue particular technological objectives. An effort is also made to blend the reported theoretical and empirical analyses with conceptual models of the process of technological innovation and models of industrial evolution in order to provide answers beyond the reach of the received economic theory. The book should be of interest to academic economists, policy makers, and business representatives.The microeconomic issues the book deals with overlap significantly with the interests of decision makers both in government and business.

This work on multinational firms addresses the implications of production, and the forces that determine location. Special attention is paid to differences across industries producing differentiated and technologically advanced goods, as compared to more basic oriented industries. The analytical framework builds on developments in the theory of location and multinational production. In addition, more micro-oriented aspects of agglomeration are incorporated into the analysis. The main focus of this book is on empirical issues, although the hypotheses tested are founded in theory. The analysis is based upon a data-set embracing approximately 90 per cent of Swedish multinational firms in the period 1965 to 1994, with emphasis on developments in the period 1980 to 1994.

This text represents a study in the literature that provides a systematic, US-wide analysis of local university-high technology connections at the lowest possible level of spatial aggregation. Its contributions are twofold: it focuses on the regional aspects of the interaction between high technology innovations, university and private R&D at the proper spatial scale, at the level of counties and metropolitan areas; and it uses the specialized methodology of spatial econometrics to explicitly deal with potential spatial effects in cross-sectional data. The study is based on a data set of high technology innovations and industrial R&D employment in the USA in 1982. From an exploratory spatial data analysis implemented at the county level, it is shown that the concentration of high technology product innovations, private R&D and university research follow a similar spatial pattern across the United States. A formal regression analysis is carried out for 43 States and 125 Metropolitan Statistical Areas which implements the Griliches-Jaffe knowledge production function framework.This provides strong evidence that university research expenditures have a positive and very significant effect on aggregate high technology innovation. However, the intensity of knowledge transfers between university research and regional innovation is not constant over space. It is demonstrated that the same amount of university research expenditure yields substantially different levels of local innovation activity depending on the concentration of economic activities in the metropolitan area. The findings in this book strongly indicate that a stimulation of research activities in universities located in existing agglomerations of high technology production and research has significant positive effects on the regional economy. This book aims to serve the interests of both academic researchers in the fields of regional science and economics of technological change, and economic developers concerned with practical problems of innovative technology regions. The text may be used in graduate-level courses of regional economics, economics of technological change, economics of education, and applied spatial econometrics.

In an era of intense globalization, the critical role of the region as a centre for economic development has sometimes been overlooked. Moreover, innovation is increasingly being recognized as being a critical driver of economic growth and development. However, innovation is no longer being seen as a function of research and development; nor is R&D being seen as being sufficient for the creation of technology-intensive industries and the valuable economic spillovers that result in high value-added jobs and exports. Indeed, much more than ever before, it is the combination of factors that contributes to innovation - ranging over skills, finance, production, user-producer linkages, the capacity of organizations to learn, and multilayered government policies - that make local regions the favorites of fortune. Using an evolutionary economic perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines, this text explores important issues at a conceptual, methodological and comparative level concerning how successful locations actually construct their comparative advantage.

As the world of television moves from analog to digital, political and economic forces are being brought to bear on companies as they attempt to deal with changes occurring in their industries. The impetus for the conversion from analog to digital TV comes from many quarters, including the broadcasting industry, the computer industry, governments, consumer electronics manufacturers, content developers, and the Internet. The widespread acceptance of digital technology in both the home and the workplace account for the ready acceptance of the belief that the move to digital television is an appropriate advancement. Not all authors in this volume however are believers. This work is divided into four sections each dealing with one aspect of the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting. The first section presents the various technologies. It establishes a structure for understanding the technologies currently in use as well as those being developed by the industries involved in the delivery of digital television. Section two presents information about consumer TV viewing and includes examples of innovative, experimental interactive programs.Economics and financial issues are addressed from a variety of perspectives in section three. Section four concludes the book with a look at the international environment and the history of digital TV globally.

This is a study of public technology procurement as an instrument of innovation policy. Public technology procurement has been a relatively neglected topic in the theoretical and research literature on the economics of innovation. Similarly, preoccupation with "supply-side" measures has led policy-makers to avoid making very extensive use of this important "demand-side" instrument. These trends have been especially pronounced in the European Union. There, existing legislation governing public procurement presents obstacles to the use of public technology procurement as a means of stimulating and supporting technological innovation. However, there has been a gradual re-awakening of practical interest in such measures among policy-makers in the EU and elsewhere. For these and other related measures, this volume aims to contribute to a serious reconsideration of public technology procurement from the complementary standpoints of innovation theory and innovation policy.

"Information, Innovation and Impacts" - a joint project between the Program of Research in International Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa and Statistics Canada - brings together economic, social and statistical views of the impacts of the innovative uses of information. It examines the costs as well as the benefits of rapidly expanding availability of data, of information, and of codified knowledge, and it provides suggestions for future work and research. This project fits into an on-going research programme at Statistics Canada to develop indicators for science and technology (S&T) in a more coherent manner, and it fits into the research program of PRIME to better understand the dynamics of innovation in an information economy. Together, Statistics Canada and PRIME strive to tell the story of the activities in S&T systems, their interactions, and the outcomes as actors go about the generation, transmission, or mediation of knowledge, information, and of data, as part of the effective functioning of the system.

What is the relationship between technological innovation and economic growth? Contributions to this volume seek to answer this question through an analysis of four "technological systems": factory automation, electronics and computers, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and powder technology - and their impact on Sweden's economic performance. The text begins with an overview of how the technological systems studied here relate to Sweden's overall technological profile. It then provides an in-depth explanation of each of the four chosen technological systems. The analysis continues with a survey of the literature on technological spillovers, a presentation of the results of simulations of the macroeconomic effects of spillovers, and a summary of the framework for studying technological systems derived from the four cases. The book concludes with a discussion of key lessons and issues for policy-makers, both public and private.