What a Difference a DV Makes ... The Impact of Conceptualizing the Dependent Variable in Innovation Success Factor Studies

The quest for the "success factors" that drive a company's innovation performance has attracted a great deal of attention among both practitioners and academics. The underlying assumption is that certain critical activities impact the innovation performance of the company or the project. However, the findings of success factor studies lack convergence. It has been speculated that this may be due to the fact that extant studies have used many different measures of the dependent variable "innovation performance". Our study is the first to analyze this issue systematically and empirically: we analyze the extent to which different conceptualizations of the dependent variable (a firm's innovation performance) lead to different innovation success factor patterns. In order to do so, we collected data from 234 German firms, including well-established success factors and six alternative measures of innovation performance. This allowed us to calculate whether or not success factors are robust to changes in the measurement of the dependent variable. We find that this is not the case: rather, the choice of the dependent variable makes a huge difference. From this, we draw important conclusions for future studies aiming to identify the success factors in companies' innovation performance

Deregulation and R&D in Network Industries: The Case of the Electricity Industry

Electricity reform has coincided with a significant decline in energy R&D activities. Technical progress is crucial for tackling many energy and environmental issues as well as for long-term efficiency improvement. This paper reviews the industrial organisation literature on innovation to explore the causes of this decline, and shows that it was predicted by the pre-reform literature. More recent evidence endorses this conclusion. At the same time, R&D productivity and innovative output appear to have improved in both electric utilities and equipment suppliers, in line with general improvements in the operating efficiency of the sector. Despite this, a lasting decline in basic R&D and innovation input into basic research may negatively affect development of radical technological innovation in the long run. There is a need for reorientation of energy technology policies and spending toward more basic research, engaging more firms in R&D, encouraging collaborative research, and exploring public private partnerships

Innovation and Economic Growth in European Union. Panel Data Analysis

JEL Classifications: O33, O30, O47This study examines the relationship between technological innovation and economic growth in European Union countries over the period 1993-2011. Using Blundell and Bond (1998) generalized method of the moments estimation technique, the study provides evidence that R&D expenditures and patent activities differ in terms of fostering economic growth between EU-15 and EU-13 countries. The main results indicate that there is no significant impact of R&D expenditures on the economic growth and that patent activities determine economic growth in EU-13 subsample and EU-28 as a whole. The study suggests that there may be no one particular recipe for growth for all EU countries and put into question whether setting common numerical targets in EU’s innovation policy makes economic sense

The impact of public R&D subsidies and tax incentives on business R&D expenditures

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P5-0093).Purpose: Private R&D investment in the business sector is often subject to market failures, such as positive externalities, information asymmetries, uncertainty and risk, making it often less than socially desirable. This is the primary reason that governments promote private R&D investment. Accordingly, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of public R&D policy on business R&D expenditures. Design/methodology/approach: Applying panel data regression analysis on a sample of 3,113 company-year observations, covering Slovenian companies for the period 2012-2016. Findings: The empirical results show that public support for R&D investment plays an important role in firms’ R&D expenditures. As to R&D subsidies, the empirical results reveal they are generally ineffective since they displace firms’ R&D expenditures. Yet they do become effective when used in combination with R&D tax incentives and received by companies that are growing. On the contrary, the empirical results also show that R&D tax incentives are always effective when companies have a sufficient tax base. Practical Implications: The overall findings suggest that R&D tax incentives are more effective than R&D subsidies in Slovenia. However, R&D subsidies are still attractive especially for smaller companies without a sufficient tax base. It is hence important to consider both public policy instruments as two parallel ways of supporting firms’ R&D expenditures. Originality/value: Utilising a comprehensive dataset covering Slovenian companies made by merging multiple data sources, namely R&D survey, tax, balance-sheet and incomestatement data, representing the main originality and value of the paper.peer-reviewe

Effect of Government Spending and Macro-Economic Uncertainty on Private Investment in Services Sector: Evidence from Pakistan

This study examines the effect of government spending and macroeconomic uncertainty on private fixed investment in services sector of the Pakistan for the period from 1972 to 2005. We first investigated time series properties of data then estimated long run model using cointegration technique. The results show that government spending and interest rate affect private investment in services sector in Pakistan. The preferred short-run dynamic investment function indicates that increase in government current spending and interest rate discourages private investment and similarly macroeconomic instability and uncertainty affect the private investment negatively.Private Investment, Government Expenditure, Macroeconomic uncertainty, Services Sector, Co-integration, Pakistan

Intellectual Property Rights Protection and the Location of Research and Development Activities by Multinational Firms

We develop a model of the location of global R&D investments by multinational firms, where research investments increase the number of varieties of goods sold globally by the firm, and development activities reduce the cost of producing existing varieties in specific countries. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection in a country enhances the efficiency of the firms' local research as well as the profitability local development efforts. We test predictions of the model on survey data on foreign and domestic R&D for 605 Japanese multinational firms with manufacturing activities in 42 foreign countries in 1996. We find the strength of IPR protection to have a positive impact both on development expenditures and research expenditures in a country, while both research and development expenditures are also sensitive to local wage costs. Research expenditures depend positively on technological opportunities in the industry and country, while development expenditures are positively affected by potential local demand for the firm's products.R&D, multinational firms, Foreign Direct Investment

Role of Public Expenditures and Macroeconomic Uncertainty in Determining Private Investment in Large Scale Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan

Considering the importance of large scale manufacturing sector in Pakistan economy we analysed investment behavior of private sector in large scale manufacturing. The main emphasis in this paper has been to explore the role of public expenditures development and non development) and macroeconomic uncertainty in determining private sector’s fixed investment in large scale manufacturing. It is found that most of the series are non-stationary and there is one cointegrating relationship between the private investment, public consumption expenditures, public development expenditures and size of market. The dynamic ECM model of private investment indicates public development expenditures enhance the private investment whereas non-development expenditures and macroeconomic uncertainty negatively affect private investment.Private Investment, Public Expenditures, Macroeconomic-uncertainty, Largescale, Cointegration, ecrror correction, pakistan Manufacturing, Cointegration, Pakistan.

Politics and public infrastructure investments in local governments: empirical evidence from Flemish municipalities (1996-2006)

In this paper, we estimate a public infrastructure investment function using a panel data set of 307 Flemish municipalities for the period 1996-2006. We particularly draw attention to political determinants of public infrastructure investment decisions. We show that the characteristics of the government, such as partisan affiliation and fragmentation, affect the level of public infrastructure investments Local governments are also sensitive to the investment policy of neighbouring municipalities. There is a positive interaction effect that changes own investments by 20% of that of neighbouring municipalities. Finally, elections obviously have an impact on investment policy. Investments increase the nearer elections come, with highest investments in the year before elections

The impact of firm-type dominance on regional manufacturing growth

Availability of financial capital and location decisions are variables that influence regional manufacturing output. This study maintains that a region’s manufacturing growth depends upon the region’s firm-type dominance. That is, the type of firms that dominate the region’s manufacturing output can be classified as non-local (national or foreign - NF) vs. local and large vs. small. Accordingly, for policy analysis, regions can be classified by firm-type dominance. This distinction is important since, invariably, location decision options and availability of financial capital are more favourable for the larger NF firms than for local firms. In an attempt to assess the impact of firm-type dominance, this study draws upon the dominant industry model[Salvary 1987]which has established that, in any given region, there is a dominant industry (the driving force of the region) to which a region’s manufacturing growth is linked. The information on the impact of firm-type dominance on a region's manufacturing output may enable policy-makers to design workable (or revise existing) manufacturing diversification policies