Unemployment, Growth, and Complementarities between Innovation and Knowledge Diffusion

This paper analyzes the relationship between endogenous growth and unemployment. It provides knowledge diffusion as the link between innovation-based growth through creative destruction and the labor market outcome. Three dimensions of knowledge are considered: human capital (general skills), know-how gained through learning-byusing, and codified knowledge accumulated by research activities. Output growth is driven by innovations. However, the implementation of technological progress into a vintage-type production process requires the know-how that is only acquirable by the diffusion of knowledge through learning-by-using. A mutual feedback between research and the employment level thus arises, based on the complementary relationship between the input of labor in R&D and manufacturing. Inadequate knowledge diffusion causes limited growth and mismatch unemployment.mismatch unemployment, innovation-based growth, knowledge diffusion

Platforms, Markets and Innovation: An Introduction

The emergence of platforms, whether used inside firms, across supply chains, or as building blocks that act as engines of innovation and redefine industrial architectures, is a novel phenomenon affecting most industries today, from products to services. This book, the first of its kind dedicated to the emerging field of platform research, presents leading-edge contributions from top international scholars from strategy, economics, innovation, organizations and knowledge management. This book represents a milestone for the vibrant field of platform research. It is the outcome of an ambitious international collaboration, regrouping and making connections between the research work of 24 scholars, affiliated with 19 universities, in seven countries over four continents. The novel insights assembled in the 14 chapters of this volume constitute a fundamental step towards an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the nature of platforms and the implications they hold for the evolution of industrial innovation. But what exactly are platforms? Why should we care about them? And, why do we need a book about them

A Taxonomy of Web-Based Inbound Open Innovation Initiatives

The term “open innovation” describes the opening of innovation processes of organizations to include external knowledge as well as external paths to market. Various concepts are grouped under the umbrella term “open innovation,” and topics such as crowdsourcing are increasingly receiving attention from researchers as well as practitioners. Unfortunately, the broad coverage and the fact that research on open innovation is a relative young research area also led to a very fragmented usage of the term. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the clarification of the term open innovation, and develop a taxonomy of web-based inbound open innovation initiatives from an organizational perspective. Based on a literature review and the examination of 49 examples we develop a taxonomy consisting of the dimensions process phase, outcome focus, group of participants, knowledge visibility, and facilitation

A framework for interactive learning in emerging technologies

Innovation is an interactive learning process which is of special interest for emerging technologies in which complex complementary knowledge from heterogeneous stakeholders is combined. In the emerging phase of technology development a lot of knowledge is tacit and can only be transferred face-to-face. At the same time a shared vision between stakeholders is being formed that acts as a driver for innovation. Although the importance of interactive learning is widely acknowledged, an adequate framework for studying interactive learning processes in emerging technologies is still missing. Therefore we formulated the leading research question: How to understand and conceptualize interactive learning in the context of emerging technologies? We did not only take the outcome of interactive learning into account, but also focused on opening the black box of the interactive learning process. We developed a framework based on characteristic elements of the interactive learning process in emerging technologies (i.e. prime mover, intermediaries, network formation and knowledge flows), influencing conditions (geographical, cognitive, regulatory, cultural and organisational proximity), and the outcome of the interactive learning process (single-loop and double-loop, tacit and codified knowledge). Clarifying examples are taken from the empirical field of the development of novel food products (functional foods).

Assessing the Effectiveness of Innovation Grants – Evidence from the Irish Innovation Panel

Innovation grants are a ubiquitous feature of industrial support regimes across the industrial world. Evidence on their effectiveness is less widespread, however, due to a lack of consistent longitudinal or panel data on innovation outcomes and company performance. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of R&D and innovation grants support in Ireland and Northern Ireland using panel data and a sample selection approach to the modelling of grant impacts. The study is based on the Irish Innovation Panel which provides panel data on the innovation activities of manufacturing firms in Ireland and Northern Ireland over the 1991-2002 period. The use of panel data allows us to investigate the medium to long-term effect of innovation grant support. In other words, we are able to identify whether the receipt of an innovation grant merely increases innovation activity in the short-term or has any lasting effect on either innovation capability or firms’ technological trajectory. The latter outcome is clearly desirable for any region or nation seeking to use innovation grants as a means of boosting long term competitiveness. The use of a sample selection approach allows us to identify separately the ‘selection’ and ‘assistance’ elements of the impact of any innovation grant. In other words, it allows us to control for the positive effects of any targeting of assistance on more innovative or better performing companies and isolate the ‘true’ effect of any innovation grant. To our knowledge this is the first time this approach has been used to assess the impact of innovation grant support although the technique has been used by the authors in a previous analysis of small business assistance. Our results suggest very different time profiles in terms of the benefits from product and process innovation grants suggesting alternative managerial and regional development strategies. Grant support is also found to have strong positive effects on innovation activity even allowing for a wide range of conditioning effects. Our results therefore suggest the continued value of innovation grant support as an element of regions’ industrial support regimes.

Innovation performance and the role of clustering at the local enterprise level: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach

This study, utilizes an innovative methodological approach, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), investigating the drivers of heterogeneous geographies characterizing English Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). The fsQCA technique offers a novel configurational alternative to regression-based approaches investigating the effects of clustering in conjunction with firm-level innovation, university third-sector activity (TSA) and entrepreneurship, on LEPs innovation performance. The findings, offer contributions to the theories of industrial clusters and innovation, regional innovation systems, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurial university innovation within LEPs. First, supporting fsQCAs, no individual variable generates either a positive/negative innovation outcome. Second, while all positive innovation recipes include presence of the cluster variable, for negative innovation recipes, only one does not identify absence of clustering as relevant. Given that the cluster variable does not appear in any recipes without at least one of the other variables suggests activity concentration does not exist in isolation to generate innovation outcomes without other localized conditions existing, e.g. firm-level innovation. Third, there is evidence for the non-cluster-based aspects of knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship with respect to university activity and the entrepreneurial university concept. Instead, roles of entrepreneurship and university TSA, while important, appear to be more peripheral and geographically context specific

An Integrated Model of Innovation Value Chain For Sustainable Competitive Advantage In High-tech Industry

Measuring innovation outputs has been accomplished mainly through the relationship between innovation management and product design and development, especially for patenting. Today, companies are facing increased turbulence and complexity in the business environment, such as globalization, digitalization and mobilization. To meet these challenges, both the popular and the academic press are advising companies to focus their attention toward innovation in order to create and sustain competitive advantage. A firm‘s performance depends on how much its managers can mobilize the knowledge resources of individuals and teams in its value chain and how well they can turn these resources into activities that lead to value creation in hyper-competitive markets. Knowledge management literature reveals the increasing importance of innovation in those high-tech manufacturing firms, in which knowledge turns into the main source of competitive advantage. Innovation in high-tech firms is progressively turning into a systematic process, especially for determined high-tech industries such as electronic products. The study aims to develop an integrated model of innovation value chain (IVC), the model integrates knowledge management and innovation management in high-tech Industries from a knowledge-based theory perspective and integrates IVC to reach value creation and then to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. IVC is a thinking tool which can be used to define those enterprises involved in innovation activities such as product development. Each link in the chain needs to add value to innovation. IVC helps think through the often-complex relationships in product development and look for improvements in relationships (with suppliers, customers, partners and competitors) and partnerships. The integrated model inputs from knowledge-based competition (Globalization, digitalization and mobilization) to integrate IVC to reach value creation (employees‘, suppliers‘, partners‘ customers‘ and competitors‘ value) and then to achieve the outcome: sustainable competitive advantage. The importance of the proposed model was theoretically discussed for practitioners and future researchers. The integrated IVC model can act as a list of items for high-tech Industries to address when adopting innovation value chain. This helps to ensure that the essential issues and approaches are covered during implementation. For academics, it provides a common language for them to discuss and study the approaches crucial for the success of innovation value chain in high-tech Industries

Triz business improvement and innovation framework for Malaysian small and medium enterprise

MPC and MyTRIZ have focused on the initiative to expose the Malaysia TRIZ Practitioners with the latest TRIZ development to acquire a wider perspective of TRIZ practices around the world, encourage Malaysia TRIZ Community to share ideas and collaborate with TRIZ experts from other countries, and apply the knowledge acquired to develop various new products, processes, services or systems for international and local customers. Hence, in order to ignite the effort, a framework was developed to mobilize the initiative of adopting TRIZ for the Malaysian industries, focusing primarily on Small Medium Enterprise (SME). This research explored the framework to expand the knowledge of TRIZ for the targeted industries. Most of the inputs were extracted from the experienced academicians and industrial experts who have used TRIZ as part of their core subject. The proposed framework is expected to meet the needs of business owners, which focuses on the outcome of any improvement or innovation initiative. The proposed outcome-based improvement framework is intended to suit the Malaysian environment and be able to perform effectively in terms of increasing innovation in the industries

Indicators Measuring University-Industry Cooperation

The aim of this paper is to describe the indicators for measuring different types of collaboration activities between universities and industry. Popular indicators for measuring university-industry cooperation are the number and amount of patents or licences, but these do not express the knowledge transfer and university-industry cooperation most adequately, as the collaboration and knowledge transfer also takes place through other types of cooperation. Although it is easier use input and output indicators for measuring university-industry cooperation, the focus should be on the economic impact of the collaboration. Additionally, relationship-based indicators should also be used. In Estonia different input factors are widely used. As university-industry cooperation is an input in innovation processes, the desired outcome should be a higher level of innovation, productivity, competitiveness, and growth, which has to be considered in the development of policies

R&D Network and value Creation in SMEs

Research and development functions are fundamental drivers of value creation in technology-based Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) seemingly successful R&D is a function of innovation processes and R&D networks. There is a perceived lack of understanding regarding the importance of SMEs and their need to continuously enhance their technological capabilities for the purpose of establishing themselves a dominant market position. In this paper R&D network issues from the perspective of their impact on value creation in SMEs have been studied. One very important trend to enable new knowledge creation and transfer in and to SME's is the development of collaborative environments and networks to increase their innovation capabilities as a single unit but also the capabilities of the network as a whole through collective learning. SMEs seem to be appropriate units to behave like network nodes because of their lean structure, adaptability to market evolution, active involvement of versatile human resources, ability to establish sub-contracting relations and good technological level of their products. SMEs not only shape the larger outcome, but also constrain actions of the state and MNCs in demand-responsive, buyer-driven networks. The objective of this paper is the notice to creation of a network of SMEs that are perhaps geographically dispersed but virtually linked so that the participating members focus on their specialized tasks yet also share their knowledge and experience resources to create an agile structured and flexible enterprise.R&D, Network, value Creation, SMEs