Does New Zealand have an innovation system for biotechnology?

While there is a large and growing international literature on economic aspects of biotechnology innovation (e.g. work by Carlsson, McKelvey, Orsenigo, Zucker and Darby) these studies concentrate on the United States and Europe. The New Zealand biotechnology industry may be expected to develop along a different trajectory as a consequence of a markedly different set of initial and framework conditions. This paper presents the results of an ongoing study that aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of innovation processes in New Zealand while using the international literature as a benchmark. The size and structure of modern biotech activity in New Zealand is described and compared to other OECD countries using biotech patent data and results from the New Zealand and Canadian biotechnology surveys. The paper then focuses on factors affecting innovation in biotechnology; framework conditions, government policy R&D funding and the role of networks and other linkages

The Link Between R&D Subsidies, R&D Spending and Technological Performance

This paper analyzes the effects of public R&D funding on R&D expenditure and patenting behavior of German firms. The main focus is the direct impact of subsidies on R&D and the indirect effect on innovation output measured by patent applications. We distinguish the productivity of purely privately financed R&D and additional R&D induced by public incentive schemes. For this, a treatment effects analysis is conducted in a first step. The results are implemented into the estimation of a patent production function. It turns out that both purely privately financed R&D and publicly induced R&D show a positive productivity. --R&D,Subsidies,Patents,Treatment Effects

The Knowledge Production Function for University Patenting

We estimate a knowledge production function for university patenting using an individual effects negative binomial model. We control for R&D expenditures, research field and the presence of a TTO office. We distinguish between three kinds of researchers who staff labs: faculty, postdoctoral students and PhD students. We also examine whether PhDs and postdoctoral scholars contribute equally to patent activity or whether there is a differential effect depending upon visa status. We find patent counts relate positively and significantly to the number of faculty, number of PhD students and number of postdocs. Our results also suggest that not all graduate students and postdocs contribute equally to patenting but that contribution is mediated by visa status. Working Paper 07-0

Fostering innovation in a small open economy: The case of the New Zealand biotechnology sector

The New Zealand Biotechnology sector is worthy of study for several reasons. While there is a large and growing international literature on economic aspects of biotechnology innovation these studies concentrate on the United States and Europe. The New Zealand biotechnology sector may be expected to develop along a different trajectory as a consequence of a markedly different set of initial and framework conditions. Government has indicated a strong interest in fostering innovation and aims to concentrate on selected areas where New Zealand may be able to develop a new comparative advantage. One such area is biotechnology, which would build on New Zealand’s existing comparative advantage in the primary sector (dairy, forestry, meat, wool and horticulture). This paper describes the preliminary results of an ongoing study that aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of innovation processes in New Zealand while using the international literature as a benchmark. The paper focuses on the drivers of innovation in the biotechnology sector; the role of networks and other linkages; the role of government and industry, the role of human and venture capital, and data from patenting

The Link between Environmental Innovation, Patents, and Environmental Management

This paper analyses empirically the relationship between environmental innovations, environmental management and patenting. In particular it tests a number of propositions on how environmental management systems and the interaction with environmentally more or less concerned stakeholders are associated with the probability of firms to pursue innovation in general (measured as patenting behaviour) and specifically environmental innovation (measured as firm self-assessment and based on patent data). In applying a negative binomial as well as binary discrete choice models the relationship is studied using data on German manufacturing firms. As a novel and important insight, the study finds that environmental innovation can be meaningfully identified using patent data and that environmental innovation defined this way is less ubiquitous than self-reported environmental innovation. It also reveals that the implementation level of environmental management systems has a positive effect exclusively on environmental process innovation, whereas it is negatively associated with the level of a firm’s general patenting activities. For environmental product innovation and patented environmental innovations a positive relationship with environ-mentally concerned and a negative link with environmentally neutral stakeholders is found.Environmental innovations, patents

Streamlining Microdata for the Analysis of ICT, Innovation and Performance

This report portrays the outcomes of the workshop Bridging microeconomic data sources for the analysis of ICT, innovation and performance organised by IPTS on the state of art in international micro-founded analyses on Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), R&D, innovation, and economic performance. Micro-level statistics allow to elicit the internal variability of productive systems. For this reason, they can be extremely useful for understanding industry and macro dynamics, as well as for policy design and monitoring. Nonetheless, large-scale application of these statistics is still limited for different reasons, mostly related to the availability of information. Against this background, the workshop aimed to provide a broad overview of completed and ongoing analyses at National, European and OECD levels, and also to share experiences and discuss proposals to address current issues and fully deploy the potential of micro-data. The studies presented covered the whole techno-economic paradigm related to ICTs, innovation and performance, including: factors determining the intensity and sophistication of ICT usage; its relationships with patterns of innovation and performance at firm and macroeconomic levels; the determinants of the EU-US gap in research and knowledge intensive activities; the role of entrepreneurship, and the capability of firms to grow. To this end, the studies used a number of sources in different combinations. Methodological issues addressed in the presentations and debate included: problems encountered when trying to enhance the potential of bridging micro-sources and possible solutions, interactions with macro data, complementary and non-official statistical sources; measurement of ICT-related activities and R&D across the economy, and the reconciliation of company information to BERD (business expenditure in R&D) statistics; the building of composite indicators and their effectiveness, etc. The report summarises experiences and views gathered and shared on these topics.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ

Patents, technological inputs and spillovers among regions

This paper analyses the importance of different technological inputs (R&D and human capital) and different spillovers in explaining the differences in patenting among Spanish regions in the period 1986-2003. The analysis is based on the estimation of a knowledge production function. A region’s own R&D activities and human capital are observed to have a positive significant effect on innovation output, measured by the number of patents. R&D spillovers weighted by the distance and the volume of trade flows between regions cause positive effects on a region’s patents. However, distance matters more than the intensity of trade flows and the R&D spillover effects between regions are bounded: spillovers from closer regions perform better than spillovers from distant regions. On the opposite side, human capital spillovers do not cause any effect outside the region itself.patents, R&D, human capital, spillovers

The role of internationalization as a determinant of innovation performance: an analysis of 42 countries

This paper analyses the impact of internationalization on the innovation performance of 42 countries. Innovation performance – the dependent variable – is measured by the number of triad patents and PCT applications that originate from a country. The following internationalization variables – independent variables – are used: inward and outward stock of FDI, exports and imports as well as the number of parent companies in a country. Information on patents and the internationalization variables, together with further explanatory variables, including the number of scientific articles in a country, the number of Internet users, the R&D intensity and the share of value added in services, are collected for the years 1990 to 2008. Regressions are performed for all countries together, and, then, for two groups of countries clustered on the basis of their GDP per capita. We estimate two linear models, one based on pooled data estimating the classic linear model, and one on panel data, estimating a fixed effects linear model. The values of our dependent variables lead by up to six years for two reasons: to account for the time that elapses between an invention and the recording of the patent statistic, and, to address at least to some extent, issues associated with endogeneity in our independent variables. The paper finds support for a positive impact of internationalization on countries’ innovation performance. Our analyses suggest that competing in international markets via outward FDI and exports increases the scope of learning and the need to innovate. We find evidence of a negative relationship between patenting and inward FDI as well as imports. We interpret our results to indicate that (a) the inward inflow of investment or products can be less innovation-intensive than a country’s domestic activities which would be the case for more advanced and innovation-active countries; or (b) that a country does not have a sufficient absorption capacity to benefit from inflows

Innovation and Firm Growth in High-Tech Sectors: A Quantile Regression Approach

We relate innovation to sales growth for incumbent firms in four high-tech sectors. A firm, on average, experiences only modest growth and may grow for a number of reasons that may or may not be related to ‘innovativeness’. However, given that firms are heterogeneous and that growth rates distributions are heavy-tailed, it may be misleading to use regression techniques that focus on the ‘average firm’. Using a quantile regression approach, we observe that innovativeness is of crucial importance for a handful of ‘superstar’ fast-growth firms. We also discuss policy implications of our results.Innovation, Firm Growth, Quantile Regression, Innovation Policy