421 research outputs found
Patents as quality signals? The implications for financing constraints on R&D
Information about the success of a new technology is usually held asymmetrically between the research and development (R&D)-performing firm and potential lenders and investors. This raises the cost of capital for financing R&D externally, resulting in financing constraints on R&D especially for firms with limited internal resources. Previous literature provided evidence for start-up firms on the role of patents as signals to investors, in particular to Venture Capitalists. This study adds to previous insights by studying the effects of firms ’ patenting activity on the degree of financing constraints on R&D for a panel of established firms. The results show that patents do indeed attenuate financing constraints for small firms where information asymmetries may be particularly high and collateral value is low. Larger firms are not only less subject to financin
Evaluating the Impacts of Subsidies on Innovation Activities in Germany
Innovations are a key factor to ensure the competitiveness of establishments as well as to enhance the growth and wealth of nations. But more than any other economic activity, decisions about innovations are plagued by failures of the market mechanism. As a response, public instruments have been implemented to stimulate private innovation activities. The effectiveness of these measures, however, is ambiguous and calls for an empirical evaluation. In this paper we make use of the IAB Establishment Panel and apply various microeconometric methods to estimate the effect of public measures on innovation activities of German establishments. We find that neglecting sample selection due to observable as well as to unobservable characteristics leads to an overestimation of the treatment effect and that there are considerable differences with regard to size class and betweenWest and East German establishments
Partnering Universities and Companies in Russia: Effects of New Government Initiative
The paper presents the results of 2-year survey conducted in 2011-2012 among Russian universities and companies who jointly implement R&D projects aimed at development of high-tech manufacturing. The joint projects represent a new government instrument to stimulate the development of linkages between universities and companies by giving matching grants for R&D to companies with obligation to order R&D to a university-partner.
The objectives of the survey included analysis of motivation for cooperation both from side of universities and companies; primary effects and side-effects of such initiative; changes that may be introduced to the government regulations concerning matching grants.
Total 38 teams were surveyed. Our findings show that major motivations from side of universities were access to new practical research tasks from companies, selection of most competitive teams of researchers capable to work with companies, and strengthening reputation in business environment. Companies were interested in getting government funding in order to solve their technological problems; to strengthen, due cooperation with universities, their research capacity, and to use modern research infrastructure located at universities.
The analysis allowed identification of the major effects of the matching grants mechanism. They included: strengthening of university orientation towards solving practical tasks which are of interest to business; institutionalization of relations between universities and business in the sphere of innovation activity; broadening of research cooperation and the formation of research consortiums; harmonization of research and educational tasks in universities, and orientation of the parties towards continuing cooperation in the innovation sphere
Publication and patent analysis of European researchers in the field of production technology and manufacturing systems
This paper develops a structured comparison among a sample of European researchers in the field of Production Technology and Manufacturing Systems, on the basis of scientific publications and patents. Researchers are evaluated and compared by a variegated set of indicators concerning (1) the output of individual researchers and (2) that of groups of researchers from the same country. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the results of this preliminary study provide a rough indication of the publishing and patenting activity of researchers in the field of interest, identifying (dis)similarities between different countries. Of particular interest is a proposal for aggregating analysis results by means of maps based on publication and patent indicators. A large amount of empirical data are presented and discusse
Direct and cross-scheme effects in a research and development subsidy program
This study investigates the effects of an R&D subsidy scheme on participating firms’ net R&D
investment. Making use of a specific policy design in Belgium that explicitly distinguishes
between research and development grants, we estimate direct and cross-scheme effects on research
versus development intensities in recipients firms. We find positive direct effects from research
(development) subsidies on net research (development) spending. This direct effect is larger for
research grants than for development grants. We also find cross-scheme effects that may arise due
to complementarity between research and development activities. Finally, we find that the
magnitude of the treatment effects depends on firm size and age and that there is a minimum
effective grant size, especially for research projects. The results support the view that public
subsidies induce higher additional investment particularly in research where market failures are
larger, even when the subsidies are targeting development
Organizational design choices of high-tech startups-How middle management drives innovation performance
Research Summary Innovative products and services are the inspiration for many startups. However, founders find that the management of existing operations competes with the attention that they can devote to innovation. We investigate whether and how establishing a middle management level frees up attention for innovation when firms are newly started. We argue that middle management is positively related to introducing product innovations and that the effect is stronger when founders have larger stocks of pre‐existing knowledge and when the startup's industry provides more innovation opportunities. These hypotheses are supported by an analysis of 2,431 German high‐tech startups founded between 2005 and 2012. Managerial Summary Most high‐tech entrepreneurs acknowledge that an overload of managerial tasks keeps them from advancing innovation in their startups. However, they are often times reluctant to introduce middle management because of a fear that the resulting bureaucratization will stifle innovation. Our study shows that these fears are not justified. Instead, we find for 2,431 high‐tech startups in Germany that startups with middle managers are significantly more innovative than those without. While middle managers might be a roadblock for innovation in large firms, startups benefit from having them. Founders are the central decision makers in startups and can easily be overburdened with management tasks. Middle managers can alleviate parts of this workload and allow founders to focus on creating innovative products and services
Knowledge Creates Markets: The Influence of Entrepreneurial Support and Patent Rights on Academic Entrepreneurship
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