Barriers to innovation: can firm age help lower them?

This paper examines how firm age can affect a firm’s perception of the obstacles (deterring vs. revealed) that hamper and delay innovation. Using a comprehensive panel of Spanish firms for the period 2004-2011, the empirical analysis conducted shows that distinct types of obstacle are perceived differently by firms of different ages. First, a clear-cut negative relationship is identified between firm age and a firm’s assessment of both the internal and external shortages of financial resources. Second, young firms seem to be less sensitive to the lack of qualified personnel when initiating an innovative project than when they are already engaged in such activities. By contrast, the attempts of mature firms to engage in innovation activity are significantly affected by the lack of qualified personnel. Finally, mature incumbents appear to attach greater importance to obstacles related to market structure and demand than is the case of firms with less experience

How Do Young Innovative Companies Innovate?

This paper discusses the determinants of product innovation in young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external R&D and at the acquisition of external technology in embodied and disembodied components. These input-output relationships are tested on a sample of innovative Italian firms. A sample-selection approach is applied. Results show that in-house R&D is linked to the propensity to introduce product innovation both in mature firms and YICs; however, innovation intensity in the YICs is mainly dependent on embodied technical change from external sources, while − in contrast with the incumbent firms − in-house R&D does not play a significant role.R&D, product innovation, embodied technical change, CIS 3, sample selection

R&D Drivers in Young Innovative Companies

This paper examines the determinants of young innovative companies' (YICs) R&D activities taking into account the autoregressive nature of innovation. Using a large longitudinal dataset comprising Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2008, we find that previous R&D experience is a fundamental determinant for mature and young firms, albeit to a smaller extent in the case of the YICs, suggesting that their innovation behaviour is less persistent and more erratic. Moreover, our results suggest that firm and market characteristics play a distinct role in boosting the innovation activity of firms of different age. In particular, while market concentration and the degree of product diversification are found to be important in fostering R&D activities in the sub-sample of mature firms only, YICs' spending on R&D appears to be more sensitive to demand-pull variables, suggesting the presence of credit constraints. These results have been obtained using a recently proposed dynamic type-2 tobit estimator, which accounts for individual effects and efficiently handles the initial conditions problem.R&D, innovation, Young Innovative Companies (YICs), dynamic type-2 tobit estimator

Innovation persistence and employment dynamics

This paper examines the effect of persistence in product and process innovations on the employment dynamics of a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms observed over more than 20 years. We build on a conceptual framework that links innovation persistence, employment growth and the persistence of this growth in the long-run. Using dynamic panel GMM and survival analysis techniques, we find that persistence in product innovation affects both employment growth and the sustainability of job creation over time significantly, whilst persistence in process innovation does not play any relevant role. The evidence we provide supports the notion that product innovation is more effective in spurring sustained employment growth when carried out systematically

No money, no honey? Financial versus knowledge and demand constraints on innovation

The paper adds to the literature on the barriers to innovation in two ways. First, we assess comparatively what mostly constrains firms’ ability to translate investment in innovation activity into new products and processes, whether it is mainly finance, as most of the literature would suggest, or whether it is mostly knowledge and market-related aspects. Second, we suggest a method to correct for the sample selection bias that often affects empirical contributions to this scholarship. By filtering out firms that are not interested in innovation from those that struggle to engage in it, we obtain a relevant sample of potential innovators, which allows us to analyse the comparative effect of financial and non-financial barriers on innovation success. We find that demand-side factors, particularly concentrated market structure and lack of demand, are as important as financial constraints in determining firms’ innovation failures. This evidence redirects attention from financial to non-financial barriers by considering traditional demand, market structure and regulation factors involved in reduced firm innovation performance. The empirical analysis is based on an unbalanced panel of firm-level data from four waves of the UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS) between 2002 and 2010 merged with data from the UK Business Structure Database

Innovation strategies and firm growth

In this work, we explore the relations between sales growth and a set of innovation indicators that capture the different sources, modes and results of the innovative activity undertaken within firms. We exploit a rich panel on innovation activity of Spanish manufacturing firms, reporting detailed CIS-type information continuously over the period 2004-2011. Standard GMMpanel estimates of the average effect of innovation activities reveal significant and positive effect for internal R&D, while no effect is found for external sourcing of knowledge (external R&D, acquisition of embodied and disembodied technologies) as well as for output of innovation (process and product innovation). However, fixed-effects quantile regressions reveal that innovation activities, apart from process innovation and disembodied technical change, display a positive effect on high-growth performance. Finally, we find evidence of super-modularity of the growth function, revealing complementarities of internal R&D with product innovation, and between product and process innovation

Don't stop me now: barriers to innovation and firm productivity

This paper analyses the effect of financial, knowledge, demand, market structure and regulation barriers to innovation on firm's economic performance. It contributes to the literature on barriers to innovation in a two-fold way. First, it distentangles the mediated effect of obstacles, via product, process and organisational innovation, on labour productivity. Second, it accounts for the differentiated effect that each of the barriers has on firms positioned along the productivity distribution. We do so by employing both quantile regression techniques and propensity score matching on the UK CIS panel 2002-2010 merged with the Business Structure database. While we find evidence that financial obstacles negatively affect productivity across the distribution, and are more pronounced for young rather than small firms, knowledge and regulatory obstacles mostly affect high productivity firms. Interestingly, the perceptions of market structure and demand obstacles are positively associated to productivity performance confirming their 'revealed' rather than 'deterring' nature

The role of demand in fostering product vs process innovation: a model and an empirical test

Dawid H, Pellegrino G, Vivarelli M. The role of demand in fostering product vs process innovation: a model and an empirical test. Journal of Evolutionary Economics. 2021;31:1553-1572

Annoted provisional list of the Crambidae (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea) of the Salento Peninsula (South Italy), second contribution

ItLa fauna entomologica della Penisola Salentina (Sud Italia) risulta essere scarsamente indagata, come affermato in Durante e Panzera (2004) e ribadito in diversi lavori (es., Durante e Potenza, 2016; Durante et al., 2021). I risultati di questo lavoro evidenziano, nell'area geografica investigata, la presenza di 18 specie della famiglia Crambidae (superfamiglia Pyraloidea), di cui 4 relative alla sottofamiglia Odontiinae, 7 relative alla sottofamiglia Crambinae, 1 relativa alla sottofamiglia Evergestinae, 1 relativa alla sottofamiglia Pyraustinae, 2 relative alla sottofamiglia Spilomelinae, 1 relativa alla sottofamiglia Glaphyriinae, 2 relative alla sottofamiglia Acentropinae. Inoltre, sulla base della bibliografia consultata, delle 18 specie di Crambidae rinvenute, 15 sono nuove segnalazioni per il Salento, di cui 6 risultano nuove per l'Italia meridionale, 6 per la Puglia e, di conseguenza, solo 3 erano già state segnalate nel territorio salentino. I dati esposti in questo lavoro non possono ancora considerarsi definitivi, in quanto si stanno esaminando ancora molti esemplari, ciò nondimeno si è ritenuto di un certo rilievo pubblicarne i risultati.EnAs pointed out in Durante and Panzera (2004) and various other works (e.g. Durante and Potenza, 2016; Durante et al., 2021), the entomological fauna of the Salento Peninsula (Southern Italy) has not been extensively investigated. The results of this study highlight, in the studied area, the presence of 18 species in the family Crambidae (superfamily Pyraloidea), of which 4 belong to the subfamily Odontiinae, 7 to the subfamily Crambinae, 1 to the subfamily Evergestinae, 1 to the subfamily Pyraustinae, 2 to the subfamily Spilomelinae, 1 to the subfamily Glaphyriinae, 2 to the subfamily Acentropinae. In addition, based on the consulted bibliography, of the 18 species of Crambidae discovered, 15 are new records for Salento, of which 6 are new for Southern Italy, 6 for Apulia and, accordingly, only 3 having already been reported for the Salento. The data presented in this paper are not to be considered definitive, as the authors are still examining the material. Nonetheless, the results achieved thus far are thought to be of some value

Sources and modes of innovation: young companies vs mature incumbents

Questa tesi si compone di tre capitoli che analizzano a livello empirico le fonti e le caratteristiche dell’attività innovativa di imprese giovani e mature operanti in due stati europei: Italia e Spagna. Nel dettaglio, nel Capitolo 2 l’attenzione è rivolata all’analisi delle determinanti della R&S delle giovani imprese, mentre nel Capitolo 3 e 4 si analizzano possibili differenze fra imprese giovani e mature circa la natura del legame esistente fra differenti input e output innovativi. I risultati delle stime econometriche realizzate nei 3 capitoli forniscono rilevanti indicazioni in merito a questi aspetti. In particolare, sembrerebbe che l’età sia un fattore fondamentale nel determinare le scelte e la performance innovativa di un’impresa. Entrando maggiormente nel dettaglio, differenti caratteristiche di impresa e fattori di mercato giocano un ruolo distinto nel determinare le peculiarità del processo innovativo svolto da imprese di differente età. In aggiunta a ciò, si riscontrano importanti differenze anche in merito ai fattori che determinano la performance innovativa di imprese giovani e mature. Queste evidenze di tipo generale potrebbero essere un segnale della scarsa efficacia delle innumerevoli politiche “erga-omnes” poste in essere a livello europeo al fine di aumentare l’intensità della spesa innovativa (con particolare riferimento alla R&S).This thesis consists of three essays that explore the sources and modes of innovation activity in mature and young firms. In detail, Chapter 2 focuses on the determinants of young companies’ R&D activity, while Chapter 3 and 4 study the relationship between different innovative inputs and different innovative outputs by distinguishing among firms of different ages (mature vs young). The results of the econometric analyses performed in the three chapters shed some important light on the peculiarities of the innovative process of the young companies operating in two European countries: Spain and Italy. More in detail, they clearly suggest that the age of a firm is a relevant factor in determining its innovative behavior and its innovative performance. To be precise, what emerges is that various firm and market characteristics play distinct roles in boosting different types of innovation activities for young and mature firms. In addition, these two groups of firms seem to show important differences also with reference to the impact of various innovative inputs on their innovative performance. These general evidence could represent a signal of the ineffectiveness of “erga-omnes” polices aimed at increasing the level of R&D expenditure across all types of industries