Location and R&D alliances in the European ICT industry

This paper shows empirically that in an intra-industry oligopolistic scenario the location of a firm's innovative activities plays an important role in determining its partner selection in R&D alliances. Such a role is mainly attributed to a strategic use of R&D alliances as a means to limit knowledge flows and protect competences, rather than to promote knowledge flows. By drawing on a novel dataset matching alliances and patent data for the European ICT industry, the econometric analysis shows that partners' prior co-location (at both national and sub-national regional level), previous ties and technological overlap matter in the choice of partner, while common nationality has a negative impact on alliance formation.alliances, strategy, efficiency, R&D location

Location and R&D alliances in the European ICT industry

This paper shows empirically that in an intra-industry oligopolistic scenario the location of a firm’s innovative activities plays an important role in determining its partner selection in R&D alliances. Such a role is mainly attributed to a strategic use of R&D alliances as a means to limit knowledge flows and protect competences, rather than to promote knowledge flows. By drawing on a novel dataset matching alliances and patent data for the European ICT industry, the econometric analysis shows that partners’ prior co-location (at both national and sub-national regional level), previous ties and technological overlap matter in the choice of partner, while common nationality has a negative impact on alliance formation.Alliances, R&D location, strategy, co-location, knowledge flows

The Evolution of Trade and Technological in the Italian regions

The deepening of the integration process with the acceleration of the Single European Market (SEM), the forthcoming adoption of a single currency together with the political plans of eastwards enlargement of the European Union (EU%29 rise problems of disparities and inequalities between and within member states. The existence of cross-border imbalances within the EU area and the relevance of the issue for a successful socio-economic integration have been widely pointed out by the literature. The convergence in GDP levels across the EU regions registered up to the 1970s slowed down in the 1980s and started to reverse in the early 1990s. The awareness of this phenomenon has promoted the flourishing of socio-economic investigations based on the region as a territorial unit of analysis in order to better understand local dynamics driving convergence/divergence processes. Amidst the more general globalisation trend, localised knowledge spillovers and geographical concentration of economic activity seem to underlie these processes. In fact, despite of the fast pace of technological change and the massive reduction of space and time constrains, geographical agglomeration matters more than ever before for the purpose of global competitiveness. If the geographical perspective has shifted from the national to the regional level in the investigation of growth differentials, it has also turned out that innovative capabilities account for a good deal in explaining inter-regional disparities. The latter seem to greatly depend upon local innovative capacities, without, however, disregarding economic-structural and institutional factors. Structural and innovative processes are closely connected and mutually reinforced by virtuous and vicious circles%2C characterising respectively “success stories” of rapid industrial and technological development and catching up, and “falling behind” models of insufficient structural change and lack of organisational flexibility and systemic interaction. Within the European arena, the heterogeneous socio-economic conditions of the Italian regions are a clear example of intra-border imbalances. In the Italian peninsula, the north-south gap, reflected in the distinction between most advanced and less favoured regions, calls for a better understanding of both structural and technological profiles of the regional sectoral systems. By providing further insight into the convergence/divergence processes of regional industrial systems in Italy, this paper will attempt to identify production and innovative potentials developed within each regional unit. The ultimate aim is to explain current leading and lagging-behind conditions as well as to focus on the developing trajectories of consolidation and redefinition of regional competitive positions. For this purpose, economic, technological and locational factors will be evaluated. As the heterogeneity of the Italian regional systems is far to be an exception in the EU, the results of this analysis and their policy implications may well be relevant to the domestic realities of other member states. Going into the details of the analysis, the paper tests the hypothesis of whether technology effort impacts on regional internationalisation (understood in terms of international trade) over time. In doing so, the evolution of sectoral trade specialisation is sketched in order to evaluate the trajectories of regional competitive patterns. The emphasis on the sectoral aspects shed some light on the knowledge exchange and learning underlying trade flows. Moreover, in order to evaluate the significance of cross-regional differences in this context, the investigation goes further by identifying regional profiles of production structure.

New insights on the role of location advantages in international innovation

This paper takes a closer look at the role of location advantages in the spatial distribution of MNE R&D activity. In doing so, we have returned to first principles by revisiting our understanding of L and O advantages and their interaction. We revisit the meaning of L advantages, and offer a succinct differentiation of L advantages. We emphasise the importance of institutions, and flesh out the concept of collocation L advantages, which play an important role at the industry and firm levels of analysis. Just because a country possesses certain L advantages when viewed at a macro-level, does not imply that these are available to all industries or all firms in that location without differential cost. When these are linked to the distinction between location-bound and non location-bound O advantages, and we distinguish between MNEs and subsidiaries it allows for a clearer understanding of the MNE's spatially distributed activities. These are discussed here in the context of R&D, which - in addition to the usual uncertainties faced by firms - must deal with the uncertainties associated with innovation. Although prior literature has sometimes framed the centralisation/decentralisation, spatial separation/collocation debates as a paradox facing firms, when viewed within the context of the cognitive limits to resources, the complexities of institutions, and the slow pace of the evolving specialisation of locations, these are in actuality trade-offs firms must make.FDI, foreign investment, direct investment, multinationals, transnational corporations, MNEs, eclectic paradigm, collocation, locational advantage, country specific advantages

Location and R&D Alliances in the European ICT Industry

This paper shows empirically that in an intra-industry oligopolistic scenario the location of a firm’s innovative activities plays an important role in determining its partner selection in R&D alliances. Such a role is mainly attributed to a strategic use of R&D alliances as a means to limit knowledge flows and protect competences, rather than to promote knowledge flows. By drawing on a novel dataset matching alliances and patent data for the European ICT industry, the econometric analysis shows that partners’ prior co-location (at both national and sub-national regional level), previous ties and technological overlap matter in the choice of partner, while common nationality has a negative impact on alliance formation.Alliances, strategy, efficiency, R&D location

The Evolution of Trade and Technological in the Italian regions

The deepening of the integration process with the acceleration of the Single European Market (SEM), the forthcoming adoption of a single currency together with the political plans of eastwards enlargement of the European Union (EU%29 rise problems of disparities and inequalities between and within member states. The existence of cross-border imbalances within the EU area and the relevance of the issue for a successful socio-economic integration have been widely pointed out by the literature. The convergence in GDP levels across the EU regions registered up to the 1970s slowed down in the 1980s and started to reverse in the early 1990s. The awareness of this phenomenon has promoted the flourishing of socio-economic investigations based on the region as a territorial unit of analysis in order to better understand local dynamics driving convergence/divergence processes. Amidst the more general globalisation trend, localised knowledge spillovers and geographical concentration of economic activity seem to underlie these processes. In fact, despite of the fast pace of technological change and the massive reduction of space and time constrains, geographical agglomeration matters more than ever before for the purpose of global competitiveness. If the geographical perspective has shifted from the national to the regional level in the investigation of growth differentials, it has also turned out that innovative capabilities account for a good deal in explaining inter-regional disparities. The latter seem to greatly depend upon local innovative capacities, without, however, disregarding economic-structural and institutional factors. Structural and innovative processes are closely connected and mutually reinforced by virtuous and vicious circles%2C characterising respectively “success stories” of rapid industrial and technological development and catching up, and “falling behind” models of insufficient structural change and lack of organisational flexibility and systemic interaction. Within the European arena, the heterogeneous socio-economic conditions of the Italian regions are a clear example of intra-border imbalances. In the Italian peninsula, the north-south gap, reflected in the distinction between most advanced and less favoured regions, calls for a better understanding of both structural and technological profiles of the regional sectoral systems. By providing further insight into the convergence/divergence processes of regional industrial systems in Italy, this paper will attempt to identify production and innovative potentials developed within each regional unit. The ultimate aim is to explain current leading and lagging-behind conditions as well as to focus on the developing trajectories of consolidation and redefinition of regional competitive positions. For this purpose, economic, technological and locational factors will be evaluated. As the heterogeneity of the Italian regional systems is far to be an exception in the EU, the results of this analysis and their policy implications may well be relevant to the domestic realities of other member states. Going into the details of the analysis, the paper tests the hypothesis of whether technology effort impacts on regional internationalisation (understood in terms of international trade) over time. In doing so, the evolution of sectoral trade specialisation is sketched in order to evaluate the trajectories of regional competitive patterns. The emphasis on the sectoral aspects shed some light on the knowledge exchange and learning underlying trade flows. Moreover, in order to evaluate the significance of cross-regional differences in this context, the investigation goes further by identifying regional profiles of production structure

Location, collocation and innovation by multinational enterprises: a research agenda

The distribution of creative economic activity over space has been viewed from three distinct perspectives. International business focuses on the multinational enterprise and the location of activities across national borders; economic geography studies the characteristics of the location site; and innovation scholars are mainly concerned with the technologies and knowledge that arises from the interaction of location and the creativity of actors. All these communities have drawn attention to collocation. However, the nexus of the three literatures is surprisingly thin, in particular with regard to the conditions under which collocation is an advantage or a disadvantage. In this paper, we take stock of the knowledge developed by the three communities and move the discussion further by qualifying a number of these conditions. Based on these considerations, we then propose a number of directions for future research

Corporate social responsibility in the global value chain: a bargaining perspective

Breaches of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in global value chains (GVCs) pose a managerial challenge for multinational enterprises (MNEs) and threaten both their reputations and global sustainability. While an MNE-centric perspective on these issues has dominated existing international business research, we show that a dynamic view of bargaining among actors in the GVC can yield novel insights. We draw on coalitional game theory and develop a model where an MNE collaborates, monitors, and negotiates prices with a supplier whose CSR breaches may be revealed by the MNE, external agents, or remain hidden. Our model illustrates how MNEs may face a hold-up problem when irresponsible actions by suppliers are made public, and the suppliers have the power to engage in opportunistic renegotiation. Interestingly, we show that greater monitoring by MNEs, if not combined with specific strategies, can have negative consequences by weakening the MNE's bargaining position and, in some cases, even prompting more irresponsible actions by the suppliers. Our model advances international business research on GVC sustainability and has important implications for managers and researchers alike

Refugee Hiring and Organizational Performance

Prior research on the performance effects of hiring immigrants has mainly considered people who choose to move to other countries. We shift attention to forced migrants (i.e., refugees) and study the relationship between their employment and firm performance. We focus on the specific labor market conditions that refugees face and theorize that performance improves among firms that hire refugees. We explain this relationship using two interconnected mechanisms that revolve around refugees’ limited outside options. First, as refugees have strong incentives to remain employed, they put extensive effort into their jobs, work long hours, and, thereby, reduce the employer’s labor costs related to worker turnover (effort mechanism). Second, as refugees are generally willing to accept low pay, hiring them reduces the employer’s labor costs related to salaries (remuneration mechanism). Moreover, we theorize that greater job insecurity at the hiring firm strengthens both mechanisms because it increases refugees’ perceived risk of being fired and their fear of being unemployed. We find support for our theoretical predictions in a matched sample of 27,782 firms in Denmark covering the period from 2001 to 2016. History: This paper has been accepted for the Organization Science Special Issue on Migration and Organization. Funding: V. Rocha received financial support from the Carlsberg Foundation [Grant CF21-0156]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15980 . </jats:p