Financing constraints, R&D investments and innovative performances: new empirical evidence at the firm level for Europe

The relationship between financing constraints, investments in research and development (R&D) and innovative performances has recently attracted renewed attention in the aftermath of a financial crisis that has led to problems of access to the credit on which innovation activities crucially rely. In spite of past developments in the theoretical analysis and in the data and methodologies for empirical investigation, some issues have remained unexplored to date. In this introduction to the special issue, we examine the contribution of the papers it contains, which provide new conceptualisations and empirical evidence at the firm level for Europe. Most previous research results, which were mainly based on extending models of financing constraints and physical investments to R&D investments, are confirmed, while new insights about this relationship are uncovered, in terms of the structural characteristics of the constrained firms, of the industries in which they operate, of their innovative activities and of the innovation outcomes they achieve

Critical Elements of R&D Management: Case Study of Three Firms from Different Sectors of Industry

Across industries, firms vary broadly on how they operate their respective Research & Development, R&D. This study is conducted to holistically evaluate the critical elements of R&D Management—R&D Planning, R&D Organization, R&D Portfolio Management, R&D Project Management, and R&D Knowledge Transfer—by assessing R&D management from different sectors. This framework puts the spotlights of R&D management on three well-known firms— Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Intel Corporation, and Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA). The research methodology is based on an intensive literature review by delving into the literature to have a full understanding of the critical elements of R&D management. In addition, R&D managers from the three firms were interviewed in order to gain insight on how R&D management functions within the critical elements of R&D management. A questionnaire was developed, and the questions asked were at the macro scale to avoid confidentiality concerns that might arise. The research findings highlight the fact that despite the differences among the firms’ R&D orientation—stemmed from company’s size, number of employees, nature of the industry, and budget being spent on R&D—the pipeline of R&D management of the three firms are almost the same at the macro scale

The Middle Income Trap: A Way Out Based on Technological and Structural Change

This article is intended to provide an updated discussion on a series of issues that the relevant literature suggests to be crucial in dealing with the challenges a middle income country may encounter in its attempts to further catch up to a higher income status. In particular, the conventional economic wisdom\u2014ranging from the Lewis-Kuznets model to the endogenous growth approach\u2014will be contrasted with the Schumpeterian and evolutionary views pointing to the role of capabilities and knowledge, considered as key inputs to foster economic growth. Then, attention will be turned to structural change and innovation, trying to map\u2014using the taxonomies put forward by the innovation literature\u2014the concrete ways through which a middle income country can engage in a technological catching-up, having in mind that developing countries are deeply involved in globalized markets where domestic innovation has to be complemented by the role played by international technological transfer. Among the ways that a middle income country can foster domestic innovation and structural change in terms of sectoral diversification and product differentiation, a recent stream of literature underscores the potentials of local innovative entrepreneurship, which will also be discussed bridging entrepreneurial studies with the development literature. Finally, the possible consequences of catching up in terms of jobs and skills will be discussed