Regional innovation and spillover effects of foreign direct investment in China: a threshold approach

Using a data set on twenty-nine Chinese provinces for the period 1985–2008, this paper establishes a threshold model to analyse the relationship between spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) and regional innovation in China. There is clear evidence of double-threshold effects of regional innovation on productivity spillovers from FDI. Specifically, only when the level of regional innovation reaches the minimum innovation threshold will FDI in the region begin to produce positive productivity spillovers. Furthermore, positive productivity spillovers from FDI will be substantial only when the level of regional innovation attains a higher threshold. The double threshold divides Chinese provinces into three super-regions in terms of innovation, with most provinces positioned within the middle-level innovation super-region. Policy implications are discussed

Unraveling the Shift to the Entrepreneurial Economy

A recent literature has emerged providing compelling evidence that a major shift in the organization of the developed economies has been taking place: away from what has been characterized as the managed economy towards the entrepreneurial economy. In particular, the empirical evidence provides consistent support that (1) the role of entrepreneurship has significantly increased, and (2) a positive relationship exists between entrepreneurial activity and economic performance. However, the factors underlying this observed shift have not been identified in a systematic manner. The purpose of this paper is to suggest some of the factors leading to this shift and implications for public policy. In particular, we find that a fundamental catalyst underlying the shift from the managed to the entrepreneurial economy involved the role of technological change. However, we also find that it was not just technological change but rather involved a number of supporting factors, ranging from the demise of the communist system, increased globalization, new competition for multinational firms and higher levels of prosperity. Recognition of the causes of the shift from the managed to the entrepreneurial economy suggests a rethinking of the public policy approach. Rather than the focus of directly and exclusively on promoting startups and SMEs, it may be that the current approach to entrepreneurship policy is misguided. The priority should not be on entrepreneurship policy but rather a more pervasive and encompassing approach, policy consistent with an entrepreneurial economy

The dynamics of entry, exit and profitability: an error correction approach for the retail industry

We develop a two equation error correction model to investigate determinants of and dynamic interaction between changes in profits and number of firms in retailing. An explicit distinction is made between the effects of actual competition among incumbants, new firms competition and potential competition from firms outside the market. Effects of cost, demand and general income changes on profitability are investigated to gain insight in the role of retailing in the cost, demand and wage inflationary processes. The relative importance of profitability, growth and unemployment as determinants of net entry are studied. The model is tested using a panel data set of 36 Dutch shoptypes covering the 1977–1988 period

Review of interventions to encourage SMEs to make environmental improvements

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge, and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. In this paper we categorise the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develop a selection or &lsquo;toolkit&rsquo; of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.<br /

What is the value of entrepreneurship?: a review of recent research

This paper examines to what extent recent empirical evidence can collectively and systematically substantiate the claim that entrepreneurship has important economic value. Hence, a systematic review is provided that answers the question: What is the contribution of entrepreneurs to the economy in comparison to non-entrepreneurs? We study the relative contribution of entrepreneurs to the economy based on four measures that have most widely been studied empirically. Hence, we answer the question: What is the contribution of entrepreneurs to (i) employment generation and dynamics, (ii) innovation, and (iii) productivity and growth, relative to the contributions of the entrepreneurs counterparts, i.e. the control group? A fourth type of contribution studied is the role of entrepreneurship in increasing individuals utility levels. Based on 57 recent studies of high quality that contain 87 relevant separate analyses, we conclude that entrepreneurs have a very important but specific function in the economy. They engender relatively much employment creation, productivity growth and produce and commercialize high quality innovations. They are more satisfied than employees. More importantly, recent studies show that entrepreneurial firms produce important spillovers that affect regional employment growth rates of all companies in the region in the long run. However, the counterparts cannot be missed either as they account for a relatively high value of GDP, a less volatile and more secure labor market, higher paid jobs and a greater number of innovations and they have a more active role in the adoption of innovations

The sudden change phenomenon of quantum discord

Even if the parameters determining a system's state are varied smoothly, the behavior of quantum correlations alike to quantum discord, and of its classical counterparts, can be very peculiar, with the appearance of non-analyticities in its rate of change. Here we review this sudden change phenomenon (SCP) discussing some important points related to it: Its uncovering, interpretations, and experimental verifications, its use in the context of the emergence of the pointer basis in a quantum measurement process, its appearance and universality under Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics, its theoretical and experimental investigation in some other physical scenarios, and the related phenomenon of double sudden change of trace distance discord. Several open questions are identified, and we envisage that in answering them we will gain significant further insight about the relation between the SCP and the symmetry-geometric aspects of the quantum state space.Comment: Lectures on General Quantum Correlations and their Applications, F. F. Fanchini, D. O. Soares Pinto, and G. Adesso (Eds.), Springer (2017), pp 309-33

Overview on the phenomenon of two-qubit entanglement revivals in classical environments

The occurrence of revivals of quantum entanglement between separated open quantum systems has been shown not only for dissipative non-Markovian quantum environments but also for classical environments in absence of back-action. While the phenomenon is well understood in the first case, the possibility to retrieve entanglement when the composite quantum system is subject to local classical noise has generated a debate regarding its interpretation. This dynamical property of open quantum systems assumes an important role in quantum information theory from both fundamental and practical perspectives. Hybrid quantum-classical systems are in fact promising candidates to investigate the interplay among quantum and classical features and to look for possible control strategies of a quantum system by means of a classical device. Here we present an overview on this topic, reporting the most recent theoretical and experimental results about the revivals of entanglement between two qubits locally interacting with classical environments. We also review and discuss the interpretations provided so far to explain this phenomenon, suggesting that they can be cast under a unified viewpoint.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Chapter written for the upcoming book "Lectures on general quantum correlations and their applications

Varieties of export-oriented entrepreneurship in Asia

This paper explores differences in the proportion of export-oriented early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 12 Asian countries. Drawing on varieties of capitalism theory, we find that Asian countries with high quality institutions are more likely to have higher proportions of young export-oriented firms. However, analysis on a 51 country data set indicates that Asian countries have significantly fewer young export-oriented firms than do non-Asian countries. Furthermore, the multi-country study reveals that countries with higher proportions of export-oriented entrepreneurial activity tend to have flexible industrial relations, high quality vocational training, and confrontational labor-employer relations, however the proportion of export-oriented new ventures is not related to the quality of corporate governance and inter-firm relations

Regional clusters of innovative activity in Europe: Are social capital and geographical proximity the key determinants?

Finding proper policy instruments to promote productivity growth features prominently on the Lisbon agenda and is central in many national as well as European policy debates. In view of the increased mobility of high-skilled workers in Europe, ongoing globalization and increased interregional and international co-operation, location patterns of innovative activity may be subject to drastic changes. A proper understanding of location patterns of innovative outputs can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of national and European innovation policies. Building on the literature on the knowledge production function the aim of this paper is to explain the observed differences in the production of innovative output across European regions. Our main research question is whether geographical proximity and social capital are important vehicles of knowledge transmission for the production of innovative output in Europe. Several other variables are used to control for structural differences across European regions. We find support for the hypothesis that both social capital and geographical proximity are important factors in explaining the differences in the production of innovative output across European regions

Regional age structure, human capital and innovation - is demographic ageing increasing regional disparities?

Demographic change is expected to affect labour markets in very different ways on a regional scale. The objective of this paper is to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of recent distributional changes in the workers age structure, innovation output and skill composition for German regions by conducting an Exploratory Space-Time Data Analysis (ESTDA). Beside commonly used tools, we apply newly developed approaches which allow investigating the space-time dynamics of the spatial distributions. We include an analysis of the joint distributional dynamics of the patenting variable with the remaining interest variables. Overall, we find strong clustering tendencies for the demographic variables and innovation that constitute a great divide across German regions. The detected clusters partly evolve over time and suggest a demographic polarization trend among regions that may further reinforce the observed innovation divide in the future