Regions in the global knowledge economy

Two bodies of literature converge to explain regions in the global knowledge economy and to identify the factors that lead to competitiveness and innovation of a local economic system. The first section of this statement summarizes the progress in regional studies from a purely locational approach to the focus on clusters and industrial districts. The second part shows how advances in the economics of innovation lead to a renewed and different interest to regions and local systems of innovation. The third section concludes showing how the two trends of the literature just mentioned are instrumental to explain regions in a context where competition becomes global and increasingly based on knowledge goods and services. The focus on the “glocal” exchange of outputs of the knowledge economy is useful to explain the factors behind the rise and fall of new centers of production and growth. In this statement glocalization is defined as the phenomenon that leads to the competition, on a global market, of products and services whose successful development from the conceptualization of an idea to the actual commercial application requires enabling factors (such as institutions, entrepreneurship, knowledge, skills…) that are embedded in a specific local environment. The study of this phenomenon justifies the convergence of regional economics and the economics of innovation. The goal of this statement is to present the literature which might be used in two classes on regional development in the knowledge economy and glocalization of production, that could be taught in a planning, business or public policy department.

Why is strategic R&D (still) homebound in a globalized industry? The case of leading firms in wireless telecom

This paper looks at internationalization of R&D in the wireless telecommunications industry. We compare the international distribution of strategic R&D activities related to the development of wireless standards to other (non standard related) projects. While there is evidence that leading companies in this industry are sourcing globally their know how, still more strategic R&D projects remain homebound. This finding is further elaborated through conversations with R&D and IP managers at Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Qualcomm. These semi-structured interviews suggested that a closer look at the internationalization of R&D investment requires scholars to consider maturation and decentralization of R&D and R&D management.

Playing In Between: Patents’ Brokers In Markets For Technology

We here argue that patent brokers do not only stay in between supply and demand of innovation, but play in between executing complex transactions and taking entrepreneurial risk. In doing so they serve a support function to R&D managers of firms adopting various approaches to technological change. We discuss how economic and sociological theories explain brokerage and its existence. Our qualitative analysis of the current practice of patent brokerage in the U.S. finds only partial evidence in support of such argumentations. We conclude with our own proposition, suggesting that even in very dense environments, the bridging role of intellectual property intermediaries is that of market makers, who leverage their specific investment to play in between technology demand and supply.Open Innovation intermediaries patents intellectual property

Disruptive Innovation…in Reverse: a Theoretical Framework to Look at New Product Development from Emerging Economies

It is now clear that emerging economies are gaining increasing importance in the global innovation system. Their actual role is perhaps the central question driving the growing interest in this topic and to which this paper attempts to respond. Although several authors have identified and discussed the process of innovation from emerging economies, it remains under-explored. We view the disruptive innovation (Christensen, 1997) and reverse innovation (Immelt et al, 2009) paradigms side by side: two theories that we think offer interesting and complementary perspectives when we position emerging markets at the centre of the stage as a source of innovation. By analyzing different definitions and descriptions provided by the literature on innovation for and from emerging economies, this paper attempts a reinterpretation of the concept of reverse innovation, defined as a type of disruptive innovation.Disruptive Innovation, Reverse Innovation, Emerging Economies, Product Development, Cost Innovation, R&D Internationalization.

Innovation in peripheral economies: the case of Pisa

The case of Pisa, Italy, emerges as an effective representation of the possible difficulties and opportunities in the development of HT in peripheral regions, as well as of the challenges and phases that a knowledge-based local economic policy might face. The study by Scuola Sant’Anna (Di Minin et al., 2003) summarizes the results of a three-year empirical analysis of the local HT sector in Pisa. Over 200 firms, mostly very young, have been identified and analyzed in the province of Pisa, where a traditional manufacturing sector is slowly but constantly declining and coexists with an outstanding public research system, which attracts and retains important human resources in the city, generates high-tech start-ups, and attracts external companies to the area. This paper starts by framing the phenomenon analyzed in the Sant’Anna study within the context of the literature dealing with the “paradox” of localization and globalization. The question here is to try and understand how these theories might help explain the growth and limits of the growth of the sector. I will then build a comparison with another case of peripheral development to shed some light on the exceptional case of Pisa. I will conclude by pointing out three policy recommendations that arise from the literature.

Industrial R&D in Italy: Exploration and Exploitation Strategies in Industrial R&D

This paper discusses four types of strategic decisions in technology management in established firms. It is well known that deciding between exploration and exploitation in R&D, and eventually combining the two strategies, is a crucial issue. However, we argue that more attention, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, should be paid to the strategic solutions which are implemented as a consequence of such decisions, as well as to the various types of interactions between strategic decisions and organizational solutions in industrial R&D. Here we apply to R&D management concepts derived from the industrial dynamics literature, and use a theoretical framework to describe and analyse four case studies concerning the largest R&D centres of Italian firms operating in different industrial sectors (telecommunications, automotive, communication and cables, and semiconductors). The different approaches that those private R&D centres have chosen in their recent past are compared and discussed. More specifically, we try and analyze the patterns of exploration, technology transfer and commercialization that industrial R&D labs have adopted in order to combine short-term objectives of exploitation of research results and competencies, and long-term goals of exploration of new technological trajectories. The proposed approach is based upon the use of two dimensions: first, the type of technological change, and second the control of complementary assets and the existence of a dominant design. We argue that the interpretation of the four case studies can represent a useful basis for discussion among R&D managers as well as innovation and technology management scholars.

Industrial R&D in Italy: What are new dynamics of exploitation and exploration?

This paper aims at exploring the dynamics of industrial R&D activities in large companies. Through the use of four case studies of the largest R&D centers of Italian firms operating in different industrial sectors (telecommunications, automotive, rubber and plastics, and semiconductors), we try and compare the different approaches that private R&D centers have chosen in the recent past, to face the challenges of growing complexity in their research areas and increasing constraints in budgets devoted to R&D activities. The difficulties Italian companies face in the management of their R&D investments have to do with the specificities of a fairly weak national innovation system as well as with challenges that are common to other national and industrial contexts.

Through the eyes of industrial researchers: how new “Connect & Develop” practices change the role of human resources in the lab

An intense debate is going on about more “open” strategies that are supposedly diffusing in industrial R&D. We here discuss the relationship between such practices and Human Resources Management (HRM) in industrial R&D Labs. The paper in fact aims at representing an original attempt of looking at the linkage between R&D strategy and HRM in some Italian high-tech firms. In particular, we identify, select and discuss a set of variables related to the management of HR in R&D that fit with the reconceptualization of innovation proposed by Chesbrough in the “Open Innovation” (OI) paradigm and inspired by the example of P&G’s model of Connect and Develop (C&D). More precisely, our objective is that of investigating the role of HRM in the shift towards “Open Innovation” through the bottom-up lenses of industrial researchers’ characteristics, feelings and behaviours. What we here suggest is that by observing behaviour and expectations of R&D workers, we can investigate the acceptance and implementation of new R&D management practices. Our empirical base is represented by 330 questionnaires completed by R&D personnel and collected through an online survey. The results have been discussed with the HR managers of each company, in order to also gain a “top-down” perspective on the observed dynamics. The research is carried out around three main groups of issues: HR characteristics (e.g., demographic parameters, productivity, time horizons, satisfaction, expectations, mobility, education), job organization aspects (e.g., teamwork vs. individual research, flexibility, decisional centres, work time allocation, type of relationships, communication flows), and HRM tools (e.g., talent attraction, training, evaluation methods, goal definition, roles, leadership, responsibility, incentives, career systems, problem sources). According to Chesbrough, firms fitting the OI model present characteristics related to the R&D structure itself. Nonetheless, even if this model has been widely enthusiastically discussed and sometimes criticized by both practitioners and researchers, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how such changes effect dynamics and daily operations of an R&D lab. Our empirical analysis ultimately aims at understanding to what extent the shift towards an extended definition of R&D, which includes the new concept of C&D, can be considered as one of the main potential factors of change in HR organization. Beyond the relevance of our findings for the debate among scholars, we argue that managerial implications may derive from a better knowledge of individual perceptions and behaviours of R&D personnel. In fact, the changing pattern of innovation processes implies parallel changes in the organization of R&D labs, where the role of the most important component, i. e. researchers themselves, is not always adequately considered. This paper is a first attempt to explore these relationships. Through a convenience sample we first attempted to test various strategies to best collect data, provide timely valuable feedbacks to our industrial partners and better define our framework, matching early results with existing theories. Further research will aim at making the sample representative of the Italian industrial R&D system.Open Innovation Human Resources Management

Commercializing the laboratory: Faculty patenting and the open science environment

This paper investigates the relationship between patenting and publication of research results by university faculty members. Our study adds to the limited evidence on this topic with an empirical investigation based on a panel data set for a broad sample of university researchers. Results suggest that publication and patenting are complementary, not substitute, activities for faculty members. This is not consistent with recent concerns regarding deleterious effects of patenting on the research output of faculty members. Average citations to publications, however, appear to decline for repeat patenters, suggesting either a decrease in quality or restrictions on use associated in patent protection

Enhancing SME innovation across European regions: Success factors in EU-funded open innovation networks

This study examines the funding allocations to Open Innovation (OI) networks involving small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) and other organizational actors by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Fast Track to Innovation program (2018–2021). Using a unique dataset of program application information at the participant level, the technological, organizational and locational characteristics of SMEs' OI innovation networks are analyzed. Success in securing funding is found to be linked to host regional innovation performance and to technological distance among SMEs and their partners, while organizational distance has a curvilinear effect. Counter to program objectives, partner heterogeneity has some mixed effects. Insights are offered for SMEs on strategic positioning and to policymakers on the design of future innovation policy initiatives