Which firms want PhDs? The effect of the university-industry relationship on the PhD labour market

PhD graduates hold the highest education degree, are trained to conduct research and can be considered a key element in the creation, commercialization and diffusion of innovations. The impact of PhDs on innovation and economic development takes place through several channels such as the accumulation of scientific capital stock, the enhancement of technology transfers and the promotion of cooperation relationships in innovation processes. Although the placement of PhDs in industry provides a very important mechanism for transmitting knowledge from universities to firms, information about the characteristics of the firms that employ PhDs is very scarce. The goal of this paper is to improve understanding of the determinants of the demand for PhDs in the private sector. Three main potential determinants of the demand for PhDs are considered: cooperation between firms and universities, R&D activities of firms and several characteristics of firms, size, sector, productivity and age. The results from the econometric analysis show that cooperation between firms and universities encourages firms to recruit PhDs and point to the existence of accumulative effects in the hiring of PhD graduates.

Economies of scale and scope of university research and technology transfer: a flexible multi-product approach

This paper empirically analyzes economies of scale and of scope in the production of research and technology transfer outputs in the Spanish public university system. We employ the flexible fixed cost quadratic function which relates total university R&D expenditure and the budget of the technology transfer offices with different outputs of research and technology transfer, from which we then compute the ray economies of scale, the specific economies of scale and the economies of scope. Our results indicate that ray economies of scale and research specific economies of scale hold up to 100% of current mean expenditure. The technology transfer product specific economies of scale hold up to 150% of current mean of the R&D expenditure. Our results also show that cost subadditivity acts a positive constraint, from which we infer the presence of economies of scope

Clusters en el Caribe colombiano: el caso del Atlántico: desempeño innovador y dinamización de la economía

La innovación se ha constituido en una estrategia de carácter territorial en la que los distintos actores (empresa, gobierno, gremio y universidad) convergen con apuestas institucionales que propenden por su mayor dinamismo, pues permiten el crecimiento y la competitividad económica de los países. Desde esta perspectiva, la Cámara de Comercio de Barranquilla -en asocio con la Universidad del Norte y la Universidad Simón Bolívar-, visionando la necesidad de generar conocimiento útil acerca de la dinámica innovadora, presenta el balance de los factores determinantes del proceso en cuatro clusters identificados como potenciales dinamizadores del crecimiento económico del departamento del Atlántico: agroinsumos, salud, diseño y estilo de vida y obra blancaUniversidad del Nort

Which firms want PhDs? The effect of the university-industry relationship on the PhD labour market

PhD graduates hold the highest education degree, are trained to conduct research and can be considered a key element in the creation, commercialization and diffusion of innovations. The impact of PhDs on innovation and economic development takes place through several channels such as the accumulation of scientific capital stock, the enhancement of technology transfers and the promotion of cooperation relationships in innovation processes. Although the placement of PhDs in industry provides a very important mechanism for transmitting knowledge from universities to firms, information about the characteristics of the firms that employ PhDs is very scarce. The goal of this paper is to improve understanding of the determinants of the demand for PhDs in the private sector. Three main potential determinants of the demand for PhDs are considered: cooperation between firms and universities, R&D activities of firms and several characteristics of firms, size, sector, productivity and age. The results from the econometric analysis show that cooperation between firms and universities encourages firms to recruit PhDs and point to the existence of accumulative effects in the hiring of PhD graduates

Innovación empresarial en el sector manufacturero

El Grupo de Investigación en Análisis Económico (GRANECO) de Uninorte describió e interpretó la actividad innovadora de 10.000 empresas del sector manufacturero de Colombia, con el objetivo de proponer recomendaciones a las autoridades gubernamentales, los científicos del área y las propias empresas del sector estudiado para que estas organizaciones fortalezcan sus capacidades de innovación.Es imperativo que las empresas innoven, es decir, que desarrollen o mejoren procesos, productos y servicios, pues ello se convierte no sólo en mejores niveles de productividad para estas organizaciones, sino también en desarrollo económico y social para los países. Frente al vacío que existe en el país en cuanto a información precisa que permita el acertado diseño de políticas públicas en la materia, es necesario realizar estudios de caracterización de la actividad innovadora en las empresas de Colombia, especialmente de aquellas pertenecientes al sector manufacturero, pues éste tradicionalmente es reconocido como el que lidera la innovación tecnológica y el de mayor contribución al producto interno bruto (PIB).Universidad del Norte

Which firms want PhDs? The effect of the university-industry relationship on the PhD labour market

PhD graduates hold the highest education degree, are trained to conduct research and can be considered a key element in the creation, commercialization and diffusion of innovations. The impact of PhDs on innovation and economic development takes place through several channels such as the accumulation of scientific capital stock, the enhancement of technology transfers and the promotion of cooperation relationships in innovation processes. Although the placement of PhDs in industry provides a very important mechanism for transmitting knowledge from universities to firms, information about the characteristics of the firms that employ PhDs is very scarce. The goal of this paper is to improve understanding of the determinants of the demand for PhDs in the private sector. Three main potential determinants of the demand for PhDs are considered: cooperation between firms and universities, R&D activities of firms and several characteristics of firms, size, sector, productivity and age. The results from the econometric analysis show that cooperation between firms and universities encourages firms to recruit PhDs and point to the existence of accumulative effects in the hiring of PhD graduates

Governance Matters: Universal Access to Water

Universal access to water is acknowledged as a fundamental human right which governments have to secure. To improve access to water, it has been argued that an important factor, if not the most important, is to strengthen water sector governance and reduce corruption. Looking at the relationship between governance indicators and access to water sources and controlling for various factors, our contribution fills a gap in proving empirically, for a cross-country analysis including 147 countries, that governance indeed matters. In particular, we add a nuance to the debate, showing that rural population is more vulnerable to weak governance

Ciclo intergeneracional de la violencia doméstica contra la mujer: análisis para las regiones de Colombia

The aim of this paper is to identify and analyses the existence of an intergenerational cycle of domestic violence against woman, perpetrated by her partner. The article provides new perspectives of policy oriented to mitigate the effects of this type of violence and contributes to the existing literature. Using data from the National Demographic and Health Survey (2010), probabilistic models with robust standard errors was constructed. The results indicate that violent behaviors are transmitted from parents to children, as well as the existence of regional differences on the likelihood to being physically assaulted.El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar y analizar la existencia del ciclo intergeneracional de la violencia doméstica contra la mujer, perpetrada por su pareja. Este artículo aporta a la literatura nuevas perspectivas de política orientadas a mitigar los efectos generados por este tipo de violencia. A partir de la Encuesta Nacional de Demografía y Salud (2010), se utilizaron modelos probit con errores estándar robustos, cuyos resultados indican que las conductas violentas se transmiten entre padres e hijos, así como también, que existen diferencias regionales en la probabilidad de sufrir violencia doméstica

Governance Matters: Universal Access to Water

Universal access to water is acknowledged as a fundamental human right which governments have to secure. To improve access to water, it has been argued that an important factor, if not the most important, is to strengthen water sector governance and reduce corruption. Looking at the relationship between governance indicators and access to water sources and controlling for various factors, our contribution fills a gap in proving empirically, for a cross-country analysis including 147 countries, that governance indeed matters. In particular, we add a nuance to the debate, showing that rural population is more vulnerable to weak governance

THE IMPACTS OF OPEN INNOVATION STRATEGIES ON INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF COLOMBIAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE FIRMS

The Open Innovation theory has received great attention in the international literature, but their study is non-existent in Colombia´s academic spectrum. In this sense, the aim of this paper is to fulfil such academic gap by the identification of the open innovation strategies effects on firm´s innovative performance, measured by the share of innovative sales. The partners and objectives of cooperation were the main open innovation strategy used for the estimations. The analysis was made taking into account three different novelty levels of innovations. We conducted the analysis with a sample of 1404 Colombian agrifood industries, finding that in early stages of the innovation process the main strategy of open innovation to impact firm´s performance is to cooperate with suppliers. Meanwhile, at a radical level, cooperation with the objective of R&D is the key OI strategy to improve the innovative performance