40 research outputs found
Barriers to innovation and public policy in Catalonia
The present paper analyses the link between firms’ decisions to innovate and the barriers that prevent them from being innovative. The aim is twofold. First, it analyses three groups of barriers to innovation: the cost of innovation projects, lack of knowledge and market conditions. Second, it presents the main steps taken by Catalan Government to promote the creation of new firms and to reduce barriers to innovation. The data set used is based on the 2004 official innovation survey of Catalonia which was taken from the Spanish CIS-4 sample. This sample includes individual information on 2,954 Catalan firms in manufacturing industries and knowledge-intensive services (KIS). The empirical analysis reveals pronounced differences regarding a firm’s propensity to innovate and its perception of barriers. Moreover, the results show that cost and knowledge barriers seem to be the most important and that there are substantial sectoral differences in the way that firms react to barriers. The results of this paper have important implications for the design of future public policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation together
Pautas de localización de las nuevas empresas y flexibilidad territorial
¿Por qué la localización de las nuevas empresas difiere según las caracterÃsticas de las industrias? ¿Qué relación existe entre la intensidad tecnológica de las empresas y el entorno urbano donde nacen? ¿La autonomÃa de las nuevas empresas a la hora de decidir su emplazamiento difiere según las caracterÃsticas del sector industrial y el tamaño del establecimiento? El presente trabajo aborda estas cuestiones para las manufacturas españolas entre 1980 y 1994. Partimos del supuesto de que los nuevos establecimientos industriales deciden localizarse en un determinado municipio descartando el resto de emplazamientos alternativos. Los resultados obtenidos indican que las decisiones de localización difieren según la intensidad tecnológica de las industrias y de su ciclo de vida
Energy efficiency determinants: an empirical analysis of Spanish innovative firms [WP]
This paper examines the extent to which innovative Spanish firms pursue improvements in energy efficiency (EE) within their innovation objectives. The increase in energy consumption and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions justifies the greater attention being paid to energy efficiency and especially to industrial EE. The ability of manufacturing companies to innovate and improve their EE has a substantial influence on reaching the objectives regarding climate change mitigation. Despite the effort to design more eficient energy policies, the EE determinants in manufacturing firms have been little studied in the empirical literature. From an exhaustive sample of Spanish manufacturing firms and using a probit model, we examine the energy efficiency determinants to those firms that have innovated. To carry out the econometric analysis, we use a panel data coming from CIS (Community Innovation Survey) for the period 2008-2011 that includes 4,458 manufacturing firms. Among firm characteristics, the empirical results underline the importance of size in facilitating the adoption of technology that improves energy efficiency; while among the factors related to companies’ behavior, the favorable influence of organizational innovations and innovations related with the reduction of environmental impacts stand out as the main factors in carrying out innovations with the objective of increasing energy efficiency
Energy efficiency determinants: An empirical analysis or Spanish innovative firms
This paper examines the extent to which innovative Spanish firms pursue improvements in energy efficiency (EE) as an objective of innovation. The increase in energy consumption and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions justifies the greater attention being paid to energy efficiency and especially to industrial EE. The ability of manufacturing companies to innovate and improve their EE has a substantial influence on attaining objectives regarding climate change mitigation. Despite the effort to design more efficient energy policies, the EE determinants in manufacturing firms have been little studied in the empirical literature. From an exhaustive sample of Spanish manufacturing firms and using a logit model, we examine the energy efficiency determinants for those firms that have innovated. To carry out the econometric analysis, we use panel data from the Community Innovation Survey for the period 2008-2011. Our empirical results underline the role of size among the characteristics of firms that facilitate energy efficiency innovation. Regarding company behaviour, firms that consider the reduction of environmental impacts to be an important objective of innovation and that have introduced organisational innovations are more likely to innovate with the objective of increasing energy efficienc
Geographical determinants of the creation of manufacturing firms: The regions of Spain
La complexitat dels mecanismes que determinen l'entrada i la sortida de signatures augmenta quan diferències geogrà fiques de l'estructura de producció, la capital humana i l'atur són considerades. Variacions interregionals en la tarifa de les noves de signatures dintre de cada activitat industrial persisteixen durant els perÃodes llargs de temps, una circumstà ncia que indica que hi ha determinants no-conjunturals en la capacitat de regions per a crear nous projectes industrials. Aquest estudi està preocupat amb l'establiment d'influència variables geogrà fiques sobre la fundació de nous establiments de la fabricació. Les indústries (NEIX la R 25) en les regions espanyoles (el BOIG 2) han estat preses com les unitats d'anà lisis per al perÃode 1980-1992Aquest estudi estudia l'establiment o l'influència de les variables geogrà fiques sobre la fundació de nous establiments de la fabricació. Les indústries (NEIX la R 25) en les regions espanyoles (el BOIG 2) han estat preses com les unitats d'anà lisis per al perÃode 1980-1992
R&D cooperation between Spanish firms and scientific partners: what is the role of tertiary education?
This paper explores the factors that determine firm’s R&D cooperation with different partners, paying special attention on the role of tertiary education (degree and PhDs level) in facilitating the connection between the firms and the to scientific bodies (technology centres, public research centres and universities). Here, we attempt to answer two questions. First, are innovative firms that carry out internal and external R&D activities more likely to cooperate on R&D projects with other partners? Second, do Spanish innovative firms with a high participation of researchers with degrees or PhDs tend to cooperate more with scientific partners? To answer both questions we apply a three-dimensional approach on a firm level Panel Data with a sample of 4.998 manufacturing and services Spanish firms. First, we run a complementary test between external R&D acquisition and skilled research workers and find that firms which carry out external R&D activities obtain a greater return on R&D cooperation when they have skilled workers in R&D, especially in high-tech manufactures and KIS services. Second, we carry out a 2-step tobit model to estimate, in the first stage, the determinants that explain whether Spanish innovative firms cooperate or not; and in the second stage the factors that affect the choice of partners. And third, we apply an ordered probit model to test the marginal effects of explanatory variables on the different partners. Here we contrast some of the most interesting empirical hypotheses of previous studies, and which emphasize the role of employees with degrees and PhDs in facilitating cooperative R&D between firms and scientific partners
Innovación, frontera tecnológica y capacidad absortiva: un estudio a nivel de paÃses
La principal aportación de este trabajo es poner de manifiesto que la capacidad
absortiva de las economÃas cambia en función de si el paÃs es el lÃder o es un
seguidor. Aunque tampoco olvidamos otras variables como son la I+D interna, la
I+D externa, el desarrollo del sistema financiero y las instituciones. Para ello,
primero se prueba la presencia de una raÃz unitaria y después se asegura una
relación de cointegración entre las variables implicadas en el modelo para poder
sacar conclusiones a largo plazo. Y por último, para estimar el modelo, se
utilizará una técnica econométrica que combina el tratamiento tradicional de los
datos de panel con las técnicas de cointegración: los Dynamics Ordinary Least
Squares (DOLS). Esta técnica soluciona las limitaciones de los OLS, ya que su
distribución no suele ser estándar por la presencia de un sesgo de muestras
finitas (causado bien por la endogeneidad de las variables explicativas bien por la
correlación serial de la perturbación). Utilizando un panel de datos que
comprende 8 paÃses de la OECD entre 1973-2004 y para el Business Sector, se
encuentran diversos resultados, entre los que destacamos que la I+D interna, la
I+D externa, la frontera tecnológica, la capacidad absortiva y el desarrollo de las
instituciones tienen un impacto positivo sobre el nivel de la PTF. En cambio, el
desarrollo del sistema financiero tiene un impacto negativo.
Palabras claves: fuentes de la I+D, frontera tecnológica, capacidad absortiva,
raÃces unitarias, cointegración, DOLS
Are small firms more sensitive to financial variables?
This paper analyses the impact of different sources of finance on the growth of firms.
sing panel data from Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 2000-2006, we investigate the effects of internal and external finances on firm growth. In particular, we examine
wo dimensions of these financial sources: a) the performance of the firms' capital structure
n accordance with firm size; b) the combined effect of equity, external debt and cash
low
n firm growth. We find that low-growth firms are sensitive to cash
low and short-term
ank debt, while high-growth firms are more sensitive to long-term debt. Furthermore,
ur results show that low-growth firms are more sensitive to short-term financial variables,
hile fast growth firms are more sensitive to long-term financial variables.
EL codes: L25, R12.
eywords: Finance, Firm growth, Quantile regressions, Small firm
Gender diversity, R&D teams and patents: An application to Spanish firms
Previous results show that gender diversity increases the probability that firms invest in R&D and engage in innovation. This paper explores the relationship between gender diversity of R&D departments and their capacity to patent. Based on the Spanish Community Innovation Survey between 2004 and 2014, we apply a two-step procedure in order to control for endogeneity. Although gender diversity affects OEPM patents negatively, its impact is non-significant for patents with international coverage (EPO, USPTO, or PCT). A relevant result is the fact that the generation of patents is positively affected by the diversity of categories in the R&D labs. Our results highlight that, gender diversity of R&D teams does not play a relevant impact on the capacity of the firm to register patents. However, the diversity according to the professional role in R&D teams exerts a positive influence. In sum, the key question is not the gender diversity per se but the gender diversity jointly with the professional status.
JEL Code: O30, O31, J16.
Keywords: gender diversity, patent generatio