Lowering barriers to engage in innovation: evidence from the Spanish innovation survey

The literature on innovation studies has extensively examined the main drivers of innovation activity, while putting less attention on factors that are crucial in order to foster competition dynamics, as well as to attenuate systemic failures to innovation. This paper aims to filling this gap by distinguishing between firms facing deterring barriers to innovation (i.e. those barriers that deter firms from engaging in innovation activities) and firms confronting revealed barriers (i.e. those barriers that are experienced by firms alongside their engagement in innovative activities). Drawing upon the literature on innovation studies, we propose a set of hypotheses on which factors are likely to attenuate deterring and/or revealed barriers to innovation (e.g. firm size, firm age, human capital, etc.). We built a longitudinal dataset derived from four waves of the Spanish Innovation Survey (2004-2007) in order to examine the impact of the proposed factors on three types of obstacles to innovation: cost, knowledge and market barriers. Results reveal that: first, knowledge and market related obstacles play a much stronger role as deterring barriers than cost-related obstacles; second, firm size and human capital available at firms play a significant role in attenuating deterring barriers to innovation, though only the former has a significant impact on alleviating revealed barriers.

External knowledge sourcing and innovation performance: the role of managerial practices

Ingenio Working Paper SeriesIn this paper, we argue that the ability of a firm to transform external knowledge into commercial success goes beyond the firms’ technological capabilities. Thus, we underscore the role played by managerial practices (related with knowledge sharing, formalization and incentives) in the leveraging and utilization of external knowledge. We further consider that the effectiveness of external knowledge exploitation can be contingent on the types of external sources (scientific and industrial partners) and on the degree of novelty in innovations (imitative and new-to-the-market innovations). The research draws on survey data from the Spanish Ceramic Tile Industry and the main results suggest that firms adopting knowledge sharing mechanisms are more likely to attain better results in exploiting external scientific knowledge. On the contrary, formalization-based mechanisms tend to exert a detrimental effect on the exploitation of external scientific knowledge. Knowledge incentives are non significant in the case of scientific agents and negative for industrial agents.Peer reviewe

Producción de un video educomunicativo que ayude al estudiante del nivel básico a generar percepciones críticas a través de la lectura de imágenes televisivas

La propuesta se centra en que el estudio del lenguaje audiovisual presente en las imágenes televisivas como son el color, los planos, encuadres, formas, sonido, etc., para que aporten en la educación y formación de estudiantes, padres de familia y docentes; por ello se ha tomado como universo delimitado a los alumnos del ciclo básico del Colegio Coronel Maya, donde mediante un proceso de aprendizaje de conceptos, interrelación e intercambio de criterios, alumnos y profesores logren establecer nuevas pautas de interpretación y criticidad que les ayude a tener una visión más amplia y crítica de lo que encierra el verdadero mundo de la imagen televisiva. El presente trabajo busca realizar un producto educomunicativo que guíe a los adolescentes del nivel básico de las instituciones educativas a realizar una lectura crítica de las imágenes proyectadas por la televisión. La propuesta al enfocar el análisis crítico de la imagen televisiva, está basada en conceptos semiológicos que ayuden a los estudiantes a interpretar de una forma más clara los mensajes que emite la televisión ecuatoriana, ya que debido a la variedad de imágenes presentadas en la cotidianidad se hace necesario aplicar nuevas formas de ver, entender y formular un criterio valedero visto desde la realidad social del adolescente, quien tiene la capacidad de elegir entre la gran variedad de programas emitidos a nivel nacional ya sea en sus distintos horarios y géneros como son programas deportivos, novelas, publicidades, noticieros, farándula, talk shows, dibujos animados, etc

Orchestrating absorptive capacity: organizational catalysts of TMT’s influence

This study aims to tackle the influence of top management team (TMT), socialization capabilities and their interactions on absorptive capacity (ACAP). Specifically, this paper examines a TMT’s diversity and coordination as an “enabler” with the potential to trigger the processes involved in the generation of ACAP. The authors relied on a database comprising 96 manufacturing firms in a developing country. Due to the model suggested as well as the sample size, they opted for a PLS-SEM methodology. The empirical results show that TMT diversity is not significantly related to firm’s ACAP. Additionally, they provide evidence for a mediation of the relationship between a TMT coordination and ACAP through socialization capabilities. This paper presents a theoretical framework that underscores the influence of TMT on different dimensions of ACAP. Based on the upper echelon theory, the authors suggest that this is of utmost importance given that the extent to which knowledge is acquired, integrated and exploited within the firm can be contingent on the configuration and collaborative structure of the TMT. The results show that TMT coordination influences firm’s ACAP when it is complemented effectively by structural mechanisms for fostering greater communication, collaboration and cohesiveness between the members of an organization. To configure a TMT merely to have diversity or guarantee the coordination between the team members is not enough to foster firm’s ACAP. An alignment of a coordinated TMT with the possibility for employees to freely communicate across functional areas and hierarchical limits is a prerequisite for the acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation of external knowledge. The authors consider that this study raises areas for further consideration in efforts to understand how individual-based resources (e.g. TMT configuration) can be transformed into systemic knowledge-based capability (e.g. ACAP)

Deep Learning Techniques to Improve the Performance of Olive Oil Classification

The olive oil assessment involves the use of a standardized sensory analysis according to the “panel test” method. However, there is an important interest to design novel strategies based on the use of Gas Chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS), or ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) together with a chemometric data treatment for olive oil classification. It is an essential task in an attempt to get the most robust model over time and, both to avoid fraud in the price and to know whether it is suitable for consumption or not. The aim of this paper is to combine chemical techniques and Deep Learning approaches to automatically classify olive oil samples from two different harvests in their three corresponding classes: extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), virgin olive oil (VOO), and lampante olive oil (LOO). Our Deep Learning model is built with 701 samples, which were obtained from two olive oil campaigns (2014–2015 and 2015–2016). The data from the two harvests are built from the selection of specific olive oil markers from the whole spectral fingerprint obtained with GC-IMS method. In order to obtain the best results we have configured the parameters of our model according to the nature of the data. The results obtained show that a deep learning approach applied to data obtained from chemical instrumental techniques is a good method when classifying oil samples in their corresponding categories, with higher success rates than those obtained in previous works.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2017-88209-C2-2-

La Innovación Como Dinamizador Empresarial: Caso Hommie

In December 2018, Alonso Macías, Manager at Mayordomia, was looking for somewhere quiet to evaluate his company’s possibilities after foreseeing a projected closing with COP 14 billion less in sales than in 2016. He needed answers to all possible questions before attending a board meeting that was looking critical for him. He wondered if it was time to diversify his business, and if the conditions of the economy and his company’s power to respond, while occupying the largest share of the market at that time, would be negatively affected. The opportunity to diversify had always been there, but previous efforts had not gone well. Entering new markets with different proposals still generated certain suspicions for him that he didn’t express when telling his team that there could be no doubt about the need to exploit the company’s infrastructure in sectors adjacent to the business and institutional cleaning and maintenance service - sectors that had already been considered and included in the 2016-2019 strategic plan since 2013. “It looks like a risky option, but Adriana and her team seem to have a clearer idea of how to bring our know-how to all the different homes and cover the B2C segment,” pondered Alonso. Although he was willing to listen to the new proposals of the team led by his daughter, between positivism, uncertainty and resistance to change, he wondered if the conditions were favorable for these innovations, and if it would be possible to successfully achieve a victory early to break with the business schemes and systems that had been a part of Mayordomia for almost 30 years. Although the president of Mayordomia has been characterized as a tenacious and courageous person, this time, at 57 years of age, he sometimes feels that uncertainty overwhelms him.En diciembre de 2018 Alonso Macías, Gerente de Mayordomía, buscaba un espacio de quietud para evaluar las posibilidades de la compañía, después de ver un cierre proyectado con $14.000.000.000COP menos en ventas con respecto al 2016 y necesitaba responderse todas las dudas posibles antes de entrar a una junta directiva que pintaba crítica para él. Se preguntaba si era el momento de diversificar su negocio, y si las condiciones de la economía y la capacidad de respuesta de su empresa, que ocupaba la mayor porción del mercado en ese momento, no se vería afectada. La oportunidad de diversificarse siempre estuvo presente, pero los esfuerzos realizados con anterioridad no tuvieron buen puerto. Ingresar a nuevos mercados con propuestas diferentes le generaba todavía cierto recelo interno que no expresaba cuando decía ante el equipo que no había duda de la necesidad de empezar a explotar la infraestructura de Mayordomía, en sectores adyacentes al servicio de aseo y mantenimiento empresarial e institucional, que desde 2013 se venían considerando e incluyendo en el plan estratégico de 2016-2019. “Parece una opción arriesgada, pero Adriana y su equipo parecen tener una idea más clara de cómo llevar nuestro Know how a los hogares y abarcar el segmento B2C”, meditaba Alonso. Aunque estaba dispuesto a escuchar la nueva propuesta del equipo dirigido por su hija, entre el positivismo, la incertidumbre y la resistencia al cambio, se preguntaba si las condiciones propicias para estas innovaciones estaban dadas, y si iba a ser posible lograr con éxito una victoria temprana que rompiera los esquemas de negocio que se venían dando en Mayordomía por casi 30 años. A pesar de que el presidente de Mayordomía se caracterizaba por su tenacidad y valentía, esta vez, a sus 57 años de edad, sentía por momentos que la incertidumbre le sobreponía

Innovación social

El enfoque de innovación social es relativamente reciente y ha cobrado particular relevancia como objeto de política pública y como marco de análisis para diseñar e implementar proyectos novedosos orientados a generar cambios sostenibles. Entender los fundamentos conceptuales del enfoque, sus manifestaciones prácticas, así como las metodologías y los instrumentos que lo soportan, constituye un aspecto fundamental para fomentar el desarrollo y uso de la ciencia y la tecnología desde una perspectiva socialmente responsable.CONACYT - Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y TecnologíaPROCIENCI

University industry links and product innovation: cooperate or contract?

The role of universities in product innovation has received considerable attention over the past decade. However, little is known about how the type of formal university-firm interaction predicts innovative performance and the degree of novelty of new products. This research differentiates two forms of firm high-relational interaction with universities: R&D contracting and cooperation. We exploit the panel structure of a dataset of 5,858 Spanish manufacturing firms with fixed-effects models. The empirical analysis finds that, although both contracting and cooperation predict product innovative performance, the two activities differ in the degree of novelty of new product outcomes. The implications are that the codified nature and asymmetric scope of R&D contracting is more suitable for exploitative innovation, resulting in product innovation that is incremental in nature. On the other hand, the possibility to exchange and create tacit knowledge and the explorative nature of R&D cooperation provide firms with the opportunity to better access the broad knowledge base of universities, leading to product innovations with a higher degree of novelt

Cohesion and coordination effects on transition metal surface energies

Here we explore the accuracy of Stefan equation and broken-bond model semiempirical approaches to obtain surface energies on transition metals. Cohesive factors are accounted either via the vaporization enthalpies, as proposed in Stefan equation, or via cohesive energies, as employed in the broken-bond model. Coordination effects are considered including the saturation degree, as suggested in Stefan equation, employing Coordination Numbers (CN), or as the ratio of broken bonds, according to bond-cutting model, considering as well the square root dependency of the bond strength on the CN. Further, generalized coordination numbers (CN) ̅ are contemplated as well, exploring a total number of 12 semiempirical formulations on the three most densely packed surfaces of 3d, 4d, and 5d Transition Metals (TMs) displaying face-centered cubic (fcc), body-centered cubic (bcc), or hexagonal close-packed (hcp) crystallographic structures. Estimates are compared to available experimental surface energies obtained extrapolated to zero temperature. Results reveal that Stefan formula cohesive and coordination dependencies are only qualitative suited, but unadvised for quantitative discussion, as surface energies are highly overestimated, favoring in addition the stability of under-coordinated surfaces. Broken-bond cohesion and coordination dependencies are a suited basis for quantitative comparison, where square-root dependencies on CN to account for bond weakening are sensibly worse. An analysis using Wulff shaped averaged surface energies suggests the employment of broken-bond model using CN to gain surface energies for TMs, likely applicable to other metals