Innovation and Productivity - Evidence from Six Latin American Countries

This study examines the determinants of technological innovation and its impact on firm labor productivity across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys. In line with the literature, in all countries firms that invest in knowledge are more able to introduce new technological advances, and those that innovate have greater labor productivity than those that do not. Yet firm-level determinants of innovation investment are much more heterogeneous than in OECD countries. Cooperation, foreign ownership, and exporting increase the propensity to invest in innovation activities and encourage innovation investment in only half of the countries studied. Scientific and market sources of information have little or no impact on firm innovation efforts, which illustrates the weak linkages that characterize national innovation systems in those countries. The results in terms of productivity, however, highlight the importance of innovation in enabling firms to improve economic performance and catch up.Innovation, Productivity, Developing countries, Latin America, Innovation surveys

The effects of intellectual property protection on international knowledge contracting

Developing countries, and particularly, those with a growing technological capacity, expect foreign technology transfers to increase when strengthening their intellectual property protection (IPR) rights. This paper evaluates empirically the impact of IPR on disembodied knowledge trade. It presents an exploration on Bilateral French Technology Receipts at the industry level for the period 1994-2000. Two main findings stem from our analysis. First, It is found that IPR affects positively international knowledge contracting. Nevertheless, our findings show that the impact of IPR protection differs according to countries' income level and technological capacity. Stronger IPR rights can deter technology contracting in developing economies. Second, the effects of IPR protection are found to differ across industries. Stronger protection is found to be irrelevant to attract knowledge contracting in R&D-intensive industries, contrarily to middle R&D-intensive industries. Lastly, our findings on industries' sensitivity to foreign IPR protection differ from the results reported by survey studies (Mansfield et alii, 1968; Levin et alii, 1987; Cohen et alii, 2000) concerning the relative importance of IPR protection across industries to appropriate innovation

Drivers of the Offshore Outsourcing of R&D: Empirical Evidence from French Manufacturers

The pace of technological change and the challenges faced by companies to remain competitive in global markets have contributed to a global expansion of R&D transactions. This paper shows that French companies engaged in the offshore outsourcing of R&D are outward oriented essentially through exports. Further, single unit companies seem more active in this type of R&D transaction than companies belonging to a group. These findings suggest a stronger integration of small and medium size exporting companies into international networks of innovation. Technological sourcing seems to be leading this phenomenon more than cost-opportunities motivations.R&D Outsourcing, Offshore of Research and Development Activities, Globalization.

The effects of intellectual property protection on international knowledge contracting

Developing countries, and particularly, those with a growing technological capacity, expect foreign technology transfers to increase when strengthening their intellectual property protection (IPR) rights. This paper evaluates empirically the impact of IPR on disembodied knowledge trade. It presents an exploration on Bilateral French Technology Receipts at the industry level for the period 1994-2000. Two main findings stem from our analysis. First, it is found that IPR affects positively international knowledge contracting. Nevertheless, our findings show that the impact of IPR protection differs according to countries' income level and technological capacity. Stronger IPR rights can deter technology contracting in developing economies. Second, the effects of IPR protection are found to differ across industries. Stronger protection is found to be irrelevant to attract knowledge contracting in R&D-intensive industries, contrarily to middle R&D-intensive industries. Lastly, our findings on industries' sensitivity to foreign IPR protection differ from the results reported by survey studies (Mansfield et alii, 1968 ; Levin et alii, 1987, Cohen et alii, 2000) concerning the relative importance of IPR protection across industries to appropriate innovation.Intellectual property rights, international technology transfer, patent protection.

Diversity of science linkages and innovation performance: Some Empirical Evidence from Flemish firms.

This paper examines the diversity of the types of links of firms to science and their effect on innovation performance for a sample of Belgian firms. While at the industry level links to science are highly related to the R&D intensity of the sector, we show that there exists considerable heterogeneity in the type of links to science at the firm level. Overall, firms with a science link enjoy superior innovation performance, in particular with respect to innovations that are new to the market. At the invention level, our findings confirm that patents from firms engaged in science are more frequently cited and have a broader technological and geographical impact, but we show that it is crucial to distinguish between direct science links at the invention level and indirect science links at the firm level to encounter these distinct positive effects of science links.Innovation; Cooperation; Patents; forward citation; science; industrial innovation;

Science linkages and innovation performance: An analysis on CIS-3 firms in Belgium

This paper examines the diversity of linkages of firms to science and their effect on innovation performance for a sample of Belgian firms (CIS-3). While at the sectoral level links to science are highly related to the R&D intensity of the sector, we show that there is considerable heterogeneity in the type of links to science at the firm level. Overall, firms with a science linkage -which can be of various sorts- have superior innovation performance, in particular with respect to innovations new to the market. At the invention level, our findings confirm that patents from firms engaged in science are more frequently cited and have a broader technological and geographical impact, but we show that it is crucial to distinguish between direct science links at the invention level and indirect science links at the firm level to encounter these distinct positive effects of science links. Therefore, Science & Technology indicators should control for both invention-level and firm-level science links to really account for the effect of these industry-science links.Innovation; patents; forward citation; science; industrial innovation;

Innovation and Productivity - Evidence from Six Latin American Countries

This study examines the determinants of technological innovation and its impact on firm labor productivity across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys. In line with the literature, in all countries firms that invest in knowledge are more able to introduce new technological advances, and those that innovate have greater labor productivity than those that do not. Yet firm-level determinants of innovation investment are much more heterogeneous than in OECD countries. Cooperation, foreign ownership, and exporting increase the propensity to invest in innovation activities and encourage innovation investment in only half of the countries studied. Scientific and market sources of information have little or no impact on firm innovation efforts, which illustrates the weak linkages that characterize national innovation systems in those countries. The results in terms of productivity, however, highlight the importance of innovation in enabling firms to improve economic performance and catch up

The Outsourcing of Research and Development in Global Markets: Evidence from France

A newsletter of The Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, Harding University School of Business, Searcy, Arkansas

DIRECTORATE FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY WHO LICENSES OUT PATENTS AND WHY? LESSONS FROM A BUSINESS SURVEY STI WORKING PAPER 2009/5 Statistical Analysis of Science, Technology and Industry WHO LICENSES OUT PATENTS AND WHY? LESSONS FROM A BUSINESS S

JT03262312 STI Working Paper Series The Working Paper series of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies prepared by staff in the Directorate or by outside consultants working on OECD projects. The papers included in the series cover a broad range of issues, of both a technical and policy-analytical nature, in the areas of work of the DSTI. The Working Papers are generally available only in their original language -English or French -with a summary in the other. Comments on the papers are invited, and should be sent to the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, OECD, 2 rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. The opinions expressed in these papers are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries. ABSTRACT The increasing importance of licensing for innovation is supported by ample anecdotal evidence. However, statistics on this topic are scarce. The OECD, together with the European Patent Office and the University of Tokyo, carried out a business survey on the licensing-out of patents. The goal was to investigate the intensity of licensing to affiliated and non-affiliated companies, its evolution, the characteristics, motivations and obstacles met by companies doing or willing to license. The target population was patent holders: 600 European firms and 1 600 Japanese firms responded to the survey, in the second half of 2007. The results show that patent licensing is widespread among patenting firms: around one company in five in Europe licenses patents to non-affiliated partners, whereas more than one in four does so in Japan. The relationship between size of the firm and probability to license out is U-shaped: small firms and large firms are more likely to license out their patented inventions. In Europe, SMEs have more difficulties to license out their patents than large firms. The major barrier to licensing out patent markets is informational (identifying partners). Finally, we also find that more than one third of young European firms (born after 2000) deem patents as quite or very important to convince private investors and venture capitalists to provide them with funds