Higher Innovation Efficiency Research Articles

The effect of employee mobility on firm innovation

AbstractWe study the effect of employee mobility on firm innovation. Using an occupation‐based measure of employee mobility, we find that firms with more mobile workforces are associated with greater patent quantity and quality and higher innovation efficiency. This effect is more pronounced for firms with higher labor intensity, greater business diversification, and lower unionization rates. Both the private market value of innovation and the effectiveness of innovation to generate revenues increase with higher employee mobility. Consistent results are found using a quasi‐experimental shock, which helps address endogeneity concerns. Our findings suggest that employee mobility has a profound impact on innovation.

The Effect of Innovation Efficiency to the Cosmetics Industry

With the development of technology, the improvement of people's requirements and the harder competition of cosmetics companies, continuous innovation has become one of the key capabilities of to occupy the market in the cosmetics industry. This paper mainly introduces how to improve the development status of cosmetics companies by improving innovation efficiency and uses the ratio of the number of patents to R&D expenses to measure innovation efficiency. By analysing the financial statements of L'Oreal Paris, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Procter& Gamble and Beiersdorf, we conclude that companies with higher innovation efficiency are in the better business condition. Through our analysis, we point out that cosmetics companies should focus on innovation while cutting unnecessary costs and improving efficiency to improve their business conditions.

ИННОВАЦИОННОЕ И ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ РЕГИОНОВ ОБРАБАТЫВАЮЩЕЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТИ: ОЦЕНКА КОНВЕРГЕНЦИИ ИНДУСТРИАЛЬНОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА

When assessing regional industry in the transition to the post-industrial stage of develop-ment, it is necessary to take into account the productive, technological, and innovative potential of the in-dustries themselves, the regions in which they are located, and the ratio of different technological levels of industrial sectors (high-, medium-, or low-tech levels and HT, HMT, or LMT, or LT sectors). This article assesses the technological and innovative homogeneity of the industrial space of Russian regions specializ-ing in manufacturing. The study analyzes innovation parameters and the convergence of regions, taking into account the dominance of industries with different levels of technology. The study investigates HT, HMT, LMT and LT regions of the Russian manufacturing industry. Research methods include comparative, eco-nomic, and statistical analysis (σ- and β-convergence). The hypothesis is that there are uneven shifts in the innovation and technological development of regions, the presence of distinctive advantages, and resistance to external restrictions and violations of system technologies. The assessment of these features will increase the technological sovereignty and independence of innovation development of the regions and the country as a whole. The results revealed that LT and LMT regions have stable growth in the volume of shipped in-novative goods which ensures sustainable innovation efficiency. HT and HMT regions are characterized by the high costs of innovation and high innovation efficiency. In regions with different levels of technology, a reduction in disproportions based on σ-convergence was revealed; β-convergence was revealed in the group of HT, HMT, and LMT regions by the share of innovative products in the structure of shipped products and the share of medium- and high-tech industries in shipped products. The conclusions can be used in the de-velopment of regional industrial policy.

Measurement and Analysis of the Scientific and Technological Innovation Efficiency of Industrial Enterprises above a Designated Scale in China

To explore the technological innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises above designated size and its influencing factors under the China’s economic census industry classification, using the stochastic frontier approach to estimates the innovation efficiency of the 34 industry from 2008 to 2018. Taking the sales revenue of new products as the dependent variable, R&D capital stock and R&D personnel equivalent are taken as the independent variable, control variables are reasonably selected. The characteristics and influencing factors of innovation efficiency between industries are analyzed. The results show that the innovation efficiency of all industries in China is steadily improving, and the difference between industries is gradually narrowing. Industries with high innovation efficiency are related to future competition and national economy and people’s livelihood, while industries with low innovation efficiency are concentrated in mining and supply industry. The low input and low output industries are in the majority. The influence of innovation capital input on output is greater than that of personnel input. The proportion of state-owned property rights and capital constraints have a negative effect on innovation output, while the sales income has a positive effect on innovation output. Therefore, China should further improve the innovation efficiency of industrial industries, adopt classified policies, and increase the number of industries with low input and high output. The conclusion of the paper is of reference value to the development of China’s 14th five-year industry and the medium and long term planning.

The impact of various factor market distortions and innovation efficiencies on profit sustainable growth: From the view of China's renewable energy industry

The market reform of production factors is an important component of profit sustainable growth. In addition, higher innovation efficiency will increase the input-output ratio and affect sustainable profit growth. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influence of various factor market distortions and innovation efficiencies on sustainable profit growth. In this paper, the factor market distortions and innovation efficiencies are calculated by the Cobb–Douglas (C-D) production function and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), respectively, and then the generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) method is employed to analyze the panel microdata of China's renewable energy industry from 2010 to 2019. The results yielded three important findings: 1) Factor market distortions can significantly reduce sustainable profit growth. Furthermore, due to various factor market distortions, including capital and labor market distortions, capital market distortions reduce profit sustainable growth more than labor market distortions. 2) Innovation efficiency is significantly positively related to profit sustainable growth. Moreover, low and high innovation efficiency are significantly negatively and positively related to profit sustainable growth, respectively, if they are divided from the perspective of technical efficiency. 3) The moderating effects of low and high innovation efficiency have a significantly negative and positive impact on the association between factor market distortions and profit sustainable growth, respectively. According to the above research conclusions, this paper gives several policy proposals to improve the innovation efficiency and profit sustainable growth of the renewable energy industry.

Modeling innovation efficiency, its micro-level drivers, and its impact on stock returns

Motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing challenges to human and economic welfare, this research seeks to evaluate innovation efficiency, its micro-level drivers, and its impact on stock returns. This study considers innovation-related activities during two growth phases experienced by 138 listed pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in China: research and development (R&D) and marketing. A dynamic two-phase network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model measured R&D efficiency, marketing efficiency, and dynamic integrated innovation efficiency. A projection difference analysis was presented to offer a feasible solution to address inefficient companies. Then, panel regression methods were adopted to examine micro-level drivers of innovation efficiency. Additionally, a portfolio formation test was used to investigate innovation efficiency as a characteristic impacting stock returns. The results indicate that the listed companies are generally innovation inefficient. Only two are DEA innovation efficient. Low marketing and R&D efficiencies are impeding innovation efficiency amelioration, with the most losses attributed to the marketing phase. Most companies lack good conditions for R&D and the commercialization of scientific and technological breakthroughs. Institutional investors and financial analysts' coverage have a positive and significant impact on innovation efficiency. Foreign institutional ownership and stock market overvaluation impact listed companies with high innovation efficiency positively. There is a negative and significant effect of size on innovation efficiency. However, growth in pharmaceutical manufacturing company size positively influences innovation efficiency at higher levels. The portfolio formation test results reveal that investors consider companies with high innovation efficiency as high-profile targets that provide high stock returns. The findings of this study offer stakeholders avenues to shape the initiation, process, and outcome of innovation.

The determinants of R&D smoothing with asset sales: Evidence from R&D-intensive firms in China

Research and development (R&D)-intensive firms have strong incentives to maintain a smooth path for their R&D investments; otherwise, they will incur high adjustment costs. Examining data covering 2009 to 2016, we find that Chinese R&D-intensive firms, especially those with high innovation efficiency, tend to sell operating and financial assets to protect their value-enhancing R&D investments. However, financial constraints have adverse impacts on R&D smoothing with asset sales unless the firms have high innovation efficiency. The results suggest that innovation efficiency offers R&D-intensive firms, even financially constrained ones, a strong motivation to covert asset sales proceeds into R&D inputs, as the proceeds from asset sales provide a less-costly substitute for external financing. Given the importance of R&D for economic growth and the limited external financing opportunities in emerging capital markets like China, our findings reveal new insights regarding R&D financing.

A Study on Financing Problems of Medium and Small-sized Technology-based Enterprises

Technology-based SMEs have the advantages of short construction period, fast decision-making mechanism, low management cost, high innovation efficiency, etc. However, financing difficulties have always been an important issue that plagues the development of high-tech SMEs. The problem of corporate financing will not only hinder the process of technological innovation, but also reduce the efficiency of achievement transformation. This article sorts out the typical financing problems of technology-based SMEs, and proposes suggestions from strengthening corporate system construction, broadening financing channels, enhancing market financing vitality, and improving support policy systems, in order to improve the financing of technology-based SMEs.

혁신효율성이 기업의 수익성에 미치는 영향

This study examines whether the firm with high innovation efficiency realizes high operating performance. We measured innovation efficiency by the ratio of patent applications for R&D expenditure or R&D stock and measured operating performance by the ratio of operating income or operating cash flow to total assets for the following year. The sample consists of 1,880 manufacturing firm-years, which listed on the Korean Exchange between 2014 and 2017. We analyze the effect of innovation efficiency on operating performance using a model of Hirshleifer et al. (2013) results show that both innovation efficiency variables have a significantly positive relationship with the total asset operating margin. Besides, the following year's performance, measured by the total asset operating cash flow ratio, also shows a positive relationship with the two innovation efficiency variables at the 5% and 1% significance levels, respectively. The results indicate that high innovation efficiency firms that link the outcomes of R&D to more patent applications realize higher operating performance. Also, we divided the R&D-intensive and non-R&D-intensive industries and performed the same analysis. As a result, the innovation efficiency has a significant positive effect on operating margin in both industries. However, the effect of innovation efficiency on the operating cash flow is only significant in R&D-intensive industries. This study suggests that the effects of innovation efficiency are more consistent in the R&D-intensive industry. Additionally, we divided the high patent application and low patent applications industries and performed the same analysis. As a result, the innovation efficiency has a significant positive effect on operating margin in both industries. This study suggests that the effects of innovation efficiency are more consistent in the high patent application industry. We show that a firm's innovation efficiency is a critical factor for a firm's performance, while prior studies on the R&D performance have not considered the innovation efficiency of each firm. The evidence suggests that firms not only consider R&D expenditures but also improve the performance of companies by increasing innovation efficiency. Investors need to consider their innovation efficiency when evaluating the value of firms.

Supply contracting and process innovation in a dynamic supply chain with information asymmetry

We investigate the process innovation and contracting decisions of a dynamic supply chain consisting of a supplier and a manufacturer, with the manufacturer possessing private information about her efficiency of process innovation. To overcome the potential adverse selection problem due to the asymmetric information, the supplier designs a menu of supply contracts that stipulates both the wholesale price and the purchasing quantity. We find that under information asymmetry, the supplier will optimally set a higher wholesale price but a lower purchasing quantity for the manufacturer with high innovation efficiency than that for the manufacturer with low innovation efficiency. As a consequence, the manufacturer with high innovation efficiency will significantly underinvest in innovation due to information asymmetry in addition to the impact of the double marginalization effect. Moreover, although a longer contract period tends to better motivate innovation, it can also magnify the influences of adverse selection on supply chain contracting, leading to a higher wholesale price for the manufacturer with high innovation efficiency.

Research on Marketization Process and Innovation Efficiency of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area-Spatial Autocorrelation Model Based on Geography and Network Weighting

This paper uses the Malmquist index method to measure the innovation efficiency of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2009-2016, and decomposes the innovation efficiency into resource allocation efficiency and technological progress rate. It is found that the efficiency of innovation and allocation in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area shows a steady growth trend. The cities on the west bank of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are more obvious, but in general, the cities on east coast of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have higher comprehensive efficiency and technological progress. On this basis, the spatial measurement method is used to demonstrate the impact of the marketization process of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area on its innovation efficiency. The empirical results show that the marketization process has a significant role in promoting the innovation efficiency of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. And there are certain regional differences. The innovation efficiency of the cities on the west bank of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is more significantly affected by the marketization process, while the East Coast cities are more sensitive to changes in economic density and industrial structure. In addition, there is a certain positive spatial correlation between innovation efficiency, especially in the east coast cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The cities with high innovation efficiency show a certain geographical concentration distribution, indicating that the regions with high innovation efficiency have certain promotion to innovation efficiency of neighboring regions.

Reprint of "Performance evaluation of China's high-tech innovation process :Analysis based on the innovation value chain"

The Chinese high-tech industry has developed greatly since the beginning of China's “National High-tech R&D (863) Program” and “China Torch Program”. This paper introduces a conceptual model extended from the innovation value chain model to simultaneously estimate the R&D and commercialization efficiencies for the high-tech industries of 29 provincial-level regions in China. To match reality, a network DEA incorporating both shared inputs and additional intermediate inputs is constructed to open the “black box” view of decision making units used in single-stage DEA. This study is the first attempt to link the R&D and commercialization with a solid theoretical foundation and feasible mathematical methods. The empirical findings show that most of the 29 regions have low efficiency in the commercialization sub-process compared to the R&D sub-process, although there are regional differences in China's high-tech industry. Pearson correlation shows that the R&D sub-process is not closely correlated to the commercialization sub-process in terms of efficiency. Our analysis can provide information for the formulation of policies to achieve high innovation efficiency.

Does the Multiple-Participant Innovation Improve Regional Innovation Efficiency? A Study of China’s Regional Innovation Systems

The triple helix (university-industry-government) is a dynamic cooperation model in the area of regional innovation. With the application of this model, the authors aim to address the mechanism of how multiple participants affect innovation efficiency against the research background of China Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs-QCA) is applied to conduct a multiple-case analysis. With the evaluation of 31 provinces in China, which have various innovation performances and degrees of regional cooperation, the authors find strong evidence to support the positive effects of multiple participants on regional radical innovation. Moreover, this article also finds two typical configurations of factors that contribute to high innovation efficiency. Based on the results, the authors propose policy implications to improve China’s regional innovation in different areas. Finally, this paper concludes with the discussion of future research orientations, which could focus on the differences in the triple helix among different industries in China.

On the Stability and Multistability in a Duopoly Game with R&D Spillover and Price Competition

In this paper, a dynamical two-stage game with R&D competition and joint profit maximization is built. The stability of all the equilibrium points is discussed through Jury condition, and the stability region of the Nash equilibrium point is then given. The influence of the parameters on the system is discussed, and we find that the firm can even benefit from chaos, when it has higher innovation efficiency and higher adjusting speed. And then the coexistence of multiple attractors is studied using basin of attraction. Our research result shows that the coexisting attractors can be observed in the two-parameter bifurcation diagram. At last, the boundary of feasible region, global bifurcations, and formation mechanism of fractal structure of attracting basin are analyzed through critical curves and noninvertible map theory.

Nonlinear Effect of Financial Efficiency and Financial Competition on Heterogeneous Firm R&D: A Study on the Combined Perspective of Financial Quantity Expansion and Quality Development

Manufacturing firm data and district financial quantity and quality indicators for 2005–2007 combined with heterogeneous firm characteristics were used with a threshold panel to study the effect of financial inefficiency on firm R&D and the financial boundaries of efficiency improvement. The results show that: (1) extensive financial quantity expansion cannot support high innovation efficiency R&D (Research and Development) activities in private enterprises, low- and medium-technology enterprises, and underdeveloped area enterprises, as it causes financial inefficiency problems and a shortage of R&D inputs; and (2) financial efficiency and financial competition have nonlinear effects on firm R&D. Financial inefficiency and either low or excessive financial competition result in a lack of highly efficient firm R&D. Only improvements in financial efficiency and moderate competition can significantly promote firm R&D. The results of this study reveal an important way to improve the influence of financial inefficiency on firm R&D by moving away from simply expanding financial quantity to promoting quality instead.

Performance evaluation of China's high-tech innovation process: Analysis based on the innovation value chain

The Chinese high-tech industry has developed greatly since the beginning of China's “National High-tech R&D (863) Program” and “China Torch Program”. This paper introduces a conceptual model extended from the innovation value chain model to simultaneously estimate the R&D and commercialization efficiencies for the high-tech industries of 29 provincial-level regions in China. To match reality, a network DEA incorporating both shared inputs and additional intermediate inputs is constructed to open the “black box” view of decision making units used in single-stage DEA. This study is the first attempt to link the R&D and commercialization with a solid theoretical foundation and feasible mathematical methods. The empirical findings show that most of the 29 regions have low efficiency in the commercialization sub-process compared to the R&D sub-process, although there are regional differences in China's high-tech industry. Pearson correlation shows that the R&D sub-process is not closely correlated to the commercialization sub-process in terms of efficiency. Our analysis can provide information for the formulation of policies to achieve high innovation efficiency.

Measuring efficiency of innovation using combined Data Envelopment Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling: empirical study in EU regions

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of patent applications, development level, employment level and degree of technological diversity on innovation efficiency. Innovation efficiency is derived by relating innovation inputs and innovation outputs. Expenditures in Research and Development and Human Capital stand for innovation inputs. Technological knowledge diffusion that comes from spatial and technological neighborhood stands for innovation output. We derive innovation efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis for 192 European regions for a 12-year period (1995–2006). We also examine the impact of patents production, development and employment level and the level of technological diversity on innovation efficiency using Structural Equation Modeling. This paper contributes a method of innovation efficiency estimation in terms of regional knowledge spillovers and causal relationship of efficiency measurement criteria. The study reveals that the regions presenting high innovation activities through patents production have higher innovation efficiency. Additionally, our findings show that the regions characterized by high levels of employment achieve innovation sources exploitation efficiently. Moreover, we find that the level of regional development has both a direct and indirect effect on innovation efficiency. More accurately, transition and less developed regions in terms of per capita GDP present high levels of efficiency if they innovate in specific and limited technological fields. On the other hand, the more developed regions can achieve high innovation efficiency if they follow a more decentralized innovation policy.

Performance of national innovation systems during the global crisis:

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, followed by the Euro Crisis, changed the world economic and social balances. By turning upside down the letter-perfect and internalized global economic and social judgments and expectations, the Global Financial Crisis gave birth to a new world order and to a ‘new normal’. Since the internal dynamics of the firms, sectors, countries and regions differ highly, the effect of the global crisis to firms, sectors, countries and regions in terms of intensity of the shock and the recovery process was also uneven. This new normal, together with the technological development, increased the importance of the innovation and efficient use of scarce resources to avoid deadlock in the inclusive and sustainable growth. Thus, the aim of this study is to focus on the innovation efficiency of the countries to see the effect of the global crisis on the capabilities of the countries. In this study, two alternative models with two different approaches of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) under two different specifications (input-oriented and output-oriented) are utilized to trace innovation performance across 56 countries during the global crisis from 2007 to 2012. The empirical evidence reveals that the negative effects of 2008 crisis are reflected on innovation efficiencies of countries in 2008 in the base model and 2009 in the lag model. In addition, grouping countries according to their GDP and GDP per capita and implementing two different models show that there could be difference in the innovation efficiency results since the DEA model shows the innovation efficiency in comparison with the other countries’ efficiency. Lastly, with the data it is observed that higher GDP or higher GDP per capita do not lead to high innovation efficiency

Product Diversification In Competitive R&D-Intensive Firms: An Empirical Study Of The Computer Software Industry

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This paper studies the effect of diversification into different product categories within competitive high-tech industries. Empirical results obtained <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>using the prepackaged computer software industry as the sample show that: (1) diversified firms appear to be more profitable (have higher returns on equity), attain a larger market share, enjoy higher excess market returns, and have a higher market-to-book ratio; (2) from the investors’ perspective, diversification per se does not increase firm value. Realized higher values do not appear to come from more efficient use of assets. Rather, they stem from the higher innovation efficiency (higher sales revenue per employee) and higher levels of R&D spending for firms that have diversified into different product categories than for firms that confine development to a single product category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></span></p>