Technological Innovation Survey Research Articles

An Econometric Analysis of National and International R&D Cooperation

Using data from the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation, the paper analyzes differences between services and manufacturing regarding the impact of R&D cooperation on firms' innovative productivity, depending on the geographical location of the partners. Additionally, it examines differences between the services' categories of the Miozzi and Soete (2001) taxonomy. Results indicate that industrial innovative activity mostly depends on R&D investments, while innovative cooperation is crucial for services. Services innovation benefits mainly from cooperation with international partners, while local cooperation is more effective for manufacturing. In relation to the different services' categories, intensive scale and information services show similar patterns to those of manufacturing.

FDI, Trade, and Product Innovation: Theory and Evidence

This article investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI, including outward FDI and inward FDI), imports and exports, and product innovation. Our theoretical model predicts that inward FDI, outward FDI, imports, and exports have positive influences on firm innovative activities, which would evaluate the effects of the relative magnitude of different sources on innovation. The empirical results based on the 2003 First Taiwan Technological Innovation Survey confirm three of the proposed hypotheses for the entire sample. However, when focusing on the manufacturing sector, outward FDI, inward FDI, imports, and exports all exhibit strongly positive effects on the determination of conducting product innovation (i.e., the four hypotheses are verified). A consistent trend is that outward FDI has the largest effect on innovation, regardless of the measurement of product innovation and the division of the entire sample, which may imply that in Taiwan a positive effect of “deindustrialization” is to innovate more.

Structural change and the emergence of the Brazilian MNEs

PurposeThe internationalization of local Brazilian firms is a very recent phenomenon, especially when considered in terms of the accelerated growth in the number of Brazilian‐owned multinational companies and the intensity of foreign investment that began in the year 2000. While the specialized literature has focused increasing attention on this new trend, the profound transformation of Brazilian production during the 1990s remains a challenging theme for researchers. This paper aims to analyze the changes undertaken by Brazilian firms in pursuit of competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe data utilized were furnished by the Institute for Applied Economic Research, a governmental think tank, that has combined and expanded upon the main Brazilian databases that provide reliable information about industrial firms: the Annual Survey of Industry carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE); the Annual Social Information Report, conducted by the Ministry of Labor and Employment; the Foreign Trade Secretariat, under the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, and the Industrial Survey of Technological Innovation also sponsored by the IBGE. This procedure allows to access extremely wide‐ranging analyses covering businesses responsible for more than 90 percent of value added by Brazilian industry.FindingsThe principal finding of this paper indicates that enormous changes in business strategy occurred in the 1990s, modifying Brazilian companies' historical orientation towards the internal market. Significant increases in exports and outward foreign direct investment, consequently led a significant group of Brazilian companies to compete in more sophisticated markets. These new strategies of internationalization are supported by these companies' systematic pursuit of innovative processes. Aggregate data from internationalizing companies show that the most advanced group, characterized in this paper as “A‐class companies,” exhibit a standard of competitiveness, salaries, investment in R&D and new product launches found only in Brazil within the local subsidiaries of foreign multinationals.Originality/valueVarious studies have attempted to capture the difficulties and barriers that the Brazilian economy faced at the beginning of economic liberalization. Despite their differences, most of the analyses are confined at the macro level and make the ease and rapid expansion of internationalizing companies a surprising observation. In contrast, this paper emphasizes microeconomic factors and argues that the changes that occurred throughout the 1990s within the structure and strategies of Brazilian businesses were for the most part overshadowed by macro visions (especially those focused on fighting inflation). To capture these changes, especially those that had an impact on improved competitiveness, a new methodological approach has been designed.

Padrões de interação Universidade-Empresa em aglomerações inovadoras do setor eletro-metal-mecânico

This paper investigates patterns of university-firms interactions in electro-metal-mechanics sector in Brazil in six regional clusters: Belo Horizonte, Caxias do Sul, Porto Alegre, Araraquara e Sao Carlos, Joinville e Sao Jose dos Campos. The investigation is based in information from firms innovative patterns from Brazilian Industrial Survey of Technological Innovation (PINTEC) and from interactive research groups from CNPq’s Directory of Research Groups. The results stress the importance of geographical location to the intensity and patterns of university-firms interactions.

Padrões Setoriais de Inovação na Indústria Brasileira

O artigo objetiva investigar aspectos da mudança tecnológica na indústria brasileira. A literatura relacionada ao estabelecimento de padrões setoriais de inovação é utilizada como referencial teórico, ao passo que análises de clusters hierárquicas e não-hierárquicas são empregadas como recursos metodológicos. A base de dados principal é a Pesquisa Industrial de Inovação Tecnológica (PINTEC 2000), sendo analisados cinco traços da inovação tecnológica industrial: as fontes de inovação, as formas de conhecimento e aprendizagem, o foco da trajetória tecnológica, os tipos de resultados inovativos e as características de estrutura e desempenho. Os resultados apontam que a diversidade intersetorial não pode ser negligenciada quando se pretende entender o comportamento inovativo da indústria brasileira. O perfil inovativo dos setores industriais brasileiros é coerente com as proposições da literatura internacional, porém apresentam algumas especificidades.

La Relación entre las Estrategias de Innovación: Coexistencia o Complementariedad

This paper explores the relationships between internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition as business innovation strategies. Drawing on absorptive capacity framework (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), we distinguish and empirically evaluate two possible relationships: coexistence and complementarity. The analysis is based on a large sample of manufacturing firms taken from the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation 2004. Our results show coexistence between internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition but they do not provide evidence that these activities are complementary with respect to influencing innovation performance. In other words, although our results suggest that internal R&D activities are associated with a greater use of external knowledge sourcing strategies, they do not seem to have synergistic effects to develop new products.

Does external knowledge sourcing matter for innovation? Evidence from the Spanish manufacturing industry

This article presents empirical evidence on the effects of external knowledge-sourcing strategies on the development of both product and process innovations, and assesses the degree to which such effects are influenced by the firm's internal technological capacities. In our analysis, we consider two strategies for acquiring external knowledge (buying and cooperating) and two types of external sources (industrial agents and scientific agents). The analysis is based on a sample of 1329 manufacturing firms active in innovation activities taken from the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation 2004. We find that the effects of the knowledge-sourcing strategies differ significantly across innovation types (product or process innovation). In addition, our results indicate that although internal R&D activities are associated with a greater use of external scientific knowledge sources (through cooperation), they do not seem to promote their exploitation for innovation development, that is, to say, they do not have synergistic effects.

Tecnologia da informação e produtividade na indústria brasileira

O artigo tem por objetivo mensurar os impactos decorrentes da adoção de tecnologia da informação na produtividade dos trabalhadores da indústria de transformação brasileira. O trabalho utilizou amostra de 26.776 firmas, cujos dados são provenientes da Pesquisa Industrial Anual (PIA) e da Pesquisa Industrial de Inovação Tecnológica (PINTEC), ambas do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS) do Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE), da Secretaria de Comércio Exterior (SECEX) do Ministério de Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior (MDIC); e do Censo de capitais estrangeiros, do Banco Central do Brasil. O banco de dados foi organizado pelo Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA). O modelo econométrico de corte transversal estimado refere-se ao ano de 2003. Os resultados indicam que a adoção de TI afeta positivamente a produtividade da mão-de-obra.

How different types of partners influence innovative product sales: Does technological capacity matter?

Extant empirical studies examine the effect of different types of partners on innovative product sales. Although these studies present ambiguous results, little research pays attention to the factors leading to this ambiguity. Therefore, this study investigates how technological capacity affects the relationships between different types of partners and innovative product sales. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms from the technological innovation survey, this study reveals several interesting results. First, for the sales from significantly improved products, technological capacity positively impacts on the links between the sales and collaborations with suppliers and also with customers, but negatively moderates with competitors and with research organization. Second, however, on the sales of marginally changed products, technological capacity negatively affects the collaboration with suppliers, but positively impacts on alliance with research organizations. These results increase understanding of the relationships between different types of partners and innovative product sales.

Collaborative networks and product innovation performance: Toward a contingency perspective

An increasing number of studies have examined the impact of collaborative networks on product innovation performance, but have produced inconsistent results. This research contributes to existing literature by examining how absorptive capacity affects the relationships between different types of partners and product innovation performance. The sample used in this research is drawn from the Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey (TTIS) database. A moderated hierarchical regression approach is used to analyze the models, which are further explored by firm size and industry type. Some interesting findings appear. First, absorptive capacity positively moderates the impact of vertical collaboration on the performance of technologically new or improved products. Second, the effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between supplier collaboration and the performance of new products with marginal changes varies based on firm size and industry type. Third, absorptive capacity negatively affects the relationship between customer collaboration and the performance of marginally changed products. Fourth, absorptive capacity positively affects the relationship between competitor collaboration and the performance of new products with marginal changes for large firms. Fifth, absorptive capacity negatively affects the relationship between collaboration with research organizations and the performance of technologically new or improved products. On the contrary, absorptive capacity positively affects the impact of collaboration with research organizations on the performance of marginally changed products. These results enrich current understanding of the relationships between collaborative networks and product innovation performance.

External technology sourcing and innovation performance in LMT sectors: An analysis based on the Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey

This paper presents the strategies that low- and medium-technology (LMT) firms adopt to generate technological innovation and investigates the impact of these approaches on the firms’ innovation performances. These analyses are based on a sample from the Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey totalling 753 LMT firms. The descriptive statistics show that about 95% of the firms acquired technology by technology licensing, while 32% of the firms engaged in R&D outsourcing. The firms in the sample acquiring external technological knowledge through collaboration with suppliers, clients, competitors, and research organizations are about 20%, 18%, 8%, and 23%, respectively. Using a moderated hierarchical regression analysis, this study reveals interesting results. First, inward technology licensing does not contribute significantly to innovation performance. Second, internal R&D investment negatively moderates the effect of R&D outsourcing on innovation performance. Third, internal R&D investment contingently impacts the different types of partners on innovation performance: by collaborating with different types of partners, firms with more internal R&D investment gain higher innovation returns than firms with fewer internal R&D activities. The results of this study contribute to a sharper understanding of technological innovation strategies and their effects on technological innovation performance in LMT sectors.

Patterns of institutional cooperation in R&D for Spanish innovative firms in the manufacturing and service sectors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence innovative firms in the manufacturing and service sectors in Spain to cooperate with research institutions in their innovation activities, and to examine the differences between types of firm.Design/methodology/approachA literature review is used to identify variables likely to influence a decision to cooperate with research institutions. A logit regression model is then used to verify the importance of those variables. The empirical study was carried out using 2,000 Spanish community innovation survey data. The study sample was 3,964 innovative service and manufacturing firms.FindingsIt is found that spillovers, R&D intensity, costs, risks and alternative cooperation strategies influence both manufacturing and service firms in the same way in their decision to cooperate with research institutions in R&D. However, the variables relating to firm size, being part of a larger group of companies and type of innovation were shown to affect manufacturing and service companies differently.Research limitations/implicationsThere was no control over the possible bias introduced into the study by not including firms that were not innovative. The variables included in the study were constrained by the availability of information supplied by the Technological Innovation Survey. And finally, the comparative study of innovative behaviour in manufacturing and services is exploratory in nature.Practical implicationsThe empirical results make it possible to identify a profile of the Spanish manufacturing and service firms that cooperate with research institutions.Originality/valueThis paper is original in exploring the differences between manufacturing and service firms in relation to the determinants of establishing institutional cooperation in R&D.

The effect of external and internal factors on firms’ product innovation

In this article we analyse the effect of factors external and internal to the firm, on product innovation novelty, and how this effect varies by industry. We estimate three econometric models to determine the individual effects of these factors, their joint explanatory power and the effects of interactions among them. The analysis is based on a sample of 6094 manufacturing firms, taken from the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation 2000. The results indicate that the firm's technological competences, derived from in-house R&D, are the main determinant of product innovation. They also suggest that in the presence of high levels of such competences, the technological opportunities deriving from non-industry agents become less important as determinants of innovation. We show that the determinants of innovation vary depending on the industrial sector and the degree of novelty of the product developed.