Tech Firms Research Articles

Knowledge spillovers from superstar tech firms: the case of Nokia

Knowledge spillovers from superstar tech firms: the case of Nokia

The foreign firm wage premium in the Israeli tech sector

Foreign tech multinationals, which have entered Israel en masse in the past two decades, are known to use high wages to draw in the best talent. While paying higher wages no doubt contributes to the domestic economy, local tech firms have argued that the competition for talent inhibits their growth, and that foreign multinationals contribute less in terms of overall economic value compared to local firms. It is thus of great importance to estimate the foreign firm wage premium – by how much do foreign multinationals pay more for comparable talent? Using an extensive micro-level education data and exploiting worker movement and firm shutdowns/downsizing as an unbiased alternative to AKM methodology, this paper finds the foreign firm wage premium to be in the 3%–4% range, much less than previously estimated.

Google news initiative innovation challenge in Latin America: business models between path dependence and power relations

ABSTRACT In response to growing regulatory pressures, tech companies have partnered with media organizations to support news production through programs, grants, and financial aid for journalism. Notably, the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge has invested millions in Latin American news projects. This study explores the characteristics of these projects and their impact on the business models of Latin American media organizations. By examining project descriptions, a typology clarifies the connection between these initiatives and their effects on publishers’ business models. This analysis is complemented by 20 semi-structured interviews conducted from January 2020 to March 2023 with key regional informants. Results show three types of projects emerging through the GNI Innovation Challenge: audience-building, revenue generation, and technological innovation. It becomes evident that these media organizations are trapped in a dependent cycle, significantly contributing to their challenges in establishing sustainable business models. Furthermore, the study suggests that media organizations perceive these grants as a temporary financial resource, enabling them to hire additional staff and implement technological advancements within their newsrooms for a short time. Meanwhile, Google exerts its influence across the media industry by promoting cutting-edge technologies, which increases media dependence on its infrastructure. Ultimately, this research highlights the complex dynamics between big tech firms and the news industry, raising questions about the journalism sustainability and the potential consequences of its path dependence and capture by platforms.

Listening to regulators about the challenges in regulating emerging disruptive technologies

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the regulatory challenges of emerging disruptive Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Brazil and the strategies regulators use to address them.Design/methodology/approachIt is an empirical qualitative research on Brazil’s three administrative levels, focusing on the legislative houses’ specialised Science and Technology Committees. It combines archival analysis of public meeting records with elite interviews of parliamentarians and technocrats who participated in Public Hearings in 2019, which results in this paper analysed through the Theory of Communicative Action with a critical stance.FindingsThe research reveals that regulatory challenges gain new dimensions by involving discussions about emerging ICT. Factors such as time constraints, rapid technological evolution and widespread adoption compound these challenges, straining the preference for the incremental pace of regulation and the traditional model of specialised regulatory agencies. The research captures some regulators’ values, underlying concerns and perceived necessities for surmounting these challenges. It also outlines the preferred process for ICT regulation, revealing parliamentary assistants and executive intermediate-level specialists as gateways for interest groups’ action.Social implicationsThe study's findings highlight the crucial role of specific actors as gateways to the covert action of interest groups, particularly Big Tech firms. This contribution is significant as it empowers civil society and academia to monitor and mitigate the risk of regulatory capture, thereby promoting a more transparent and equitable regulatory environment.Originality/valueThis research is original in directly engaging with the key figures (lawmakers, legislative assistants and specialised bureaucrats) involved in the critical and timely issue of regulating emerging disruptive technologies.

Shaping innovation pathways: Metaverse application configurations in high-technology small- and medium-sized enterprises

The emergence of Industry 4.0, characterized by rapid technological change and fierce competition, challenges technology firms to make strategic innovation decisions. Central to this is the metaverse, a hybrid virtual space combining virtual reality, augmented reality, and the internet. Recognizing that the implications of metaverse applications extend beyond individual organizations, this research examines its adoption configurations. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, we analyze survey data from 116 high-technology small and medium-sized enterprises in China using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our research reveals that no isolated factor within the TAM-TOE framework solely affects innovation decision-making. Instead, we identify three configurations that enhance decision-making quality and three that increase its speed, leading to improved innovation performance. In this way, this research advances the understanding of technology adoption configurations in the innovation processes of young tech firms.

New Sites of Accumulation? Why Intangible Assets Matter for Energy Transitions

ABSTRACT Energy transitions break geographic monopolies on fossil fuel resources and are expected to redistribute economic benefits to new actors, from local communities to developing countries. At the same time, basing energy systems around renewables increases the importance of intangible assets such as data and artificial intelligence (AI). As different IPE approaches have shown, such intangibles can be monopolized by lead firms and especially Big Tech, which increasingly provide crucial digital infrastructures. This paper therefore asks what role Big Tech firms may play in energy systems, and whether their access to intangibles enables them to expand to the energy sector. The case study of Amazon illustrates that data-driven intellectual monopolies are well-positioned to expand into energy, benefitting from their position as providers of data infrastructures, and capacities in data harvesting and analysis. Amazon is both developing and marketing its own innovations, and investing in energy systems businesses. As intangibles gain importance in energy systems, possible implications for the IPE of energy include power and economic value flowing towards Big Tech, rather than countries or communities.

Acceptance of artificial intelligence technologies in business management, finance, and e-commerce: factors, challenges, and strategies

This research investigates the comprehensive acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) in business management, finance, and e-commerce, focusing on the factors driving its adoption, the obstacles encountered, and strategies for enhancing integration. AI technologies have transformed these sectors, delivering exceptional efficiencies, predictive analytics, and personalized customer experiences. However, their acceptance is influenced by various factors, including technological readiness, organizational culture, and perceived benefits. In business management, AI improves decision-making processes, optimizes operations, and fosters innovation. Financial institutions utilize AI for risk management, fraud detection, and personalized banking services, while the e-commerce sector gains from AI through enhanced customer service, dynamic pricing, and inventory management. Despite these benefits, challenges such as data privacy concerns, high implementation costs, and resistance to change impede widespread adoption. Additionally, ethical considerations and the need for regulatory compliance add layers of complexity. This paper identifies key strategies to address these challenges, such as promoting a culture of innovation, investing in AI education and training, and developing robust data governance frameworks. Strategic partnerships and collaborations with AI experts and tech firms are also essential for navigating the AI landscape. By comprehensively addressing these factors and challenges, businesses can unlock AI's full potential, driving sustainable growth and competitive advantage. This study contributes to understanding AI acceptance in critical sectors, providing a roadmap for successful AI implementation and emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and stakeholder engagement.

Private, Public, Personal: Shifting Patterns in Geospatial Data Sources in Geographic Research

Geospatial data sources include data collected by the public sector (i.e., government), private sector (i.e., industry), or through field work. Of these categories, the private sector, especially through tech firms, has provided new types of cutting-edge data sets that are particularly large and novel. These include data from social media platforms and location-based technologies such as Global Positioning Systems and mobile phones. Here, we explore the extent to which peer-reviewed geospatial research has adopted these data sources, perhaps in lieu of more traditional data types. We review peer-reviewed journal articles from six flagship journals in geographic information systems, geography, and urban analytics that publish research that uses spatial data analysis. We find that geospatial researchers continue to rely on government-collected data for their research, but that researchers’ use of data from the private sector have increased in recent years. This finding implies that as spatial analysis studies increasingly rely on private data sets, we should revisit (1) how industry data collection faces fewer regulations on data quality and has different motivations for their collection, (2) how this affects our ability to trust our data sets, and (3) the role of government and field work in data collection and dissemination in the future.

Out Of Thin Air: Tech firms, oil companies and the U.S. government are investing billions of dollars in technology to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. Can it save the warming world?

Out Of Thin Air: Tech firms, oil companies and the U.S. government are investing billions of dollars in technology to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. Can it save the warming world?

The effect of eco-friendly and financial technologies on renewable energy growth in emerging economies

Successfully integrating renewable energy sources depends on eco-friendliness, financial technology, and economic growth (GDP). This paper examines the dynamic effect of innovative financial and green technology on renewable energy for 38 emerging economies from 2006 to 2021. Using the dynamic First-difference Generalized Method of Moments (FD-GMM) model, the analysis identifies a critical GDP threshold of 1831.772 US dollars, significant at the 1 % confidence level. Below this threshold, GDP negatively affects green energy adoption, while above it, GDP positively influences the shift to greener energy, supporting the predicted U-shaped relationship in the data. The results conclude that eco-friendly and financial technology positively and significantly influence renewable energy adoption, where the dynamics and barriers to adopting eco-friendly and financial technologies in emerging countries may differ from those in developed nations. Based on the findings, relevant energy policies have been recommended for energy stakeholders, Tech firms and decision-makers.

Revisiting the ability of research and development activities to improve value relevance

PurposeThis article aims to evaluate the informativeness of accruals on stock prices. Investors may misinterpret the information contained in accruals and produce accrual anomalies. Accruals accounting improves the quality of financial statements by providing useful information, although it also contains judgments and is less objective than operating cash-flows.Design/methodology/approachWe employ data panel regression analysis to investigate the value relevance of financial information. Our study takes the object of companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange (NASDAQ) as the representative of the prominent stock exchange for technology-driven enterprises and entrepreneurs. Expanding the findings, we also use Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) data.FindingsOur research finds that accruals are still relevant. However, firms with R&D expenditures reduce the ability of accruals to explain stock prices for non-technology firms and firms without intangible assets. After analyzing only tech firms (and firms with intangible assets), our tests show that R&D expenditures improve the relevancy of accruals. These findings apply to both Nasdaq and SSE.Practical implicationsPractitioners and the investment community get valuable insights into how the recognition and measurement of R&D expenditures affect the value relevance. Information about R&D increases relevancy only in firms with intangible assets and those that operate in the technology industry.Originality/valueOur paper provides benefits by using R&D expenses to affect accruals' informativeness by comparing two countries with different recognition of R&D.

Managerial Performance and Economic Performance in the Technology Sector

The technology (tech) sector outperformed all other sector stock price averages in 2023. This paper addresses two issues regarding the tech sector. First, relative to other firms, are there any managerial areas in which the tech sector outperforms to explain their superior performance relative to all other firms? Second, within the tech sector, what managerial practices lead to higher profits? Four areas of managerial performance are considered: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, and social responsibility. This paper utilizes Bloomberg data and takes the novel approach of utilizing the Drucker Institute Indexes to assess performance in the tech sector. The Drucker Institute has computed a Corporate Effectiveness Index since 2017. The overall effectiveness index is based on performance regarding five dimensions: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength. The firms they track are United States companies whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market and meet certain size requirements. Among the four dimensions tested, customer satisfaction is the one dimension that is positive and significant when comparing across tech firms. Second, employee engagement is more important for tech firms than for other firms. The major contribution of this paper’s findings is that while innovation may be the hallmark feature of tech firms, innovation for its own sake does not drive firm performance. A focus on people (customers and employees) is the key to earning higher profits in the tech sector.

Heterogeneity in bubble experience across firms: an examination of the tech bubble

ABSTRACT We study heterogeneity in bubble experience across individual stocks. Applying the date-stamping technique and using the tech bubble in late 1990s as our laboratory, we find that tech firms vary in whether, when and how long they experience bubbles. In multivariate regressions, we find that bubbles are more likely to happen and they on average last longer in more liquid stocks, in smaller firms, in fast-growing firms and in firms with higher ownership by institutional non-blockholders rather than blockholders.

Agglomeration and the success of arts majors working in entrepreneurship and innovation

ABSTRACT In this study we look to understand whether living or working in a ‘hub’ increases the likelihood that college graduates with degrees in the arts are working in entrepreneurial occupations or innovative industries, and whether it increases their success in such occupations/industries. While the share of arts graduates working in the arts is low, recent empirical evidence suggests that large shares of arts graduates are working in occupations/industries that can be classified as entrepreneurial or innovative, potentially because of their creative education/training. However, little is known about where such works takes place, so we explore whether proximity to other creatives and/or entrepreneurial/innovative workers has an influence. The theory underpinning our work is the economics of agglomeration, as ample research on artists suggests that creatives benefit from proximity to other creatives. The popularity of Silicon Valley as a home for start-ups and tech firms suggests agglomeration is important in entrepreneurship and innovation as well. Using American Community Survey data, we find that living or working in a ‘hub’ has positive impacts on the likelihood arts graduates are working in occupations/industries that are entrepreneurial/innovative and on earnings in such areas, suggesting that agglomeration may have positive impacts on productivity.

Does top executive gender diversity matter for the value relevance of ESG controversies? Empirical evidence from European tech firms

Purpose Interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) controversies is acquiring great relevance in the business and academic communities. Nonetheless, previous studies in the area have devoted little attention to how the market views ESG controversies. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to investigate whether ESG controversies are value-relevant to investors, as reflected in equity values. It also investigates whether top management team (TMT) gender diversity is likely to affect the association between ESG controversies and equity market values in the context of high-tech firms. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a sample of high-tech firms listed on the STOXX 600 index during the period 2006–2022. The ESG data for the sample is retrieved from the Refinitiv Eikon database. This paper adopts a fixed-effect panel regression to test the hypotheses. Findings Based on the Ohlson’s (1995) valuation framework, the authors find evidence that ESG controversies are associated with a lower market valuation, suggesting that shareholders perceive ESG controversies as conveying negative information about future performance. The authors also find evidence that TMT gender diversity negatively moderates the relationship between ESG controversies and equity values, indicating that TMT gender diversity alleviates the detrimental effect of corporate controversies. These results remain consistent when using the return model of Easton and Harris (1991). Originality/value This paper throws more light on the economic consequences of ESG controversies in European high-tech firms. This is particularly important due to the increasing importance of ESG criteria in guiding investment choices. This paper also adds to the current literature by providing new evidence that the value-relevance of ESG controversies is affected by TMT gender diversity.

“Salute the strivers”: China’s Internet giant founders and the discursive construction of overwork

Scholarly inquiry into labor issues in the digital industry has primarily centered on workers, with less attention devoted to employers, or entrepreneurs. Turning the scrutiny toward tech entrepreneurs, this article reports the results from a critical discourse analysis of how China’s Internet giant founders are participating in the construction of a long-hours culture through discourse practices. It uncovers that the default assumptions related to tech work, tech workers, and tech firms are carefully designed, taught, and cultivated by tech founders to sustain the exploitative and unsustainable mode of technical production. Situated at the historical juncture of China’s “great reversal” since late 2020, this research examines the dynamic and uneven triangular relationship among the state, entrepreneurs, and workers in technical production. It enriches the analysis of entrepreneurial discourse in the digital industry beyond the Euro-American context and reflects on entrepreneurs’ ambivalent power in late-developing nations.

Disintermediation of consumer services through blockchain? The role of intermediary brands, value-added services, and privacy concerns

This paper explores the dynamics between value-added services, intermediary brands, and consumer privacy concerns in shaping attitudes toward blockchain-enabled consumer services. Grounded in the Antecedents-Privacy Concerns-Outcomes (APCO) framework, we develop a theoretical model that we test in three experimental studies with a total of 1613 participants, utilizing verbal scenarios featuring blockchain applications for international money transfer and hotel booking. Our research reveals that complete disintermediation via pure peer-to-peer blockchain transactions is unlikely. Consumers prefer blockchain applications offering supplementary services like call centers, password assistance, and cancellation options. As consumers become familiar with blockchain technology, privacy concerns intensify due to its distributed and immutable storage. The fears of data breaches are more pronounced when blockchain applications are offered by unknown startups as opposed to well-known Big Tech companies. However, privacy-conscious consumers also value the prospect of distancing themselves from big-data ecosystems by embracing blockchain solutions from startups. Our research extends the APCO framework by clarifying how privacy concerns, brand-based heuristics, and technological attributes interact. For managerial implications, blockchain applications necessitate re-intermediation to meet consumer preferences. Potential intermediaries, including Big Tech firms, startups, and industry incumbents, face unique challenges in developing and marketing blockchain-enabled consumer services.

Inertia, Progress, or Regress? Observing and Explaining Heterogenous Tech Firm Demographic Diversity Trajectories

Tech firms are under strong pressure to increase their demographic diversity. While activists and scholars have tended to treat the sector as homogenously hostile to women and racialized minorities, recent theory on organizational inequalities stresses heterogeneity in firm-level inequality regimes. Beginning with an inductive exploration of variation in executive, managerial, and professional workforce trajectories, we find that between 2008 and 2016 most Tech firms show little change, but that there are also significant clusters of firms that were becoming either much more or much less diverse for all three occupational levels. We model these trajectories as a function of firm visibility, the regulation of federal contractors by the U.S. Department of Labor, and leadership composition. Multinomial logistic regression models show that firms with an increasing (decreasing) diversity pattern in managerial and executive positions are also more likely to become more (less) diverse in their much more numerous professional jobs. Managers are more influential than executive in this regard. Regulatory pressure is associated with increased executive diversity trajectories, but not with managerial or professional trajectories. We conclude that increased Tech diversity is possible but requires leadership, particularly at the middle manager level. In addition, regulatory and visibility pressures primarily produce symbolic shuffles in top jobs.

An evolutionary game-theoretic approach to analysis the green innovation chain dynamics under government policies

Continuous improvement of the green innovation chain is essential for promoting sustainable entrepreneurship and addressing environmental issues. In this paper, we developed a tripartite evolutionary game model involving tech firms, startups, and accelerators. Our goal is to examine the impact of both static and dynamic government interventions on the evolution of the green innovation chain. After determining the evolutionary stable strategies, we examine government interventions through a system dynamics simulation using three different scenarios: (1) Government support downstream of the innovation chain, (2) government support upstream of the innovation chain, and (3) government support throughout the chain. In the first scenario, it is observed that although it promotes green technology innovation (GTI), the necessary support for startups and accelerators to scale up green innovations is lacking. Consequently, the overall level of GTI is limited. Conversely, in the second scenario, there is a lack of incentives for tech firms to invest in GTI, resulting in a stagnation in the innovation chain. Nevertheless, with government support extended throughout the chain, a synergistic effect emerges between all players, leading to a higher level of collaboration and resulting in a more efficient and effective green innovation chain.

Re-infrastructuring higher education

Higher education is undergoing ‘digital transformation’ through the introduction of new digital platforms in processes and practices of research and teaching. This brief forum article explores how research and teaching in many regions are being ‘platformised’ by a combination of academic publishers, the edtech industry, and Big Tech firms. Together, these processes of platformising research and teaching are integrating universities into complex digital infrastructures for many of their central operations. Universities are being re-infrastructured. They are also being ‘assetised’ as control of platforms and infrastructures allows their proprietors to extract value from the HE sector. These developments call for concerted dialogue on the conditions and prospects of academic labour in the digital university, and close attention to how emerging technological devices and systems are integrated into, challenged or transformed by scientific and pedagogic practice.