Technology Manufacturing Sectors Research Articles

Small banks and innovative entrepreneurial culture in Italy: A historical perspective

Based on provincial (NUTS 3) data from a comprehensive survey conducted in 1927 by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT), this paper investigates the effect of the historical presence of small financial institutions on current start-up rates. It finds evidence that their presence positively affects current start-up rates in high and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors. In contrast, it does not find any significant effect in low and medium-low technology manufacturing sectors. These results suggest that the local presence of small financial institutions may have been essential in promoting the development of entrepreneurship in those sectors that are intrinsically more opaque and riskier.

FDI, international trade and global value chains (GVCs): India's GVC participation, position and value capture

Using OECD Trade in Value Added (TiVA) database (2021, 2022) and Asian Development Bank (2022) dataset, this paper indicates that though India's GVC participation rate has risen over time, it was lower than that of several economies in Asia-Pacific and its relative share in participation gains was marginal. Nevertheless, India's relative share in forward and backward GVC content to (and from) the region was not as peripheral. Raising net participation gains will require key enablers, and stimulating the mutually reinforcing FDI-GVC relationship by attracting quality FDI inflows. Findings based on the panel, fixed-effects model support the hypotheses that production-based GVC participation, revealed comparative advantage based on value-added exports, the country's relative economic size, and economic complexity (in medium-to-high technology manufacturing sectors) positively affect economic upgrading through capturing a greater share in world's domestic value-added in an industry while relative GVC position has a negative effect.

A Study on the Influence of Financial Factors on the Growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Portuguese High Technology and Medium-high Technology Sectors

The purpose of this paper is to find important financial influential factors to the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high technology and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors in Portugal. Using the fixed effects model and the pooled regression model, the impacts of some financial variables in previous year on firm growth are observed. In addition, the total sample is further classified into the young firm group and the mature firm group in order to compare the differences of the impacts at different age stages. The results show that there are more financial factors (such as, receivables, short-term loans, intangibles, long-term debt and industry dummy) impacting on young SMEs compared to mature SMEs, which means that young SMEs tend to be more susceptible. In particular, the impacts of profitability and leverage are constant for both young and mature SMEs; the two factors of trade credit (accounts receivables and payables) are negatively related to growth. By contrast, firm age and GDP show different effects at different age stages. This paper has two main contributions: it can help SME managers identify important financial factors to firm growth and then promote development of SMEs; it also contributes to the empirical studies on SME growth in high technology and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors from financial perspective.

The Influential Factors on Capital Structure: A Study on Portuguese High Technology and Medium-High Technology Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Using the panel data model, this paper studies the influential factors on the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors in Portugal. In particular, the total sample is further classified into young SME group and mature SME group for observing the similarities and differences. The research results show that firm size, profitability, firm age, and industry sector impact much on the capital structure and debt ratios; on the other hand, the impacts of tangible assets, intangible assets, and growth are not as strong as the previous factors. The differences of the impacts on young and mature SMEs are mainly shown by growth, intangible assets and industry sector. In particular, intangible assets show more statistical significance in young SMEs compared to mature SMEs, and intangible assets tend to be positively related to long-term debt especially in young SME group; this may reflect the positive attitude of financial institutions on the value of intangibles in generating future benefits for high and medium-high technology young firms. Besides, the findings tend to support the pecking order theory more than the trade-off theory regarding the high and medium-high technology manufacturing SMEs here.

Identification of factors affecting sustainable development of renewable energy sources in transport

At present motor transport is one of the key components of the formation of a long-term policy of sustainable economic development. Analysis of the structure of energy consumption in motor transport is necessary for better understanding of the factors that affect the increase in the share of renewable energy sources in transport and the effectiveness of specific support measures for the transition to vehicles with minimal or no greenhouse gas emissions. Models of pooled regression, regression with random and fixed effects were built in order to reveal the influence of the chosen factors on the share of renewable energy and electricity in the structure of energy consumption by vehicles. The results of evaluation for 31 European countries in the 2005-2017 showed that the criterion, which allows identifying groups of countries, is the volume of environmental transport taxes per vehicle unit. Countries with higher taxation volumes has such influencing factors as Corruption Perceptions Index, Energy productivity, Total environmental taxes per capita and Employment in high- and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors and knowledge-intensive service sectors. Consumption in countries with lower tax differentiation is influenced by index of research intensity, Corruption Perceptions Index and Shares of environmental and labour taxes.

From Industrial Policy to National Industrial Strategy: An Emerging Global Phenomenon

In February 2019, the German federal government announced its new “National Industry Strategy 2030.” Many economies—including the United Kingdom (2017), European Union (2017), and Saudi Arabia (2018)—have announced national industrial strategies addressing the competitive threat of the People’s Republic of China’s 2015 “Made in China 2025” 5-year economic plan to become a global leader in 10 advanced technology manufacturing sectors. The use of the 20th-century term “industrial policy” heralds back to public policy antecedents of what is now evolving globally in the 21st century as national “industrial strategy,” a concept explored in this article. Unlike traditional 20th-century efforts at industrial policy (which focused on public policy efforts to maintain domestic primacy of declining, older industries), national industrial strategy recognizes (and generally accepts) the international global economy as a foundation of competition. Most importantly, national industrial strategy focuses on technologically emerging industries as well as the national government working collaborative in a partnership with these emerging industries to meet future growth challenges and opportunities.

The impact of Chinese competition on third markets: An analysis by region and technological category

AbstractThis article seeks, through the use of a gravity model, to verify if in the 2000‐2009 years Chinese exports have displaced exports from other countries in third markets. The contribution of this article is to provide an overview of Chinese competition, covering different regions and technology categories in a comparative way. The evidence shows that the effect of Chinese exports on global exports is mainly negative. The medium technology manufacturing sector is the segment most affected by Chinese competition. The results also indicate that developing economies are experiencing the most negative effect of Chinese competition, especially the emerging Asian countries.

The Significance of Corporate Social Disclosure for High‐Tech Manufacturing Companies: Focus on Employee and Community Aspects of Sustainable Development

AbstractAddressing a global key sector area – the high technology manufacturing sector – we examine if there is truly a benefit of corporate social disclosure to the bottom line of organizations within this sector and if stakeholders should devote more attention to this strategic topic. Accordingly, we assess the potential effects of corporate social disclosure on financial performance, with a particular focus on employee and community aspects. This effect is examined for a sample of 405 companies operating within the sector. Additionally, we posit that the innovative nature of the sector adds a sub‐plot and possibly exaggerates the effect of corporate social disclosure on financial performance. The study offers guidance to stakeholders on how actions in the CSR realm may potentially affect company performance within this sector, as well as providing direction on the impact improved disclosure can have on financial performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Global value chain, trade and carbon: Case of information and communication technology manufacturing sector

This paper investigates the slicing up the value chain and the accompanied carbon dioxide emissions linked to the international trade of global information and communication technology (ICT) manufacturing sector, the most dynamic and globally dispersed sector in the world economy. Based on an inter-country input–output database WIOD, we trace the changes of value-added and the carbon dioxide emissions that are embodied in the international trade of ICT final products in 1995–2008. The results show that the emerging economies are largely benefited by involving in global ICT productions, for which advanced economies have always been major consumers and importers. Although the emerging economies experienced much faster upgrades in carbon-intensity-related technologies, in 2008 the advanced economies still emitted less carbon dioxide and obtained more added value than emerging economies, for identical amount of exports of ICT final products.

Maturity of supply chain integration within small- and medium-sized enterprises: lessons from the Taiwan IT manufacturing sector

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are known to lack behind in terms of the adoption and exploitation of information and communication technology (ICT). In this paper, we explore the area of ICT adoption in the Taiwanese information technology manufacturing sector within SMEs based on a multiple case study research. The findings suggest that small enterprises were in the initial stages of the process maturity of their supply chain. Seven types of ICT connections used by the case companies to support their supply chains were identified which show that most of the companies stayed in the lower level of supplier chain management integration without exploiting the benefits of ICT in full. Our results provide a better understanding on ICT adoption for supply chain integration by SMEs in practice.

The Innovation Patterns of Firms in Low and High Technology Manufacturing Sectors in the New Member States

For many years, analysis on innovations focused on high technology industries which were treated as synonymous with high competitiveness and growth. New research on low and medium technology industries has revealed that their growth is also based on innovations, though their sources differ from high technology industries. As the ‘catching up’ economies of the EU New Member States (NMS) are based on low and medium technology industries, the differences in innovativeness between high and low technology sector firms as well as within each of the sectors can play an important role in the future development of these countries. This paper aims to show the differences in innovation patterns among manufacturing firms operating in low and high technology sectors in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It is based on a survey of firms which took into account innovation inputs, cooperation among firms in R&D activities, the benefits of cooperation with business partners, innovation outputs and international competitiveness. The sample consisted of 358 firms operating in both low and medium technology industries (food and beverages and automotive) and high technology industries (pharmaceuticals and electronics). After employing cluster analysis, five types of innovation patterns were detected, characterised and compared in firms operating in the low and medium technology (LMT) sectors, and four in the high technology (HT) sector. Differences and similarities in innovation patterns between firms operating in each of the two sectors are discussed. The paper shows that external knowledge plays a crucial role in innovation activities in NMS’ firms. The ability to explore cooperation with business partners and the use of external knowledge are more important for the international competitiveness of the NMS’ products than in-house innovation resources.

Services, innovation and the new economy

Several distinctive stylized facts form the new economy, an information technology service sector organized in network forms of organization, an inflation rate below its fundamentals, an increase in stock market volatility, high rates of economic growth, but apart from a small information technology manufacturing sector low productivity rates. This paper presents a model where the innovation of new service varieties can explain all of these facts. First, productivity gains are no longer realized within but between firms, as the increase in variety increases value-added per employee. Whilst service innovators, such as the information technology manufacturers, get ever more productive, individual service firms will exhibit low productivity. It is this unmeasured sectoral productivity gain, which is the key element in understanding the intrinsic inertia in the price index. Finally, the paper shows that variety in the service sector enables service providers to realize rents, where fluctuations of these rents are the basis of more than proportional changes in the firms' stock market value.

Smaller firms and Europe's high technology sectors: a framework for analysis and some statistical evidence

This paper introduces a simple framework through which the evolution of industries can be `mapped'. This framework is used to discuss the role of small firms in the development of Europe's high technology sectors during the 1980s. The framework assesses the development of high technology sectors in two dimensions (1) through the change over time in the number of units (establishments or enterprises) in these sectors and (2) through the changing employment of these sectors. Changes within both manufacturing and service sectors are discussed and differences are found between the sectors examined. Especially among the manufacturing sectors, differences are also found between countries. In some countries the high technology manufacturing sectors are growing both in terms of the number of units active in these activities and their employment, while in other countries, the number of units is increasing but employment is contracting. Within this context, it may well be that the growth in the number of high technology small firms has at least as much to do with `negative' factors, such as the `down-sizing' of large firms, as it has to do with `positive' factors, such as the creation of innovative new enterprises.