ABSTRACT This article develops a modeling framework for growth and innovation in which accumulation dynamics of knowledge and R&D are explicitly considered. The framework is based on a more general knowledge production process than commonly used in Endogenous Growth Theory and R&D productivity literatures, reconciling as special cases disparate analytical approaches. The proposed model of knowledge dynamics highlights the role of human and physical capital accumulation in the creation of innovations and cautions against their omission in empirical models. Econometric analysis largely supports the model's predictions.

ABSTRACT Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are one of the major innovations that characterize the digital revolution of financial markets. Among the expectations created by the digital revolution is the democratization of entrepreneurial finance, defined in terms of the creation of more equality regarding the access to financial resources by categories known to be underrepresented among potential entrepreneurs. Following this line of research, we investigate, through two complementary empirical studies, whether gender, ethnicity, and geography affect the choice of ICOs vs. traditional financing alternatives. Additionally, we assess whether these characteristics increase the amount of money an entrepreneur can raise. In Study I, we compare 390 ICO ventures to a sample of 1,078 VC-backed blockchain ventures, identifying a negative correlation between the choice of an ICO (vs. VC-backing) and a location in an urban area. In Study II, we compare 160 ICO ventures to 163 real estate investment trusts (REITs), reaffirming the results of Study I. The findings show significant participation and likelihood of successful campaigns for ethnical minorities in ICOs, with the latter also being able to collect, ceteris paribus, larger amounts of funding. In contrast, female entrepreneurs do not have higher chances to participate nor raise funds in ICOs.

ABSTRACT This article aims to evaluate the impact of public venture capital (VC) initiatives in the form of government-subsidized participative loans on the future growth of technology-based start-ups. We also analyze the role of the business cycle at the time of birth in firms’ growth potential. To do this, we take advantage of a unique data set on Spanish technology-based start-ups that includes information about the profile of the technological entrepreneur at the time of birth and data on company accounts for the period 2001–2018. This information allows accounting for potential selection and endogeneity problems by using matching techniques. Our evidence is consistent with an effectiveness of this kind of public VC initiative to encourage firms’ development through their medium-term effect on growth rates of sales and labor productivity and on intangible assets intensity, but only for start-ups created before the economic crisis. We also find that this latter set of start-ups has greater employment growth rates than other start-ups born during the crisis. These results are in line with the hypothesis that firms’ growth is partly determined by the phase of the business cycle at the time of birth.

ABSTRACT Due to their potential for economic growth and development, the enabling technologies of the digital transformation, ICT and complementary fields such as advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and smart systems integration, are high on the innovation policy agenda of the EU. A strong innovative performance of the EU in this technology field depends inter alia on the extent to which the bundling of resources for innovative activities is achieved and disparities in innovative activities between its member states are overcome. Focusing on Horizon 2020, we trace disparities of knowledge generation in ICT across the geographical dimension and the network dimension. We apply descriptive and analytical statistics as well as network analysis to the CORDIS database and connect our findings to the distribution of power between EU member states and other countries associated with Horizon 2020. We then investigate whether there is power-law behaviour in our empirical data. We find a rather unequal distribution of power between countries that manifests in country size, per capita income and member status in the EU. Future innovation policy needs to prioritise a more cohesive and egalitarian European knowledge base in this strategic technology field and cope with the current imbalances in the distribution of power.

ABSTRACT Using data from companies in Taiwan’s electronics industry, this study examines the effect of corporate ownership on firm innovation efficiency and performance. We use a network-typed data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to calculate firm-level innovation efficiency, which is composed of the R&D efficiency and the commercialization efficiency, respectively. We find that overall innovation efficiency is positively correlated with institutional ownership and directors’ ownership. In addition, R&D efficiency is positively associated with ROA and commercialization efficiency positively correlates with Tobin’s Q. R&D efficiency partially mediates the relationship between ownership-control deviation and ROA. However, commercialization efficiency plays a mediating role for institutional ownership on a firm’s Tobin’s Q. Our findings point to a bright side of the role of corporate governance in terms of its effects on corporate innovation and the effects of such innovation, in turn, on firm performance.

ABSTRACT Using a unique data set combining Canadian and U.S patent data with firm-level data, we analyze Canadian firms' locational patenting decisions during the period 2000–2008. We find that the likelihood of Canadian firms' patenting in both the U.S. and Canada is associated with past patenting experience, firm size, profitability and patent scope. While manufacturing firms in export intensive industries are more likely to patent in both countries, firms in Foreign Direct Investment intensive industries are more likely to patent domestically. Finally, Canadian Intellectual Property Office's role as an International Search Authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is associated with an increase in the use of PCT by Canadian firms.

ABSTRACT We propose that there exists a virtuous circular relationship between firm exports and firm innovation whereby they drive and reinforce each other. We analyse two key elements which support this relationship, namely policy initiatives and firm-level strategies for innovation and exports. We use data from Canadian innovation surveys, and the two-stage least squares technique to explore the interplay between innovation and exports. Our results confirm our hypothesis; however, the effect of policies and firm-level strategies are not uniform or predictable across sectors and time.

ABSTRACT We draw on insights from the fitness landscape literature and from models of firm dynamics with learning to hypothesise that: (i) firms in industries with higher company age or size heterogeneity have higher exit hazard after controlling for age, size, and a variety of other predictors of firm survival; and (ii) higher levels of R&D investment mitigate the hazard-increasing effects of industry firm heterogeneity after controlling for the direct effects of R&D intensities at industry and firm level. We test for these novel sources of selection with evidence from a panel dataset of 35,136 R&D-active UK firms from 1998 to 2012 and a range of discrete-time hazard estimators. The findings, which remain robust to multiple sensitivity checks, offer two novel contributions to the literature: (i) firm heterogeneity is not just a passive precondition for subsequent selection process in industry evolution; this heterogeneity enhances selection as more firms might be stranded in suboptimal positions; (ii) firms in more heterogenous industries can mitigate the hazard-increasing effects through R&D investment that facilitates adaptation and search for better fitness locations.

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the impact of international financial cycles on structural change in developing economies. It is argued that the impact of these cycles depends on the specific combination of macroeconomic and industrial policies adopted by the developing economy. The cases of Brazil and Argentina are contrasted with those of Korea and China. In the Asian economies, macroeconomic policy has been a complementary tool along with industrial policy to foster the diversification of production and capabilities. Inversely, in the case of the Latin American countries, long periods of real exchange rate (RER) appreciation, combined with the weaknesses (or absence) of industrial policies, contributed to the loss of capabilities and lagging behind.

ABSTRACT The peripheral condition of Latin America has changed but persists in spite of a long decade of favorable economic conditions and heterodox policies. A renewed conceptualization of underdevelopment and of Innovation Systems is needed. Here it is connected with Sustainable Human Development, with the dynamics of power and with the transformative change framework. The ‘triangle paper’ is a main guide. Special attention is given to innovation heuristics forged in the South. If combined with advanced knowledge and high qualifications, they may contribute worldwide to the urgent transitions to less inequality and higher sustainability. Some elements for a related research agenda are sketched.