Research Policy最新文献

This paper contributes to the literature on the drivers of the gender gap in STEM by focusing on a critical career juncture: the bridge between university study in STEM fields and work. We investigate the effect of selected characteristics of recent STEM graduates' university education on the difference between women and men in their likelihood of obtaining STEM occupations shortly after graduation. Using unique data on a large sample of graduates in male-dominated STEM fields, we show that a diversified university curriculum increases the likelihood of women graduates getting STEM occupations shortly after graduation, while it does not affect men. In contrast, doing internships during university studies and participating in study abroad programs reduce the likelihood of men graduates entering STEM occupations, but does not affect women. Additionally, students' graduation grades increase the probability of both women and men securing STEM occupations.

Although current scholarship has shown that firms strategically frame their new technologies to persuade market stakeholders, such as investors and customers, we know less about how they use strategic framing tactics to influence politicians when the new technology challenges the regulatory framework. This is a significant omission, given that market and political stakeholders have very different interests and legitimacy judgments. Therefore, this paper aims to systematically examine the variations and antecedents of framing tactics of technologies in the political arena. It distinguishes between two types of political framing tactics of technologies: public interest framing tactics, which align the technology with the interests of the public, and special interest framing tactics, which condemn the incumbents as representatives of a special interest that stifles innovation. It also suggests that technology firms' political framing tactics are influenced by the instrumental interests and ideologies of targeted politicians. Based on a keyword-based content analysis of Uber's political statements in the most populous US cities between 2012 and 2018, it finds that the use of public interest framing tactics is specifically related to politicians' electoral pressure, whereas the use of special interest framing tactics is associated with politicians' liberal tendencies.

This paper investigates the dynamics of young firms in the period before and after their first-time patent application. The analysis is based on patent data from the Norwegian Industrial Property Office merged with data from several business registers covering a period of almost 20 years. We apply an event study design, supported by descriptive analyses, to assess the short- and long-term effects of patenting and use matching to control for confounding factors. Our results accord with the view that a young firm's innovation strategy, including how much to invest in R&D, is conceived before the intellectual property right is established. Furthermore, our results suggest that patenting exerts a lasting influence on the firm's R&D activity and impacts economic outcomes more broadly.

Social networks shape innovation dynamics both within- and across organizations. Unfortunately, obtaining relevant and high-quality data on social networks is often a challenge. We argue that simulated networks and simulation-based models can be a valuable complement, and even a viable substitute, to real-world network data in innovation research and beyond. We draw on a review of network simulation models and methods to illustrate how researchers can utilize simulations in ways that are grounded in empirical best practice. Furthermore, we explain how simulation models can be used to build new and richer networks, either from scratch or by using existing real networks as the point of departure. As an illustration, we compare four widely used empirical organizational networks with their simulated counterparts to show that simulations can indeed be used to mimic certain core properties of real-world networks. At the same time, we also emphasize that domain expertise from researchers is critical for model selection, specification, and tuning. Finally, we offer a prescriptive framework on the generation, modeling, estimation, and validation of simulation procedures, to help researchers make greater use of simulated data and simulation-based models in empirical innovation research.

Venture capitalists (VCs) shape innovative activities, moving beyond the role of providing financial resources. This paper investigates the role of VCs in firms’ innovative performance regarding two mutually exclusive concepts in which they enable or accelerate the patenting activities, distinguishing previously patenting and non-patenting portfolio firms, respectively. To reveal underlying mechanisms, the analyses explore differences in the timing of patenting activities and the level of VC involvement using large-scale VC and firm-level data. We find a positive and persistent enabling effect, suggesting that VCs push for rapid commercialization of inventive ideas by previously non-patenting firms. While we find no accelerating effect on average, high investor involvement and reputable VCs can accelerate the innovative activity of patenting firms by fostering new ideas. Examining firm-level differences in prior patenting experience shows that some target firms only obtain financial support, while others additionally seek active investor involvement that compensates for their need for expert knowledge. Overall, these findings disclose new and differentiated perspectives on the role of VCs in stimulating the inventive capabilities of their portfolio firms.

Despite burgeoning research on frugal innovation, there is limited understanding of how environmental threats shape frugal innovation, the mechanisms underlying this relationship and its boundary conditions. To address these gaps, we propose a moderated mediation model based on the strategy tripod perspective to examine the impact of environmental threats on frugal innovation through the mediating mechanism of co-innovation capability. Moreover, we investigate how legal incompleteness can moderate this relationship. We tested our model empirically with data from 301 manufacturing firms in an emerging market of Ghana, using a time-lagged research design. The results of our analysis largely support the proposed hypotheses in the model, revealing a more nuanced understanding of the indirect impact of environmental threats on frugal product innovation to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field of innovation.

Research and Development (R&D) in pharmaceuticals has often been judged as suboptimal due to barriers to entry, including the required investment size and other factors that cause the market to fail. R&D tax credits are one of the push methods governments use to incentivise innovation fiscally. R&D tax credits for the life sciences industry aim to promote innovation by reducing R&D costs and increasing expected returns. The underlying argument is that these incentives ultimately benefit the population's health while generating economic activity. However, the literature has yet to capture precisely the effects on innovation caused by this policy instrument. This paper studies the impact of the Research and Development Expenditure Credit scheme introduced in the UK in 2013. We use the synthetic control method to compare innovation output in the UK, measured by the number of new clinical trials, to an ad hoc control created using a group of comparable countries. Results indicate that the scheme increased the number of new phase I clinical trials by about 46 % one year after implementation. The treatment effect was weaker two years after the initiative's enactment but still present. A smaller lagged effect on phase II trials was also observed, by which trials increased by 32 % four years after the policy implementation. The positive effect was significant in the short run for phase I and phase II trials but not significant for phase III trials. Overall, the results suggest that, under certain circumstances, R&D tax credits can be helpful in stimulating innovation in the pharmaceutical sector.

One of the key challenges for innovative companies is reducing innovation failures and the loss of scarce resources. This study investigates two under-explored aspects of innovation failure: training for innovative activities and public support for innovation. It uses data from five waves of the Community Innovation Survey (2008–2018) on more than 29,000 firms in seven emerging European innovation systems known for their weak innovation capacity, information asymmetries, and systemic failures, which increase the risk of innovation failure. We employ a matching treatment analysis method and assess the robustness of our findings with the help of multi-valued treatment, the lasso machine learning treatment technique, and entropy balancing. This study identifies the diverse effects of training for innovative activities and national and EU public support for innovation on groups of innovation incumbents and entrants. The findings show that a combination of training for innovative activities and EU innovation support helps firms reduce their chances of innovation failure. The results reaffirm the strong reliance of firms in these economies on EU funding and the limitations of national innovation policies. The findings can inform the design and implementation of innovation policies in emerging innovation systems and multi-level contexts, such as the EU.

Prior studies examining the democracy-innovation relationship have reported mixed results. To resolve this tension, our framework grounded in information processing and institutional theory proposes two mechanisms through which democracy influences innovation—pro-market institutions and information processing. Our analysis reveals that democracy indirectly affects innovation primarily through information processing rather than pro-market institutions. While gradually or increasingly democratizing states tend to focus on adopting pro-market systems without considering information freedom (e.g., lifting censorship), our results underscore the importance of information processing for strengthening the democracy-innovation relationship. Our study extends the literature on national innovation rates by shedding light on the information processing implications of democratic institutions.

Intermediaries include actors playing multiple and often different roles in the innovation process, but comparatively little scholarship has characterized intermediation for technology diffusion in remote or hard-to-reach contexts. This paper uses mixed methods to characterize the relationships and associated activities required for diffusion intermediaries to support the local embedding of solar technologies in rural Kenya and argues for a focus on the informal processs that guide intermediaries in solar technology diffusion. Findings confirm the value of close social ties for technology diffusion but further show that informal relationships with on-the-ground service provider staff support the social ties that enable technology adoption. These informal configurations of social and service ties are characterized by layered partnerships that overcome gaps in knowledge while remaining flexible enough to meet evolving local needs. Further, informal ties step in to vet technology in contexts where formal pathways and institutions are weak. Informality in intermediation is often overlooked compared to more formal firms and traditional innovation processes, but for technology diffusion in Kenya, these informal relationships provide critical links for off-grid solar access.