Fabio Landini

The structure and dynamics of networks of scientific collaborations in Northern Africa

We examine the structure and dynamics of network of scientific international collaborations within North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt) using both publishing and patent data. Results show that the region has undergone a sustained process of internationalization, which has translated in both an expansion of the network of scientific collaborations and a relative increase in the research output of international teams. At the same time we find the existence of a very limited degree of scientific integration at the regional level, i.e. within Northern Africa. Among the countries examined, Egypt seems to be the most active one in terms of size of research output as well as number and variety of international collaborations. Moreover, Egypt is the most central node of the regional research network and this centrality has considerably grown over time. This increased importance of Egypt as regional research hub is associated with a remarkable increase in the centrality of Saudi Arabia within Egypt’s research network. This holds across a variety of research fields as well as in terms of applied science (as shown by patent data). Overall, these results suggest that the region is undergoing a deep transformation in the structure and composition of scientific collaborations.

Institutional change and information production

The organization of information production is undergoing a deep transformation. Alongside media corporations, which have been for long time the predominant institutions of information production, new organizational forms have emerged, e.g. free software communities, open-content on-line wikis, collective blogs, distributed platforms for resource sharing. The paper investigates the factors that favoured the emergence of these alternative systems, called peer production. Differently from most of the previous literature, the paper does so by considering technology (i.e. digital code) as an endogenous variable in the process of organizational design. On this basis the paper argues that the diffusion of digital technology is a necessary but not sufficient condition to explain the emergence of peer production. A similarly important role has been played by the specific set of ethics that motivated the early adherents to the free software movement. Such an ethics indeed operated as a sort of “cultural subsidy” that helped to overcome the complementarities existing among distinct institutional domains, and let a new organizational species to emerge.

Intangible Asset Dynamics and Firm Behaviour

We study the adoption of different patterns of intangible asset (IA) accumulation in manufacturing firms. Contrary to most of the previous literature, we find such patterns to be highly differentiated. In particular, we identify three types of firm behaviour: high and persistent, low and persistent, and discontinuous. We link the capability-based view of the firm to theories of asset complementarities and market signalling to explain how firm-specific traits affect such behaviours. We obtain the following results: first, the persistent accumulation of IAs is favoured by the internal availability of highly skilled personnel; second, firms with (a) large IA base and (b) high propensity to exploit complementarities in the asset stocks are more likely to persistently accumulate IAs than to discontinuously or never accumulate IAs and third, the adoption of quality management standards facilitates the accumulation of IAs, especially if this is done discontinuously. This paper adds to the previous literature in two ways: first, it highlights the existence of great heterogeneity in the dynamics of IA accumulation and, second, it provides an explanation for such heterogeneity.