Maria Savona

The Impact of Innovation on Economic Performance in Services

This article empirically explores the relationship between innovation and economic performance in services at the firm level. The empirical analysis is based on a unique longitudinal firm-level data set, which matches the Italian Community Innovation Survey (CIS II) data (1993–1995) and a set of economic indicators provided by the Italian System of Enterprise Account (1993–1998). In particular the empirical analysis aims at assessing whether the presence of innovation and the amount of resources devoted to innovation are able to explain the economic performance of firms in the service sector. The results presented show that innovating firms out perform non-innovating firms in terms of productivity levels and economic growth. Productivity is also found to be linked to the amount of innovation expenditures, especially those devoted to the acquisition and internal development of new software.

Innovation, employment and skills in services. Firm and sectoral evidence

In this article the employment impact of innovation in the heterogeneous universe of services is investigated, using data provided by the 1993–1995 Italian innovation survey (CIS II). The empirical evidence presented shows that the “direct” impact of innovation on employment varies greatly according to the type of innovation strategy pursued by firms, across industries and according to the level of qualification of the labour force. High skilled and qualified jobs do replace low skilled jobs. Among small firms and in less than half of the service sectors considered the net effect is positive, particularly in industries which have a strong scientific and technological base. The negative impact of innovation on employment is on the contrary concentrated among large firms, capital intensive industries and in all financial-related sectors (banking, insurance and other financial services). In the latter industries the labour-saving effect of innovation seems to be linked to the widespread use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which have contributed to rationalise and increase labour productivity in an important section of services. In the case of Italy, an overall negative impact of innovation on employment has been found. This result is clearly affected by the de-specialisation of the Italian economy in the knowledge intensive services. From an innovation-policy perspective two lines of actions can be envisaged: one enhancing efficiency in the technologically laggard service sectors and a second one aiming at creating the conditions for the emergence and growth of knowledge-intensive branches. The evidence presented suggests that both these lines of policy action are important but also that the second one is likely to be more rewarding in terms of employment growth.

The Effect of Consumption and Production Structure on Growth and Distribution: A Micro to Macro Model

The paper offers a theoretical analysis of long-run economic growth as an outcome of structural changes. We model the microeconomic behaviour of firms in the final good and capital sectors, and the evolution of classes of workers/consumers. We carefully craft economic behaviour onto empirical evidence, and solve the model numerically. The results illustrate the microeconomic properties of the simulated growth patterns. In particular, we observe and explain the interactions between technological change, firm organization, income distribution, consumption behaviour and growth. We confirm the relevance and interdependence of these structural changes, and underline their microeconomic sources.

The Impact of Innovation on Employment in Services: Evidence from Italy

This article investigates the employment impact of innovation in services, using the data gathered through the 1993-95 Italian innovation survey. The empirical evidence shows that the impact of innovation on employment varies greatly across industries and according to the level of qualification of the labour force. Among small firms and in less than a half of the service sectors considered, the employment impact of innovation is positive, particularly in industries that have a strong scientific and technological base. A negative impact of innovation on employment is, on the contrary, found among large firms, capital-intensive industries and in all financial-related sectors (banking, insurance and other financial services). In these industries the labour-saving effect of innovation seems to be linked to the widespread use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which displace the least qualified employees. In the case of Italy, an overall negative impact of innovation on employment is found. It is argued that this result is affected by the Italian economys specialisation in the most traditional service industries.

Knowledge Dynamics, Structural Change and the Geography of Business Services

The paper provides a review of and presents some empirical evidence on the dynamics of knowledge, structural change and spatial concentration of economic activities, focusing on the case of business services (BS). It explores how the role of knowledge has evolved in relation to the dimensions of: (i) science, technology and structural change; (ii) the long‐term processes of tertiarization of the economy – in particular the growth of BS; (iii) the spatial concentration of BS as an outcome of the increasing volume and complexity of knowledge and the need to manage it through spatial proximity. Our arguments are supported by empirical evidence on the spatial concentration of BS in the European regions.

Barriers to innovation and firm productivity

ABSTRACT The paper analyzes the effect of financial, knowledge, demand, market structure and regulation barriers to innovation on firms’ economic performance. It contributes to the literature on barriers to innovation by accounting for the heterogeneous effects that each barrier has on firms across the productivity distribution. We do so by employing both quantile regression techniques and matching estimators on this UK CIS panel 2002–2010 merged with the Business Structure Database. While we find evidence that both the cost and also the availability of finance negatively affect productivity across the whole distribution, the lack of qualified personnel mostly hinders high productivity firms. Moreover, quantile regression reveals some interesting variation in effect sizes across the (conditional) productivity distribution.

Obstacles to innovation and multinational firms in the Italian regions. Firm-level evidence from the Third Community Innovation Survey

The intense debate on the globalization of innovation has drawn increasing attention to multinational enterprises (MNEs) as creators of innovation across national boundaries (e.g. Cantwell, 1989, 1995; Niosi, 1999; Petit and Sanna-Randaccio, 2000). The development of cross-border corporate integration and intra-border inter-company sectoral integration makes it increasingly important to examine where and how innovative activities by MNEs are internationally dispersed and regionally concentrated (Zanfei, 2000; Cantwell and Piscitello, 2002; Cantwell and Iammarino, 2003).

Collaboration between a research university and firms and other institutions

This paper examines the evolution of contractual relationships in chemistry at the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg during the 1990s. Using entry, exit and persistency indicators we analyse the changes in contracting behaviourof the various university laboratories and compare the types of contracts signed by persistent and nonpersistent laboratories, persistent laboratories being those that had contractual relationships throughout the period. Four main conclusions emerge. First, an increasing number of new actors (firms and university laboratories) have become contractual partners. Second, persistent laboratories are the most active actors inside the university. Third, the increasing number of contractual agreements signed by persistent laboratories underlines the existence of an ongoing management learning process. Finally, there is no clear-cut difference in the type of contracts signed by persistent and non-persistent laboratories indicating that the development of university-industry relationships is demand-driven. These results are framed within the debate on the ongoing changes in the role and behaviour of universitites. pdf no longer available - this paper has now been published in F. Cesaroni et al. (eds) RD Kluwer Academic, 2004, pp. 145-173.

Global Structural Change And Value Chains In Services: A Reappraisal

The scholarship on Global Value Chains is very recently recognising the increasing importance of fragmentation of production that involves services – and in particular business services – offshoring. A predominant stand by scholars emerges in this embryonic domain (Blinder, 2006; Gereffi and Fernandez-Stark, 2010; Ventura, 2014). Participation in GVC in business services might be considered a sort of ‘third unbundling’ of internationalisation of production, which opens up new opportunities for catching up in transition and developing countries. What are the theoretical and empirical bases for such a claim? Do these apply to both developed and developing contexts? Is the occurrence of “a flat world” (Friedman, 2005) ultimately responsible for a global sectoral structural change involving services? Is this process leading to smart and equitable catching up processes? This chapter selectively systematises the traditional and emerging literature on GVCs and claims the importance of domestic and local Hirschman-linked specialisation before joining GVCs as a catching-up strategy.

Don't Stop Me Now: Barriers to Innovation and Firm Productivity.

This paper analyses the effect of financial, knowledge, demand, market structure and regulation barriers to innovation on firms’ economic performance. It contributes to the literature on barriers to innovation in a two-fold way. First, it disentangles the mediated effect of obstacles, via product, process and organisational innovation, on labour productivity. Second, it accounts for the differentiated effect that each of the barriers has on firms positioned along the productivity distribution. We do so by employing both quantile regression techniques and propensity score matching on the UK CIS panel 2002-2010 merged with the Business Structure database. While we find evidence that financial obstacles negatively affect productivity across the distribution, and are more pronounced for young rather than small firms, knowledge and regulatory obstacles mostly affect high productivity firms. Interestingly, the perceptions of market structure and demand obstacles are positively associated to productivity performance, confirming their “revealed” rather than “deterring” nature.