Valeria Arza

Channels and benefits of interactions between public research organisations and industry: comparing four Latin American countries

This paper compares the results of four country studies (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico) on the relative effectiveness of channels of interactions between public research organisations (PROs) and industry in driving specific types of benefits for researchers and firms. All studies used micro-datasets developed by a joint project using common questionnaires. Channels of interactions were classified into four groups (traditional, services, bi-directional and commercial) while benefits were classified into two groups for firms (short-term production and long-term innovation) and for researchers (economic and intellectual). It is found that the bi-directional (knowledge flows in both directions) and the services (knowledge flows mainly from PROs to firms) channels drive intellectual benefits for researchers. Firms tend to value the traditional channel (i.e. graduates, publications, conferences) more than any other channel. However, it is the bi-directional channel that drives the best benefits, especially those related to contributions to innovation activities. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Innovation in informal settings but in which direction? The case of small cotton farming systems in Argentina

We compare two very different kinds of innovation in the same informal setting; that of small-scale cotton production in northeast Argentina. One involved the informal production and sale of copied genetically modified seeds, an innovation that fitted readily within an incumbent set of socio-technical practices concerned with intensive commodity crop production. The other involved new agro-ecological techniques; a radical departure from incumbent practices. By contrasting these cases, we argue that the potential of informal innovation to better address the problems of marginalized actors depends on the broader socio-technical system to which innovation seeks to contribute.

Firms’ linkages with universities and public research institutes in Argentina: factors driving the selection of different channels

Knowledge flows between public research organisations (PROs) and firms may occur through various channels. Channel selection may have different drivers and effects. Although much research has been carried out on the drivers of firms and researchers to connect with each other, less attention has been paid to the determinants of the selection of different channels of interaction. This research analysis factors driving firms’ selection of different channels of interactions with public research organisations (PROs), both public research institutes (PRIs) and universities (UNIs). The paper estimates bi-variate probit models with sample selection using micro data for 2007 from a representative survey of Argentinean firms. The classification of channels is based on previous research for Latin America and includes four types according to the main goals that firms and public research organisations seek when interacting: traditional, service, commercial and bi-directional channels. We find that factors driving the selection of the bi-directional channel are different from those driving selection of the others. In particular, firms choosing this channel employ a more skilled workforce and generally interact with PRIs and UNIs in order to benefit their own innovative activities. Thus, this commitment to knowledge capabilities and innovation when firms use the bi-directional channel may enhance the potential of PRO–firm interactions to upgrade the national innovation system (NIS).

Obstacles to Innovation and Firm Size: A Quantitative Study for Argentina

This study contributes to our understanding of how barriers to innovation affect firms of different size. We review the literature on obstacles to innovation. We found that there is a gap regarding the systematic appraisal of firms’ size as an important characteristic mediating the effect that obstacles have on innovative investment and performance. The relevance of this topic lies in the important role that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play in the economic structure. In developing countries, in addition, SMEs lag further behind average productivity, so the need for innovation is greater. We use Argentinean survey data for years 2010–12. We use different econometric techniques suitable for our data. We found that obstacles have a negative impact on innovation investment and performance. In terms of size, SMEs’ investment is particularly affected. When the analysis is done by type of obstacles, we found that cost and market obstacles are important barriers for pursuing innovation activities. Knowledge obstacles seem to hamper the intensity of investment in innovation. Cost, market, and knowledge obstacles all limit performance in innovation. In turn, while cost obstacles are generally more deterrent for SMEs, we could not find systematic size difference regarding the effect of other obstacles.

Systematizing benefits of open science practices

Open science aims at the creation of public scientific goods by means of sharing outputs and widening and facilitating collaboration, in one or many of the different research stages. There are many beneficial aspects of open science that have been claimed in the literature, such us improving research efficiency, accelerating creativity, democratizing knowledge and empowering stakeholders. These claims are normally based on anecdotal experiences. In this paper we aim at organizing the extant literature on benefits of open science, in an attempt to build a bi-dimensional framework that relates characteristics of openness with benefits to be expected. The first dimension accounts for the characteristics of the collaboration, while the second for aspects of access to shared outputs. In the conclusion, we briefly illustrate our framework using evidence from four Argentinean open science initiatives.

Technological content of exports

ABSTRACT A large body of literature argues that the characteristics of exports matter for economic growth and development because some goods trigger positive externalities or are subject to increasing returns. Thus, for policy purposes, it is important to know whether a country’s export basket enjoys these productive opportunities. They have been associated with technological content of exports. However, measuring them is not easy. Previous methodologies to account for exports’ technological content used either R&D data or trade data. The former is used to account for knowledge-intensive activities during the production phase and the latter to identify levels of ‘sophistication’ of exports based on exporting countries’ characteristics. Building on these contributions, this paper combines industry-based and product-based indicators to circumvent some of the shortcomings of the received literature, including the product-industry controversy (i.e. are the actual activities during the production process or the product characteristics what better accounts exports’ technological content?). We use data from Uruguay on direct and indirect R&D spending from public and private sources and also trade data to build the sophistication index corrected by quality. We contrast our findings with existing methodologies to highlight our contribution.