Contenu du sommaire : Innovation Boosters in Economic Systems

This paper seeks to show problems which follow from wrong assumptions about the key drivers of innovation policy and theory. A theoretical evolving network model is proposed for that purpose, taking into consideration innovation opportunities that are not necessarily driven by technological discoveries, R&D or knowledge diffusion. Innovation is defined by a new combination of means of production, and is introduced to the initial condition by rewiring a regular graph model. Dynamics of the diffusion process are captured by the statistical reconstruction of the solutions for recurrence equations within a discrete time perspective. Simulation results show that innovation gives rise to essentially unstable turbulent dynamics. Stability analysis implies an alternative interpretation of the nature of innovations and their dynamics. As a source of economic change, innovations are conjectured to be dependent on scale and diversity. They are closely linked to novelty, rather than to previous states of knowledge or technology.JEL Codes: C51, C61, E32, O11, O33

The objective of this paper is to estimate an econometric model for analyzing the effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on technology transfer through the importation of capital goods, and on economic growth in 48 developing countries, signatories to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of the WTO, by using the simultaneous-equations model estimated by Seemingly Unrelated Regressionsduring the period 1970–2009. Our empirical results show that IPR protection positively affects economic growth in developing countries by attracting foreign technology embodied in capital goods. In addition, a developing country's membership of the WTO promotes and encourages technology transfer through the liberalization of international trade.JEL Codes: C33, F130, O33, O34, O47

Based on the construction of our own new statistical series of stocks of productive physical capital and of enterprises' fixed assets, and on a rigorously-defined scope of the industrial sector, we calculated various indicators of profit rates at the micro- and macroeconomic levels for China from 1952 to 2014. Such indicators of profit rates are extremely rare in the literature – while there exist numerous studies on the rates of return of capital within the neoclassical mainstream. The results obtained by these two methods (micro and macro) are quite original and can be summarized as follows: i) a tendency of the profit rate to fall is observed over the long period, for the two levels of analysis. ii) At the macro level, short-term fluctuations in the profit rates show a succession of (often incomplete) cycles whose amplitude decreases with time. iii) More than a third of the period is affected by recessive years for the cyclical component of the profit rates. The largest declines are recorded, in descending order, after the rupture between China and the Soviet Union (1961-63), during the Cultural Revolution (1968), in the course of the 1950s, during the post-Mao transition (1976-77), when a neoliberal experiment was tried (1989-91), and with the spread of globalization crises (which affected China in 1998, 2001, 2009, then since 2012). iv) It is mainly the increasing organic composition of capital that tendentiously pushes down the macro rate of profit.JEL Codes: C13, C22, C52, C82, E22, N15, O53, P31

The purpose of this study is to investigate the complementary relationship between networks and organizational innovation (OI) activities. This empirical study uses mainly probit and OLS estimation methods on 1760 Chilean SMEs. The regression analysis reveals that market- related networks (with customers, suppliers and competitors) positively influence the SMEs OI performance. Moreover, a complementary relationship between market-related networks and OI is found. This indicates that market-related networks and OI are economic activities that are highly interrelated and significantly improve the SMEs performance. Overall, the findings suggest that Chilean SMEs are engaged in market-related networks than through networks with technological institutions for improving OI and productivity performance. This indicates that higher cost of innovation; skills shortage and lack of access to credit reduce OI and productivity performance. The policy implications of this empirical study are that Chilean SMEs need to develop strong linkages to market-related agents (e.g., customers, suppliers) and with technological institutions (e.g., universities) for higher OI and productivity performance.JEL Codes: JELO3

The paper addresses the issue of verifying the outcomes of using the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in landfills focusing on service innovations in the urban solid waste sector. Our research focuses on the São Paulo Metropolitan Area considering two CDM landfill projects: Bandeirantes, a public project and Caieiras, a private project. Indicators are proposed to evaluate the social and environmental outcomes that can be generated from CDM landfills, organized into five themes: participation, stakeholder interaction, benefits, environmental quality monitoring and gas emissions monitoring. Data, collected by applying indicators, are organized and analyzed based on two complementary theoretical frameworks: The characteristics-based model and the public-private innovation networks in services (ServPPIN) concept. The results highlights a gap in the access to CDM projects and the participation of stakeholders, and benefits related to the CDM projects implementation, corroborating to the relevance of the development of indicators based on interdisciplinary and multi-agent approaches which take into account the different stakeholders.JEL Codes: Q560, Q540, Q530

The National Innovation System (NIS) concept is constantly evolving and this evolution merits particular attention today. Indeed, the extensive literature around NISs is very often focused on a connection between the territory examined and the recommendations around technology policies, and does not sufficiently re-examine the fundamental subjects on which NISs are based: innovation capacities, innovation policy and economic development. The aim of theoretical contribution of this article is three-fold. First it will re-examine the NIS concept through its general conceptual evolution and in developing countries. Then it will analyse the legitimacy of innovation policies, through to their mode of governance in developing countries. And finally, it will re-examine the conditions that structure the latter with regard to globalised growth, and economic development that is sometimes impeded.JEL Codes: O31, F63, B41

Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas (BMC) has become one of the most used and cited frameworks among entrepreneurs and innovators. What elements drive the adoption and use of this tool? Despite the popularity of business model artefacts in general and the BMC in particular, there is little academic literature about the attributes that lead to their acceptance among innovation and entrepreneurship students worldwide. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap by applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model among BMC users. We argue that a better understanding of the factors associated with the adoption of business model artefacts is crucial to improving the way these tools contribute to the way we learn about business model innovation. We found that Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy and Hedonic Motivation all play an important role in explaining BMC adoption among students.JEL Codes: D83, L26, O33

The aim of this study is to contribute to the extant literature about the dynamics and management of crowdfunding projects by exploring how project creators' incompetence leads to delays and failure in rewards' delivery during the fulfilment stage. Thus, the research question of the study is: how do delays in rewards' delivery emerge over the fulfilment stage of crowdfunding projects? An exploratory research is performed in order to answer to the research question. The author collected and analysed secondary data and information about the delays/lack of rewards promised to backers by the creators of nine successful crowdfunding projects funded via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter during the period 2011-2015. The results show which are the main incompetence-driven critical problems commonly faced by project creators during the fulfilment stage. These problems outline the distinction between ex ante incompetence and ex post incompetence by crowdfunding projects creators and four different types of rewards' delay.JEL Codes: M11, M13, O32