Publications
-
List item
Regional incidence and persistence of high-growth firms: Testing ideas from the Entrepreneurial Ecosystems literature
Policy-makers and scholars often assume that a higher incidence of high-growth firms (HGFs) is synonymous with vibrant regional economic dynamics… Show more and that HGF shares are persistent over time as Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) have slowly-changing features. In this paper, we test these hypotheses deeply rooted in the EE literature. We draw upon Eurostat data for up to 20 countries over the period 2008-2020 and study HGF shares in NUTS-3 regions in Europe. Analysis of regional rankings yields the puzzling finding that the leading EEs in Europe, apparently, are in places such as southern Spain and southern Italy. These places would not usually be considered Europe’s foremost entrepreneurial hotspots. Additional results do not provide strong support for the hypothesis that more developed regions feature higher HGF shares. We do find evidence consistent with HGF shares displaying persistency over time. However, we show that more developed regions do not have higher persistence in their HGF shares and that the strength in persistence does not increase across the HGFs distribution, which does not support path dependency as the main mechanism behind the observed persistence. Overall, we call for a more nuanced interpretation of both regional HGF shares and the EEs literature. Show less
-
List item
High-Growth Enterprises in times of COVID-19: an overview
This paper contributes to a fast-growing literature on the impact of COVID-19 on the business economy, by focusing on how… Show more a particular group of firms - High-Growth Enterprises (HGEs) have been affected by COVID-19 across several dimensions, such as investment expectations, investment priorities, employment decisions, and their post-COVID-19 green and digital transitions. Using the EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS) and relying on descriptive statistics and basic regressions, the results suggest that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the investment expectations of HGEs, although they continue to invest slightly more than non-HGEs. Preliminary results suggest that HGEs appear to be more optimistic than non-HGEs in a variety of dimensions, such as optimism surrounding the use of digital technologies, and willingness to invest in climate mitigation and adaptation. However, our evidence shows that the HGEs in the 2020 survey wave have still been hit hard by the COVID-19 shock, compared to HGEs in previous years, which suggests that there may be a role for policy for supporting these valuable firms. Show less
-
List item
Economic crisis accelerates urban structural change via inter-sectoral labour mobility
Are recessions drivers of structural change? Here we investigate the resilience of cities, and argue that a re-allocation of labour… Show more between industrial sectors in times of crisis induces an acceleration in structural change. Using UK data, we find that cities experienced a sharp increase in inter-sectoral job transitions, and that local employment in skill-related sectors is most strongly associated with employment growth, during the recession, which we identify with the period of employment contraction between 2008 and 2011. This coincides with a massive but short-lived increase in the rate of structural change (i.e. the total change in employment shares of different industries) around 2009. These findings suggest that cities with skill-related sectors re-allocate workers in a crisis, thus inducing structural change. Show less
-
List item
PDF A Preliminary Index of SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Testing Patents
Diagnostic testing for COVID-19 is an important part of the management of the current pandemic. In this paper we reason… Show more that previous knowledge in diagnostic testing for Coronaviruses (such as MERS-Cov and SARS-Cov) might prove critical to the development and deployment for COVID-19 testing. By extracting keywords from this knowledge, we construct an indicator of inventive activity in the area of Coronavirus diagnostic tests and analyse this over time and measure where this knowledge is located in the world, with potentially important implications for the development and deployment of diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2. Show less
-
List item
PDF How the “EU Innovation Champions” successfully absorbed and reacted to the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
• The COVID-19 pandemic presented great challenges, but also opportunities, to SMEs across Europe. • We examine how the “European Innovation… Show more Champions” successfully absorbed and reacted to the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. • Five different paradoxical behaviors (i.e., planning, liquidity, time and velocity, partnership, resources and technology) characterized the European Innovation Champions during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. • We distill 10 management principles representing key actions and decisions that allowed the European Innovation Champions to manage each paradox. • This report provides policymakers and business leaders both within and outside the European Union with insights to enhance the capability of SMEs to succeed through a crisis. Show less
-
List item
PDF The role of gender in linking external sources of knowledge and R&D intensity
Scholars examining the effect of knowledge spillovers on R&D and innovation all agree on one thing--there is a strong relationship… Show more between the firm's R&D effort and knowledge spillover. The sign of this relationship depends, however, on many things, such as the type of spillovers (horizontal, vertical, or from other sources), the level of appropriability , the type of firm (e.g., age and sector), and the measurement of the spillover itself. A missing piece of evidence to this literature is the role of gender in the founding team of the firm. Our contribution is to fill this gap by explicitly analyzing the role played by gender in the founding team. Given that the relationship between a firm's R&D intensity and external knowledge spillovers is ultimately context-specific, we analyse the differences between male-owned and female-owned young entrepreneurial firms with respect to the influence that knowledge spillovers have on their R&D intensity. Show less
-
List item
PDF Regulations and technology gap in Europe: the role of firm dynamics
In this paper, we develop a new firm-level measure of distance to the productivity frontier that accounts for international technology… Show more spillovers stemming from the use of imported intermediate goods. The trade-weighted technological distance to frontier is matched with sector- and country-level data on regulation and firm dynamics (entry and exit rates) of 16 European countries. Using our measure of trade-adjusted technology gap, we investigate the role of labour, capital, and product market regulatory frameworks in the technology catch-up process, gauging the effect of firms' dynamics in mediating and moderating the impact of regulation on the technology gap. Our study offers a novel perspective and insights to the analysis of the link between framework conditions and technological distance to frontier. While most scholars argue that less regulation always favours productivity growth and the diffusion of technology, our results provide a more nuanced picture. Deregulation is not a one-size-fits-all solution that leads to faster technology diffusion, instead heterogeneity in business dynamism and countries' regulatory structures need to be considered. Show less
-
List item
PDF Organization and geography of global R&D and innovation activities: insights from qualitative research on leading corporate R&D investors
This study examines the on-going structural changes in the international organisation of corporate R&D and innovative (RDI) activities. Insights are… Show more mainly drawn from interviews made to innovation representatives and managers of large R&D-investing companies in 2017 in the frame of the European Commission’s project – Industrial Research and Innovation Monitoring and Analysis –. The research intends to complement the quantitative evidence available in the project on the worldwide leading corporate R&D investors in order to better characterize the on-going fragmentation of R&D and innovation activities. The study suggests directions for mapping innovation value chains beyond research and inventive activities and carries out important conceptual and policy implications for the configurations and sustainability of innovation systems in Europe. Show less
-
List item
PDF The EU vs US corporate R&D intensity gap: Investigating key sectors and firms
This paper contributes to the literature on corporate research and development (R&D) intensity decomposition by examining the effects of several… Show more parameters on R&D intensity. It draws on a longitudinal company-level micro-dataset, built using four editions of the EU R&D Scoreboard, and confirms the structural nature of the EU R&D intensity gap with the US, which has widened in the last decade. As a novel contribution to the literature, this paper uncovers the differences between the EU and the US by inspecting which sectors and firms are more accountable for the aggregate R&D intensity performance of these two economies. Furthermore, the study shows that a large share of R&D investment by the EU sample is mostly conducted in sectors with medium or low R&D intensity, and that there is a high concentration of R&D in a few sectors and firms. Interestingly, the investigation finds a high heterogeneity in firms' R&D intensity within sectors, indicating the coexistence of firms with different R&D investment strategies and efficiencies. Finally, the study reveals that the EU holds a much lower number of both larger and smaller R&D investors than the USA, in the four high-tech sectors that are key to the aggregate EU R&D intensity gap vis-à-vis the USA. Show less
-
List item
PDF On R&D sectoral intensities and convergence clubs
Sectoral convergence in R&D intensities among firms is a concept that, although rarely formalized, has been at the center of… Show more discussions of industrial and non-industrial actors, such as entrepreneurs, institutions and academics. Far from being a settled issue, the subject has seen very limited empirical attention. We start from the few current evidences, which point to the existence of some beta-convergence together with diffused heterogeneity. We recover and integrate the literature from convergence clubs and extend the work introducing the use of Pavitt taxonomy, and new estimation techniques. Particularly, we apply the concept of weak sigma-convergence using a quite novel econometric factor model. Thanks to this, we provide evidences of both beta-convergence for within-sector intensities and of club convergence for across-sector intensities. Finally, the club classification according to "innovative effort" may be used as an alternative way to look at standard economic activities classifications. Show less