Inter-Firm Innovation Networks: The Impact of Scale-Free Property on Firm Innovation

Author(s):  
Xiaolong Lu ◽  
Wen Zhou ◽  
Yan Zhao ◽  
Ying Zhu ◽  
Shengnan Fei
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafiz Mustansar Javaid ◽  
Qurat Ul Ain ◽  
Antonio Renzi

PurposeThis paper empirically investigates whether female CEOs (She-E-Os) have an effect on firm innovation among Chinese listed firms based on patent data. This study also delved further by looking at whether the internal corporate environment moderates the effect of female CEOs on innovation, that is, state ownership. Finally, this study investigates an additional test of financial constraints to examine whether financial constraints also moderate the impact of female CEOs on firm innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the data of all A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period from 2008 to 2017. The authors use ordinary least squares regression as a baseline methodology, along with firm-fixed effect, lagged measure of female CEOs, alternative measures of innovation, Heckman two-step model and negative binomial regression to check and control the possible issue of endogeneity.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that CEO gender plays an important role in producing higher levels of innovation output by improving the governance structure. However, female CEOs have no effect on state-owned enterprises' (SOEs) innovation activities, which suggests that the main goal of SOEs is achieving sociopolitical objectives. Furthermore, female CEOs' influence on innovation output is weaker in firms with financial constraints.Social implicationsThis study adds to the emerging global discussion on gender diversity. Many legislative bodies require a quota for women on corporate boards due to gender inequality. This study's findings reinforce such guidelines by emphasizing the economic benefits of including women in top management positions.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights by highlighting the role of female CEOs in increasing firms' innovation activities. Additionally, this study provides evidence on whether the internal corporate environment (state ownership and financial constraints) moderates female CEOs' effect on innovation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Baghdadi

The growing exposure to globalization, since 1990s, has initiated some significant alterations to the Lebanese economy, society, and culture. For the last two decades, it has been observed that international cuisines and eccentric menu items have been invading the local market and taking over ethnic and traditional cuisines, what threatens, if this trend continues, the identity of traditional cuisine and, consequently, the sustainability of local food culture. Departing from the case of Lebanon, this paper studies the impact of globalization on traditional cuisine and highlights the role of networks in sustaining local food culture. The findings of our empirical study revealed the necessity to modernize the traditional cuisine through a coordinated set of heterogeneous and professional actors who collectively take part in the process. The ability of these actors to innovate is found related to the organizational conditions of the networks to which they belong, and to the ability of these networks for innovation, what refers us to the concept of “innovation network” that we are proposing, through this study, as a solution to the dilemma of food - culture preservation and sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
pp. 01069
Author(s):  
Shouchang Liang

DEA is a statistical procedure used to evaluate the relative efficiency of separable entities, termed “decision-making units” (DMUs), where each DMU converts certain inputs into outputs. The DEA efficiency methodology can provides an ordinal ranking of relative efficiency compared to the Pareto-efficient frontier, and the widely used efficiency measure require that weights be explicitly set, which is more advantageous than the conventional measures of efficiency. The Tobit model is a dependent variable limited model. Since the efficiency value measured by the DEA model is a truncated discrete distribution value between 0 and 1, the Tobit model can effectively avoid the problems of bias and inconsistency in parameter estimation. Based on this, this paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2018 as samples, adopts DEA-Tobit model to measure managerial ability, and studies the impact of managerial ability on firm innovation investment. It is found that managerial ability is negatively correlated with R&D investment. Further research shows that the negative relationship between managerial ability and firm innovation investment is more significant in non-state-owned companies. Transparency of accounting information can alleviate the restraining effect of managers ability on innovation input. This study not only enriches the research literature in the field of managerial ability and firm innovation input, but also has important enlightenment significance on how to improve managerial innovation willingness in reality and further promote firm innovation behavior.


1998 ◽  
Vol 02 (02) ◽  
pp. 223-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Conway ◽  
Fred Steward

This paper outlines a detailed and systematic method for revealing and mapping out the network mobilised in the development of a discrete innovation. This is termed a focal action-set. Important to the utility of this approach has been the development of a set of conventions for the graphical expression of the network and its components: actors, links and flows. It is argued that the network graphic provides a powerful, though under-utilised, tool for the representation of relational data. It may be employed, for example, to reveal variations in network configuration and to highlight key networking or boundary-spanning actors. The network mapping approach is illustrated through three cases of small firm innovation drawn from a wider investigation of award-winning technological innovations. A comparison between the network maps show a variation in the key boundary-spanning interactions, which is related to the organisational background of the entrepreneurial actor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 672-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irem Demirkan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose that the resources that a firm owns and has full control (firm-level resources) and resources that a firm access through direct connection with other firms (network-level resources) will impact firm innovation when effectively deployed by the firm. While previous research examined these factors separately, the author takes a holistic view and looks into their effects on innovation simultaneously. The author also introduces the moderating effects, i.e. the variables that can enhance firm innovation through their interaction with internal and external resources.Design/methodology/approachThe author tested the role of financial resources and slack resources in the form of cash slack and human slack at the firm level, and network size, network tie strength, and network diversity at the network level on the firm innovation. Using generalized negative binomial model with Huber-White procedure, the author analyzed 306 firms from the biotechnology industry over a span of 17 years.FindingsThe analysis suggests that cash slack impact innovation negatively. However, this link is moderated by firm size such that for large firms cash slack affects innovation positively. Network-level resources all positively impact innovation and have more economic impact on firm innovation than firm-level resources. Furthermore, although human slack negatively affects innovation, its interaction with network size enhances innovation.Originality/valueThe research makes important contributions to both strategic management and innovation literatures especially when, the author considers the role of firm-level slack in driving firm innovation. Previous research reported conflicting findings about the availability of slack resources and firm performance. The results showed that the relationship between slack resources and firm innovation is negative and significant, both for available slack and human slack. This finding parallels with previous research which reported that constraints such as lack of slack resources can actually facilitate innovation. The author also contributes to the literature by introducing boundary conditions which can enhance firm innovation through their interaction with firm-level internal and network-level external resources. In this respect, to the author’s knowledge, this is among the first studies to combine the slack literature focusing on firm-level resources with the literature on network-level resources.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongxing Yao ◽  
Xiangyang Gao

Abstract According to the actual situation of investor network, a SE2IR rumor spreading model with hesitating mechanism is proposed, and the corresponding mean-field equations is obtained on scale-free network. In this paper, we first combine the theory of spreading dynamics and find out the basic reproductive number R0. And then analyzes the stability of the rumor-free equilibrium and the final rumor size. Finally, we discuss random immune strategies and target immune strategies for the rumor spreading, respectively. Through numerical simulation, we can draw the following conclusions: Reducing the fuzziness and attractiveness of invest market rumor can effectively reduce the impact of rumor. And the target immunization strategy is more effective than the random immunization strategy for the communicators in the invest investor network.


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