A New View on Economic Competitiveness

2011 ◽  
pp. 5-48
Author(s):  
Ferruccio Marzano ◽  
Cristiano Colombi

The paper refers to the construction of some Indexes of Competitiveness and their application to the empirical analysis of the behaviour of Italian manufacturing industry in recent years. The idea is that an essential role in competitiveness is played by the specific characteristics of the goods and services concerned. With particular reference to competition between a mature economy (like Italy) and an emergent one (e.g. like China), attention is specifically directed to the behaviour of goods' demand and supply according to their characteristics. Then, an extended Leontief Input-Output model is pursued including the impact of goods' characteristics. At the empirical level, the role of goods' characteristics is analysed as to the behaviour of competitiveness of Italian manufacturing products in the period from 2000 to 2008.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-98
Author(s):  
Aleksey B. Voloskov

The article proposes to characterize the place and role of the service sector in the implementation of national goals of economic development for the period up to 2030, a method for determining a quantitative assessment of indicators of development of the service sector, based on the use of model tools based on the apparatus of the input-output table system. The current state of the service sector in the country is briefly described. The service sector in the article is understood as a set of types of services presented in the table of the use of goods and services in basic prices from the system of input-output tables for 2017. The article shows the place of certain types of services in the implementation of indicators of national goals of economic development. For experimental calculations based on the initial table of the use of goods and services at basic prices from the system of input-output tables for 2017, a worksheet was constructed in which some types of economic activities and products were aggregated into conditional sectors of the economy, and from some types were singled out some, directly involved in the implementation of national goals. Calculations according to the worksheet allowed us to quantify the impact of growth in the volume of services on the value of gross value added and the hypothetical values of investment resources required to achieve indicators of national goals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 638-669
Author(s):  
Miriam Alzate ◽  
Marta Arce-Urriza ◽  
Javier Cebollada

When studying the impact of online reviews on product sales, previous scholars have usually assumed that every review for a product has the same probability of being viewed by consumers. However, decision-making and information processing theories underline that the accessibility of information plays a role in consumer decision-making. We incorporate the notion of review visibility to study the relationship between online reviews and product sales, which is proxied by sales rank information, studying three different cases: (1) when every online review is assumed to have the same probability of being viewed; (2) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most helpful mechanism; and (3) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most recent mechanism. Review non-textual and textual variables are analyzed. The empirical analysis is conducted using a panel of 119 cosmetic products over a period of nine weeks. Using the system generalized method of moments (system GMM) method for dynamic models of panel data, our findings reveal that review variables influence product sales, but the magnitude, and even the direction of the effect, vary amongst visibility cases. Overall, the characteristics of the most helpful reviews have a higher impact on sales.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6294
Author(s):  
Peiqing Zhu ◽  
Jianbo Song

Internal control plays a role in risk prevention for firms when dealing with serious emergencies, which ensures the sustainable development of firms during a crisis. Based on the rapid outbreak of COVID-19 in China, this paper empirically tests whether internal control alleviates the negative impact of the pandemic on firm performance. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2020 and employing the difference-in-difference (DID) method, we find that the firms with a higher quality of internal control achieve better financial performance during the pandemic period; the more serious the pandemic is, the more obvious effect internal control plays. Furthermore, we consider the industry heterogeneity and firm heterogeneity of the risk resistance effect of internal control. In the manufacturing industry, which is a “disaster zone” of the pandemic, and the non-high-tech industry with a low degree of digitization, internal control can play a more important role in firms’ performance. Moreover, for state-owned enterprises, and firms with strong financing constraints, the role of internal control is more prominent. The above results provide empirical evidence for the risk prevention function of internal control and shed new light on the measures for firms to resist emergencies in the future.


Author(s):  
Giuliano Sansone ◽  
Elisa Ughetto ◽  
Paolo Landoni

AbstractAlthough a great deal of attention has been paid to entrepreneurship education, only a few studies have analysed the impact of extra-curricular entrepreneurial activities on students’ entrepreneurial intention. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the role played by Student-Led Entrepreneurial Organizations (SLEOs) in shaping the entrepreneurial intention of their members. The analysis is based on a survey that was conducted in 2016 by one of the largest SLEOs in the world: the Junior Enterprises Europe (JEE). The main result of the empirical analysis is that the more time students spent on JEE and the higher the number of events students attended, the greater their entrepreneurial intention was. It has been found that other important drivers also increase students’ entrepreneurial intention, that is, the Science and Technology field of study and the knowledge of more than two foreign languages. These results confirm that SLEOs are able to foster students’ entrepreneurial intention. The findings provide several theoretical, practical and public policy implications. SLEOs are encouraged to enhance their visibility and lobbying potential in order to be recognized more as drivers of student entrepreneurship. In addition, it is advisable for universities and policy makers to support SLEOs by fostering their interactions with other actors operating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, who promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer activities. Lastly, this paper advises policy makers to assist SLEOs’ activities inside and outside the university context.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Ferri ◽  
Raffaele Fiorentino ◽  
Adele Parmentola ◽  
Alessandro Sapio

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of patenting on the performance of academic spin-off firms (ASOs) in the post-creation stage. Specifically, our study analyses how the combination of knowledge transfer mechanisms by ASOs and patents can foster ASOs’ early growth performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors explored the relations between patenting processes and spin-off performance through econometric methods applied to a broad sample of Italian ASOs. The research adopts a deductive approach, and the hypotheses are tested using panel data models by considering the sales growth rate as the dependent variable regressed over measures of patenting activity and quality and assuming that firm-specific unobservable drivers of growth are captured by random effects.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows that the incorporation of knowledge transferred by the parent university and academic founders through patents affects the performance of ASOs. Specifically, the authors find that the number of patents is a positive driver of ASOs’ performance, whilst patent age does not have a significant impact on growth. Moreover, spin-offs with a larger endowment of patents obtained before foundation, surprisingly, grow less on average.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for ASO founders by suggesting that patenting processes reap benefits. However, in the trade-off of external knowledge access vs internal knowledge protection, it may be better to begin patenting after the foundation of ASOs.Originality/valueThe authors enrich the on-going debate about the connections between knowledge transfer and organizational performance. This paper combines the concepts of patents and ASOs by providing evidence on the role of patenting processes as a transfer mechanism of explicit knowledge in ASOs. Furthermore, the authors contribute to the literature on costs and benefits of patents by hinting at unexpected findings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 1307-1327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Aloini ◽  
Valentina Lazzarotti ◽  
Raffaella Manzini ◽  
Luisa Pellegrini

Purpose Intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) include a variety of methods suitable for protecting valuable intangible assets of companies, and it is of great relevance to study how companies use these mechanisms to ensure the appropriability of innovation, in a context in which innovation is increasingly open. Indeed, there is a tension between the aim to share knowledge with external partners and the need to protect valuable know-how. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among the use of IPPMs, open innovation (OI), and the innovation performance of companies. Design/methodology/approach The study is based upon a survey conducted on 477 firms from Finland, Italy, Sweden, and UK in 2012. Findings The study shows that IPPMs have an indirect impact on innovation performance, mediated by the degree of openness. More precisely, IPPMs positively influence the level of openness, which, in turn, positively influences the innovation performance. Originality/value The empirical analysis contributes on two issues widely debated in the literature: the impact of IPPMs on innovation performance and the role of IPPMs as enablers or disablers of OI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9878
Author(s):  
Lei Shen ◽  
Cong Sun ◽  
Muhammad Ali

The structure of the manufacturing industry has forced manufacturing companies to understand the importance of digitalization and servitization transformation, in terms of production and R&D. In this study, we examine the relationship between servitization, digitization, and enterprise innovation performance through the lens of dynamic capabilities within enterprises. We also discuss the impact of the transformation servitization strategy on business innovation, and the mechanisms by which it impacts business innovation performance. The study’s findings indicate that servitization significantly contributes to innovation performance, and digitalization acts as a mediating mechanism between the proposed relationships. Thus, this article argues for the integration and growth of servitization and digitization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-192
Author(s):  
Samina Siddique ◽  
Zafar Mahmood ◽  
Shabana Noureen

With the growth of services economy worldwide, it has become essential for policymakers to comprehend the export competitiveness of nations to identify offshore export locations or alternatively offer their own sites as an exporting location. Human capital investment is considered as a key component in attracting foreign countries for outsourcing purposes. Earlier studies have shown mixed role of human capital investment on off shoring activities. This study assesses the effects of control variables (business environment, wages and IT infrastructure) and human capital investment on export of goods and services from the selected Asian outsourcing countries. Panel Estimated Generalized Least Square (EGLS) technique is used with country weights to specifically overcome the problem of autocorrelation. Empirical findings show that investment in human capital is significant for both goods and services exports. We found a large impact of human capital investment on exports of goods and services in selected Asian countries as compared to selected developed countries. Empirical findings further suggest that human capital is more essential for export of goods than export of services. From these findings, the study draws important implications for policymaking in countries who intend to offer themselves as an attractive location for exporting and for those who intend to locate their production activities overseas.


2021 ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Ileana Hamburg

Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) should be drivers for national economies, also providing opportunities for socio-economic participation and mobility. But SMEs, more than bigger companies, have experienced difficulties during Covid-19 due to less customer demand for goods and services, limited resources and problems with digitalization. All these facts require rapid change in SME strategies. Based on literature research and on work with SMEs undertaken by the author during European projects, the goal of this communication paper is to illustrate some difficulties experienced by SMEs due to COVID-19 and problems they have with digitalization and skill gaps, as well as measures which could help them. First, the impact of Covid-19 on SMEs and the role of digitalization in their recovery and further developments are presented. Second, certain structures required within SMEs and necessary skills and competences are described in this context. Proposals are then made for reskilling processes within workplace learning and other learning approaches to improve the skills and competences necessary for SME recovery processes. Lifelong learning (LLL) plays an important role in addressing the skills gap between what students have traditionally learned in formal education and the needs of employers and the labor market. LLL should be more connected with other forms of training/learning, digitally supported, interdisciplinary and practically oriented in order to contribute towards achieving the new skills and competences necessary during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and to promote digitalization as a driver to success. The paper also presents examples of the work of the Study Group Lifelong Learning of the IAT, coordinated by the author, and conclusions.


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