Innovation and economic crisis in transition economies

Based on Schumpeterian theoretical considerations, this paper investigates the innovation behavior of firms during the severe economic crisis of the year 2008/2009. It focuses on transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which have completely restructured their innovation systems through the course of transition from planned to market economies a relatively short time ago. As a result of the crisis, we observe a strong decline of innovation activity in all transition economies. In line with the literature, there is, however, empirical evidence for both creative destruction as well as creative accumulation. This underlines two key findings: firstly, the universality and durability of Schumpeterian assumptions, and secondly, a call for anti-cyclical innovation policy.

Does financialization of non-financial corporations promote the persistence of innovation: evidence from A-share listed manufacturing corporations in China

Financialization of non-financial corporations is an important factor affecting innovation activities. This paper calculates the optimal financialization of enterprises and the deviation of optimal financialization, divides amples into moderate and excessive financialization, then investigates the relationship between financialization and sustainable innovation in different research samples using the data of A-share manufacturing enterprises in China from 2012 to 2018. The results indicate that the deviation of optimal financialization is negatively related to the persistent innovation of enterprises. However, financialization had significantly different effects on persistent innovation in different research sample. More specifically, excessive financialization could crowd out the persistent innovation, but moderate financialization may promote the persistent innovation. This study provides a new perspective for understanding the relationship between financialization and innovation, and helps finance better serve the real economy.

Translating technological innovation into efficiency: the case of US public P&C insurance companies

In recent years, Insurtech innovations, driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, emerged in the insurance industry, with the promise of improving efficiency. However, while the positive impact of technology on insurance companies’ efficiency is expected, literature assessing it empirically is scarce, when it comes to recent technological change. Focusing on the US public P&C insurance sector in the period 2012–2018 and relying on both nonparametric (two stage DEA) and parametric (SFA) approaches, it emerges that on average insurance companies were not able to leverage on technological innovations to improve their efficiency. On average a relative level of efficiency among companies, according to a two stage DEA model, was quite stable in time, while the SFA approach shows that the distance between efficient and less efficient firms slightly increased. Moreover, we found one very efficient firm, almost a leader of the market in terms of efficiency, and a homogeneous group of followers, indicating that there is vast scope for improvement for less efficient companies. Nevertheless, even the most efficient company impaired its efficiency over time, suggesting that neither the leader nor on average the followers properly leveraged technology to improve their efficiency. In a competitive scenario, with new players’ entrance and fierce competition, inertia may seriously affect their positioning. Academicians, managers and policymakers should carefully consider the effects that a non-improvement of efficiency following technological change may have on market structure, competition and regulations, potentially opening to further discussion on how technological innovations adoption should be facilitated.

How executive turnover influences the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure? Moderating role of political embeddedness: evidence from China

This study investigated the relationship between executive turnover (ET) and quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) at the firm level. The role of political embeddedness (PE) in the association between ET and CSRD quality in Chinese listed A-share firms is also inspected. We employed 20,850 firm’s/year observations between 2010 and 2016. An inverse relationship was found between ET and CSRD quality as well as PE and CSRD quality. In addition, the study findings disclose that corporate PE moderates the relationship between ET and a firm’s CSRD quality whilst the impact of ET on a company's CSRD quality was found more pronounced for firms with a low level of corporate PE. This examination adds to the literature on CSRD quality under the premise of normative stakeholder theory and leads to the conclusion that the political link of departing executives is an active participant in the exacerbation of CSRD quality in PE firms of China. This implies a reinvigoration of the roles of decision-makers for sustainable CSR assurance.

Innovation intensity and skills in firms across five European countries

This study attempts to establish the importance of specific formally achieved higher skills for the innovation intensity in firms across a group of European countries. Innovation expenditures are calculated as the ratio to turnover and the main explanatory variable is the proportion of highly skilled employees (tertiary education in ICT-oriented or other fields). The analysis employs official data on innovation activities (Community Innovation Survey) in firms for the period 2004–2010, linked to registers on education and businesses as well as to the Structural Business Statistics including 34,000 observations. Estimation results show a strong significantly positive relationship between the innovation intensity and the proportion of highly ICT skilled employees. Higher skills outside the field of ICT are also important for the innovation activities. Control variables reveal that the innovation intensity significantly increases with joint national and EU funding while the role of firm age varies. The significant and negative link to firm size reveals a lack of advantages of scale, a finding possibly related to the use of a comprehensive measure of innovation activities. There are also indications that industry affiliation is essential for the innovation intensity.

Who suffers and how much from corruption? Evidence from firm-level data

In this article, we study firm-level determinants of corruption using a sample of 164,000 companies from 144 countries for the 2005–2020 period. We analyze two variables related to corruption: the perception of corruption as an obstacle to doing business using an ordinal logit model and actual bribe tax payments using a fractional logit model. Controlling for other factors, both sets of our empirical results show that the extent of corruption is related to the time spent dealing with regulations and inspections. We argue that firms which spend more time dealing with administrative procedures have a greater perception of corruption and are forced to make significantly higher bribe payments. Therefore, in a successful fight against corruption, it is essential to simplify administrative procedures by reducing their number and eliminating direct contacts between firms and officials.