Are the Innovation Needs of Low-Technological Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Line with Knowledge Production by Research Institutions?

Small agricultural firms have to cope with increasing economic, legal and environmental difficulties. The purpose of the paper is to identify whether there are available research outputs to these challenges, focusing on the Swiss traditional fruit sector. Identification of firms' needs using face-to-face interviews and a focus group allowed us to prioritize innovations. Knowledge and innovation transfer gaps were identified thanks to bibliometric analysis, providing hints for research program orientations. The main sectoral needs were related to varieties like increasing pest and disease resistance, weather sensitivity, and ripening behavior. Knowledge produced by research institutions was partly related to the firms' needs. The study demonstrated a need for better coordination between agricultural stakeholders and researchers. Knowledge must be transferred and shared in the network with greater efficiency by extending interactions and involving stakeholders earlier in the innovation process. However, the search for scientific outputs should include more specificities of the local environment.

Institutions and Incentives in Knowledge Production and Diffusion: From Science to Innovation

Charles Chadi Ayoubi

This thesis presents four essays providing novel empirical and theoretical insights on the incentives and institutional structures that favor knowledge production and diffusion. The first two studies analyze these processes in the realm of scientific research, while the last two essays evaluate broader applications with vast social welfare implications. The first essay (chapter 2) of this dissertation, in collaboration with Michele Pezzoni and Fabiana Visentin, exploits a dataset on all applicants to a prestigious Swiss grant to explore a central process in academic life: the application for funds. The results suggest that scientists applying to a grant significantly increase their publicationsâ quality and quantity, learn more, and extend their collaboration network. Beyond the effect of applying, receiving the research funds increases the probability of co-authoring with co-applicants, but it does not have any additional effect on other scientific outcomes. These results justified the title of the chapter since, as it is the case in the Olympics, in research grants, âthe important thing is not to win, it is to take part.â The second essay (chapter 3), also in collaboration with Michele Pezzoni and Fabiana Visentin, uses the same empirical context to explore the determinants of knowledge flows among collaborating scientists. The chapter proposes a novel methodology based on journal references to track knowledge flows among researchers working together. The results suggest that geographical distance does not significantly affect the knowledge flows between team members, but the cognitive distance separating two members does. More specifically, there is an inverted U-curve effect of cognitive distance on the learning among team members: the higher the distance between two scientists in terms of subjects studied, the more they exchange knowledge, up to the point when the distance becomes detrimental because they have too little common ground to communicate. The third essay (chapter 4), in collaboration with Boris Thurm, goes beyond the exploration of the determinants for scientistsâ knowledge production and diffusion to delve into the incentives of all individuals to exchange knowledge. The chapter has two major contributions. First, it acts as a literature review of the empirical evidence on non-financial incentives for knowledge diffusion, such as social recognition, career prospects, and moral considerations. Second, the chapter proposes a simple economic model with heterogeneous agents holding both selfish and moral motives to derive some novel policy implications. The last essay (chapter 5), in collaboration with Dominique Foray, delves into a specific case of knowledge diffusion, the integration of machine learning technologies in healthcare. The analysis suggests that machine learning has the potential for spurring innovation in healthcare but faces several institutional levers. Collecting quantitative data on patents and publications, and qualitative data on hospitals, the results show that machine learning affects healthcare in different ways than older information and communication technologies. The apparition of new business models encourages tech giants to enter the healthcare sector. These patterns have the potential to increase social welfare by reducing externalities in terms of innovation complementarities, but they pose new challenges such as competition policy and human capital formation.

EPFL2020

Three essays on the role of proximity in science and innovation

Stefano Horst Baruffaldi

This thesis proposes three studies that provide novel empirical evidence on how different types of proximity can affect innovation and science activities through various mechanisms and in different contexts. In the first study (second chapter of this thesis), in collaboration with Julio Raffo, we analyze the relationship between geography and the likelihood of duplication in inventive activities. We argue that the uneven diffusion of knowledge means that the duplication of inventions will not be randomly distributed geographically and over time. First, as knowledge diffuses over time and competitive incentives decrease, the probability of a claimed invention duplicating an existing one will decrease in the time distance between the two. Second, for recent and upcoming inventions, competitive incentives are high, and localized knowledge flows increase the probability of duplication. Therefore, over a brief time period, the probability of duplication decreases with geographic distance. Conversely, the duplication of less recent inventions is more likely to occur at long distances as a consequence of less awareness of a technology existing due to missing knowledge flows. We test our hypotheses on European Patent Office (EPO) patent bibliographical data on patent citation categories. Geographic distance matters significantly less in sectors in which patents are known to be more effective as a source of information such as discrete technologies. In the second study (third chapter), in collaboration with Annamaria Conti and Fabiana Visentin, we investigate the effects of professorsâ social proximity with external universities on the level of productivity of PhD students hired from these universities. Researchers hired from external environments tend to have high scientific productivity compared to those who completed their studies in the same institution where they are employed. In a population of 4,666 PhD students, we further study the scientific productivity of external students from professorsâ networks, defined as students with a master's degree from a different university from that of their PhD, and also from a university with which their supervisors' co-authors are affiliated. We find that these students are significantly more productive, both compared to other students with a master's degree from a different university, and to students with a master's degree from the same university as that of their PhD. In our analyses, we control for the heterogeneity of supervisors and the heterogeneity of institutions where the students obtained their master's degrees, including proxies for the specific relevance of these universities for a given supervisor. Thus, we conclude that professors hire students with higher scientific productivity from universities where their co-authors are affiliated. Additional analyses further suggest that the reduction of information asymmetries is the main mechanism to explain this finding. In the third study (fourth chapter), in collaboration with Guillaume Burghouwt, we investigate the role of interregional knowledge integration as a driver of firm innovative performance. We adopt an unbalanced panel of 3,871 innovative companies in Germany between 1992 and 2010, for a total of 15,819 observations, and we study their innovative productivity. [...]

EPFL2015

Patents and development in the knowledge economy

Dominique Foray

This document refers to the relevance of IP in the knowledge economy, explaining the importance of the rapid dissemination of new and superior knowledge. However, we point out that rapid dissemination can be the enemy of innovation. In this context, we explain that the patent system has many virtues as an incentive to future inventors. However, by recognising exclusive rights, the patent restricts de facto the use of knowledge and its exploitation. Patents and other intellectual property rights (IPRs) are by no means the only solution to the problem of supporting inventors in their effort to capture benefits stemming from their work. There are many other solutions to help markets produce knowledge. In spite of some misuses of the patent system leading to high transaction costs and risks of innovation blockages, it is still a vital institution for innovation policy. The system is vital, not so much for its value of providing motivation to inventors, but for creating a secure economic environment for the very high investments taht convert ideas into reality. However, we conclude that the high value of the system as "a tool for economic growth" does not apply equally to all countries.