The ability of firms to develop new technological knowledge is considered essential for firms’ long-term performance. This study addresses the evolving technological capabilities of all large... Show moreThe ability of firms to develop new technological knowledge is considered essential for firms’ long-term performance. This study addresses the evolving technological capabilities of all large multinational firms in order to understand patterns of increasing complexity of the knowledge base of firms. We first establish how the composition of the global patent portfolio of the world's top 2000 R&D performing companies. In general, the entry of technologies of firms can be explained by their relatedness to the existing technological portfolio. Related technologies are more likely to enter the portfolio of a firm than unrelated technologies. We find indications that technological progress of the global knowledge base is slowing as indicated by a relative increase in incremental recombinant innovation. Furthermore, we observe that the knowledge base of firms is characterized by increasing complexity and diversity. However, differences among firms and sectors are pronounced. New public policy lessons can be articulated. Show less
Laurens, P.; Schoen, A.; Toma, P.; Daraio, C. 2018
This paper addresses the issue of the efficiency of innovation of multinational firms applying nonparametric efficiency models which include, in a flexible multi-input multi-output Data Envelopment... Show moreThis paper addresses the issue of the efficiency of innovation of multinational firms applying nonparametric efficiency models which include, in a flexible multi-input multi-output Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) framework, observed factors of heterogeneity and dynamics. Several models (a basic model, a quantitative model, a qualitative model and a mixed quantitative/qualitative model) were developed to explore the innovative activity of large multinational firms and explain the effects of R&D expenditures. They were tested using data on large and R&D intensive companies from the Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (economic and financial data, R&D investment) and a set of patent indicators characterizing the companies' inventive production built using the CIB (Corporate Invention Board) patent database. The analysis carried out on the different models of innovation has shown that partial models that consider only one aspect of the production process at a time can mask important non-linear interactions and complementarities. In fact, there may be trade-offs between quantity and quality and these can escape from one-dimensional analyses based on linear innovation models. Further investigations will include the application of a robust two stage nonparametric approach to estimate the “managerial” efficiency of the firms in order to allow the comparison between heterogeneous firms, taking out the effect of heterogeneity factors. Show less
