In this Note we consider an economy composed by two firms; a leader and a follower, that invest in R&D for process innovations. Competition to innovate is usually modelled as a two stage game. In the first stage of the game both firms simultaneously reduces their production costs. In the second...

The paper addresses disruptive changes that globalization imposes on the geography of innovation systems, and identifies potential benefits that developing countries could reap from international linkages. The analysis is centered on three propositions. First, developing countries need to blend...

Numerous empirical studies have examined the role of firm and industry heterogeneity in the decision to adopt new technologies using a Net Present Value framework. However, as suggested by the recently developed option-value theory, these studies may have overlooked the role of investment...

The recent surge of interfirm cooperative agreements can be seen to express a way for firms to respond to and organize market failure, especially in technology markets. The incentives for firms to internalize activities are to avoid the disadvantages, or capitalize on the advantages, of...

Recent theoretical contributions show that geographical proximity, by increasing the payoff from free-riding on knowledge accumulation, may reduce the relative profitability of individual R&D activity vis-a-vis imitation and other alternative forms of technological innovation which exploit more...

This paper investigates the main determinants of adoption of flexible production technologies (FPTs), using a cross-section of Portuguese manufacturing firms. In order to investigate the determinants of adoption by Portuguese firms we estimate a probit model of technology adoption, where rank,...

In this paper, we look at the interface between competition law and policy and intellectual property rights (IPRs) and we draw attention to a number of specific issues which have arisen in recent years and some of the conflicting costs and benefits of IPRs for competition (mainly in the context...

Are advanced countries bound to follow a specialisation path in their innovation activities? This paper contributes to the issue by analysing the dynamic of innovation activities in telecommunications (TLCs) at the country level. Our claim is that countries are more likely to innovate in a...

We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of five alternative innovation indicators: R&D, patent applications, total innovation expenditure and shares in sales taken by imitative and by innovative products as they were measured in the 1992 Community Innovation Survey (CIS) in the Netherlands. We...