IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v21y2012i7p589-612.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spillovers and absorptive capacity in the decision to innovate of Spanish firms: the role of human capital

Author

Listed:
  • Paloma Lopez-Garcia
  • Jose Manuel Montero

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the existence of knowledge spillovers and the capacity of firms to assimilate them, which we relate with R&D intensity and some human resource management practices, are associated with the decision to innovate of Spanish firms. In order to do this, we employ data from the ‘Central de Balances’ database, which covers both manufacturing and services firms during the period 2003--2007, and use an estimator proposed by Wooldridge [2005. Simple solutions to the initial conditions problem in dynamic nonlinear panel data models with unobserved heterogeneity. Journal of Applied Econometrics 20, no. 1: 39--54] for dynamic random effects discrete choice models. The empirical exercise provides evidence on the positive link between spillovers and the innovative behaviour of companies, not just for the knowledge generated in the same industry, but also for that generated in the same region or by the public sector. Moreover, this link is stronger for those firms with a higher capacity to absorb those spillovers. This ability not only works through firms’ R&D capabilities, but also through factors such as the quality of the labour force, the share of temporary employment and the amount of resources spent in training. In addition to these factors, we find that innovation performance exhibits a high degree of inertia. Further, some other observed firm characteristics, such as size, sales growth, export behaviour, sector capital intensity or financial structure variables, are also found to be relevant determinants of the likelihood of innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Jose Manuel Montero, 2012. "Spillovers and absorptive capacity in the decision to innovate of Spanish firms: the role of human capital," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 589-612, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:21:y:2012:i:7:p:589-612
    DOI: 10.1080/10438599.2011.606170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10438599.2011.606170
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10438599.2011.606170?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elena Huergo & Lourdes Moreno, 2011. "Does history matter for the relationship between R&D, innovation, and productivity?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 1335-1368, October.
    2. Bosch, Mariano & Lederman, Daniel & Maloney, William F., 2005. "Patenting and research and development : a global view," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3739, The World Bank.
    3. Bettina Peters, 2009. "Persistence of innovation: stylised facts and panel data evidence," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 226-243, April.
    4. Hall, Bronwyn H., 1992. "Investment and Research and Development at the Firm Level: Does the Source of Financing Matter?," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt5j59j6x3, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    5. Bronwyn Hall, 2004. "The financing of research and development," Chapters, in: Anthony Bartzokas & Sunil Mani (ed.), Financial Systems, Corporate Investment in Innovation, and Venture Capital, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Dolado, Juan J & Stucchi, Rodolfo, 2008. "Do Temporary Contracts Affect TFP? Evidence from Spanish Manufacturing Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 7055, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Viral V. Acharya & Ramin P. Baghai & Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian, 2013. "Labor Laws and Innovation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 997-1037.
    8. Paloma López-García & José Manuel Montero, 2010. "Understanding the spanish business innovation gap: the role of spillovers and firms’ absorptive capacity," Working Papers 1015, Banco de España.
    9. Bartel, Ann P & Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1987. "The Comparative Advantage of Educated Workers in Implementing New Technology," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(1), pages 1-11, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adel Ben Khalifa, 2019. "Direct and Complementary Effects of Investment in Knowledge-Based Economy on Innovation Performance in Tunisian Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(2), pages 561-589, June.
    2. García-Pérez-de-Lema, Domingo & Ruiz-Palomo, Daniel & Diéguez-Soto, Julio, 2021. "Analysing the roles of CEO's financial literacy and financial constraints on Spanish SMEs technological innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Rho, Yeirae & Fabrizi, Simona & Lippert, Steffen, 2021. "Employee characteristics, absorptive capacity and innovation," MPRA Paper 106407, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Mar 2021.
    4. Euripidis Loukis & Spyros Arvanitis & Niki Kyriakou, 2017. "An empirical investigation of the effects of firm characteristics on the propensity to adopt cloud computing," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 963-988, November.
    5. Spyros Arvanitis & Euripidis N. Loukis & Vasiliki Diamantopoulou, 2013. "Are ICT, Workplace Organization and Human Capital Relevant for Innovation?," KOF Working papers 13-333, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    6. Chiara Franco & Alberto Marzucchi & Sandro Montresor, 2012. "Absorptive capacity, innovation cooperation and human-capital. Evidence from 3 European countries," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2012-05, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
    7. Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti & Ricardo Pérez-Valls, 2020. "¿Cómo afecta la complejidad de la regulación a la demografía empresarial? Evidencia para España," Working Papers 2002, Banco de España.
    8. BeomJu Park & Chang-Yang Lee, 2023. "Does R&D cooperation with competitors cause firms to invest in R&D more intensively? evidence from Korean manufacturing firms," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1045-1076, June.
    9. Mohammad Nurunnabi, 2017. "Transformation from an Oil-based Economy to a Knowledge-based Economy in Saudi Arabia: the Direction of Saudi Vision 2030," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(2), pages 536-564, June.
    10. Dejuan-Bitria, Daniel & Mora-Sanguinetti, Juan S., 2021. "Which legal procedure affects business investment most, and which companies are most sensitive? Evidence from microdata," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 201-220.
    11. Amina Amirat & Makram Zaidi, 2020. "Estimating GDP Growth in Saudi Arabia Under the Government’s Vision 2030: a Knowledge-based Economy Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(3), pages 1145-1170, September.
    12. Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti & Ricardo Pérez-Valls, 2021. "How does regulatory complexity affect business demography? Evidence from Spain," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 203-242, April.
    13. Miguel García-Posada & Juan Mora-Sanguinetti, 2015. "Does (average) size matter? Court enforcement, business demography and firm growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 639-669, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teplykh, Grigorii & Galimardanov, Amal, 2017. "Modeling of innovative investment in Russian regions," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 46, pages 104-125.
    2. Marta F. Arroyabe & Martin Schumann, 2022. "On the Estimation of True State Dependence in the Persistence of Innovation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(4), pages 850-893, August.
    3. Valérie Revest & Alessandro Sapio, 2012. "Financing technology-based small firms in Europe: what do we know?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 179-205, July.
    4. Raymond, Wladimir & Mairesse, Jacques & Mohnen, Pierre & Palm, Franz, 2015. "Dynamic models of R & D, innovation and productivity: Panel data evidence for Dutch and French manufacturing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 285-306.
    5. Giorgio Fagiolo & Alessandra Luzzi, 2006. "Do liquidity constraints matter in explaining firm size and growth? Some evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-39, February.
    6. Dario Guarascio & Mario Pianta & Francesco Bogliacino, 2017. "Export, R&D and New Products: A Model and a Test on European Industries," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Andreas Pyka & Uwe Cantner (ed.), Foundations of Economic Change, pages 393-432, Springer.
    7. Söhnke M. Bartram, 2017. "Corporate Postretirement Benefit Plans and Real Investment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 355-383, February.
    8. O’Connor, Matthew & Rafferty, Matthew & Sheikh, Aamer, 2013. "Equity compensation and the sensitivity of research and development to financial market frictions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2510-2519.
    9. Xulia González & Daniel Miles-Touya & Consuelo Pazó, 2016. "R&D, worker training and innovation: firm-level evidence," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 694-712, November.
    10. Suárez, Diana, 2014. "Persistence of innovation in unstable environments: Continuity and change in the firm's innovative behavior," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 726-736.
    11. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Lerner, Josh, 2010. "The Financing of R&D and Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-639, Elsevier.
    12. Mueller, Elisabeth & Zimmermann, Volker, 2006. "The Importance of Equity Finance for R&D Activity: Are There Differences Between Young and OldCompanies?," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-014, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Hanna Hottenrott & Bettina Peters, 2012. "Innovative Capability and Financing Constraints for Innovation: More Money, More Innovation?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(4), pages 1126-1142, November.
    14. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2012. "Financial Constraints in Intangible Investments: Evidence from Japanese firms," Discussion papers 12045, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    15. Danlin Shen & Carl R. Chen & Xinyan Yan & Zhihong Yi, 2022. "Do credit market accessibility and legal protection shape corporate innovation?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 719-754, September.
    16. Martinsson, Gustav & Lööf, Hans, 2009. "Internal Finance and Patents - evidence from firm-level data," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 194, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    17. Garcia-Vega, Maria, 2006. "Does technological diversification promote innovation?: An empirical analysis for European firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 230-246, March.
    18. Bettina Peters & Mark J. Roberts & Van Anh Vuong, 2017. "Dynamic R&D choice and the impact of the firm's financial strength," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1-2), pages 134-149, February.
    19. Michel Dumont, 2015. "Working Paper 05-15 - Evaluation of federal tax incentives for private R&D in Belgium: An update," Working Papers 1505, Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium.
    20. Alam, Ashraful & Uddin, Moshfique & Yazdifar, Hassan, 2019. "Institutional determinants of R&D investment: Evidence from emerging markets," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 34-44.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:21:y:2012:i:7:p:589-612. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GEIN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.