IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v11y2002i2p109-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Non-Trivial Choice between Innovation Indicators

Author

Listed:
  • Alfred Kleinknecht
  • Kees Van Montfort
  • Erik Brouwer

Abstract

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 conclude that the two most commonly used indicators (R&D and patent applications) have more (and more severe) weaknesses than is often assumed. Moreover, our factor analysis suggests that there is little correlation between the various indicators. This underlines the empirical relevance of various sources of bias of innovation indicators as discussed in this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfred Kleinknecht & Kees Van Montfort & Erik Brouwer, 2002. "The Non-Trivial Choice between Innovation Indicators," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 109-121.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:109-121
    DOI: 10.1080/10438590210899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10438590210899
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10438590210899?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. Brouwer, Erik & Kleinknecht, Alfred, 1997. "Measuring the unmeasurable: a country's non-R&D expenditure on product and service innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1235-1242, January.
    2. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 1993. "Analysing Innovation Output Indicators: The US Experience," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Alfred Kleinknecht & Donald Bain (ed.), New Concepts in Innovation Output Measurement, chapter 2, pages 10-41, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Solomou, Solomos, 1986. "Innovation Clusters and Kondratieff Long Waves in Economic Growth," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 101-112, June.
    4. Zvi Griliches, 1984. "R&D, Patents, and Productivity," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril84-1, March.
    5. Pavitt, Keith, 1984. "Sectoral patterns of technical change: Towards a taxonomy and a theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 343-373, December.
    6. Brouwer, Erik & Kleinknecht, Alfred, 1999. "Innovative output, and a firm's propensity to patent.: An exploration of CIS micro data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 615-624, August.
    7. Kleinknecht, Alfred & Reijnen, Jeroen O. N., 1991. "More evidence on the undercounting of small firm R&D," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 579-587, December.
    8. Brouwer, Erik & Kleinknecht, Alfred & Reijnen, Jeroen O N, 1993. "Employment Growth and Innovation at the Firm Level," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 153-159, May.
    9. Alfred Kleinknecht & Donald Bain (ed.), 1993. "New Concepts in Innovation Output Measurement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-22892-8.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kleinknecht, Alfred & Montfort, Kees van & Brouwer, Erik, 2000. "How consistent are innovation indicators? : a factor analysis of CIS data," Serie Research Memoranda 0028, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    2. MahdaviMazdeh, Hossein & Saunders, Chad & Hawkins, Richard William & Dewald, Jim, 2021. "Reconsidering the dynamics of innovation in the natural resource industries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Bannò, Mariasole, 2016. "Propensity to patent by family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 238-248.
    4. repec:dgr:rugsom:98b19 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Vossen, Robert W., 1998. "Strategic and tactical decisions, sunk costs and firm size effects in R&D," Research Report 98B19, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    6. Elmawazini, Khaled & Atallah, Gamal & Rafiquzzaman, Mohammed & Guesmi, Khaled, 2022. "Do regulatory policies matter to corporate innovation?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Tether, B. S., 1998. "Small and large firms: sources of unequal innovations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 725-745, November.
    8. da Motta e Albuquerque, Eduardo, 2000. "Domestic patents and developing countries: arguments for their study and data from Brazil (1980-1995)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1047-1060, December.
    9. JinHyo Joseph Yun & EuiSeob Jeong & Xiaofei Zhao & Sung Deuk Hahm & KyungHun Kim, 2019. "Collective Intelligence: An Emerging World in Open Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-15, August.
    10. Soete, Luc & Verspagen, Bart & ter Weel, Bas, 2010. "Systems of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1159-1180, Elsevier.
    11. Fleischer, Manfred, 1998. "Patenting and industrial performance: the case of the machine tool industry," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Dynamics FS IV 98-9, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    12. Tether, B. S. & Smith, I. J. & Thwaites, A. T., 1997. "Smaller enterprises and innovation in the UK: the SPRU innovations database revisited," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 19-32, March.
    13. Jacques Mairesse, 2008. "Employment, innovation, and productivity: evidence from Italian microdata," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(4), pages 813-839, August.
    14. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Innovation, Employment and Skills in Advanced and Developing Countries: A Survey of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 6291, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Alex Coad, 2007. "Exploring the "mechanics" of firm growth: evidence from a short-panel VAR," Post-Print halshs-00175048, HAL.
    16. Nicola De Liso & Anna Serena Vergori, 2017. "The Different Approaches to the Study of Innovation in Services in Europe and the USA," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 121-146, February.
    17. Wakelin, Katharine, 2001. "Productivity growth and R&D expenditure in UK manufacturing firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1079-1090, August.
    18. Hipp, Christiane & Grupp, Hariolf, 2005. "Innovation in the service sector: The demand for service-specific innovation measurement concepts and typologies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 517-535, May.
    19. Montresor, Sandro & Vezzani, Antonio, 2015. "The production function of top R&D investors: Accounting for size and sector heterogeneity with quantile estimations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 381-393.
    20. Olof Ejermo & Karin Bergman, 2014. "Services vs. Manufacturing – How Does Foreign and Domestic Sales Impact on Their R&D?," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 367-391, September.
    21. Coad, Alex & Rao, Rekha & Tamagni, Federico, 2011. "Growth processes of Italian manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 54-70, February.

    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:11:y:2002:i:2:p:109-121. 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.