IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v11y2002i2p109-121.html

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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zvi Griliches, 1984. "R&D, Patents, and Productivity," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril84-1, May.
    2. Pavitt, Keith, 1984. "Sectoral patterns of technical change: Towards a taxonomy and a theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 343-373, December.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Solomou, Solomos, 1986. "Innovation Clusters and Kondratieff Long Waves in Economic Growth," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(2), pages 101-112, June.
    7. 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.
    8. Alfred Kleinknecht & Donald Bain (ed.), 1993. "New Concepts in Innovation Output Measurement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-22892-8, April.
    9. 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.
    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. 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).
    5. repec:dgr:rugsom:98b19 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. 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).
    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. 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.
    10. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Innovation, Employment and Skills in Advanced and Developing Countries: A Survey of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 6291, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. 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.
    12. Jan-Bart Vervenne & Julie Callaert & Machteld Hoskens & Bart Looy, 2022. "To what extent do SMEs contribute to Europe’s patent stock? A methodological outline for creating a Europe-wide SME technology indicator," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3049-3082, June.
    13. Bronwyn H. Hall & Christian Helmers & Mark Rogers & Vania Sena, 2013. "The importance (or not) of patents to UK firms," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 65(3), pages 603-629, July.
    14. Luísa Carvalho & Teresa Costa & Jorge Caiado, 2013. "Determinants of innovation in a small open economy: a multidimensional perspective," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 583-600, June.
    15. Janger, Jürgen & Schubert, Torben & Andries, Petra & Rammer, Christian & Hoskens, Machteld, 2017. "The EU 2020 innovation indicator: A step forward in measuring innovation outputs and outcomes?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 30-42.
    16. Petr Hanel, 2007. "Skills required for innovation: A review of the literature," Cahiers de recherche 07-23, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    17. Fornahl, Dirk & Brenner, Thomas, 2009. "Geographic concentration of innovative activities in Germany," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 163-182, September.
    18. Harabi, Najib, 1994. "Technischer Fortschritt in der Schweiz: Empirische Ergebnisse aus industrieökonomischer Sicht [Technischer Fortschritt in der Schweiz:Empirische Ergebnisse aus industrieökonomischer Sicht]," MPRA Paper 6725, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Hashi, Iraj & Stojčić, Nebojša, 2013. "The impact of innovation activities on firm performance using a multi-stage model: Evidence from the Community Innovation Survey 4," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 353-366.
    20. Albach, Horst & Audretsch, David B. & Fleischer, Manfred & Greb, Robert & Höfs, Evelyn & Röller, Lars-Hendrik & Schulz, Ines, 1996. "Innovation in the European chemical industry," Discussion Papers, various Research Units FS IV 96-26, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    21. Cees van Beers & Bert Sadowski, 2003. "On the Relationship Between Acquisitions, Divestitures and Innovations: An Explorative Study," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 131-143, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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: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.