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How Do Young Innovative Companies Innovate?

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  • Pellegrino, Gabriele

    (EPFL, Lausanne)

  • Piva, Mariacristina

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

  • Vivarelli, Marco

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

Abstract

This paper discusses the determinants of product innovation in young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external R&D and at the acquisition of external technology in embodied and disembodied components. These input-output relationships are tested on a sample of innovative Italian firms. A sample-selection approach is applied. Results show that in-house R&D is linked to the propensity to introduce product innovation both in mature firms and YICs; however, innovation intensity in the YICs is mainly dependent on embodied technical change from external sources, while ? in contrast with the incumbent firms ? in-house R&D does not play a significant role.

Suggested Citation

  • Pellegrino, Gabriele & Piva, Mariacristina & Vivarelli, Marco, 2009. "How Do Young Innovative Companies Innovate?," IZA Discussion Papers 4301, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4301
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    Cited by:

    1. Alicia Mas-Tur & Domingo Ribeiro Soriano, 2014. "The level of innovation among young innovative companies: the impacts of knowledge-intensive services use, firm characteristics and the entrepreneur attributes," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 8(1), pages 51-63, March.
    2. José García-Quevedo & Gabriele Pellegrino & Marco Vivarelli, 2011. "The determinants of YIc's R&D activity," Working Papers XREAP2011-20, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Dec 2011.
    3. Stephane Lhuillery & Julio Raffo & Intan Hamdan-Livramento, 2016. "Measuring creativity: Learning from innovation measurement," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 31, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    4. Segarra Blasco, Agustí, 1958- & Gombau, Verònica, 2013. "Young innovative firms and R&D strategies: is the Spanish case different?," Working Papers 2072/222200, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    5. Michele Cincera & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2013. "Exploring Europe's R&D deficit relative to the US: Differences in the rates of return to R&D of young leading R&D firms," Working Papers TIMES² 2013 - 001, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Cincera, Michele & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2014. "Differences in the rates of return to R&D for European and US young leading R&D firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1413-1421.
    7. Paulo Nunes & Marco Gonçalves & Zélia Serrasqueiro, 2013. "The influence of age on SMEs’ growth determinants: empirical evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 249-272, February.
    8. Roig-Tierno, Norat & Alcázar, Joaquín & Ribeiro-Navarrete, Samuel, 2015. "Use of infrastructures to support innovative entrepreneurship and business growth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2290-2294.
    9. José García-Quevedo & Gabriele Pellegrino & Marco Vivarelli, 2011. "The determinants of YIc's R&D activity," Working Papers XREAP2011-20, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Dec 2011.
    10. Mas-Tur, Alicia & Simón Moya, Virginia, 2015. "Young innovative companies (YICs) and entrepreneurship policy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1432-1435.
    11. Stephane Lhuillery, 2014. "Marketing and persistent innovation success," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5-6), pages 517-543, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    R&D; product innovation; embodied technical change; CIS 3; sample selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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