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Innovation in State-owned Enterprises: Reconsidering the Conventional Wisdom

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  • Belloc, Filippo

Abstract

A very well established economic literature maintains that State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are inefficient comparatively to privately-owned ones (POEs). In this paper we argue that SOEs' inefficiency is not due to the State ownership per se, rather it is caused by some conditions other than ownership which SOEs often, but not necessarily, relate to. In particular, we focus on dynamic efficiency - specifically, the production of technological innovation - of SOEs in manufacturing industries, where SOEs should contend with POEs in a competitive environment. We suggest that targeted measures aimed at increasing managers' commitment to long-term investment strategies and at reducing corruption and political interference, though being complex and difficult to implement, can be much more (positively) incisive on long-run technical progress than the simple privatization of companies. This leaves room for exploration and implementation of policies that might reconcile State ownership and market competition in industrial sectors.

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  • Belloc, Filippo, 2013. "Innovation in State-owned Enterprises: Reconsidering the Conventional Wisdom," MPRA Paper 54748, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Mar 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:54748
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    Cited by:

    1. Paolo CASTELNOVO & Massimo FLORIO, 2019. "Mission-oriented Public Organizations for Knowledge Creation," Departmental Working Papers 2019-09, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    2. Mario BENASSI & Matteo LANDONI, 2017. "State Owned Enterprises as Knowledge Explorer Agents," Departmental Working Papers 2017-13, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    3. Landoni, Matteo, 2020. "Knowledge creation in state-owned enterprises," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 77-85.
    4. Wagner, Rodrigo, 2018. "Can the market value state-owned enterprises without privatizing them? An application to natural resources companies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 282-290.
    5. Castelnovo, Paolo & Del Bo, Chiara F. & Florio, Massimo, 2019. "Quality of institutions and productivity of State-Invested Enterprises: International evidence from major telecom companies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 102-117.
    6. Pierre BAUBY, 2019. "The governance of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) operating under monopoly situation," CIRIEC Working Papers 1931, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    7. Polsitty R. Kumar & Giuseppe T. Cirella, 2020. "Globalization – Reflective Outlook," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 9(1), pages 42-50, March.
    8. Shen, Huayu & Lan, Fengyun & Xiong, Hao & Lv, Jun & Jian, Jianhui, 2020. "Does top management Team’s academic experience promote corporate innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 464-475.
    9. Tian, Guangning & Zhou, Shuyuan & Hsu, Sara, 2020. "Executive financial literacy and firm innovation in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Clò, Stefano & Florio, Massimo & Rentocchini, Francesco, 2020. "Firm ownership, quality of government and innovation: Evidence from patenting in the telecommunication industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    11. Sauro Mocetti & Giacomo Roma, 2020. "From 8,000 to 1,000? Rationalization and governance of Italian Government-owned enterprises," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 570, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    State-owned enterprises; innovation; privatization.;

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • P12 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Capitalist Enterprises

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