Autori
Cefis, Elena
Orsenigo, Luigi

Titolo
The persistence of innovative activities. A cross-countries and cross-sectors comparative analysis
Periodico
Università degli studi di Trento. Dipartimento di Economia. Discussion papers
Anno: 1998 - Fascicolo: 4 - Pagina iniziale: 1 - Pagina finale: 53

This paper examines firm innovative persistence in a comparative perspective using a new data set composed of six panel data, one far each country: France, Gennany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA. For each country we use data on patent applications requested from 1978 to 1993 by 1,200-1,400 manufacturing firms. Using a Markov Chain approach, we found that there is little persistence in generai, but there is a strong persistence among "great" innovators that account far a large proportion of patents requested. These tendencies are stronger the longer the transition period considered. There is heterogeneity across the dimensions of the samples, especially across industriai classification and size classification. In each country firms belonging to the chernical industry display stronger persistence in innovative activities than those belonging to the electrical-electronic sector, which, in turn, display stronger persistence than those belonging to the mechanical sector. This ranking is maintained far each country. suggesting that innovative activities are sector specific and that the differences across industriai sectors are maintained across countries. Considering the size classification, the results are in line with the Schumpeterian hypothesis, since the persistence and the bimodality of the distribution increase with firm size. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates the robustness of these features to changes in auxiliary assumptions




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