IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbr/cbrwps/wp311.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Management characteristics, collaboration and innovative efficiency: evidence from UK survey data

Author

Listed:
  • Andy Cosh
  • Xiaolan Fu
  • Alan Hughes

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of management characteristics and patterns of collaboration on a firmÕs innovation performance in transforming innovation resources into commercially successful outputs. These questions are investigated using a recent firm level survey database for 465 innovative British small and medium enterprises (SMEs) over the years 1998-2001. Both Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) are employed to benchmark a firmÕs innovative efficiency against best practice. Quality and the variety of innovations are taken into account by combining Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with DEA. We find evidence suggesting that the innovative efficiency of SMEs is significantly affected by their management characteristics and collaboration behaviour. Collaboration, organisational flexibility, formality in management systems and incentive schemes are found to contribute significantly to a firmÕs innovative efficiency. Managerial share-ownership also shows some positive effect. The importance of these effects, however, varies across different sectors. WE find that innovative efficiency in high-tech SMEs is significantly enhanced by collaboration, formal management structure and training; and that in medium- and low-tech SMEs is significantly associated with managerial ownership, incentive schemes and organisational flexibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Andy Cosh & Xiaolan Fu & Alan Hughes, 2005. "Management characteristics, collaboration and innovative efficiency: evidence from UK survey data," Working Papers wp311, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp311
    Note: PRO-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/cbrwp311/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Symeonidis, George, 2001. "Price Competition, Innovation and Profitability: Theory and UK Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 2816, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Dirk Czarnitzki & Kornelius Kraft, 2004. "Firm Leadership and Innovative Performance: Evidence from Seven EU Countries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 325-332, June.
    3. J. G. Wissema & H. W. van der Pol & H. M. Messer, 1980. "Strategic management archetypes," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 37-47, January.
    4. C. H. Nam & C. B. Tatum, 1997. "Leaders and champions for construction innovation," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 259-270.
    5. Galende, Jesus & de la Fuente, Juan Manuel, 2003. "Internal factors determining a firm's innovative behaviour," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 715-736, May.
    6. Stephen Roper, 2001. "Benchmarking Regional Innovation: A Comparison of Bavaria, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland," ERSA conference papers ersa01p39, European Regional Science Association.
    7. James Tobin, 1956. "Estimation of Relationships for Limited Dependent Variables," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 3R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    8. Geroski, P A, 1990. "Innovation, Technological Opportunity, and Market Structure," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 586-602, July.
    9. Mark Rogers, 2004. "Networks, Firm Size and Innovation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 141-153, March.
    10. Rebecca Henderson & Iain Cockburn, 1996. "Scale, Scope, and Spillovers: The Determinants of Research Productivity in Drug Discovery," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(1), pages 32-59, Spring.
    11. Segerstrom, Paul S, 1991. "Innovation, Imitation, and Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 807-827, August.
    12. Andy Cosh & Alan Hughes & Melvyn Weeks, 2000. "The Relationship Between Training and Employment Growth in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Working Papers wp188, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    13. Keld Laursen & Nicolai J. Foss, 2003. "New human resource management practices, complementarities and the impact on innovation performance," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 27(2), pages 243-263, March.
    14. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    15. Kaoru Hosono & Masayo Tomiyama & Tsutomu Miyagawa, 2004. "Corporate governance and research and development: Evidence from Japan," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 141-164.
    16. Danny Miller & Jean-Marie Toulouse, 1986. "Chief Executive Personality and Corporate Strategy and Structure in Small Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(11), pages 1389-1409, November.
    17. Xiaolan Fu & V. N. Balasubramanyam, 2003. "Township and Village Enterprises in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 27-46.
    18. Symeonidis, George, 2001. "Price Competition, Innovation and Profitability: Theory and UK Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 2816, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Bronwyn H. Hall & Albert N. Link & John T. Scott, 2003. "Universities as Research Partners," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 485-491, May.
    20. Furman, Jeffrey L. & Porter, Michael E. & Stern, Scott, 2002. "The determinants of national innovative capacity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 899-933, August.
    21. Negassi, S., 2004. "R&D co-operation and innovation a microeconometric study on French firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 365-384, April.
    22. Jean O. Lanjouw & Mark Schankerman, 2004. "Patent Quality and Research Productivity: Measuring Innovation with Multiple Indicators," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(495), pages 441-465, April.
    23. Leibenstein, Harvey, 1978. "On the Basic Proposition of X-Efficiency Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 328-332, May.
    24. Jacques Mairesse & Bronwyn H. Hall, 1996. "Estimating the Productivity of Research and Development: An Exploration of GMM Methods Using Data on French & United States Manufacturing Firms," NBER Working Papers 5501, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Danzon, Patricia M. & Nicholson, Sean & Pereira, Nuno Sousa, 2005. "Productivity in pharmaceutical-biotechnology R&D: the role of experience and alliances," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 317-339, March.
    26. Siegel, Donald S. & Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike, 2003. "Assessing the impact of university science parks on research productivity: exploratory firm-level evidence from the United Kingdom," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(9), pages 1357-1369, November.
    27. Alan Hughes, 2003. "Knowledge Transfer, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth: Some Reflections and Implications for Policy in the Netherlands," Working Papers wp273, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    28. Alfred Kleinknecht & Pierre Mohnen (ed.), 2002. "Innovation and Firm Performance," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-59588-0, March.
    29. Michael R. Darby & Lynne G. Zucker & Andrew Wang, 2003. "Universities, Joint Ventures, and Success in the Advanced Technology Program," NBER Working Papers 9463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oluseyi Moses Ajayi & Susan C. Morton, 2015. "Exploring the Enablers of Organizational and Marketing Innovations in SMEs," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, February.
    2. Alexopoulos, Michelle & Tombe, Trevor, 2012. "Management matters," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 269-285.
    3. Fu, Xiaolan & Yang, Qing Gong, 2009. "Exploring the cross-country gap in patenting: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1203-1213, September.
    4. Giovanni Cerulli & Bianca Potì, 2013. "Managerial capacity in the innovation process and firm profitability," CERIS Working Paper 201301, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.

    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. Fu, Xiaolan, 2012. "How does openness affect the importance of incentives for innovation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 512-523.
    2. Marianna Succurro & Giuseppina Damiana Costanzo, 2019. "Ownership structure and firm patenting activity in Italy," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(2), pages 239-266, June.
    3. Krammer, Sorin M.S., 2022. "Human resource policies and firm innovation: The moderating effects of economic and institutional context," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    4. Wilfred Dolfsma & Gerben Velde, 2014. "Industry innovativeness, firm size, and entrepreneurship: Schumpeter Mark III?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 713-736, September.
    5. Chakraborty, Atreya & Rzakhanov, Zaur & Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2014. "Antitakeover provisions, managerial entrenchment and firm innovation," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 30-43.
    6. Bruce Rasmussen, 2010. "Innovation and Commercialisation in the Biopharmaceutical Industry," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13680.
    7. Coronado, Daniel & Acosta, Manuel & Fernández, Ana, 2008. "Attitudes to innovation in peripheral economic regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6-7), pages 1009-1021, July.
    8. van Beers, Cees & Berghäll, Elina & Poot, Tom, 2008. "R&D internationalization, R&D collaboration and public knowledge institutions in small economies: Evidence from Finland and the Netherlands," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 294-308, March.
    9. Dolfsma, Wilfred & van der Panne, Gerben, 2008. "Currents and sub-currents in innovation flows: Explaining innovativeness using new-product announcements," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1706-1716, December.
    10. Harris, Richard & Moffat, John, 2011. "Plant-level determinants of total factor productivity in Great Britain, 1997-2006," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Munari, Federico & Oriani, Raffaele & Sobrero, Maurizio, 2010. "The effects of owner identity and external governance systems on R&D investments: A study of Western European firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1093-1104, October.
    12. Brouwer, E. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2010. "Competition and Innovation : Pushing Productivity Up or Down?," Discussion Paper 2010-52, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    13. Fu, Xiaolan & Gong, Yundan, 2011. "Indigenous and Foreign Innovation Efforts and Drivers of Technological Upgrading: Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1213-1225, July.
    14. Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Rosina Moreno & Jordi Caralt, 2005. "Ownership structure and innovation: is there a real link?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 39(4), pages 637-662, December.
    15. Schmiedeberg, Claudia, 2008. "Complementarities of innovation activities: An empirical analysis of the German manufacturing sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1492-1503, October.
    16. Adel Ben Khalifa, 2019. "Direct and Complementary Effects of Investment in Knowledge-Based Economy on Innovation Performance in Tunisian Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(2), pages 561-589, June.
    17. 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.
    18. Xiaolan Fu, 2008. "Foreign Direct Investment, Absorptive Capacity and Regional Innovation Capabilities: Evidence from China," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 89-110.
    19. Choi, Jin-Uk & Lee, Chang-Yang, 2022. "The differential effects of basic research on firm R&D productivity: The conditioning role of technological diversification," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    20. W.A. Dolfsma & G. van der Panne, 2007. "Innovations from SMEs or Large Firms? Sector Structure and Dynamics," Working Papers 07-30, Utrecht School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    management characteristics; collaboration; innovative efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • M11 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Production Management

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cbr:cbrwps:wp311. 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: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk .

    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.