[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-01221396.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The knowledge cost function

Author

Listed:
  • Cristiano Antonelli
  • Alessandra Colombelli

    (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur)

Abstract
This paper contributes to the economics of knowledge with an analysis of the knowledge cost function, shedding light on the determinants of the large variance in the cost of knowledge across firms. The amount and the composition of external knowledge and the internal stocks of knowledge that firms can access and use in the generation of new technological knowledge help to reduce the costs of knowledge. The empirical analysis is based on a panel of companies listed on UK and the main continental Europe financial markets for the period 1995–2006, for which information about patents have been gathered. The econometric analysis of the costs of knowledge considers the unit costs of knowledge on the left hand side, and on the right hand side next to R&D expenditures, the stock of knowledge internal and external to each firm, and their size. In order to articulate the different facets of the external knowledge that is made accessible by proximity with firms collocated in the same region (NUTS2), we include variables proxying for regional variety, complementarity and similarity. The results confirm the Marshallian hypothesis that the size and composition of the stock of external knowledge play a key role in reducing the actual cost of the generation of new technological knowledge at the firm level. The evidence also sheds new light on the Schumpeterian hypothesis, suggesting that the size of the stock of internal knowledge helps in reducing the costs of knowledge, while costs of knowledge increase with the size of R&D expenditures and employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristiano Antonelli & Alessandra Colombelli, 2015. "The knowledge cost function," Post-Print halshs-01221396, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01221396
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2015.06.031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello, 2013. "Regional Innovation Patterns and the EU Regional Policy Reform: Toward Smart Innovation Policies," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 355-389, June.
    2. Crepon, B. & Duguet, E. & Mairesse, J., 1998. "Research Investment, Innovation and Productivity: An Econometric Analysis at the Firm Level," Papiers d'Economie Mathématique et Applications 98.15, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    3. Link, Albert N, 1980. "Firm Size and Efficient Entrepreneurial Activity: A Reformulation of the Schumpeter Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(4), pages 771-782, August.
    4. Nesta, Lionel, 2008. "Knowledge and productivity in the world's largest manufacturing corporations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(3-4), pages 886-902, September.
    5. Nicolas van Zeebroeck & Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, 2011. "The vulnerability of patent value determinants," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 283-308.
    6. Saviotti, Pier Paolo, 2007. "On the dynamics of generation and utilisation of knowledge: The local character of knowledge," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 387-408, December.
    7. Antonelli, Cristiano, 2008. "Pecuniary Externalities: the Convergence of Directed Technological Change and the Emergence of Innovation Systems," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 200807, University of Turin.
    8. Martijn J. Smit & Maria A. Abreu & Henri L.F. Groot, 2015. "Micro-evidence on the determinants of innovation in the Netherlands: The relative importance of absorptive capacity and agglomeration externalities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(2), pages 249-272, June.
    9. Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro & Pier Saviotti, 2014. "Knowledge characteristics and the dynamics of technological alliances in pharmaceuticals: empirical evidence from Europe, US and Japan," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 587-622, July.
    10. repec:fth:harver:1473 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Colombelli, Alessandra & Krafft, Jackie & Quatraro, Francesco, 2013. "Properties of knowledge base and firm survival: Evidence from a sample of French manufacturing firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(8), pages 1469-1483.
    12. Francesco Quatraro, 2010. "The Economics of Structural Change in Knowledge," Post-Print halshs-00727628, HAL.
    13. Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci & Marco Pontis, 2012. "Intangible capital and firms' productivity," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 21(2), pages 377-402, April.
    14. Antonelli, Cristiano & Krafft, Jackie & Quatraro, Francesco, 2010. "Recombinant knowledge and growth: The case of ICTs," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 50-69, March.
    15. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 287-343, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Martin L. Weitzman, 1998. "Recombinant Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(2), pages 331-360.
    17. Quatraro, Francesco, 2010. "Knowledge coherence, variety and economic growth: Manufacturing evidence from Italian regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1289-1302, December.
    18. Cristiano Antonelli, 2008. "Pecuniary knowledge externalities: the convergence of directed technological change and the emergence of innovation systems," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(5), pages 1049-1070, October.
    19. Loof, Hans & Heshmati, Almas, 2002. "Knowledge capital and performance heterogeneity: : A firm-level innovation study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 61-85, March.
    20. Bruno Crepon & Emmanuel Duguet & Jacques Mairesse, 1998. "Research, Innovation And Productivity: An Econometric Analysis At The Firm Level," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 115-158.
    21. Weitzman, Martin L, 1996. "Hybridizing Growth Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 207-212, May.
    22. Cristiano Antonelli & Alessandra Colombelli, 2018. "External and internal knowledge in the knowledge generation function," Chapters, in: The Evolutionary Complexity of Endogenous Innovation, chapter 4, pages 82-108, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    23. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Issues in Assessing the Contribution of Research and Development to Productivity Growth," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 17-45, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Sharon Belenzon, 2012. "Cumulative Innovation and Market Value: Evidence from Patent Citations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(559), pages 265-285, March.
    25. Maryann Feldman, 1999. "The New Economics Of Innovation, Spillovers And Agglomeration: Areview Of Empirical Studies," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1-2), pages 5-25.
    26. Jones, Charles I, 1995. "R&D-Based Models of Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(4), pages 759-784, August.
    27. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    28. Richard R. Nelson, 1982. "The Role of Knowledge in R&D Efficiency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(3), pages 453-470.
    29. Lionel Nesta & Pier Paolo Saviotti, 2005. "Coherence of the Knowledge Base and the Firms’ Innovative Performance. Evidence from the Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03417696, HAL.
    30. Nicolas van Zeebroeck, 2011. "The puzzle of patent value indicators," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 33-62.
    31. Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro & Pier Paolo Saviotti, 2014. "Knowledge characteristics and the dynamics of technological alliances in pharmaceuticals: empirical evidence from Europe, US and Japan," Post-Print hal-02097581, HAL.
    32. Adams, James D, 1990. "Fundamental Stocks of Knowledge and Productivity Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 673-702, August.
    33. Lionel Nesta & Pier Paolo Saviotti, 2005. "Coherence Of The Knowledge Base And The Firm'S Innovative Performance: Evidence From The U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 123-142, March.
    34. Albert N. Link, 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technological Change," Technical Reports 070716, Brandmeyer Center for Applied Economics, School of Business, University of Kansas.
    35. Gunday, Gurhan & Ulusoy, Gunduz & Kilic, Kemal & Alpkan, Lutfihak, 2011. "Effects of innovation types on firm performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 662-676, October.
    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. Yueling Cai & Gongliang Wu & Dingsheng Zhang, 2020. "Does Export Trade Promote Firm Innovation?," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 21(2), pages 483-506, November.
    2. Cristiano Antonelli & Alessandra Colombelli, 2017. "The locus of knowledge externalities and the cost of knowledge," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1151-1164, August.
    3. Gkypali, Areti & Arvanitis, Spyros & Tsekouras, Kostas, 2018. "Absorptive capacity, exporting activities, innovation openness and innovation performance: A SEM approach towards a unifying framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 143-155.
    4. Tsekouras, Kostas & Chatzistamoulou, Nikos & Kounetas, Kostas, 2017. "Productive performance, technology heterogeneity and hierarchies: Who to compare with whom," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 465-478.
    5. Antonelli, Cristiano & Crespi, Francesco & Quatraro, Francesco, 2022. "Knowledge complexity and the mechanisms of knowledge generation and exploitation: The European evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    6. Cristiano Antonelli & Gianluca Orsatti & Guido Pialli, 2023. "The effects of the limited exhaustibility of knowledge on firm size and the direction of technological change," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1359-1385, August.
    7. D’Amico, Elettra & Belitski, Maksim & Colombelli, Alessandra, 2023. "Evaluating Internal and External Knowledge Sources in Adopting Artificial Intelligence," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 202303, University of Turin.
    8. Grinza, Elena & Quatraro, Francesco, 2019. "Workers’ replacements and firms’ innovation dynamics: New evidence from Italian matched longitudinal data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    9. Tsionas, Mike G., 2023. "Clustering and meta-envelopment in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(2), pages 763-778.
    10. Müller, Aranja & Zaby, Alexandra K., 2019. "Research joint ventures and technological proximity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1187-1200.
    11. Cheng, Li & Wang, Yue & Zhang, Xiao & Zhu, Di, 2023. "Double-edged sword of global demand heterogeneity: How service multinationals capture the benefits and mitigate the costs of managing customer knowledge," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    12. D’Amico, Elettra & Belitski, Maksim & Colombelli, Alessandra, 2023. "Evaluating Internal and External Knowledge Sources in Adopting Artificial Intelligence," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202315, University of Turin.

    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. Cristiano Antonelli & Alessandra Colombelli, 2018. "The cost of knowledge," Chapters, in: The Evolutionary Complexity of Endogenous Innovation, chapter 6, pages 128-150, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Cristiano Antonelli & Alessandra Colombelli, 2017. "The locus of knowledge externalities and the cost of knowledge," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1151-1164, August.
    3. Cristiano Antonelli, 2011. "The Economic Complexity of Technological Change: Knowledge Interaction and Path Dependence," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli (ed.), Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Antonelli Cristiano & Colombelli Alessandra, 2013. "Knowledge cumulability and complementarity in the knowledge generation function," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201305, University of Turin.
    5. Krafft Jackie & Quatraro Francesco & Colombelli Alessandra, 2011. "High Growth Firms and Technological Knowledge: Do gazelles follow exploration or exploitation strategies?," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201114, University of Turin.
    6. Quatraro, Francesco & Scandura, Alessandra, 2019. "Academic Inventors and the Antecedents of Green Technologies. A Regional Analysis of Italian Patent Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 247-263.
    7. Quatraro Francesco, 2011. "Knowledge Structure and Regional Economic Growth: The French case," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201112, University of Turin.
    8. Quatraro, Francesco, 2010. "Knowledge coherence, variety and economic growth: Manufacturing evidence from Italian regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1289-1302, December.
    9. Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro, 2011. "The dynamics of technological knowledge," Post-Print halshs-00727633, HAL.
    10. Cristiano Antonelli & Federico Barbiellini Amidei, 2011. "The Dynamics of Knowledge Externalities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13292.
    11. Colombelli, Alessandra & Krafft, Jackie & Quatraro, Francesco, 2013. "Properties of knowledge base and firm survival: Evidence from a sample of French manufacturing firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(8), pages 1469-1483.
    12. Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro & Pier Saviotti, 2014. "Knowledge characteristics and the dynamics of technological alliances in pharmaceuticals: empirical evidence from Europe, US and Japan," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 587-622, July.
    13. Alessandra Colombelli & Francesco Quatraro, 2014. "The persistence of firms' knowledge base: a quantile approach to Italian data," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7), pages 585-610, October.
    14. Colombelli, Alessandra & Quatraro, Francesco, 2018. "New firm formation and regional knowledge production modes: Italian evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 139-157.
    15. Francesco Quatraro, 2016. "Co-evolutionary Patterns in Regional Knowledge Bases and Economic Structure: Evidence from European Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 513-539, March.
    16. Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro, 2011. "The Dynamics of Technological Knowledge: From Linearity to Recombination," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli (ed.), Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Antonelli, Cristiano & Krafft, Jackie & Quatraro, Francesco, 2010. "Recombinant knowledge and growth: The case of ICTs," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 50-69, March.
    18. Martin Kalthaus, 2020. "Knowledge recombination along the technology life cycle," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 643-704, July.
    19. Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro & Pier Paolo Saviotti, 2014. "The Dynamics of Knowledge-intensive Sectors' Knowledge Base: Evidence from Biotechnology and Telecommunications," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 215-242, April.
    20. Colombelli Alessandra & Quatraro Francesco, 2012. "Persistence of innovation and knowledge structure: Evidence from a sample of Italian firms," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201205, University of Turin.

    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:hal:journl:halshs-01221396. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.