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This paper aims to investigate the motivation for firms to innovate their products to be socially responsible in the presence of the spillover effect. The follower of the innovation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) can benefit from the leader’s innovation by technological spillover. For instance, evidence can be found in the cosmetics industry (e.g. Lush Retail Ltd. and The Body Shop) and the market of hybrid electric vehicles (e.g. Toyota and Honda). Moreover, consumers may have different perceptions on the sequence of CSR innovation by firms, they may prefer more on the CSR product launched by the leader because they usually relate the desired stage to their interests when making a purchase decision. Therefore, the firms’ decision to be a leader of the CSR innovation depends on the trade-off between the loss in the spillover effect and the benefit of the first-mover advantage, which has not been considered by the existing literature. This paper explains the firms’ motivation on CSR innovation in a realistic situation where competing firms’ CSR programs are launched sequentially and sheds light on the private sector’s decision on strategy from the perspective on the social contribution, and provides some managerial implications about the competing firms’ strategies of launching the CSR innovation.

The authors construct a two-period Hotelling model in which consumers are divided into two groups: the altruistic and normal consumers. The altruistic consumers have more willingness to pay for the CSR product while the normal consumers only care about the product performance improved by the firms’ CSR activities. Firms have the option to innovate their basic products to be socially responsible and make their decision on such CSR innovation sequentially. Moreover, the follower of the innovation can receive a spillover effect from the leader, meaning that there may exist a second-mover advantage in terms of innovation (the authors define this as a spillover effect), but in the meanwhile, the altruistic consumers value more on the CSR product sold by the leader than that by the follower (the authors define this as a preference-reduction effect). This implies that the firm can benefit in the production process from being a second-mover of the CSR innovation but may lose its first-mover advantage in terms of the preference-reduction effect. By finding and analyzing the sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium, the authors try to figure out the firms’ decisions on CSR innovation in various situations.

The authors find that the firms’ motivation of CSR innovation crucially depends on the fraction of the altruistic consumers, as well as the spillover effect and the preference-reduction effect. A large (small) fraction of the altruistic consumers attracts (restricts) both the leader and the follower to engage in CSR innovation. More importantly, when such fraction is not too large but stays at a relatively high level, a potential leader of the CSR innovation may not wish to innovate. Hence, the potential follower may be the monopolist in the market of the socially responsible product. In addition, the authors reexamine this result in a variation model where a leader can make its decision on the CSR innovation to be more flexible by allowing it can innovate in either periods 1 or 2. The authors demonstrate that when the fraction of the altruistic consumers falls in an intermediate range, the leader may wish to delay the CSR innovation to period 2. In such a case, the leader of the CSR innovation may tend to trade its first-mover advantage for head-to-head competition with the follower and prevents the follower from benefiting from the spillover effect. Moreover, a flexible choice on the CSR innovation brings greater initiative to a firm to be the leader of the innovation.

Nearly all the studies about firms’ decisions on CSR innovation are conducted in an environment of simultaneous move, which is not appropriate to describe the real business world; many pieces of evidence show that many CSR programs are launched sequentially rather than simultaneously. The theory identifies a couple of important factors of the CSR innovation in a more realistic situation, i.e. sequential more on CSR innovation. Both spillover effect and preference-reduction effect crucially affect the firms’ decision on innovating their products to be socially responsible, which contributes to the existing literature in CSR and strategic decision. This paper also sheds some light on managerial implications with CSR innovation under various situations of competition.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the three knowledge sources, knowledge input, knowledge spillover and knowledge absorptive capacity, really increase the innovation performance of firms in the Taiwan IC design industry, one of the most important knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS) industries in Taiwan.

Based on the knowledge‐based theory, this study uses pooled regression analysis and tests with fixed effect model to analyze the influence of three knowledge sources on innovation performance in the KIBS sector.

The results demonstrate that: knowledge input is positively related to innovation performance; knowledge spillover effect is partial positively to innovation performance; and knowledge absorptive capacity is positively related to innovation performance.

The paper advances the concept of absorptive capacity by defining it as the interactions between knowledge input and knowledge spillover and refines the measurement of absorptive capacity as the multiplication of knowledge input and knowledge spillover effects. Moreover, knowledge spillover effects and knowledge absorptive capacity are both divided into four kinds which help us distinguish clearly different sources of knowledge spillover and absorptive capacity. In addition to that, this study also contributes to the empirical evidence to innovation activities by using firm‐level micro data.

The purpose of this study is to see how the economy-wide spillover effect affects company process innovation.

To account for national differences, the current study used a hierarchical model.

The findings of this study show that knowledge spillover is related to and influences the innovation process of businesses. Only a level two study that takes into account country-specific differences may reveal this. The current work uses a hierarchical model to try to capture knowledge spillover. Furthermore, the findings suggest that medium and large businesses, as well as businesses conducting research and development (R&D), are more inventive than small businesses and firms not conducting R&D. Furthermore, female-owned businesses are more likely than their male counterparts to innovate their processes.

This study is unique in that it makes predictions about how businesses innovate (behave) based on firm-level characteristics, or macroeconomic structure, without sacrificing information and variance. Furthermore, this study attempts to solve the difficulty of prior empirical research’s single-level analysis and cross-level inference. The research is based on data from the 2019 World Bank regular Enterprise Survey, which includes 18,148 businesses from 38 countries.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the factors driving labour creation in Russia, while paying attention to the role of innovation policy. The study considers innovation variables with indicators linked to social conditions (social filter component) and geographical spillovers for 85 regions during the period 2010-2016.

In particular, the study uses latitude and longitude coordinates to compute the distance between Russian regions according to the Haversine formula. In this manner, it measures the spillovers as the weighted sum of R&D capital stock on the basis of computed distance, according to the accessibility index procedure.

The finding is very important in terms of policy implications for supporting employment. As the results stress that own innovation produces labour creation effects, while knowledge spillovers are labour-saving, the study could conclude that regional innovation policy may have undetermined the objective of an efficient level of absorptive capacity able to benefit positively from external innovation.

The study contributes to the literature by exploring whether geographical spillovers are labour-friendly or labour-saving in Russia.

This paper explains the mechanisms underlying the generation of two-way knowledge spillovers through the interaction of subsidiaries with differentiated local responsibilities and domestic firms.

The study is based on firm-level panel data from a census of Colombian manufacturing firms for the period 2003–2012. The estimation procedure involves two stages. In the first one, total factor productivity (TFP) of foreign and domestic firms is estimated. In a second step, we estimate conventional spillovers (from foreign-owned to local firms) and reverse spillovers (from local to foreign-owned firms) separately, using a random effect approach.

This study’s findings reveal that only locally creative subsidiaries enjoy positive and significant two-way knowledge spillover effects. The connectivity of subsidiaries to local and international networks is reinforced by reciprocal relationships among actors that enhance bidirectional knowledge flows, these being favored by the dynamics of clustering effects.

The paper contributes with new empirical evidence about the mechanism explaining how the technological heterogeneity of subsidiaries plays a determinant role in the generation of both knowledge flows from foreign to domestic firms and to the reverse, all integrated into the same framework.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of retailer innovation investment and its spillover’s effect on competitive dual-channel supply chain pricing and optimization strategy, and explore the coordination mechanism considering decision maker’s bargaining ability.

The Cournot and Stackelberg game methodology are made use of for the duopoly decentralized and joint decision-making model. The bargaining theory with different negotiation ability was used to analysis the coordination mechanism. Then this paper validates the model by simulation techniques.

The results enlightened some interesting facts, the increase in innovation demand coefficient spur rise in channel pricing, innovation investment level, supply chain profit and consumer welfare. The rise in innovation spillover coefficient leads to increase in online channel pricing, supply chain profit and consumer welfare. Due to the innovation spillover effect, retailer has to maintain channel competitiveness either through low price or high innovation investment strategies. In addition, online channel pricing, supply chain profit and consumer welfare in joint decision-making scenario is greater than that of decentralized decision-making scenario, while the difference in retailer channel pricing depends on parameters value. The increase in retailer’s joint negotiation factor leads to decrease in channel pricing and innovation investment level. Furthermore, there existence of an optimal innovative investment cost sharing proportion threshold indicates the achievement of dual-channel supply chain coordination. A refinement equilibrium can be achieved through Robinstein bargaining game. A larger interest discount factor leads to decrease in profit.

The research provides a theoretical reference for dual-channel supply chain pricing and coordination strategy under channel competition environment. The research can develop innovative investment strategies for retailers and implement response strategies for manufacturers.

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between innovation performance and innovation spillover effects, innovation inputs, innovation outputs and industrial effects.

The analysis framework including variables such as innovation spillover effect, innovation input, innovation output and industrial effect was constructed. Through the investigation and analysis of the innovation activities of China’s GEM listed companies in 2014–2016, the innovation performance and the above factors were tested.

The research shows that enterprise performance has a significant positive correlation with innovation input and innovation output, but there is no significant correlation or even negative correlation with innovation environment and industry background such as government support and innovation opportunities, and the spillover effect is significant. The negative correlation is also negatively correlated with innovative human capital investment, company age and company Q.

Innovation is the real source of economic growth, and industrial innovation is the system integration of technological innovation, product innovation, market innovation, etc., which is the basic determinant of national competitiveness.

Promoting technological innovation is important to address the complexity of major engineering challenges. Technological innovations include short-term innovations at the project level and long-term innovations that can enhance competitive advantages. The purpose of this study is to develop an incentive mechanism for the public sector that considers short-term and long-term efforts from the private sector, aiming to promote technological innovation in major engineering projects.

This study constructs an incentive model considering the differences in short-term and long-term innovation efforts from the private sector. This model emphasizes the spillover effect of long-term efforts on current projects and the cost synergy effect between short-term and long-term efforts. It also explores the factors influencing the optimal incentive strategies for the public sector and innovation strategies for the private sector.

The results indicate that increasing the output coefficient of short-term and long-term efforts and reducing the cost coefficient not only enhance the innovation efforts of the private sector but also prompt the public sector to increase the incentive coefficient. The spillover effect of long-term innovation efforts and the synergy effect of the two efforts are positively related to the incentive coefficient for the public sector.

This research addresses the existing gap in understanding how the public sector should devise incentive mechanisms for technological innovation when contractors acting as the private sector are responsible for construction within a public-private partnership (PPP) model. In constructing the incentive mechanism model, this study incorporates the private sector's short-term efforts at the project level and their long-term efforts for sustained corporate development, thus adding considerable practical significance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow impacts on regional innovation efficiency in China and whether the impacts of FDI are contingent on regional conditions that may maximize the effect of FDI on regional innovation efficiency.

Using panel data of 30 provinces from 2000 to 2010, the authors first used data envelopment analysis to measure regional innovation efficiency, followed by a spatial panel model to test research hypotheses concerning the effect of FDI on regional innovation efficiency and the direct and moderating effects of regional characteristics such as regional innovation environment, regional absorptive capacity and regional complementary assets.

The paper finds that there are considerable inter-regional and intra-regional variations in innovation efficiency in China and that regional variations in innovation efficiency in China can first be explained by the differences in inflow FDI and then be accounted for by the direct and moderating effect of regional innovation environment, absorptive capacity and complementary assets.

The research findings have three policy implications. First, governments should continue their efforts to increase the transparency and predictability of the framework for inward FDI and align FDI with the region’s strategic priorities of development to improve innovation efficiency. Second, governments should develop holistic and coherent policies that address the key aspects of regional conditions conducive to the inflow of FDI. Third, governments at the regional level should cultivate an open innovation environment and support the development of financial markets to maximize the positive effect of FDI technology spillover and externalities.

This paper fills a gap in research on the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of spillover effects of FDI on regional innovation efficiency.

Examine the effects of sudden environmental disasters on the advancement of both renewable and conventional energy technologies.

Utilizing panel data from 31 Chinese provinces spanning 2011 to 2022, the SEM (Spatial Error Model) dual fixed model is utilized to examine the impact of sudden environmental disasters on energy technologies.

The findings reveal that: (1) Sudden environmental disasters exert a markedly positive influence on the Innovation of Renewable Energy Technologies (IRET), while their impact on conventional energy technologies is positively non-significant. (2) Sudden environmental disasters not only significantly enhance innovation in local renewable energy technologies but also extend this positive influence to neighboring regions, demonstrating a spatial spillover phenomenon. (3) Research and Development (R&D) funding serves as a partial mediator in the relationship between sudden environmental disasters and renewable ETI. In contrast, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) exhibits a masking effect.

Consequently, the study advocates for intensified efforts in post-disaster reconstruction following abrupt environmental events, an elevation in the quality of foreign direct investments, and leveraging research funding to catalyze innovation in renewable energy technologies amid unforeseen environmental crises.