Small firms and R&D spillovers: Evidence from Italy

David Audretsch () and Marco Vivarelli ()

Revue d'Économie Industrielle, 1994, vol. 67, issue 1, 225-237

Abstract: [eng] The recent emergence, in the industrial organization literature of a wave of studies identifying small firms as being at least as innovative as their larger counterparts poses something of a paradox. Where do small firms get their knowledge generating inputs ? The purpose of this paper is to link innovative inputs to innovative outputs. This allows one to identify the extent to which spillovers exist between major sources generating new knowledge, such as the R&D laboratories of private and public firms, as well as universities, to the innovative activity of large and small enterprises. Based on 15 Italian regions over a time period of nine years, the empirical evidence suggests that, while firm R&D expenditures contribute to the generation of innovative output both for all firms and for small firms, the spillovers from universities are apparently more important for small-firm innovation than for their larger counterparts. [fre] L'apparition dans la littérature consacrée à l'organisation industrielle, de nombreuses études montrant que les PME sont au moins aussi innovantes que les grandes firmes, conduit à une question quelque peu paradoxale. D'où les PME tirent elles les facteurs générateurs de savoir ? L'objet de cet article est de lier les inputs de l'innovation à ses outputs. Cette approche permet d'évaluer l'ampleur des retombées des principales sources de nouveaux savoirs, telles que les centres de R&D privés ou publics ou les universités, sur l'activité d'innovation des petites et grandes entreprises. Les données empiriques concernant 15 régions italiennes sur une période de neuf ans, montrent que tandis que les dépenses en R&D des entreprises contribuent à l'innovation de toutes les firmes, y compris les petites, les retombées issues de recherches universitaires sont plus importantes pour les PME innovatrices que pour les grandes entreprises.

Date: 1994
Note: DOI:10.3406/rei.1994.1520
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.3406/rei.1994.1520 (text/html)
https://www.persee.fr/doc/rei_0154-3229_1994_num_67_1_1520 (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Small Firms and R&D Spillovers: Evidence from Italy (1994)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:prs:recind:rei_0154-3229_1994_num_67_1_1520

Access Statistics for this article

Revue d'Économie Industrielle is currently edited by Éditions techniques et économiques

More articles in Revue d'Économie Industrielle from Programme National Persée
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Equipe PERSEE ().