Direct and Complementary Effects of Investment in Knowledge-Based Economy on Innovation Performance in Tunisian Firms

Adel Ben Khalifa ()
Additional contact information
Adel Ben Khalifa: Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies (ITCEQ) and University of Carthage (ENVIE)

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2019, vol. 10, issue 2, No 7, 589 pages

Abstract: Abstract This paper investigates two sets of hypotheses related to the relationship between the investment in the knowledge-based economy (KBE) and innovation performance in a developing country. The first set supposes that investment in information and communication technologies (ICT), organizational innovations, and human capital, the main three pillars of KBE, has a direct effect on innovation performance of Tunisian firms. The second set tests the hypothesis of complementary effect of these pillars such that their combination constitutes a significant production system affecting the innovation performance. Using recent firm-level data, we find evidence of direct effect of investment in the KBE on firm’s innovation performance. The second set of hypotheses is partly supported. We find evidence of complementarity between ICT and human capital as well as between ICT and organizational innovations, but we do not find evidence of complementarity between human capital and organizational innovations. Moreover, we find that full complementarity between ICT, organizational innovations, and human capital does not apply to Tunisian firms.

Keywords: Knowledge-based economy; ICT; Organizational innovations; Human capital; Product and process innovation; Direct and complementary effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 L2 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-017-0481-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
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:spr:jknowl:v:10:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13132-017-0481-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-017-0481-1

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().