Innovative Milieux: Advanced Posts of Interpenetration between the Economic System and the Science System
Peter Franz
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 71,
1998
Abstract
A growing number of governments, political parties, and enterprises set the theme „innovation“ on their agenda and join in the global race to more competitive national economies. In this race the concept of the „innovative milieu“ serves as an important point of orientation and as a political target that, on the first glance, seems to be transferable in concrete political measures. A basic feature of innovative milieux is the quick and easy transfer of knowledge to products in demand. This speed-up in the diffusion of knowledge is not only interesting with respect to the economic advantages but also with respect to science. It is the basic thesis of this paper that innovative milieux represent special cases where the economic system and the science system interpenetrate in an extreme way. Empirical findings show that the actors of innovative milieux have a strong cultural proximity to basic attitudes and behavior within the science system. This relates to the institutionalization of trial and error, the reinforcement of exploratory behavior, the flow of information, and to a special mixture of cooperation and competition. An essential feature of innovative milieux derives from the network relations of its actors. These relations have to be balanced a) to the need to create trust and reduce uncertainty, and b) to the need to stay permeable enough for linkages with new actors from outside. With regard to time innovative milieux have to be conceived from an evolutionary perspective. This involves several steps: Development of prerequisites, consolidation, attraction of labor and enterprises from other regions. From the evolutionary perspective, too, possible factors of preventing or accelerating the „entropic death“ (Camagni 1991) of innovative milieux can be discussed. The exceptional character of innovative milieux has consequences for innovation-oriented political strategies. The self-enforcing dynamics of innovative milieux create a tendency to more economic inequality between regions (core-periphery differences). This is contradictory to political strategies in which innovation-oriented policy is applied to reach an offset between prospering and impoverished regions. In many cases a strategy starting from the assumption of an enduring non-innovative milieu seems to be more realistic and more promising. Further on, the new more direct links between enterprises and research institutes question the current shape of technology transfer institutions. Finally the potential effects of the new trend to encourage the entrepreneurship of research staff on the science system are discussed.
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How could the lacking competitive pressure in the field of passing energy through be met?
Martin Weisheimer
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 6,
1998
Abstract
Da die Stromnetze weiterhin als natürliches Monopol fungieren, muss über die Durchleitung von Fremdstrom der Wettbewerb eingeführt werden.Die Arbeit zeigt, welche Aufgaben und Lösungsmöglichkeiten hierfür bestehen. Die RPI-x-Preisformel wird besonders dargestellt und empfohlen.
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Economic policy prioritizes competitiveness - A commentary
Rüdiger Pohl
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 4,
1997
Abstract
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Employment effects of a reduction of continued pay in case of sickness
Hans-Ulrich Brautzsch, Christian Dreger
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 2,
1997
Abstract
Eine Kürzung der Lohnfortsetzung im Krankheitsfall führt zu einem Rückgang der Lohnne-benkosten und damit zu einer Stärkung der Wettbewerbsposition, was – für sich genommen – einen Beschäftigungsaufbau befördert. Eine eingeschränkte Lohnfortzahlung führt jedoch letztlich auch zu einer Verringerung der Nettolohn- und -gehaltssumme und damit der ge-samtwirtschaftlichen Nachfrage sowie des Beschäftigungsniveaus. Die komplexen Wirkungen der gegenläufigen Effekte einer Verringerung der Lohnfortzahlung im Krankheitsfall werden hier mit Hilfe des makroökonometrischen Modells des IWH berechnet. Es wird deutlich, dass die jetzt gesetzlich möglichen Einschränkungen der Lohnfortzahlung im Krankheitsfall eher gering sind.
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Pay rate policy approaches for improving competitiveness of East German economy
Rüdiger Pohl, Hilmar Schneider
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 13,
1996
Abstract
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Phonebanking
Jan Bouckaert, Hans Degryse
European Economic Review,
No. 2,
1995
Abstract
In a two-stage game, we study under what conditions banks offer phonebanking (first stage). In the second stage, they are competitors in the market for deposits. Offering the phone option creates two opposing effects. The first is a demand effect as depositors strictly prefer to manage some of their financial transactions by phone. The second (strategic) effect is that competition is increased as transaction costs are lowered. Universal phonebanking prevails when the demand effect dominates the strategic effect. Specialization can occur in that one bank offers the phone option while the other does not.
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