Search

The aim of this article, is to analyze the effects of factors external and internal to the firms on innovation in Tunisia, and how these effects vary according some specificities of the firms, such as the opening of capital to foreign companies. The analysis is based on a sample of 543 manufacturing firms, taken from the Tunisian Survey of Technological Innovation conducted in 2005 by the Tunisian Ministry of Scientific Research, Technology and Skills Development. The results indicate that the firm?s technological competences, derived from in-house R&D and innovation efforts and cooperation are the main determinants of innovation performance of Tunisian firms. They also suggest that firms with high export intensity and significant foreign capital participation are found to be less innovating than partially exporting firms with low foreign capital share. The preliminary conclusion of our study is a set of recommendations to policy makers aiming at targeting new strategy vis-à-vis FDI considering their technological content and their impact on in house R&D, innovation and training system. JEL Codes: C25, O14, O31

The technology transfer process between a public laboratory and a company has been the subject of many publications and has been widely discussed in economic theory. This paper highlights several newly identified asymmetries occurring between the different agents taking part in the process, dealing specifically with the aerospace R&D sector in France. These specificities concern the characteristics, capabilities and competencies (the ?capacities?) of French SMEs and public research laboratories. The theoretical corpus of the article draws partly upon the analyses of ?dynamic and interactive capabilities? (and competencies), and for the rest upon various asymmetries identified and conceptualized from empirical sources, being based on the recent experience of one of the most dynamic Technology Transfer Offices in France: the case of ONERA (the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research) and its dyadic relations with the SMEs. In such a cooperative, interactive innovation process, we will argue that certain collaborative tools or practices emerge, aimed at reducing information asymmetries or acting as compensation mechanisms for other types of asymmetries between the partners at a microeconomic level; especially in France where there is a gap between the public R&D laboratories and the SMEs in terms of Technology Readiness Levels. Some of these compensation mechanisms, particularly those related to the knowledge economy, could be adapted and reshaped for agents engaged in R&D and innovation in various other sectors, perhaps inducing positive amplification effects on innovation behavior, and thereby through an endogenous ?multiplier effect? on economic growth at the macroeconomic level within the ?national innovation system?. JEL Codes: L25, O14, D82, O32

The development of international trade has enabled industrialised countries to obtain supplies of high-quality, high-tech products very cheaply from developing countries. But the ever-falling prices of these imported goods have eroded the interest of industrialised countries in producing them themselves. This has led to a phenomenon of deindustrialisation, resulting from the loss of export markets, production offshoring and increased investment abroad by transnational companies. Drawing on an empirical analysis and case studies of four countries, this article shows that deindustrialisation is not inevitable. The right mix between government economic policy and the strategies of companies and entrepreneurs has enabled industry in some countries to do better than just resisting globalisation. This mix of public policy and business strategy has to aim to keep domestic companies’ margins in line with their international partners and competitors, accentuate and sustain research and innovation efforts in the long term and emphasise mid-range and high-end production. The economies of the industrialised countries that are already committed to this approach are currently those doing best in the current crisis. JEL Codes: O14, O3, F02

Connectivity in the information age, the attendant move to co-creating experiences with consumers, transaction cost economics associated with search costs in the wake of information overload, all suggest that brand value requires not only informing and dialogue, but also enabling discussion between consumers and with consumer communities. This research studies the Web 2.0 tools to find out how they can be used to build up brand equity through informing, dialoguing and enabling discussion. This research investigates ten cases in the field of online lending. We find that different websites are using many interaction tools for informing, dialogue and enabling discussion, including website presentations, blogs, buzz creation, co-branding, social networking and sharing media. We find different mix of these brand equity creation strategies on different websites. This descriptive article will be of interest to all social websites as well as all microfinance institutions, banks and financial service institutions who would like to use web 2.0 to foster new co-creation of value with their customers. The article is especially useful to understand community formation for building up brand value which could be useful for directing microfinance towards the financially excluded. This is the first paper to study brand equity creation strategies using web 2.0 tools. It is also the first paper to study brand valuation creation in online lending in particular. JEL Codes: D23, G21, M31, O14, O33

Trade policy strategies to get out of the poverty trap Relying on a model of new economic geography, this paper focuses on the relationship between trade policy and the economie conditions of take-off. We confirm notably in a trisectoral analysis that both unilateral trade liberalization and import substitution, while influencing the balance between centrifugal and centripetal forces, may be successful in getting the less developed country out of the poverty trap. In our model, technological externalities resulting from sectoral learn-ing spillovers complete the usual presence in such theoretical framework ofpecuniary externalities. By this way, we show that the degree of technological diffusion is a determining parameter for a Southern economy. We show also that sectoral trade policies, in the same way as an active industrial policy, favour structural change in the less developed country., Stratégies de politique commerciale pour une sortie de la trappe de sous-développement Dans le cadre d'un modèle d'économie géographique, nous nous intéressons à la relation existant entre la politique commerciale et les conditions du décollage économique. On confirme notamment dans un modèle trisectoriel que les politi­ques de libéralisation commerciale et de substitution à l'importation, en influençant l'équilibre entre forces centrifuges et forces centripètes, favorisent la sortie de la trappe de sous-développement. Des externalités technologiques induits par des phénomènes d'apprentissage sectoriels complètent la présence habituelle dans ce cadre théorique d'externalités pécuniaires. Nous montrons ainsi que le degré de diffusion technologique est un paramètre déterminant pour une économie du Sud. Nous concluons également que des politiques commerciales sectoriellement ciblées, au même titre qu'une politique industrielle active, favorisent les changements structurels dans le pays du Sud., Rieber Arsène, Tran Thi Anh-Dao. Stratégies de politique commerciale pour une sortie de la trappe de sous-développement. In: Revue économique, volume 53, n°2, 2002. pp. 223-243.