Regulation, Policies and Innovation Activities in Industries : Approaching Methods and Implications
Régulation, politiques et innovation industrielle : approche par méthodes et implications
Résumé
In general, policymakers are often faced with a different choice, i.e., the choice between using regulation-based approaches and using incentive-based approaches, where the policy instruments could be based either on mandatory approach or voluntary approach with economic incentives in market. Historically, industrial economists have regarded the issue of policy design as the one focused primarily on the choice among alternative policy instruments, where those are generally viewed as falling into two broad categories: regulation-based instruments and incentive-based instruments. Through the theoretical and empirical analysis, this study identifies some key features that are likely to increase both the effectiveness and efficiency of industrial policies with voluntary and mandatory approaches. On the other hand, we also investigate the existence of a strong relationship between innovation and industrial policies. In particular, we divide investment activities of firms into two parts like explorative and exploitative investments. Then we find that the explorative innovation increases the incentives for participation in long-term but also reduces the financial incentives in short-term. In sum, when based on the understanding and consideration on the nature of innovation and other impact factors, industrial policy can provide a mechanism for meeting industrial quality goals both effectively and efficiently. Considering firms' characteristics and industry sector also increases the synergy effect of policies and regulations. This understanding also can help policy makers to decide whether or not use of such policy approach is advisable and to design the policy ensuring that it is as effective and efficient as possible. Consequently, the current research investigates the difference and tendency of industrial policy approaches and the type of innovation carrying out three analyses according to the mandatory and voluntary approaches. With the assumption that the mandatory approach has short-run impact to prompt new technology or grow a specific industry, we firstly assess the impact of regulation, such as privatization of nature monopoly. Using the firms level data of 20 OECD countries between 1994 and 2008, we tested assumptions in telecommunication market, where there exist competition and privatization regulations. Based on the empirical results, we can claim that considering interaction among liberalization policies and allowing the industry characteristics are critical to determine for the Profitability effect and Operational efficiency effect and level of investments. This means that firms seek strategies for exploitative investments in the case where competition becomes severe and many dimensions are faced. Therefore, it is necessary for policy regulators to take account of the interactions among liberalization policies providing an incentive to create new knowledge and technologies. Secondly, we analyze the voluntary industrial policies with comparing of environmental and sustainable behaviors. This approach has long-run effective characteristics and can be applied to more general industry. Based on our assumption that the Corporate Environmentalism is a bilateral agreement between a policy maker and a firm, we try to find the relationship between voluntary activities and the nature of innovation. 1032 observations are divided into specific groups according to the Carbon Discloser Project (CDP) Global 500 report and the list of Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) between 2008 and 2009. From the empirical analysis, we identify the correlation between the 'Corporate Environmentalism' and innovative activities. These results show that the variations of firms' sustainable and environmental behaviors are varied depending on the industry sectors, firm characteristics, and environmental and sustainable activities. Finally, this study identifies the relationship between 'Business-led Initiatives (CSR)' and innovation activities of firms. We assume that CSR is a business-led initiative that recognizes that the impact businesses have on society is more than purely financial. In particular, this study advocates a new approach to incorporate sustainability with innovation strategies by taking into account voluntary sustainable activities not just for investors, but also for other shareholders including communities firms serve. Using the Vigeo rating and the Thomson Reuters financial data in 2009, we divided 619 firms into groups according to their industry sectors, regions, and firm characteristics such as size and age. This study identifies the relationship between CSR and innovation activities of firms based on the assumption that innovative investment is needed to prepare tomorrow's profits not only by considering investments in technology and in R&D, but also by dealing with sustainability to human, social, environmental, technical, and economic investments. Consequently, when the firm builds their short- and long-run business strategies, the consideration of the relationship between types of investment and CSR practice will lead to more cooperating effect on the outcome of investments. The findings of this study could provide a comprehensive understanding on the effect of sustainable management strategies on the innovation and sustainability of firms.
De manière générale, différentes approches s'offrent aux décideurs politiques lorsqu'il s'agit de promouvoir l'innovation. Pour reprendre la distinction posée par la plupart des économistes industriels, les politiques peuvent être de nature presciptive ou incitative. A travers une série d'analyses théoriques et empiriques, cette thèse identifie plusieurs facteurs clés qui déterminent l'efficacité des politiques d'innovation, que l'approche adoptée soit de nature prescriptive ou incitative. En guise de préambule, nous soulignons que les politiques mises en oeuvre constituent un déterminant fondamental des capacités d'innovation d'une industrie, notamment parce que les incitations marchandes à engager des activités de recherche fortement exploratoires sont limitées. Par ailleurs, nous signalons que la nature des politiques susceptibles de favoriser l'innovation dépend fondamentalement des caractéristiques des industries, et même des firmes, auxquelles elles sont destinées. La mise en oeuvre de politiques (incitatives ou presciptives) efficaces requiert ainsi une compréhension approfondie du secteur d'activité que l'on souhaite promouvoir et de la nature des processus d'innovation qui impliquent notamment différents types d'investissements (à plus ou moins long terme, plus ou moins risqués et plus ou moins exploratoires). Cette thèse analyse ensuite, à travers trois études de cas, l'incidence de différentes politiques (incitatives ou presciptives) mises en oeuvre dans des contextes industriels distincts. Partant de l'hypothèse selon laquelle les politiques presciptives ont un impact bénéfique sur l'innovation et le développement technologique d'un secteur à court terme mais des effects plus incertains à long terme, nous étudions l'impact des politiques de libéralisation (ouverture à la concurrence et privatisation des opérateurs historiques) qui ont été mises en oeuvre dans le secteur des télécommunications. A travers une étude économétrique portant sur un panel de 20 pays de l'OCDE sur la période 1994-2008, nous soulignons que l'impact de la concurrence sur les décisions d'investissement s'exerce à travers deux effects : l'effet " profitabilité " et l'effet " efficacité opérationnelle ". Nous soulignons par ailleurs que la relation entre intensité concurrentielle et investissement varie signicativement entre entreprises publiques et firmes privées. Dans une seconde étude, nous analysons le lien entre la propension des firmes à adopter spontanément des comportements écologiques (mesurée à partir des données du Carbon Discloser Project et du Dow Jones Sustainability Index) et la nature de leurs innovations. Ce travail fait apparaître de forte différences inter-industries et inter-entreprises mais permet de valider l'hypothèse d'une relation positive entre le niveau des investissements de R&D et la propension à adopter des comportements écologiques. Nous nous intéressons enfin à la relation entre responsabilité sociale d'entreprise et innovation. Nous utilisons pour cela le classement Vigeo que des données financières sur l'année 2009. Notre étude met en évidence une relation positive entre responsabilité sociale d'entreprise et capacité des firmes à innover. Nous interprétons ce résultat de la manière suivante : la responsabilité sociale d'entreprise conduit les firmes à réaliser des investissements non seulement de court terme mais également de long terme et à tenir compte de la complémentarité de ces investissements. La responsabilité sociale d'entreprise accroît ainsi les synergies entre les différents types d'investissement réalisés par les firmes.
Domaines
Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]
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