Journal Articles

Proximity and Scientific Collaboration: Evidence from the Global Wine Industry

1 - 03 - 2015 in Featured Publications, Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Catch up, Emerging Countries, Wine industry

Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 106, 2: 205-219.

The article is co-authored with Lorenzo Cassi and Andrea Morrison.

Scientometric studies provide a good way of understanding why and how international research collaboration occurs. Our study investigates patterns of international scientific collaboration in wine related research. We test a gravity model that accounts for geographical, cultural, commercial, technological, structural and institutional differences among a group of Old World (OW) and New World (NW) producers and consumers. Our findings confirm the problems imposed by geographical and technological distance on international research collaboration.

Investigating Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments: How Can Firm-level Data Help?

18 - 11 - 2014 in Featured Publications, Journal Articles, Publications Tags: China, Emerging Countries, FDI

China and the World Economy, 22, 6: 44-63

The article is written in collaboration with Alessia Amighini, Claudio Cozza and Marco Sanfilippo.

The empirical literature on China’s outward foreign direct investment mainly relies on aggregate data from official statistics, but the reliability of such data is currently a matter of concern because it does not take account of relevant features such as industry breakdown, ownership structure and entry mode. A novel firm-level database, EMENDATA, compiled by matching data from several available sources on various types of cross-border deals and including information on group structure, provides a more accurate picture and enables new empirical analyses of the rapidly increasing presence of Chinese companies abroad.

Barking up the wrong tree? Measuring gender gaps in firms’ access to finance

6 - 10 - 2014 in Featured Publications, Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Credit, Gender, Small and Medium Enterprises

Journal of Development Studies, 50, 10, 1430-1444

The article is written in collaboration with Andrea Presbitero and Claudia Piras.

The literature on gender-based discrimination in credit markets is recently expanding but the results are not yet definitive. This paper exploits a new dataset on Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and finds that more precise measures of the gender composition of the firm show that women-led businesses are more likely to be financially constrained than other comparable firms.

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Emerging-market MNEs investing in Europe. A typology of subsidiary global–local connections

1 - 08 - 2014 in Featured Publications, Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Emerging Countries, Innovation, Local Development, MNEs

International Business Review, 23(4): 680-691

The article is co-authored with Elisa Giuliani, Sara Gorgoni and Cristina Guenther.

It empirically investigates how subsidiaries of multinationals from both emerging (EMNEs) and advanced (AMNEs) economies investing in Europe learn from the local context and contribute to it as much as they benefit from it. To explore this we classify the behavior of MNE subsidiaries into different typologies on the basis of how knowledge is transferred within the multinational and on the nature of the local innovative connections. The empirical analysis relies on an entirely new, subsidiary-level dataset in the industrial machinery sector in Italy and Germany. Results show that EMNEs and AMNEs undertake different strategies for tapping into local knowledge and for transferring it within the company. We identify a new typology of EMNE subsidiary that contributes through its significant local innovative efforts to development processes in the host country. This result suggests possible win-win situations from which novel policy implications may be drawn.

The article has been reviewed in the Rising Powers Blog.

Geographical Distance and Moral Hazard in Microcredit: Evidence from Colombia

1 - 01 - 2014 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Colombia, Credit, Microcredit

Journal of International Development, 26(1): 91-108

An article written with Andrea Presbitero.

Recent years have seen an intense and critical debate about the impact of microcredit on entrepreneurial activities and poor households’ welfare. This paper suggests that information asymmetries in the ex-post loan arrangement between the micro_nance institution (MFI) and local borrowers could partially explain the limited impact of microcredit. The physical distance separating borrowers from the MFI could be considered as a proxy of agency costs, increasing the costs of monitoring and easing moral hazard. The estimation of the e_ect of distance on the borrower’s self-assessed outcome of a microcredit project in Colombia con_rms the presence of moral hazard in the microcredit market, with agency costs increasing with geographical distance.

Innovation Drivers, Value Chains and the Geography of Multinational Corporations in Europe

12 - 07 - 2013 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Europe, Global Value Chain, Innovation, MNEs

Journal of Economic Geography, forthcoming

The article is co-authored with Riccardo Crescenzi and Carlo Pietrobelli.

It investigates the geography of multinational companies’ investments in the EU regions. The ‘traditional’ sources of location advantages (i.e. agglomeration economies, market access and labour market conditions) are considered together with innovation and socio-institutional drivers of investments, captured by means of regional “social filter” conditions. This makes it possible to empirically assess the different role played by such advantages in the location decision of investments at different stages of the value chain and disentangle the differential role of national vs. regional factors. The empirical analysis covers the EU-25 regions and suggests that regional socio- economic conditions are crucially important for the location decisions of investments in the most sophisticated knowledge-intensive stages of the value chain.

The resilience of clusters in the context of globalisation: The basque wind value chain

1 - 07 - 2013 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Clusters, Global Value Chain, Globalization, Local Development, Wind Energy

European Planning Studies, 21(7): 989-1006

The article is co-authored with A. Elola and M.D. Parrilli.

In this paper we study how globalization impacts on the structure and governance patterns of value chains and on the resilience of local clusters. We study the value chains related to two Basque (Spain) companies in the wind energy industry, Iberdrola and Gamesa, and the local cluster to which they belong. We find that firms within the cluster have different types of relationships with lead companies depending on their competences and the complexity of their products. As a consequence, firms also present different potential for growth and/or resilience: some have the capacity to internationalize their operations and/or shift to the offshore wind market, others are vulnerable to competition from providers in the emerging countries. Against this context, we discuss how the cluster responds to these challenges and the role of policy.

China’s outward FDI: An industry-level analysis of host-country determinants

1 - 03 - 2013 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: China, FDI

Frontiers of Economics in China, 8 (3), 903-936

The article is co-authored with Alessia Amighini and Marco Sanfilippo.

We empirically analyse the host country determinants of Chinese outward foreign direct investments (FDI) for the years 2003 to 2011, using disaggregated data by country and industry. Our results suggest that the host-country determinants of Chinese FDI differ between high- and low-income countries. While all Chinese FDI are invariably market seeking, other motivations stand out for different groups of sectors in specific country groups. The resource seeking motivation is relevant for manufacturing FDI to high-income countries with relatively high fuel abundance, and to low-income countries with primary resource abundance (other than fuels). Differently, the strategic-asset seeking motivation, measured by the level of R&D spending on GDP, positively and significantly only affects Chinese manufacturing and services FDI to OECD countries, while higher education levels are attraction factor for all investing firms. Natural resources are an important attraction factor for Chinese FDI, not only in resource-related sectors, but also in manufacturing and services sectors. Finally, Chinese FDIs tend to follow exports (rather than fostering them), especially in services sectors.

When do global pipelines enhance knowledge diffusion in clusters?

1 - 01 - 2013 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Clusters, Knowledge

Economic Geography, 86(1): 77-96

This article is co-authored with Andrea Morrison and Lorenzo Zirulia.

Recent studies have stressed the role played by global pipelines in fostering the growth of clusters and innovativeness. In this article, we develop a formal model to investigate when global pipelines contribute to an increase in local knowledge, depending on various characteristics of clusters such as size, knowledge endowment, and the ease of transmission of internal knowledge. This model is an extension of Cowan and Jonard’s (2004) model in which we introduce the concept of cluster and a role for spatial proximity in the diffusion of knowledge. Our results reveal that there is a natural tendency of actors within global pipelines to act as external stars, rather than gatekeepers of knowledge. Global pipelines are beneficial for the accumulation of knowledge only if the cluster is either characterized by a high-quality local buzz or is small and weakly endowed in terms of knowledge.

Universities in emerging economies: Bridging local industry with international science.Evidence from Chile and South Africa

1 - 03 - 2012 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Catch up, Chile, Emerging Countries, Innovation, South Africa, Wine industry

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36(3): 679-702

This article is written in collaboration with Elisa Giuliani.

Emerging economies are now becoming more central in global competition. To achieve this, many countries have invested to develop into ‘knowledge economies’. Universities have a role to play in this transformation, both as generators of new knowledge as well as actors that can interact with the local industry and contribute to its innovativeness. This paper explores, using two case studies in the Chilean and South African wine industry, how universities connect international science to domestic industry. It finds that this connection occurs through a few ‘bridging researchers’, who display particular characteristics compared with their colleagues. Bridging researchers are more ‘talented’ than average researchers, both because they publish more in international journals and/or because they have received awards for their academic work. This finding may have significant policy implications, as policies aimed at strengthening the skills of these researchers should be welcomed in catching-up industries.

The “Marco Polo” effect: Chinese FDI in Italy

1 - 04 - 2011 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: China, FDI, Italy

International Journal of Technology and Globalization, 4(4), 277-291

The article is written with Carlo Pietrobelli and Marco Sanfilippo.

This study investigates the motivations driving Chinese outward direct investment to Italy. The analysis is based on secondary sources and in- depth interviews with key informants and senior managers of Chinese affiliates in Italy. The evolution of the Chinese pattern of entry in Italy confirms the pattern followed by Chinese firms in other European countries, adding some additional interesting results. Starting from small-scale operations in trade-related activities, Chinese FDI have evolved towards the acquisition of tangible and intangible resources that are deemed necessary to improve China’s presence in international markets and to upgrade their technological and production capacities.
Chinese investments in Italy are increasingly targeting the acquisition of technological capabilities and of design skills and brands to tap local competences available in specialized manufacturing clusters in sectors such as automotives and home appliances. The main industries of specialization of Chinese OFDI in Italy reflect this approach and appear to be related to China’s strategy to increase the sophistication of its exports and to move away from standardized commodities and intermediate manufactures and components.

Persistence versus Change in the International Specialization Pattern of Italy: How much does the ‘District Effect’ matter?

1 - 03 - 2011 in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: Clusters, Industrial districts, Italy

Regional Studies 45 (3), 381–401

The paper is in collaboration with Alessia Amighini and Marinella Leone.

It investigates the evolution of specialization patterns for the Italian provinces over the period 1995-2005 by analysing the dynamics of the sectoral distribution in the Balassa index of revealed comparative advantages. The results show that underlying a relatively stable distribution of national comparative advantages over time, there are wide variations in local performance: only a few provinces demonstrate any stability in their specialization over the last decade, with the majority showing decreased specialization. We find a higher average degree of persistence for provinces with districts, but no systematic differences between provinces with or without industrial districts. District provinces show wide variation, with a few concentrating on their past comparative strengths, but many diversifying.

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