Emerging Countries

Proximity and scientific collaboration: Evidence for the global wine industry

in Publications, Working Papers Tags: , ,

Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht. Forthcoming in Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie.

With L. Cassi and A. Morrison

International collaboration among researchers is a far from linear and straightforward process. Scientometric studies provide a good way of understanding why and how international research collaboration occurs and what are its costs and benefits. Our study investigates patterns of international scientific collaboration in a specific field: 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. Furthermore, it shows that similarity in trade patterns has a positive impact on international scientific collaboration. We find also that international research collaboration is more likely among peers, in other words, among wine producing countries that belong to the same group, e.g. OW producers or newcomers to the wine industry.

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Gradual catch up and enduring leadership in the global wine industry

in Publications, Working Papers Tags: , ,

Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht.

With A. Morrison

The wine industry is an extremely interesting case from a catch up point of view because the latecomers in the international market have changed how wine is produced, sold and consumed and, in doing so, they have challenged the positions of incumbents. Until the end of the 1980s, the European countries, and particularly France and Italy, dominated the international market for wine. Subsequently, significant changes in the market, namely decreases in consumption by traditional consuming countries, the entry of new inexperienced consumers, and the increasing importance of large distribution have threatened this supremacy. Initially, the USA and Australia and later emerging countries such as Chile and South Africa, gained increasing market shares in both exported volumes and value, at the expense of incumbents. However, some of these new-comers (e.g. Australia) have shown slower growth, opening opportunities for newer entrants such as Argentina and New Zealand. At the same time, some of the incumbents (especially Italy) have innovated, which is challenging the leadership of France in key markets such the USA.
In this paper we investigate the different catch up cycles in the global wine sector that have occurred between the 1960s and 2010, through a detailed analysis of export volumes, values and unit prices. We address issues related to the increasing share in the global market of latecomer countries and the relative decline of the incumbents, as well as possible changes in the market leadership within these two groups.

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Technology-Driven FDI: A Survey of the Literature

in Publications, Working Papers Tags: ,

CIRCLE WP, 17, Lund University, Lund.

With A. Amighini, C. Cozza, E. Giuliani and V. Scalera

In the past century we have witnessed worldwide a growing flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which have attracted the attention of economists, international business and development scholars. In this scenario, two trends have recently gained momentum: the increasing relevance of Technology- driven FDI (TFDI) and the upsurge of Emerging Economies’ Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) investing in advanced countries.
In this paper, we present a survey of the relevant literature on TFDI, with a focus on both AMNEs and EMNEs. After presenting the different phases of TFDI from Advanced Economy Multinational Enterprises (AMNEs), we focus on EMNEs and discuss the usefulness and limitations of the existing theoretical frameworks to interpret this new phenomenon. Next, the paper reviews the literature on EMNEs’ sources of competitive advantages and their main motivations for investing abroad. Finally, the paper explores the peculiarities of TFDI from emerging economies.

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

in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: , , , , ,

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.

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Innovation and Technological Catch-Up. The Changing Geography of Wine Production

in Books, Publications Tags: , , , , , , ,

Innovation and Technological Catch-Up. The Changing Geography of Wine Production

A book published by Edward Elgar and edited together with Elisa Giuliani e Andrea Morrison about changing geography in the wine industry.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the supremacy of ‘Old World’ countries (France and Italy) in the international wine market has been challenged by new players, such as Australia, Argentina, Chile and South Africa, which are recording stunning performances in terms both of export volume and value. This book demonstrates that such a spectacular example of catch-up goes beyond simply copying new technologies; it entails creative adaptation and innovation, and introduces a new growth trajectory in which consistent investments in research and science play a key role.

«This book overturns the old paradigm ideas about natural-resource-based activities. It sheds light on the new opportunities for technological dynamism and catching-up by using science to open novel directions in traditional sectors. It should become a classic in what I expect will be a very important academic debate and a new trend in development policy.»
Carlota Perez
Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia; Cambridge University and University of Sussex, UK

«This excellent book demonstrates better than any other I know the strengths and limits of the concept of a national system of innovation for understanding economic development today. Any careful student of innovation or development will want to read it.»
Charles Sabel
Columbia Law School, USA

Here you can read the introduction,
The Changing Geography of Wine Production_Intro

Here you can read some reviews of the book,
regional studies,
AAG Review of Books,
Journal of Wine economics,
agriregionieuropa_n28,
Il Sole 24 Ore

You can buy the book here.


Outward FDI from developing countries MNEs as a channel for technological catch-up

in Journal Articles, Publications Tags: , ,

Seoul Journal of Economics, 23(2): 239-261

The paper is in collaboration with Alessia Amighini and Marco Sanfilippo.

One of the more recent aspects of the globalization process is the rise and the increasing outward expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from developing countries. Among the more promising effects of this phenomenon is a potentially positive development impact: through outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) developing country MNEs acquire new knowledge, which contributes to the technological catch-up of their home countries. This paper reviews the recent literature on OFDI from developing countries, with a critical focus on the theory and evidence of FDI as a channel for technological catch-up. This literature suggests that the features and global business environment of current emerging country MNEs is different from those of latecomer firms in earlier decades. Modularity of production in an increasing number of sectors, combined with weak national innovation systems (NIS) in many developing countries explain why the sourcing of strategic assets – including technology and innovation – from abroad through OFDI has become such an important channel for technological catch-up.

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