UNESCO, World Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
At the International Symposium on Accelerating Innovation in Developing Countries I talked about innovation in the wine industry.
Download the pdf, Pres UNESCO 2012-11
Catch up
Innovation and Technological Catch-Up in Emerging Countries: The Case of the Wine Industry
Development Blog Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano
I contributed to the Development Blog with an article on catch up in the wine industry.
Universities in emerging economies: Bridging local industry with international science.Evidence from Chile and South Africa
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.
Per i vini ora il modello è il Cile
Il Sole 24 Ore
The Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore published an article on my book on Innovation and Catching Up: The changing geography of wine production.
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.
Catching-up Trajectories in the Wine Sector: A Comparative Study of Chile, Italy and South Africa
World Development 38(11): 1588-1602
The article is co-authored with Lucia Cusmano and Andrea Morrison.
From a development perspective an investigation of the changes that have occurred in the wine industry is of particular interest because it provides evidence on how emerging economies have been able to acquire significant shares of the international market in a dynamic sector. Based on novel empirical evidence, this paper shows that emerging countries with diverse institutional models and innovation strategies have actively participated in the process of technological modernization and product standardization. These newcomers in the wine sector have responded particularly effectively to changes in demand, aligning emerging scientific approaches with institutional building efforts and successful marketing strategies.
Why do researchers collaborate with industry? An analysis of the wine sector in Chile, Italy and South Africa
Research Policy, 39(6): 748-761
The paper is in collaboration with Elisa Giuliani, Andrea Morrison and Carlo Pietrobelli.
Research on University-Industry (U-I) linkages and their determinants has increased significantly in the past few years. However, there is still controversy on the key factors explaining the formation of U-I linkages, and especially related to individual researcher characteristics. This paper provides new empirical evidence and, in particular, looks at the importance of researchers’ individual characteristics and their institutional environments in explaining the propensity to engage in different types of U-I linkages. Based on an original dataset, we present new evidence on three wine producing areas – Piedmont, a region of Italy, Chile and South Africa – that have successfully responded to recent structural changes in the industry worldwide. Empirical findings reveal that researchers’ individual characteristics, such as centrality in the academic system, age and sex, matter more than publishing records or formal degrees. Institutional specificities at country level also play a role in shaping the propensity of researchers to engage with industry.
Download the pdf, JA Research Policy 2010-06
Catching up and Sectoral Systems of Innovation: A Comparative Study on the Wine Sector in Chile, Italy and South Africa
World Knowledge Forum, Seoul.
I was invited at a panel on the Economics of Inter- Firm Catch Up discussing how global economic recession, can be an opportunity for late-comers to enter the market and catch up with forerunners.
Download the pdf, Pres World Knowledge Forum 2009-10
Upgrading to Complete: Global Value Chains, Clusters, and SMEs in Latin America
Foreign Affairs
Richard Feimberg reviewed my book edited with Pietrobelli.
Is Korea catching up? An analysis of labour productivity growth in South Korea
Oxford Development Studies, 34(3): 323-339
The paper is written in collaboration with Giulio Guarini e Vasco Molini.
Comparing the Korean labour productivity growth in the last two decades with the
Japanese and US labour productivity growth, data confirm a process of catching up in several important manufacturing sectors. The paper investigates its determinants using a non-neoclassical model. Investments in skills and capabilities are found to be crucial in explaining this trend. Important policy implications for developing countries are then discussed. In the long run, a targeted education policy with government intervention and a strong emphasis on technical education can give high pay-offs. This conclusion holds in particular when the aim of the country is to compete in the international markets, not along the low road to competitiveness, based on squeezing wages and profit margins, but along the high road (i.e. improving productivity, wages and profits).