CEA 42nd Annual Meetings
Friday, June 6 - Sunday, June 8, 2008
University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Author/Presenter Tobias Schmidt (Deutsche Bundesbank)
Co-author Christian Rammer (Centre for European Economic Research)
Title Non-Technological versus Technological Innovation - Evidence from Germany
Abstract Non-technological innovation is an important element of firms' innovation activities that both supplement and complement technological innovation, i.e. the introduction of new products and new processes. We analyse the spread of non-technological innovation in firms, their relation to technological innovation, and their effects to firm performance and success with product and process innovation, using data from the German Community Innovation Survey conducted in 2005 (German CIS 4). Non-technological innovation is defined as the introduction of new organisational methods or the introduction of new marketing methods. We find that the determinants of a firm's propensity to introduce technological and non-technological innovations are very similar and that both types are closely related. There are only small effects of non-technological innovation on a firm' profit margin, which contrasts the strong effects to be found from technological innovation. However, non-technological innovation spurs success with product and process innovation terms of sales with market novelties and cost reductions from new processes.

Web Link ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp07052.pdf

CEA 2008 Conference | Conference Program