This thesis focuses on the hypothesis of increasing returns and path-dependence in technological development, which originates in the supposedly localised nature of external economies from knowledge creation, and looks at its implications in the innovation literature and in recent models of endogenous technological change, specialization and growth. Chapter 1 provides an empirical assessment of the hypothesis of increasing returns and path-dependence. A recontracting process formalises the idea that in the presence of strong national externaIities a country's pattern of technological specialization tends to polarise towards extreme values thus leading to the emergence of a bimodal distribution. This prediction is found to be at variance with the data. However, reinforcing effects appear to be at work in situations of strong disadvantage. This might be the effect of scarce past research experience limiting countries' ability to absorb external knowledge. The analysis of Chapter 1 is further developed in Chapter 2, where differences across technological fields are accounted for, to allow for the possibility that only some of them may be subject to increasing returns. Chapter 3 compares technology and trade specialization patterns for a group of advanced countries. The analysis shows that their relationship is weak: this weakens the case for self-reinforcing mechanisms in technological change leading to persistence in trade patterns. Chapter 4 finds that the elasticity of innovation to international spillovers is positive and significant, thus suggesting they may be an important force leading to mobility in technology and trade specialization patterns. Absorptive capacity positively affects the elasticity to spillovers, but its effect depends on the position of the country with respect to the world technological frontier: the larger the gap of a country with the technological leaders, the lower is its ability to absorb and exploit external knowledge, but the larger is its potential to increase this ability.

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Au cours du XXIeme siècle, les clusters ont émergé comme un élément central desdébats économiques, par exemple en ce qui concerne leur rôle sur la croissanceéconomique. Diverses études académiques sur les clusters et réseaux d'innovation ontproduit un large éventail d'approches dans ce domaine. Les chercheurs ont tenté dedéfinir les concepts des clusters et réseaux d’innovation et d'analyser le cadre de lacoopération / concurrence au niveau local ou global.L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier un aspect spécifique des clusters, à savoir la tensionpotentielle entre coopération et concurrence et entre les activités au niveau local et global.Nous soutenons que la relation antagonistique entre la coopération et la concurrence n’apas été jusqu'à présent suffisamment étudiée, bien que la tension sous-jacente puisse êtreclairement identifiée et a joué un rôle important dans l'évolution des valeurs sociétalespréconisant ce comportement compétitive ou coopérative. Dans le cadre des clusterséconomiques, la tension se manifeste dans des comportements qui combinent deséléments de la concurrence et de la coopération, par exemple, si une entreprise décide decoopérer avec un concurrent pour être en mesure d'observer de près la menace de leursaffaires que ce concurrent représente. Grâce à une analyse qualitative et quantitative, la thèse a prêté plus d'attention à cescomportements hybrides de « coopétition glocal » permet une meilleure compréhensiondu comportement des entreprises dans des réseaux d’innovation. Nous proposons denouvelles méthodes et concepts concernant la représentation de la notion de«concurrence» et soulignons l’utilité de la notion de « coopétition globale » pourcomprendre le comportement des entreprises telles que la coopération antagonistique.Nos résultats montrent que la coopétition est une stratégie originale pour gérer laconcurrence du marché et implique de travailler avec des concurrents afin de capturersouvent des avantages communs. Notre recherche empirique a analysé les déterminantssous-jacents de ces comportements et les relie aux caractéristiques des clusters enfonction de leur structure d’information, leurs types de coopération, les compétencesdisponibles et l'échelle géographique du marché. / Over the last decades, clusters have emerged as a central element of economic debates,for instance as regards their on role in economic growth. Various academic studies onclusters and innovation networks have produced a wide range of approaches in this area.Scholars have attempted to define the concepts of clusters and innovation networks andanalyze the framework of cooperation / competition at the local or global level.The objective of this thesis is to explore a specific aspect of clusters, namely the potentialtension between cooperation and competition and between activities at the local andglobal level. We argue that the antagonistic relationship between cooperation andcompetition have so far not sufficiently studied, although the underlying tension can beclearly identified and has played a significant role in changing societal values advocatingeither competitive or collaborative behavior. In the context of economic clusters, thetension manifests itself in behaviors that combine elements of both competition andcooperation, for instance if a company decides to cooperate with a competitor only to beable to observe closely the threat to their business threat that this competitor represents.Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, the thesis shows that paying more attentionto such hybrid behaviors of ‘glocal coopetition’ provides a better understanding of firmbehavior in innovation networks. We propose new methods and concepts regarding therepresentation of the concept of "competition" and stress the usefulness of the idea of‘global coopetition’ for understanding firm behavior such as antagonistic cooperation.Our results underline that coopetition is an original strategy for managing marketcompetition and often entails working with competitors in order to capture a commonbenefits. Our empirical research analyses the underlying determinants for these behaviorsand links them to the characteristics of clusters in terms of their information structure,type of cooperation, available skills and geographic scale of the market.

New Technology Based Firms (NTBF) are considered to be important for the economic development of a country in regards to both employment growth and innovative activity. The latter is believed to contribute significantly to the increase in productivity and therefore the competitiveness of UK’s economy. This study contributes to the above literature by investigating two of the factors believed to limit the growth of such firms in the UK. The first concerns the existence of a ‘knowledge gap’ while the second the existence of a ‘financial gap’. These themes are developed along three main research lines. Firstly, based upon the human capital theory initially proposed by Backer (1964) new evidence is provided on the human capital characteristics (experience and education) of the current UK NTBF entrepreneurs. Secondly, the causal relationship between general and specific human capital (as well as their interactions) upon the company performance and growth is investigated via its traditional direct effect as well as via its indirect effect upon the access to external finance. Finally, more light is shed on the financial structure and the type of financial constraints that high-tech firms face at start-up. In particular, whether a financial gap exists is explored by distinguishing between the demand and the supply of external finance as well as by type of external source of financing. The empirical testing of the various research hypotheses has been obtained by carrying out an original survey of new technology based firms defined as independent companies, established in the past 25 years in R&D intensive sectors. The resulting dataset contains information for 412 companies on a number of general company characteristics and the characteristics of their entrepreneurs in 2004. Policy and practical implications for future and current entrepreneurs and also providers of external finance are provided.

Dans le contexte actuel, d’une économie dominée par les activités de services et de la montée des préoccupations énergétiques, cette thèse est consacrée à la question de la demande d’énergie des services et aux répercussions énergétiques de l’innovation dans ces activités. Nous montrons, tout d’abord, que les services ne sont pas immatériels, en particulier sous l’angle énergétique. Des consommations d’énergie importantes sont, en effet, nécessaires en amont de la prestation de services à proprement parler, pour permettre la rencontre entre les parties prenantes et pour produire l’ensemble des biens et infrastructures requis. Dans un second temps, nous nous concentrons sur les dynamiques d’innovation et de changement dans les services. Nous rendons compte des grandes tendances à l’oeuvre dans ce secteur. Nous montrons qu’elles ont des répercussions majeures sur les consommations d’énergie, à la baisse ou à la hausse. Nous appuyons notre analyse sur une investigation empirique approfondie dans le secteur hospitalier et dans celui de la grande distribution alimentaire. / In the current context of a service-dominated economy and of rising energy concerns, this thesis aims to examine the issue of energy demand by services and in particular the energy implications of innovation in the service industries. First, we show that services are not immaterial in terms of energy consumption as widely believed. Indeed, a significant amount of energy is consumed to allow the encounter between stakeholders and to produce all requisite goods and infrastructure. In a second step, we focus on the dynamics of change and innovation in services. We identify and discuss megatrends in the service industries. We demonstrate that they all have major impacts (positive or negative) on energy consumption. Our analysis is based on an in-depth empirical investigation in hospitals and food retailing.

Les investissements directs étrangers liés à la recherche-développement dans les pays en voie de développement ne cessent de croître depuis le milieu des années 1990 et cette croissance est très concentrée géographiquement, les gros pays émergents en étant les principales destinations. Cette thèse s’interroge ainsi sur les déterminants de la localisation de la R&D des firmes multinationales dans ce type de pays, en plaçant au centre de l’analyse les facteurs d’innovation. La littérature sur l’internationalisation de la R&D suggère que les activités d’innovation, étant hautement intensives en connaissances, sont localisées dans les pays développés et que la R&D déployée dans les pays en développement est limitée uniquement à l’adaptation des produits/processus aux conditions locales. Nous bâtissons un cadre d’analyse et élaborons un modèle qui permet de dégager les déterminants de la R&D des firmes multinationales dans les pays en développement, en distinguant entre les facteurs d’offre ou technologiques, et ceux de demande. Les premiers déterminent la R&D d’innovation, alors que les seconds, la R&D d’adaptation. Le rôle crucial des capacités technologiques et des ventes locales dans le choix du pays-hôte montre que l’investissement direct étranger lié à la R&D dans les pays en développement est déterminé surtout par les opportunités de développement technologique et par les besoins d’adaptation aux conditions du marché local, l’innovation y occupant peu de place. En plus, lorsque le choix se pose entre les pays en développement et ceux développés, l’appartenance au premier groupe exerce un effet dissuasif sur l’investissement direct étranger lié à la R&D. / Research and development-related foreign direct investment in developing countries continues to grow since the mid-1990s, and this growth is highly concentrated geographically, large emerging countries being the main destinations.This thesis thus examines the determinants of multinational firms’ R&D location in such countries by placing innovation factors in the forefront of the analysis. The literature on the internationalization of R&D suggests that innovation activities, being highly knowledge-intensive, are located in developed countries, while R&D deployed in developing countries is confined to adapting products and processes to local conditions. We build an analytical framework and develop a model that allows to identify the determinants of multinational firms’ R&D location in developing countries, while distinguishing between supply and demand factors. The former explain innovative R&D, and the latter, adaptive R&D. The crucial role of host-country’s technological capabilities and foreign affiliates’ local sales in the location decision shows that R&D-related foreign direct investment in developing countries is mainly determined by the opportunities for technological development and by the need of adaptation to local market conditions, innovation-related motivations having little importance. Furthermore, when the location choice is made between developing and developed economies, belonging to the former type of countries has a deterrent effect on foreign direct investment in R&D.

La généralisation des médias sociaux change la façon dont les organisations interagissent avec les utilisateurs dans le cadre de l'innovation de service. Elle met en lumière des relations de co-production et de co-création. Cependant, l’analyse de ces relations entre l'innovation de service interactionnelle et les médias sociaux fait actuellement défaut. L’intégration de telles interactions met en évidence différents niveaux hiérarchiques dans la conception, la création et la diffusion de la connaissance.L’analyse a de réduire l’écart entre les médias sociaux et les réseaux d'innovation dans les services dans différents secteurs en utilisant l'innovation de service interactionnelle réalisée en coopération avec l'utilisateur des médias sociaux. L'intérêt ici ne réside pas uniquement dans la co-production d'information, mais dans la compréhension de la manière dont les organisations mettent à profit l'innovation non technologique et le méta-changement en lien avec les médias sociaux.Dans une première étape, cinq entreprises ont été étudiées sur une longue période à travers une méthodologie qualitative qui a permis la validation du modèle interactionnel. Ensuite une validation quantitative a été obtenue sur la base d'un échantillon plus grand.La thèse montre que les entreprises exploitent les médias sociaux pour l'innovation de service interactionnelle différemment les unes des autres. Bien que les médias sociaux semblent importants pour la co-création de valeur, les entreprises ne maitrisent pas les possibilités de co-création car elles co-produisent principalement lors d’interactions isolées avec les utilisateurs de médias sociaux dans les réseaux d'innovation de services. / The pervasive availability of social media is changing how organizations interact with the user in service innovation. However, the explanation how to leverage the co-production and co-creation relationship in interactional service innovation with the social media user is missing. The integration of such interactions reveals a system of knowledge production and dissemination. The system unfolds a configuration of hypothetical interactions, namely the gap between the social media and service innovation networks across different sectors is narrowed with the interactional model and social media user in co-production and co-creation. The emphasis is on how organizations leverage the non-technological innovation and complex meta-change with social media in different environments. The research involves the exploratory sequential research; qualitative leading to the quantitative methodology. In qualitative research five companies were investigated during a long-term span. A particular qualitative methodology was used for the validation of the interactional model. However, the results lead to the quantitative validation and testing of hypotheses as theorized in the qualitative step. Companies leverage social media user for interactional service innovation with different specifics and co-produce or co-create value. The findings are hypothesized on a larger sample to confirm/refute different hypotheses. Although social media seem significant for co-creation, the findings do not follow suit. Companies do not employ the possibilities of co-creation with social media; they rather co-produce value with scarce unique interactions with social media users across different sectors.

L’objectif de réduction des écarts de niveaux de vie entre les pays membres de l’Union Monétaire Européenne nécessite la convergence des productivités entre les économies. Notre contribution est de comparer la dynamique sur longue période des Productivités Globales des Facteurs (PGF) des pays de la zone euro à celles d’un ensemble de pays dénommé "autres OCDE". Cet objectif général est subordonné à deux autres plus spécifiques : 1) Analyser les gains de productivité par une approche paramétrique des frontières de production afin d’examiner la sigma-convergence des PGF des deux zones. 2) Etudier les évolutions des inefficacités productives sous-jacentes aux dynamiques de la PGF en s’appuyant sur un modèle d’activités non paramétrique. Nous étudions les évolutions de 11 pays de la zone euro et de 11 pays « autres OCDE entre 1965 et 2015. Nos résultats montrent que la zone euro connait un meilleur taux de croissance tendanciel de la PGF que celui des autres pays de l’OCDE ; bien que les niveaux de productivité de ceux-ci soient plus élevés. Par ailleurs, les variations des inefficacités productives attestent l’existence d’un rattrapage technologique au sein de chaque zone. Ce phénomène se fait non pas vers la frontière mais en dessous de celle-ci. De plus, la réduction des inefficacités structurelles entre le milieu des années 1970 et le début des années 2000 témoignent d’une homogénéisation des mixes d’output/inputs entre les pays membres. La convergence conditionnelle aux variables monétaires budgétaires et réelles conduit à des résultats différents suivant qu’il s’agit du processus de rattrapage technique ou de celui de la convergence structurelle. Toutefois au début des années 2000, un mouvement de divergence s’installe entre les pays de l’Euroland et s’accentue à partir de 2008-2009. / The objective of reducing differences in living standards among the Eurozone countries requires the convergence of productivity levels between economies. Our contribution is to compare the long-run dynamics of the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) among the Eurozone countries to that of another group, referred to as "other OECD countries". This general objective is divided into two more specific research subjects: 1) To analyze the productivity gains based on a parametric activity framework of production set to investigate the absolute Sigma-convergence of the TFPs in the two zones. 2) To examine the evolution of the productive inefficiencies underlying the dynamics of the TFP, based on a nonparametric activity model. We observed the evolutions of 11 Eurozone countries, and 11 other OECD countries over the period 1965-2015. Our empirical results show that the level of productivity still seems to be higher in other OECD countries even the growth rate of productivity is greater in the Eurozone. This indicates a catch- up phenomenon between two groups and a sigma-convergence is observed before the end of 1990s. However, the catching up efficiency processes do not move the countries toward the frontier but make them converge below the frontier. Additionally, a significant decrease in structural inefficiencies is noticed between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s which indicates the homogenization of output / input mixes for each zone. The convergence process is conditional to real and monetary variables which may differ according to the technical catch-up or the structural efficiency dynamics. However, it seems that these dynamics have been interrupted since the creation of the Euro and have been even turned to a movement of divergence since the subprime crisis in 2008.

Orientador : Prof. Dr. João Basílio Pereima Neto / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciencias Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Ecônomico. Defesa : 27/04/2016 / Inclui referências : f. 111-124 / Resumo: A presente tese busca analisar os papeeis da mudança estrutural, da saturação da demanda e da inovação de processo e de produto no processo de crescimento econômico sustentado. Acredita-se que o crescimento econômico não é somente restringido por fatores de oferta, como acumulação de capital e progresso técnico, mas também por fatores de demanda, como a saturação da demanda para bens de consumo individuais. Se assumirmos saturação de demanda, então o progresso técnico na forma de aumento da produtividade por si só não _e capaz de sustentar o crescimento com pleno emprego dos fatores no longo prazo. _E fato que a introdução de novos bens de consumo criadores de demanda _e condição necessária para o crescimento econômico com pleno emprego de fatores em economias de mercado. Além disso, o surgimento de novos produtos e setores gera a realocaçao de recursos. Embora, no plano agregado, o processo de crescimento econômico no longo prazo pareça estável, numa perspectiva histórica, o declínio do setor agrícola e a ascensão dos setores manufatureiros e de serviços levaram a uma significativa realocação de fatores produtivos. Crescimento e mudança estrutural são companheiros inseparáveis. O fato de os setores econômicos possuírem diferentes taxas de produtividade, da à mudança estrutural um papel central, uma vez que esta pode retardar o crescimento se o seu ritmo for muito lento ou se ocorrer na direção errada, ou pode acelera-lo se promover a alocação mais eficiente dos recursos. Em ambos os casos, a mudança estrutural não deve ser pensada como um mero subproduto do processo de crescimento, mas sim como parte integral do mesmo. A interação entre saturação de demanda, introdução de novos produtos/setores, progresso técnico e mudança estrutural gera um processo de cumulação causativa que _e capaz de sustentar o crescimento econômico no longo prazo. Na presente tese revisamos a literatura relacionada aos temas do crescimento, mudança estrutural e inovaçao e desenvolvemos um modelo econômico computacional baseado em agentes (ACE) de crescimento cumulativo para analisar as conexões entre esses temas. Simulamos as operaçoes simultâneas e as interaçoes de múltiplos agentes heterogêneos numa tentativa de recriar seu comportamento complexo que dá origem a padrões macroeconômicos observados na literatura. Para enriquecer a análise, incorporamos um mercado financeiro no sistema e exploramos seus efeitos sobre o crescimento, sobre o surgimento de ciclos econômicos e sobre o progresso tecnológico. O modelo desenvolvido na presente tese somente explora aspectos da inovaçao de processo. Mostrasse que uma vez que assumimos a saturaçao da demanda, uma das consequências do aumento continuo da produtividade _e o declínio no nível de emprego. O modelo computacional desenvolvido na presente tese e limitado somente a aspectos da inovação de processo e produtividade do trabalho. Ele mostra que, uma vez assumida a existência de saturação da demanda, uma das consequências do aumento continuo da produtividade e o declínio no nível de emprego. Para absorver a mão de obra deslocada, novos produtos e/ou setores que evoquem novo crescimento na demanda devem surgir. Desta forma, apesar da ausência desse elemento em nosso modelo, a inovacao de produto e a criacao de novos setores são elementos essenciais para o sustento do processo de crescimento econômico com pleno emprego de fatores no longo prazo. / Abstract: The present PhD thesis seeks to analyse the role played by structural change, demand saturation and process and product innovation in the process of sustained economic growth. We argue that economic growth is not only constrained by supply factors, such as capital accumulation and technical progress but also by demand factors, such as the saturation of demand for individual consumption goods. If one assumes that demand saturates, then technical progress in the form of increases in productivity alone cannot sustain growth with full employment of factors in the long run. It is a fact that the introduction of new consumer products that elicits new demand is a necessary condition for economic growth with full employment of resources in a market economy. Moreover, the emergence of new products and new sectors lead to resources reallocation. Although, in the aggregate, the process of long-run economic growth might seem stable, in historical perspective, the decline of the agricultural sector and the expansion of the industrial and the service sectors have led to a massive reallocation of factors. Growth and structural change are inseparable companions. The fact sectors di_er in their productivities, gives structural change a central role, as it can delay growth if its pace is too slow or if it happens in the wrong direction, or it can accelerates it if it improves the allocation of resources. Either way, structural change can not be thought as a mere by-product of the growth process, but as an integral part of it. The interaction between demand saturation, introduction of new products/sectors, technical progress and structural change generates a process of cumulative causation that is able to sustain economic growth in the long-run. In the present thesis we review the literature behind the subjects of growth, structural change and innovation and develop an agent based computational economic (ACE) model of cumulative growth to analyse the connections between these elements. We simulate the simultaneous operations and interactions of multiple heterogeneous agents in an attempt to re-create their complex interactions that give rise to macroeconomic patterns found in the literature. To enrich the analysis we incorporated a _nancial market in the system and explored its e_ects on growth, business cycle and technological progress. The computational model developed in chapter 5 of the present thesis is limited to the aspects of innovation of process and increases in labour productivity. It is shown that if one assumes demand saturation, one of the consequences of continuous increase in productivity is the decline in employment. In order to absorb the displaced labour, new products and/or sectors that elicit new demand have to emerge. Therefore, despite the absence of this feature in our model, product innovation and new sector creation are essential elements in order to sustain economic growth with full employment of factors in the long run.

L’enjeu de cette thèse était d’explorer et d’analyser au niveau organisationnel :- que certaines technologies - aussi séduisantes et utiles soient-elles - s’immiscent dans nos vies (immixtion et/ou immersion volontaire) ou nous sont imposées sans débat ni critique par les acteurs du marché tout en produisant de nouvelles formes de vie : c’est l’aveuglement technologique ; - alors que le système politique devrait réguler par le contrôle, c’est le libéralisme qui prévaut par les nouvelles formes ou lieux de pouvoirs, la mondialisation, et la financiarisation de l’économie manifestant un autre aveuglement : l’aveuglement libéral. Ces deux aveuglements ont-ils des analogies, des singularités, des liens et des interactions au sein des organisations ? Si tel est le cas, cela conduirait, peut-être, à une résultante très peu explicitée et donc peu étudiée : un aveuglement organisationnel ? Notre travail doctoral apporte une réponse positive à ces deux questions. / This thesis was explores and analyses at organisational level:- the fact that certain technologies – however seductive and useful they are – intrude in our lives (intrusion and/or voluntary immersion) or are imposed on us without debate or criticism by market players and produce new forms of life : this is technological blindness; - the fact that while the political system should regulate and control, market forces dominate through new forms or centres of power ; globalisation and the financialised economy are manifestations of another type of blindness : liberalist blindness. Do these two types of blindness have analogies, particular features, links and interactions within organisations? If so, might this generate a phenomenon that has hardly been identified or studied : organisational blindness? My doctoral work answers these two questions in the affirmative.