Innovation strategy and employment in Argentine production networks

VERÓNICA ROBERT; GABRIEL YOGUEL; ANALÍA ERBES; LUIS TRAJTENBERG

Viena

Conferencia; Eulaks Semminar; 2009

Projecto Eulaks

This article explores the relationship between capacity development,innovation and employment dynamics in a sample of 403 industrial firms fromdifferent production networks in Argentina. It starts from the idea that theimpact of the firms’ innovative activities on the dynamics of employment doesnot depend on isolated efforts but on innovation strategies, understood themas a set of coordinated and consistent innovation efforts, once considered thesectoral attributes of the productive network in which the firm operates. Wepropose a methodology in three stages. First we propose the identification ofinnovation strategies, on the bases of innovation effort performed using afactor and cluster analysis. Secondly we investigate the effect of absorptionand connectivity capacities in determining the strategies. And the third place,we analyze the impact of strategies and capacities on employment dynamics,number of employees and their qualifications. The results of the econometricexercises show that absorptive and connectivity capacity impact on firms’innovation strategies, while they affect the dynamics of employment in termsof number of workers and in terms of their qualifications.