Knowledge Spillovers in the Supply Chain - Evidence from the High Tech Sectors

Past event — 4 December 2013
12:0013:00 

Kühne Logistics University
Grosser Grasbrook 17, 20457 Hamburg

English
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Olov Isaksson

PhD

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Abstract:

This paper explores knowledge spillovers in the supply chain by building on the theories of organizational learning. Drawing on a financial accounting standard stipulating the disclosure of major customers, we can link buyers and suppliers. This information is merged with financial accounting data, patent data and publication data to create a sample of 974 buyer-supplier dyad observations. The sample contains firms in the high tech industries, between the years 1990 to 2003. Using fixed effects estimation we show that a 1% increase in patent intensity at the buyer, on average leads to a 1% increase in patent intensity at the supplier. We find that the duration of the buyer-supplier relationship positively moderates this effect. The supplier's sales dependency on the buyer and the technological proximity of the two firms, however, are not found to have significant moderating effects. We close by discussing the implications of our findings for individual firms, theory and policy makers.

Co-authored with: Prof. Ralf W. Seifert (EPFL/CH), Dr. Markus Simeth (EPFL/CH)

About the Presenter

Olov Isaksson is a final year PhD candidate at the Chair of Technology and Operations Management at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. His research interests are in the field of empirical operations management and its intersection with econometrics, finance and innovation management. He previously worked at Henkel and Louis Vuitton as a supply chain project manager.

more info about Olov Isaksson

About the Seminar

The KLU research seminar series is a regular meeting of PhD students, Post-Docs and professors who conduct research in the field of logistics and supply chain management. The research seminar is open to the public and we happily welcome guests.