Productivity Challenge: the Role of Technology Standards in Innovation and Internationalisation

技术创新是生产力的关键驱动力。维斯北美相比，英国（和一些欧洲国家）的生产率增长明显较弱，这与信息通信技术（ICT）的扩散较慢以及各经济部门对数字化机会的吸收不足有关。技术标准在技术扩散中发挥着重要作用，对创新、国际化和随之而来的生产率增长具有重要影响。英国标准协会（BSI）和商业、能源和工业战略部（BEIS）最近委托进行的一项研究表明，在1921-2013年期间，标准支持了英国37%的年劳动生产率增长（即，年GDP增长率的28%）。最近的学术研究也强调了开发开放技术标准的重要性，以刺激生产力，创新和公司盈利能力。然而，作为标准与生产力关系基础的业务层面机制主要是一个黑箱--本研究试图通过考虑两个主要渠道来解决这一差距，即通过促进创新和国际化活动，从标准中学习可以提高绩效。本博士项目将提供对标准和技术引领的生产力增长的新见解，创新投入、知识扩散、市场激励、经济地理和制度治理等诸多因素的相互作用是一个复杂的过程。与李博士和ProfBattisti密切合作，博士候选人将进行全面的文献综述和计量经济学分析，利用大型二级公司级数据集，如英国创新调查（以及通过ONS安全研究服务的其他微型企业数据集）。该项目还将使用Searle技术标准和标准制定组织中心数据库-西北大学（美国）（Baron和Spulber，2018）收集的最全面的标准和公司参与标准制定的数据，以及专利和商标等知识产权数据。最后，该项目将与英国国家标准机构BSI密切合作，为设计有效的标准提供重要的治理或政策影响，以加快技术的传播，提高企业绩效。预计还将产生很大影响，并与业务做法（通过从标准中学习更深入地了解效率增益）和政策机构（通过提高生产力和治理标准制定）进行更广泛的接触。

Technological innovation is a key driver of productivity. The apparently weaker productivity growthexperienced in the UK (and some European countries) vis-à-vis North America has been linked to slowerdiffusion in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and the lack of uptake of digitisationopportunities uniformly across economic sectors.Technology standards play a significant role in technology diffusion with important implications forinnovation, internationalisation and attendant productivity growth. A recent study commissioned by theBritish Standards Institution (BSI) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)suggests that standards supported 37% of UK annual labour productivity growth over the 1921-2013 period(i.e., approximately 28% of annual GDP growth). Recent academic research has also highlighted theimportance of developing open technology standards as a spur to productivity, innovation and firmprofitability. However, business-level mechanisms underlying the standards-productivity relationshipremain a black box - a gap this research seeks to address by considering two predominant channels wherebylearning from standards can enable performance gains, viz. by catalysing innovation and internationalisationactivities.This PhD project will offer novel insight into standards and technology-led productivity growth, which is acomplex interplay between many distinct influences including innovative inputs, knowledge diffusion,market incentives, economic geography and institutional governance. Working closely with Dr Li and ProfBattisti, the PhD candidate will conduct a comprehensive literature review and econometric analyses,drawing on large-scale secondary firm-level datasets such as the UK Innovation Survey (and other microbusiness datasets via the Secure Research Service by ONS). This project will also use the Searle CentreDatabase on Technology Standards and Standard Setting Organisations - the most comprehensive dataseton standards and firm participation in standards development collected by the Northwestern University (US)(Baron and Spulber, 2018), as well as data on intellectual property such as patents and trademarks. Finally,this project will be carried out in close collaboration with BSI, the UK's national standards body, to yieldsignificant governance or policy implications for designing effective standards which expedite the diffusionof technologies to boost firm performance.The PhD project will provide a significant contribution to the academic literature. It is also anticipated toachieve high impact and wider engagement with business practices (via a deeper understanding ofefficiency gains through learning from standards) and policy bodies (via productivity growth andgovernance of standards development).