Inovação, ecoinovação e produtividade das firmas industriais: Uma análise multipaíses

Abstract

The goal of this thesis is the empirical investigation of the behavior of innovation, eco-innovation and labor productivity for the industrial sectors of Brazil and European Union (EU) countries through three essays. Essay I sets out a comparative scenario of aggregate innovation data for Brazilian firms in relation to European Union (EU) countries based on the concept of absorptive capacity (AC); it develops an AC index and establishes a ranking between the countries under study. It uses descriptive statistics, using Pintec 2017 and CIS 2016. Compared to the EU countries, Brazil proved to be one of the most innovative countries when considering all types of innovation together. However, analyzing only product or process innovation, the country is among the least innovative, reflecting the relative low investment of Brazilian firms in innovative activities. Essay II investigates at the micro-data level the innovative determinants of Labor Productivity (LP) and other performance variables of firms in the manufacturing sectors of Brazil and six other EU countries, divided into Western and Eastern Europe. Here we use econometric estimations along the lines of the CDM structural econometric model for cross-sectional data, Pintec 2017 and CIS 2018. Higher R&D spending increased the likelihood of product innovation for firms in Brazil as well as in European countries. The hypothesis of the impact of innovation on TP is confirmed for Brazilian firms, especially when productivity is measured by the ratio between net sales revenue (NSR) and employed personnel and the estimates are without the effects of the 'absorptive capacity index at the firm level' (ica). Essay III draws a parallel between the main drivers of eco-innovation for Brazilian industrial firms and those of available EU countries, based on Pintec 2017 and CIS 2014, respectively. It discusses the main eco-innovative determinants in relation to traditional innovations and the impact of decision factors on environmental benefits. In addition to descriptive analyses, the research uses probit models based on cross-sectional microdata and addresses the problem of endogeneity with instrumental variables. The descriptive results showed that firms in Western European countries were more eco-innovative in terms of product or process compared to those in Eastern Europe and Brazil. The hypothesis that government support, involvement in R&D and cooperation increase the likelihood of eco-innovation compared to traditional innovations has been confirmed for both Eastern and Western European countries. The hypothesis that each of the main decision factors is more correlated with certain environmental benefits could be partially confirmed, since both 'eco-subsidies' and 'high costs' for Brazilian and EU firms especially determined 'substitution of fossil energy with renewable energy' and 'reductions in material and energy consumption', respectively. However, 'regulations', 'reputation' and 'voluntary actions' more broadly drove various environmental benefits, especially for firms in Western European countries. The impact of demand for Brazilian and Eastern European firms showed similar demands among consumers in these countries. The overall results suggest that the process of product or process innovation in Brazilian industrial firms still lags behind that of EU firms, especially in Western European countries. Furthermore, various aspects of the relationship between R&D, innovation and performance could be verified for the countries and clusters involved. Similarly, we observed the role of key factors that determine eco-innovation while highlighting differences and similarities among samples from various countries.