Innovation, Ownership and Competition Policy

There is an increased awareness of the importance of ownership and ownership changes in the innovation process. For example, it has been argued that small entrepreneurial firms and large established firms play different roles in the innovation process: small entrepreneurial firms create a large share of break-through innovations whereas large established firms provide more routine R&D.

Moreover, it has been acknowledged that public policy should adopt to the greater importance of innovative activities in the economy by, for instance, adopting merger policies to better stimulate innovation incentives and the diffusion of innovations.

Despite an increased attention from scholars on this topic, more research is needed to advance our knowledge. The first purpose of the conference was to contribute to the understanding of the interaction between ownership, ownership changes, restructuring and innovation in the industrial development process. The second purpose was to enhance our understanding of the economic effects of competition policy on innovation.

The conference was hosted by IFN and organized by Lars Persson (IFN) and Joacim Tåg (IFN) with financial support from the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.