This study investigates whether an internationalization strategy affects product innovation in ASEAN. In addition, we examine whether organizational innovation moderates the internationalization's effects on product innovation in Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN). The empirical analysis is performed using data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys and different novel ordinal regression models as well as the propensity score matching (PSM) technique to partially address the endogeneity concern. The results indicate a positive direct effect on product innovation by two modes of internationalization that we analyze (intermediate input imports and exports) and as well by organizational innovation. Furthermore, organizational innovation moderates the internationalization–innovation relationship positively.

The study investigates the role of foreign technology licensing and the moderating effects of employee training and research and development (R&D) on the foreign technology licensing–innovation relationship in Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This research focus is important because prior works on this research stream tend to concentrate on large economies such as China, while little has been done to examine this issue at the firm level in the ASEAN context. Moreover, no empirical studies to date have investigated the moderating effect of employee training, as a proxy for absorptive capacity, on the foreign technology licensing–firm innovation relationship. The study utilizes several novel ordinal regression models to address some popular limitations of the standard ordinal regression model. In addition, the propensity score matching (PSM) method is utilized to account for the endogeneity problem. The study is based on data from the Enterprise Surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2015–2016. The empirical results reveal that foreign technology licensing is positively associated with innovation at a higher degree of radicalness. Furthermore, both employee training and R&D positively moderate the foreign technology licensing–innovation relationship.

The study investigates the direct effects of foreign ownership and R&D on firm innovation and the moderating effects of R&D on the foreign ownership-innovation relationship in ASEAN countries. This research focus is important as ASEAN countries have received a large amount of inward FDI as part of their export-led growth strategy, and FDI can bring both benefits and negative impacts for the host country. To the authors' knowledge, this study contributes as the first attempt to examine this topic in ASEAN. The study employs a novel approach (i.e., generalized ordered logit model (GOLM)) to deal with the restrictive "parallel regression/proportional odds" assumption of the standard ordered logit model (OLM), which has not been adequately addressed in previous studies on the foreign ownership-innovation relationship. The findings show that foreign ownership relates negatively to the possibility of radical innovation, while R&D relates positively to the possibility of radical innovation. In addition, R&D positively moderates the effect of foreign ownership on the possibility of radical innovation. The findings verify the important role of R&D as a mechanism for absorptive capacity building in the foreign ownership-innovation relationship, which has been under-researched in prior studies on the role of foreign ownership in firm innovation. The policy implications emphasize that ASEAN governments should have more technological regulations and incentives to encourage foreign investors to bring advanced technologies and invest more in R&D.

Summary The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is a widely used indicator to assess the electricity cost of wind energy. The probabilistic approach and Monte Carlo technique are commonly used to capture the uncertainty of input variables in the LCOE calculation at the country level. However, a simple assumption for the range value of capacity factor (CF), a main input variable in the LCOE calculation, is inappropriate for analyzing an individual wind project. To apply the probabilistic approach in the assessment of electricity cost for individual wind projects, the study develops a new approach for estimating the CF distribution for a specific project. We focus on simulating the CF distribution for a specific wind farm based on the historical CF values computed from historical wind speed at the site. In comparison to traditional approaches, the proposed method provides a reliable range of capacity factor values and reduces the uncertainty in estimating energy generation by half for four example projects. As a result, the generated LCOE distribution is relatively closer to the real value of the projects, enhancing more realistic decisions for both project developers and policymakers.

This study investigates the impact of informal competition on the innovation of Southeast Asian firms and the moderating role of female management in the informal competition–innovation nexus. In the Southeast Asian context, the informal sector employs around 78% of the working population, which is higher than the world average of 61% and the Asia-Pacific average of 68%. The analysis is based on firm-level data collected by the World Bank for eight Southeast Asian countries in 2015–2016. The quantitative analysis was conducted with the use of the multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression method to address the hierarchical/multilevel problem. Additionally, the potential endogeneity problem was taken into account with the use of the propensity score matching technique. The findings show that informal competition induces firms to increase their product and process innovations. Furthermore, female management is important in leveraging the positive effects of informal competition on innovation.