University innovation centres and academic venture formation1

Successful innovation requires both products and product champions. Evidence suggests that academic projects are usually not products and few academics are able or willing to champion adequately their projects. Thus the role of university technology transfer officers and of university innovation centres is to find efficient ways of transforming research projects into potentially profitable products and also to obtain credible commitments from capable champions.     

移动支付和3G应用

<正>我是Cibernet副总裁Ken Hansen,大家都知道Cibernet公司,我的新服务就是不仅来中国发展,而且在全球,特别是在商务方面,通过更好的方式来为您服务。首先我要谈一点公司的背景,我们是Ciberent的一部分。在美国,关于移动商务方面,也就是CTI,1998年的时     

Competition, fee-for-service requirements, and government performance: evidence on the Federal Reserve

This paper examines the impact of competition and fee-for-service requirements on the efficiency and quality of government services. Using internal cost and quality data on the United States Federal Reserve, I find that fee-for-service requirements alone were not enough to motivate performance improvements. Costs went down only in the single Fed service (forward check-clearing) that also faced vigorous product-market competition, and the extent of the cost reductions was greater in more competitive markets. Importantly, the cost reductions in check-clearing were accompanied by quality improvements, with service quality positively associated with contemporaneous and subsequent costs. These results are consistent with studies on the private sector that indicate that quality improvements can increase productivity and reduce costs. Taken together, the evidence points to competition as a potential tool in the nation’s efforts to improve the performance of government services.     

Residual Income Valuation: Are Inflation Adjustments Necessary?

This paper explores the question of whether the residual income valuation relationship (RIVR) should be written in inflation-adjusted terms. This question is of particular interest in the light of Ritter and Warrs (2002) claim that the standard nominal historical cost formulation of RIVR misvalues firms because it fails to deal properly with inflation. We present two inflation-adjusted formulations of RIVR, each of which is based on an income measure from the inflation accounting literature, and one of which is a general case of a formulation proposed by Ritter and Warr. We show that neither of these formulations is any more or less correct than the standard formulation of RIVR, and find no support for the view that it is necessary to write RIVR in inflation-adjusted terms. Finally we argue that, in a setting in which accounting numbers and forecasts thereof are normally presented in historical cost terms, the inflation adjustment of RIVR is likely to bring unnecessary complication to the valuation process, with increased scope for error.JEL Classification: M4