Creating a bridge between university and industry in small European countries: the role of the Industrial Liaison Office

The frequent and intermittent need for new scientific knowledge has resulted in an increasing focus on links between industry and academic institutions. This has been particularly pronounced in the flows of knowledge between the two partners, which may lead to considerable diffusion of scientific and technical knowledge, particularly into the small firm sector. This development could be of particular benefit to smaller peripheral economies, which have demonstrated low levels of indigenous industrial technological development. As a result, universities could become increasingly important for local economic development in smaller countries on the periphery of Europe. However, a greater understanding is required of the pro-active role that the university itself can play in developing strong linkages with industry, particularly through mechanisms such as the Industrial Liaison Office (ILO). In particular, there needs to be an examination of the strategies and policies that are undertaken to increase the process of technology transfer from academia into local indigenous business within smaller countries. This paper will therefore examine the role that universities play in the regional economic development in two contrasting small countries of Europe, namely Sweden and Ireland. Drawing on interviews with key individuals in the processes of technology transfer between academia and industry (including ILOs), as well as secondary data, it will examine the general role and function of the industrial liaison office and how this has changed. It will also discuss the involvement of the university in different types of industrial links, the main opportunities and barriers to the development of links between university and industry, the benefits to the university from industrial links, and the perception of industry’s assessment of the relationship with universities. The research will provide valuable insight into the role of universities in developing innovation and entrepreneurship within the smaller and peripheral countries of Europe and will determine whether these universities are undertaking a pro-active role in encouraging the growth of innovative indigenous industry. This may have significant policy implications, especially with regard to the development of specific regional programmes to encourage academic-based entrepreneurship.     

What factors drive the adoption of digital banking? An empirical study from the perspective of Omani retail banking

This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the adoption of digital banking by retail banking customers. A theoretical model was developed based on an extended technology acceptance model to conceptualize the linkage among the factors impacting digital banking adoption. The primary data were acquired through a structured questionnaire from 200 customers. The multiple linear regression equation was used to analyse the relationship among six independent factors. The study revealed awareness, web features and perceived usefulness have significant positive influence on adoption of digital banking. The study is useful to plan and promote service model to enhance digital banking adoption.     

The language of legitimation: The narrative of reputation management within corporate disclosures

This poem is a story and a call. The story of my experience as an outsider to the field of accountancy and legitimacy theory and the resulting call to the experts in the field to move towards an epistemologically tolerant theorising for ontologically radical practice that is necessitated by the modern context of corporate practice.     

Assessing the appropriate grassroots technological innovation for sustainable development

ABSTRACT

Grassroots technological innovation (GRTI) is perceived as a source of sustainable development while addressing local problems and needs of people belonging to the bottom of the economic pyramid. The fostering of sustainable development develops a need for scientific evaluation and subsequent diffusion of GRTI to ameliorate the livelihood of grassroots communities. It is, hence, the purpose of this research to assess the relative performance of different GRTIs with respect to economic, social, and environmental benefits. The empirical data for this study comprised of 32 GRTIs from the three different rural non-farm sectors in the Indian context. Analytical hierarchy process is used for deducing the relative assessment of the selected GRTI against the aforementioned performance criteria. The findings of this study offer imperative insights into the field of technology diffusion and development at the grassroots level and suggest recommendations for sustainable policy formulation.     

Risky business: Institutions vs. social networks in FDI

Political economy scholarship on foreign direct investment (FDI) emphasizes variation in host country political risk but overlooks variation in investors' sensitivity to political risk. We show that relational contracting, relationship‐based contract enforcement, is more efficient for high‐risk, human capital‐intensive activities for which the costs of writing legally enforceable contracts are prohibitive. We disaggregate FDI into two distinct varieties: mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and venture capital (VC). We propose that VC flows are less sensitive to host institutions but correlate strongly with skilled migrant networks that monitor compliance and impose reputational costs. Our empirical analysis of dyadic VC and M&A flows covers over 100 countries during 1980–2009. We address other mechanisms through which migrant networks facilitate FDI and verify our results hold at the country‐industry level. These findings suggest that relational contracting facilitates global integration of dynamic, knowledge‐intensive industries even when formal institutions are weak.     

Number needed to treat and associated incremental costs of treatment with enzalutamide versus abiraterone acetate plus prednisone in chemotherapy-naïve patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

Objective: Enzalutamide (ENZA) and abiraterone acetate plus prednisone (AA) are approved second-generation hormone therapies for chemotherapy-naïve metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). This study compared ENZA with AA in chemotherapy-naïve mCRPC by calculating the number needed to treat (NNT) and associated incremental costs to achieve one additional chemotherapy-naïve patient with mCRPC free of radiographic progression, chemotherapy, or death over a 1-year time horizon.

Methods: Clinical outcomes were obtained from the PREVAIL and COU-AA-302 trials. Three outcomes were evaluated: radiographic progression-free survival, time to cytotoxic chemotherapy initiation, and overall survival at 1 year. NNT was calculated as the reciprocal of the outcome event rate difference for ENZA compared with AA. The incremental costs to achieve one additional outcome at 1 year were calculated as the difference in cost per treated patient multiplied by the NNT. Per-treated-patient costs were considered from a US payer perspective and included medications, monitoring, adverse events, post-progression treatments, and end-of-life care.

Results: Within a 1-year time horizon, the total cost per treated patient for ENZA was $2,666 less than AA. Compared with AA, treating 14 patients with ENZA resulted in one additional patient free of progression or death over 1 year; treating 26 patients with ENZA resulted in one additional patient with chemotherapy delayed over 1 year; and treating 91 patients with ENZA resulted in one additional patient free of death over 1 year. Therefore, ENZA is cost-effective compared with AA for all three outcomes evaluated, and the modeled results suggest ENZA is associated with potentially improved clinical outcomes in delaying chemotherapy initiation and disease progression for chemotherapy-naïve patients. The results are robust in sensitivity analyses, where the effect of changes in key model inputs and assumptions were tested.

Conclusion: The results modeled in the present study suggest ENZA is cost-effective compared with AA for treating chemotherapy-naïve patients with mCRPC.     

On the manipulability of a class of social choice functions: plurality kth rules

Review of Economic Design - In this paper we introduce the plurality kth social choice function selecting an alternative, which is ranked kth in the social ranking following the number of top...