Industry-University collaboration: A general study

The Appendix clarifies the means developed by over thirty Universities with University Companies, Industrial Units or Liaison Bureaux. The recent history of developments in Industry-University collaboration in the U.K. is briefly reviewed and the present means utilized by Universities to collaborate with Industry and Commerce outlined.     

Marketing a business school to industry

Universities are typically production oriented in their approach to customers. However, a marketing approach can be adopted to orient research and development, to aid in the development of the educational services provided, and to direct their promotion and their pricing policies. The application of the principles of organizational marketing by a graduate school of business to its short courses for managers had major impacts throughout the school.     

The fall and rise of university engineering education in England in the 1980s

An evaluation of published statistical data on the numbers and entrance and exit qualifications of students in Engineering disciplines in English Universities from 1908–88 is presented. These reveal, on the one hand, a continuing decline in numbers but, on the other hand, a temporary rise then fall in mean entrance grades together with a small increase in mean exit grades. Possible reasons for these trends are examined.     

Managerial problems of university-industry interaction

In post-war Poland, universities and higher schools of technology have had to take over not only the role of centres of intellectual activity, but also of animators of technological and economic life. Universities employ more than 60|X% of the total scientific staff of the country, so that the issue of university-industry cooperation is of major importance to them. Despite obstacles caused by the different needs of the two partners, there are many motives for both sides to cooperate, and the various forms the contract can take in practice are described. Design of the coupling is analysed in terms of a two-cycle model of technology transfer, and ways of strengthening the coupling between the two are elaborated. The extent of the university's involvement in research with industrial application is described. Specific measures need to be taken by university boards of management to ensure that this kind of work does not lead to undesirable limitation of scientific freedom in the choice of objects of research, and that the research profile is compatible with the educational programme of the university.     

The intra-day impact of block trades on the Australian stock exchange

This study is concerned with the impact of block trades on transaction prices, themarket bid-ask spread and the frequency of trading on the Australian Stock Exchange. Access to a unique microstructure database enabled the resolution of a number of research design issues in earlier, mainly US-based, studies. Contrary to previous findings, there is no evidence of either a price reversal or changes in the market bid-ask spread surrounding block trades. Further, there is no evidence of an increase in the frequency of trades surrounding block trades. These contrasting results warrant closer inspection of the alternative market structures underlying the different exchanges.The authors are from the Department of Finance, the University of Sydney, Australia. The comments and suggestions of colleagues at the Universities of Sydney, New South Wales, and Queensland are gratefully acknowledged.     

Book Reviews

Technological Innovation: University Roles. The Association of Commonwealth Universities, London
Eurotronics—European Working Party for Forecasting Electronics Markets
Micro Electronics in Western Europe—The Medium Term Perspective 1983–1987, K. P. Friebe and A. Gerybadze (Eds)
New Product Development in Engineering: A Comparison of the British and West German Machine Tool Industries. Stephen T. Parkinson
Stakeholders of the Organizational Mind. I. I. Mitroff.
How companies manage R&D. Niall Lothian. Published by Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, March 1984
The financial side of industrial research management. Lynn W. Ellis. John Wiley & Sons Inc.
The costs of evaluation, edited by Marvin C. Atkin and Lewis C. Solmon.
Personal-Management in der industriellen Forschung and Entwicklung, edited by Michel Domsch and Eduard Jochum. Carl Heymanns Verlag, Cologne
Managing Interdisciplinary Research. Edited by Epton, Payne and Pearson. John Wiley
Optimisation Models for Strategic Planning, edited by T. H. Naylor and C. Thomas
The Next Industrial Revolution—Reviving Industry Through Innovation. Robert U. Ayres.
Management Compensation in High Technology Companies. Jay Schuster.
A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times. Donald Hill.     

An electronic engineering curriculum design based on concept-mapping techniques

Curriculum design is a concern in European Universities as they face the forthcoming European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This process can be eased by the use of scientific tools such as Concept-Mapping Techniques (CMT) that extract and organize the most relevant information from experts’ experience using statistics techniques, and helps a working group to achieve conclusions. This paper presents an empirical exploratory research study related to the application of the CMT to the design of the Electronic Engineering (EE) Degree at the University of Seville, Spain. Considering the Career-space conclusions as the initial point, the main relevant competences were identified in a brainstorming technique. These competences are organized according to their affinity using CMT, establishing and interpreting the main clusters and their relative importance. Finally, a reliability analysis of the concept maps was carried out verifying the correctness of the procedure and validating the results for the curricula adaptation. This Project has been funded by the Spanish PAFPU (“Plan Andaluz de formación del profesorado universitario”), from the Quality Assurance Agency for Andalucía Unversities, (UCUA).     

The implicit use of business concepts in the UK Research Assessment Exercise

Research assessment exercises covering universities in the United Kingdom were established to produce quality ratings as a basis for allocating much of the research funding from central government. They represent some of the largest research management exercises ever undertaken. Amongst other aspects of university performance, the publications of all 'research active' UK academics are evaluated. This paper describes the way in which quality was assessed and funds were allocated as a result of the 1992, 1996 and 2001 exercises. It looks at how the exercises might continue to evolve and the value of a further exercise.
The strategies adopted by universities to maximise their ratings and their income are also considered. Universities have improved their research performance and their reporting methods in response to changes in the criteria and weightings used in the exercise. In parallel the HEFC (Higher Education Funding Council) has changed the ways in which funds have been distributed once the level of research performance has been determined.
The exercises have received much criticism as well as an acceptance that they have changed the culture of academic research. This paper considers the parallel evolution of trends in the management of R&D in business with trends in the management of university research via these exercises. There are underlying assumptions that seem to influence the transfer of policy design principles and management lessons between the two sectors.     

Managing innovation in an emerging sector: the case of marine-based nutraceuticals

Biotechnology is turning a traditionally low-tech industry (food) into a high-tech industry (functional food/nutraceuticals). There is a real need to enhance managerial understanding by clarifying the nature of innovation processes in the functional food industry, including the role of research and development (R&D) and collaboration. The present investigation focuses on a particular segment of the functional food industry, viz. marine-based nutraceuticals. We find that various hurdles thwart the fullest realization of the business potential of marine bio-actives in the pharmaceutical space. However, the innovation of commercially viable marine-based nutraceuticals/cosmeceuticals is yet possible if the extraction route for supply is a feasible fallback option, should industrial-scale synthesis prove elusive. Effectiveness in innovation is facilitated by the collaboration of various disciplines including epidemiology, traditional/folkloric medicine, aquaculture/fermentation, natural products chemistry, toxicology, and relevant strands of medical, pharmacological, and clinical research. In this regard, the inter-disciplinary field of ethno-pharmacology rises to prominence. Universities and government research institutes may be well positioned to drive such collaboration and reap the benefits from problem definition in addition to problem solving. Toward this end, the findings from the present study are integrated into a phased approach toward the innovation of commercially viable marine-based nutraceuticals that is targeted at entrepreneurs in this field.     

Planning a Master’s Level Curriculum According to Career Space Recommendations Using Concept Mapping Techniques

Nowadays the European Universities are worried about how to adapt higher education to the new European Higher Education Area, as proposed in the Bologna Magna Charta Universitatum of 1998, and signed by 32 European Education Ministers. One of the key points in this higher education reform was the introduction of new Master’s level curricula. These Masters will look for the professional specialization and they will have to be adapted to the specific skills demanded by the society. This paper presents the results from a cooperation project – funded by the AECI (International Cooperation Spanish Agency) and developed between the University of Seville (Spain) and the Catholic University of Asuncion (Paraguay) – by about the planning of a new master’s level curriculum in digital signal processing (DSP) area, taking into account the Bologna principles and the conclusions obtained by the Career Space Consortium. A scientific method from social science, known as concept mapping techniques, was used to perform this planning. Basically, the idea of concept mapping consists of compiling the opinion from actors belonging to different environments (lecturers, researchers, workers, businessmen, etc.) related to DSP applications. The compiled data were statistically computed to cluster the opinions of the different agents. The result will be a master’s level curricula adapted to the environment requirements and the social settings.     

Three bubbles and a panic: An explanatory review of recent food commodity price events

This paper is a summary of the behaviour of food commodity prices in 2007–2008 and a review of the causes of the price increases, extracted from a report to the Chief Scientific Advisor to Her Majesty’s Government [Thirtle, C., Piesse, J., 2008. An Explanatory Review of the World Food Commodity Price Events of 2007–2008. A Report to the Chief Scientific Advisor. Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, London]. The historical background shows that the price spike was much less severe than in the 1970s. The conventional wisdom that prices of the main food commodities were falling prior to 2006 is questioned. Most ceased falling and were quite stable from the 1980s. The paper separates the causes of the spike from the underlying changes driving the long run trends. The literature on the causes of the spike is critically reviewed and summarised. There is a reasonably broad consensus on most of the causes, but much less on the impact of the depreciation of the US Dollar. There are also concluding speculations on the future.     

建筑工程成本控制即时化诌议

成本管理是工程管理的核心，相对质量管理和合同管理来说，其最大困难就是如何快速有效地获取实时的成本数据，以便用于成本分析比较，即时发现成本中出现的各类问题。通过利用建筑企业信息化平台，建立一套有效的成本即时化方法与流程，实行动态成本控制，以促进建筑管理水平和经济效益的提高。     

电网对促进低碳经济发展的作用

作为电力能源管理的手段和载体,电网在低碳经济的发展中具有至关重要的作用。分析了可再生能源发电的典型特征及其对电网带来的一系列挑战,提出电网通过对输电能力、大容量储能和分布式发电等的规划建设,提高可再生能源发电在电网中的容量可信度;从适宜于电气化交通的电网规划和改造、实施节能发电调度政策和发挥电网在电力市场一中的作用出发,分析了电网在提高能源利用效率方面的重要作用;并针对正在规划中的智能电网,指出了其在未来低碳经济社会发展中的引领和主导作用。     

SCK电火花线切割机床的技术改造

通过对SCK电火花线切割机床的技术改造,把电火花加工技术和数控技术、微型计算机技术结合起来。在输入方式、控制系统及数据共享、资源共享等方面对SCK电火花线切割机床进行了重大改造。利用CAXA软件系统,完成了在传统编程方式下很难完成的工作,改造后的SCK电火花线切割机床现已成功地应用于教学与科研之中,其运行状态良好,性能稳定可靠,操作简单方便,低成本、高产出,创造了良好的经济效益与社会效益。     

2007年的8个瞬间

回眸2007年的意义深远、亦或意味深长的8个瞬间,6个和股票市场有关。上汽南汽合并案中,上汽高达27元的股价使得其最终只需要以20.95亿元现金支出,再配以3.2亿股股权,就轻松完成了总价超过100亿元的跨区域大并购;国美为了支撑上市公司的业绩增长,不惜以36亿元人民币现金的高价买下大中;对赚钱容易的证券投资的迷恋,让     

Performance and consensus

Top management consensus on corporate objectives and on the competitive weapons employed to attain them was studied in 12 non-diversified public corporations. It was found that while agreement on both is associated positively with economic performance, agreement on means is significantly more important—in fact, agreement on goals without agreement on means correlates with poor performance. This suggests that strategy makers should concentrate on reaching consensus concerning means rather than ends (corporate goals) when formulating strategies for single-mission enterprises.     

基于层次分析法的多媒体教学效果评价研究

多媒体教学作为广泛推广的教学手段受到普遍重视,但在教学实践中仍存在诸多不足之处。多媒体在辅助教学中的效果如何,是各类学校需要面对的问题。应用层次分析法对多媒体的教学效果进行了综合评价,对影响教学效果的5个显著因素进行了研究分析,找出薄弱环节,并提出发展建议。     

由三维模型到二维投影

利用AutoCAD的三维模型,在AutoCAD的图纸布局中设置浮动视口,将三维模型向不同的投影面进行投影,然后使用Solprof,Solview,Soldraw命令提取三维模型的投影轮廓线并做适当的编辑操作,可以生成三维模型的二维投影图———视图与剖视图。用这种方法获得的二维投影图与三维模型之间存在着内在的联系,所以投影正确,避免了直接作二维投影图时容易产生多余或遗漏图线的现象,具有作图效率高、不易产生投影错误的优点。     

An evolving science-society contract in India: The search for legitimacy in anticipatory risk governance

This article analyzes evolving institutions and practices of anticipatory risk governance in India, through the lens of two recent and highly controversial developments in governing genetically modified crops in Indian agriculture. These developments include, first, conflicts over approving (or not) the very first genetically modified food crop in India and a related experiment in participatory decision-making; and second, proposals to revamp the existing biosafety regulatory system (with its checks and balances across diverse sources of authority) with one that elevates scientists and scientific expertise to the pinnacle of decision-making power. The article analyzes the distinct means by which legitimacy is sought to be conferred upon the means and ends of anticipatory risk governance, as reflected in these two examples. I contrast claims to legitimacy deriving from innovative experiments in participatory democracy with legitimacy claims based upon “objective” science, showing that despite acknowledged need for the former, the latter is still being prioritized. The article concludes by identifying the contours of an evolving science-society contract in India, as revealed by these cases.     

我国企业绩效管理分析

绩效管理是帮助企业维持和提高生产力,实现企业战略任务和目标最有效的手段之一,它日益成为组织人力资源管理的重要手段。但目前,绩效管理问题又被公认是困扰企业经理人的首要问题。