The Roles of Independent Research and Technology Organizations in the United Kingdom's Technology Transfer Mechanism to SMEs

Independent Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) provide an increasing proportion of the UK's technology services requirements. RTOs, often former state research establishments spun out into the private sector, provide technology consulting and networking services to specific sectors or for generic technologies; some are membership-based organizations while others work for contract clients. In this paper we explore the roles and services provided by RTOs, together with the measures being taken to assist small firms that, for many RTOs, form a new and challenging market. The diversity of services and approaches to SMEs are related, in part, to the different origins of RTOs. The research indicates three forms of technology services market failure that suggest a need for ongoing external support for the market's mechanism.     

欧洲研究和技术组织发展方兴未艾

欧盟及其成员国掌握大量的科学研究资金、机构和知识储备。为有效统筹科研创新资源和能力,优化研究政策战略和重点领域,促进欧洲研究机构体系的健康发展,欧盟提出了建立"欧洲研究区(ERA)"的战略设想。20世纪第二次工业革命出现的欧洲研究和技术组织(RTO)是欧洲研究区建设的有力支撑。经过80多年的发展,欧洲的RTO逐步凭借目标公益性、功能独特性、管理独立性和中立性等特点,发展壮大,成为欧洲科研创新体系中的重要组成部分,向政府、企业和其他组织提供了广泛的研究开发和技术创新服务。"欧洲研究区"在全面统筹优先领域、建设和共享高端研究基础设施以及向全球开放等战略性设想,通过RTO体系得以全面阐释和实施,对我国未来科研体制改革和发展有积极的借鉴作用。     

Can capacity markets be designed by democracy?

In the United States, Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) operate the power grid serving nearly 70% of electricity customers and are critical organizations for ensuring reliable system operations and facilitating the integration of new technologies and market participants. RTOs are designed to be stakeholder-driven organizations, with rules and policies crafted through a highly participatory process. While the decisions that RTOs make have implications for industry, society and the environment, their decision processes have not been modeled in any systematic way. In this paper, we develop a modeling framework for the stakeholder process of PJM, an RTO serving thirteen states plus the District of Columbia, adapting some of the seminal literature from political science and political economy on the theory of voting systems. This modeling framework can generate predictions of stakeholder process outcomes, identify strong coalitions among stakeholders and identify shifts in political power in the formulation of RTO market rules. We illustrate this analysis framework using a detailed data set from stakeholder deliberations of capacity market reform in PJM. Our model predicts that the current structure of the stakeholder process in PJM makes the passage of capacity market reforms through the stakeholder process virtually impossible because it creates strong coalitions that would favor or oppose changes to capacity market rules. In the capacity market case, we also identify a small subset of voters that act as swing voters and confirm that political power is shifted to these voters by deviations from otherwise strong coalitions and abstentions from the voting process altogether. Our framework represents the first attempt to model the decision-making behavior of RTOs in any systematic way, and points towards emerging research needs in evaluating the governance structure of RTOs.     

Trouble in Market Paradise: Development of the Regional Transmission Operator

Regional transmission organizations (RTOs) have evolved from “power pool” arrangements between utilities to complex organizations that operate a region’s transmission system and power markets. These RTOs are administered with only peripheral public input. This paper reflects on how RTOs, as a result, have developed very complex market structures that few can or do understand. An RTO’s capacity construct is used to illustrate the point of this complexity and ad hoc nature. The paper also discusses reforms that are needed to align the RTOs behavior with Harry M. Trebing’s public interest regulatory philosophy.     

Research technology organisations as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs: role,barriers and facilitators

Research technology organisations or RTOs have attracted academic interest in the last decade due to their role as technology transfer agents and R&D collaborative leaders for firms and especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although their role within the diversity of specialised structures in generating R&D for industry in National Innovation Systems is recognised, there are scarce publications in relation to their strategies, performance or characteristic, as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs. The aim of this work is to identify the role, barriers and facilitators for RTOs performance as well as to develop a contingency relationship between industry environment, strategy, organisational structure and other factors for successful technology transfer from technology organisations to SMEs. This research is based on a field study conducted on 14 technology organisations based in the Valencia region, working with various industry sectors.     

Price effects of independent transmission system operators in the United States electricity market

In 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sought to “remove impediments to competition in the wholesale bulk power marketplace and to bring more efficient, lower cost power to the Nation’s electricity consumers” through a series of market rules. A product of these rules was the establishment of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) charged with facilitating equal access to the transmission grid for electricity suppliers. Whether these changes in market structure have succeeded in achieving FERC’s goal to provide “lower cost power to the Nation’s electricity consumers” remains an open question. This paper utilizes a panel data set of the 48 contiguous United States and a treatment effects model in first differences to determine whether there have been changes in delivered electric prices as a result of the establishment of ISOs and RTOs. To avoid the confounding effects of electric restructuring, the model is estimated with the full panel data set, and then again without the states that have restructured their electric markets. This estimation shows that electricity prices fall approximately 4.8 % in the first 2 years of an ISO’s operation and that this result is statistically significant. However, this result is dependent on the presence of states that restructured their electricity markets. When these restructured states are removed from the data set the price effects of RTOs become indistinguishable from zero. The paper concludes that rate agreements are the principal source of the observed decrease in prices and that RTOs have not had the desired effect on electricity prices.     

Research and Technology Outsourcing

The paper discusses the process of externalization and the contracting out of R&D and technical activity. The focus of the analysis is on the outsourcing of R&D and technical activity undertaken by firms and now outsourced to companies and organizations which supply the Contract Research and Technology (CRT) market. The analysis highlights that not only is it important to understand the factors in the demand for such services but also in changing dynamics of the nature of the research and technical services supplied and the way they are supplied. The paper then investigates the implications of these dynamic trends for the conduct of the R&D function, particularly towards research externalization and outsourcing, via the use of firms and organizations involved in contract research and technology.     

关于对技术转移服务组织的研究综述

技术转移服务组织是一个新型的科技中介机构,其主要任务就是促进大学和科研机构的技术成果向企业转化,加速科技与产业的融合。当前技术转移服务机构的发展逐渐形成了以专业性、知识性投入取代资本或劳务投入的集风险性和知识产品提供为主的特点,其运作模式是多种模式和机制并存,关键是要符合科技经济发展的实际,能有效地推动技术创新和经济发展。其未来发展将是以建立公司制、市场化为主,以盈利性为目标的机构,在市场经济条件下,各种模式各有优缺点。企业应根据内外部环境的变化,以及科学、技术等各种要素之间的耦合和相互作用的程度来选取。现对近年来的相关研究文献进行一个综述,旨在为国内技术转移服务组织的发展提供启发和借鉴。     

基于主成分分析法的科技服务业集聚化发展影响因子研究

集聚化是科技服务业发展到一定阶段所呈现出的一种空间生产组织方式,有利于强化科技服务业的整体创造力与综合竞争力。影响科技服务业集聚化发展的因子较多,提取出具有代表性的综合影响因子,有助于为促进我国科技服务业集聚化发展提供有力依据和可行建议。根据波特钻石模型,从科技资源、市场需求、外部环境和政府行为4个维度构建科技服务业集聚化发展分析框架。在现有产业集聚相关文献研究的基础上,结合科技服务业自身特点,共罗列出14个影响科技服务业集聚化发展的因子,运用多元统计分析中的主成分分析方法对影响因子进行筛选和分析。研究发现,宏观政策经济环境、生产要素配置、科技融资体系和市场需求是科技服务业集聚化发展的核心影响因子。     

技术中介在技术交易服务中是否存在下沉倾向——基于买方选择视角的验证

技术要素转移与交易对技术中介有较强的依赖性，而技术中介的存在能够有效降低交易过程中的信息失衡，为买方交易提供必要支持，技术中介服务直接影响技术交易效率。当代技术中介服务已经形成较大规模，提供服务的种类也较为全面，整体上适应了技术市场发展需要。但是，由技术中介参与的大量交易都存在低端化倾向，据此提出中介服务下沉化假设，并构建选择影响因素模型。通过对买方企业数据的采集与回归，发现无论是全样本还是分类样本均有效验证了主要假设变量。因此，为保障技术中介合理发展，从政策层面应重点关注如何提升服务质量，使其服务于中高端技术交易需求。     

需求牵引的综合科技服务流程动态拼接研究

复杂的科技服务需求对单一的专业科技服务提出了巨大挑战，需要研究可行的综合科技服务方案予以应对。通过初始服务流程识别和客户需求到服务流程转化，得到与客户需求相关的服务流程。基于功能相关性评价，对服务流程进行模糊聚类分析，通过计算最大适应度值确定最优科技服务流程拼接方案。贡献在于，提出一种综合科技服务流程动态拼接方法，并以技术转移类综合科技服务为例进行说明。     

Technology diffusion theory revisited: a regulation,environment, strategy,technology model for technology activation analysis of mobile ICT

Theory on the diffusion of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) is mainly focused on technology diffusion, while prerequisites to such diffusion are largely disregarded or taken for granted. Moreover, few constructs for the assessment of technology diffusion take into account the inherent link between technology and strategy analysis. This study proposes that analysing what comes prior to diffusion and use of technology – here defined as ‘technology activation’ – is equally important, so as to identify external, not user-related determinants that enable or hinder a value proposition based on the new technology. To fill the existing gap and extend technology diffusion theory upstream, the limitations of the technology–organisation–environment model and of other technology diffusion models are reviewed, together with external strategy analysis models, and an original model is proposed to address four macro-determinants that affect technology activation: Regulation, environment, strategy, technology (REST). The REST model is then applied to the Italian mobile location-based services market, to qualitatively validate its comprehensiveness. Conclusions are drawn on the opportunities to extend the mobile technology diffusion analysis process upstream, and to integrate technology analysis with existing research on strategy analysis, thus providing new momentum to mainstream research on innovation diffusion.     

金融结构、创新模式与技术创新效率

技术创新的研发和转化离不开金融支持。本文从创新价值链和创新模式出发,构建金融结构、技术创新模式与技术创新效率的理论分析框架,基于三阶段DEA-Tobit模型和广义分位数回归模型,实证分析金融结构对技术创新模式转变、技术创新效率影响。研究发现,我国技术创新研发和转化两个阶段的规模效率较低,导致研发综合效率和转化综合效率存在“双低”现象。从金融结构来看,存在着最佳的金融结构与不同类型技术创新相匹配,使技术创新效率达到最大。从影响机制来看,银行和金融市场存在互补关系,分别匹配不同类型的技术创新。从金融结构分工来看,相对于银行来说,金融市场对技术创新效率以及技术创新模式转变的重要性呈现上升趋势。     

知识基础对高新技术企业创新意愿的影响研究——知识场活性的调节效应与市场感知能力的中介效应

基于311家高新技术企业调研问卷，利用层次回归模型，研究知识基础对高新技术企业创新意愿的影响，以及知识场活性、市场感知能力在二者关系中扮演的调节和中介作用。结果表明：知识基深度和知识基宽度对高新技术企业创新意愿均产生促进作用，知识场活性增强了知识基础对高新技术企业创新意愿的正向影响，市场感知能力在知识基础与高新技术企业创新意愿的关系中发挥部分中介作用。研究结论对于厘清不同维度知识基础对高新技术企业创新意愿的影响机制具有理论意义，同时，对高新技术企业主动激发创新意愿具有实践启示意义。     

基于跨案例研究的颠覆性技术演进特征分析

在梳理前人研究成果的基础上，得到颠覆性技术演进的14个特征范畴，从低端颠覆和高端颠覆视角选取电动自行车等4项不同类型颠覆性技术演进特征进行跨案例分析，遵循复制法对特征范畴进行反复修正、补充与融合，分别得到12个低端颠覆性技术演进特征和13个高端颠覆性技术演进特征，并据此构建全过程视角下颠覆性技术特征模型。通过对两种颠覆性技术演进特征进行对比分析，总结出在创造性、异轨性和迭代性上的特征共性，以及在价值主张、价值路线和价值检验上的特征差异。     

基于模糊积分的技术并购对象选择模型研究

技术并购已成为国内外企业获取先进技术和实现技术创新的主要手段之一,也日益成为相关学者研究的热点。本文针对并购企业对象的选择问题,对影响企业技术并购对象选择的因素进行分析,从核心技术及研发能力、技术的市场匹配性、技术与企业的融合度、企业文化、人力资源等五个方面构建了并购对象选择指标体系,通过对模糊积分的改进,构建基于改进模糊积分评价方法的技术并购对象选择模型,并通过算例来验证建立模型的科学性,最后对技术并购对象选择进行分类研究,对不同的技术并购类型如何筛选和寻找适合的技术并购对象提出一些建议,以期为实现企业技术并购决策的优化提供研究支撑,为企业实施技术并购以及今后进一步的顺利整合提供可运用的方法。     

突破性技术创新研究:现状与展望——基于SSCI和CSSCI期刊的文献计量分析

突破性技术创新是中国落实创新驱动、绿色发展、提升关键核心技术创新能力等多个国家战略的重要路径。本文采用文献计量方法和知识图谱工具,以2001—2018年发表于SSCI和CSSCI期刊的765篇文献为研究样本,从多个视角系统揭示国内外突破性技术创新研究的现状,并对未来研究方向进行展望。主要研究结论是:近18年国内外突破性技术创新研究发文量总体呈逐年上升趋势,国内研究与国外相比起步较晚且持续热度较低、对外合作研究较少且国际影响力不足;突破性技术创新研究遵循的理论基础主要是社会网络理论、动态资源管理理论和组织学习理论;突破性技术创新研究的热点主要集中于技术、组织、资源和财务四个方面,与市场发展问题相关的研究是薄弱环节。进一步从创新主体、创新变轨、研究层次和研究主题四个方面归纳了突破性技术创新研究热点的演化规律和存在问题。突破性技术创新的市场风险、跨国合作战略、大数据赋能和绿色导向会成为未来突破性技术创新研究的主攻方向。     

基于ISM框架的企业科技向善影响因素分析

企业科技向善是指企业为最大化用户价值与社会福祉,运用创新技术以生产与提供产品/服务,实现商业价值与社会价值的企业行动,其重要性受到理论界与实务界的广泛关注。在回顾企业科技向善内涵及影响因素的基础上,采用扎根理论对27位学者、企业家的访谈与演讲实录等质性材料进行分析,提炼企业科技向善影响因素。同时,基于解释结构模型,对企业科技向善影响因素的内在关联及多层递阶结构进行探索,明确企业管理者的认知与态度、价值观是重要前置因素,发现消费者需求与创新机遇识别是必要条件,企业愿景与使命、组织管理及治理结构等内部支撑是基础,政府规制及社会规范等外部利益相关群体与要素是重要动力,市场环境以及社会发展与转型是重要依托。     

Beyond R&D activities: the determinants of firms’ absorptive capacity explaining the access to scientific institutes in low–medium-tech contexts

A firm's search strategy is to use innovation inputs from external sources such as suppliers, clients, competitors, universities and research transfer offices (RTOs) to complement their in-house knowledge. Thus, a firm needs to be capable of identifying and valuing the potential value of certain external knowledge, i.e. absorptive capacity. Most of the studies regarding search patterns are reduced mostly to medium–high- and high-tech industries in which only the level of investment in R&D activities as determinant of a firm's search strategy is considered. In addition, when the flows of external knowledge arise from firm–university interactions, the evidence is still inconclusive, specifically for SMEs and low–medium-tech environments. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explore the pattern of a firm's search strategy through its absorptive capacity to acquire external flows of knowledge from universities and RTOs. The paper draws especially on the role of non-R&D innovation activities in low–medium-tech sectors. Seven hundred and forty three innovative firms from the Spanish Ministry of Industry are analysed. Results suggest that human resources and other non-R&D activities are the core drivers explaining the cooperation agreements to access external knowledge from universities and RTOs. Surprisingly, R&D expenditures do not contribute to the explanation. This paper presents important implications for policy-makers beyond the classic R&D policies.