How R&D is coordinated in Japanese and European multinationals

What are the suitable forms and mechanisms for the coordination of international R&D and innovation processes in multinational corporations? This paper sets out to answer this question by exploratory research and interviews in 18 European and Japanese companies. As a conceptual background, four different categories of coordination mechanisms are generated (‘structural’, ‘hybrid’, ‘informal’ and ‘internal markets’). The empirical results show that Japanese companies make intensive use of personal contacts, informal communication and socialisation whereas European enterprises rely more on internal markets in R&D.     

Understanding corporate B2B web sites' effectiveness from North American and European perspective

The globalization of economic activities has led multinational business-to-business (B2B) firms to use their corporate web sites extensively to communicate with their stakeholders. Using a field study of 368 business customers, this paper examines three factors of information that influence corporate web sites' effectiveness in a B2B context and whether these factors differ by web site user's national origin. Results indicate that informativeness of a corporate web site is important for both North American and European visitors. Quality of information is important for European users but not an important aspect for North American users. Usability is the most important factor for North American users but it is not important for European users. Implications of these results are discussed for managerial practices and further research.     

欧美天然气调峰储备体系发展经验及启示

完善的调峰储备设施可有效解决上游资源供应与下游用气波动不匹配之间的矛盾,欧美发达国家调峰储气库的有效工作气量已达到全年总用气量的15％以上,确保了本国天然气供应的安全性、可靠性和连续性.欧美各国调峰储备设施的运营管理模式各具特点,与资源禀赋、能源结构、市场特点等国情充分结合,但均以满足天然气行业健康稳定发展为基本要求,颁布一系列配套的法令法规作为法律保障.与欧美发达国家相比,中国调峰储气设施建设相对滞后,冬季调峰能力不足;同时法规体系不完善,导致政企不分、责任不明、监管不力等诸多问题.未来中国的调峰储备管理体制建设可考虑分三步走,最终实现责任明确、收费合理、监管到位的市场化体制;相应的调峰储备库运营机制也可考虑分三步走,最终实现收费明晰、公开透明、充分竞争的运营机制.     

Do American and European Industrial Organization Economists Differ?

This paper compares results from two surveys among American and European industrial organisation (IO) economists on various IO and broader economic issues. Although differences between the two groups are generally rather small, some systematic differences seem to exist. These differences are more pronounced when judgments about the efficacy of government policies and the workings of the market are concerned than when judgments about methodology and the present and future state of the IO field are concerned. American IO economists tend to exhibit more confidence in the market's capability to allocate resources than their European counterparts.     

Societal and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence: Critical notes on European policy frameworks

This paper offers a critical review on conditions and impacts of AI/ML in society, with a dedicated overview of the European AI policy framework. Through the analysis of policy papers produced by European institutions, European national governments and other organisations situated between research and policy-making, we bring an overarching outlook of key ethical and societal issues currently under discussion at the intersection of European policy agendas and recent literature on the topic. Our findings show that 21 analysed documents look both at individual and societal impacts, with their understanding generally aligned in calls for more responsibility, accountability, transparency, safety or trust. Furthermore, our findings also point to the necessity of more integrated approaches between governments, industry and academia stakeholders, and above all, to the need of applied multidisciplinary frameworks, supported by both anticipatory outlooks and public engagement exercises able to tackle the often excessive technicality of the debate.     

Linking Union Density and Union Effectiveness: The North American Experience

This study considers how union performance in terms of organizing, bargaining, and political activity are related to severely declining union density (the percentage of the workforce in unions) in the United States and the higher and stable union density in Canada. Canadian unions have remained active in recruiting new members and assign a high priority to organizing, while American unions have shown diminished organizing effort and ability. Canadian unions have demonstrated superior performance in collective bargaining as measured by resistance to concession bargaining and negotiated wage gains, among other factors. Finally, although Canadian unions experienced some political setbacks, they wielded more political influence than their American counterparts in promoting union-specific as well as broad social legislation. Density is examined as both a consequence and determinant of the divergence in union performance.     

科威特北部油区钻井技术

简要介绍了科威特石油储量等基本情况、科威特北部油区的地质概况和中国石化钻井队在该区Raudhatain油田钻井作业中所采用的井身结构、钻具组合、钻井参数、钻头优选、钻井液以及井控技术方面的情况,通过这些内容可以了解到在科威特施工的井队需要具备的一些基本条件和施工中需要注意的一些问题。对国内石油钻井技术的发展也有一定的借鉴作用。     

欧美经济回暖,节日玩具出口看好

据海关统计,今年1-8月,广东出口圣诞用品40.3亿人民币,同比（下同）增长28.9%。从今年4月份起,月度出口值开始逐步攀升,至8月份出口18.8亿元,刷新去年以来的月度出口记录,同比增长2g.g%,环比增长5g.g%。其中,对美国出口圣诞用品22.2亿元,增长28%;对欧盟出口7.2亿元,增长30.2%;对上述市场出口合计占73%。同期,对伊朗出口2.8亿元,激增5.7倍。     

美国和加拿大石油天然气行业监管体制简介

介绍了监管的含义、美国和加拿大油气行业监管的原则、监管机构的职能及如何进行监管。对北美油气监管体制的成效与不足进行了简要分析，并指出了中国借鉴北美油气监管体制应注意的问题。     

Research priority setting in food and health domain: European stakeholder beliefs about legitimacy criteria and processes

Dietary factors are the most important risk factors affecting health and well-being of population in every Member State of the European Region. Finding sustainable solutions to the food and health challenges is one of the key issues that today’s society urgently needs to address. Research prioritisation thus has an essential role in directing public resources to addressing these challenges. However, the processes of prioritisation among the food and health funders are rarely subject to scrutiny and the calls for democratizing science continue, as a means of enhancing both input legitimacy (with its focus on the processes of decision-making) and output legitimacy (the utility and impact of such decisions). The current study examines what conceptualisations of legitimacy (input and output) are held by the European stakeholders of the food and health research and innovation (R&I) process such as business organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public sector organisations. We analyse stakeholder views from a series of European Awareness Scenario Workshops across nine EU countries (N = 295). The content and thematic analysis of the outputs identified six criteria determining conceptualisations of legitimacy: Influence; Representation; Procedural issues; Epistemic focus; Strategic vision; and Impact. The statistical analysis of the coded data highlighted stakeholder differences with business sector organisations being significantly less concerned about influence and representation than either NGO or public sector organisations. The results indicate that input legitimacy is of major concern to civil society and public sector actors. They reflect the wider debate about the way in which food and health R&I should be funded and policy decisions conducted, suggesting a need for better delineation of stakeholder roles and power differentials in this process. The findings are discussed with reference to the current discussions about Responsible Research and Innovation.     

Funding sources and the strategic roles of decentralised R&D in multinationals

This paper analyses the sources of funding accessed by laboratories of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the UK. The five separate sources of funding are systematically related to four different roles that such labs are seen to play. The results confirm the view that decentralised R&D in MNEs now plays significant and carefully defined roles in the technological and competitive evolution of these enterprises. The strong position of central group funds is seen to reflect two trends in the status of decentralised labs. Firstly, to support their willingness to activate strong local scientific inputs for longer-term and speculative (risky) research programmes. Secondly, to inculcate an acceptance of individual labs to operate within interdependent networks of group operations (precompetitive research or product development).     

Technology alliances in emerging economies: persistence and interrelation in European firms' alliance formation

We analyse the patterns and determinants of technology alliance formation with partner firms from emerging economies with a focus on European firms' alliance strategies. We examine to what extent European firms' alliance formation with partners based in emerging economies is persistent – that is, to what extent prior collaborative experience determines new alliance formation – and we compare this pattern with alliance formation with developed country partners. Second, we examine to what extent prior engagement in international alliances with partners from developed countries increases the propensity to form technology alliances with partners based in emerging economies, and vice versa (interrelation). We find that both persistence and interrelation effects are present, and that they are generally not weaker for emerging economy alliances. Alliance formation with Indian and Chinese firms is significantly more likely if firms have prior alliance experience with Japanese firms. The findings suggest that building on their prior international alliance experience firms extend their alliance portfolios across both developed and emerging economies, increasing the geographical diversity of their alliance portfolios.     

欧美天然气管理体制与运营模式及其对我国的启示

欧洲各国天然气政策基本按欧盟指引来制定,重点之一是推进天然气市场化进程,推动管网独立与第三方准入机制的建立。欧洲天然气市场的上游价格完全放开,但对管道运输、储气和配气等环节,各国都进行了严格的价格和利润率监管。美国对天然气价格的管制经历了从不管制到控制井口价格再到完全放开三个发展阶段,灵活的天然气价格机制是保障天然气稳定供应的重要因素。目前中国仍处于天然气发展的初步阶段,大型一体化公司解体拆分模式不可照搬硬套,管网独立未到时机,国家能源供应安全保障应该放在发展的首要位置;欧美国家天然气产业组织结构和政府监管模式与各国历史、政治传统紧密相关,没有固定模式,中国应根据自身的资源特点、市场发展、国家政治体制以及经济文化传统等制定适合自身的天然气行业管理体制;随着中国天然气消费的快速增长和消费者价格承受能力的逐步增强,应适时建立天然气价格的市场形成机制。     

Profiling leading scientists in nanobiomedical science: interdisciplinarity and potential leading indicators of research directions

Nanobiomedical science is a promising area in the application of nanotechnology. This paper profiles a group of 21 leading scientists in nanobiomedicine based on high publication rate and high citations. Comparisons with other researchers indicate that the leaders publish more in high impact journals and collaborate more extensively (team science). They reside most heavily in the United States and Western Europe. We compare their research publications using multiple indicators–Integration, Specialization and a Multidisciplinary Index. Relations among interdisciplinarity indicators generated support a three‐factor model based on principles of diversity. We locate this research among the disciplines using science overlay mapping. Key term analyses, based on keywords and on natural language processing help profile the research emphases of these leading researchers. Such results could serve as leading indicators to help identify directions of future nanobio development.     

欧美市场掀起复苏之风，中国玩具出口有望获得突破

第116届广交会第二期于10月23～27日隆重开幕。随着欧美经济的复苏,以玩具礼品为主的二期参展商终于可以松一口气,不少参展商表示去年出口止跌回暖。对于广交会二期的参展企业来说,欧美市场是重中之重。     

中国医药制剂出口欧美市场初探

目的 为中国医药制剂出口欧美市场提供参考.方法分析我国医药制剂出口欧羡市场所面临的机遇与挑战,提出相应的对策与建议,结论中国制药产业应当顺应全球医药制造中心向亚洲转移的趋势,克服自身不足,积极参与医药制剂的国际生产,买现产业升级