Global connectivity and the evolution of industrial clusters: From tires to polymers in Northeast Ohio

Industrial clusters are a critical component of the competitive viability of economies around the world. However, clusters are not static but evolve in response to technology and competition. This process has garnered interest from scholars and from practitioners, with the focus primarily on local linkages and networks. Although global knowledge ties have the potential to fuel innovation, scant attention has been given to global knowledge connectivity in the context of cluster evolution. We analyze a comprehensive 30-year patent dataset (1975–2005) associated with the Akron industrial cluster in Northeast Ohio. The results also show that innovation in the cluster has survived in spite of a long-term decline in manufacturing activity and employment. The survival of innovation in the Akron cluster is driven by increasing specialization at the local level with an emphasis on technologies rather than products and growing connectedness to global innovation systems. A key implication of our study is the importance of anchor tenant multinational enterprises and research institutions in ensuring the persistence of local innovation through two key processes (a) orchestrating knowledge networks; and (b) spawning startup activity. We provide support for recent work in industrial marketing suggesting that network evolution has both deterministic and strategic aspects.     

From the laboratory to the marketplace: Case history of an innovation

The author traces the sequence of events from basic discovery and conception of a new, revolutionary sweetener to its commercialization, and answers the question: Why did it take so long?     

Exploring the contribution of management innovation to the evolution of dynamic capabilities

Companies that find innovative ways to manage capabilities gain competitive advantages. The results of multiple case studies of capital goods manufacturing companies suggest that management innovation contributes to dynamic capabilities. The findings confirm the importance of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring as dynamic capabilities. Management innovation differs in terms of whether it contributes to sensing, seizing, or reconfiguring. The findings describe issues of management innovation, such as key change agents and utilization (motivation, invention, implementation, as well as theorizing and labeling), which facilitate sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. Maintaining capability-driven competitive advantages is not limited to the innovation of products and services, but should also address management innovation that drives dynamic capabilities. The present study relies on a novel conceptualization of dynamic capabilities through management innovation. This conceptualization advances theory-building on the issue of dynamic capabilities.     

From developmental to network state: Government restructuring and ICT-led innovation in Korea

This study examines the government leadership and strategic restructuring that guided The Republic of Korea's remarkable ICT-led development from 1980 to the present. That time span coincided with tumultuous political, social and economic transformation inside Korea including the growth of such powerful chaebol industry groups as Samsung, LG and SK. Globally, the period covered by this study featured the growth of new and more powerful digital networks epitomized by the internet. It also marked South Korea's transition from a development to a network state, allowing assessment of what the experience implies for developmental state theory.     

Progress under pressure: The evolution of antitrust policy in Australia

Australia has developed a balanced and comprehensive antitrust policy. But the process of evolution has seen conflict, misunderstanding and error in applying the relevant economic concepts. Whether antitrust legislation is needed, and in what form, is still debated, as are ways of incorporating new approaches in economics. This is a documented account and commentary on the twenty years of evolution, designed especially for non-Australian readers seeking to gain advantage and avoid error by studying the experience of another country.     

Winning through innovation and marketing: Lessons from Australia and Vietnam

We examine the role of innovation and marketing, two functional capabilities that have the capacity to play a major role in creating superior marketplace performance in firms. Our study of the two capabilities and firms' marketplace performance also takes into account the contribution of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO) to our focal functional capabilities and marketplace performance. The results of a study of firms in Australia and Vietnam show innovation capability, marketing capability mediate the effects of the firm's MO on its marketplace performance. The results also show that the interaction of innovation and marketing capabilities significantly influences firms' marketplace performance more than they do individually. Finally, our results show that MO partially mediates the relationship between EO and innovation and marketing capabilities.     

Policies to stimulate regional innovation capabilities via university–industry collaboration: an analysis and an assessment

In this paper, we demonstrate how regional economic policies to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation, can lead to successes. More specifically, through a detailed theoretical and empirical analysis, we discuss the critical ingredients that can lead to regional innovation and economic success. These critical ingredients consist of a balanced mix based on the presence of research institutes, a texture of endogenous knowledge–intensive start–ups coupled to larger R&D–intensive incumbents, all of them embedded in a professional environment that supports business advice and services. We illustrate the effects of this mix using empirical material from various innovative regions around the world.     

From the islands of knowledge to a shared understanding: interdisciplinarity and technology literacy for innovation in smart electronic product design

In the context of the evolving Internet, a balance between technological advances and meaning change is crucial to develop innovative and breakthrough “connected electronics” that enable the Internet of Things. Designers and technologists are key enablers of this process respectively, ensuring adequate users’ needs and technology development, inside the evolving context of social environment and human relations. Smart electronic product design must be a truly interdisciplinary process, in which technologists are aware of how much their decisions impact the user-product relationship and designers understand the full potential and associated limitations of technology involved. Shared knowledge and communication are essential in this scenario, but, due to their technological limitations, designers are often excluded from high-level decision processes. In this paper, we address the design of constructivist tools and associated strategy to enhance the technological literacy of designers, as a strong foundation for knowledge-based dialogue between these realms. We demonstrate its effectiveness in a long-term multidisciplinary Project-Based Learning application with Design and Electronics students. We present the cases from 2 years’ experimentation (with the first year as control group) that demonstrate improvement in the quality of teamwork; in learning results; improved performance of the students reflected in the quality of the projects developed; and positive teachers’ and students’ evaluations. We conclude that the use of the proposed tool not only provides the designer an active voice in the process of designing smart electronics, but also promotes an effective common language between these two worlds.     

The management of technological innovation in the machine tool industry: a cross-national regional survey of Britain and Switzerland

Abstract
The research was undertaken during 1983 to find out why a country such as Switzerland has been able to manage innovation in a mature industry, such as machine tools, much more successfully than Britain. The methodology used was by structured interviews of Managing Directors in a sample of firms in the two important machine tool regions of Berne and Yorkshire/Humberside. The results cover the main types of innovation in products and processes, the reasons for innovation and the problems which were encountered by the companies visited. We found that the Swiss firms were strong on product innovation. The most important innovation was the introduction of computer numerical control (CNC), and the Swiss firms had on average introduced this earlier than the British firms and it accounted for a larger proportion of their turnover. The main problem for firms in both countries was in adjusting to upstream developments in electronic controls. The Swiss had better downstream market links with their customers who were mostly in foreign countries. Some British firms were handicapped by being part of company groups and used public sector grants for their innovation, whereas the largely independent Swiss firms carried out more self-financing.     

Telecommunications evolution and inequities of current tax policies: A case analysis for New Jersey

Telecommunications technologies, services and regulatory policies have been on a rapid spiral of evolution in recent years. However, state policies on taxation of telecommunications services and service providers and the systems of compensation of local governments for the use of public resources by cable television and telecommunications companies, have not kept pace with this rapid change. This paper examines the case of the State of New Jersey. It provides a baseline profile of revenues, taxes and user fees of telecommunications service providers for 1999 through 2005. The paper illustrates the effect of convergence and discusses the need for updating tax policies.     

From coal mining to a high technology economy? the case of an innovation centre in South Yorkshire

The deep coal mining industry was in rapid decline in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. In many localities formerly associated with the industry, there was a need to encourage diversification and innovation as a means of economic regeneration. The activities of one project which aimed at this are examined here.     

管理创新——电力企业持续发展的必由之路

通过对电力改革现状及发展趋势的分析,结合电力企业实现角色转换首当其冲的工作——电力企业管理创新,提出了电力企业应从企业文化建设、现代化的管理信息系统建设以及实行机制和质量保障监督体系建设三个环节入手开展管理创新的思路。     

Population decentralization policies: the experience of Taiwan

"Social and economic policies and programs adopted by the government of Taiwan have slowed the pace of population concentration and prevented the highly concentrated distribution of population experienced by many developing countries. After presenting a brief analysis of Taiwan's population growth and distribution during the past three decades, this text examines the policies and programs credited with having curbed population concentration. They include both spatial development policies established for the purpose of decentralizing the population and its economic activities, and development policies that, although not designed expressly to curb population concentration, have had such an effect."     

加强标准化工作为我国从包装大国走向包装强国提供技术包装

众所周知，包装对保护商品、美化商品、宣传商品以及对商品的储运、销售、使用都起着重要的作用。对大多数产品而言，没有包装，就不成其商品。但我国的包装技术、包装水平、包装标准化等方面与一些技术先进国家相比还有一定的差显巨。 另外，由于包装本身不属于某一具体商品，而又是商品不可缺少的一部分这一特殊性，常常被大做文章，成为一些国家设置贸易技术壁垒的借口或手段。如何利用包装标准化这个武器有效地保护我国有关企业的利益、冲破贸易技术壁垒，是摆在我们面前非常紧迫的课题。[编者按]     

瓦楞纸板包装的多元化发展

我国纸箱包装行业正处于快速发展的时期,1996年的纸箱销售量约为80亿平方米,为日本同期销售量的一半,而2000年增至125亿平方米,接近日本销售水平;2002年我国瓦楞纸箱销售量达到200亿平方米,超过日本,居世界第二,仅次于美国.未来六七年是中国经济高速发展的时期,我国的纸箱包装行业要保持“朝阳”态势,就要开拓新的思路,发展新的方向.我们要致力于纸板制成品的多元化发展,拓展更为广阔的空间。     

Italy: From Products to Lifestyle

The Italian Trade Commision—I.C.E is the government agency entrusted with promoting trade,business opportunities and industrial co- operation between Italian and foreign companies,mostly by organizing the participation of Italian firms to international trade fairs,exhibitions, workshops and bilateral meetings,covering every year more than 100 countries all over the world.Mr.Antonino Laspina is the Trade Commisionner and Coordinator of ICE Offices in China.     

吉利：从“无畏”到“下沉”

在第四届中国品牌汽车试驾测评的现场,一位专业评委打开吉利熊猫的车门,走出时,调侃地说了一句：＂李书福闭嘴了,吉利下沉了。＂ 周围的记者和其他评委笑了。虽为玩笑,但这绝对是一句褒奖之词。     

Optimal ordering policies in response to a discount offer

Sometimes supplier offers a temporary price discount to increase cash flow or decrease the inventory level of certain items. Thus, the manufacturer may be able to improve the effectiveness of his inventory system by ordering a special quantity at this sale period. In this paper, economic order quantity (EOQ) models with a discounted price are developed to obtain the optimal ordering policy during the sale period for five different cases: (a) coincidence of sale period with replenishment time, (b) non-coincidence of sale period with replenishment time, (c) sale period is longer than a cycle, (d) discounted price as a function of the special ordering quantity, and (e) incremental discount. Each case has its own characteristics of the sale period and the discounted price. The objective is to take the maximum possible advantage from the discounted price by ordering a special quantity during the sale period. The optimal ordering policy is obtained by maximizing the difference between the two costs: Regular EOQ cost and special quantity cost during the sale period. Moreover, a comparison of different discount scenarios is developed to sense the effect of different parameters on the ordering policies. The annual gain obtained is linearly related to the discount and the on-hand remnant inventory. Numerical analyses are provided to illustrate and testify the values of the optimal special quantity. The analysis showed an impressive improvement in the effectiveness of the inventory system when a special order is placed during the sale period. The optimal special quantity is driven for each case to visualize real-life problems. Sensitivity analysis is also initiated to study the change in the total savings with respect to the variation of the special optimal quantity.     

Judicial approaches to economic analysis in Australia

Although Australia has had State and Federal antitrust laws for most of the twentieth century, its antitrust jurisprudence has only developed significantly since the enactment of theTrade PracticesAct 1974. Judges have had to come to grips with economic concepts not readily amenable to syllogistic reasoning and traditional fact finding processes. There has been increasing sophistication in judicial reasoning in the area of competition law. However restrictions placed by the rules of evidence upon the role of expert economists have attracted criticism. A new rule of court enables such testimony to be received by way of argument or submission rather than as evidence. This reflects the evaluative and normative nature of many of the judgments required under competition laws. It also provides an opportunity for a more fruitful and constructive interaction between economists and the judiciary in the application of such laws.     

On the economics of nonprofit sellers: Output policies in community hospitals

In applications of the theory of the nonprofit firm it is commonly assumed that output and sales are equal. This paper proposes that the nonprofit firm may plan to produce, and actually produce, an output larger than it sells. We call such a strategy an "excess output" production policy. The policy can lead to chronic excess capacity, and it always implies that seller average revenue exceeds unit costs evaluated at the level of sales. Using the nonprofit community hospital as an example, the paper examines the characteristics of excess output policies and the possibilities for controlling their performance impacts. Data on a sample of U.S. community hospitals are used to test for the existence of excess output policies in the hospitals are used to test for the existence of excess output policies in the hospital sector. The results give qualified support for the conclusion that some hospitals follow excess output production policies.