Identifying The Demand For Features: An Application To Mainframe Computers

This paper examines the mainframe computer market from 1985–1991 and attempts to identify the types of buyers that demand particular computer features, such as speed and memory. To identify these buyers, demand for computer characteristics is estimated using a demand model based on Rosen (1974). Through these demand estimates we are able to show that the advent of on-line transactions processing was pushing the demand for computer speed and memory to some extent. However, beyond this specialized application, only a few industries seemed to be demanding the newest technology, while the majority of buyers continued to buy small mainframes throughout the sample period.     

企业研发外包中的交易效率与决策模型研究

继制造业全球重组和转移之后,以信息技术外包和业务流程外包等服务外包为代表的服务业转移蓬勃发展,已成为不可逆转的新一轮全球产业革命和产业转移趋势,而研发外包是目前外包领域中新兴的形式。以往的研究认为,研发活动是企业的核心流程,外包的市场交易费用高,传统交易费用理论难以解释研发外包的发展。以交易成本理论为基础,借助新兴古典经济学的分析方法,从理论上分析研发外包活动存在的合理性,指出网络信息技术有效提高研发活动交易效率是决定企业外包决策的重要因素。     

The Dynamics Of Localized Technological Changes. The Interaction Between Factor Costs Inducement,Demand Pull And Schumpeterian Rivalry 1

Localized technological change is the endogenous outcome of the interplay between substitution costs. Switching costs and learning processes. New technologies are introduced when market pressures induce firms to change the levels of their inputs and their techniques. The dynamics ol localized technological change is the result us the interaction between three processes: it) the Schumpcterian competition process as analyzed by the replicator dynamics and failure inducement mechanisms. b) factor substitution stemming from changes in factors markets. and c) post-Keynesian demand pull pressures resulting from productivity growth. In such conditions out-of-equilibrium exchanges and localized technological changes drive a recursive process that is path-dependent in two senses, first it is highly sensitive to the initial conditions of the system. and second it is shaped by the interactions of agents.     

Small-Medium Car Suppliers and Behavioural Models in Innovation

This article reports the results of an empirical study on the innovation capabilities of a sample of 25 Italian small-medium car suppliers. The aim of the paper is to highlight the capabilities, the behavioural models and the factors determining innovation: technology transfer, the role of sub-suppliers, the relationships with external research institutes and the obstacles to innovation. Inter-firm differences in the innovation process will be examined using multinomial logit analysis. The homogeneity of the sample allows the testing of some operating strategies that may contribute to more rapid technological change in mature industries such as: diversity, consolidation and co-operation.     

Technology Transfer and Learning

Despite the fact that international technology transfer has been widely studied its management still encounters many difficulties. To fully understand the issues that are relevant to the process of transferring production technology, it is necessary to determine the important factors that influence this process. Learning curves are often used as a means of determining the time required to become familiar with a transferred technology. The cases discussed in this paper have all employed learning curves, which were established at the outset of the transfer process and which turned out to be incorrect. As a consequence the envisaged efficiencies were not obtained. This phenomenon is partly due to the fact that when technology is transferred to a relatively inexperienced 'destination company', the curve is established based on the circumstances of the 'source company'. The case study findings lead to the conclusion that to establish a realistic curve a more comprehensive method is required than simply basing anticipated performance on that achieved at the source company.     

Democratization is the driving force for technological and economic change

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between democratization and technological innovation. In primis, the paper shows, through economic history, that democratization is an antecedent process (cause) to technological and economic change (effect). In particular, the primary finding is that democratization is a driving force for technological change: most free countries, measured with liberal, participatory, and constitutional democracy indices, have a higher level of technology than less free and more autocratic countries. In fact, “democracy richness” generates a higher rate of technological innovation with fruitful effects for the wellbeing and wealth of nations. These findings and predictions lead to the conclusion that policy makers need to be cognizant of positive associations between democratization and technological innovation paths in order to support the modern economic growth and future technological progress of countries.     

The Evaluation of Strategic Research Partnerships

Policy implications of strategic research alliances are analyzed, with emphasis on government-private sector cooperation, government support for private sector innovation, and evaluation of such government programs.     

Converging scientific fields and new technological paradigms as main drivers of the division of scientific labour in drug discovery process: the effects on strategic management of the R&D corporate change

The thesis of this study is that the convergence of genetics, genomics and proteomics spurs new technological paradigms in medicine, which are generating a R&D corporate change: division of scientific labour of the drug discovery process by strategic alliances among firms in order to reinforce the integrative capabilities in different biomedical research fields and collective and cumulative learning between in-house R&D and external sources of innovation. This study shows, by key a case study of pharmaceutical companies, as scientific and technological paradigms in medicine are main drivers of industrial and R&D corporate change to enhance and accelerate the discovery process of ground-breaking drugs for more and more personalised healthcare.     

India’s Green Revolution: Economic Gains and Political Costs

Research and development (R&;D) promotion policies are critical for economic development in the sense that they contribute to technical progress. Although it is true that policy space is restricted under the World Trade Organization (WTO) system, there are still some R&;D promotion policy measures made available to developing countries. It is thus necessary for developing countries to utilize such available measures. In addition to explaining the R&;D promotion measures available under the current WTO regulations, I provide suggestions for modifying the Uruguay Round Subsidies Code with respect to the R&;D promotion policies of developing countries from the viewpoint of “distributional fairness” in international trade relations.     

Policy reform and productivity change in Chinese agriculture: A distance function approach

Agricultural policy reform has been an important source of change in the Chinese agricultural sector. The reforms led to productivity growth and helped China to pursue its self-sufficiency goal especially in the grain sector. In order to analyze whether observable productivity growth stems from technologically induced components or from the market induced parts, a multi-input–multi-output model is derived by using an econometric distance function framework. A decomposition allows to distinguish allocative effects, scale effects, technological change, and technical efficiency change. Data on farms in Zhejiang from 1986 to 2000 are used to analyze the impact of policy reform.     

Technological Profiles And Economic Performance In The Italian Manufacturing Sector ∗

This paper applies multivariate analysis to a rich data set on technological innovation, in order to identify typical patterns of technological change. To single out the dominant forms of technological behaviour, twelve variables have been selected approximating firms' technological sources and innovation results. Multivariate analysis was applied to identify six main clusters or dominant technological profiles. Each cluster was then interpreted on the basis of a larger set of variables concerning firms' technological and economic performance. The results confirm recent emphasis placed by scholars of technical change on variety of bchaviour in technical change and industrial organization and, more specifically, Pavitt's seminal attempt at a classification of this variety. However, our clusters are somewhat more numerous than Pavitt's, thus showing a more complex combination of technological input and output. Moreover, representative industries of each cluster are less easily recognized as a less marked sectoral characterization of clusters emerges. The latter result seems to imply that variety in technological change is also shown by the existence of different technological trajectories and strategies within the same sector. We suggest that the diffuse nature of recent technical change has given firms greater freedom of strategic choice among different technological strategies.     

Localized technological change and factor markets: constraints and inducements to innovation

The recent advances in the economics of innovation and the analysis of how composition effects influence the introduction of technological change in a global economy, characterized by the variety of production functions in use and different local factor markets, provide new strength to the induced innovation approach. Developing the localized technological change approach, it is argued that because there are irreversibilities, limited knowledge and local learning, the introduction of new technologies is induced by the disequilibrium conditions brought about in each system by all changes in relative factor prices. The direction of technological change in terms of its specific form of bias and how it is introduced and adopted, however, reflects the specific conditions of local factor markets. Well-defined long-term technological paths emerge in each region and they depend on the selection process in product markets. The more rigid and idiosyncratic, the endowment of production factors and the system of relative prices are, the more specific the technological path of each region is likely to be. The divide between the microeconomic and the macroeconomic models of induced technological change is reconciled.     

The Story-lines of Technological Change: Innovation,Construction and Appropriation

The paper contrasts three story-lines of technological change, which represent three different ways to think about technology as a social process. Each story-line, or discourse, or narrative strategy, has its own special terminology and is derived from particular academic fields and intellectual traditions. And each has different ways of considering the forms of social agency that are relevant in relation to technological change. For the story-line of innovation, the relevant agents are the producers of commercial products, often referred to as systems of innovation; for the story-line of construction, agency is conceptualized as those particular actors that have an interest in a particular artifact and its promulgation. For the story-line of appropriation, the social agency is differentiated into various user communities. When we analyze the relations between technology and society, it is important to know which kind of story we are telling and which story-line, or narrative strategy we are following.     

The Story-lines of Technological Change: Innovation, Construction and Appropriation

The paper contrasts three story-lines of technological change, which represent three different ways to think about technology as a social process. Each story-line, or discourse, or narrative strategy, has its own special terminology and is derived from particular academic fields and intellectual traditions. And each has different ways of considering the forms of social agency that are relevant in relation to technological change. For the story-line of innovation, the relevant agents are the producers of commercial products, often referred to as systems of innovation; for the story-line of construction, agency is conceptualized as those particular actors that have an interest in a particular artifact and its promulgation. For the story-line of appropriation, the social agency is differentiated into various user communities. When we analyze the relations between technology and society, it is important to know which kind of story we are telling and which story-line, or narrative strategy we are following.     

Innovating SMEs and Regions: The Need for Policy Intelligence and Interactive Policies

Based on the empirical findings achieved through comparative research involving 40 innovation policy instruments from 11 European regions, this paper proposes a shift in rationale and in the broad orientations of innovation policy to focus on addressing SMEs in their regional context. The main role for innovation policy, which aims to increase the capacity of a region and the capabilities of its SMEs to innovate, is to foster interactive learning within the firms and within the region. This calls for an interactive mode of policy intervention. The paper deals also with the question of how to build a coherent portfolio of policy instruments, taking into account both regional situations and specific SMEs needs in terms of innovation. The key message is that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' policy portfolio. Regional differences in innovation capabilities call for a tailored mix of policy instruments. One salient element of the conclusion is the need for more 'policy intelligence' in this complex field.     

Measuring intensity of technological change: The seismic approach

The abundance of typologies, within the economics of innovation, has resulted in the same name being used for different innovation types and the same innovation being classified under different typologies. The present research introduces the Scale of Innovation Intensity (SIIN) based on metataxonomy that subsumes other, less comprehensive taxonomies. The SIIN is similar to the seismic Mercalli's scale used to measure the intensity of earthquakes. The impact of technological change is measured by an indicator, called magnitude, based on the impact of technological innovations on the economic system. The theory is applied to some product and process innovations such as agricultural mechanization, aircraft technology, muffler catalytic, aluminum processing, etc. The results show that some innovations have a higher technological intensity and energy (economic impact) on well-being than others. Some concluding remarks are discussed in the final part of this research.     

Functions of innovation systems: A new approach for analysing technological change

The central idea of this paper is that innovation systems are a very important determinant of technological change. We describe that the emergence of a new innovation system and changes in existing innovation systems co-evolve with the process of technological change. Therefore, it is necessary to create more insight in the dynamics of innovation systems. Traditional methods of innovation system analysis that mainly focus on the structure of innovation systems have proven to be insufficient. Therefore, we propose a framework that focuses on a number of processes that are highly important for well performing innovation systems. These processes are labeled as ‘functions of innovation systems’. After explaining this framework and embedding it in existing literature, we propose a method for systematically mapping those processes taking place in innovation systems and resulting in technological change. This method can be characterized as a process analysis or history event analysis. Clarifying examples are taken from the empirical field of Sustainable Technology Development.     

Gross Investment And Technological Change

The impact of technological change upon gross investment has been relatively ignored. Building upon the foundations of the analysis of technological diffusion, an empirical model of gross investment is constructed that takes due account of technological change. This model is then tested upon a panel data set covering 185 UK firms over the period from 1984 to 1992. The results support the hypothesis that there are significant relationships of the expected signs between firm level gross investment, indicators of technological opportunity; the price of the capital goods that embody new technology, and firm and industry characteristics. There is also evidence of lagged adjustment effects in the investment process.     

Managing technology intelligence processes in situations of radical technological change

For established companies, radical technological change is not only a challenge, but it also constitutes a major source of failure. By establishing effective technology intelligence processes, companies may react to radical trends in time which is a prerequisite for coping with technological change. Therefore, this study analyzes the technology intelligence processes in 25 multinational companies in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications equipment and automobile industries in the context of radical technological change. In the three industries, the technologies combinatorial chemistry, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and fuel cell are used as settings to analyze these processes on the technology level against the background of the company-level perspective. By applying this complex view, which allows to take into account interactions between different organizational mechanisms and between different hierarchical levels inside a firm, three types of organizing technology intelligence processes can be identified: the participatory, the hybrid and the hierarchical technology intelligence process. The organization of the technology intelligence process according to the three types is influenced by the corporate culture and the decision-making style of the companies. Furthermore, industry differences are identified which may be explained by different rates of radical technological change in the industries. This study suggests that more complex and differentiated views on radical technological change, on corporate technology intelligence processes and on the variety of organizational structures involved in these processes are required.     

Malmquist indices of productivity change in Portuguese banking: The deregulation period

This paper will evaluate productivity change in Portuguese banking using the Malmquist productivity index. The results show that between 1990 and 1997, banks in Portugal witnessed increased productivity and strong technological progress. Both small and large banks experienced higher productivity and technological change scores, while mid-sized institutions are putting more effort into catching-up policies. Rural banks have experienced strong productivity growth and are catching up with the best practices but lower levels of technological change. Urban banks show higher productivity growth and technological change levels. Government-owned banks have experienced lower levels of productivity change. Finally, the asset per employee ratio shows a positive correlation with the productivity scores, suggesting that this simple index is a good proxy for productivity.