Information technology: Anatomy of a successful european collaboration

Europe is betting on a two-pronged stategy to revers the dwindling fortunes of its information technology (IT) industry in the world market. This is the completion of of the single European market by 1993, together with the promotion of R&;D collaboration between European IT companies and research institutions. This paper examines why Europe is collaborationg in IT and looks in detail at the way this is happening in practice. It asks: How is it that institutions from different countries come together and generate new technologies which are genuinely European? A successful European collaborative computer project provides the focus foa the discussion. The main exphasis is on showing why the collaboration took place, what major conflicats affected the development of the project, how they were solved and how the solution of the conflicts was reflected in the actual shape of the technology produced.     

Institutional elasticity as a significant driver of IT functionality development

Institutions drive innovation and stimulate broad diffusion. Not surprisingly, national systems of innovation are influenced by their institutional flexibility in response to changing market conditions. As nations move from industrial to information-based societies, a key factor governing institutional “elasticity” is how institutions integrate information technology (IT). Since IT functionality is intimately connected with institutional dynamics, unlike simple manufactured products such as refrigerators, IT's specific functionality is formed through dynamic interaction with institutional systems. Consequently, institutional elasticity is a critical factor in the functionality of IT and its subsequent self-propagating behavior.This paper analyzes the mechanism of IT functionality development, with special attention to the interaction of the technology with institutional systems.     

为什么是欧洲和西方，而不是中国？

在技术发展的历史上,为什么其他地区未能与欧洲同步？这是一个重要的问题,因为失败和成功能给我们同样的启迪。中国文明是唯一能够与欧洲相媲美甚至比欧洲更早地获得辉煌成就的文明。中国曾有两次机会：首先,在自有的传统和成就的基础上产生出可以持续的、自我支撑的科技进步的过程;第二,在十六世纪外国列强踏上中国领土的时候就学习欧洲的科技。中国两次错失良机。如何解释第一次机会的流失？我强调市场的作用：事实是,在欧洲企业是自由的,创新得以进行而且能够得到回报;而在中国则缺乏自由的市场和制度化的产权,中国政府总是在干预私营企业。至于第二次错失机会,原因在于中国文化上的自负加上日益严重的苛政,使得中国尤其不善学习。     

Europe vs America: Institutional hysteresis in a simple normative model

We show how the differences in US and European institutions can arise in a normative model. The paper focuses on the labor market and the government's decision to set unemployment benefits in response to an unemployment shock. The government balances insurance considerations with the tax burden of benefits and the possibility that they introduce adverse “incentive effects” whereby benefits increase unemployment. It is found that when an adverse shock occurs, benefits should be increased most when the adverse incentive effects of benefits are largest. Adjustment costs of changing benefits introduce hysteresis and can help explain why post-oil shock benefits remained high in Europe but not in the US. Desirable features of the model are that we obtain an asymmetry out of a symmetric environment and that the mechanism yielding hysteresis is both simple (requires the third derivative of the utility function to be non-negative) and self-correcting. Empirical evidence concerning the role of corporatism is discussed.     

Flexibility and Growth

After two decades of theoretical discussion and application of labour policies aimed at flexibility, ever-spreading unemployment in Europe has compelled some official institutions to admit that the 'rigidity' of the labour market does not suffice to account for the different trends in employment displayed by Europe and the United States. In this paper, we focus on the role played by differentials in income growth. After briefly reviewing the explanations of European unemployment based on labour market rigidity and their respective weaknesses, we look at the relationship between growth and employment, concluding that there are grounds for maintaining that the causes of Europe's higher unemployment reside mainly in its lower rate of growth.We therefore investigate the reasons that may be responsible for a more stringent macroeconomic constraint on European growth.We conclude that if a lack of growth is at the root of European unemployment, then merely dismantling labour market institutions, and replacing them with a more flexible system of industrial relations, will not only fail to produce the expected results but may also have negative effects, in both the social and productive structure.     

European women: why do(n’t) they work?1

To increase labour market participation is a major challenge currently faced by the EU, and attracting women into the labour force appears as a promising avenue to do so. Therefore, a clear understanding of what the factors influencing the evolution of female participation rates are in Europe is essential for a successful design of policy measures aiming at increasing participation rates. This article provides empirical evidence on the role that institutions have played in determining participation rates of women in the European labour markets. Our findings discard any doubt on the influence of institutions on women's participation in Europe. The strictness of labour market institutions negatively affects female participation rates. We also find that institutional features aimed at reconciling motherhood with professional life such as maternity leave schemes and part-time work favour participation rates of prime-age women. Additionally, fertility rates and education enrolment have been relevant for the evolution of participation rates during the sample period considered for prime-age and young females, respectively, while cohort effects drive the developments of older females.     

Organizational Learning in Cooperative Alliances: Some Case Studies in Biotechnology

Dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) have played an important role in commercializing biotechnology. They emerged first in the US and, after a 5-year time lag, they also appeared in Europe. Faced with long and costly product lead times, DBFs raised money by entering into research contracts, mainly with large chemical and pharmaceutical companies. These coopertive research alliances have not vanished as biotechnology has matured and are more in evidence today than they were in the early dasy of the commercialization of biotechnology. This paper investigates how and why large and small companies enter research collaborations, what they learn from working together, and the effects on European competitiveness.     

From families to formal contracts: An approach to development

This paper develops a theory in which individuals can use one of two types of human/social capital to enforce contracts: “Local capital” relies on families and other personal networks; “market capital” relies on impersonal market institutions such as auditors and courts. Local capital is efficient when most trading is local, but only market capital can support trading between strangers that allows extensive division of labor and industrialization. We show that economies with a low cost of accumulating local capital (say, because people live close together) are richer than economies with a high cost of accumulation when long distance trade is difficult, but are slower to transition to impersonal market exchange (industrialize) when long distance trade becomes feasible. The model provides one way to understand why the wealthiest economies in 1600 AD, China, India, and the Islamic Middle East, industrialized more slowly than the West. We report an array of historical evidence documenting the pre-industrial importance of family and kinship networks in China, India, and the Islamic world compared to Europe, and the modernization problems linked to local capital.     

Organizational Learning in Cooperative Alliances: Some Case Studies in Biotechnology

Dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) have played an important role in commercializing biotechnology. They emerged first in the US and, after a 5-year time lag, they also appeared in Europe. Faced with long and costly product lead times, DBFs raised money by entering into research contracts, mainly with large chemical and pharmaceutical companies. These coopertive research alliances have not vanished as biotechnology has matured and are more in evidence today than they were in the early dasy of the commercialization of biotechnology. This paper investigates how and why large and small companies enter research collaborations, what they learn from working together, and the effects on European competitiveness.     

大数据环境特征对IT外包项目绩效的影响

对知识密集型的IT外包行业来说,大数据环境成为接包企业潜在的知识来源。然而,大数据环境是否真的促进IT接包项目绩效？如何从中获益？现有文献对这些问题缺乏研究。基于资源编排理论,探讨了大数据易得性和冗杂性对IT接包项目绩效的直接影响,检验了功能组合和专项突破两种软件开发策略的调节作用,提出6条假设,采用195个IT外包项目数据进行检验。研究发现,大数据易得性显著提高接包项目绩效,而大数据冗杂性显著降低项目绩效;功能组合策略增强而专项突破策略削弱了大数据易得性对项目绩效的促进作用;两种开发策略对大数据冗杂性与项目绩效关系的调节作用不显著。     

EUROPEAN MARKET INTEGRATION AND THE SMALL NATION

Predictions of Portuguese export market performance consequent on European market integration tended to come up short. To explain why, the author presents and analyzes the technical literature. The author compares the forecasts with actual results and then develops a simple model to extrapolate and replicate the prE-1992 Portuguese experiences. This model builds on relatively rapid growth already under way. The author holds that relative export industry market share as a function of relative sales effort explained export performance. Further, the author argues that four country industry concentration ratios as a function of changes in revealed comparative advantage as well as "home market" institutions explain the competitive situations faced by Portuguese exports both before and after 1992. The concatenation of these four variables yields successive equilibria.     

商品金融化与产品定价机制变革——从近代欧洲大宗商品交易中心形成过程谈起

近年来,在金融全球化背景下,商品金融化趋势愈加显著。商品金融化并非新生事物,早在近代欧洲,一些大宗商品贸易已开始被赋予金融属性。本文从近代欧洲大宗商品交易中心的形成过程的历史视角研究商品金融化与产品定价机制变革关系,对荷兰的大宗商品交易中心发展过程及商品金融属性的表现特征研究发现,各类金融衍生工具在近代初期已从商品交易中发展起来,并在阿姆斯特丹商品市场上大量应用。由于过分依赖资本收益,国内产业衰落,荷兰商品交易中心地位没能保持下去,在工业革命前半个世纪甚至更早,欧洲商品交易中心从阿姆斯特丹转移至伦敦。从交易中心的形成与转移,可以看到商品金融化进程中基本条件的意义与作用,以及商品金融化问题的本质。这同时揭示出当代商品金融化趋势与产品定价机制变革的关系。     

Technology transfer in the IT industry: A Korean perspective

Recently Korean Government announced ambitious IT strategy to establish Korea as one of leaders in world IT market. To implement this strategy, technology transfer from research lab to market should be successfully performed. This study is to identify factors influencing technology transfer and to examine contribution of these factors on success of technology transfer in Korean IT industry. Survey results show that technology project leaders evaluated “Concreteness of Technology” as the most influential factor for technology transfer, followed by “Communication Channels,” “Collaboration among Participants,” “Management Support,” “Government Support,” and “Incentives for Transfer.” Out of 135 technology transfer projects, respondents rated 33 projects as sustaining (28.44%), 38 as promoting (28.15%), 26 as demonstrating (19.26%), 27 in incubating (20.00%), and the remaining 7 in imaging stage (8.15%). This statistics means that 28.15% of technology transfer projects did not reach production stage. Regression analysis identifies that “Communication Channels,” “Management Support,” “Concreteness of Technology” “Sense of Common Purpose,” and “Awareness of Technology Transfer” were statistically significant in explaining success of technology transfer.     

Why is TFP growth sectorally concentrated?

Research shows that total factor productivity (TFP) growth is weak in European countries. This is inter alia attributed to the fact that substantial TFP growth is limited to a few industries. Because TFP growth is typically understood as technological progress, it is concluded that technology diffusion between sectors in Europe is hampered. We use EU KLEMS data sets to decompose sectoral TFP for nine European countries by means of a Malmquist approach in order to identify potential sources besides technical progress. Applying Harberger diagrams, we describe the sectoral distribution of TFP growth, efficiency gains and losses, economies of scale and technological progress. The analysis reveals that technological progress is quite evenly distributed across sectors in most European countries. The wide scattering of TFP growth is explained by deviating efficiency developments and the unused economies of scale. We conclude that the technology transfer between sectors in most European countries seems to work. Therefore, Europe in general does not need a new technology policy, but a further integration of the markets and a reduction of national market entry barriers. This requires further unification of pan-European standards in fields like trade and crafts codes or consumer protection policies.     

Redefining Europe: Russia and the 2015 Refugee Crisis

ABSTRACT

This article uses approaches embedded in practical and popular geopolitics for analysing how Russia capitalizes on the refugee crisis to redefine Europe. Two of Russia’s European policies are at the centre of this analysis: 1) Moscow’s direct appeal to Russian-speaking communities, and 2) the Kremlin’s liaisons with Eurosceptic parties of national conservative background. The main questions these two policies raise are: 1) how Russia benefits from anti-refugee attitudes among European national conservative groups, and 2) how illustrative Russia’s policies are of Moscow’s strategy toward Europe in the context of the refugee crisis. The article argues that, for Russia, these two policies constitute a strategy of re-entry into Europe from which Moscow was increasingly isolated in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. In this context, the authors claim that the refugee crisis has widened room for Russia’s return to the European (geo)political scene through a strategy of redefining Europe in more conservative and traditionalist terms, as opposed to the liberal cosmopolitanism of EU’s project. Using the concepts of trans-ideology and biopolitics, the article claims that Russia’s strategy of re-entry includes narratives of othering today’s Orientalized Europe and salvaging it from liberal tolerance, political correctness and cultural fragmentation.     

Engineering Consultancy: An Assessment of IT-enabled International Delivery of Services

The delivery of engineering consultancy services in global markets has been dominated by a small group of firms located in Europe and the US. Like many other service industries, engineering consultants have depended on the movement of highly qualified people and establishment of local affiliates for rendering their services in overseas markets. However, the diffusion of new information technology (IT) and the use of advanced telecommunications have changed the patterns of production and delivery of engineering design services. This paper examines the role of IT in changing modes of internationalization in the sector, focussing in particular on the potential for IT-enabled delivery that would provide an increased tradability of services. It is argued that new technologies have led to integration of project work and new sources of competitiveness in major firms, but that the emerging capacity to deliver services in arms-length transactions across national borders does not appear to have been significantly exploited. Nevertheless, IT-enabled delivery of engineering consultancy services opens up possibilities for business process reengineering that may provide some firms new competitive advantages in global markets and lead to further integration of design and construction in partnerships or project consortia, or in the strengthening of design-build approaches in project execution.     

The Eureka project and the industrial policy of the European Community

The evolution of EC industrial policy is presented in three phases; competition policy, crisis management, systemic adaptation. The third phase includes a range of initiatives towards a technological community, among them Eureka. It is argued that the official rationale for this project, the need to meet a competitive threat in high technology from Japan and the US, is questionable – the threat has been exaggerated and European technical collaboration is not necessarily the most appropriate response. On the other hand, the method of the Eureka project – the encouragement of collaboration between industrial enterprises in different member countries – is seen as an effective instrument for integration.     

The economic contribution of information technology: Towards comparative and user studies

By what process does technical change in information technology (IT) increase economic welfare? How does this process result in increases in welfare at different rates in different countries and regions? This paper considers existing literature on measuring the economic benefits from information technology, emphasizing comparative issues and user studies. Following Bresnahan and Trajtenberg (1995), we call the invention associated with customizing the technological frontier to the unique needs of users in particular regions “co-invention”, placing emphasis on understanding how its determinants vary across users in different regions. We develop a framework for understanding the processes behind value-creation, demand-side heterogeneity and co-inventive activity. Then we discuss why these processes make measuring the welfare benefits from advances in information technology particularly difficult. We highlight the metrics currently available for measuring the economic pay-out of the IT revolution and identify which of these vary meaningfully in a comparative regional context. Finally, we finish with observations about further areas of research.     

Comparing Care Regimes in Europe

Throughout Europe, the family is still an important provider of care, but welfare state policies of individual countries may support and/or supplement the family in different ways, generating different social and economic outcomes. This article compares and categorizes care strategies for children and elderly persons in different member states of the European Union, while also taking into account the varied modalities for providing care, like leave arrangements, financial provisions, and social services. In EU countries, care regimes function as “social joins” ensuring complementarity between economic and demographic institutions and processes. As these processes and institutions change, they provide impetus for care regimes to change as well. However, because ideas and ideals about care are at the core of individual national identities, care regimes also act as independent incentive structures that impinge on patterns of women's labor market participation and fertility.     

技术制度的创新与软技术

本文从软技术角度阐述了制度的实质，技术创新和制度创新的关系，指出软技术是制定相应制度的依据和内容，软技术的创新就是相关制度创新的依据和内容；有意识地、系统地进行软技术创新和偶然地或单项的激励是不同的。进而，论述了技术制度的特点以及加强技术制度创新的必要性。