Bridge over troubled waters? problems and opportunities in interfirm research collaboration

Effective interfirm collaboration is an incresingly significant factor in technological innovation. A wide and complex range of options exists within collabotative arrangements which affect the outcome and rewards for both partners. Firms are often unaware of the strategic implications of collaborative ventures. While some large firms may be invloved in strategic alliances at the corporate level in order to establish or maintain competitiveness, many remain unaware or unconvinced of the potential for the generation of innovations through collaborations with small, flexible, 'hi-tech” firms. the pace of change and the challenge of international competition threatens Western European firms with a 'technology gap' within a 'disorganized capitalist' setting. Various forms of interfirm cooperation within and across natinal boundaires may be important responses to such uncertainty and amy ultimately provide successful strategic remedies to the situation. This article presents the findings of a recently completed research project in which 27 pairs (mostly small/large) of collaborating, innovative firms were studied in order to examine the strategic and operational issues involued in interfirm research cooperation. Whilst highlighting the advantages of collaboration, and the potential problems for both the small and the large partner, we argue that the adoption of 'cooperative game' rules id vital for successful collaborative innovation. Additionally, we attempt to posit our findings within the current debate on organized/disorganized capitalism.     

Technological Change: Disaggregation and Overseas Production

The Russian economy faces serious challenges when it comes to such issues as legitimacy of property and protection of property rights. This paper considers institutional aspects of raiding, including the role of Commercial Arbitration Courts and bankruptcy procedures in Russia. It concludes that raiding in Russia has a predatory character not because raiders prey on the weakest, failing, bankrupting businesses, but because they attack healthy and profitable enterprises, firms in temporary financial distress. Raiders use unclear ownership structure of attractive firms and buy necessary decisions from corrupt bureaucrats instead of waiting for a financial crisis to come.     

外国直接投资、技术许可与技术创新

本文以经济全球化条件下 ,以包括中国在内的发展中国家努力向发达国家通过FDI(国外直接投资 )和LICENSING(技术许可 )的渠道进行技术引进以达到自主技术创新从而推动本国经济持续增长的目标为背景 ,建立了一个技术引进与经济增长的扩展模型。本文的主要结论是 :对于包括中国在内的发展中国家 (LDC)而言 ,技术许可比FDI所带来的技术外溢更有效 ,LDC或者依赖FDI,或者依靠技术许可作为其技术引进的主要来源。没有相应管制时倾向于依赖FDI。考虑制定何种政策以达到社会福利的最优化时 ,人力资本的水平起到了决定性作用。     

Measuring the Pace of Technological Progress: Implications for Technological Forecasting

The pace of technological progress is a construct that has evolved from technological change theories. Although the construct is well described, it lacks a valid objective measure. Measuring the pace of technological progress is believed to be important for both technology management and technology forecasting. A newly-developed objective measure of the pace of technological progress called the Technology Cycle Time indicator (TCT) is evaluated. The TCT indicator was used in two comparison analyses: (1) assessing the pace of progress of superconductor and semiconductor technologies; and (2) assessing the position of various countries patenting in the semiconductor technology field. The TCT assessments were then analytically compared with specialist assessments found in the literature. The findings revealed that the TCT provided a valid assessment in each situation. The TCT has important implications for technology management and technology forecasting research.     

Research collaboration and behavioural additionality: A New Zealand case study

Generating the greatest benefit from public research programmes is a major aim for industry managers and policy administrators alike. However, how to measure whether benefit has occurred createsf a considerable dilemma for managers and policy-makers. One approach centres upon the concept of ‘additionality’ or ‘what difference the policy has made’. Traditional ‘input additionality’ measures of subsequent research and development activity, for example, neither incorporate all impacts nor give adequate signals about adequate signals about aspects of ‘output additionality’, such as the impact on increased competitiveness at the level of the firm, or national competitiveness, the ultimate goal for the majority of research policies. An intermediate form of impact, ‘behavioural additionality’, centred upon changes in a firm's subsequent managerial behaviour, is considered to provide an alternative, yet compelling perspective on the impact of public support on the conduct of research. This study outlines empirical eveidence found for the various forms of additionality in a New Zealand collaborative research programme. It discusses how managers and policy administrators can exploit the occrrence of behavioural additionality to maximize the impact of a research policy, on the basis that modified behaviour is likely to strengthen a policy' latent abilityto influence the creation of output additionality. In such circumstances, the study suggests that managers and policy-makers should be identifying those interventions that lead to sustained improvements in mangerial practice, and in competitiveness, and should be managing their diffusion within firms and throughout industries.     

Research collaboration and behavioural additionality: A New Zealand case study

Generating the greatest benefit from public research programmes is a major aim for industry managers and policy administrators alike. However, how to measure whether benefit has occurred createsf a considerable dilemma for managers and policy-makers. One approach centres upon the concept of 'additionality' or 'what difference the policy has made'. Traditional 'input additionality' measures of subsequent research and development activity, for example, neither incorporate all impacts nor give adequate signals about adequate signals about aspects of 'output additionality', such as the impact on increased competitiveness at the level of the firm, or national competitiveness, the ultimate goal for the majority of research policies. An intermediate form of impact, 'behavioural additionality', centred upon changes in a firm's subsequent managerial behaviour, is considered to provide an alternative, yet compelling perspective on the impact of public support on the conduct of research. This study outlines empirical eveidence found for the various forms of additionality in a New Zealand collaborative research programme. It discusses how managers and policy administrators can exploit the occrrence of behavioural additionality to maximize the impact of a research policy, on the basis that modified behaviour is likely to strengthen a policy' latent abilityto influence the creation of output additionality. In such circumstances, the study suggests that managers and policy-makers should be identifying those interventions that lead to sustained improvements in mangerial practice, and in competitiveness, and should be managing their diffusion within firms and throughout industries.     

技术创新与技术创新的市场定位

在加入世贸组织后我国的经济与世界经济接轨。在这样的背景下我国企业竞争优势必须具备国际水平,这关系我国企业的生存与发展。本文分析企业技术创新与企业竞争力本质联系,阐述了技术创新是提高企业竞争优势的唯一途径;并指出企业技术创新和选择必须以企业的经济效益和市场需求为前提,这样的活动才有持续的生命力。     

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.     

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.     

Technological evolution and economic instability: Theoretical simulations

This paper aims to study those firms which have similar characteristics at the beginning of time. The objective is to observe the relation that exists between technological evolution, firms' performances and economic instability. This is done using an adaptation of the Nelson and Winter model, in order to show the possibility of various growth trajectories, and also to underline the heterogeneity of the firms. This heterogeneity corresponds to a period of economic instability, and itself only exists as a result of the specific nature of the technological trend. The theoretical interest lies in using the structures/performances relation, by according a central place to innovation.     

企业技术创新:国外经验与中国抉择

加快中国企业技术创新步伐是经济全球化和新经济发展的客观要求,中国为迎接经济全球化与新经济的挑战和利用加入WTO的机遇,必须在加快现代企业制度创新的同时,根据企业内、外部资源条件的不同,选择适合本企业发展的技术创新模式,在分析国外著名企业技术创新经验和中国企业特殊性基础上,确立中国企业创新战略与发展对策。     

Technological Progress: A Proposed Measure

The article suggests a direct measure of technological progress that can be quantified with reasonable confidence on the basis of historical data. The proposed measure is the efficiency with which resources (mainly energy sources) are converted into final services. It decomposes into two components, namely the thermodynamic efficiency of converting an energy source into mechanical work and the efficiency with which mechanical work is used to produce final services. The first part of this can be estimated, by sector, with fair accuracy. The second part can only be estimated with reasonable accuracy in a few cases (such as transportation and illumination), but the results are sufficient to permit some plausible extrapolation. The proposed measure is hopefully of interest in itself. But perhaps it is more important insofar as it suggests a way to construct an economic production function that explicitly reflects technological change, rather than treating “technical progress” as an unexplained residual.     

Testing competing models of loss aversion: an adversarial collaboration

This paper reports an ‘adversarial collaboration’—a project carried out by two individuals or research groups who, having proposed conflicting hypotheses, seek to resolve their dispute. It describes an experiment which investigates whether, when individuals consider giving up money in exchange for goods, they construe money outlays as losses or as foregone gains. This issue bears on the explanation of the widely observed disparity between willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) valuations of costs and benefits, which has proved problematic for contingent valuation studies. The results of the experiment are broadly consistent with the hypothesis that money outlays are perceived as losses.