Technology and structures: Man and machine

The increasing size of the telecommunications machine poses a threat to its flexibility and adaptive capacity. The author examines this problem from the point of view of telecommunication organizations, taking account of the degree of government regulation and methods of raising capital. He offers a critical view of the unwieldiness and inertia in the telecommunication systems.     

增值税转型后固定资产涉税的会计处理

增值税由生产型转变为消费型,抵扣范围扩大,必然影响到会计核算中对于固定资产的计价、企业应纳增值税额的确定以及相关的一系列问题。本文仅对消费型增值税下增值税一般纳税人固定资产涉税业务的会计处理问题进行了探讨。     

财务信息技术与现代物流的融合创新与思考

大型煤炭企业现代物流正由传统物流向现代物流转变,财务管理作为大型煤炭企业现代物流不可缺少的管理系统,也在物流转型期间不断更新。现代物流是企业最后也是最有希望降低成本、提高利润的环节,同时也需要企业财务管理部门提供更强有力的支撑。指出了财务信息技术与大型煤炭企业现代物流业融合发展的必要性,提出了以财务信息技术推进大型煤炭企业现代物流发展的3项措施,即建立统一的物流财务信息平台、发展第三方物流企业和加强物流专门人才的培养与培训。     

Micro-computers and decision making

The micro-computer is claimed to have lost its designation "Hobbyist" and to provide a real computing facility for professionals at low cost and high convenience. The authors have taken a number of decision-making and forecasting systems and "translated" them to operate on a variety of micro-computers including the Texas TI 59, the Sinclair ZX 81, the Commodore PET and VIC and the Apple II. Experience in operating the "translated" programs on the small machines has shown perhaps surprising advantages over the main-frame versions from which they were devised.
The paper is in two parts. In the first part the use of micro-computers is discussed in the light of our experience and in the second part the operation of the programs is explained. The use of standard software packages in R & D is not discussed. The programs which are discussed with examples of their use are:
MAUDE derived from the main-frame decision analysis program AIDA
RELEVANCE a resource allocation ANALYSIS algorithm
MARKOV CHAIN a stochastic ANALYSIS approach to forecasting
CROSS IMPACT a policy analysis tool based on KISM Cross-impact language
LINKAGE an extension to ANALYSIS Cross Impact     

我国煤炭物流与供应链发展现状和趋势

回顾和总结了当前我国煤炭供应链发展状况,分析煤炭供应链发展中存在的问题。并提出对包括煤炭市场交易体系建设提速、煤炭战略平台向网络化方向发展、煤炭物流与供应链向绿色低碳方向发展等5方面煤炭供应链未来发展的基本趋势。     

Corporate strategy and the buying and selling of know-how

At this time, following a protracted period of recession, many companies have need to add to or change their technological base. For a company whose basic business is founded on a mature technology and unlikely to recover to its former level of activity, there is need to consider the transition process into a new area of development. For companies, on the other hand, whose businesses are inherently sound but now find themselves lagging behind technologically because of cut-backs and economies in their R&D spend during the recession, some process of catching up may be necessary. In either case, internal development is a possibility but, it is argued, unlikely to be able to act fast enough or to be of sufficient magnitude to make even catching up possible. The acquisition of know-how is an alternative course of action but one which companies can be loath to follow. These statements are supported by evidence on international comparisons of R&D expenditure, and on the national ratios of royalty payments and receipts in respect of know-how. The circumstances under which companies should consider such acquisition, and the strategic considerations guiding which know-how to purchase, are discussed.     

Innovation management techniques and tools: a review from theory and practice

Knowledge is considered to be an economic driver in today's economy. It has become a commodity, a resource that can be packed and transferred. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the scope, trends and major actors (firms, organizations, government, consultants, academia, etc.) in the development and use of methods to manage innovation in a knowledge-driven economy. The paper identifies the main innovation management techniques (IMTs) aiming at the improvement of firm competitiveness by means of knowledge management. It will specifically focus on those IMTs for which knowledge is a relevant part of the innovation process. The research study, based on a survey at the European level, concludes that a knowledge-driven economy affects the innovation process and approach. The traditional idea that innovation is based on research (technology-push theory) and interaction between firms and other actors has been replaced by the current social network theory of innovation, where knowledge plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. Simultaneously, organizations in both public and private sectors have launched initiatives to develop methodologies and tools to support business innovation management. Higher education establishments, business schools and consulting companies are developing innovative and adequate methodologies and tools, while public authorities are designing and setting up education and training schemes aimed at disseminating best practices among all kinds of businesses.     

Technical change and scale economies given stochastic demand and production

This paper provides a formal attempt to separate the effects of changes in scale and technology for a relatively general class of queuing models. The paper makes a distinction between the output rate and capacity. While changes in technology affect the output rate and lead to larger, indivisible production units, this change in the output rate has often been confused in the literature as a change in scale. As a result, the importance of scale economies claimed has often been due more to the potential for technological change, not the potential for scale economies inherent to these queuing processes.     

Foreign and domestic US policies: Spectrum reservations and media balance

This article examines the US opposition to a priori planning of the HF and space satellite spectrum, and ‘orbital slots’. This opposition is then contrasted with the rationale of domestic pre-engineered allocation and allotment plans for television and FM radio. The article then contrasts the US animus towards Third World calls for a ‘balanced’ information flow with the longstanding US commitment to fairness, balance, equal access and diversity. The author suggest that the operation of a foreign-domestic double standard could damage US credibility.     

Juggling ecumenical wisdoms and xenophobic institutions: Framing and modelling China's telecommunications universal service and rural digitalization initiatives and policies

China historically belongs to a farming civilization, in which rural population tended to stick to their farmlands for a lifetime. This situation has somehow been changing with, inter alia, the advancement and application of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In recent years, China has been pushing for the inclusion of its rural communities into modern information society through aggressively digitalizing its rural areas under a public policy umbrella. With the literature's lopsided focus on Western nations, a cohesive paradigm in mapping the Chinese style of universal service implementation remains elusive, a situation that has often obfuscated deeper understanding of the Chinese case from a socioeconomic, technological, or institutional perspective. The main purpose of this present paper lies in the framing and modelling of China's universal service and rural digitalization practices. The paper proposes and applies an integrated offer–agent–target (OAT) framework in a retrospective and empirical examination of the Chinese case and conceptual characterization of what has appeared to be the Chinese model. In so doing, China's universal service development is demarcated into discernible stages that are then pattern-matched with corresponding institutional landscapes. Three salient stages are identified and corresponding institutional landscapes explicated. Finally, insights and suggestions are offered that throws lights on the current issues and future developments.     

Honeymoons and Liabilities: The Relationship between Age and Performance in Research and Development Alliances

The use of strategic alliances by technology ventures has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. During this period companies not only have increased the use of alliances but also have used them in more strategically important areas, particularly in research and development (R&D) and new product development. Thus, successful management of strategic alliances in high‐technology industries has become critical to a firm's new product development and ultimately to firm performance. Yet little is known about what determines the performance of individual alliances. This article examines the relationship between the age of an alliance and the performance of the alliance. Two competing hypotheses regarding the form of the functional relationship between alliance age and alliance performance are developed and are tested. First, a liability of newness hypothesis, which posits that alliance performance increases in a linear fashion over time, is tested. Then a honeymoon hypothesis, which posits that the relationship between age and alliance performance is nonlinear with alliance performance decreasing initially but increasing over time, is tested. It is proposed further here that alliances that are more important to the focal firm exhibit longer honeymoon periods. A measure of individual alliance performance is developed based on our field study in the biotechnology industry. The competing hypotheses are tested using regression analysis on the sample of 115 R&D alliances. Then the analysis is extended by splitting the sample into high‐ and low‐importance alliances to enhance the robustness of the findings. Further, such a split‐sample approach enables testing for a potential moderating effect of alliance importance on the hypothesized relationship between alliance age and alliance performance. The results suggest that the relationship between age and alliance performance seems to be U‐shaped curvilinear rather than linear, with the minimum point of alliance performance occurring after approximately four and one‐half years. Thus, the results indicate that strategic alliances appear to face a liability of adolescence rather than a liability of newness. Contrary to expectations, it also is found that important alliances exhibit generally shorter honeymoons.     

Energy use and fruits and vegetables

The consumer has many options to save energy through small dietary changes. With no change in the variety of fruits and vegetables eaten, the consumer can save considerable amounts of energy by bringing them to the table without use of a home freezer, frequent long distance shopping trips and oven cooking. Other conservation measures include buying in large containers, eating uncooked food, using fresh produce rather than canned or frozen, except in the case of frozen juice concentrates, and having a home fruit and vegetable garden.     

Flexibility and rigidity in customization and build-to-order production

This paper deals with the efforts of firms to tailor their products to the needs of individual customers. The overall aim is to analyse the features of the evolving activity structures where customized offerings are created with ‘near mass production efficiency’. The paper begins with a literature review outlining modularity and build-to-order production as key features of customizing. The empirical setting of the case study is Volvo Cars' activity structure for build-to-order production. This structure is compared with previous means of making products available. The conclusion of the study is that activity structures for build-to-order production require extensive coordination, exchange of information, and interaction across company boundaries. The analysis shows that these structures rely on flexibility in some dimensions, while in others they build on rigidity. The paper concludes with implications for suppliers regarding how to combine flexibility and rigidity in order to be able to customize at reasonable costs.     

Crowdsourcing and work: individual factors and circumstances influencing employability

The development of a fast and reliable Internet, new technologies online payment systems, and changes in work structure that enable and demand flexible working patterns have driven a move to a new form of Internet‐enabled labour exchange called crowdsourcing. Evidence from an in‐depth qualitative study is presented, focusing on selected users' interactions and experiences of working on two UK‐based crowdsourcing platforms. The paper shows that workers engaged in this form of labour exchange need to deploy existing employability skills and networks to effectively meet the challenges, and take advantage of the opportunities, that crowdsourcing presents. Individual factors and circumstances emerge as paramount for workers' continued engagement in this form of employment. Using selected components from an employability framework, the findings suggest that crowdsourcing can offer new pathways to practising skills and enhancing employability for some workers.     

FROM EXPERIENCE: Creating Synergy between Marketing and Research and Development*

The tensions between marketing and research and development (R&D) are so common that we have come to accept them as the way organizations are. If we remain resigned like this, how will we ever reap some of the benefits that can accrue from these groups working better together? If we can improve the working relationships between marketing and R&D, researchers promise a variety of desirable organizational outcomes, such as cycle‐time reduction and new product success. This article describes in detail the changes that a Fortune 500 company made to its product development process to foster synergy between marketing and R&D. The modified process formalized the roles of marketing and R&D at both the front and back ends of the product development process, increasing productive interaction between the groups. The company found that at the front end, marketing and R&D needed to work together (1) to clarify the market requirements implicit in the market attack plan and (2) to develop a technical strategy that responded to the market requirements and that consequently implemented the market attack plan. At the back end, the groups needed to work together (3) to formulate the value messages used to market the company's products. The synergy created between marketing and R&D through the new process is credited for enabling the company to compete successfully in a market it never before had entered.     

Responsive and Proactive Market Orientation and New‐Product Success*

What is the relationship between market orientation and new‐product success? This important question has not been examined adequately to date because the concept of market orientation has been measured too narrowly. The concept of market orientation implies both responsive market orientation, which addresses the expressed needs of customers, and proactive market orientation, which addresses the latent needs of customers—that is, opportunities for customer value of which the customer is unaware. In the numerous market orientation–performance studies to date, the measure of market orientation has consisted virtually entirely of behaviors related to satisfying customers' expressed needs rather than satisfying their latent needs as well. The present study extends the measurement of market orientation to match the full scope of the concept—to measure both responsive market orientation and proactive market orientation. Using data from a sample of technologically diverse businesses, the present study develops a measure of proactive market orientation, refines the extant measure of responsive market orientation, and analyzes the relationship of a business's responsive and proactive market orientation to its new‐product success. The study findings imply that for any business to create and to sustain new‐product success, a responsive market orientation is not sufficient and, thus, that a proactive market orientation plays a very important positive role in a business's new‐product success. These findings make intuitive sense. For if in developing its new products a business relies solely on what customers state as their new product needs, the business is very vulnerable economically. Such a business is vulnerable not only for relying on customers' best guesses for new products, many or most of which may have little long‐term economic value for either party, but also to competitors' parallel new product responses and the inevitable resulting price competition. A business that relies solely on customers' expressed needs to develop its new products creates no new insights into value‐adding opportunities for the customer and thereby creates little or no customer dependence and foundation for customer loyalty. The important role for proactive market orientation in new‐product success is intuitively obvious—and is supported empirically in this study.     

Comparison of patterns of research effectiveness and output and their stability across six countries*

The focus of the study is an exploration of the stability of relationships between characteristics of research groups and various dimensions of the effectiveness of research activities across different national settings. The analysis is based on data collected by a Unesco coordinated international research team in six European countries. Data were collected by means of a survey of research groups engaged in research and experimental development activities in a variety of scientific disciplines, primarily in the natural and technological sciences. The total sample consists of 1,222 research groups. From a wide variety of data a set of indices describing the age, patterns of communication, management, diversity, morale and inter-personal relations in the unit, etc., were selected on the basis of observed correlations to measures of effectiveness in the samples of each of the six countries. By means of a residualization procedure the indices were adjusted for the effect of the type of institution end scientific field of research groups to eliminate differences with respect to these two structural dimensions in the samples of the different countries. Stepwise regression analyses were performed separately for each country to explore the relationships of the ‘adjusted’ indices to seven different measures of effectiveness. The common pattern of relationships of certain indices to give effectiveness measures is described and discussed. The recurrent relevance of certain variables in the individual countries across a variety of effectiveness measures is analysed. On the basis of these analyses a few ‘universal’ indices are isolated such as quality of research planning, communication with users of the research results, and the research morale as perceived by unit heads and scientists. These seem to have consistent, systematic and additive relationships across countries to most of the specific dimensions of research group effectiveness. In conclusion the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Predicting and controlling flammability of multiple fuel and multiple inert mixtures

Le Chatelier's Rule is in wide use for predicting the flammability of mixtures with multiple fuels present. The rule does not conveniently handle multiple inerts or elevated temperatures and pressures. This paper describes an alternate method, developed at Air Products, called FLAMCHEK^TM, which conveniently handles these variables. This method for predicting flammability is based upon the commonality of the adiabatic flame temperature of a wide variety of fuels at their upper and lower flammable limits. The method, if PC based, can be extended to automatically control the addition of inerts, fuels, or oxidizers in order to avoid flammable conditions. The concept may be extended to more involved applications, such as within an oil well with fuel gas mixtures containing oxygen. In this case, the location from which a gas sample is obtained for analysis (wellhead) may have a different fuel analysis and flammability condition than the location where an explosion is likely to initiate (bottom of well). Hence a correction of the fuels analysis is required.     

己内酰胺的生产技术及国内外市场分析

介绍了己内酰胺的生产技术新进展，其中绿色生产工艺是今后的发展趋势。2005年全世界己内酰胺的总生产能力为4451kt，总消费量为3950kt，预计2009年总消费量将达到4731kt，2014年将达到5320kt。2005年我国己内酰胺的总生产能力为350kt，产量为212．1kt，消费量为703．2kt，产不足需，每年都得大量进口。预计2010年我国己内酰胺的总消费量将达到约1040kt，己内酰胺在我国发展前景广阔。今后我国应积极采用先进技术扩大装置的生产规模，以从根本上缓解我国己内酰胺的供需矛盾。     

煤电一体化“淮南模式”深化与发展

总结淮南矿业集团和浙江能源集团合资均股共建"淮南模式"的煤电企业经验,充分肯定两个能源行业的有机融合给淮浙煤电有限责任公司带来的巨大效益。提出了当前需要解决的问题,探讨了今后的发展方向。