Public research intensity and the structure of German R&D networks: a comparison of 10 technologies

A rich literature has emerged that analyzes the emergence of inter-organizational networks. However, little is still known about how and why the (global) structures of such networks differ between technologies. Based on a rich database covering subsidized R&D cooperation in Germany, we compare cooperation networks of 10 distinct technologies. A particular focus is hereby on the existence of systematic differences between networks that are dominated by firms and those that primarily connect public research organizations. Among others, we find that the first tend to be larger and less dense with big firms being the most central organizations. In comparison, networks dominated by public actors are stronger centralized and involve more isolates.     

Crowd-out and diversity

Research has shown that altruism is lower in diverse communities. Can this phenomenon be counteracted by government intervention? To answer this question, this paper introduces diversity to the canonical model of “warm glow” giving. Diversity may have two effects on incentives: it may attenuate individuals' altruistic preferences for public goods, and it may “cool off” the warm glow that individuals get from voluntarism. Either of these effects leads to diverse communities having lower levels of public goods, consistent with prior research. However, these effects have opposite implications for the efficacy of government intervention. I then empirically investigate whether government intervention is more effective in diverse communities. For identification, I exploit the Supreme Court-mandated 1991 expansion of the SSI program. Using a new dataset of United Methodist churches from 1984 to 2000, the results show that the expansion of SSI crowded-out charitable spending by churches. The crowd-out estimate for the average church is reasonably large, but this masks significant differences in crowd-out between communities. Crowd-out occurred almost entirely in relatively homogeneous communities; there is only modest evidence of crowd-out in racially diverse communities. Thus diverse communities, while having the lowest levels of altruism, are in this instance the most amenable to government intervention.     

Biotechnology: the emerging battlefield for US and Japanese pharmaceutical companies

The Japanese pharmaceutical industry has lagged behind the US in developing and marhting innovative new compounh. A gap anabsis rebing on international publication and patenting stahtics as well as market survgs shows that the US is the clear leader in biophannaceuticals. Recent Japanese public and private efforts to close the gap have posed no immediate threat to US pharmaceutical companies. The conflict over industrial policy among the ministries involved will take some time to be resolved. However, information networking activities and cross-border technology linkages of Japanese companies should not be underestimated. Biotechnology is current4 transforming theJapanese pharmaceutical induse, and the US will have to deal with a gowing Japanese challenge in the long run. Preventive US counter-measures should include investments in in-house biotechnology research, acquisitions of smaller biotechnology start-up ventures, global commercialization o f biophannaceuticals, and proactive management o f technology linkages with Japanese companies.     

公共采购塑造创新的方式、机制及障碍:文献综述与展望

作为创新政策需求方复兴的核心工具之一,公共创新采购（PPI）具有改善公共服务效能和促进技术创新的双重功能。通过梳理国内外文献,从方式、机制及障碍等方面对公共创新采购研究进展进行评述。从原理看,以公共采购者、创新提供者和中介为主要参与者的公共创新采购,其本质是一个由采购过程和创新过程耦合而成的系统且包含3种机制,即交易实现机制、创新生成机制和创新扩散机制;从实践看,框架条件、组织能力、需求识别和传递、风险管理是影响公共创新采购政策效果的主要障碍。最后,总结公共创新采购研究理论框架,提出未来研究方向。     

Technological Entrepreneurship and Capability Building in Biotechnology

The question addressed in this paper is whether and how intermediate developed countries (IDCs) can profit from the possibilities opened by globalisation to set off processes of capability building in advanced technological sectors. While most debates have taken place in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) field, the paper addresses the case of biotechnology. It is argued that, given the specific characteristics of biotechnology, opportunities may emerge for technology-intensive entrepreneurial initiatives in countries that have developed a reasonable science base and built the capacity to connect to and plug into international biotechnology networks. The exploitation of these opportunities requires strategies that combine good indigenous scientific competences and a pool of skilled human resources, with transnational linkages, and that rely on firms' abilities to find a position in globally coordinated 'knowledge value chains'. The paper conducts a first assessment of the viability of this approach, drawing on empirical research on 'distant networking strategies' adopted by Portuguese new biotechnology firms.     

The impact of technology intermediaries on firm cognitive capacity additionality

Whereas the provision of R&D subsidies has been central to public policy for many years, governments have recently become increasingly involved in stimulating cooperation for innovation and R&D. In many countries, financial support for technology intermediaries has become one of the key measures of indirect public support. However, little research has assessed the impact of indirect policy measures. In this paper, we shed light on the conditions under which technology intermediaries contribute to knowledge and networking outcomes generated by the firms that call upon them. We hereby focus on firm network and competence additionality as measures for cognitive capacity additionality and study the impact of technology intermediaries on firms. In doing so, we distinguish between R&D and R&D related activity technology intermediaries engage in. The results indicate that absorptive capacity of the technology intermediary does not affect cognitive capacity additionality generated by firms in R&D activities, while the results for R&D related activities are mixed and depending on the type of cognitive capacity additionality studied. The absorptive capacity of firms does not directly affect cognitive capacity additionality, but the results of mediation analysis show that firms with higher levels of absorptive capacity use the services of the technology intermediary more intensively, and subsequently generate higher levels of cognitive capacity additionality.     

两岸科技合作治理的知识场域：范式构建与时空演进

在新时代党解决台湾问题的总体方略下,科技合作是推动两岸科技融合发展和祖国统一进程的重要组成部分。引入“知识场域”这一理论视角,构建基于结构性、关系性和实践性的两岸科技合作治理知识场域范式。从基本历程、空间特征、地区实践和共同叙事4个维度分析两岸科技合作治理的时空演进特征。讨论基础研究、专利合作与产业共通标准3类场景的实践效果,评估知识场域演化扰动因素。围绕两岸科技合作治理的内在规律和发展方向探讨现实挑战,对深化两岸科技融合具有重要意义。     

Tourism,Consumption and Inequality in Central America

Much research in international political economy (IPE) has been criticised for focussing on large and powerful actors in post-industrial countries, to the neglect of sites, processes and actors in the global South. This article offers a corrective to this bias in two ways: by locating the analysis in two rural Central American communities; and by exploring the social relations of consumption in these communities. In doing this, I challenge assumptions about rural places being excluded from global processes and explore the complexities and contradictions of how such communities are inserted into global circuits of production and consumption. Drawing on extensive qualitative research, the article explores the ways in which capitalist development through tourism has reconstituted the political economy of consumption in terms of habits, attitudes and behaviour in these two communities. Using the community and the household as sites of analysis, I explore the complex ways in which inequalities have been reconfigured through changing relations of consumption. Certain kinds of social hierarchies, in particular traditional gendered power relations within the household, have been challenged. However, other inequalities – such as class, ethnicity and nationality – have been reinforced by these processes.     

Mapping the emerging field of genome editing

Targeted genetic modification (TagMo) technologies are being used for new approaches to genetic engineering often called ‘genome editing’. These approaches are in the early stages of development, and basic understandings of what TagMo is, of its likely future, and how it should be governed are still being established. In order to inform these discussions and increase their transparency, we map the scientific landscape of TagMo using advances in tech mining and bibliometrics and in consultation with experts in the field. We assess the sub-topics and disciplines associated with TagMo research, and the actors, institutions, and nations involved, while making observations about the funding of research and the collaborative patterns among actors. The technology assessment approach used in this article has important implications for anticipatory governance of TagMo plant products. It is designed to help scientists, managers, and policy-makers understand trends in TagMo technological development in order to prepare for future governance.     

关于对技术转移服务组织的研究综述

技术转移服务组织是一个新型的科技中介机构,其主要任务就是促进大学和科研机构的技术成果向企业转化,加速科技与产业的融合。当前技术转移服务机构的发展逐渐形成了以专业性、知识性投入取代资本或劳务投入的集风险性和知识产品提供为主的特点,其运作模式是多种模式和机制并存,关键是要符合科技经济发展的实际,能有效地推动技术创新和经济发展。其未来发展将是以建立公司制、市场化为主,以盈利性为目标的机构,在市场经济条件下,各种模式各有优缺点。企业应根据内外部环境的变化,以及科学、技术等各种要素之间的耦合和相互作用的程度来选取。现对近年来的相关研究文献进行一个综述,旨在为国内技术转移服务组织的发展提供启发和借鉴。     

Networks and network resources in technological innovation systems: Towards a conceptual framework for system building

Previous research has shown that formal networks can play a crucial role in the formation of technological innovation systems (TIS). Firms and other actors collaborate in formal networks not only to generate new knowledge but also to strategically create and shape supportive system resources such as technology specific R&D programs. This paper takes a closer look at the resources, which are developed and deployed by networks to facilitate the building up of a TIS. Networks rely not only on the organizational resources of their members but also on new resources developed at the network level including network governance structures, trust among network members, a common understanding of the strategic goals or a good reputation of the network. Our analysis shows that the capacity of networks to fulfill different tasks of system building especially depends on the network resources they are able to establish. With the differentiation of organizational, network and system resources we introduce a conceptual framework, which makes three important contributions. It highlights the strategic nature of (innovation) system building; it allows us comparing the contribution of different actors and formal networks in this regard; and it improves our understanding of how firm and system level processes are intertwined.     

Possible suboptimal diffusions of technological innovations in clustered scale-free networks

Many inter-firm networks take a skewed power-law- or scale-free distribution in which one or a few central actors are connected to numerous peripheral actors. Research argues that central actors can act as early adopters and catalysts for the adoption of technological innovations, but studies are inconclusive regarding central actors’ de facto role in this matter. Peripheral actors in scale-free networks tend to cluster, which implies that they are structurally embedded and mutually dependent. A major thesis in this paper is that clustered peripheral actors in scale-free networks may restrict central actors’ propensity to adopt innovations, and as a result impede their diffusion. The paper discusses which implications this may have for stakeholders in the private and public sector domain and practitioners of strategic management.     

A Research on Global Supply Chains and Networking

It is argued that networking entails complex processes and should not be seen as a neutral term, devoid of relational content. Foremost, the institutional framework and economic environment in which research is conceived, designed, implemented, and evaluated need to be explicated. The paper takes the risk possibly over contextualizing processes in order to expose strong economic and institutional forces that are intersecting in food chains. By revealing many layers of economic and institutional context, we are able to show how major actors both inside and outside the food chains are endeavoring to constrain other actors into particular trajectories, thereby remaking the local and global structure, organization, and wider territoriality of the food chains.     

Organization, Management and Delegation in the French Water Industry

The water industry is largely a natural monopoly. Water distribution and sewerage services are characterized by networks and its natural monopoly derives from the established local networks of drinking water and sewers: they are capital intensive with sunk costs and increasing returns to scale. In France, local communities have a local requirement of providing public services under optimum conditions in terms of techniques and cost-effectiveness, and subject to respect different kind of standards in terms of water quality and level of services. They are responsible for producing and distributing drinking water, and collecting and treating wastewater. Furthermore, the French water utilities are required to be financially self-sufficient. Rate-setting varies across regions and local territories due to a variety of organizational features of services and availability of water resources. The management of these local public services can be public or private: local governments have the right, by the constitution, to delegate water service management to private companies which operate under the oversight of local municipal authorities. Today, nearly 80 per cent of the French population receive private distributed water. Different reasons are responsible for the poor performance and low productivity of most French public water utilities: technical and operational, commercial and financial, human and institutional, and environmental. Thus, many water public utilities have looked for alternative ways to provide water and sanitation services more efficiently, to improve both operational and investment efficiency, and to attract private finance. The purpose of this paper is to present the French organizational system of providing drinking water services, and collecting and treating wastewater services: legal aspects, contracts of delegation, and competition.     

The Organization of Innovation Brokers: An International Review

Research on networks of innovation has typically focused on relationships of competition and collaboration between firms in the network, sometimes extending the analysis to sources of new ideas such as universities. More recently, attention has been paid to the activities of intermediaries in such networks, which facilitate the innovation process, which are positioned between the sources and users of innovations. This paper focuses on the organization of a distinctive type of intermediary, which we have defined as an innovation broker, by providing an analysis of 10 case studies of organizations dedicated to innovation broking from around the world. Innovation brokers in our definition are organizations that are founded especially to undertake an intermediary role, rather than performing that role as a by-product of their principal activities. The results of this analysis suggest that the key role played by innovation brokers in the innovation process is the independent validation of new ideas, thereby facilitating diffusion. In order to carry out this task, innovation brokers are organized on a not-for-profit basis, typically as a public–private partnership. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for innovation theory and research in networks of innovation.     

基础研究动态社团演化规律研究

从社团演化入手，构建基础研究动态社团演化分析框架，揭示基础研究科技人才队伍发展规律。首先，构建基础研究动态科研合作网络，运用派系过滤算法提取静态社团，基于社会分层理论与帕累托原则改进即时最优法，揭示关键学者在动态社团识别中的作用；其次，改进动态社团生命周期模型，增加稳定事件以更好地描述动态社团演化活跃度；再次，基于系统理论与竞合理论，从结构、演化和产出3个方面提取16个动态社团演化特征要素，并将其划分为规模与数量、产出与速度、竞合与活跃性、发展与延续性4部分，分析动态社团演化规律。基于以上研究，以集成电路领域为案例，比较中美前沿领域基础研究动态社团发展现状，并给出我国基础研究管理与人才培养的对策建议。     

The role of intermediaries on technological risk management and business development performance in Korea

This paper examines the strategic use of intermediaries by companies to better meet their technology needs from the resource-based theory and network theory perspectives. The results of this study are based on a sample of Korean IT companies and indicate the particular importance of cooperation with government support organizations and public R&D institutions in building relational assets. Intermediaries played a crucial role in enabling and facilitating joint development projects and promoting technology transfer among the companies in general.The results of this study suggest that intermediaries, as they are linked to other organizations within networks and are centrally situated within those networks where information and resource flow, can coordinate and control the exchange of information and resources within networks and enjoy timely and privileged access to such information, giving them the means to expand their strategic social capital.     

Networked research: European policy intervention in ICTs

We use social network analysis to evaluate ‘behavioural’ additionality aspects of public programmes supporting research and development (R&D). The paper appraises empirically the partnership and knowledge networks created around the R&D activities of the Information Society Priority of the Sixth Research Framework Programme of the European Community. These emergent, scale-free networks are found to play an important role in generating and, especially, in diffusing knowledge by attracting key industry actors and by strengthening overall network connectivity through public support. Public policy should try to facilitate the development of more European organisations that can be characterised as global network hubs, on the one hand, and to draw larger numbers of the most dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into these programmes, on the other, to avoid technological lock-ins and mitigate the resistance or network reorientation toward more productive research areas.     

Spatial Metrics of the Technological Transfer: Analysis and Strategic Management

The Triple Helix thesis states that research laboratories and universities can play an enhanced role in innovation in increasingly knowledge-based societies. In fact the locus of industrial innovation is shifting towards networks focused on technological transfer from public research laboratories to firms. This scenario presents challenges for investigating the new behaviour of research laboratories and the measurement and evaluation of their scientific and technological activity. This study analyses how the variable 'space' affects an important activity carried out within these laboratories: the technological transfer. The purpose of this research is to: (1) construct indicators, called sensors, starting from the geographical neo-classical approach based on physical distance, for measuring and studying the spatial dynamics of technological transfer;(2) apply the metrics to case studies using data from three institutes of the Italian National Council of Research operating in an industrialised region in the north-west Italy. The sensors are useful for understanding the spatial behaviour both of the technological transfer process, and the strategy of research laboratories. Some management implications conclude the research.     

Spatial Metrics of the Technological Transfer: Analysis and Strategic Management

The Triple Helix thesis states that research laboratories and universities can play an enhanced role in innovation in increasingly knowledge-based societies. In fact the locus of industrial innovation is shifting towards networks focused on technological transfer from public research laboratories to firms. This scenario presents challenges for investigating the new behaviour of research laboratories and the measurement and evaluation of their scientific and technological activity. This study analyses how the variable ‘space’ affects an important activity carried out within these laboratories: the technological transfer. The purpose of this research is to: (1) construct indicators, called sensors, starting from the geographical neo-classical approach based on physical distance, for measuring and studying the spatial dynamics of technological transfer;(2) apply the metrics to case studies using data from three institutes of the Italian National Council of Research operating in an industrialised region in the north-west Italy. The sensors are useful for understanding the spatial behaviour both of the technological transfer process, and the strategy of research laboratories. Some management implications conclude the research.