Inter-capital relations and the network organisation: redefining the work and employment nexus

The blurring of organisational boundaries associated with ‘networks’of organisations suggests the need to reconsider how work andemployment are shaped by shifting inter-capital relations. Traditionaltheories of the internalised employment relationship understateits inter-relationship with both the form of inter-capitalistcompetition and the type of inter-capitalist production relations.Also, existing theories of inter-organisational contractingdo not adequately address how these are shaped by employmentrelations, both within and between organisations. An alternativeapproach provides a new perspective for considering forms ofcountervailing power to protect workers' interests in a capitalistsystem continuously shifting from integrated to non-integratedforms.     

How technological innovation affects the structure of an industry: entrepreneurship evolution in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry since 1980

Challenges faced by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, including reduced R&D productivity and the expiration of drugs that are high in demand, are recently being addressed through technological innovation. Such innovations are highly likely to change the structure and functioning of the industry. Since 2000, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have actively made strategic alliance, and technological innovations have changed the source of innovation from R&D to entrepreneurship within the industry. In this study, we identify the evolution of entrepreneurship and discuss the changes caused by technological advancements since 1980 by analysing patterns of exporting and acquiring technology data from Medtrack. Over difference period, biopharmaceutical firms have gained new knowledge and improved technology, and have implemented this newly acquired knowledge and innovation to introduce drugs to the market.     

Industrial development environment and innovation efficiency of high-tech industry: analysis based on the framework of innovation systems

This present paper studies the relationship between the industrial development environment (IDE) and the innovation efficiency (IE) of China’s high-tech industry. First, drawing upon insights from research on regional innovation systems and sectoral innovation systems, the paper proposes a definition of the IDE within which China’s high-tech industry exists. Then, by a factorial analysis, three main components reflecting the IDE are obtained: regional development conditions, regional consumption potential, and interactions between innovation actors. Furthermore, the impacts of various facets of the IDE on three kinds of IE are investigated through the DEA-Tobit regression approach. Based on the results, our analysis can provide information for policymakers to create a favourable environment for China’s high-tech industry.     

The impact of exploration and exploitation learning on organisational innovativeness among hospitals: an open innovation view

This study tries to explore the impact of exploration and exploitation learning on organisational innovativeness among health service organisations from an open innovation view. We developed several constructs including realised absorptive capacity (RACAP), breadth and depth of external knowledge acquisition and tried to explore the roles of these constructs in the influence process of organisational learning on organisational innovativeness. The mail survey was used to collect research data from top hospital managers in Taiwan. The overall valid response rate was 44.23%. We applied a structural equation model to test the research hypothesis. Results indicated the breadth and depth of external knowledge acquisition would affect organisational innovativeness through RACAP. Exploration learning had a directly positive influence on RACAP and also had an indirect impact through the mediation of breadth and depth of external knowledge acquisition among health service organisations.     

Enhancing innovation through learning: the roles of market orientation and interorganisational knowledge stores

Drawing on the organisational learning theory, this study regards market orientation as a market-based learning and seeks to advance insight into how market orientation and interorganisational knowledge stores together affect different types of innovation. Our findings from a sample of 246 manufacturing firms provide supporting evidence for the positive effect of market orientation on both explorative and exploitative innovation. The effect of market orientation on innovation gets amplified when firms possess large amount of interorganisational knowledge, demonstrating the synergistic effect produced by different types of learning which is less known. This study, therefore, sheds light on the under-researched area of literature surrounding the interaction between different learning activities and the roles of knowledge from different sources on firm innovation.     

Study on the clustering of a typical industry：a case of apple industry in Shaanxi Province, China

The apple industry in Shaanxi Province is a resource-based industry; compared to the best productiveregions at home and abroad, it is advantageous in high quality as well as geographical and natural resources. Currently,big changes have occurred in the apple market supply-demand relations; long-term and comprehensive shortage haspassed; the buyer＇s market has come into being; competitions in the domestic market are fierce. At the same time, theforeign apple will impact on the domestic market, increasing competitive pressure. Foreign anti-dumping measures,green barriers and technologies restrict the exportation of the domestic apple. Based on successful experience of otherindustrial clusters, this paper analyzes the existing problems in the development of Shaanxi apple industrial cluster,combining empirical analysis, qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, proposes specific policy recommendationsand get the conclusions. First, the characteristics of the agricultural industrial cluster are analyzed; Shaanxi appleindustry is characterized by cluster. Second, the rapid development of Shaanxi apple industrial cluster exposes someproblems. Third, we need the government to control the disorderly competition of Shaanxi apple industry.     

Product innovation: testing the relative influence of industry,institutional context and firm factors

This article analyses the influence of industry characteristics (concentration and technological opportunity), the institutional framework (social capital and spillovers from the public sector) and some firm factors (external and internal R&D) on product innovation in a unique integrated framework. Based on a sample of Spanish industrial firms, these variables were found to be positively related to firms’ product innovation. Also, results show that in institutional environments with significant levels of social capital and spillovers, firms change their innovation strategy focusing on external R&D.     

Time path in innovation, imitation, and growth: the case of the motorcycle industry in postwar Japan

This study attempts to explore how an industry evolves over time based on a case study of the motorcycle industry in Japan from 1948 to 1964. Using individual firm data, we estimate the determinants of technology improvement and firm growth separately for different development phases, after controlling for the probability of firm survival. We find that the industrys rapid growth in the early phase can be explained by massive entry and the imitation of simple technologies, whereas sustained growth in later phases can be explained by innovations and subsequent imitations, as well as the exit of inefficient firms.JEL Classification: O14, L10, L62, N65 Correspondence to: Tetsushi SonobeWe are grateful to Kotaro Horiuchi, Shunji Tanaka, Katsuaki Nishino, Michael Kevane, Uwe Cantner, and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.     

Dynamics of social trust and human capital in the learning process: The case of the Japan garment cluster in the period 1968–2005

This paper examined the ways and the extent to which human capital and social trust are associated with the learning process of a manager in making operations decisions through experience. To this end, using a data set originally and purposively constructed by the author, I investigated the development and transformation of the garment industry cluster region of Kojima, Japan. The major findings through statistical estimations are as follows. (1) In the cluster development stage, the social trust of an enterprise and its manager's experiences in firm operations could be regarded as forming a complementary association. (2) In the stage following cluster development, however, a manager's human capital as accumulated through schooling and personal experience, instead of social trust, become complementary.     

Technological innovation and knowledge network in Asia: Evidence from comparison of information and communication technologies among six countries

South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and India have become much larger force in the world economy. Due to the enormous contribution of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in economic growth, this study investigates four main issues related to technological innovation and knowledge network in ICT among six countries. First, indicators of technological innovation were evaluated and used to compare capability of technological innovation in ICT between the six countries. Secondly, differences in innovation configurations among six countries were manifested. Thirdly, relative innovation strengths of these six countries were examined in five sub-technological fields. Finally, this study consists of analyzing the interactions into knowledge network among them; moreover, this study manifests the difference of knowledge network in five sub-technological field of ICT. The empirical findings of this study, based on analysis of a patent and citation dataset comprised of all patents granted by the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) to assignees in six countries from 1976 to 2006, are helpful to understand the comparative development of technological innovation of ICT in six countries.     

The emergence of technology systems: knowledge production and distribution in the case of the Emilian plastics district

The emergence of technology systems is the result of interdependentdynamics of the generation and diffusion of complementary bitsof localised technological knowledge. Technological communicationis the crucial element assessing the collective conditions underwhich technological knowledge is accumulated and diffused. Thecase study of the emerging Emilian technological system in theplastics sector shows that the synchronic and diachronic localisedinteractions among industrial dynamics, institutional R&Defforts and technological interrelatedness are the determinantsof the systematic production, accumulation and distributionof localised technological knowledge, in turn explaining theorigin and development of the technology system itself.     

National innovation systems and international knowledge flows: an exploratory investigation with the case of the Netherlands

Since the late 1980s, the literature on innovation systems has flourished, often tying these systems to nation-states. Technology, however, often flows across the borders of nations. In this paper, four cases are studied where foreign technology is imported and appropriated from abroad into Dutch companies. By doing so, the questions what a national system of innovation consists of and what such a system means for firms are explored. The cases studied provide a picture of international-sectoral systems, adding up to a loosely interacting innovation system at the national level.     

Foresight and innovation in the context of industrial clusters: The case of some Italian districts

The “territory” is widely recognized in the literature on business strategy as a critical driver of industrial competitiveness (see, as an example, Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations). The generation and exploitation of new knowledge, both tacit and explicit, through the process of socialization, articulation, combination and internalization (see Nonaka and Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company) is essential to enable innovation of processes and products of “local” firms.Our recent Foresight exercises in the metal working and machinery district of Lecco and in the silk district of Como show that Foresight can play an important role in creating and exploiting new knowledge, and that different methodologies can be more or less effective to this aim.Critical technology list and interactive workshops, with the participation of entrepreneurs of SMEs and technologists, are more suited to foster the transfer of technologies that have overcome the initial stage of the life cycle and that have been already applied in other sectors. However, when radical innovations are needed in order to face the challenges posed by global competition, other methodologies, as Scenarios, are more appropriate. Even if these approaches are complex and time and resource consuming, they may be very effective in actively involving the most relevant private and public stakeholders of a district, and in making them to envisage the long term future of the economic, social, and cultural structure of their district. In this way Foresight drives the small entrepreneurs, the district stakeholders and the medium and large size firms to play the critical roles of Nonaka and Takeuchi's “frontline employees”, “senior managers” and “middle managers” in their “knowledge creating company”: the first ones grasp what the district is; the second ones build the vision of what it ought to be; the third ones, serve as a bridge between the future and the present.     

Structural and geographical patterns of knowledge networks in emerging technological standards: evidence from the European GNSS industry

The concentration and dispersion of innovative activities in space have been largely explained and evidenced by the nature of knowledge and the geographical extent of knowledge spillovers. One of the empirical challenges is to go beyond this by understanding how the geography of innovation is shaped by particular structural properties of knowledge networks. This paper contributes to this challenge, focusing on the particular case of global navigation satellite systems at the European level. We exploit a database of R&D collaborative projects based on the fifth and sixth European Union Framework Programs, and apply social network analysis in economic geography. We study the properties both of the network of organizations and the network of collaborative projects. We show that the nature of the knowledge involved in relationships influences the geographical and structural organizations of the technological field. The observed coexistence of a relational core/periphery structure with a geographical cluster/pipeline one is discussed in the light of the industrial and geographical dynamics of technological standards.     

Research on industrialization of eco-agriculture: theoretical framework and the case of Yunnan, China

The industrialization of eco-agriculture has applied modern science technology in accordance with eco-logical principles and has promoted agricultural production. As a subsystem of agricultural industrial clusters, the industrialization of eco-agriculture is the specific applications of cluster concept in the industrialization of eco-agriculture development. Industrialization of eco-agriculture cluster will achieve eco-agriculture and interact with industrial cluster which forms eco-agriculture integration and composite industry and ultimately realize the new benign circulation eco-agriculture model. According to the ecological engineering basic principles of recycling of the overall coordination, industrialization of eco-agriculture is focusing on the main systems operating coordination between the various subsystems and its various factors, and will maintain a reasonable ecological and economic structure to ensure the recycling of natural resources. Industrialization of eco-agriculture in Yunnan has adjusted the agricultural production structure to keep the stability of the gross grain production and economic development and has taken effective measures to vigorously improve land use and land productivity. Various ways of improving soil fertility has vigorously promoted other water-saving agricultural technologies. Ecological protection of rice no-tillage, cultivation of crop cultivation of the integrated control crop disease pests grass and agricultural production have taken the sustainable development.     

基于农业产业集群的农业创新体系结构分析——以河南省鄢陵县花木产业集群为例

基于创新体系理论构建了农业创新体系的结构分析框架,通过对河南省鄢陵县花木产业集群91家农户和46家农业企业的实地调查,借助社会网络分析法对农业创新体系的结构进行了实证分析。研究发现:农业创新体系可以看做是由创新主体、创新网络以及创新内容三个部分组成。外地同行企业对农业集群创新起主导作用,而传统农户仅仅是用祖传技术或模仿;本地企业中创新地位异质性较高;政府在农业集群创新中的直接作用较小,但紧密的产学研结合,能显著提高企业的创新能力。相对于合作网络来说,知识网络呈多核心结构,网络集中度和密度均较高。与农区制造业集群相比,农业创新更加依赖外地同行企业和市场需求,更重视与大学、科研机构的联系。     

Ex ante identification of disruptive innovations in the software industry applied to web applications: The case of Microsoft's vs. Google's office applications

This paper analyzes the question whether web applications pose a disruptive threat to incumbents or a disruptive growth opportunity for entrants in the application software industry using a novel method for ex ante identification of disruptive innovations in the software industry. Building on the theory of disruptive innovations, network effects and existing frameworks for the ex ante identification of disruptive innovations a new method of analysis is deduced. The analysis is based on a list of criteria that indicate a disruptive innovation and trajectory maps of the technologies' performance attributes. This method is applied to study the potential disruption of Microsoft's desktop office applications by Google's web-based office applications.The chosen method of analysis indicates a small likelihood for web applications to pose a disruptive threat to Microsoft, and by extension, to incumbents in the software industry. While web applications show a potential to satisfy market demand in established performance attributes, strong network effects in existing software products should give incumbents enough time to co-opt the innovation. The case illustrates how our new method to analyze disruptive potential in the software industry ex ante can help to apply the theory of disruptive innovation better for forecasting purposes and to provide novel strategic insights for the players involved.     

Suitability evaluation of regional coastal ecotourism based on SOM neural network model:a case study of Qingdao,Yantai,Weihai and Rizhao of Shandong Province

Development of coastal ecotourism has been a,focus of Shandong government, and the suitability evaluation of regional eoastai ecotourism is crucial for the reasonable plan and sustainable development of Shandong coastal ecotourism. By using MATLAB language to establish a SOM neural network model, this＇ paper evaluates the eoastal ecotourism suitability of four regions, Qingdao. Yantai, Weihai and Rizhao of Shandong Province and divides 33 subordinate regions of those four cities into four categories, i.e. regions poorly suitable for ecotourism resources, regions highly suitable for coastal ecotourism, regions secondly suitable for coastal ecotourism, regions ordinarily suitable.for coastal ecotourism, Related suggestions on development of regional coastal ecotourism have been given in the final conclusions.     

The development of research and innovation policies based on a benchmarking assessment: the case of mobile communications technology R&D in the new member states of the EU

This paper presents the process and the results that led to an objective assessment of 34 research programmes from 14 countries based on a multifactor analysis. The programmes that were analysed come from the EU's new member states and the accession countries. The methodology used was specially developed for policy development purposes and for the design of the roadmaps leading to an open and successful R&D programme in the area of mobile communications. The method and the results obtained and later used for the policy development and road mapping are discussed. The policies designed and strategic objectives derived are briefly described. The consequences expected to follow the policy implementation in the relevant countries are evaluated and discussed.