China''''s development of scientific and technological undertakings

With the full implementation ofthe country's strategy ofreinvigorating the nationthrough science and education and thestructural reforms in scientific research,China's scientific and technological strengthhas been boosted markedly, narrowing itsgap with the developed countries. In the reform of scientific researchinstitutions, 869 of the formerlygovernment-affiliated scientific researchinstitutions or academies were incorporatedinto enterprise groups, or transformed intoenterprises by the e…     

The tradeoff between firm size and diversity in the pursuit of technological progress

Conclusion Our analysis lends support to both sides of the debate concerning the optimal firm size for achieving technical advance. It provides a basis for why industries composed of many small firms will tend to exhibit greater diversity in the approaches to innovation pursued, and why greater diversity will contribute to more rapid technological change. It also provides a basis for why industries populated by larger firms will achieve a more rapid rate of technical advance on the approaches to innovation that are pursued. These arguments together suggest that a tradeoff exists between the appropriability advantage of large size and the advantages of diversity that accrue from numerous small firms. Our analysis has been more appreciative than rigorous and, indeed, often explicity speculative. While we attempted to raise important questions, our framework requires more structuring before we can be confident about any of our conclusions. Even in its inchoate form, however, our analysis demonstrates that much needs to be done before the current debate about firm size can seriously inform policy. If we accept the plausibility of our basic framework, it focuses attention on a range of issues and questions. The fundamental premise of our analysis is that firm capabilities and perceptions differ within industries. This premise is not, however, widely reflected in analyses of industry behavior and performance, which typically take some representative firm as their starting point. Indeed, the analytic utility of our particular premise deserves scrutiny. Are differences in firm capabilities and perceptions as critical to explaining the industry patterns in innovative activity and performance as we suggest? Do these differences persist? Is our abstract characterization of these differences and their effects on innovative activity up to the task of providing a basis for policy?These intraindustry differences in capabilities and perceptions underpin the hypothesized relationship in our framework between the number of firms within an industry and the number of distinct technological activities pursued by the industry as a whole. Surely this hypothesis should be tested. To establish the relationship between numbers of firms and technological diversity, we also made two important assumptions, which themselves should be examined. First, we assumed that firms independently decide upon which approaches to innovation to pursue.This assumption precludes the clustering of firms around innovative activities due to imitation, a phenomenon highlighted by Nelson (1981) and Scott (1991). To the degree that innovative activities yield relatively fast, public results, the assumption may be suspect. While our evidence indirectly suggests that such clustering may not be critical for explaining innovative activity in a wide range of industries, more research would be helpful. Second, we assumed that the number of approaches to innovation pursued by firms is independent of their size, implying large and small firms will tend to pursue the same number of approaches. This assumption probably does not apply to the smallest firms within an industry, particularly to the extent that such firms are often not full line manufacturing firms. Does it apply, however, to the medium to large firms that account for the preponderance of R&D and economic activity inthe manufacturing sector? While our evidence again provides indirect support for this claim, more empirical and theoretical research is indicated.We also made other claims and assumptions that deserve further attention. For example, we argued that greater technological diversity stimulates technical advance and provides gross increments to social welfare. Assuming it exists, the mechanism linking diversity and technical advance has never been examined empirically and is not obvious. Our assumption that expected firm growth due to innovation is increamental played an important role in permitting usto hypothesize an appropriability advantage of large size. Again, both the assumption and its alleged effect on innovative activity are worth examining. Finally, we also need to test whether the relationship between R&D and firm size within industries depends upon appropriability conditions, particularly upon the extent to which firms can sell their innovations or grow rapidly due to innovation. In conclusion, this litany of reasonable but unsubstantiated assumptions and arguments should make clear that this paper is only a modest beginning of a daunting research agenda.

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Intellectual property rights,FDI, and technological development

This paper presents two simultaneous trade-offs faced by a developing country in protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs), namely (1) between attracting foreign direct investment and deterring international technology spillovers, and (2) between encouraging domestic innovation and suppressing technology diffusion. The optimal level of IPR protection depends on the technological capability of the host country. In less developed countries, IPRs should be just strong enough to induce FDI since international technology spillovers are the dominant source of technological development. A stronger level of IPR protection is instead recommended for more advanced emerging economies as a tool to exploit the potential of their domestic innovators. The results cast doubt on the adequacy of globally harmonized IPR standards that do not consider the level of development.     

Development banking and technological development: a case study of industrial development banks in the GCC countries

This article explores the important role of Industrial Development Banks in promoting the quality of technological development. It is argued that the historical experiences of the developed economies and several developing economies during recent times support the need and potentials of a more pro-active role by Industrial Development Banks. Against this background, the specific experiences of Industrial Development Banks in the Gulf Co-operation Council Countries are examined and the results of a select field survey are reported. This exploratory study suggests that some fundamental steps are needed in order to develop Industrial Development Banks from being comparatively passive conduits of technological aid to more active promoters of technological development.     

天津近代技术进步的特点及其与工业发展关系探讨

本文对天津近代技术进步的特点及其对经济增长的影响进行分析,指出天津近代技术进步呈现出阶段性、多元性等特点,并且与工业发展呈现出同步性特征;历史证明.技术进步促进了天津近代经济增长和工业结构调整.     

Encouraging Professional Skepticism in the Industry Specialization Era

This paper provides theory and experimental evidence that, under common audit conditions, industry specialization inhibits some aspects of auditors’ professional skepticism. As auditors amass industry experience, they develop extensive knowledge of non-misstatement explanations for unusual financial statement fluctuations. This knowledge coupled with confidence in their ability to analyze audit evidence inhibits their inclination to be skeptical when there are no overt indicators of elevated misstatement risk. Although these conditions are, by definition, the conditions where misstatements are least likely, they are also the same conditions where the PCAOB has alleged pervasive insufficient professional skepticism and where well-concealed fraud is possible. These results pose an ethical dilemma for the PCAOB in terms of weighing its charge to protect the public interest against the fairness of its inspections to audit firms. Encouragingly, I also predict and find that audit firm efforts to promote professional skepticism are more effective for specialists as non-specialists are skeptical regardless of these efforts.     

Corporate venture capital (CVC) investments and technological performance: Geographic diversity and the interplay with technology alliances

Firms are increasingly operating portfolios of geographically dispersed CVC investments for accessing a variety of location-specific knowledge, often alongside traditional external knowledge-sourcing strategies such as technology alliances. We examine the conditions under which geographic diversity in corporate venture capital (CVC) investments has positive consequences for firms' technological performance in the context of simultaneously pursued technology alliance strategies. We find that geographic diversity in CVC portfolios enhances performance as long as firms avoid knowledge redundancy in knowledge-sourcing arising from geographic overlaps with technology alliances, and the managerial complexity, coordination costs, and resource constraints stemming from the simultaneous pursuit of diversity in both technology alliances and CVC investments. Our inferences draw on a panel data set on the patents, CVC investments, and technology alliances of 55 CVC-active firms in a variety of industries.     

Product development benchmarking versus customer focus in applications of quality function deployment

The study explores the tradeoff between efforts to benchmark on product-development practices and be customer focused in the implementation of a quality-improvement method. The results of a survey of thirty-three firms' experience with quality function deployment (QFD) reveal that benchmarking on how competitors, peers, or role models develop products facilitates process improvement but hinders customer focus. Smaller firms are also shown to gain more customer focus and process-improvement benefits from QFD than larger firms.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Office of Manufacturing Management Research, the National Quality Research Center, and the Manufacturing Forum at the University of Michigan's School of Business Administration as well as the kind assistance of the American Supplier Institute for making this study possible.     

依靠科技创新加快经济发展方式转变

党的十七届五中全会审议通过的十二五规划建议提出要以科学发展为主题,以加快转变经济发展方式为主线,这是十二五规划建议的又一个鲜明特点,也是推动科学发展的必由之路.我们贯彻十七届五中全会精神,依靠科技创新加快经济发展方式转变,实现经济平稳较快发展,开创科学发展新局面.     

Bricolage effects on new-product development speed and creativity: The moderating role of technological turbulence

This study provides a theoretical account of bricolage effects on two critical new-product advantages. Survey data from 222 firms reveal that bricolage hastens new-product development (NPD), but has an inverted U-shaped relationship with new-product creativity. However, under high technological turbulence, bricolage has an enhanced positive association with NPD speed. Consequently, this study contributes to bricolage theory and practice by revealing how bricolage influences new-product advantages and identifying boundary conditions for successful NPD.     

武汉城市圈制造业行业专业化实证分析

本文运用2000－2007年间的统计数据,采用SP指数并结合集中度指标,对武汉城市圈制造业行业专业化程度进行了详细测度。研究结果表明：城市圈制造业整体上趋于集中,而从考察的19个行业看,趋于集中和分散的行业数大体相当;进一步分析行业类型发现,空间趋于分散的大多为资源性和低技术行业,而绝大多数中高技术行业集聚明显。同时,从2007年的横截面SP指数和集中度值都可以发现,中高技术行业在空间上更为集中,而资源性和低技术行业则相对分散;考察行业在各城市的分布可以发现,整体上武汉、黄石、黄冈和孝感4市行业集聚较为明显,并且从行业的技术含量分类看,城市圈形成了以武汉等4市为＂中心＂,另外5市为＂外围＂的制造业＂中心-外围＂空间结构。     

Familiarity and competence diversity in new product development teams: Effects on new product performance

When developing new products, most firms use cross-functional teams, but research on the effect of functional diversity on new product performance returns heterogeneous results. We propose a measure of competence diversity that is more comprehensive than the common functional diversity proxy. Empirical findings, based on a survey of 142 product and sales managers, support the improved predictive validity of our scale. We further observe a mediating effect of the instrumental use of information in the competence diversity–new product performance relationship. Finally, we discuss the moderating effect of familiarity among team members on the relationship between competence diversity and the instrumental use of information. All authors contributed equally to this article and are listed in random order.     

中国服务业的区位分布与地区专业化

本文基于LQ指数、RCA指数和K-spec指数,分析了中国服务业及其分部门的区位分布与地区专业化.总体上看,整体服务业及其分部门的地区间差异要小于地区内差异即省际差异.各服务部门的区位分布与地区专业化表现不尽相同,其原因不仅在于服务本身的"非贸易性",还在于各服务部门的地区专业化与分工倾向的差异性.因此,不能像对待制造业那样,过分强调服务业的地区分工与专业化,而应该根据各服务部门的特性及其在国民经济和社会发展中所扮演的角色,促进服务业的部门与地区协调发展.     

世后对黑龙江省民营科技企业发展的理性思考

我国加入WTO,在融入世界经济贸易发展的大潮中,各类企业不但要面对国内市场,还要走向国际市场,参与国际竞争,这为黑龙江省民营科技企业的发展带来了难得的机遇和严峻的挑战,需要引起省内企业界、科技界人士的高度重视。本仅就入世以后黑龙江省民营科技企业的发展问题,谈一谈个人看法。     

浅议粮食工程项目投标文件中技术标的编写

本文阐述了粮食工程项目投标文件中技术标的编制要点,论述了施工组织设计、项目管理组织机构设置,提示了技术标编制时应注意的问题,以及采取的对策与方法。     

跨国公司产品内分工与我国的产业升级

20世纪90年代以来,跨国公司的全球化战略安排已经使产品内分工成为近年来国际分工理论的研究热点,它也是国际贸易理论的最新发展;产品内分工的产生存在诸多原因.我国在国际产品内分工中,相当大部分处于劳动密集型工序或区段,按照动态比较优势原理,应通过提高产品内分工的工序地位促进我国产业升级.     

Small firms and technological development in the food processing machinery industry: The case of pasta and other cereal derivative machines in Italy

This study about Italian producers of machines and plants for pasta, basic cereals, snacks and bread factories attempts to shed some light on the role played by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Italian industry. Even if the high diffusion of SMEs has positively affected the performance of Italian economy during the seventies and the eighties, the new trends of technological change and global competition are expected to be unfavourable to this category of enterprises in the nineties. The analyses of a significant sample of firms makes clear that the industry is in the middle of a positive restructuring process. The structure of this sector shows a division of labour based on deverticalization of production, and a process of internationalization focused on exports and not on direct investments or joint ventures abroad. Leading firms are following growth strategies by new investments and acquisitions. Finally, as far as technological change is concerned, there is a significant increase of process innovations, thanks to the use of electronic components.An earlier release of this paper was presented at 7th EARIE (European Association for Research in Industrial Economics) Annual Conference in Lisbon, September 2–4 1990. We thank all the participants for their comments and suggestions, in particular P. Dunne.