Cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) as technology transfer mechanisms

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) between Federal R&D laboratories and private companies in the US are intended, in large part, to transfer technologies developed at Federal R&D laboratories to private companies. We surveyed the Federal laboratory and private CRADA partners involved in CRADAs at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in order to identify certain difficulties inherent in CRADAs as mechanisms for technology transfer. Company partners do not share a common organizational culture with their Federal laboratory counterparts, and are critical of the length of time and complexity of government administrative arrangements necessary to form a CRADA.     

哈萨克斯坦新《转移价格法》对外国石油公司的影响

2009年1月1日,哈萨克斯坦共和国新《转移价格法》正式颁布实施。哈政府制定《转移价格法》的主要目的在于监控关联公司的交易活动。新《转移价格法》补充了有关监控以及与转移价格相关的其他交易的内容。另外,新《转移价格法》取消了“避税港”公司计算支出的权利,增加并细化了《转移价格法》的法内条款,补充了“利润比较法”,以及与哈萨克斯坦税务机关签署使用转移价格协议的条款等内容。包括中资石油公司在内的在哈外国石油公司所开展的投资、采购、勘探开发、原油销售等业务基本都属国际业务的范畴,新《转移价格法》实施后,哈萨克斯坦税务机关将会对这些公司的贷款合同、采购合同、服务合同及原油销售合同等可能涉及转移定价的行为进行监督和检查,因此这些公司面临一定的财税风险;同时也对今后签署涉及国际业务的合同提出了更多新的要求。     

我国城市商业银行发展策略的案例研究

城市商业银行是我国银行体系的重要组成部分，如何借鉴优秀银行的成功经验，提高城市商业银行整体的经营水平和竞争力是十分迫切的问题。文章立足于城市商业银行的定位特点，对宁波、南京和北京银行等优秀上市城商行进行案例分析，为城市商业银行的发展提供可以借鉴的经验。     

NGOs, agricultural technology and the rural poor

A wide range of agencies outside the public and private commercial sectors is involved in generating, introducing, testing and promoting agricultural technology, particularly for small farmers and landless labourers in marginal areas of less developed countries. Their experience is largely undocumented and tends to be overlooked. For specific locations, this paper discusses the significance of different types of voluntary agency vis-à-vis the public sector. Focusing on non-government organizations, it then examines in what roles they can be expected to perform well. Although still fragmentary, the evidence from Africa, Asia and Latin America indicates substantial unexploited complementarities between agencies within and outside the public sector.     

Research on the interface factor in the development and utilization of new technology

AbstractThe interface factor in the development and utilization of new technology is analyzed with questionnaire surveys. The interface factor is found to determine R&D performance in a study of large manufacturing companies in the United States and in a study of computer utilization performance in commercial banks in the United States. A comparison of the interface factor in the functioning of R & D in the United States and Japan suggests that interface problems may be less serious in Japan. Company experience is reported which indicates that the interface function can be controlled by management policies, procedures and practices. The need for greater attention to the interface factor by executives and by researchers on R & D management is a conclusion which follows from the findings presented in this paper.     

Transferring hybrid maize technology : The role of the private sector

Developing countries have tried a variety of policies concerning new technology as a source of agricultural growth; there is still much debate on which is the most efficient. More study of private methods of technology transfer is needed. This article presents some preliminary statistical tests of the relationships among seed imports, private research, public research and yield. Seed imports and private research are found to be important potential sources of improved technology. Countries which restrict imports and activities by multinational seed companies may impose costs on their farmers and consumers in terms of foregone productivity.     

Research on the interface factor in the development and utilization of new technology

The interface factor in the development and utilization of new technology is analyzed with questionnaire surveys. The interface factor is found to determine R&D performance in a study of large manufacturing companies in the United States and in a study of computer utilization performance in commercial banks in the United States. A comparison of the interface factor in the functioning of R & D in the United States and Japan suggests that interface problems may be less serious in Japan. Company experience is reported which indicates that the interface function can be controlled by management policies, procedures and practices. The need for greater attention to the interface factor by executives and by researchers on R & D management is a conclusion which follows from the findings presented in this paper.     

Who cooks the books in China,and does it pay? Evidence from private,high‐technology firms

Research summary: We document the extent of fraudulent reporting among 467 private Chinese technology companies. Comparing the financial statements concurrently submitted to two different state agencies, we demonstrate a systematic gap in reported profit figures in the two sets of books. We find: (1) more than half the sampled companies report incentive‐compatible, materially discrepant profit numbers to the two agencies; (2) politically connected companies are approximately 18 percent more likely to commit fraud and those with venture capital backing are 19 percent more likely to do so; and (3) it pays to cheat. We estimate that companies who “cook” their books have considerably higher odds of receiving an innovation grant. Especially given its prevalence, we conclude that fraud can be a source of performance differential for emerging market companies. Managerial summary: We document that more than half of a sample of 467 private, Chinese technology companies engage in fraudulent financial reporting. By comparing the financial statements companies concurrently submitted to two different state agencies, we demonstrate a systematic gap in reported profit figures in the two sets of books. Relative to the companies without these attributes, we find that politically connected companies are approximately 18 percent more likely to commit fraud and those with venture capital backing are 19 percent more likely to do so. Furthermore, we show that it pays to cheat. We estimate that companies who “cook” their books have considerably higher odds of receiving a government‐sponsored innovation grant. Therefore, fraud can be a source of performance differential for emerging market companies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploitation and diffusion of public research: the case of academic spin‐off companies in Italy

Scientific and technological knowledge is considered the most important raw material for economic growth. The attention on the exploitation of public research, undoubtedly one of the main sources of new scientific and technological knowledge, has increased in recent years. After reviewing some concepts regarding the exploitation of public research results, the paper focuses on the analysis of academic spin‐off companies as one of the most promising ways to transfer research results to the market place. The phenomenon of academic spin‐off companies is described using both international evidence and a recent survey regarding 48 Italian spin‐off companies.     

电商脱掉野蛮外衣

终于疲劳了。从＂6﹒18＂一直蔓延到＂8﹒15＂的电商价格血战,并未像京东商城CEO刘强东所豪言的＂此战之后再无大战＂,而是变奏为一种常态竞争行为,残留着碎了一地的营销口水。马云后来点评称＂（价格战）这类战术带有很浓重的上世纪工业时代的痕迹＂,各界也多以＂雷声大雨点小＂、＂虎头蛇尾＂等评论为主,     

International management of R&D: The Swedish Experience

This paper summarizes the results of in-depth case studies of international R&D management in four Swedish multinational corporations. The results suggest that foreign volumes and shares of R&D expenditures are rapidly increasing. Through a rapidly increasing number of foreign acquisitions, foreign R&D laboratories have been added. As part of international rationalization of production, foreign units have been given global product mandates with responsibility both for manufacturing and R&D. In maturing foreign subsidiaries, routine technical activities have often evolved into proper R&D. Tight labour market conditions for engineers in Sweden have made it increasingly necessary to exploit existing technical capacity, regardless of location.
Concurrently, companies face new pressures for international coordination and control of R&D. Coordination is required to reduce product differentiation, to facilitate technology transfer and to ensure the technical and market compatibility of products and components developed at different locations but sold as part of total systems. Drawing on the experience in the four investigated companies, the paper discusses how systems and procedures can be developed to meet the need for coordinated international R&D management.     

From Experience: New Idea Enhancement at Amoco Chemical: An Early Report from a New System

Amoco Chemical Company operates the New Ideas Process (NIPr) as its innovation support system for employee ideas generated outside formal business development channels. The system's goal is to operate a process that involves employees in the identification and initial development of ideas for new business opportunities for the company. Jeff Felberg and David DeMarco describe NIPr's basic philosophy, procedures, organization, and staffing. Additionally, they provide quantitative and qualitative results from the first four years of the system's operation for the areas of employee involvement, business concept development, production of funded ideas, and cultural enrichment of the company.     

Product Technology Transfer in the Upstream Supply Chain

This article addresses the transfer of new product technologies from outside the firm for integration into a new product system as part of a product development effort. Product technology transfer is a key activity in the complex process of new product development and is the fundamental link in the technology supply chain. Product technology transfer too often is dealt with in an ad‐hoc fashion. Purposeful management of the product technology transfer process leads to more effective transfers in terms of timeliness, cost, functional performance, and competence building. Better management of product technology transfer gives firms access to a greater variety of new technology options, improves a firm's ability to offer significantly differentiated products, deepens the firm's competitive competencies, and positively influences sustained product development success. The central objective of this article is to gain insight into product technology transfer so that companies can manage this process more successfully and so that researchers can investigate this critical activity further. This article describes the technology supply chain as a unique form of a supply chain that poses a set of managerial challenges and requirements distinguishing it from the more traditional component supply chain. Because a single product technology transfer project is the fundamental piece in the technology supply chain, understanding this piece well is key to leveraging the extended technology supply chain and to improving overall product development performance. This article integrates literatures on new product development, supply chain management, and technology management and builds on organizational theory to present a conceptual model of determinants of product technology transfer success. The core proposition is that product technology transfer effectiveness is greatest when companies carefully match (or “fit”) the type of technology to be transferred (the “technology uncertainty”) with the type of relationship between the technology supplier and recipient (the “interorganizational interaction”). A quite detailed framework characterizing technology uncertainty along the dimensions of technology novelty, complexity, and tacitness is presented to help in assessing the challenges associated with transferring a particular product technology. This article also considers detailed elements characterizing the interorganizational interactions between the technology source and recipient firms. This helps firms consider the appropriate means to facilitate the interfirm process of technology transfer. Overall, this article provides practical insight into characterizing technologies and into improving the product technology transfer process. This article also provides a strong theoretical foundation to aid future research on product technology transfer in the technology supply chain.     

Information and communications technology use,e‐government,pain and stress amongst public servants

This paper examines information and communications technologies use, work intensity, technology preference, respondent characteristics, pain and stress in 240 New Zealand public servants across six agencies. In particular, we find that four variables are the most consistent predictors of pain—hours using a cell phone, stress, female gender and one's salary.     

哈萨克斯坦新《转移价格法》对石油公司国际原油销售的影响及对策研究

为了更好地规范哈萨克斯坦国际业务中涉及的贷款、采购服务和原油销售等进出口业务,2010年6月30日,哈萨克斯坦政府修订了《转移价格法》。新《转移价格法》将被监管的主体扩大至＂哈萨克斯坦境内发生的与国际交易相关的交易＂公司;要求公司定期提供交易监督报表,签订《转移价格协议》;取消了修订前允许商品销售价格与市场价格偏离10的规定。新《转移价格法》与旧法相比,包含很多积极的改变和修订,但也存在一些问题。例如,新《转移价格法》对转移价格和关联关系的认定有待商榷,将管理范围拓展到哈境内的交易有失公平,市场价格的确定过于简单等。新《转移价格法》对石油公司的国际原油销售带来很大的财税风险。因此,石油公司应规范销售业务流程,严格要求买方提供销售费用证明文件;及时准确报送原油销售报表和相关销售费用证明文件,接受政府监督;加强公司内部审计和外部咨询,确保销售证明文件合法合规。     

Bricoleurs and boundary riders: managing basic research and innovation knowledge networks

A major focus of national and institutional research policies during the 1990s has been on improving linkages between publicly funded research activities and industry for the purpose of advancing economic and other national objectives. The transfer of scientific knowledge, however, within and between public research institutions, universities and other innovative organizations is taking place within rapidly changing organizational environments. The emergence of new organizational structures that transcend institutional boundaries, scientific disciplines and the boundaries between basic and applied research are all contributing to as well as responding to changes in the ways science intersects with industrial innovation.
Recent international evidence suggests that innovative organizations during the next decade will depend more on their ability to maintain quite complex organizational research linkages than on their internal organizational research capabilities. Case studies of the organizational approach adopted by companies and commercial-research agency consortia in China and Australia lead to a discussion of a typology of academic-industry alliances. The typology provides insights into different collaborative R&D management strategies associated with different forms of science-industry alliance.     

Knowledge Management, Research Spinoffs and Commercialization of R&D in Australia

This paper proposes that transfer of tacit knowledge is a factor that should be considered by research organizations when they consider technology transfer. It uses a study of spinoffs arising from research of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIRO) to discuss the existing theories of establishment rationale, selection process and support mechanisms which are provided to spinoff firms. It suggests that there are three components to technology transfer and that one of these, the transfer of tacit knowledge, helps to increase survival of these firms. It presents a model which takes account of both institutional and company factors in spinoff establishment.     

The involvement of utilities in the development of broadband infrastructure: A comparison of EU case studies

Energy companies and other utility providers have been often involved in the provision of telecommunications services. Nevertheless, their contribution to broadband development has varied significantly over time. In the late 1990s, both local and national utilities in the European Union (EU) engaged in the provision of broadband networks, but only few of them managed to establish themselves as major broadband providers. More recently, new projects involving national utilities have been announced in several EU countries, opening new scenarios for utilities’ contribution to Next Generation Access (NGA) development. This paper identifies and explores the factors affecting the entry and the success of utilities in the EU broadband market, through the comparison of four case studies from four EU countries (Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK). The evolution of utility involvement in the EU broadband markets is assessed against the interaction of market, technology and policy factors, focusing on the impact of policy and regulatory measures. As a result, this paper provides fruitful insights into the relevance and effectiveness of public interventions in broadband markets. Across the four case studies, public support and public ownership emerged as the main drivers for the involvement of utilities in EU broadband markets, with regulatory measures and economies of scope exerting a limited and decreasing influence. However, the contribution of utilities has varied significantly across the cases studied, reflecting the different approaches taken at national and local level to support broadband development, in spite of the common regulatory framework.     

Threat of falling high status and corporate bribery: Evidence from the revealed accounting records of two South Korean presidents

Research Summary: Social status and its dynamics may be an important predictor of which firms will engage in large‐scale bribery. Prior theory is incomplete, however, and prior studies have lacked comprehensive and reliable data on firm‐level bribery decisions. We offer a new theoretical prediction and a novel data set on high‐level corruption in South Korea, where the accounting records of two presidents in the 1987–1992 era were exposed to after‐the‐fact legal and public scrutiny. We find that, controlling for a range of alternative explanations, the threat of falling high status—that is, the combination of longstanding high social status with current‐period mediocre economic performance relative to that of industry peers—is a statistically and economically meaningful predictor of increases in the amount of large‐scale corporate bribery. Managerial Summary: What leads companies to engage in large‐scale bribery of senior politicians? Our concept of “threat of falling high status” refers to a circumstance where companies that have historically enjoyed high status through their owner families’ elite marriage networks experience mediocre economic performance relative to their peers. We show that this threat of falling high status is a notable determinant of large‐scale corporate bribery of senior politicians, using court data on corporate bribery of two South Korean presidents during 1987–1992. The implication of our study is twofold. Companies can strengthen internal control systems to avoid any large‐scale illegal activities at a higher level. Law enforcement agencies can also implement targeted monitoring programs to preempt illegal activities among companies facing the threat of falling high status.     

Occupational roles and expectations of research scientists and research managers in scientific research institutions†

Publicly funded research institutes in most countries have been pressed by economic and political pressures through the 1990s to become more financially independent, to be more accountable and to adopt more businesslike principles and practices. In this context the occupational roles and career options for scientists and research managers in these organisations have undergone considerable change. As the research cultures of these institutions take on a more commercial perspective, new and critical career path choices for both researchers and the organisations themselves have emerged. This article focuses on the changing occupational roles of research scientists and research managers in the Australian CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), one of the world's largest multidisciplinary research organisations. Two critical occupational pathways are discussed: one between science and science management and another between science management and commercial management. Key points where the pathways diverge are identified and linked to broader issues of organisational culture and human resource management. The authors argue that research institutes such as the Australian CSIRO require a ‘multicultural’ management approach that horizontally integrates the industrial, scientific and commercial domains of the organisations’ research cultures.