Rewarding the employee inventor and the Patents Act (1977)

The new Patents Act which came into force on June 1st 1978 contains radical provisions on the remuneration of employee inventors who are now under certain conditions entitled to a share of the benefits flowing from any outstanding inventions they may make. The reaction of industry has in general been unfavourable and as a questionnaire survey of a sample of British industry taken mainly from the Times Top 1000 companies suggests, there appears to have been some lethargy in taking adequate steps to meet the requirements of the new Law. This short note outlines the changes with regard to the reward for employee inventions, examines the possible effects of the new legislation, and discusses the actions that companies should make and are making.     

The analysis of technological activity using abstracting services

Many organizations are at the present time faced with two problems. First, what are the events that are likely to have important implications for their activities in future time periods? Second, what new areas should they consider entering and how can they make quick appraisal of the potential in such areas? There are no easy answers to either of these questions but a number of methods have been proposed which have been found to be of assistance. This paper outlines an approach based on the use of abstracting services which can provide useful information quickly and inexpensively.     

Towards an Historical Model of Services Innovation: The Case of the Insurance Industry, 1700–1914

There has been a recent shift in the historiography of the modern British economy towards an emphasis on the success of the service sector. This article examines one criterion of success, namely innovation, in British insurance between 1700 and 1914. Factors determining innovation are surveyed and comparisons drawn with European insurance. The relevance of existing models of industrial innovation is challenged and a new model is constructed for insurance. This model suggests that insurance innovation ran broadly counter-cyclical to innovation in industry during this period, and was relatively undynamic. The article concludes by speculating about the relationship between industrial growth, liquidity constraints, and innovation in insurance.     

Leadership styles and planning and monitoring techniques in R & D

There is no shortage of literature on the subject of planning and control in research and development. There is less evidence that many of the more formal techniques are effectively used in practice. It can be argued that some of these techniques are very valuable aids to project managers, and to individual team members, if seen as components of leadership style, In this paper a link is made between a number of planning and control methods and the leadership model of Hersey and Blanchard. In conclusion it is argued that the potential value, and hence use, of different methods will be increased if more attention is paid to the contribution they can make to understanding and promoting individual development and project team performance.     

The impact of technical characteristics on export activity: a study of small and medium-sized UK electronics firms

Abstract: A study of eighty-eight small and medium sized electronics firms in the UK was undertaken in an attempt to investigate the impact of technical characteristics on their export involvement. The results show that high exporting firms in the sample were distinguished from the low exporters by certain key technical characteristics. Among these, the presence of in-house R&D capability emerged as the strongest feature. But the results also show that high exporting is associated with more than strong technical capability, and in particular a positive orientation towards export market, especially during the project selection and R&D stages, needs to be present.