The Roles of Independent Research and Technology Organizations in the United Kingdom's Technology Transfer Mechanism to SMEs

Independent Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) provide an increasing proportion of the UK's technology services requirements. RTOs, often former state research establishments spun out into the private sector, provide technology consulting and networking services to specific sectors or for generic technologies; some are membership-based organizations while others work for contract clients. In this paper we explore the roles and services provided by RTOs, together with the measures being taken to assist small firms that, for many RTOs, form a new and challenging market. The diversity of services and approaches to SMEs are related, in part, to the different origins of RTOs. The research indicates three forms of technology services market failure that suggest a need for ongoing external support for the market's mechanism.     

Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies

Various theories have been proposed to explain momentum in stock returns. We test the gradual-information-diffusion model of Hong and Stein (1999) and establish three key results. First, once one moves past the very smallest stocks, the profitability of momentum strategies declines sharply with firm size. Second, holding size fixed, momentum strategies work better among stocks with low analyst coverage. Finally, the effect of analyst coverage is greater for stocks that are past losers than for past winners. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that firm-specific information, especially negative information, diffuses only gradually across the investing public.     

Fair Valuation of Equity-Linked Policies under Insurer Default Risk

Abstract

We consider the problem of computing the fair value of equity-linked policies with an interestrate guarantee when the insurer is subject to credit risk. The framework is developed based on modern financial theory using the no-arbitrage principle. In this context, an equity-linked policy is considered as a vulnerable contingent claim that expires before maturity if the firm asset value reaches a prespecified default threshold depending on the firm’s liabilities. We derive a closedform formula in a continuous-time environment to compute the fair value of the contract. We also develop a discrete-time model that allows us to address fair evaluation when the policy embeds a surrender option.     

Authentic Program Planning in Technology Education

This paper reports on the needs identified by three teachers during an investigation into their first experiences of implementing technology in their primary classrooms. One part of one teacher's case is presented in detail to illustrate that the meanings the teachers made of their experiences were related very closely to their beliefs about teaching and learning, to their understanding of technology as a phenomenon and to the place they saw technology having within the whole curriculum. One particular outcome of the investigation was that the teachers experienced a lack of knowledge of the scope and breadth of the technology learning area, and as a consequence, faced challenges in planning for the successful implementation of activities. In response to this particular need and to the many issues emanating from current research literature in technology education, the paper then presents two models for conceptualizing and planning units of work in technology in primary classrooms. The models form frameworks that may be useful to help structure thinking for authentic classroom planning and sequencing of lessons or learning experiences. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A technique for evaluating alternative population forecasts

The authors utilize third, fourth, and fifth order polynomials to illustrate a procedure for evaluating alternative population forecasts. Population for 1930–1970 and projections for 1970 and 1980 for the State of Maryland and its five major regions are fitted to polynomials and utilized for extrapolation of existing trends. The authors suggest that the use of a zero net migration assumption as a baseline permits policymakers to identify the range of growth subject to control, and that the use of derivatives can assist in the interpretation of maxima and minima of these growth paths. Additional research is suggested in areas of population density analysis and in other policy applications of this methodology.     

Joining a Queue or Staying Out: Effects of Information Structure and Service Time on Arrival and Staying Out Decisions

We study a class of single-server queueing systems with a finite population size, FIFO queue discipline, and no balking or reneging. In contrast to the predominant assumptions of queueing theory of exogenously determined arrivals and steady state behavior, we investigate queueing systems with endogenously determined arrival times and focus on transient rather than steady state behavior. When arrival times are endogenous, the resulting interactive decision process is modeled as a non-cooperative n-person game with complete information. Assuming discrete strategy spaces, the mixed-strategy equilibrium solution for groups of n = 20 agents is computed using a Markov chain method. Using a 2 × 2 between-subject design (private vs. public information by short vs. long service time), arrival and staying out decisions are presented and compared to the equilibrium predictions. The results indicate that players generate replicable patterns of behavior that are accounted for remarkably well on the aggregate, but not individual, level by the mixed-strategy equilibrium solution unless congestion is unavoidable and information about group behavior is not provided.JEL Classification: C71, C92, D81