The ‘inventor balance’ and the functional specialization in global inventive activities

Inventors and organizational assets are inputs of inventive activities which are often provided at a global scale, where countries might specialize in the provision of one or the other type of inputs. We introduce a new patent-based metric, the ‘inventor balance’, to quantify this type of functional specialization, which we discover to be considerable, and we propose a conceptual framework to explain it. We observe a progressive ‘decoupling’ of national sub-systems providing respectively inventors and organizational assets. Moreover, we find that countries with a high level of innovativeness relative to their economic development, high technological specialization, and strong individualistic cultural traits, contribute relatively more inventors than organizations to the global production of inventions.     

Using Statistics and Statistical Thinking to Improve Organisational Performance

A systematic approach to measuring organisational performance is fundamental to the pursuit of business excellence. As such, the area of organisational performance measurement, and its use of data and analysis to inform business decisions, affords statisticians a potentially high value-adding opportunity. To be effective in this area, statisticians need to appreciate the differing requirements for statistical information in various management zones of an enterprise.
This paper describes a strategy that seeks to link measurement to all facets of organisational performance, particularly to desired business outcomes, and also to mesh measurement with process improvement in a natural way. The use of statistics and statistical thinking is then discussed in this context, with particular focus on the opportunity for statisticians to have a key role at the top decision-making level of the organisation. We argue that the role requires skills in both advanced technical statistical modelling and analysis, and in statistical thinking. It also requires a preparedness to form an appreciation of the business and management imperatives faced by the leaders of an enterprise, and a willingness to work from this basis.     

铅冶炼生产的安全规范和管理提升

本文阐述了铅冶炼生产活动中潜在的涉及人身、设备、产品、运输、起重安全的各种危险因素,旨在建立预防性安全健康管理体系,降低或控制事故风险,使生产过程在符合安全生产要求的物质条件和工作秩序下进行,避免设备设施、环境免受损坏,防止人身伤亡、财产损失等生产事故发生,使生产始终处于有效控制状态,切实保护劳动者的生命安全和身体健康,保障生产经营活动顺利进行。     

When Do Expert Teams Fail to Create Impactful Inventions?

We investigate the salience of expertise in creating high impact inventions and question experts’ ability to deploy novel ideas. Specifically, we examine the relationships between expertise, component originality, and a team's structural holes’ position in the collaborative network and propose that, in relative terms, expert teams create lower impact inventions if they deploy more original components and if they occupy structural holes. We test and confirm our hypotheses in a sample of semiconductor firms. In post‐hoc analyses, we find a three‐way interaction where the negative effect of structural holes almost disappears when an expert team experiments with original components whereas an increase in non‐redundancy is detrimental when teams with high expertise use familiar components. Our findings inform a foundational view of the invention process and provide novel insights into the contingent benefits of domain expertise.     

Gendered key events in the life course: effects on changes in travel mode choice over time

This paper studies changes in travel mode specific trip rates after life course (and accessibility) related key events from a gender perspective. It is theoretically informed by the mobility biographies approach, and by gender/travel studies. The data used is the German Mobility Panel (GMP) 1994 to 2010 in which households and their members are asked three times in three subsequent years to report the trips they made over a week. The changes reported are regressed to key events over the life course, cohort effects and period effects, while sociodemographics and spatial context attributes are controlled. A cluster–robust regression approach is used to account for the non-independent character of panel observations. Significant effects were found for some key events, including the birth of a child, entry into the labour market, and changes in spatial context, accessibility and mobility. Some effects differed distinctly between men and women, suggesting that men and women are differently affected by life course events. However, taken together the associations found, as well as their gender differences are rather limited. Hence, key events over the life course seem to be only loosely associated with travel mode specific trip rates.     

Analysis of topologies and key players in terrorist networks

While topologies and key player positions and roles differ across terrorist networks, similar ideological networks share similar structures and topologies, maintaining structural properties of their predecessor groups. In this study, we look at basic ideological waves of terrorism in history, classify terrorist network ideologies, and describe the patterns in network topologies and key player characteristics. We show that ideological differences in terrorist networks in part explain the differences in the structure of links between key players.     

Diversity and inclusion: Evidence from corporate inventors

Inclusion is often considered a crux of diversity management. However, little is known about how board diversity affects corporate performance through organizational inclusive behavior. Using the inventor-level patenting data, we find that firms with more ethnic minority directors attract more productive ethnic minority inventors and promote greater collaboration among inventors, leading to more patents and patents with greater market value. Our findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests. Overall, our study offers new evidence that racially diverse boards cultivate inclusive environment for inventors to succeed.     

学历与首次职位升迁对关键研发者职业生涯上升速度的影响

基于1995—2015年中国家电和汽车行业共40个上市公司（20+20个）的全部发明、实用新型专利数据,提取得到219名关键研发者,并将其创造力类型划分为速成型（创造力上升迅速但下降缓慢）和慢热型（创造力上升缓慢但下降速度快）。然后,从个体属性出发,研究学历和首次职位升迁两个因素对关键研发者职业生涯上升阶段创造力的影响。利用Logit模型进行分析,结果发现：在关键研发者职业生涯上升期,其学历越高,就越有可能是速成型而不是慢热型;关键研发者职业生涯上升期如果发生首次职位升迁,他们更有可能是慢热型而不是速成型。从理论上丰富了关键研发者创造力影响因素研究,对如何实现关键研发者快速成长具有实践指导价值,有助于企业完善关键研发者选拔机制与管理策略。     

关键核心技术产学研协同创新机理研究——以芯片光刻技术为例

产学研协同创新是突破关键核心技术“卡脖子”问题、实现科技自立自强的重要途径,但鲜有研究揭示面向关键核心技术创新的产学研协同机理。基于复杂系统管理理论,构建关键核心技术产学研协同创新机理系统框架,揭示产学研非线性互动协同创新规律,并以芯片光刻技术为例,借助社会网络分析法实证解析该框架。研究发现：(1)资源整合—主体交互—系统涌现是基于复杂系统管理视角提升产学研协同网络成效、加快关键核心技术突破的有效途径;(2)主导者—桥梁—辅助者权力分配规则能够有效促进多元主体在交互过程中通过嵌入性社会关系推动关键核心技术创新的价值增值;(3)模块化—松散耦合的网络结构能够消除主体间交互障碍、最大化结构红利,是产学研协同复杂网络在系统结构层面涌现的关键核心技术创新突破规律。最后,通过芯片光刻技术专利合作网络实证解析关键核心技术产学研协同创新机理,提出强化面向关键核心技术产学研协同创新、助力高水平科技自立自强的对策建议。