Productivity and R&D sources: evidence for Catalan firms

This paper draws on a sample of innovative Catalan firms to identify how two main sources of innovation – internal R&D and external R&D acquisition – affect productivity in the manufacturing and service industries. The sample comprises 1612 innovative firms from the fourth European Community Innovation Survey (CIS-4) during the period 2002–2004. We compare empirical results when applying the usual OLS and quantile regression techniques controlling with a non-parametric sample selection. Our results indicate the different patterns that are attributable to the two sources of innovation as we move up from lower to higher conditional quantiles. First, the marginal effect of internal R&D on productivity decreased as we moved up to higher productivity levels. Second, the marginal effect of external R&D acquisition increased as we moved up to higher productivity levels. Finally, empirical results show significant complementarities between internal and external R&D, which are higher for knowledge-intensive service sectors.     

Exploring the relationships between knowledge sources in the innovation process: evidence from Finnish innovators

Innovation is a costly, risky, and uncertain process, and one of its most central components is knowledge as has been emphasised in the innovation literature. Notably, such knowledge tends to be distributed across different internal and external sources. That is, innovation processes involve diverse relationships between knowledge that originates from a myriad of different sources such as customers, suppliers and universities. While such relationships are distinctive to modern – distributed – innovation processes, little is still known about their implications on the search for new knowledge. This paper proposes that since the innovation process is inherently an uncertain and costly activity, a deeper understanding on the relationships between knowledge sources can help firms to better master the risks and costs related to their search activities. In other words, given that not all knowledge is equally combinable with each other, it claims that complementarities among knowledge sources increase the likelihood (over non-complementarities and substitutes) that such sources encompass mutually combinable knowledge, and hence decrease the uncertainties, risks and costs involved in distributed innovation processes.     

Pathways from discovery to commercialisation: using web sources to track small and medium-sized enterprise strategies in emerging nanotechnologies

This paper presents results from a pilot study of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based on a web-scraping and content analysis of current and archived nanotechnology enterprise websites. We use this approach to explore nanotechnology SMEs transitions from discovery to commercialisation and understand how transitions vary by SME characteristics, technology and market sectors. Our findings suggest that although the idealised linear innovation model is present, important instances of divergence exist. Cluster analysis uncovered sectoral differences but even more distinctions based on the age, funding source, and research intensity.     

Emergency preparedness in Romania: Dynamics,shortcomings and policy proposals

Romanians were exposed in the last century to a range of natural or man-made disasters, mainly earthquakes and floods. The transition of the country from a Communist authoritarian pattern of emergency preparedness to a democratically civilian emergency system challenges the assessment of emergency preparedness and adds more complexity in designing a better and efficient system. The aim of this paper is to briefly describe the risks and institutions dealing with disasters, to assess the emergency preparedness, the uses of Knowledge Management Systems and Foresight Methodology approaches and to discover the shortcomings of the Romanian Emergency System. The empirical study designed as a reality check focuses on the perception of the local leaders of the emergency system regarding the most probable risks, and the uses and utility of long term strategic planning and foresight methodologies, using the Delphi technique. Lessons drawn from the Romanian transition could provide an interesting case study for other emerging democracies.     

Dynamic decision trees for building resilience into future eco-cities

Intensifying global urbanization and environmental changes bring about the imperative of sustainable urban development and decisions upon inescapable pressures and risks, but knowledge integration between disciplines is a limiting contextual challenge. This paper proposes a reformulation, in terms of urban risk management, of an earlier developed ontological scenario generation method. The procedure consists of several steps: (i) identification-and-prioritization of main pressures, (ii) paired discussion of pressures using four-cell matrices, (iii) re-visit of the pressures' priority order, (iv) articulation of short-listed pressures as decision-making questions, and (v) generation of scenarios via “yes/no” responses to each question, in their order of priority. In this article, the method feeds upon the general context described in recent multi-disciplinary urban studies and public strategic plans in the city of Iasi (Romania), to propose a formal procedure for enabling the acceleration of productive decision making towards city sustainability. Answering three top priority questions, namely “Implement a business-friendly and efficient governance system?”, “Develop a resource management system?”, and “Carry out a human capital accelerator strategy?” results in a 4-scenario set: Receding City, Wanting City, Promising City, Inspiring City. The scenarios are discussed in terms of systemic risks at the end of post-communist transition and beginning of the socio-economic convergence with Western Europe.     

负债融资对企业现金持有行为的影响研究——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

以中国上市公司为研究对象,以2004~2006年的横截面数据为基础,考察了负债水平、负债期限结构及负债来源对企业现金持有行为的影响。实证结果表明,公司的现金持有量与负债水平呈现一种非线性的"U"型关系;公司的现金持有量与短期负债比例正相关,而与长期负债比例负相关,说明负债的期限结构会影响企业的现金持有行为;从负债来源看,公司的现金持有量与银行负债比例负相关,而与商业信用比例正相关。     

中国可再生能源定价的SWOT分析与政策选择

利用SWOT方法从政策、市场、技术、社会等层面分析了影响我国可再生能源定价的各种因素,测算出我们发展可再生能源可减少CO2的排放量,并着重研究可再生能源发展对环境经济影响。在参考国外可再生能源发电对CO2排放量贡献和国内可再生能源发展现状基础上,采用灰色预测GM（1,1）模型测算出中国可再生能源在高、中、低发展目标水平下的CO2排放减少量。采用可计算的一般可均衡（CGE）模型测算发展可再生能源的宏观经济影响：发展可再生能源对中国GDP产生负向影响,但冲击并不大;另一方面,发展可再生能源可以显著减少CO2和SO2的排放,有利于降低单位GDP能耗。分析中国可再生能源定价中存在的主要问题,讨论中国政府现阶段的可再生能源定价的政策选择,最后就中国可再生能源的定价和发展提出相关的政策建议。     

基于快速成型的产品创新知识供应链研究

知识是技术的源泉,知识供应链是技术创新中知识供应的有效通道。应用知识供应链开发新产品包括强化知识供应链,加速知识流动转化和反馈知识应用绩效,以及保持知识循环等方面。快速成型技术在产品创新知识供应链中,加快了知识流动,促进了隐性知识显性化,反馈了知识创新的作用绩效,加速了知识螺旋循环,有效地支持了产品创新。     

组织员工心理契约修复模望——心理契约违背的延伸

在组织员工心理契约违背发展模型的基础上,从心理契约的形成、契约破裂源、契约破裂和契约违背几个节点出发对心理契约的违背过程进行研究,构造出心理契约修复模型,提出心理契约的修复机制和修复机理。文章给出要提高组织心理契约的激励效能必须减少破裂源发生频次、提高组织对破裂源的敏感性、构建破裂源预警机制以及提高员工自我修复和组织修复能力的管理结论。     

人际关系视角下组织内知识共享敌意的知识治理研究

个体间持续的知识共享是提升组织竞争力、运营能力和创新能力的关键,但组织内包括知识囤积和知识排斥在内的知识共享敌意行为普遍存在,倾向于组织激励和引导的知识治理可有效减少员工知识共享敌意,并进一步促进组织知识共享。基于255名企业员工调研数据,从个体感知视角,实证研究了知识治理对知识共享敌意产生原因的影响,进而对个体知识共享行为作用机理,以及人际关系在知识治理与知识共享敌意产生原因之间的中介作用进行了检验。结果表明,包括知识囤积和知识排斥在内的知识共享敌意产生原因显著阻碍个体知识共享行为的发生;正式知识治理对非正式知识治理具有显著正向影响,且正式知识治理和非正式知识治理又能显著减少知识共享敌意产生原因;人际关系在知识治理与知识共享敌意成因之间具有中介效应。