Technological adoption and use after mass market displacement: The case of the LP record

This paper investigates the reasons why some technologies, defying general expectations and the established models of technological change, may not disappear from the market after having been displaced from their once-dominant status. Our point of departure is that the established models of technological change are not suitable to explain this as they predominantly focus on technological dominance, giving attention to the technologies that display highest performance levels and gain greatest market share. And yet, technological landscapes are rife with technological designs that do not fulfil these conditions. Using the LP record as an empirical case, we propose that the central mechanism at play in the continuing market presence of once-dominant technologies is the recasting of their technological features from the functional-utilitarian to the aesthetic realm, with an additional element concerning communal interaction among users. The findings that emerge from our quantitative textual analysis of over 200,000 posts on a prominent online LP-related discussion forum (between 2002 and 2010) also suggest that the post-dominance technology adopters and users appear to share many key characteristics with the earliest adopters of new technologies, rather than with late-stage adopters which precede them.     

跨国公司研发投资技术外溢效应探究:浙江案例

近年来,浙江吸收的跨国投资在促进产业结构升级、推动经济增长方式转型方面具有独特的优势。本文综合运用相关理论,通过实证研究,对跨国公司研发投资的技术外溢效应进行了实证分析。本文创新点在于,外溢效应的大小,更多地取决于本土企业竞争力的强弱,只有不断增强本地企业的技术创新能力,才能吸收跨国企业的技术外溢效应。     

Creating competitive advantage: Linking perspectives of organization learning,innovation behavior and intellectual capital

Drawing on learning theories and the intellectual capital (IC) theory, organizational learning research has discussed the benefits of searching for market opportunities and maintaining a competitive advantage in dynamic environments. To explain organizational performance and survival, the previous literature has focused mainly on what organizations do, but it has failed to address how and what they should do. This study argues that if hotel management is open-minded about exploratory and exploitative learning, it can open the door to capturing opportunity and competitive advantage through increased innovation behavior and human capital accumulation. Further, IC theory has also confirmed that social capital and relational capital will strengthen the relationship between innovation behavior and human capital. This study analyzes data from 595 hotel managers and finds strong support for the proposed hypotheses.     

Economic convergence: Policy implications from a heterogeneous agent model

In this paper we study the effectiveness of different types of cohesion policies with respect to convergence of regions. A two-region agent-based macroeconomic model is used to analyze short-, medium- and long-term effects of policies improving human capital and fostering adoption of technologies in lagging regions. With fully integrated labor markets the human capital policy positively affects the economically stronger region but reduces production in the targeted weaker region. Subsidies for high technology investment in the weaker region have a positive local output effect and a negative effect on the neighboring region, thereby fostering convergence. When labor markets are not integrated both policies support convergence.     

Technology fusion: Identification and analysis of the drivers of technology convergence using patent data

The concepts of technology convergence or technology fusion describe the phenomenon of technology overlap. Despite evidence of the higher value associated to interdisciplinary research and cross-industry innovation, few studies have investigated the characteristics of technology fusion based on patent data. This study identifies new cases of convergence relying on the International Patent Classification (IPC) of patents filed at the European Patent Office between 1991 and 2007: the first occurrence of a patent incorporating a combination of IPC subclasses signals a new instance of fusion. Duration models are employed to investigate the impact of field level characteristics derived from patent bibliometrics on the likelihood of identifying a new fusion. The results show that merges are more frequent if the focal technology fields are closely related (based on a higher number of cross citations), are characterized by wide technological scope, and are the result of an inter-firm collaboration. In contrast to previous findings, the results show that the more complex the technologies involved, the less the likelihood of their convergence or fusion. The correlation between fusion likelihood and the characteristics of the merging fields could help managers and policymakers to predict the emergence of new technology areas.     

Probabilistic assessment of fleet-level noise impacts of projected technology improvements

Demand projections for civil aviation have forecast increases in operations in future decades. Increases in demand are beneficial to the growth and advancement of the aviation industry, but also come with the threat of significant increase in environmental impacts. In response, the industry is focusing on programs to develop technologies for reductions in fuel burn, NO_x emissions, and noise. While aircraft-level impacts are an obvious metric of success, it is difficult to make informed robust technology investment decisions with respect to noise without understanding the fleet-level impacts. Fleet-level predictions of noise for technology explorations are especially complicated because it is computationally expensive, highly combinatorial, and airport-specific. Recently, rapid automated airport noise models have been developed, which can be simulated using Design of Experiments (DOE). The results of these simulations are used to generate surrogate models for airport noise contour area, which can be summed to yield a fleet-level impact. These models make use of simplifying assumptions to provide estimates of airport-level noise that are substantially cheaper to compute. They can be used to perform parametric trade-off analyses in conjunction with the equivalency assumption. Equivalency asserts that environmental impacts of a technology infused aircraft can be represented by scaled operations of the baseline aircraft in the same class. This simple assumption allows for the modeling of technology and market penetration factors under the same units: operations. This research uses surrogate models in conjunction with the equivalency assumption to examine two potential technology scenarios in a target forecast year, simulating technology and market performance factors to identify vehicle classes that could have the greatest impact in reducing contour area. Results show that technology and market performance of future notional Small Single Aisle and Large Single Aisle vehicle aircraft have the highest positive correlations with potential reductions in contour area.     

Policy Instruments,Patents, and International Technology Diffusion in a North-South Duopoly

This article analyzes the relationship between policy instruments and technology diffusion in a North-South duopoly within an inter-temporal model. The North benefits from a monopoly period with a new technology. At the end, there is then technology diffusion from the North to the South. The Northern firm files a patent in order to slow down the diffusion. This article studies the impact of several policy instruments. The results show that the Northern government’s policy instruments slow down technology diffusion, except for an import quota. The Southern government’s policy instruments accelerate the new technology diffusion.     

Designing intergovernmental fiscal transfers for conservation: The case of REDD+ revenue distribution to local governments in Indonesia

A REDD+ scheme would involve the transfer of financial resources to forested developing countries taking part in it. This paper simulates different approaches to the design of intergovernmental fiscal transfers (IFTs), a possible means to channel a REDD+ international payment to local governments which, in several countries, have a certain degree of authority over forest management. Using Indonesia as a case study, the cost-reimbursement and the derivation approaches are tested. It is demonstrated that both approaches could be used. Using the cost-reimbursement approach, localities with more degraded forests would receive a higher compensation per unit of carbon emission reduction than districts with primary forests. Avoiding further conversion of logged-over areas is associated with higher opportunity costs when compared with preventing the conversion of primary forests. In contrast, the derivation approach sets a fixed percentage and rate to distribute REDD+ revenues and ignores the opportunity costs of REDD+ incurred by local governments. The distribution of REDD+ revenues to eligible local governments is based on an assumed market price of carbon credits from REDD+. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for designing the distribution of REDD+ revenues, both for Indonesia and more generically for other developing countries.     

Capability accumulation,innovation, and technology diffusion: Lessons from a Base of the Pyramid cluster

Although research on industry clusters has made many valuable contributions, a dearth of empirical evidence and theoretical reflection about the characteristics of Base of the Pyramid (BOP) clusters has persisted. Consequently, the literature still lacks a framework that incorporates the context, challenges, and dynamics encountered in such clusters. Drawing from clusters, capability accumulation, and innovation literatures, we develop a theoretical framework that provides a more fine-grained understanding of the dynamics encountered in BOP clusters, the role of support organizations, the importance of capabilities accumulation in firms, and the challenges associated with technology development and diffusion within such settings. We use case study research method conducted in a traditional granite-mining cluster in Brazil, based on 154 interviews with key informants between 1999 and 2011. Our findings suggest that BOP clusters present different dynamics when compared to clusters elsewhere, because of the existence of idiosyncrasies such as additional barriers to technology diffusion, especially when coupled with a lack of coordination and misaligned policy approaches. We contribute to the literature by arguing that the process of technology diffusion in BOP clusters is hindered by these barriers, and that technology development without wide diffusion within BOP clusters can become a source of social exclusion and wealth concentration. Moreover, in large emerging economies, global pipelines are not necessarily the only path for BOP clusters to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable growth, as suggested in the clusters literature.     

江西科技风险投资机构问题探讨

本文通过对江西风险投资机构的数量、股权性质、从业时间和资本规模等现状进行研究,分析了风险投资机构存在的问题及其原因,并从增加风险投资机构数量、突破风险投资机构制度约束和降低风险投资机构风险三方面提出了完善江西风险投资机构的相应对策。