Foresight and innovation in the context of industrial clusters: The case of some Italian districts

The “territory” is widely recognized in the literature on business strategy as a critical driver of industrial competitiveness (see, as an example, Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations). The generation and exploitation of new knowledge, both tacit and explicit, through the process of socialization, articulation, combination and internalization (see Nonaka and Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company) is essential to enable innovation of processes and products of “local” firms.Our recent Foresight exercises in the metal working and machinery district of Lecco and in the silk district of Como show that Foresight can play an important role in creating and exploiting new knowledge, and that different methodologies can be more or less effective to this aim.Critical technology list and interactive workshops, with the participation of entrepreneurs of SMEs and technologists, are more suited to foster the transfer of technologies that have overcome the initial stage of the life cycle and that have been already applied in other sectors. However, when radical innovations are needed in order to face the challenges posed by global competition, other methodologies, as Scenarios, are more appropriate. Even if these approaches are complex and time and resource consuming, they may be very effective in actively involving the most relevant private and public stakeholders of a district, and in making them to envisage the long term future of the economic, social, and cultural structure of their district. In this way Foresight drives the small entrepreneurs, the district stakeholders and the medium and large size firms to play the critical roles of Nonaka and Takeuchi's “frontline employees”, “senior managers” and “middle managers” in their “knowledge creating company”: the first ones grasp what the district is; the second ones build the vision of what it ought to be; the third ones, serve as a bridge between the future and the present.     

Transforming economics into what? Heterodox economics and critical realism

The volume under review consists of comments on critical realismby heterodox economists. This paper addresses a number of themesfrom the book, e.g., history and reflexivity, sometimes expandingon the authors' comments on critical realism, other times respondingto them on behalf of critical realists. It considers the goalsof critical realism and ask to what extent the book furthersthem. It concludes that the high level of abstraction at whichcritical realism operates encourages those commenting on itto do so at a similarly high level of abstraction. As it stands,critical realism and the contributions to the book are too divorcedfrom the concerns of concrete economic theorising to be of greatuse to practising heterodox economists.     

On strategic complementarity conditions in Bertrand oligopoly

Summary. For Bertrand duopoly with linear costs, we establish via a single (counter-)example that: (i) A new monotone transformation of the firms' profit functions may lead to the supermodularity of transformed profits when the standard log and identity transformations both fail to do so, and (ii) Topkis's notion of critical sufficient condition for monotonicity of a Bertrand firm's best-reply correspondence cannot be extended to rely only on positive unit costs. Received: January 16, 2001; revised version: March 20, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" This work was completed while the first author was visiting the Institute for Industrial Economics at the University of Copenhagen during Spring 2000. Their financial support and stimulating research environment are gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed here are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the European Commission. Correspondence to: R. Amir     

演化经济学的两种系统观

演化经济学在系统处理方法上呈现出两种不同的主张,一种是以复杂适应系统理论为导向的演化建模分析方法,而另一种则强调多层级本体论和涌现观,并对复杂系统建模持抵制态度,尽管在反对主流经济学微观还原论这一点上两者取得了一致,但建立在相似性理论基础上的复杂系统建模更适合对复杂性存在的描述,而强调比较的、历史的和阐释的多层级本体论和涌现观的系统分析方法则更接近经验事实。     

基于关键节点与关键路径的专利集群网络演进研究

专利作为技术和知识的重要载体,是研究技术演进和产业发展的重要信息源。目前缺乏针对专利集群网络中关键节点与关键路径中节点的比较分析和技术知识挖掘。构建基于关键节点和关键路径的专利集群网络演进模型,从两个层面综合分析技术演进特征。检索德温特数据库(Derwent Innovation Index)得到碳化硅肖特基势垒二极管（SiC-SBD）相关专利作为实证数据,时间跨度为1986-2017年。结果表明,SiC-SBD专利集群网络经历了萌芽期、成长期、成熟期和衰退期,其中,萌芽期专利主要涉及基础技术,成长期为器件结构,以完善器件结构、改进二极管性能为主要研究方向。近年来SiC-SBD专利年增长率下降,技术发展速度放缓,专利价值更多体现在其商业价值上。SiC-SBD专利集群网络关键节点与关键路径中节点重合度较高,核心专利识别可通过多视角分析得到。通过关键节点与关键路径分析专利集群网络演进过程,有助于更全面呈现技术演进过程,为决策者识别核心专利、预测技术发展提供参考。     

A critical 'post' to critical realism

The aim of this paper is to initiate a dialogue between criticalrealism (CR) and what is termed a ‘post'ist perspective’.This amalgamated perspective is composed of relatively recenttransdisciplinary theoretical approaches such as poststructuralism,deconstruction, feminism and postcolonial theory. Such a conversationbetween CR and post'isms within economics has not been attemptedbefore. I shall argue that this uncommon methodological exchangeis worth pursuing, since it allows us to raise important newquestions. After the initial stage-setting, the dialogue proceedsin two parts. In the first part, aspects of CR are evaluatedusing post'ist insights. In the second part, certain underconsideredtheoretical domains in CR are highlighted. I conclude by sketchingthe outline of a possible non-universalist and strategicallyessentialist way of considering knowledge—as a ContextualSocial Political Economy praxis.     

伪满洲中央银行发行的纸币考证

1931年九一八事变后,日本帝国主义扶植建立了以满清逊帝溥仪为头子的傀儡政权伪满洲国。为全面控制东北经济,又策划建立了伪满洲中央银行,并强行发行伪币,收缴旧币,以统一东北币制。伪满洲中央银行发行的纸币数额巨大,种类繁多,先后发行改造券及甲、乙、丙、丁等多套票券。这些伪币不断变换票面图案,其用意无非是麻痹中国人民的反满抗日情绪,以利于扩大发行,垄断和独霸东北金融市场。     

FDI技术溢出与挤出效应——基于DEA与湖北省面板数据的实证分析

首先运用基于DEA的Malmquist生产率指数对湖北省各地区全要素生产率进行测量和分解,然后我们分别建立FDI技术溢出测量模型和扩展Panama Teanravisitsagoo的绝对挤出效应模型,对湖北省各地区的面板数据运用SUR(似然不相关回归)加权的方法,进行广义最小二乘估计。最终分别得出面板数据的技术溢出和挤出效应的变系数模型。通过实证分析,我们可以首次得出湖北省FDI的技术溢出效应不太明显以及FDI对内资的挤出效应具有内在逻辑的一致性。     

入世后我国中小企业发展的机遇、挑战与对策

中小企业准确认识加入WTO带来的机遇和挑战，是制定正确应对措施的前提。我国中小企业在激烈的国际竞争中立于不败之地的关键是，提高企业的综合素质和竞争能力，优化企业组织结构、深化企业改革，建立新的企业制度、建立创新机制。     

加强文学批评理论教学,深化英美文学教学改革

英美文学课的教学与文学批评理论(下称文论)有着密切的关系。在文学课教学中,文论对文学作品的理解和欣赏起着指导作用。然而,长期以来传统的文学教学忽视了文论教学的存在。失去了文论的指导,文学教学失去了它应有的活力,因此,在英美文学教学过程中,要加强文论教学。