An Exploration of Firm-Wide Information Technology Infrastructure Investment and Services

This study examines the rationale behind decisions on firm-wide infrastructure investments, the types of infrastructure-related services providedbyfirms,andlevelsoflTinfrastructureexpenditure. AmajorgoalofthestudyistoestablishwhethercertainITinfrastructure approaches are adopted for particular strategies or by certain industries. Twenty-fivelarge firms in three industries - - finance (banking andinsurance),processmanufacturingandretailing--areincludedinthestudy. Anexploratoryresearchapproachisusedinvolving damcollection andonsiteinterviews aboutthenature ofcorporatelevelandbusiness unitlevelITinfrastructure investments and decision making in each firm

Commodities and Linkages: Industrialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa

In a complementary Discussion Paper (MMCP DP 12 2011) we set out the reasons why we believe that there is extensive scope for linkage development into and out of SSA’s commodities sectors. In this Discussion Paper, we present the findings of our detailed empirical enquiry into the determinants of the breadth and depth of linkages in eight SSA countries (Angola, Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa Tanzania, and Zambia) and six sectors (copper, diamonds, gold, oil and gas, mining services and timber). We conclude from this detailed research that the extent of linkages varies as a consequence of four factors which intrinsically affect their progress – the passage of time, the complexity of the sector and the level of capabilities in the domestic economy. However, beyond this we identify three sets of related factors which determined the nature and pace of linkage development. The first is the structure of ownership, both in lead commodity producing firms and in their suppliers and domestic customers. The second is the nature and quality of both hard infrastructure (for example, roads and ports) and soft infrastructure (for example, the efficiency of customs clearance). The third is the availability of skills and the structure and orientation of the National System of Innovation in the domestic economy. The fourth, and overwhelmingly important contextual factor is policy. This reflects policy towards the commodity sector itself, and policy which affects the three contextual drivers, namely ownership, infrastructure and capabilities. As a result of this comparative analysis we provided an explanation of why linkage development was progressive in some economies (such as Botswana) and regressive in others (such as Tanzania). This cluster of factors also explains why the breadth and depth of linkages is relative advanced in some countries (such as South Africa), and at a very nascent stage in other countries (such as Angola)

Innovation dynamics and the role of infrastructure

This report shows how the role of the infrastructure – standards, measurement, accreditation, design and intellectual property – can be integrated into a quantitative model of the innovation system and used to help explain levels and changes in labour productivity and growth in turnover and employment. The summary focuses on the new results from the project, set out in more detail in Sections 5 and 6. The first two sections of the report provide contextual material on the UK innovation system, the nature and content of the infrastructure knowledge and the institutions that provide it. Mixed modes of innovation, the typology of innovation practices developed and applied here, is constituted of six mixed modes, derived from many variables taken from the UK Innovation Survey. These are: Investing in intangibles Technology with IP innovating Using codified knowledge Wider (managerial) innovating Market-led innovating External process modernising. The composition of the innovation modes, and the approach used to compute them, is set out in more detail in Section 4. Modes can be thought of as the underlying process of innovation, a bundle of activities undertaken jointly by firms, and whose working out generates well known indicators such as new product innovations, R&D spending and accessing external information, that are the partial indicators gathered from the innovation survey itself

A Survey on Intangible Capital

This study provides a survey of topics related to intangible capital, including concepts, definitions, measurement issues, and classifications. It shows that despite the growing importance of intangible capital, we do not know enough about it and only have imperfect methods of measuring it. While at the macroeconomic level, measurement of intangibles is now available for many countries, definitional and measurement issues pose a greater problem at the microeconomic level. This study points out that researchers not only have to confront data deficiencies but also need to grapple with conceptual issues. Finally, it also provides brief surveys of studies dealing with particular detailed topics. Many of these studies prove the existence of intangible capital at the microeconomic level as well as at macroeconomic level.

A Continuing Record of Achievement: The Economic Impact of Ben Franklin Technology Partners 2002 - 2006

The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia was commissioned by Ben Franklin Technology Partners to conduct an independent, objective evaluation of the economic impact of the program from 2002 to 2006, focusing on its role in providing financing and related services to early-stage and established technology-based firms in Pennsylvania.In 1982, the Pennsylvania General Assembly established the Advanced Technology Centers of the Ben Franklin Partnership to promote technological innovation and spur conomic growth in the Commonwealth. Since then, in a series of subsequent legislative acts, the organization took its present-day shape as the Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP). Over the years, BFTP has periodically supplemented its annual performance assessment with in-depth analyses of the impact of the program. With the arrival of its 25th anniversary since beginning operations, BFTP decided to undertake another in-depth evaluation of the impact of its funding and services on individual companies and the overall economy of Pennsylvania. This study continues BFTP's efforts to objectively measure the impact of the program and gather information that is useful for future strategy and program enhancement.Key findings of this study include:BFTP boosted the Pennsylvania economy (Gross State Product) by $9.3 billion from 2002 through 2006, or$8.7 billion after adjusting for inflation.Since 1989, BFTP has boosted the state's economy by more than $17 billion.From 2002 though 2006, the Commonwealth received more than$517 million in additional state tax revenues as a direct result of BFTP. That represents a 3.5-to-1 payback to the state on its $140 million investment during the same period.From 2002 through 2006, BFTP generated 10,165 additional job-years* in client firms.Client impacts ripple throughout the Pennsylvania economy, contributing to higher Gross State Product and additional employment across the state. From 2002 through 2006, BFTP generated an additional 22,667 job-years in the state beyond those in client firms.BFTP produced a total of 32,832 job-years in the Commonwealth between 2002 and 2006 that otherwise would not have existed.Since 1989, BFTP has generated 45,667 additional job-years in client firms.Since 1989, BFTP generated 80,160 additional job-years beyond those in client firms, for a total of 125,827 additional job-years.* Job-years are equivalent to the number of years of full-time work created by the program. For example, if a BFTP client firm employed three more workers for five years as a direct result of the program, that is expressed as 15 additional job-year

Strategic Flexibility and IT Infastructure Investments - Empirical Evidence in Two Case Studies

This paper presents an empirical study to explore how firms invest in their IT infrastructure to support strategic flexibility. It investigates how IT infrastructure capabilities relate to strategic flexibility, how firms build flexibility into their IT investment decisions, and how the firms use IT to support strategic flexibility. Our cases indicate that different types of needed flexibility at the organizational level, ask for different types of IT infrastructure capabilities. In both cases, flexibility is supported by centrally organized management-oriented IT infrastructure capabilities. In the IT investment process, flexibility in the investment decision-making process is implicitly taken into account, whereas IT infrastructure flexibility is explicitly valued for. In both cases, management expects more explorative use of applications supported by IT infrastructure investments to better enhance strategic flexibility than exploitative use does. The implications for further research are discussed

Determinants of Employment Growth at MNEs: Evidence from Egypt, India, South Africa and Vietnam

Foreign investors are expected to contribute to economic development through a variety of channels. However, many foreign investment operations are small, and almost insignificant in their impact on the local environment. An important indication of the potential contribution of foreign investors is thus their employment growth. Employees working for, and trained by, a multinational enterprise may become carriers of new technology and business practices. The more employees receive access to new knowledge, the more they in turn may spread the knowledge across the economy, for instance by setting up their own businesses. In this paper, we make a first step in investigating the determinants of this important mediating variable, employment growth. For a dataset covering four diverse emerging economies, we find that wholly-owned FDI operations have higher employment growth, while local industry characteristics moderate the growth effect.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40093/3/wp707.pd

Economic Impacts of GO TO 2040

The economy of the Chicago metropolitan region has reached a critical juncture. On the one hand, Chicagoland is currently a highly successful global region with extraordinary assets and outputs. The region successfully made the transition in the 1980s and 1990s from a primarily industrial to a knowledge and service-based economy. It has high levels of human capital, with strong concentrations in information-sector industries and knowledge-based functional clusters -- a headquarters region with thriving finance, business services, law, IT and emerging bioscience, advanced manufacturing and similar high-growth sectors. It combines multiple deep areas of specialization, providing the resilience that comes from economic diversity. It is home to the abundant quality-of-life amenities that flow from business and household prosperity.On the other hand, beneath this static portrait of our strengths lie disturbing signs of a potential loss of momentum. Trends in the last decade reveal slowing rates, compared to other regions, of growth in productivity and gross metropolitan product. Trends in innovation, new firm creation and employment are comparably lagging. The region also faces emerging challenges with respect to both spatial efficiency and governance.In this context, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) has just released GO TO 2040, its comprehensive, long-term plan for the Chicago metropolitan area. The plan contains recommendations aimed at shaping a wide range of regional characteristics over the next 30 years, during which time more than 2 million new residents are anticipated. Among the chief goals of GO TO 2040 are increasing the region's long-term economic prosperity, sustaining a high quality of life for the region's current and future residents and making the most effective use of public investments. To this end, the plan addresses a broad scope of interrelated issues which, in aggregate, will shape the long-term physical, economic, institutional and social character of the region.This report by RW Ventures, LLC is an independent assessment of the plan from a purely economic perspective, addressing the impacts that GO TO 2040's recommendations can be expected to have on the future of the regional economy. The assessment begins by describing how implementation of GO TO 2040's recommendations would affect the economic landscape of the region; reviews economic research and practice about the factors that influence regional economic growth; and, given both of these, articulates and illustrates the likely economic impacts that will flow from implementation of the plan. In the course of reviewing the economic implications of the plan, the assessment also provides recommendations of further steps, as the plan is implemented, for increasing its positive impact on economic growth

The Economic Value of Industrial Minerals and Rocks for Developing Countries: A Discussion of Key Issues

This paper provides a few general comments on the nature and economic value of industrial minerals and rocks and the need for an increased exploitation and use of these materials in developing countries. These materials are of great economic value as main raw materials for the construction, glass, abrasive, paper, chemical, ceramics, metallurgical and agricultural industries. Developing countries dispose of many of these materials, and could derive greater economic benefits from them. Per capita consumption of industrial mineral products continues to grow in developed countries and part of this demand could be met by exports from developing countries. The paper describes some of the issues to be addressed and steps to be taken if developing countries are to gain from industrial minerals and rocksEconomic value industrial minerals and rocks; consumption industrial minerals and rocks; production industrial minerals and rocks; developing countries benefit minerals and roc