Evolution of knowledge networks, technological learning and development of SME’s : a multi-level perspective of innovation and environmental trends in the automotive sector in Thailand

Car producers are under pressure in the shift towards automotive technologies that are environmentally sustainable, from the use of internal combustion engine to technologies associated with electric mobility. The question remains how firms along the automotive supply chain react to such challenges posed by environmental trends. The issue raised by this research is crucial to the automotive industry in Thailand which is the main industry with a major contribution to the country’s economy. As SMEs constitute the lion’s share in the supply chain of the Thai automotive industries, it is crucial to examine their ability to adapt to evolving technologies and the factors influencing their capability development. This research aims to investigate how existing firms, particularly SMEs, react to the sustainability transition by elucidating their processes of technological learning and participation in knowledge networks. To explore potential shifts in practices, the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework is employed. Specifically, the study centres on SMEs as established entities involved in niche innovations, examining how government interventions can facilitate their technological transition. In this study, the entrance of EV constitutes a concern for all firms, but SMEs tend to feel more of an impact than large firms. Most firms expect some product or process modification due to the advent of EV. To prepare for the shift, most firms show similar interest in joining the EV value chain and a diversification to new markets so as to maintain existing production capacity. Both SMEs and large firms primarily acquire technological knowledge using their own internal effort rather than networking with academia. The results also suggest that large firms seem to network with external partners for knowledge development activities more than SMEs. It is also found that firms required R&D capability improvement to support them in the transition to EV. This study has identified that SMEs have less absorptive capacity than large firms which is crucial for their adaptability and ability to innovate. Thus, the evidence of this study implies that, despite the responsiveness to change, SMEs may experience difficulties in the transition to EV more than large firms. The results also suggest that firms may increase their ability to learn new knowledge or increase their absorptive capacity through networking deeply with triple helix partners. It is found that the lack of an overarching EV policy framework at the landscape level and the lack of demand side policy tends to impact the direction of firm’s technological development or the regime shift. The role of government interventions is significant in terms of promoting investment policies to attract the establishment of the EV industry. However, the capability for niche technological improvement in local firms wishing to join the EV value chain seems to be mostly limited to large firms, either for incumbents or new entrants. Government policy intervention and strong implementation regarding the development of human resources and R&D support by providing researchers and funding are required, particularly for SMEs which lack both skills and resources. The focus on the establishment of EV industry without parallelly improving local technological capability is identified as a potential risk to the country’s future competitiveness.Car producers are under pressure in the shift towards automotive technologies that are environmentally sustainable, from the use of internal combustion engine to technologies associated with electric mobility. The question remains how firms along the automotive supply chain react to such challenges posed by environmental trends. The issue raised by this research is crucial to the automotive industry in Thailand which is the main industry with a major contribution to the country’s economy. As SMEs constitute the lion’s share in the supply chain of the Thai automotive industries, it is crucial to examine their ability to adapt to evolving technologies and the factors influencing their capability development. This research aims to investigate how existing firms, particularly SMEs, react to the sustainability transition by elucidating their processes of technological learning and participation in knowledge networks. To explore potential shifts in practices, the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework is employed. Specifically, the study centres on SMEs as established entities involved in niche innovations, examining how government interventions can facilitate their technological transition. In this study, the entrance of EV constitutes a concern for all firms, but SMEs tend to feel more of an impact than large firms. Most firms expect some product or process modification due to the advent of EV. To prepare for the shift, most firms show similar interest in joining the EV value chain and a diversification to new markets so as to maintain existing production capacity. Both SMEs and large firms primarily acquire technological knowledge using their own internal effort rather than networking with academia. The results also suggest that large firms seem to network with external partners for knowledge development activities more than SMEs. It is also found that firms required R&D capability improvement to support them in the transition to EV. This study has identified that SMEs have less absorptive capacity than large firms which is crucial for their adaptability and ability to innovate. Thus, the evidence of this study implies that, despite the responsiveness to change, SMEs may experience difficulties in the transition to EV more than large firms. The results also suggest that firms may increase their ability to learn new knowledge or increase their absorptive capacity through networking deeply with triple helix partners. It is found that the lack of an overarching EV policy framework at the landscape level and the lack of demand side policy tends to impact the direction of firm’s technological development or the regime shift. The role of government interventions is significant in terms of promoting investment policies to attract the establishment of the EV industry. However, the capability for niche technological improvement in local firms wishing to join the EV value chain seems to be mostly limited to large firms, either for incumbents or new entrants. Government policy intervention and strong implementation regarding the development of human resources and R&D support by providing researchers and funding are required, particularly for SMEs which lack both skills and resources. The focus on the establishment of EV industry without parallelly improving local technological capability is identified as a potential risk to the country’s future competitiveness

Privacy in resource allocation problems

Collaborative decision-making processes help parties optimize their operations, remain competitive in their markets, and improve their performances with environmental issues. However, those parties also want to keep their data private to meet their obligations regarding various regulations and not to disclose their strategic information to the competitors. In this thesis, we study collaborative capacity allocation among multiple parties and present that (near) optimal allocations can be realized while considering the parties' privacy concerns.We first attempt to solve the multi-party resource sharing problem by constructing a single model that is available to all parties. We propose an equivalent data-private model that meets the parties' data privacy requirements while ensuring optimal solutions for each party. We show that when the proposed model is solved, each party can only get its own optimal decisions and cannot observe others' solutions. We support our findings with a simulation study.The third and fourth chapters of this thesis focus on the problem from a different perspective in which we use a reformulation that can be used to distribute the problem among the involved parties. This decomposition lets us eliminate almost all the information-sharing requirements. In Chapter 3, together with the reformulated model, we benefit from a secure multi-party computation protocol that allows parties to disguise their shared information while attaining optimal allocation decisions. We conduct a simulation study on a planning problem and show our proposed algorithm in practice. We use the decomposition approach in Chapter 4 with a different privacy notion. We employ differential privacy as our privacy definition and design a differentially private algorithm for solving the multi-party resource sharing problem. Differential privacy brings in formal data privacy guarantees at the cost of deviating slightly from optimality. We provide bounds on this deviation and discuss the consequences of these theoretical results. We show the proposed algorithm on a planning problem and present insights about its efficiency.<br/

Working for Canada

An officer of Global Affairs Canada from 1990–2018, Geoff White is a career expert in Canadian foreign policy. In Working for Canada he shares that expertise, illuminating the often invisible work of creating and enacting international policy. Writing with clarity, wit, and common sense, White demystifies Canadian diplomacy and provides a clear view of how it actually works—and when it doesn’t. Reflecting on the headlines, highlights, and sometimes scandals of a long and successful career, White offers a highly readable blend of personal recollection and political insight. He begins with his first assignment in communications planning during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continues through the establishment of NAFTA, humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, softwood lumber, during assignments at headquarters and in Canadian embassies abroad. He shares his experiences of negotiating aviation agreements with foreign governments, and of diplomatic efforts aimed at restoring and protecting human rights. Working for Canada is a fascinating memoir tracing a career spent in the service of Canada and Canadians. At the same time, it provides an unparalleled insider view into communications, negotiations, international trade, and diplomacy

Taiwan and China

China's relation to Taiwan has been in constant contention since the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 and the creation of the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) exile regime on the island two months later. The islands autonomous sovereignty has continually been challenged, initially because of the KMT's insistence that it continue to represent not just Taiwan but all of China and later because Taiwan refused to cede sovereignty to the then-dominant power that had arisen on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. One thing that makes Taiwan so politically difficult and yet so intellectually fascinating is that it is not merely a security problem, but a ganglion of interrelated puzzles. The optimistic hope of the Ma Ying-jeou administration for a new era of peace and cooperation foundered on a landslide victory by the Democratic Progressive Party, which has made clear its intent to distance Taiwan from China's political embrace. The Taiwanese are now waiting with bated breath as the relationship tautens. Why did detente fail, and what chance does Taiwan have without it? Contributors to this volume focus on three aspects of the evolving quandary: nationalistic identity, social economy, and political strategy

Blazer and Ashland Oil: A Study in Management

Tracing the evolution of the Ashland Oil & Refining Company whose growth was phenomenal even in a rapidly expanding industry, author Joseph L. Massie attributes the success of the company to the flexible management policies of Paul G. Blazer. Joseph L. Massie is professor of economics at the University of Kentucky, which has awarded him the B.S. and M.A. degrees. He holds the Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago. Massie is the author of many articles on administration and, with a colleague, of a textbook on management.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_business/1003/thumbnail.jp

Working for Canada

An officer of Global Affairs Canada from 1990–2018, Geoff White is a career expert in Canadian foreign policy. In Working for Canada he shares that expertise, illuminating the often invisible work of creating and enacting international policy. Writing with clarity, wit, and common sense, White demystifies Canadian diplomacy and provides a clear view of how it actually works—and when it doesn’t. Reflecting on the headlines, highlights, and sometimes scandals of a long and successful career, White offers a highly readable blend of personal recollection and political insight. He begins with his first assignment in communications planning during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continues through the establishment of NAFTA, humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, softwood lumber, during assignments at headquarters and in Canadian embassies abroad. He shares his experiences of negotiating aviation agreements with foreign governments, and of diplomatic efforts aimed at restoring and protecting human rights. Working for Canada is a fascinating memoir tracing a career spent in the service of Canada and Canadians. At the same time, it provides an unparalleled insider view into communications, negotiations, international trade, and diplomacy

Taiwan and China

China's relation to Taiwan has been in constant contention since the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 and the creation of the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) exile regime on the island two months later. The islands autonomous sovereignty has continually been challenged, initially because of the KMT's insistence that it continue to represent not just Taiwan but all of China and later because Taiwan refused to cede sovereignty to the then-dominant power that had arisen on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. One thing that makes Taiwan so politically difficult and yet so intellectually fascinating is that it is not merely a security problem, but a ganglion of interrelated puzzles. The optimistic hope of the Ma Ying-jeou administration for a new era of peace and cooperation foundered on a landslide victory by the Democratic Progressive Party, which has made clear its intent to distance Taiwan from China's political embrace. The Taiwanese are now waiting with bated breath as the relationship tautens. Why did detente fail, and what chance does Taiwan have without it? Contributors to this volume focus on three aspects of the evolving quandary: nationalistic identity, social economy, and political strategy

Regulation and best practices in public and nonprofit marketing

The volume contains the papers presented during the 9th International Congress of the International Association on Public and Nonprofit Marketing (IAPNM) entitled "Regulation and Best Practices in Public and Nonprofit Marketing". Structured in accordance with the sessions of the mentioned Congress, the volume includes papers and relevant contributions on marketing research development in the public administration, healthcare and social assistance, higher education, local development and, more generally, nonprofit organizations. The social marketing specific issues take an important part of the volume giving the diversity of the approached topics as well as the large number of researchers concerned with this matter. Though of small dimensions, the contents of the sessions dedicated the revival and reinvention of public marketing must be underlined, as well as of the transfer of public marketing best practices to the South-Eastern European states. Publishing this volume represents a term of the interest expressed by over 40 academic and research groups in Europe and other continents with interests in the public and nonprofit marketing field, as well as in other European states’ bodies that develop specific empirical studies

Leap into Modernity – Political Economy of Growth on the Periphery, 1943–1980

This book describes struggles of different countries and their development after World War II. It presents a panorama of different ideologies of accelerated development, which dominated the world just before the war and in the next 40 years. The author explains why in the 1970s global and local elites began to turn away from the state, exchanging statism for the belief in the «invisible hand of the market» as a panacea for underdevelopment. He focuses not only on the genesis of underdevelopment, but also on the causes of popularity of economic planning, and the advent of neoliberalism in the discourse of development economics. This book evaluates the power of state as a vehicle of progress and focuses in detail on the Soviet Union, China, Poland, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Korea