New contenders in the large commercial aircraft manufacturing industry

The incumbent firms in the large commercial aircraft industry (LCA) oligopoly are faced with many short to medium term challenges that will shape their future competitiveness. The financial crisis has accelerated the market dynamics that are driving these challenges. Among them, the sustainable growth of air travel, the increasing costs of new programs and the threat of the new contenders entering the LCA top the list. For all the players and potential players, innovation and internationalization of the supply chain are key determinants of their future competitiveness. The main objective of the thesis is to assess the capacity of emerging countries to turn into innovation powerhouses and become leaders in the large commercial aviation business. The research integrates the supply (technology, structure of the firm, internationalization, strategy, government policy) and the demand side (effect of the airlines market and business strategy on the LCA manufacturers’s strategy). Most of the research in this field have concentrated on the supply side. The thesis focuses on understanding the reasons for the strategic importance of civil aviation in government policy, defining the key determinants of competitveness in the LCA industry, and analyzing the market entry of incumbent firms. More importantly, the research proposes a metric and a cluster analysis to determine whether or not China has the ability to be innovative and to become a leader in the commercial aircraft business

Design revolutions: IASDR 2019 Conference Proceedings. Volume 1: Change, Voices, Open

In September 2019 Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University was honoured to host the bi-annual conference of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) under the unifying theme of DESIGN REVOLUTIONS. This was the first time the conference had been held in the UK. Through key research themes across nine conference tracks – Change, Learning, Living, Making, People, Technology, Thinking, Value and Voices – the conference opened up compelling, meaningful and radical dialogue of the role of design in addressing societal and organisational challenges. This Volume 1 includes papers from Change, Voices and Open tracks of the conference

What makes an International Financial Centre (IFC) Competitive? An empirical study of the determinants responsible for the competitiveness of an IFC

International Financial Centres (IFCs) serve as focal points for implementing international agreements and other transactions between financial sectors located around the world. The competitiveness of an IFC depends on its function to provide easy access to the capital, stability in financial markets and a dynamic business eco-system. The purpose of conducting this study is to identify the most relevant determinants that significantly affect the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) ranking of the countries across the world. First published in 2007, the GFCI is considered as the primary source for ranking IFCs globally. GFCI is an index which ranks financial centres based on over 61,499 assessments of financial centres across the world provided by 10,252 respondents to an online questionnaire of GFCI (GFCI33, 2023). The collected date represents 153 key indices provided by sources including the World Bank, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. It utilises qualitative (online questionnaires) and quantitative (economic indices) dataset to publish reports biannually. Through this paper, an attempt has been made to conduct an empirical study of the determinants responsible for the competitiveness of an IFC based on GFCI ranking. To facilitate this study, extensive data has been collected for 196 IFCs (unique financial jurisdictions) along with 238 key factors (determinants) over a period of fourteen years (2007 till 2020). In addition to revisiting some of the existing empirical studies on this subject, this dissertation attempts to further build on the existing empirical research and analyses the impact of unique key factors on the GFCI ranking through the application of a panel regression. From extensive set of variables, the study adopts 17 most relevant determinants (summarised below) by using a Decision Tree approach. The variable of Business Regulations is constructed by using the Ease of doing business index source from the World Bank (GFCI 33). The variable of corporate taxes is constructed by the sum of tax bases and tax rates dataset source from KPMG (GFCI 33). Indexed sourced from Transparency International is used to construct the variable of Corruption Perception Index (GFCI 33). The variable of Credit Market Regulations is constructed by international consortium group by measuring the deposit based financing source from World Bank (GFCI 33). Government size, Property Rights and the Legal System, Reliable Money, Freedom to Trade Internationally Regulation, and Gender equality in legal rights are five broad categories used to construct Economic Freedom Overall Index Variable source from Fraser Institute (GFCI 33). The study adopts the variable of freedom of trade which is sourced from WTO constructed upon non-tariff barrier in exports and imports of a country (GFCI 33). The variable of Global Competitiveness Index is constructed by the macroeconomic and the micro/business aspects of competitiveness into a single index (GFCI 33). The data on volume of high tech exports is modelled and calculated as a function of foreign demand and of price competitiveness in order to construct variable of High Tech Exports source. The variable of inflation is constructed by using Consumer Price Index (CPI). The variable of Internet uses as a percentage of population is derived by dividing the number of Internet users by total population and multiplying by 100. The variable of Labour Market Regulations is constructed through using of the Rigidity of Employment Index. The variable of Legal System Property Rights is constructed by encompassing index of Legal verification and guarantee systems, fair legal rules, and formal compensation mechanism. The variable of quality of roads is constructed through collecting data on the transportation infrastructure and financial spending by using (IRI) International Roughness Index (GFCI 33). Spending, revenue, and employment are all ways to construct the variable of size of a government. An aggregate of money growth (money supply growth minus real GDP growth), standard deviation of inflation (GDP deflator), CPI inflation in most recent year, and freedom to hold foreign currency in bank accounts are used to construct the variable of the sound money index. The index is measured on a scale of 0 (worst) to 10 (best). The variable of percentage of Urban Population is constructed by Individuals living in urban areas as a percentage of total population. A long and solid life, being educated and have a respectable way of life are the three indicators to construct the variable of HDI. The results of the Panel regression show that all the variables positively impact the GFCI ranking except business regulations, labour market regulation, legal system property rights and HDI. This dissertation also establishes to arrange the IFCs in groups (Clusters) based on similar shared characteristics. This has been possible by adopting criteria of developing a centroid for each cluster against each determinant for a number of observations (Years). As a result, each cluster includes all those countries that are experiencing similar characteristics throughout the range of observations (years). By introducing the Elbow method of clustering, the study has identified five optimal groups (clusters). In order to deal with complexities of missing values in the dataset and arranging the IFCs in these five optimal groups based upon a centroid (mean) value, this study has undergone an appropriate clustering methodology using the Majorisation-Minimisation Algorithm named as K-POD means clustering. It is evident that each centroid is seen as representing the average observation within a cluster across all the variables in the analysis. All the observations in a cluster ranging between maxima and minima centrifuge around centroid value. The distances between cluster centroids show how far apart the centroids of the clusters in the final partition are from one another. The study suggests that by minimising the hurdles created by business regulation laws, labour market regulation procedures and legalised process of property rights, the GFCI ranking will improve for the countries. It will help to pave the path of financial stability and creation of wealth. Similarly, by providing better health and education facilities, the Human development Index will help positively to improve the GFCI ranking of countries

Congress UPV Proceedings of the 21ST International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators

This is the book of proceedings of the 21st Science and Technology Indicators Conference that took place in València (Spain) from 14th to 16th of September 2016. The conference theme for this year, ‘Peripheries, frontiers and beyond’ aimed to study the development and use of Science, Technology and Innovation indicators in spaces that have not been the focus of current indicator development, for example, in the Global South, or the Social Sciences and Humanities. The exploration to the margins and beyond proposed by the theme has brought to the STI Conference an interesting array of new contributors from a variety of fields and geographies. This year’s conference had a record 382 registered participants from 40 different countries, including 23 European, 9 American, 4 Asia-Pacific, 4 Africa and Near East. About 26% of participants came from outside of Europe. There were also many participants (17%) from organisations outside academia including governments (8%), businesses (5%), foundations (2%) and international organisations (2%). This is particularly important in a field that is practice-oriented. The chapters of the proceedings attest to the breadth of issues discussed. Infrastructure, benchmarking and use of innovation indicators, societal impact and mission oriented-research, mobility and careers, social sciences and the humanities, participation and culture, gender, and altmetrics, among others. We hope that the diversity of this Conference has fostered productive dialogues and synergistic ideas and made a contribution, small as it may be, to the development and use of indicators that, being more inclusive, will foster a more inclusive and fair world

The Counter-testimony of the Maker

The chapter begins with the question of critique, mainly how and why does one critique but more importantly why does no one critique effectively anymore. Such is a sentiment echoed by Bruno Latour in the paper Why has Critique Run out of Steam? He states: “It does not seem to me that we have been as quick, in academia, to prepare ourselves for new threats, new dangers, new tasks, new targets. Are we not like those mechanical toys that endlessly make the same gesture when everything else has changed around them?”(Latour, 2004:225). According to Latour, the absence of principles is to blame. As he puts it, critique has battered through all claims to a ground and the lack of a sure ground argument has backfired. The result is that there isn’t even a sure ground for criticism. Without a ground, it’s hard to differentiate a rigorous critical claim from a conspiracy theory. That’s why conspiracy theory books are best sellers. Latour mourns the death of critique. In its remnants lies a whole industry denying the Apollo program. My claim is that the absence of principles transforms critique into an issue around the strength of evidence and the credibility of the testimony. Effective critique is synonymous with a counter-testimony of a reliable witness. A witness is someone who is present at the time of an event, often a crime, and is able to testify before the law. They are able to give direct evidence in relation to the events. However, they often rely on foggy memories and blurred vision. It is not too difficult for the defence or prosecution to put the reliability or credibility of the witness in doubt. Here is where the role of making comes into play. More often than not, in the post-critical age, a testimony, or counter-testimony, is not simply uttered but is rather constructed. Latour is the first to admit that a critique has to be made. As such the eyewitness is no longer a person but a photograph, a video or other forms of surveillance. Juries are more decisive when they are presented with the facts, the evidence, more often submitted as objects as opposed to a fuzzy testimony of a witness. Critique, or counter-testimony, is a material process enabled by infrastructure. Is a practice-based question of physics, chemistry and the material forms of agency. Given all this this chapter explores further the role of critical making as counter-testimony. From aesthetic practices of forensics, counter-forensics to the role of labs in media archaeology and investigative practices, I will tell the story of makers that present their objects as a counter-narrative to pressing socio-political issues. More importantly, however, I will address the issue of how critical making practices can establish credibility in a world of fakes and loss of belief