Technological diversification, coherence and performance of firms.

Technological diversification at the level of the firm, i.e. the expansion of a firm’s technology base into a wide range of technology fields, is found to be a prevailing phenomenon in all three major industrialized regions: US, Europe and Japan, prompting the term multi-technology corporation. Whereas previous studies have provided insights into the composition of technology portfolios of multi-technology firms, little is known about the link between technological diversification and firms’ technological performance. Against a backdrop of the technology and innovation management literature, this article investigates the relationship between technological diversification and technological performance, taking into account the moderating role of technological coherence in firms’ technology portfolios. Hereby, technological coherence is defined as the degree to which technologies in a technology portfolio are technologically related. In order to measure the technological coherence of portfolios, a measure of technological relatedness of technology fields is constructed based on patent citation patterns found in 450,000 EPO patent grants. Two hypotheses are presented in this article: (1) Technological diversification has an inverted U-shaped relationship with technological performance; and (2) Technological coherence moderates the relationship between technological diversification and technological performance positively. These hypotheses are tested empirically using a panel dataset (1995-2003) on patent portfolios pertaining to 184 US, European, and Japanese firms. The firms selected are the largest R&D actors in five industries: Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology, Chemicals, Engineering & General Machinery, IT Hardware (computers and communication equipment), and Electronics & Electrical Machinery. Empirical results, obtained by fixed-effects negative binomial regressions, support both hypotheses in this article. Technological diversification has an inverted U-shaped relationship with technological performance. While technological diversification offers opportunities for cross-fertilization and technology fusion, high levels of diversification may yield few marginal benefits as firms risk lacking sufficient levels of scale to benefit from wide-ranging technological capabilities, and firms may encounter high levels of coordination and integration costs. Further, the results show that the net benefits of technological diversification are higher in technologically coherent technology portfolios. If firms build up a technologically coherent diversified portfolio, the presence of sufficient levels of scale is ensured and coordination costs are limited. This article clearly identifies the important role of technological coherence and points out in the discussion session the relevance of future research on interface management practices directed to the realization of the benefits of technological diversification.technology diversification; technology relatedness; innovation; firm performance;

Information transfer in the agricultural sector in Spain

This paper examines the structures of information transfer to the agricultural (production) and agro-alimentary (transformation and commercialization of the products) sector within Spain. A historical perspective is provided to better illustrate the reality and complexity of Spain with regard to the systems of agrarian extension, agricultural research, resources provided by Spain’s central administration, and the use of information by related enterprises. The Service of Agrarian Extension appeared in Spain in the 1950s, and new political-administrative structures (agribusiness associations, cooperatives) were founded when Spain became a democratic nation in the late 1970s, and with the arrival of electronic information, largely in the 1990s. We also describe the tools supporting innovation in the agro-alimentary sector: centers of agrarian research and technological centers. Finally, reference is made to the means of communication dedicated to the agricultural sector. The paper illustrates that the systems of agricultural information in Spain have been largely derived from initiatives of the Public Administration, with few private initiatives

Innovation policy in the European Union: instruments and objectives

We provide an overview of the specific innovation policies that are implemented at European level, highlighting, where possibile, the connections between these policies and the guidance documents issued by the Community’s institutions. We describe the kinds of policy interventions that are implemented, providing at the same time some useful elements in order to understand the assumptions and theories that underpin them.Innovation policy; European institutions; Lisbon strategy; Structural funds; European research policy; European enterprise policy

Shaping the future of higher education in Romania: challenges and driving factors

The paper summarizes the main challenges that the Romanian higher education will be facing during the years to come, in terms of its responsibilities for both the individual development and community evolvement. These challenges are revealed as gaps against the European and international tertiary education system, but also as opportunities as well as threats. In addition, the article explores the changing factors that shape the future of higher education in Romania, with a focus on those factors that build the entrepreneurial process throughout the university and sustain its performance on long term. By using the expertise provided by a team of knowledgeable experts from academia, government and various business fields, we explore the future provocations that universities should address in order for them to be sustainable and increase their impact on local or regional community; furthermore, we discuss the key driving factors that shape the future of educational market in Romania as well as influence the labour market trends. The changing factors addressed in the paper were determined based on a PESTEL analysis conducted for higher education by an interdisciplinary team.human capital development, higher education challenges, learning, changing factors, educational market trends, PESTEL analysis, community development.

From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)

The diffusion of knowledge in industrial districts and clusters

ABSTRACT The dissemination of knowledge in industrial districts (ID) and clusters has often been linked to the existence of a specific tacit knowledge. Thus, the companies belonging to ID specialization sector might sustain a distinctive competitive advantage against isolated firms. However, the observation of technological changes in recent decades and the presence of ID whose technological intensity has dramatically increased in the same period suggest the existence and need for codified knowledge in these agglomerations. As result of tacit knowledge decline, the economic performance of ID could move backwards, given the greater ease to imitate and reproduce their contextual knowledge by competitor firms located in not district areas. The paper discusses the above assumptions, suggesting the existence of combinations/hybridizations of both types of knowledge in ID, which we have named locational-translational knowledge. This third type of knowledge could explain the maintenance of ID contextual advantages even in presence of higher doses of codified knowledge. This would require the presence of agents acting as interfaces able to absorb new pieces of codified knowledge in order to combine them with local knowledge for adjusting the specific needs of ID. However, we argue the existence of several constraints, such as the size of 'creative market district’, in ID which may require the opening of ID to knowledge imported from academic institutions and other formal research organizations, in contrast with autarky or isolation suggested by tacit knowledge. Finally, an analysis of the ID evolution enables us to appreciate that the process of absorption, combination and dissemination of external knowledge may have existed throughout the life cycle of ID but supported, at each stage, for different institutional agents: the 'impannatore', the 'cappofiliera' firm and, lastly, for formal knowledge-oriented institutions such as the above referred.

A System Dynamics Approach for Technology Improvement Policy Analysis: The Case for Turkey

Technology has been one of the most important factors of the economic and social growth and globally scaled competitiveness, although not respected as a separate factor by traditional economists until recently. It is now widely accepted that technology improvement plays a very major role on national growth. Technology has a number of interactive and conflicting variables and parameters, which are not allowing an analysis with quantitative tools only. Complex dynamic analysis seems to be a proper tool to handle this sophistication. A system dynamics model constructed for policy analysis in Turkey with respect to technology improvement and comparison of various technology improvement policies. Under the scope of this paper; the elements effecting technology improvement are identified and analyzed by qualitative/quantitative methods, the key relations among these elements are identified, the influence model and the system model are drawn and some scenario analysis are performed for the comparison of possible technology improvement policies.System Dynamics, Economic Growth, Technological Capability, Technology Improvement, Technology Policies

Reflection of Triangulation, Case Study of Innovation Behaviors in the UAE Travel Agencies Organizations

This case study validates the role of innovation behaviour in business organizations in the United Arab Emirates. Travel agencies were studied due to fast changing nature of business and environment assuming a high risk of uncertainty and dynamics of this sector. The main methods used in the study were classical qualitative methods of case study: interview and observation notes. One of the conditions for using qualitative methods in a case study was that the entire fieldwork to be built on the principles of triangulation as the method of increasing the reliability of data in a qualitative study. Qualitative data was aggregated through interviews, industry, analysis reports and company documents. The case proposed a conceptual model of innovation leadership based on positive fusion of patterns of innovative behaviour in the organizations

International Growth as Integration of R&D Activities. Evidence from Large Multinational Companies

Corporate R&D internationalization has been analyzed predominantly in terms of the geographic diversification of multinational companies' research laboratories, and only to a lesser extent as a process involving the development of resources and capabilities within organizations and as a means of favoring international integration. This paper analyzes the relation between these two dimensions of internationalization, both of which are relevant for study of the multinational growth of R&D activities. Examination of the literature together with in-depth case reports of two large multinational clusters provides evidence in support of the following statements: · R&D internationalization can be seen as a "gradual" process that takes shape through the formation of specific resources and capabilities, which are developed within individual organizations but are designed to achieve integration both with foreign organizational units of the multinational cluster itself and also with other national innovation systems; · Multinational R&D follows a strategy that is characterized by a strong inter-relation between the formation of foreign research activities and the character of the integration process; · Corporate strategies may correspond to highly diverse and at times even contrasting R&D internationalization models, as shown by the emblematic case analyses presented here. The presence of these different models limits the scope of any general interpretation of the determinants and implications of R&D internationalization.-