Differentiation of Innovation Behavior of Manufacturing Firms in the New Member States. Cluster Analysis on Firm-Level Data

This paper investigates the differences in innovation behaviour, i.e. differences in innovation sources and innovation effects, among manufacturing firms in three NMS: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It is based on a survey of firms operating in four manufacturing industries: food and beverages, automotive, pharmaceuticals and electronics. The paper takes into account: innovation inputs in enterprises, cooperation among firms in R&D activities, the benefits of cooperation with business partners and innovation effects (innovation outputs and international competitiveness of firms' products and technology) in the three countries. After employing cluster analysis, five types of innovation patterns were detected. The paper characterises and compares these innovation patterns, highlighting differences and similarities. The paper shows that external knowledge plays an important role in innovation activities in NMS firms. The ability to explore cooperation with business partners and the benefits of using external knowledge are determined by in-house innovation activities, notably R&D intensity.Innovation patterns of firms, strategy of innovation, innovation behaviour, innovation sources, taxonomies of innovative firms, EU new member states

MODES OF INNOVATION & UNCERTAINTIES IN THE CAPITAL GOODS INDUSTRY

Product innovation is a subtle process, frequently leading to shifts in the competitiveness of firms. Developing products in an environment undergoing technological change is given to frequent failure, even in well-established and sophisticated organizations. In order to tackle competitiveness and to deal with innovation uncertainty, firms develop diverse innovation processes. Two modes of innovation are suggested in recent literature: 1) Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) mode, which is based on the production and use of codified scientific and technical knowledge; and 2) Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI) mode, which relies on informal processes of learning and experience-based know-how. In this paper we analyse product innovation at firm level. We perform an exploratory analysis in four leading equipment and machinery producers from the Aveiro region, in Portugal. Doing so, we explore the main features of the capital goods’ industry with implications for innovation, and analyse the dominant uncertainties associated to the innovation process. and modes of innovation. Key findings include the complete absence of DUI mode in the cases studied, and even a low learning characteristic in one company. The paper concludes by considering the implications for firms’ competitiveness and for innovation policy.modes of innovation, uncertainties, R&D, capital goods, SME

Homelessness: A qualitative genogram analysis of trauma and addictions

This study conducts a qualitative analysis of genograms based from a homeless population sample. The purpose of the study is to illustrate a pattern within the homeless population of a generational history of the conditions of traumatic experiences and addictions during childhood and young adulthood, prior to becoming homeless. This study is not intended to show causal relationships between the two conditions of homelessness, rather, a prior pattern of the two conditions; The data was collected by graduate students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, during the student\u27s advanced practicum/internship classes occurring in the final year of the master program; The data reported show a consistent and extensive history of the two conditions of trauma and addictions prior to becoming homeless, which includes the client\u27s previous three generations. The significant condition is addictions, however, the condition of trauma is also extensive, particularly as reported by the female participants

The European road safety decision support system. A clearinghouse of road safety risks and measures, Deliverable 8.3 of the H2020 project SafetyCube

Safety CaUsation, Benefits and Efficiency (SafetyCube) is a European Commission supported Horizon 2020 project with the objective of developing an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS) that will enable policy-makers and stakeholders to select and implement the most appropriate strategies, measures and cost-effective approaches to reduce casualties of all road user types and all severities. The core of the SafetyCube project is a comprehensive analysis of accident risks and the effectiveness and cost-benefit of safety measures, focusing on road users, infrastructure, vehicles and post-impace care, framed within a Safe System approach ,with road safety stakeholders at the national level, EU and beyond having involvement at all stages. The present Deliverable (8.3) outlines the methods and outputs of SafetyCube Task 8.3 - ‘Decision Support System of road safety risks and measures’. A Glossary of the SafetyCube DSS is available to the Appendix of this report. The identification and assessment of user needs for a road safety DSS was conducted on the basis of a broad stakeholders’ consultation. Dedicated stakeholder workshops yielded comments and input on the SafetyCube methodology, the structure of the DSS and identification of road safety "hot topics" for human behaviour, infrastructure and vehicles. Additionally, a review of existing decision support systems, was carried out; their functions and contents were assessed, indicating that despite their usefulness they are of relatively narrow scope.... continue

Lexical Strategies of Chinese Learners of English in L1-L2 Translation

Es handelt sich hier um eine Dissertation, die sich mit dem Gebrauch von lexikalischen Suchstrategien in der Schriftform von L1 in L2 bei chinesischen Fortgeschrittenen und Anfängern mit Vorkenntnissen als Fremdsprache beschäftigt. Die Absicht der Studie war: (a) die lexikalischen Strategien zu beschreiben und zu analysieren wie englischlernende Chinesen ein Wort oder Satz versuchen zu übersetzten, wenn es ihnen nicht möglich ist dieses Wort oder die Bedeutung einer Phrase in einem geschriebenen Text zu Formulieren. (b) zu Untersuchen ob es Beziehungen zwischen den lexikalischen Strategien und den Fertigkeiten entsprechend eines L2 Lerners gibt (c) die Effektivität von verschiedenen Strategietypen für Gruppen verschiedener Fertigkeitslevels herauszuarbeiten (d) den Vorteil von L2 benutzende Gruppen und individuellen Strategien auszuarbeiten (e) die Diskrepanz zwischen L2 profiency levels und der Übersetzungsfähigkeit und die Charakteristik des Denkens und der lexikalischen Strategien der Lernenden beim Übersetzen von L1 in L2 darzustellen. Es wird die Annahme gestellt, dass lautes Denken und retrospektive Studien als Untersuchungsmethode zur Sammlung von empirischen Daten genutzt werden können. Alle Protokolle über lautes Denken und retrospektive Daten wurden aufgezeichnet und ausgearbeitet, um die verschieden lexikalen Strategien auszuarbeiten, die englischlernende Chinesen verschiedener Fertigkeitslevels benutzen. Verschiedene Strategien über Gruppen verschiedener Fertigkeiten wurden statistisch und die Signifikanz über den Gebrauch von verschiedenen lexikalischen Strategien ausgewertet und mit Hilfe von referenzieller Statistik bewiesen. Beim Analysieren der Daten betreffend the theoretical backround of the bilingual mental lexicon ( De Bot, 1993), language transfer (Odlin, 1989; Ringbom, 1987, 1991, 2001) und communication strategies (Bialystok, 1990; Kasper & Kellerman, 1997; Tarone, 1983); diese Ergebnisse wurden in der Studie erzielt: (1) die Taxonomie der lexikalischen Strategien von englischlernenden Chinesen als Anfängern mit Vorkenntnissen und Fortgeschrittenen wurde ermittelt. (2) Fortgeschrittene englischlernende Chinesen bevorzugten L2-basierte Strategien, während Anfänger mit Vorkenntnissen Strategien aussuchten, die aus ihrer Muttersprache stammten. (3) es gibt die Möglichkeit die sowohl L1- als auch L2-Strategien zu nutzten. (4) es zeigte sich dass, die Effektivität der lexikalischen Strategien abhängig ist von „the ease of comprehension“ (Littlemore, 2003) (5) Nomen-Plus-Nomen Komposita Strukturen wurden mehr von Anfängern mit Vorkenntnissen benutzt, jedoch auch die Fortgeschrittenen bevorzugten diese Techniken, weil die chinesische Sprache sich der Komposita Struktur bedient. (6) L2 proficiency bedeutet nicht unbedingt, dass eine Übersetzung besser sein muss. Dies bedeutet nicht unbedingt, dass die L2 profiency für eine höhere Qualität steht, sondern es gibt auch andere Faktoren. Die Studie kommt zum Schluss, dass Chinesen verschiedener L2 Fähigkeiten, die englisch lernen eine Kombination von lexikalischen Strategien benutzen, wobei die Bevorzugung der lexikalischen Strategien sich unterscheiden zwischen den einzelnen Personen und deren Fertigkeiten. Die Lehrimplikationen die diese Studien auslösen, könnten behilflich sein bei der Wortsuche im geistigen Lexikon der Lernenden. So ist das Lehren von lexikalen Strategien erstrebenswert. (Zimmermann, 1999). Obgleich die Ergebnisse der Studie ein besseres Verstehen von L2 Akquisition und Bilingualismus bewirkt, ist diese Studie selbstverständlich begrenzt und benötigt weitere Studien

The persistent high-tech myth in the EC policy circles

Given the economic, societal and environmental relevance of innovation, this paper contrasts various models of innovation, compares how innovation is understood in mainstream economics and evolutionary economics of innovation and juxtaposes the concomitant policy rationales. By discussing two monitoring tools used by the European Commission to assess its member states’ innovation performance, it argues that the science-push model of innovation is still highly influential in the EC STI policy circles, in spite of the significance of non-R&D types of knowledge in innovation processes. Then it explores various types of opportunity costs stemming from the persistent high-tech myth, considers possible historical and sociological reasons for its perseverance and discusses policy implications of the systemic view of innovation, with an emphasis on the case of the EU10 countries. Policy conclusions include: i) several policies affect innovation processes and performance, perhaps even more strongly than STI policies, and hence policy goals and tools need to be orchestrated across several policy domains; ii) STI policies should promote learning and knowledge-intensive activities in all sectors, including low- and medium-technology industries and services; iii) analysts and policy-makers need to avoid the trap of paying too much attention to simplifying ranking exercises; iv) new indicators that better reflect the evolutionary processes of learning and innovation would be needed to support analysis and policy-making; v) the choice of an economics paradigm to guide policy evaluation is likely to be decisive

Innovation and regional development: constructing regional advantage

As a point of departure it is important that the contemporary phase of globalization, which can best be described as a globalizing knowledge economy, is recognized. The picture is not any longer only characterized by outsourcing/offshoring to developing economies such as China and India of labour intensive production of manufacturing goods and services but increasingly also by offshoring of R&D and innovation. Adding to this situation of an emerging global knowledge economy is investments in R&D organizations in Europe and North America by TNCs from India and China