PRISMA, The Size-Class Module

PRISMA is�een macrosector-model van de Nederlandse economie, geijkt op het CPB-model Athena. Het is geschikt voor analyses voor de middellange en lange termijn. Meerwaarde van het model is het onderscheiden van grootteklassen en de module die�aantallen ondernemers verklaart. Actueel gebruik�van het�model is�analyse van economische effecten van R&D-subsidies, analyse van economische effecten van administratieve lasten, en�het vaststellen van drie scenario's voor de middellangetermijn�met betrekking tot de ontwikkeling van het MKB en het aantal ondernemers. Dit rapport geeft een update van de opzet en een uitgebreide beschrijving van de logica.

Can Power from Space Compete?

Satellite solar power (SSP) has been suggested as an alternative to terrestrial energy resources for electricity generation. In this study, we consider the market for electricity from the present to 2020, roughly the year when many experts expect SSP to be technically achievable. We identify several key challenges for SSP in competing with conventional electricity generation in developed and developing countries, discuss the role of market and economic analysis as technical development of SSP continues during the coming years, and suggest future research directions to improve understanding of the potential economic viability of SSP.

Contribución del comercio electrónico al desempeño de las PyMEs industriales: un modelo estructural

El rol que juegan las Tecnologías de la Información y comunicación (TIC) para lograr un mejor desempeño organizacional aún requiere de un análisis más profundo entre las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PyMEs) de los países en desarrollo. Este estudio pretende ampliar la literatura empírica sobre la relación entre TIC, comercio electrónico y desempeño de las PyMEs en países en desarrollo. Para alcanzar este objetivo, utilizamos una muestra de 87 empresas manufactureras de la ciudad de Bahia Blanca, Argentina correspondiente al año 2015. Mediante la estimación de un Modelo de ecuación estructura, se obtiene que la adopción del comercio electrónico posee una influencia positiva y significativa en las ventas de las PyMEs la cual es potenciada por el nivel de uso de las TIC. Otros factores organizacionales tales como el tamaño de la empresa y los programas públicos explican el desempeño, pero no son predictores significativos de la adopción del comercio electrónico.The role Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play in achieving a better organizational performance still needs further analysis among small and medium sized enterprises (SME) from developing countries. This study aims to extend the empirical literature on the relationship between ICT, electronic commerce and SME performance in developing countries. To achieve this goal, we employ a sample of 87 manufacturing firms from the city of Bahía Blanca, Argentina in the year 2015. By estimating a structural equation model, we obtain that electronic commerce adoption has a positive and significant influence on SME sales which is reinforced by the level of ICT use. Other organizational factors such as firm size and public programs explain performance, but are not significant predictors of the electronic commerce adoption.Fil: Alderete, Maria Veronica. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur; Argentin

The technological relationships between indigenous firms and foreign-owned MNCs in the European regions

It has been argued that the accumulation of technological competence is a path-dependent and context-specific process, being partly firm-specific and partly location-specific. MNCs spread the competence base of the firm, and acquire new technological assets or sources of competitive advantage. For their part indigenous firms benefit from local knowledge spillovers from MNCs, given the access of the latter to complementary streams of knowledge being developed in other locations. This paper examines how the particular corporate technological trajectories of multinational corporations (MNCs) have interacted with spatially-specific resources for the creation of new competence in some of the leading regions in Europe. Yet foreign investments, and the associated skills and capabilities that they bring, are arguably of crucial importance as a catalyst for local growth: learning curve advantages are mainly people- and institution-embodied and regional systems may substantially benefit from global corporations investing in innovation and local human capital. Although a break has thus occurred with the conventional economic approach - in which spatial factors shaping innovation were usually considered secondary (if not thoroughly negligible) - too little is still known about the regional scope with respect to the geographical location of innovatory capacity in the global economy. This is all the more relevant in the presence of an in-depth process of economic integration, as is the case of the EU, which arose from the need to define the problems, and the policies aimed at solving them, in terms of geographical location and centre/periphery economic convergence. We use data on the patents granted in the United States to large firms for inventions emanating from research facilities located in eight selected European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) over a 27 year period (1969-1995). The location-specific patent data is complemented through the use of other indicators such as the regional distribution of expenditure on basic scientific research, and the R&D expenditure personnel given by the EU database New-Cronos-Regio. The aim is to improve our understanding of some aspects of the effects of Innovation and Globalisation on Firms and Regions - i.e. technological spillovers - by examining the patterns of technological (by technological field of the largest firms) and production (by industry of the output of the largest firms) specialisation in each region. Differences between the two specialisation profiles may be indicative of technological diversification by industry, and hence potential technological overlaps between industries. These overlaps may be more pronounced in higher order centres, due to their greater technological breadth (which may show a greater technological diversification within the typical industry represented in the region, and not merely a greater span of industries). We then distinguish between intermediate centres (with significant levels of technologically focused activity) and lower order regions (backward regions, with little activity at all). The patterns of technological diversification of industries are then checked by examining which firms are responsible for a positive technological specialisation in the case of a region that lacks specialisation in the equivalent industrial category, and how this fits into the overall pattern of technological diversification of the firms in question.