A theory of the US innovation ecosystem: evolution and the social value of diversity

This article reviews evidence on the changing structure of the US innovation ecosystem and then develops a simple model of the rise and fall of the large corporate lab. We suggest that the growth of American universities allowed at first the formation of large corporate labs by training scientists to work in industrial labs. Subsequently, however, start-up invention spurred by university research provided an increasingly attractive alternative to internal research, leading to the demise of the large corporate lab. We use this model to assess whether the substitution of corporate research with start-up invention can result in insufficient variety in the innovation ecosystem. We find that, when levels of university research and start-up activity are high, large firms can have socially excessive incentives to focus on “open innovation.” Thus, despite its potential efficiency benefits, a division of innovative labor may reduce diversity in the innovation ecosystem by encouraging “me too” innovations

Handmade films and artist-run labs. The chemical sites of film’s counterculture

This article addresses handmade films and especially artist-run labs as sites of hands-on film culture that reactivate moments and materials from media history. Drawing on existing research, discourses and discussions with contemporary experimental filmmakers affiliated with labs or practicing their work in relation to film lab infrastructure, we focus on these sites of creation, preservation and circulation of technical knowledge about analog film. But instead of reinforcing the binary of analog vs. digital, we argue that the various material practices from self-made apparatuses to photochemistry and film emulsions are ways of understanding the multiple materials and layered histories that define post-digital culture of film. This focus links our discussion with some themes in media archaeology (experimental media archaeology as a practice) and to current discussions about labs as arts and humanities infrastructure for collective project and practice-based methods

Thought for Food: the impact of ICT on agribusiness

This report outlines the impact of ICT on the food economy. On the basis of a literature review from four disciplines - knowledge management, management information systems, operations research and logistics, and economics - the demand for new ICT applications, the supply of new applications and the match between demand and supply are identified. Subsequently the impact of new ICT applications on the food economy is discussed. The report relates the development of new technologies to innovation and adoption processes and economic growth, and to concepts of open innovations and living lab

Early Academis Science and the Birth of Industrial Research Laboratories in the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry

The establishment and growth of industrial research laboratories is one of the key organizational innovations affecting technological progress in the United States in the 20th century. In this paper, we investigate the rise of industrial research laboratories in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry between 1927 and 1946. Our evidence suggests that institutional factors, namely the presence of universities dedicated to research, played a significant role in the establishment and diffusion of private pharmaceutical research laboratories. Specifically, we document that the growth of industrial pharmaceutical laboratories between 1927 and 1946 is positively and significantly correlated with the extent of local university research, after controlling for other observable factors likely to influence the geographic distribution of industrial research. We supplement our core results with case histories illustrative of early university-industry interaction and an examination of the determinants of university-industry research cooperation. Our qualitative historical evidence and analyses of the birth of chemical engineering programs suggest that industry also played a role in influencing university research agendas. We correct for feedback effects from industry to universities using instrumental variables. Overall, our analyses suggest that while the presence of industrial facilities helped shape the direction of university research programs, there was a significant, positive, and causal effect running from university research to the growth of pharmaceutical research laboratories in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States.

Agglomeration in a global Economy: A Survey

This review of recent contributions reveals common conclusions about the effects of integration on location. For high trade costs, the need to supply markets locally encourages firms to spread across different regions. Integration weakens the incentives for self-sufficiency and for intermediate values of trade costs pecuniary externalities induce firms and workers to cluster together, turning location into a self-reinforcing process. However, agglomeration raises the price of immobile local factors and goods, so far low transport costs firms may spread to regions where those prices are lower.

Hacking in the university: contesting the valorisation of academic labour

In this article I argue for a different way of understanding the emergence of hacker culture. In doing so, I outline an account of ‘the university’ as an institution that provided the material and subsequent intellectual conditions that early hackers were drawn to and in which they worked. I argue that hacking was originally a form of academic labour that emerged out of the intensification and valorisation of scientific research within the institutional context of the university. The reproduction of hacking as a form of academic labour took place over many decades as academics and their institutions shifted from an ideal of unproductive, communal science to a more productive, entrepreneurial approach to the production of knowledge. As such, I view hacking as a peculiar, historically situated form of labour that arose out of the contradictions of the academy: vocation vs. profession; teaching vs. research; basic vs. applied research; research vs. development; private vs. public; war vs. peace; institutional autonomy vs. state dependence; scientific communalism vs. intellectual property

Thought for Food: The impact of ICT on agribusiness

The paper outlines the impact of ICT on the food economy. On basis of a literature review from four disciplines – knowledge management, management information systems, operations research and logistics, and economics - the paper identifies the demand for new ICT applications, the supply of new applications and the match between demand and supply. Subsequently, the paper discusses the impact of new ICT applications on the food economy. The paper relates the development of new technologies to innovation and adoption processes and economic growth, and to concepts of open innovations and living labs.ICT, Food Economy, Innovation and Adoption, Economic growth, Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Effects of Environmental Policy on the Performance of Environmental RIVs

Much of the potential impact of environmental policy is though to come from the incentives it gives firms to develop and introduce new environmental products and processes. Almost all the literature on this issue has focused on the impact of environmental policy on the amount environmental R&D that firms undertake, assuming that such R&D is undertaken independently or non-cooperatively. It is now widely recognized that there are considerable potential benefits from having firms undertake R&D cooperatively through research joint ventures (RJVs). In this paper we analyze the impact of environmental policy on the performance of environmental RJVs and underage an explicit welfare comparison of this performance against the counterfactual of a non-cooperative equilibrium. The framework we adopt is that developed by Katsoulacos and Ulph (1998) which identifies three stages in the innovative process -- research design, R&D; information sharing -- and endogenises each of these inter-related decisions in both the cooperative and non-cooperative equilibria. The case we examine is that in which governments cannot commit to environmental policy, so all these decisions have to taken anticipating the environmental policy that will finally be imposed. We show that RJVs are welfare enhancing when the levels of environmental damage caused by pollution are low. In this case RJVs fully share information and internalize the associated externality. However when the level of damage is high, it turns out that firms anticipate tougher environmental policy when they share information then when they do not, and so do not share information. This distorts the RJV's R&D decisions in ways that make the non-cooperative equilibrium welfare enhancing.

Dynamic cities and creative clusters

The author focuses on how urban policies and the clustering of creative industries has influenced urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable under some form of intellectual property law. More specifically, this sub-sector encompasses software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and research and development. The cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where policy-induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle; Austin; Washington, D.C.; Dublin (Ireland); Hong Kong (China); and Bangalore (India). The key research questions are: 1) What types of cities are creative? 2) What locational factors are essential? 3) What are the common urban policy initiatives used by creative cities? The author explores the importance of the external environment for innovation and places it in the larger context of national innovation systems. Based on a study of development in Boston and San Diego, he isolates the factors and policies that have contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. In both cities, universities have played a major role in catalyzing the local economy by generating cutting-edge research findings, proactively collaborating with industries, and supplying the needed human capital. In addition, these two cities benefited from the existence of anchor firms and active industry associations that promoted fruitful university-industry links. Many cities in East Asia are aspiring to become the creative hubs of the region. But their investments tend to be heavily biased toward infrastructure provision. Although this is necessary, the heavy emphasis on hardware can lead to underinvestment in developing the talents and skills needed for the emergence of creative industries in these cities.Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Decentralization,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Educational Technology and Distance Education,Agricultural Research