Investigating the information-seeking behaviour of academic lawyers: From Ellis's model to design.

Information-seeking is important for lawyers, who have access to many dedicated electronic resources.However there is considerable scope for improving the design of these resources to better support information-seeking. One way of informing design is to use information-seeking models as theoretical lenses to analyse users’ behaviour with existing systems. However many models, including those informed by studying lawyers, analyse information-seeking at a high level of abstraction and are only likely to lead to broad-scoped design insights. We illustrate that one potentially useful (and lowerlevel) model is Ellis’s - by using it as a lens to analyse and make design suggestions based on the information-seeking behaviour of twenty-seven academic lawyers, who were asked to think aloud whilst using electronic legal resources to find information for their work. We identify similar information-seeking behaviours to those originally found by Ellis and his colleagues in scientific domains, along with several that were not identified in previous studies such as ‘updating’ (which we believe is particularly pertinent to legal information-seeking). We also present a refinement of Ellis’s model based on the identification of several levels that the behaviours were found to operate at and the identification of sets of mutually exclusive subtypes of behaviours

System for monitoring and controlling unit operations that include distillation

Fluid sensor methods and systems adapted for monitoring and/or controlling distillation operations in fluidic systems, such as bath distillation operations or continuous distillation operations, are disclosed. Preferred embodiments are directed to process monitoring and/or process control for unit operations involving endpoint determination of a distillation, for example, as applied to a liquid-component-switching operation (e.g., a solvent switehing operation), a liquid-liquid separation operation, a solute concentration operation, a dispersed- phase concentration operation, among others

Markets for technology (why do we see them, why don't we see more of them and why we should care)

This essay explores the nature, the functioning, and the economic and policy implications of markets for technology. Today, the outsourcing of research and development activities is more common than in the past, and specialized technology suppliers have emerged in many industries. In a sense, the Schumpeterian vision of integrating R&D with manufacturing and distribution is being confronted by the older Smithian vision of division of labor. The existence and efficacy of markets for technology can profoundly influence the creation and diffusion of new knowledge, and hence, economic growth of countries and the competitive position of companies. The economic and managerial literatures have touched upon some aspects of the nature of these markets. However, a thorough understanding of how markets for technology work is still lacking. In this essay we address two main questions. First, what are the factors that enable a market for technology to exist and function effectively? Specifically we look at the role of industry structure, the nature of knowledge, and intellectual property rights and related institutions. Second, we ask what the implications of such markets are for the boundaries of the firm, the specialization and division of labor in the economy, industry structure, and economic growth. We build on this discussion to develop the implications of our work for public policy and corporate strategy

User, and Open Collaborative Innovation: Ascendent Economic Models

In this paper we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two increasingly important alternative models: innovations by single user individuals or firms, and open collaborative innovation projects. We analyze the design costs and architectures and communication costs associated with each model. We conclude that innovation by individual users and also open collaborative innovation increasingly compete with - and may displace -producer innovation in many parts of the economy. We argue that a transition from producer innovation to open single user and open collaborative innovation is desirable in terms of social welfare, and so worthy of support by policymakers.

Idea Management: Enhancing External Innovation Capabilities within Front-End Activities

This study examines and verifies the factors influencing idea management in enhancing external innovation capabilities within front-end activities in large organisations. Previous studies have identified idea management as being in serious need of better management. This research aims to address this need by adding new knowledge and understanding to how organisations generate, search and select ideas internally and externally. Innovation is rapidly becoming a strategic priority, but there is a large gap between the perceived importance of innovation and the effectiveness of approaches used to support innovation. Idea management works under the premise that the innovation process is too important to be left to chance. Ideas are the starting point to every innovation. This research examines the concept of idea management, which acknowledges the importance of external ideas within the innovation process. External sources offer a huge amount of knowledge and ideas, much of which is unexpected and can therefore promote disruptive innovation. Idea management is characterised by a high degree of complexity and must be organised efficiently in order to work in the long-term. It is well established that there is a general lack of clarity, definition and understanding within the front-end of innovation in terms of language, processes and activities. This is why it is also referred to as the fuzzy front-end, occurring prior to when an idea receives formal funding. Several key activities include opportunity identification, problem definition, environmental scanning, and idea generation and evaluation. These activities involve leveraging internal and external innovation capabilities and is one of the reasons why this research focuses on better understanding and visualising this interaction by improving idea management practices. This iCase award was funded by the EPSRC and the multinational consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble (P&G). The research outcomes are of interest to large organisations looking to enhance how they manage their internal and external ideas. On a smaller scale, effective practices for internal idea generation are identified which could be of use to SMEs. The thesis will add to the field of front-end innovation literature regarding idea management effective practices, supported by quantitative data on a global scale. A blended methods approach was used where insights were verified through iteration between a systematic literature review, front-end model comparison, global industrial interviews, and a main survey conducted within P&G. This organisation is well known for their success with external search practices for innovation. The industrial interviews were conducted with P&G’s ‘Connect + Develop’ practitioners and were vital to gain an understanding of language and challenges related to the research questions. This guided the development of an industrial survey which assessed the effectiveness of an idea sourcing tool adopted by P&G. The findings from the survey provide further insight into how innovation landscaping tools are used in practice and ways in which to increase levels of tool adoption. This research finds that organisations do want to find and leverage high quality ideas but are unsure of how to best search for and select them. The proposed ‘Idea Infinity Framework’ helps to visualise, orientate and kick-start search and select processes in organisations. It argues that visualising the sources, interactions and issues to be aware of for idea quality will improve the effectiveness of front-end activities, as well as make better use of practitioner time, effort and funds. This study argues that idea management should take a proactive approach rather than a passive approach to the management of ideas (i.e. search and select) and become more integrated

Markets for Technology and Their Implications for Corporate Strategy.

Although market transactions for technologies, ideas, knowledge or information are limited by several well-known imperfections, there is evidence that they have become more common than in the past. In this paper we analyze how the presence of markets for technology conditions the technology and corporate strategy of firms. The first and most obvious implication is that markets for technology increase the strategy space: firms can choose to license in the technology instead of developing it in-house or they can choose to license out their technology instead of (or in addition to) investing in the downstream assets needed to manufacture and commercialize the goods. The implications for management include more proactive management of intellectual property, greater attention to external monitoring of technologies, and organizational changes to support technology licensing, joint-ventures and acquisition of external technology. For entrepreneurial startups, markets for technology make a focused business model more attractive. At the industry level, markets for technology may lower barriers to entry and increase competition, with important implications for the firms' broader strategy as well.