Competitiveness through R&D internationalization : patent- and interview data based studies on a latecomer in the telecommunications industry

In recent years, we have been observing an increase in knowledge-intensive activities from emerging market latecomer companies in established centers of state-of-the-art knowledge. This new direction of research and development (R&D) internationalization is still an under-researched strategy for latecomers to gain competitive advantage. In order to uncover these mechanisms, this dissertation uses the case of a Chinese latecomer that recently achieved a leading position in the global telecommunications market: Huawei Technologies. The focus of this dissertation is on the mechanisms that enabled the company to obtain strategic assets through R&D internationalization into leading markets. In a mixed-methods approach, quantitative patent data and qualitative interviews are combined to trace the company’s development during its emancipation from a latecomer stage to an industry leader. The results show that Huawei does its most influential R&D at its offshore locations despite the risks and challenges of having core assets abroad. By doing so, the company focuses on greenfield investments instead of acquisitions by hiring experts at offshore locations. This way, Huawei leverages the experts’ embeddedness in the networks of the global telecommunications industry, which helps the company to overcome liabilities of outsidership as well as challenges of legitimacy and become part of the global industry community. Since the company has caught up on technological and organizational knowledge, it now splits its R&D tasks between research in centers of state-of-the-art technologies and development in China, in order to transfer innovative ideas from abroad to its domestic locations. Thus, the company gains output capability by bridging the lack of innovative capability at its domestic R&D location by employing experienced and creative experts at its offshore locations

Regional development zones in spatial development in Finland. Governing spatial development through new territorial frames

Siirretty Doriast

Towards internet voting in the state of Qatar

Qatar is a small country in the Middle East which has used its oil wealth to invest in the country's infrastructure and education. The technology for Internet voting now exists or can be developed, but are the people of Qatar willing to take part in Internet voting for national elections?. This research identifies the willingness of government and citizens to introduce and participate in Internet voting (I-voting) in Qatar and the barriers that may be encountered when doing so. A secure I voting model for the Qatar government is then proposed that address issues of I-voting which might arise due to the introduction of such new technology. Recommendations are made for the Qatar government to assist in the introduction of I-voting. The research identifies the feasibility of I-voting and the government s readiness and willingness to introduce it. Multiple factors are examined: the voting experience, educational development, telecommunication development, the large number of Internet users, Qatar law which does not bar the use of I-voting and Qatar culture which supports I-voting introduction. It is shown that there is a willingness amongst both the people and the government to introduce I-voting, and there is appropriate accessibility, availability of IT infrastructure, availability of Internet law to protect online consumers and the existence of the e government project. However, many Qataris have concerns of security, privacy, usability, transparency and other issues that would need to be addressed before any voting system could be considered to be a quality system in the eyes of the voters. Also, the need to consider the security threat associated on client-side machines is identified where a lack of user awareness on information security is an important factor. The proposed model attempts to satisfy voting principles, introducing a secure platform for I-voting using best practices and solutions such as the smart card, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificates. The model was reviewed by a number of experts on Information Technology, and the Qatari culture and law who found that the system would, generally, satisfy voting principles, but pointed out the need to consider the scalability of the model, the possible cyber-attacks and the risks associated with voters computers. which could be reduced by enhancing user awareness on security and using secure operating systems or Internet browsers. From these findings, a set of recommendations were proposed to encourage the government to introduce I-voting which consider different aspects of I-voting, including the digital divide, e-literacy, I voting infrastructure, legal aspects, transparency, security and privacy. These recommendations were also reviewed by experts who found them to be both valuable and effective. Since literature on Internet voting in Qatar is sparse, empirical and non-empirical studies were carried out in a variety of surveys, interviews and experiments. The research successfully achieved its aim and objectives and is now being considered by the Qatari Government

Application of Geographic Information Systems

The importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can hardly be overemphasized in today’s academic and professional arena. More professionals and academics have been using GIS than ever – urban & regional planners, civil engineers, geographers, spatial economists, sociologists, environmental scientists, criminal justice professionals, political scientists, and alike. As such, it is extremely important to understand the theories and applications of GIS in our teaching, professional work, and research. “The Application of Geographic Information Systems” presents research findings that explain GIS’s applications in different subfields of social sciences. With several case studies conducted in different parts of the world, the book blends together the theories of GIS and their practical implementations in different conditions. It deals with GIS’s application in the broad spectrum of geospatial analysis and modeling, water resources analysis, land use analysis, infrastructure network analysis like transportation and water distribution network, and such. The book is expected to be a useful source of knowledge to the users of GIS who envision its applications in their teaching and research. This easy-to-understand book is surely not the end in itself but a little contribution to toward our understanding of the rich and wonderful subject of GIS

Knowledge Solutions: Tools, Methods, and Approaches to Drive Development Forward and Enhance Its Effects

[Excerpt] Today, sustainable competitive advantage derives from strenuous efforts to identify, cultivate, and exploit an organization’s core competencies. This calls for relentless design of strategic architecture, deployment of competence carriers, and commitment to collaborate across silos. Put simply, core competencies are the product of collective learning: their tangible fruits are composite packages of products and services that anticipate and meet demand. Knowledge is what you learn from experience before, during, and after the event. Since it is both a thing and a flow, the best way to manage knowledge is to cater at all times to the environment in which it can be identified, created, stored, shared, and used. Tools, methods, and approaches are needed to enable that. And so, to drive development forward and enhance its effects, the Asian Development Bank has, since 2008, published the Knowledge Solutions series, available at www.adb.org/knowledgesolutions. It aims to build competencies in the areas of strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge sharing and learning, and knowledge capture and storage—all of which are essential to high-performance organizations

Advances and Applications of Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT), Vol. 1

The Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) of plausible and paradoxical reasoning is a natural extension of the classical Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST) but includes fundamental differences with the DST. DSmT allows to formally combine any types of independent sources of information represented in term of belief functions, but is mainly focused on the fusion of uncertain, highly conflicting and imprecise quantitative or qualitative sources of evidence. DSmT is able to solve complex, static or dynamic fusion problems beyond the limits of the DST framework, especially when conflicts between sources become large and when the refinement of the frame of the problem under consideration becomes inaccessible because of vague, relative and imprecise nature of elements of it. DSmT is used in cybernetics, robotics, medicine, military, and other engineering applications where the fusion of sensors\u27 information is required

Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion

This book is devoted to an emerging branch of Information Fusion based on new approach for modelling the fusion problematic when the information provided by the sources is both uncertain and (highly) conflicting. This approach, known in literature as DSmT (standing for Dezert-Smarandache Theory), proposes new useful rules of combinations