The role of knowledge service activities (KISA) in basic agro-food processes innovation: The case of orange packers in Eastern Spain.

he relevance of innovation in services has been outlined by the knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) concept, which has been empirically and theoretically developed in the context of service innovation. The conceptual and methodology approach of knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA) links the production of knowledge to innovative activities, and has become a relevant focus for the analysis of innovation within a firm. Though relatively new, it has been given a great deal of attention by practitioners and academics in the last five years. This paper will explore, analyze, and compare the ways in which knowledge-intensive activities occur in a small cluster of mature and low-tech industries: orange and lemon selection in Spain. The paper aims to assess the impact of KISA on the firm’s innovation and performance, as well as to analyze whether KISA occurrence is correlated with certain characteristics of firms such as size, organizational profile, market focus, and other characteristics. A model correlating these variables will additionally be proposed and validated

Analysing high technology adoption and impact within public supported high tech programs. An empirical case.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the body of knowledge in relation to the diffusion and adoption process of high technology. It intends to analyse those mechanisms that influence advanced technology transference and marketing, and those features that improve the impact of public programs supporting the adoption of high technology. The paper proposes a contingent construct that explains how advanced technology is transferred, diffused and adopted by users in a firm. In relation to the impact of technology transference this paper follows a novel approach: value mapping methodology adapted to the case of advanced technology. The article provides empirical evidence on the variables which contribute to the technology transference and commercialization process, and especially in the case of SMES. Key variables such as technology complexity, relationships between researchers, developers and final users, as well as market barriers appear to be critical for the transference process. Moreover, technology absorption by incumbent firms becomes a necessary requirement for its subsequent transfer. The paper has utilised the available experience from the GAME initiative, part of the European Commission IV Research Framework Programme, related to the promotion of microelectronics among Spanish firms. Using a representative sample and employing multivariable analysis methods, a model was developed in order to understand technology diffusion, absorption and transference knowledge flows. In addition, the model is useful for evaluating technology dissemination using the diffusion model to measure its social impact. The paper found that social impact can be explained by the creation of employment

Desarrollo de un método para obtener tomografía en hormigón utilizando el método de impacto-eco

The impact echo method is a non-destructive test that, through stress waves and wave analysis, can measure slab thickness, detect voids and faults inside the concrete. Currently there are devices that through the impact echo or pulse echo can generate a tomography in 3 dimensions, however, its current price is extremely high...El método de impacto eco es un ensayo no destructivo que a través de ondas de esfuerzo y análisis de ondas se puede medir espesores de losas, detectar vacíos y fallas dentro del hormigón. Actualmente existen dispositivos que a través del impacto eco o pulso eco pueden generar tomografías en 3 dimensiones, sin embargo, su precio actual es sumamente elevado..

Financing R&D and Innovation for Corporate Growth: What new evidence should policy-makers know?

The Policy Brief addresses the results of a recent European Conference on the Financing R&D and Innovation (CONCORDi-2013: http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/concord/2013/index.html). It presents recent empirical evidence on the topic and attempts to draw a number of policy-relevant messages to be brought to the attention of policymakers, as well as open questions requiring further research to address policy needs. This document provides state-of-the-art evidence and the most recent value-added results, summarised as follows: a) Financial constraints are important obstacles to R&D and innovation in EU firms, and the importance of these obstacles depend on factors that are both internal and external to firms. b) The reduction of information asymmetries can considerably lower the barriers to access financial resources for corporate R&D and innovation activities. c) Among external financial instruments, bank loans are the least attractive, while venture capital is (still) considered suitable for financing R&D and innovation projects, although they have a too short a time horizon to yield returns. Crowdfunding has been identified as a new emerging financial instrument. d) Policy remedies to financial shortages and barriers are not affected by crowding-out, but their additionality is very sensitive and not yet systematic. Public venture capital and public use of crowdfunding are issues to be further investigated. e) The great heterogeneity of companies and framework conditions across countries and regions calls for better analyses and monitoring of instruments. f) Both scientists and policymakers participating to CONCORDi-2013 called for establishing a stronger network of R&D and innovation policy evaluators to support the proper implementation of the upcoming European financial support instruments agreed for the period 2014-2020.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

World Corporate Top R&D Investors: Innovation and IP bundles

Innovation and technological development are today main ingredients of countries' economic development strategies. This is based on evidence showing the importance of technical progress and innovation in increasing the efficiency in the use of labour and capital inputs (multi-factor productivity), one of the main drivers of GDP growth in most OECD countries for more than two decades. World regions and countries are competing to attract and retain those segments of the global value chains that most contribute to value and job creation. In a context of increasing globalisation and interdependence of knowledge generation and exploitation activities, policies aiming at reinforcing the scientific and technological competitiveness of economies need to rely on a wide range of science, technology and innovation indicators reflecting increasingly complex innovation systems. A main actor of innovation systems is the business sector. Evidence shows that a very large proportion of the R&D investments financed and executed by the business sector worldwide is concentrated in a relatively small number of world leading corporate innovators, in many cases large multinational groups. These companies also concentrate a significant proportion of the patents and trademarks filed in the most important intellectual property offices around the world. In this respect, the original data and statistics on the innovation output of world top corporate R&D investors presented in this report is extremely relevant for the support of evidence-based research and innovation policies. The report builds on the efforts to collect up-to-date, reliable and comparable company data on the top corporate R&D investors worldwide carried-out by the European Commission since 2004 (the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard publication) and on the solid knowledge and experience of the OECD in developing and providing robust and state of the art indicators on science, technology and industry (see for example OECD's STI Scoreboard publications). Essentially descriptive in nature, the company based data and statistics on the patents and trademarks portfolios of world top corporate investors open the door to further research and analysis about companies' global strategies for knowledge development and exploitation. The main target audience is the researcher community and policy analysts with an interest in supporting evidence-based policy making in the area of innovation and industrial policies. The underlying company data on patents and trademark will be made publicly available. The objective is to allow practitioners to make intensive use of this data to contribute to the advance of knowledge and empirical evidence on companies' innovative activities and performance.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

The 2013 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard

The 2013 "EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard" (the Scoreboard) contains economic and financial data of the world's top 2000 companies ranked by their investments in research and development (R&D). The sample contains 527 companies based in the EU and 1474 companies based elsewhere. The Scoreboard data are drawn from the latest available companies' accounts, i.e. the fiscal year 2012.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

The 2014 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard

The 2014 "EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" (the Scoreboard) contains economic and financial data for the world's top 2500 companies ranked by their investments in Research and Development (R&D). The sample contains 633 companies based in the EU and 1867 companies based elsewhere. The Scoreboard data are drawn from the latest available companies' accounts, i.e. usually the fiscal year 2013/14. Key findings of the 2014 Scoreboard comprise: - The world top 2500 R&D investors continued to increase their investment in R&D (4.9%), well above the growth of net sales (2.7%). The 633 EU companies increased R&D by 2.6% and decreased sales by 1.9%. - Volkswagen leads the global ranking for the second consecutive year, showing again a remarkable increase of R&D (23.4%, up to €11.7bn). Second continues to be Samsung, showing also an impressive R&D increase of 25.4%. - EU companies in the automobile sector, accounting for one quarter of the total EU’s R&D, continued to increase significantly their R&D (6.2%). This reflects the good performance of automobiles companies based in Germany (9.7%) that account for three quarters of this sector’s R&D in the EU. - The poor R&D performance of EU companies in high-tech sectors such as Pharmaceuticals (0.9%) and Technology Hardware and equipment (-5.4%) weighed down the total R&D increase of the EU sample. The overall amount invested in R&D by EU companies in high-tech sectors represents 40% of the amount invested by their US counterparts and the gap between the two company samples is increasing with time.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

The 2015 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard

The 2015 EU R&D Scoreboard reports economic and financial information on the world's top 2500 companies that invested €607.2 billion in R&D over the last fiscal year (2014). It comprises 608 companies based in the EU, 829 companies based in the US, 360 in Japan and 703 from the rest of the world. Key findings from the 2015 Scoreboard: - In 2014, the top world 2500 R&D Scoreboard companies raised their R&D by 6.8%, while revenues continued to grow at a significant lower pace (2.2%). - Companies based in the EU showed an annual R&D investment growth rate of 3.3%, slightly improving the previous year's performance (2.6%). Companies based in the US showed a stronger R&D investment growth rate (8.1%). The Chinese companies, 3rd largest country by number of companies in this edition, increased R&D investments by 23.6%. - Companies in the ICT, Pharmaceuticals and Automobiles sectors continue to dominate the top 10 places in the world ranking. As in the previous edition, the top R&D investors are Volkswagen, Samsung, Microsoft, Intel and Novartis. The most significant changes at the top of the ranking in 2014 are the climb of Google to 6th place (from 9th), and of Pfizer to the 10th place (from 15th). Huawei (15th) and Apple (18th) accelerated in 2014 their race to the top, jumping 11 and 16 positions respectively. - An analysis of the patent portfolios of the world's top R&D investors shows that EU and US companies have the highest degrees of internationalisation of their inventive activities: 26% and 22% of their patent families are developed by inventors located outside the region. While the US appear to be the preferred location for health related inventions (pharma and biotech in particular), Europe is the most attractive place for the inventive activities of automobile companies.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Silencing of Foxp3 enhances the antitumor efficacy of GM-CSF genetically modified tumor cell vaccine against B16 melanoma

The antitumor response after therapeutic vaccination has a limited effect and seems to be related to the presence of T regulatory cells (Treg), which express the immunoregulatory molecules CTLA4 and Foxp3. The blockage of CTLA4 using antibodies has shown an effective antitumor response conducing to the approval of the human anti-CTLA4 antibody ipilimumab by the US Food and Drug Administration. On the other hand, Foxp3 is crucial for Treg development. For this reason, it is an attractive target for cancer treatment. This study aims to evaluate whether combining therapeutic vaccination with CTLA4 or Foxp3 gene silencing enhances the antitumor response. First, the "in vitro" cell entrance and gene silencing efficacy of two tools, 2'-O-methyl phosphorotioate-modified oligonucleotides (2'-OMe-PS-ASOs) and polypurine reverse Hoogsteen hairpins (PPRHs), were evaluated in EL4 cells and cultured primary lymphocytes. Following B16 tumor transplant, C57BL6 mice were vaccinated with irradiated B16 tumor cells engineered to produce granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and were intraperitoneally treated with CTLA4 and Foxp3 2'-OMe-PS-ASO before and after vaccination. Tumor growth, mice survival, and CTLA4 and Foxp3 expression in blood cells were measured. The following results were obtained: 1) only 2'-OMe-PS-ASO reached gene silencing efficacy "in vitro"; 2) an improved survival effect was achieved combining both therapeutic vaccine and Foxp3 antisense or CTLA4 antisense oligonucleotides (50% and 20%, respectively); 3) The blood CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ (Treg) and CD4+CTLA4+ cell counts were higher in mice that developed tumor on the day of sacrifice. Our data showed that tumor cell vaccine combined with Foxp3 or CTLA4 gene silencing can increase the efficacy of therapeutic antitumor vaccination