The geography of innovation as reflected by social media

Capturing whether mysteries of trade are ‘in the air’ remains a central issue for understanding the spatial nature of innovative activities. We offer new insights on the intangible dimension of the geography of innovation comparing the spatial distribution of patenting rates and a novel measure of ‘innovative buzz’ from a 9-billion-word corpus based on 900 million geolocated tweets across US counties. We find the use of words connected to innovation and technology to be characterised by significant spatial concentration. The results show the presence of strong bivariate correlation in the spatial clustering between the two elements, pointing to stimulating opportunities in the use of big data from social media for economic geography research

Risk Factors for Immediate and Delayed-Onset Fever After Percutaneous Transhepatic Biliary Drainage

Objectives To prospectively investigate the pre and intraprocedural risk factors for immediate (IF) and delayedonset (DOF) fever development after percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD). Methods Institutional review board approval and informed patient consent were obtained. Between February 2013 and February 2014, 97 afebrile patients (77 at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and 20 at the Sun Yatsen University of Guangzhou, China) with benign (n = 31) and malignant (n = 66) indications for a first PTBD were prospectively enrolled. Thirty pre- and intra-procedural clinical/radiological characteristics, including the amount of contrast media injected prior to PTBD placement, were collected in relation to the development of IF (within 24 h) or DOF (after 24 h). Fever was defined as C37.5 C. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess independent associations with IF and DOF. Results Fourteen (14.4 %) patients developed IF and 17 (17.5 %) developed DOF. At multivariable analysis, IF was associated with pre-procedural absence of intrahepatic bile duct dilatation (OR 63.359; 95 % CI 2.658–1510.055; P = 0.010) and low INR (OR 4.7 9 10-4 ; 95 % CI 0.000–0.376; P = 0.025), while DOF was associated with unsatisfactory biliary drainage at the end of PTBD (OR 4.571; 95 % CI 1.161–17.992; P = 0.030)

Serial innovators in the UK:does size matter?

This article aims to shed light on the presence and importance of a significant number of small firms amongst serial innovators. Contrary to the common expectation in the innovative persistence literature, we posit that small serial innovators also benefit from operating within patterns of creative accumulation. However, it is in the quality of the technology and in the very nature of the knowledge accumulation process that the differences between small and large serial innovators can be found. Using a sample of 811 UK-based, highly innovative companies that patented over 66,000 inventions from 1990 to 2006, we find evidence in support of our theory. While large serial innovators experience higher innovation rates due to the scale of their innovation efforts, small serial innovators benefit more from processes of search depth characterized by the internal recombination of their previous knowledge. We find that important differences exist also in the very nature of the technologies being developed by small and large serial innovators

Listening to the buzz:Exploring the link between firm creation and regional innovative atmosphere as reflected by social media

This paper presents a novel approach to capture ‘buzz’, the vibrancy and knowledge exchange propensity of localised informal communication flows. Building on a conceptual framework based on relational economic geography, we argue the content of buzz may allow to probe into the character of places and investigate what is ‘in the air’ within regional entrepreneurial milieux. In particular, we analyse big data to listen for the presence of buzz about innovation – defined by discursive practices that reflect an innovative atmosphere – and explore how this may influence regional firm creation. Using information from 180 million geolocated Tweets comprising almost two billion words across NUTS3 regions in the UK for the year 2014, our results offer novel evidence, robust to different model specifications, that regions characterised by a relatively higher intensity of discussion and vibrancy around topics related to innovation may provide a more effective set of informal resources for sharing and recombination of ideas, defining regional capabilities to support and facilitate entrepreneurial processes. The findings contribute to the literature on the intangible dimensions in the geography of innovation and offer new insights on the potential of natural language processing for economic geography research

Retiolites angustidens Elles & Wood, 1908 (Graptholitina) from the Silurian of Mt. Cocco (Carnic Alps, Italy)

Retiolites angustidens, trovato in un blocco isolato di calcare a Orthoceras nell’area di Monte Cocco in associazione con Monograptus cf. priodon, viene qui descritto e figugurato per la prima volta nelle Alpi Carniche: in precedenza la sua presenza, infatti, era stata segnalata, ma mai documentata. Dato che tutti i graptoliti rinvenuti hanno un limitato valore stratigrafico, l’età precisa dell’associazione studiata è attribuita alla Biozona a Pterospathodus am. amorphognathoides (Llandovery sup.) in base ai conodonti.Retiolites angustidens is described and figured for the first time from the Carnic Alps, from a loose block collected from Mt. Cocco area. ! e association includes also Monograptus cf. priodon: this species, in fact, was previously reported, but never documented, from this area. Since all the graptolites found have a limited stratigraphic value, the precise age of the studied association is determined by conodonts as belonging to the latest Llandovery (Pterospathodus am. amorphognathoides conodont Zone)

Technological diversification within UK's small serial innovators

This paper investigates the determinants of technological diversification amongst UK’s small serial innovators (SSIs). Using a longitudinal study of 339 UK-based small businesses accounting for almost 7000 patents between 1990-2006, this study constitutes the first empirical examination of technological diversification amongst SMEs in the literature. Results demonstrate that technological diversification is not solely a large-firm activity, challenging the dominant view that innovative SMEs are extremely focused and specialised players with little technological diversification. Our findings suggest a non-linear (i.e. inverse-U shaped) relationship between the level of technological opportunities in the environment and the SSIs’ degree of technological diversification. This points to a trade-off between processes of exploration and exploitation across increasingly volatile technology regimes. The paper also demonstrates that small firms with impactful innovations focus their innovative activity around similar technological capabilities while firms that have introduced platform technologies in the past are more likely to engage in technological diversification.<br/