Insider patent holder licensing in an oligopoly market with different cost structures: Fixed-fee, royalty, and auction

The issue of the optimal licensing contract in firms having different cost structures is studied when the innovator is a producing patent holder who has three alternative licensing strategies, namely, the fixed-fee, royalty rate, and auction strategies. We conclude that the auction licensing strategy is not the best strategy when the innovator is a producing patent holder. This finding differs from that of Kabiraj (2004) where the auction licensing method is the optimal licensing strategy when the innovator is a non-producing patent holder. However, when we only compare two of the licensing methods, namely, the fixed-fee licensing method and the royalty licensing method, we conclude that if the inside innovator licenses to only some of the firms, then the royalty licensing method will be the best strategy. This result is different from that of Fosfuri and Roca (2004), who concluded that if only some of the licensees obtain a licensing contract, then the fixed-fee licensing method will be the best choice for a producing patent holder.Licensing strategy, Cost structure, Auction

A new numerical framework for solving conservation laws: The method of space-time conservation element and solution element

A new numerical framework for solving conservation laws is being developed. It employs: (1) a nontraditional formulation of the conservation laws in which space and time are treated on the same footing, and (2) a nontraditional use of discrete variables such as numerical marching can be carried out by using a set of relations that represents both local and global flux conservation

Bundling Strategy For A Follower

A follower in a market always uses a bundling strategy as a marketing strategy to increase profit and to change its market status.  In this paper, the relationship between the main goods and bundling goods is substitutive, independent, or complementary.  A Stackelberg game is applied to capture the competitive relationship between a leader and a follower.  A follower uses a bundling strategy as a marketing strategy, but a leader does not.  This study reveals that a follower will become a leader when he (or she) sells two products that are low substitution goods.  However, it induces a social welfare to decrease when a follower bundles goods.  This paper illustrates that a bundling action can invert a follower’s market status.  However, the inversion on a follower’s status does not promote the social welfare

Insider patent holder licensing in an oligopoly market and different cost structure: fee, royalty, and auction

The issue of an optimal licensing contract in firms having different cost structures is studied when the innovator is an insider who produces in the market and has three alternative licensing strategies: fixed fee, royalty, and auction. We only focus on the non-drastic innovation case, because it is seldom seen that firm which has not been licensed is kicked out of the market. In our analysis the effect of the firms' cost structure difference is important. Our result is contrary to Fosfuri and Roca (2004) and Kabiraj (2004). We conclude that the patent holder always uses the royalty contract to license to both firms if the innovation is small or to license to one firm if the innovation size is large. Moreover, the auction licensing strategy is always dominated by the other licensing strategies.

Causality in Quantiles and Dynamic Stock Return-Volume Relations

This paper investigates the causal relations between stock return and volume based on quantile regressions. We first define Granger non-causality in all quantiles and propose testing non-causality by a sup-Wald test. Such a test is consistent against any deviation from non-causality in distribution, as opposed to the existing tests that check only noncausality in certain moment. This test is readily extended to test non-causality in different quantile ranges, and the testing results enable us to identify the quantile range for which causality is relevant. In the empirical studies of 3 major stock market indices, we find that, while the conventional test suggests no causality in mean, there are strong evidences that lagged volume Granger causes return in all but some middle quantiles. In particular, the causal effects have opposite signs at lower and upper quantiles and are stronger at more extreme quantiles. These relations form (symmetric) V shapes across quantiles. They also show that the dispersion of the return distribution increases with volume so that volume has a positive effect on return volatility. It is also shown that the quantile causal effects of lagged return on volume are mainly negative.Granger non-causality in quantiles, quantile causal effect, quantile regression, return-volume relation, sup-Wald test

Perovskite-Structured Photovoltaic Materials

In this chapter, we provide the historical background and overview of perovskite-structured photovoltaic materials. The organolead halide perovskite-structured solar cell is considered as one of the most promising photovoltaic technologies due to its rapid progress in power conversion efficiency. However, the existence of lead in perovskite-structured photovoltaic materials raises toxicological and environmental issues. Therefore, many scientists focused on discovering new materials that can replace the lead and improve photovoltaic performance. There are still some issues to be overcome before commercialization of perovskite-structured photovoltaic materials. The fast degradation phenomenon under humidity or constant irradiation is one such issue. The hysteresis phenomena could cause inaccurate estimation of power conversion efficiency. The choice of selective contact also plays an important role in obtaining high performance device. Therefore, the interaction between each layer should be considered. Overall, we reported on state-of-the-art perovskite-structured photovoltaic materials and discussed the essential factor for fabricating high-performance perovskite-structured solar cells

Supply Chain Efficiency Analysis: A Theoretical Approach

We divide the supply chain into a central control system (CCS) case and a decentralized control system (DCS) case, and compare the supply chain efficiency with both the CCS case and the DCS case.  We find that the supply chain efficiency of a capital-intensive industry is better under the CCS case than under the DCS case.  Under the CCS case, the maximized supply chain efficiency can be reached by choosing either the lowest price that the upstream firm is willing to receive or the highest price that the downstream firm is willing to pay for intermediate goods