Is that Innovation? Assessing Examples of Revitalized Economic Dynamics among Clusters of Small Producers in Northern Vietnam

This paper addresses the question whether innovation is within reach for small enterprises in developing economies by studying four cases of new technologies, products and business practices in traditional craft in Northern Vietnam. The paper starts with reviewing definitions of innovation since Schumpeter. It concludes that newness, value creation and process are time and again considered as the key-elements of innovation. Innovation, hence, may be summarized as the process of introducing something new that creates value. Subsequently, this theoretical definition is operationalized into an innovation assessment instrument and applied in the aforementioned cases. The instrument verified the occurrence of innovation in three out of four cases of small producers' clusters in Northern Vietnam. The entrepreneurs managed to implement innovation on their own strength and upon their own initiative. This provides evidence that small enterprises in developing countries are indeed able to take part in the process of increasing competitiveness through innovation.innovation, small enterprises, clusters, value chains, Vietnam

Caustic Skeleton & Cosmic Web

We present a general formalism for identifying the caustic structure of an evolving mass distribution in an arbitrary dimensional space. For the class of Hamiltonian fluids the identification corresponds to the classification of singularities in Lagrangian catastrophe theory. Based on this we develop a theoretical framework for the formation of the cosmic web, and specifically those aspects that characterize its unique nature: its complex topological connectivity and multiscale spinal structure of sheetlike membranes, elongated filaments and compact cluster nodes. The present work represents an extension of the work by Arnol'd et al., who classified the caustics for the 1- and 2-dimensional Zel'dovich approximation. His seminal work established the role of emerging singularities in the formation of nonlinear structures in the universe. At the transition from the linear to nonlinear structure evolution, the first complex features emerge at locations where different fluid elements cross to establish multistream regions. The classification and characterization of these mass element foldings can be encapsulated in caustic conditions on the eigenvalue and eigenvector fields of the deformation tensor field. We introduce an alternative and transparent proof for Lagrangian catastrophe theory, and derive the caustic conditions for general Lagrangian fluids, with arbitrary dynamics, including dissipative terms and vorticity. The new proof allows us to describe the full 3-dimensional complexity of the gravitationally evolving cosmic matter field. One of our key findings is the significance of the eigenvector field of the deformation field for outlining the spatial structure of the caustic skeleton. We consider the caustic conditions for the 3-dimensional Zel'dovich approximation, extending earlier work on those for 1- and 2-dimensional fluids towards the full spatial richness of the cosmic web

Fipronil-crisis in the Netherlands: An analysis of the financial effects of the chosen approach (detoxicate or prematurely cull hens) by farmers during the fipronil-crisis in the Netherlands

The fipronil-crisis that occurred in the Netherlands in 2017, had a big impact on the poultry sector. Farmers had to make the decision to either detoxicate (a diet which attempts to eliminate the fipronil which is stored in the fat) or prematurely cull their hens. This research compares detoxification and prematurely culling in a financial way, to provide an answer for the question: Which approach would have restrained, with hindsight, the financial impact for the famers the most? In order to do this a decision tree has been built and a sensitivity, break-even and risk analysis have been conducted

Towards a Hybrid Account of Luck

The concept of luck is important in various areas of philosophy. In this paper, I argue that two prominent accounts of luck, the modal and the probabilistic account of luck, need to be combined to accommodate the various ways in which luck comes in degrees. I briefly sketch such a hybrid account of luck, distinguish it from two similar accounts recently proposed, and consider some objections

Epistemic Benefits of the Material Theory of Induction

C. D. Broad famously labelled the problem of providing our inductive practices with a proper justification “the scandal of philosophy” (Broad, 1952). Recently, John Norton has provided a dissolution of this problem (2014). According to Norton, inductive inference is grounded in particular facts obtaining within particular domains (J. Norton, 2003b, 2010, 2014). Because the material theory does not involve a universal schema of induction, Norton claims it dissolves the problem of induction (which implies that such universal schemas cannot be justified). In this paper, I critically evaluate Norton's dissolution. In particular, I argue that the problem of induction is an epistemological problem, that Norton's material theory entails an externalist epistemology, and that it is a common feature of such epistemologies that they dissolve the problem of induction. The upshot is that the material theory is not unique in its ability to reap the specifically epistemic benefits of dissolving the problem of induction, and thus that the epistemic advantages of the material theory over extant alternatives in this regard are fewer than it may appear at first sight

A Modal Criterion for Epistemic Argumentation

In this paper, I spell out and argue for a new epistemic theory of argumentation. Contrary to extant views, this theory is compatible with a pluralistic framework on argumentation, where the norms governing argumentation depend on the aim with which we engage in the practice. A domain of specifically epistemic argumentation is singled out, and I argue based on recent findings in modal epistemology that this domain is governed by the modal norm of safety; where a belief is safe just in case it is produced by a method that would not easily produce a false belief. While this criterion is well-known and uncontroversial in epistemology, it has hitherto not been applied to epistemic theories of argumentation. I show that the norm allows for a novel and superior perspective of the relevance of the persistent interlocutor in argumentation theory, and on the relation between dialectical and epistemic norms more generally.Dans cet article, j'adopte un cadre pluraliste sur l'argumentation, où les normes qui dirigent la construction et l’évaluation de l’argumentation dépendent du but de notre engagement dans cette pratique. Un domaine d'argumentation spécifiquement épistémique est distingué, et je soutiens, sur la base de découvertes récentes en épistémologie modale, que ce domaine est dirigé par la norme modale de sécurité, selon laquelle une croyance est sûre juste au cas où elle serait produite par une méthode qui ne produirait pas facilement une fausse croyance. Bien que ce critère soit bien connu et non controversé en épistémologie, il n'a jusqu'à présent pas été appliqué aux théories épistémiques de l'argumentation. Je montre la fécondité d'introduire cette norme modale dans notre théorie de l'argumentation en soutenant que cela permet une perspective nouvelle et supérieure sur la pertinence de l'interlocuteur persistant dans la théorie de l'argumentation, et plus généralement sur la relation entre les norms dialectiques et épistémiques.