Growth and surface alloying of Fe on Pt(997)

The growth of ultra-thin layers of Fe on the vicinal Pt(997) surface is studied by thermal energy He atom scattering (TEAS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) in the temperature range between 175K and 800K. We find three distinct regimes of qualitatively different growth type: Below 450K the formation of a smooth first monolayer, at and above 600K the onset of bulk alloy formation, and at intermediate temperature 500K - 550K the formation of a surface alloy. Monatomic Fe rows are observed to decorate the substrate steps between 175K and 500K. The importance of the high step density is discussed with respect to the promotion of smooth layer growth and with respect to the alloying process and its kinetics

Of Intellectual Property, Open Source and Innovation: Trends, and Some Opportunities for Italy

This paper offers some reflections on the institutions for the governance of knowledge as an economic asset, and its management in firms. It then relies on a research based on a survey of a large number of patents (PatVal-EU) to discuss specific features of the invention system in Italy. The paper ends by suggesting that Italy is an interesting position to launch new policies that balance intellectual property rights and open source. It also flags the possibility of an Inventor Compensation Act like in Germany, which can motivate employees to launch new ideas and raise the Italian innovation rate.open source, patents, intellectual property rights, innovation.

The Scope of Open Licenses in Cultural Contents Production and Distribution

This paper aims to explore the impact of ex-ante legal status of creator on ex-post open license choice. It first describes the emergents Creative Commons licenses in Open Cultural Contents production and distribution. It introduces the two open models of diffusion and production, followed by creators. It orders the licenses according with their degree of openness in production as well as in diffusion. Then the paper presents an empirical analysis of the impact of legal status of creators on open license choice using an original database of video under Creative Commons licenses, created from the Internet Archive. The results show the existence of two models, Open Diffusion model and Open Production, that the creator has to balance when he/she decides the license. The results also show that in order to obtain benefit from the community, the For-Profit actors are more likely to adopt a high degree of openness in license.Open Production, Open Diffusion, Creative Commons, Open Licenses, Extrinsic, Intrinsic, Monetary, Non-Monetary, Motivations, Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, Common Goods, Digital Goods, For-Profit, Non-Profit

Asymmetric velocity and tilt angle of domain walls induced by spin-orbit torques

We present a micromagnetic study of the current-induced domain wall motion in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/AlOx racetracks. We show that the domain wall velocity depends critically on the tilt angle of the wall relative to the current direction, which is determined by the combined action of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, damping-like, and field-like spin-orbit torques. The asymmetry of the domain wall velocity can be controlled by applying a bias-field perpendicular to the current direction as well as by the current amplitude. As the faster domain walls are expelled rapidly from the racetrack boundaries, we argue that the domain wall velocity and tilt measured experimentally depend on the timescale of the observations. Our findings reconcile the discrepancy between time-resolved and quasi-static domain wall measurements in which domain walls with opposite tilts were observed and are relevant to tune the velocity of domain walls in racetrack structures

Fingerprints of the Visible Hand. Chandlerian Organizations and their Inward Looking Malaise

This paper investigates the relationships between firm organization attributes, namely a structure á la Chandler, and their inward looking or “exploitation” attitude in R&D and innovation. We argue that because of sunk costs and learning processes an inward looking behavior is a consequence of increases in firm size. However, it is also produced by an organizational model based on hierarchical managerial decisions, typical of the Chandlerian firms, that is not directly related to size. We find that the US States populated by larger firms show a higher share of patent self-citations normalized by their share of world patents. Even after controlling for firm size, a proxy for the extent of firm divisionalization in the States exhibits a significant effect on patent self-citations normalized by patent shares. This supports our point that the inward looking behavior of the Chandlerian firms is not just a consequence of size, but also of the Chandlerian organizational model. Among other things, this suggests that “exploration”, which leads to the opening of new innovation trajectories, requires not only small firms, but also different organizational setups and decision processes.Patents, Self-citations, Chandlerian Firm, Inward looking, Inertia

Technology, Entrepreneurship and Inequality: an Interpretative Model

This paper purports to explain some recent trends in several advanced economies. Our model shows that the rise of new scientific and technological opportunities, and particularly the opportunities to develop riskier technological projects, is at the basis of the blossoming of small-medium sized high-tech companies in several regions of the world. This phenomenon, which has been widely documented, and has given rise to several remarks about the growth and employment opportunities of "Silicon Valley" models of industrial activities and employment, is contrasted with an economy based on more stable employment conditions in large firms. Our key result is that both an economy based on large firms and one based on high-tech smaller enterprises lead to higher expected incomes. But while the former implies lower inequality in the sense of lower variance of incomes, the latter implies both higher permanent and transitory inequality. This is consistent with some recent empirical findings about the increase in the variance of incomes in the US and the UK.-

The Globalization of the Software Industry: Perspectives and Opportunities for Developed and Developing Countries

The spectacular growth of the software industry in some non-G7 economies has aroused both interest and concern. This paper addresses two sets of inter-related issues. First, we explore the determinants of these successful stories. We then touch upon the broader question of what lessons, if any, can be drawn from for economic development more generally. Finally, examining the long term implications of offshoring of software, we conclude that it is unlikely to pose a long term threat to American technological leadership. Instead, the U.S. economy will broadly benefit from the growth of new software producing regions. The U.S. technological leadership rests in part upon the continued position of the U.S. as the primary destination for highly trained and skilled scientists and engineers from the world over. Though this is likely to persist for some time the increasing attractiveness of foreign emerging economy destinations is a long-term concern for continued U.S. technological leadership.

Chandlerian Firms vs. Entrepreneurship

This paper employs an original dataset for 146 US metropolitan areas to test some propositions that characterize two different models of organizing firms and industries: the managerial firm, epitomized by the work of Alfred Chandler, and the entrepreneurial system, recently highlighted by many authors. We discuss the reasons why, compared to the entrepreneurial systems, the Chandlerian world entails a lower spread of managerial salaries, greater product diversification, and a greater degree of products “exploitation” vs “exploration”. If there are knowledge spillovers, the entrepreneurial model produces higher expected managerial salaries. By providing systematic evidence about their characteristics, our study contributes to our understanding of the nature, the comparative advantages, and the potential division of labor between the two models.Chandlerian Firms, Entrepreneurship, Diversification, Technology

Technology, Entrepreneurship, And Inequality

This paper links the rise of new industries populated by skill-intensive companies, and the divergence in labour incomes between skills. Our model explains inequality by the fact that as the skilled workers move towards new Silicon-Valley type firms, the reduced complementarity between skilled and unskilled workers in the traditional manufacturing sectors lessens the productivity of the latter. In addition, knowledge externalities in the modern sector produce two equilibria in which either the modern sector dominates (and inequality between skills is high), or manufacturing dominates (inequality is low). We provide suggestive evidence consistent with our model.-

Global Competitiveness in Pharmaceuticals: A European Perspective

The report examines the competitive position of the European pharmaceutical companies and industries, and compares them with the pharmaceutical companies and industries in other parts of the world, particularly the US. Over the last two decades, the industry has experienced some important structural changes, mainly driven by technological and institutional shocks that have affected all the stages of its value chain. In turn, this has led to changes in firms' organisation and in market structure, within domestic markets, regionally, and globally. The main finding of the report is that the European industry has indeed been losing competitiveness as compared to the USA, although there are large differences and trends across European countries. As a whole, Europe is lagging behind in its ability to generate, organise, and sustain innovation processes that are increasingly expensive and organisationally complex. In fact, one conclusion of the report is that the relative position of the US as a locus of innovation in pharmaceuticals has increased over the past decade compared to Europe. All in all, the report claims that the competitiveness of the European pharmaceutical industry is negatively affected by the persistence of insufficient degrees of competition and institutional integration, still centred on domestic and fragmented health care and research systems. Four sets of variables have been found to be relevant as sources of competitiveness and growth in pharmaceuticals: 1) The size and the structure of the biomedical education and research systems; 2) Some basic institutions governing labor markets for skilled researchers and managers, as well as corporate governance and finance; 3) Intellectual property rights and patent law; 4) The institutional settings in the regulation of health care systems and, moreover, the nature and intensity of competition on the final market. The data analysed in this report come from OECD, Eurostat, the European Patent Office, IMS Health and PHID (PHarmaceutical Industry Database) at the University of Siena