Guest editorial: industrial districts: towards the future

The notion of Industrial District (ID) was introduced by Alfred Marshall in the Principles of Economics (1890) and reintroduced a hundred years later by Giacomo Becattini (1979) in the main body of scientific literature. Since the 1990s, the notion of the Marshallian Industrial District (MID) has diffused rapidly in the scientific economic literature in English (Figure 1). What is extraordinary, however, is the variety and dynamism of the topics that the literature of the ID has produced over the past 40 years. When Giacomo Becattini published the seminal article “Dal settore industriale al distretto industriale. Alcune considerazioni sull’unità d’indagine dell’economia industriale” (the English version can be found in Becattini, 2004), in 1979, articles referring to ID were very scarce and came mainly from English economic historians analyzing IDs. From that moment on, the ID acquired its own entity, and a wide variety of topics on IDs began to be discussed; in the 1980s, typically those such as understanding sectors vs districts, local organization of production, the role of small firms, entrepreneurship, labor markets, technical change, among many mor

SME modes of innovation in European catching-up countries: The impact of STI and DUI drivers on technological innovation

At the intersection of SME innovation and innovation systems, this study investigates the characteristics of SME innovation modes in catching-up European countries (Southern, and Central and Eastern European) and compare it with selected among the most advanced countries in Europe as a mean to show key differences. Distinguishing between STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) and DUI (learning-by-Doing, Using and Interacting) innovation drivers, and analyzing their impact on technological innovation we study 29,834 SMEs innovation in 15 countries. We argue that the most effective SME innovation modes in catching-up countries are peculiar vis-à-vis other types of countries (e.g. advanced economies). Results show how their economic, institutional and innovation context influence SME forms of knowledge and learning. In general, catching-up countries show effective DUI-type collaborations for process innovations, while showing more limited returns than advanced countries from the STI mode of innovation

La universidad española como plataforma de emprendimiento: hacia la universidad emprendedora del futuro

Ha existido una evolución desde la tercera misión de la universidad preconizada por la Triple Hélice (ver trabajos de (Henry Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000), como elemento de transferencia de tecnología a la sociedad, en forma de convenios y contratos (ejemplo, Shane, 2002), licencias de patentes (ejemplo, Agrawal & Henderson, 2002) o incluso relaciones informales entre la industria y la empresa (David B Audretsch & Feldman, 1996), si bien tal y como resaltan D'Este & Patel (2007), la parte del emprendimiento es, precisamente, la menos utilizada por los académicos y la que forma parte principal del actual modelo dentro de la universidad emprendedora. Así, en su artículo sobre la evolución del papel de la universidad, Audretsch (2014) postula que el objetivo de la «universidad emprendedora» corresponde a una universidad concebida para la sociedad del emprendimiento, yendo más allá de la simple transferencia de tecnología y de la tercera misión. Dicho salto cualitativo entiende que la universidad debe contribuir a resolver problemas sociales, crear pensamiento emprendedor, acciones e iniciativas concretas, fomentar nuevas instituciones para canalizar dicha transferencia y formar lo que Audretsch, Keilbach, & Lehmann (2006), llaman «capital emprendedor», enfocado sobre todo al cambio desde una economía intensiva en industria hacia una economía intensiva en conocimiento. De manera similar, dicho constructo enlaza con Guerrero, Urbano, Cunningham, & Organ (2014), que definen la universidad emprendedora como una incubadora que provee soporte para que la comunidad universitaria explore, evalúe y explote ideas que puedan transformarse en iniciativas sociales y emprendedoras

Emprender en la universidad española: el caso de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Las universidades son capaces de incubar nuevas empresas empezadas indistintamente por alumnos o por investigadores de la propia universidad. Medir la capacidad de construir capital emprendedor indistintamente para los estudiantes e investigadores es parte del papel desempeñado por las universidades emprendedoras (Audretsch, 2014), que son incubadoras clave ofreciendo un ambiente de soporte en el cual la comunidad universitaria puede explorar, evaluar y explotar ideas que pueden ser transformadas en iniciativas empresariales susceptibles de generar riqueza para la sociedad. Este es el caso de la Universitat Politècnica de València

La necesidad de las cadenas de valor globales para evitar inercias cognitivas en clusters. El caso del valle del juguete-plástico en Alicante

El objetivo del presente artículo se basa en entender la necesidad de la apertura de los clusters y su inclusión en cadenas de valor globales que permitan la entrada de conocimiento, la renovación de tecnologías y capacidades, la renovación de actores y, en definitiva, la mejora de la competitividad de los territorios y de sus tejidos productivos de pymes. Si bien ha predominado un paradigma de desarrollo local endógeno en los clusters o distritos industriales en toda la literatura, hecho totalmente evidente en la mayoría de los casos, la evidencia empírica de los últimos años comienza a desmitificar y moderar dicha característica que, si bien no deja de ser cierta, va perdiendo peso, sobre todo cuando analizamos los clusters que pueden considerarse como casos de éxito (ejemplo, Hervas-Oliver y Albors-Garrigos, 2008, Eisingerich et al., 2010; Iammarino y McCann, 2013). Así, en la literatura actual sobre los clusters industriales o distritos industriales destaca, cada vez en mayor medida, la necesidad de abrir los territorios y conectarlos con cadenas de valor globales con el propósito de adquirir diferente conocimiento, renovar los actores, abrir las redes y rejuvenecer los territorios (Giuliani et al., 2014; Crescenzi et al., 2015; Iammarino y McCann, 2013; Hervas-Oliver y Boix, 2013; Eisingerich et al., 2010; Bathelt et al., 2004). En este escenario conviene destacar el rol que desempañan las multinacionales como elemento de conexión y coordinación de dichas cadenas de valor. Así, las multinacionales (MNEs) presentan un destacado papel en la transferencia de conocimiento entre territorios a través de los circuitos internos entre MNEs y sus subsidiarias localizadas (Hervas-Oliver y Boix, 2013; Lorenzen and Mudambi, 2012; Tallman y Chacar, 2011; Harrison, 1994

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters

Reducing heterotic M-theory to five dimensional supergravity on a manifold with boundary

This paper constructs the reduction of heterotic $M$-theory in eleven dimensions to a supergravity model on a manifold with boundary in five dimensions using a Calabi-Yau three-fold. New results are presented for the boundary terms in the action and for the boundary conditions on the bulk fields. Some general features of dualisation on a manifold with boundary are used to explain the origin of some topological terms in the action. The effect of gaugino condensation on the fermion boundary conditions leads to a `twist' in the chirality of the gravitino which can provide an uplifting mechanism in the vacuum energy to cancel the cosmological constant after moduli stabilisation.Comment: 16 pages, RevTe