The role of institutions and firm characteristics in the networks of firm publications. An analysis of the Italian biotech sector through the Social Network Analysis

In this paper we analyse, through the instrument of the social network analysis, the network of co-authorships in the publications of the firms belonging to the Italian life-science biotech sector. The aim of the paper is to analyse the role of the different institutions (universities, research centres, hospitals and firms) inside such network. We try to conduct this analysis in depth, taking into consideration also the nature and characteristics of the biotech firms. We use a classification of the biotech firms according to the criteria suggested by OCED and we analyse the characteristics of the networks generated by the publications of each typology of firm, focusing the attention on the role played by the different institutions inside each of them. Therefore, crossing two dimensions of the analysis (nature of the institutions, characteristics of the firms) we try to shed new light on the architecture of the sectoral system of innovation, that may be considered a relevant part of the whole Italian national system of innovation. The analysis shows that the Italian innovation system is based on a balance among different institutions, each of them having a prevalent function. The central role is covered by the universities, particularly of the great universities in the Northern Italy, the more industrialised part of the country; their prominent role, among the different kinds of institutions, is common to all the typologies of biotech firms, with particularly strong ties with R&D biotech firms and a limited exception in the network of publications of the so-called targeted biotech firms that, being wholesaler, are more interested in collaboration with institution oriented to the “application” of biotechnologies. Research centres have an important role in bridging different institutions, as it is possible to infer from their frequent presence in large and heterogeneous networks of co-autorship. Collaboration with hospitals is less systematic, but they have a prominent role in more applied research, as it is demonstrated by the central role they have in the network of publications of the targeted firms. This analysis also shows a possible point of weakness of the Italian system of innovation, represented by the low degree of collaboration among different firms, at least on the point of view of co-autorship of scientific publication in the biotech sector

"Who and where are the co-authors? The relationship between institutional and geographic distance in scientific publications"

The main goal of our research is to analyse the relationship between geographical and institutional distance in research collaboration. Given that there is institutional distance if different kinds of institutions collaborate, we want to verify if such distance changes, and in what direction, when the physical distance increases. This analysis is conducted at an aggregated level, than at a more disaggregated one, taking some factors into consideration: on one side the quality and relevance of the papers; on the other side the different nature and aims, therefore the different behaviour, of different institutions. Regarding the analysis tools, the social network analysis is joined with the regression analysis. The more relevant results may be synthesized in this way: at a more aggregate level the direction of the relationship between spatial and institutional distance does not emerge with full statistical evidence; at a more disaggregate level the results emerge more clearly: taking into consideration the papers that receive few citations (that may be considered as results of project of limited scientific relevance or quality), the relationship between geographical and institutional distance is inverse; among more cited papers, the relationship is direct. On another side, taking the behaviour of different institutions into consideration, we observe an inverse relationship between spatial and institutional distance for firms, universities and research centres, a direct relationship for hospitals. The phenomenon of inter-institutional collaboration is seen through the lens of co-autorship of scientific publications in the Italian biotech sector. We analyse a database including the publications done by the Italian biotech firms from 2003 to 2005; the institutions the authors of the publications belong to are registered and classified in four categories (firms, universities, hospitals and research centres); their localization is registered too

Internal and external sources of innovation in the Italian biotech sector

A common view among many academics and policy makers is that biotech offers enormous opportunities for improving competitiveness and economic growth. For this reason there is a growing need to set up appropriate policy to improve the adoption and diffusion of biotech innovation. Nevertheless, there are many interpretative problems about the identification of the biotech firms, due to the uncertainty about the border of the sector itself. This paper provides a contribution to better define and understand the biotech industry, pointing out the differences inside the sector and the different behaviour of the firms according to their typology. In fact this paper, basing on a previous work of classification of the Italian biotech firms according to the OECD standards, uses such a classification in order to better understand the different importance, inside the biotech sector, of the internal and external sources of knowledge, in the production of innovation. Our hypothesis is, in fact, that the relation between internal and external source, on one side, and innovation, on the other side, has different characteristics if we distinguish between the different classes in which the production activities are divided, according to the OECD classification. We try to test this hypothesis trough the analysis of the data coming from a questionnaire we submitted to several Italian biotech firms

New insights on the relationships between geographic and institutional distance in research collaborations: a long period analysis

This paper analyses the relationship between institutional and geographic distance in scientific collaborations, evaluating the possible changes when a long period (sixteen years) is taken into consideration and discussing the use of some alternative measures of institutional distance. The main result, obtained by analysing the publications of the Italian biotech firms, is that international publications present an higher institutional distance than national papers, particularly in the early years, while there is no significant difference in institutional distance between regional and extra-regional papers, suggesting that opposite incentives are in action at different geographic scales and in different periods

Who and where are the co-authors? The relationship between institutional and geographical distance in scientific publications

The main goal of our research is to analyse the relationship between geographical and institutional distance in research collaboration. Given that there is institutional distance if different kinds of institutions collaborate, we want to verify if such distance changes, and in what direction, when the physical distance increases. This analysis is conducted at an aggregated level, than at a more disaggregated one, taking some factors into consideration: on one side the quality and relevance of the papers; on the other side the different nature and aims, therefore the different behaviour, of different institutions. Regarding the analysis tools, the social network analysis is joined with the regression analysis. The more relevant results may be synthesized in this way: at a more aggregate level the direction of the relationship between spatial and institutional distance does not emerge with full statistical evidence; at a more disaggregate level the results emerge more clearly: taking into consideration the papers that receive few citations (that may be considered as results of project of limited scientific relevance or quality), the relationship between geographical and institutional distance is inverse; among more cited papers, the relationship is direct. On another side, taking the behaviour of different institutions into consideration, we observe an inverse relationship between spatial and institutional distance for firms, universities and research centres, a direct relationship for hospitals. The phenomenon of inter-institutional collaboration is seen through the lens of coautorship of scientific publications in the Italian biotech sector. We analyse a database including the publications done by the Italian biotech firms from 2003 to 2005; the institutions the authors of the publications belong to are registered and classified in four categories (firms, universities, hospitals and research centres); their localization is registered too

How do the institutions involved in scientific collaboration deal with different kinds of distance? An analysis of the co-authorships of scientific publications

In the scientific collaborations among different institutions at least two types of distance may be identified: spatial and institutional. We talk about spatial distance if the institutions are located in different places; about institutional distance if the collaborating institutions are of a different kind. Given that there are both barriers and incentives to overcome such distances, the specific focus of this paper is on the way the institutions involved in the collaboration deal with them. We are interested in studying if more stable collaborations have different characteristics from the more occasional ones on the point of view of spatial and institutional distance,. We also aim to study also what kind of dependencies exist among these types of distance: if there is a trade-off among them, or a relation of complimentarity. Moreover, we take the content of the research, if basic or applied, into account. The phenomenon of collaborations among different institutions (firms, universities, hospitals and research centres) is seen through the lens of co-autorship of scientific publications in the Italian “red” biotech sector. As empirical tools, we adopt some indexes built in the context of the social network analysis (the E-I index and the equivalence coefficient) usually used in different applications. This kind of analysis may highlight how knowledge flows among innovative agents and should be taken into consideration by the policy maker that aims to promote research collaboration between different institutions

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI