What can be patented? Technological innovation and the contemporary mess in patent law

The question of what types of inventions may be patented has becom

Endogenous innovation, outward-bound international patenting and national economic development

In this paper we argue that countries whose residents exhibit a relativel

Building Internationally Competitive Technology Regions: The Industrial-Location-Factors Approach and the Local-Technological-Milieux Approach

In this paper I make the claim that academic business research on technological innovation and international competitiveness ought to move further in the direction of meso-level analysis, to complement the majority of research to date that has been conducted at either the micro level of analysis or the macro level of analysis. I survey meso-organizational literature from fields such as geography, urban studies and regional planning, and explore how theoretical contributions of those fields might be linked to recent insights from business research to produce strategies for building competitive technology regions. I conclude by outlining two alternative approaches, the Local Technological Milieux approach and the Industrial Location Factors approach. I suggest that high-technology industry development policies based on the Local Technological Milieux approach are more likely to be successful than policies based on the other approach

Intellectual property management and technological entrepreneurship

This paper investigates the distinctive technology protection strategies of entrepreneurial technology firms. In contrast with much popular opinion, it is reported that intellectual property features more prominently in the business of small entrepreneurial firms than it does in the business of large, established mature firms. The intellectual property portfolios of technology firms of all sizes and ages exhibit a rich array of instruments in addition to patents for protecting technology, including trade secrets, trademarks and copyright, together with licenses to externally sourced technology. The intellectual property profiles of technology firms appear to be influenced by their context, organizational profiles and corporate goals and by the character of their technology

Technology and the Competitive Advantage of Regions: A Study of the Biotechnology Industry in the New York State

The study of New York’s biotechnology industry is published here in attempt to present the value of adopting a regional approach to the analysis of advanced technology industries, and to explore the extent to which distinctive economic policies are required, by both commercial and government organizations, to nurture the growth of industries based on knowledge rather than tangible resources. It presents evidence for the importance of focusing on the “region” as the unit of analysis in studies of industrial competitiveness, in addition to those of the nation or the individual firm.This report summarizes the results of the comprehensive study of the biotechnology industry across the whole of New York state. A great deal of care was directed towards ensuring that organizations included in the study were properly classified and accurately documented; this has resulted in a body of information and an analytical framework which may serve as a benchmark for future studies of the industry and assessments of its evolving economic performance. The study has revealed a substantial, complex, and changing industry that is emerging with the potential to play a key role in the evolution of New York’s economy. There are a number of distinctive local biotechnology industry clusters within the state, each of which has special strengths, needs, and relationships to the surrounding community. Public initiatives or cooperative industry efforts to strengthen the position of biotechnology in New York will need to be tailored to the specific conditions that apply in each of the local clusters

Economic Development and Technological Change in Rural Australia: Some Critical Policy Issues

The paper discusses the status of the rural economy in Aus­ tralia, emphasizing that agriculture, and primary industry in general, have historically played a dominant role in national economic development and have occupied a prime position in general economic policy. In this context, rural develo ment policy in Australia has consisted mainly of measures to expand agricultural production through a pattern of capital­ intensive technological change aimed at minimizing labor in­ puts and maximizing land-labor ratios. While leading to vety high levels of labor productivity, this approach has failed to prevent the wider rural economy from deteriorating in many communities. It has also been accompanied by a deteriora­ tion in the overall economic performance of the agriculture sector itself, despite continued improvements in certain po ularly quoted agricultural indicators (such as gross physical production). The paper argues that Australia's rural policies andprograms have not taken adequate account ofstructural changes in the national and international economy. It con­ cludes that improvements in the rural economy will require a new approach which includes: (1) the replacement of "growth in agriculturalproduction• as the main focus ofrural policy by a new paradigm concerned with "integrated rural development"; and (2) a new emphasis on technology policy as a tool for ensuring that the pattern of technological prac­ tice in agriculture and other rural industries is developed to fit properly the underlying economic conditions

Technology and the Competitive Advantage of Regions: A Study of the Biotechnology Industry in the New York State

The study of New York’s biotechnology industry is published here in attempt to present the value of adopting a regional approach to the analysis of advanced technology industries, and to explore the extent to which distinctive economic policies are required, by both commercial and government organizations, to nurture the growth of industries based on knowledge rather than tangible resources. It presents evidence for the importance of focusing on the “region” as the unit of analysis in studies of industrial competitiveness, in addition to those of the nation or the individual firm.This report summarizes the results of the comprehensive study of the biotechnology industry across the whole of New York state. A great deal of care was directed towards ensuring that organizations included in the study were properly classified and accurately documented; this has resulted in a body of information and an analytical framework which may serve as a benchmark for future studies of the industry and assessments of its evolving economic performance. The study has revealed a substantial, complex, and changing industry that is emerging with the potential to play a key role in the evolution of New York’s economy. There are a number of distinctive local biotechnology industry clusters within the state, each of which has special strengths, needs, and relationships to the surrounding community. Public initiatives or cooperative industry efforts to strengthen the position of biotechnology in New York will need to be tailored to the specific conditions that apply in each of the local clusters

Appropriate technology: An integrated framework for policy and practice

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study in the emerging field of technology studies. It addresses the spread of controversy over the status and value of technological change and perceptions of increasing prominence of technology in society which have led to a marked growth of academic activity in recent decades centred on technology. Many commentators point to the problems of choosing between appropriate and inappropriate technology as of paramount importance. A substantial international social movement incorporating over one thousand organizations united under the rubric of" Appropriate Technology" has recently burgeoned in association with these factors. Despite the vigour of the Appropriate Technology movement and the success of some of its projects there remains significant obstacles to the widespread adoption of the movement's proposals and there is a great deal of confusion as to the meaning of "Appropriate Technology"; it has also been subject to extensive criticism, much of which is quite virulent. A basic reason for the weaknesses of the Appropriate Technology movement and for the concomitant criticisms it has received is argued in this dissertation to be the lack of a clearly articulated conceptual framework. The provision of such a framework is the central purpose of this study. The study begins with a critique of the semantic and conceptual confusion in the Appropriate Technology literature and relates this to certain unresolved problems in the technology studies literature in general. This is followed by a comprehensive review of Appropriate Technology detailing its historical and theoretical roots and its development into a multifarious social phenomenon. On the basis of this review and an analysis of the criticisms of the movement an integrated framework is synthesized which addresses the concerns of both protagonists and critics. The study concludes with a detailed justification of the integrated framework at three levels. It examines the framework's conceptual cogency and universal applicability; it assesses its power to confront the obstacles to Appropriate Technology indicated by the criticisms of the concept; and, it illustrates the framework's power as a tool in policy making by demonstrating its applications to the field of employment policy. It is argued that the obstacles to the achievement of the Appropriate Technology movement's goals are primarily meta-technical rather than technical and that they are reinforced by the failure to comprehend and properly apply the distinction between technology as artefacts and technology as a mode of technology-practice. It is concluded that Appropriate Technology is most fruitfully viewed as a mode of technology-practice rather than as a collection of artefacts, that it is characterized by the harmonious integration of technical-empirical, socio-political and ethical-personal considerations and that, when comprehended as such, it has the potential to provide a framework for policy and implementation which is desirable and feasible for countries of both the South and the North

HOW DO ENTREPRENEURIAL TECHNOLOGY FIRMS REALLY GET FINANCED, AND WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

This paper discusses an emerging heterodoxy in the academic literature on entre- preneurial technology finance that is based on the idea of "bootstrapping." Bootstrap finance is a third approach (emphasizing funding technology ventures through revenue and other non-traditional sources), alongside the orthodoxies of traditional business finance (emphasizing debt) and contemporary venture finance (emphasizing venture capital and public equity). The paper also reports the results of an original empirical study of entrepreneurial technology firms in the bioscience-related industries in the United States. The data from the study show that "unorthodox" bootstrap financing is actually the dominant kind of financing in those high technology industries. The data are analyzed to explore industry effects, regional milieux effects, and entrepreneurial-status effects on the relative mix of bootstrap finance and the three traditional sources of finance: venture capital, public equity and debt finance. The effects on firm behavior and performance of variations in financing strategy are explored, with implications for managers of entrepreneurial technology ventures and educators concerned with technology entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurial technology, financial strategies, venture capital