Technological collaboration : bridging the innovation gap between small and large firms

This paper analyses technological collaboration as an input to the innovation processes of SMEs. Technological collaboration may be a useful mechanism to offset some of the weaknesses in SMEs resource endowments and bring their innovation capabilities closer to that of their large counterparts. The results, based on a large longitudinal sample of Spanish manufacturing firms, show that technological collaboration is a critical factor in improving the capabilities and innovativeness of SMEs. While a general bridging of the gap between the innovativeness of SMEs and large firms was observed, the most significant advance was in product rather than process innovations

Novelty of product innovation : the role of different networks

In the current competitive scenario, firms are driven to introduce products with a higher degree of novelty. Consequently, there is a growing need to understand the critical success factors behind radical innovation. Specifically, this work empirically and theoretically analyses the role of different types of collaborative networks in achieving product innovation and, more precisely, the degree of novelty. Using a longitudinal data of Spanish manufacturing firms, our results show that the continuity on the co-operative strategy, the type of partner and the diversity of collaborative networks are critical factors in achieving a higher degree of novelty in product innovatio

The functional diversity in Colombia: the protection of persons with disabilities in the Colombian social security system

En los últimos tiempos, la protección de las personas con discapacidad en Colombia ha experimentado un notable progreso, pasando del “modelo médico rehabilitador” al “modelo social” que pone el énfasis en la rehabilitación de una sociedad, que ha de ser concebida y diseñada para hacer frente a las necesidades de todas las personas, gestionando las diferencias e integrando la diversidad. En un principio, su sistema de Seguridad Social Integral, reglamentado primordialmente por la Ley 100 de 1993, contenía una única protección de las personas frente a la invalidez; sin embargo, en años posteriores se ha producido un amplio desarrollo jurisprudencial y normativo que ha contribuido a extender esta protección a un mayor número de personas.In recent years, the protection of persons with disabilities has made remarkable progress in Colombia, moving from the "rehabilitative medical model" to the "social model" which emphasis on the rehabilitation of a society, which must be conceived and designed to address everybody’s needs, managing differences and integrating diversity. Initially, its Integral Social Security system, ruled primarily by Law 100 of 1993, contained a single protection of people against disability; however, in later years there has been an extensive jurisprudential and normative development, which has contributed to grant this protection to more people

The pensions in the framework of the current bilateral Social Security agreement signed between Spain and Colombia in 2005

El Convenio Bilateral de Seguridad Social suscrito entre España y Colombia en 2005 tiene por finalidad proporcionar a los trabajadores españoles y colombianos, que hayan desarrollado una actividad profesional en el otro Estado, les sea reconocido el tiempo cotizado en ambos sistemas de Seguridad Social. De tal forma, que estos trabajadores podrán cobrar sus prestaciones en función a la parte proporcional cotizada en cada Estado y de conformidad a lo dispuesto en sus respectivas legislaciones nacionales.The Bilateral Agreement of Social Security subscribed between Spain and Colombia in 2005 has as purpose to provide the Spanish and Colombian workers, who have developed a professional activity in the other State, the time quoted in both Social Security systems. In this way, these workers may collect their pension benefits according to the proportional part quoted in each State and in accordance with the provisions of their respective national legislations

Mikhail Gromov. Un gran geómetra que pudo ser Fields (English:Mikhail Gromov, a great geometer who could have been a Fields medallist)

Este año el premio Abel ha recaído sobre el genial matemático Mikhail Gromov, una de las figuras clave de la matemática actual. Los responsables de la sección dedicada a las Medallas Fields y la dirección editorial hemos decidido, excepcionalmente, glosar su perfil profesional en este número

La cooperación tecnológica como determinante de los resultados empresariales

En este trabajo, examinamos empíricamente el impacto de la cooperación tecnológica sobre los resultados empresariales. Basándonos en la literatura previa sobre el impacto tecnológico de las colaboraciones y en los trabajos que conectan las capacidades tecnológicas con la consecución de ventajas competitivas sostenibles, argumentamos que los acuerdos de cooperación tecnológica tienen un efecto positivo sobre la consecución de innovaciones en producto y/o proceso, las cuales, a su vez, redundan en unos resultados empresariales superiores. Asimismo, también analizamos el efecto diferencial de tres tipos de colaboraciones, vertical, institucional y horizontal. Nuestros resultados indican que, mientras los resultados innovadores median la relación entre la cooperación institucional y los resultados empresariales, la cooperación vertical tiene tanto un efecto directo como indirecto, mediado por los resultados innovadores, sobre tales resultados empresariales. Finalmente, la cooperación horizontal ejerce un efecto negativo tanto en la consecución de innovaciones como en los resultados empresariales.Publicad

Idoneidad del socio tecnológico : un análisis con datos de panel

El objetivo del presente trabajo consiste en identificar el socio más adecuado para llevar a cabo una cooperación tecnológica. Con esta finalidad, proponemos un modelo empírico que interrelaciona las motivaciones para cooperar, la elección del socio tecnológico y el impacto que éste tiene sobre las actividades de innovación tecnológica. Para la estimación de nuestro modelo, hemos contado con los datos de la Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales para los años 1999, 2000 y 2001. Los resultados de la aplicación sugieren que las empresas, cuando persiguen objetivos tecnológicos, optan como primera opción por llegar a acuerdos de colaboración con clientes y proveedores. Sin embargo, el impacto tecnológico de los organismos de investigación (universidades y centros tecnológicos) es superior, tanto en términos de la culminación del proceso innovador -en nuevos productos y/o procesos- como en la contribución al aprendizaje tecnológico de la empresa -incentivando la generación de activos intangibles-. Este resultado pone de relieve 1) que los organismos de investigación tienen potencial para jugar un papel crucial como instituciones de apoyo tecnológico al tejido industrial, pero 2) que el conocimiento de dicha institución por parte del sector productivo es aún escaso

Linkage Rules for Plant–Pollinator Networks: Trait Complementarity or Exploitation Barriers?

9 pages.-- Final full-text version of the paper also available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050031.Recent attempts to examine the biological processes responsible for the general characteristics of mutualistic networks focus on two types of explanations: nonmatching biological attributes of species that prevent the occurrence of certain interactions ("forbidden links"), arising from trait complementarity in mutualist networks (as compared to barriers to exploitation in antagonistic ones), and random interactions among individuals that are proportional to their abundances in the observed community ("neutrality hypothesis"). We explored the consequences that simple linkage rules based on the first two hypotheses (complementarity of traits versus barriers to exploitation) had on the topology of plant–pollination networks. Independent of the linkage rules used, the inclusion of a small set of traits (two to four) sufficed to account for the complex topological patterns observed in real-world networks. Optimal performance was achieved by a "mixed model" that combined rules that link plants and pollinators whose trait ranges overlap ("complementarity models") and rules that link pollinators to flowers whose traits are below a pollinator-specific barrier value ("barrier models"). Deterrence of floral parasites (barrier model) is therefore at least as important as increasing pollination efficiency (complementarity model) in the evolutionary shaping of plant–pollinator networks.Funding by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (project INVASRED, REN2003–06962) is acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Dimensional study of prostate cancer using stereological tools

This study analyzes the dimensional changes of the glands from prostate cancer by applying stereology to estimate the variations in volume, length, surface, and cellular densities of tumor acini. Normal and tumor acini were visualized using immunohistochemistry for cytokeratin18. On immunostained sections, parameters related to the dimensions and cell population of prostate acini were measured. The immunohistochemical expression of proliferative cell nuclear antigen was also measured to correlate the quantitative changes estimated with the proliferative activity of the epithelium. The average cell volume in normal and tumor epithelium was estimated using the method of the nucleator. The relative size of the acini was similar in the carcinoma compared with the normal prostate. Within the acini, the fraction of acinar volume occupied by the epithelium was significantly higher in cancer than in the nontumor prostate. Conversely, the glandular lumen of the cancer acini is lower than in the normal acini. The significant increase of acinar length density in the carcinoma indicates that the glandular tree's growth in the carcinoma is higher and with more branches than in the case of nonneoplastic glands. The basal surface density is higher in the carcinoma than in the controls. The number of epithelial cells per unit length of acini was significantly decreased in the neoplastic glands. This "dilution" of the cell population along the cancer acinus can be explained by the significant increase in the tumor cell's mean cell volum

Source enumeration in non-white noise and small sample size via subspace averaging

This paper addresses the problem of source enumeration by an array of sensors in the challenging conditions of: i) large uniform arrays with few snapshots, and ii) non-white or spatially correlated noises with arbitrary correlation. To solve this problem, we combine a subspace averaging (SA) technique, recently proposed for the case of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) noises, with a majority vote approach. The number of sources is detected for increasing dimensions of the SA technique and then a majority vote is applied to determine the final estimate. As illustrated by some simulation examples, this simple modification makes SA a very robust method of enumerating sources in these challenging scenarios.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain, and AEI/FEDER funds of the E.U., under grants TEC2016-75067-C4-4-R (CARMEN) and BES-2017-080542