Output-Based Performance Measures for the North Carolina Alliance for Competitive Technologies

The North Carolina Alliance for Competitive Technologies (NC ACTs) is an organization operated by the state of North Carolina to coordinate technology development and, deployment activities in the state. The mission of NC ACTs is to apply innovation, technology, and technical resources to promote economic growth in the state. NC ACTs will operate as a central, strategic organization to guide existing resources and to develop new resources when necessary. To accomplish its mission, NC ACTs must coordinate institutions and organizations that currently offer technology development and deployment into a rational, customer-driven system that measures and rewards results. Timely, reliable assessment and evaluative feedback will be essential to managing these programs effectively. A well-designed system for performance assessment and evaluation can fill a number of management needs (Shapira, Youtie, and Roessner, 1994): Monitoring the progress of NC ACTs and its components in accomplishing their missions; Measuring and improving customer satisfaction; Identifying the most promising strategies and understanding why they are effective; Rewarding and reinforcing positive results; Allocating resources to their most effective uses; and Demonstrating accountability and value to program sponsors. The design of an evaluation plan is critical in public institutions. While sponsors of public programs demand measures of performance and effectiveness, typical market indicators of success (i.e., market share, profit, stock price) are not applicable. Therefore, the evaluation plan must use credible techniques, reliable data, and consistent methodologies without draining organizational resources. To meet these standards, an evaluation plan must be developed during the genesis of the organization. Early assessment allows program managers to adopt the evaluation system as part of the overall management strategy and provides data for program assessment at critical early stages of operation. For this reason, NC ACTs has designed an output-based performance measurement system as part of the NC ACTs operating plan for its first year. The remainder of this paper discusses our plans for measuring the effectiveness of NC ACTs. Some features of the evaluation design are typical of the data collection efforts being conducted by many of the Manufacturing Technology Centers (MTC’s) and Manufacturing Outreach Centers (MOC’s). However, due to the unique design and mission of NC ACTs, we have deviated somewhat from the usual set of performance metrics for technology deployment organizations. This paper focuses on two of those features: measuring organizational influence and measuring technological influence. The second section contains a discussion of the overall design of the data collection, analysis, and reporting system being planned for NC ACTs. The third section focuses on how NC ACTs will measure its influence on the quality and direction of the technology services available in the state of North Carolina. The fourth section discusses a strategy for analyzing the influence of NC ACTs on the use of efficient core technologies emphasizing environmental technologies. The final section contains a summary

The Effectiveness of State Technology Incentives: Evidence from the Machine Tool Industry, Executive Summary

Few economic issues have captured as much attention in recent years as the apparent decline in U.S. industrial competitiveness. Numerous studies prepared by various national commissions, policy organizations, and academics have documented industrial decline, uncovering its causes, and proposing remedies for U.S. industry. Most of the research has identified manufacturing as the industrial sector that has experienced the most serious erosion of cost and quality superiority. With a view toward building a stronger basis for such public policy decisions, researchers at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development set out to study some essential questions about the efficiency of manufacturing. Using the machine tool industry from 1972 to 1987 as an example, the study, which is summarized here, examines determinants of manufacturing efficiency and plant survival, and the effectiveness of public policy. Manufacturing or industrial extension programs, which provide a variety of technical and managerial assistance, were chosen for policy evaluation. The study suggests public and private responses to the productivity crisis that might improve the competitiveness of manufacturing for industries experiencing problems similar to those observed in the machine tool industry

Where the Ends Don\u27t Meet in 2014: Measuring Poverty and Self-Sufficiency among Oregon\u27s Families

This report sheds light on the economic realities facing many of Oregon’s households and provides an initial picture of the extent of income inadequacy in Oregon. Although addressing this issue is challenging, it can be seen as encouraging that many householders with below-Standard incomes are already part of the workforce. It is possible that many householders have adequate levels of education and experience but face other barriers that keep their wages low or raise their expenses. Identifying and addressing such barriers is the next step in bringing household incomes and costs into balance

Profiling Rural America: A Guide to Data Sources and Analytical Techniques

Evaluating the economic conditions of local economies is an important input to the decisions of policymakers, firms, and individuals. General impressions of the condition of national or state economies obtained from aggregate data often mask important substate differences in economic performance. State economic profiles are useful tools for presenting the dynamics of substate economic change. Because their economic conditions and environments can be very different, rural and urban areas are often compared in such profiles. This report describes the major components of a complete economic profile, with special emphasis on rural-urban comparisons. A catalog of data sources and a discussion of their value and potential abuses is provided. Techniques for deriving and interpreting meaningful information from the data are also presented

Population Characteristics within the Portland-Vancouver MSA

In this article, we will explore population characteristics in different parts of the Portland MSA using Census Public Use Microsample (PUMS) data from 2005-2007. For the spatial component, we will use a Census-defined small area geography called Public Use Microsample Area (PUMA), designed to follow existing county boundaries and contain around 100,000 people. (The Census reports the one-year and three-year ACS data only to the detail of this geography in order to maintain the privacy of survey respondents and to improve the precision of the estimates.) We will sometimes focus on a couple of example PUMAs to show the interesting differences within the region. (The information shown is available for all PUMAs in this case, but for the sake of space, we will Population Characteristics within the PortlandVancouver MSA Webb Sprague, Emily Picha, Sheila Martin Institute of Metropolitan Studies, PSU May 2010 just focus on a few.

Place of death in the Czech Republic and Slovakia:a population based comparative study using death certificates data

Place of death represents an important indicator for end-of-life care policy making and is related to the quality of life of patients and their families. The aim of the paper is to analyse the place of death in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2011. Research questions were focused on factors influencing the place of death and specifically the likelihood of dying at home

The Influence of Location on Productivity: Manufacturing Technology in Rural and Urban Areas

Policies to counter the growing discrepancy between economic opportunities in rural and urban areas have focused predominantly on expanding manufacturing in rural areas. Fundamental to the design of these strategies are the relative costs of production and productivity of manufacturing in rural and urban areas. This study aims to develop information that can be used to assess the productivity of manufacturing in rural and urban areas. Production functions are estimated in the meat products and household furniture industries to investigate selected aspects of the effect of rural, small urban, and metropolitan location on productivity. The results show that the effect of location on productivity varies with industry, size, and the timing of the entry of the establishment into the industry. While the analysis is specific to two industries, it suggests that development policies targeting manufacturing can be made more effective by focusing on industries and plants with characteristics that predispose them to the locations being supported

State Economic Development Information Systems

The expanded role of state governments in economic development has increased their need for a wide variety of economic, demographic, and marketing information. Many state governments have responded to these needs by developing systems to deliver economic and related information to state and local economic development offices, businesses, and the general public. This paper reports the results of a survey of economic development officials designed to disclose information about how extensive automated system development is, as well as to learn about system structure and operating characteristics, the quality and quantity of the data distributed, and any particular system strengths and weaknesses. A clear definition of agency goals, cooperation among state agencies, and communication with the targeted users are found to be important to the success of a development data system

Antecedents and determinants of high-tech SMEs’ commercialisation enablers: opening the black box of open innovation practices

Innovation activities have become globalised and open in ways that were unimaginable 20 years ago. These changes have brought new insight into research on innovation activities and specific innovation practices in organisations, including that previous research largely ignored small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper tests a variance-based structural equation model (SEM) for selected antecedents and determinants of commercialisation enablers on a sample of 105 SMEs from Slovenia – a small, open, post-transition economy with a dominant SME sector. The main contribution of the paper lies in testing how two specific open innovation practices (open innovation information exchange and open innovation collaboration) impact the commercialisation enablers of high-tech SMEs through their innovation activities (antecedent) and their innovativeness (determinant). Both open innovation practices show statistically significant effect on high-tech SMEs’ innovativeness, thus supporting the idea that both collaboration and information exchange lead to more innovativeness in high-tech SMEs. They also show a high impact of internal (organisational) factors on innovation activities of and a high impact of innovativeness on the commercialisation enablers of high-tech SMEs