Creativity, innovation effectiveness and productive efficiency in the United Kingdom

Purpose Creativity is often referred to as a seedbed of innovation. As such it holds the key to better performance and the competitiveness of firms. To better understand how creativity influences birth and commercialization of innovations and productive efficiency of firms the paper investigates how hiring of employees with different creative skills impacts innovation process and productivity. The purpose of the paper is to determine the role of creativity in innovation behaviour and productive efficiency of firms. Design/Methodology/Approach Theoretical framework of the paper rests on pillars of evolutionary, Schumpeterian and endogenous growth literature contributions to the economics of innovation. The multi-stage analytical framework is applied to examine contribution of creativity to the decision of firms to innovate, investment in innovation activities, commercialization of innovations and firm efficiency. The econometric techniques of generalised tobit and simultaneous equations framework are applied to confidential data from the United Kingdom Innovation Survey in 2010-2012 period. Findings The investigation broadens our understanding of factors and forces that shape innovation process and improve productive efficiency of firms. It provides empirical evidence on an impact of the effectiveness of innovation process on the productivity of firms. The results reveal that creative skills contribute to the generation of novel ideas and investment in R&D but the ability to meet customer requirements draws from other organizational skills such as marketing or organizational innovations. Differences are revealed among economic sectors with respect to the forces driving the innovation process. Practical implications The results provide implications to managers regarding the management of innovation process. First, the study reveals how creative potential of employees can be optimally exploited in different stages of innovation process. Second, the research highlights number of other factors relevant in this process from the utilization of information, subsidies and the general management of human resources. Finally, the result suggest that sectoral heterogeneity should be taken into account in management of innovation activities of individual firms. Research limitations/implications Further research will be needed to investigate cross-country differences in management of creativity and its contribution to the innovation process and productivity. The limited availability of data on creativity and innovation activities of firms presents the most important limitation in this sense. The framework set by this paper can serve as direction for further investigations. Originality/Value While the impact of creativity on innovation has been addressed previously, this paper is one of first attempts to examine the linkages between management of creativity, effectiveness of innovation process and productive efficiency of firms within a single framework. One of reasons for this is the fact that it relies on the confidential dataset of firms not easily accessible to researcher

Spatial dependence, foreign investment and productivity spillovers in new EU member states.

This paper presents new empirical evidence on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) technology spillovers on the productivity of domestic firms in manufacturing and services in Central and East European regions over the period 2007–11. The complex impact of FDI is separated into direct and indirect effects while accounting for spatial feedback effects. Findings suggest that FDI presence generates negative intra- and interregional market-stealing effects on direct rivals and positive spillovers on downstream firms. The effects are larger from FDI in neighbouring regions and increase with distance

Foreign Direct Investment and structural transformation of exports

Sizeable efforts are invested across the globe in attraction of foreign investors. These activities are motivated with theoretical predictions and empirical evidence from numerous countries on beneficial effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on host economy. Among spillover channels of FDI, one that is particularly important for open economies is improvement of export competitiveness and productivity. Through knowledge and technology transfer, integration in parent company distributor and supplier network and horizontal and vertical spillovers to other firms in host economy FDI can ease access to international market for producers from host economy but more importantly the sophistication of their exported goods and services. The objective of this paper is to explore how FDI influences structural transformation of exports (improvement in export sophistication) in short and long run of almost 100 world economies. Evidence reveals differences in export sophistication between different groups of countries and point to beneficial effect of FDI on export sophistication

The CERN Cryogenic Test Facility for the Atlas Barrel Toroid Magnets

The superconducting magnet system of the ATLAS detector will consist of a central solenoid, two end-cap toroidal magnets (ECT) and the barrel toroid magnet (BT) made of eight coils symmetrically placed around the central axis of the detector. The magnets will be tested individually in a 5000 m2 experimental area prior to their final installation at an underground cavern of the LHC Collider. For the BT magnets, a dedicated cryogenic test facility has been designed which is currently under the construction and commissioning phase. A liquid nitrogen pre-cooling unit and a 1200 [email protected] refrigerator will allow flexible operating conditions via a rather complex distribution and transfer line system. Flow of two-phase helium for cooling the coils is provided by centrifugal pumps immersed in a saturated liquid helium bath. The integration of the pumps in an existing cryostat required the adoption of novel mechanical solutions. Tests conducted permitted the validation of the technical design of the cryostat and its instrumentation. The characteristics of one pump were measured and pressure rise of 300 mbar at nominal flow of 80 g/s confirmed the specifications

Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development: Synthesis Report, Mobile Learning Week 2019

(First paragraph) 2019’s Mobile Learning Week (MLW), UNESCO’s flagship event for information and communication technology (ICT) in education, focused on the theme ‘Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development’. Held over five days in Paris, it comprised a sequence of high-profile events (a global conference, a policy forum and workshops, a symposium and strategy labs), and involved more than 1,500 participants from 140 countries (including Ministers of Education and ICT, other representatives from Member States, the private sector, academia and international organizations)

Survival of massive allografts in segmental oncological bone defect reconstructions

Reconstructions of large segmental bone defects after resection of bone tumours with massive structural allografts have a high number of reported complications including fracture, infection and non-union. Our goal is to report the survival and complications of massive allografts in our patients. A total of 32 patients were evaluated for fracture, infection, non-union rate and survival of their massive allograft reconstructions. The average follow-up for this group was five years and three months. The total fracture rate was 13% with a total infection rate of 16%. We found a low union rate of 25%. The total survival of the allografts was 80.8% (± 18.7%) after five years. We found a five-year allograft survival of 80.8% which is comparable with other studies

The ocean sampling day consortium

Ocean Sampling Day was initiated by the EU-funded Micro B3 (Marine Microbial Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology) project to obtain a snapshot of the marine microbial biodiversity and function of the world’s oceans. It is a simultaneous global mega-sequencing campaign aiming to generate the largest standardized microbial data set in a single day. This will be achievable only through the coordinated efforts of an Ocean Sampling Day Consortium, supportive partnerships and networks between sites. This commentary outlines the establishment, function and aims of the Consortium and describes our vision for a sustainable study of marine microbial communities and their embedded functional traits

Accumulation of fibronectin in the heart after myocardial infarction: a putative stimulator of adhesion and proliferation of adipose-derived stem cells

Stem cell therapy is a promising treatment after myocardial infarction (MI). A major problem in stem cell therapy, however, is that only a small proportion of stem cells applied to the heart can survive and differentiate into cardiomyocytes. We hypothesized that fibronectin in the heart after MI might positively affect stem cell adhesion and proliferation at the site of injury. Therefore, we investigated the kinetics of attachment and proliferation of adipose-tissue-derived stem cells (ASC) on fibronectin and analysed the time frame and localization of fibronectin accumulation in the human heart after MI. ASCs were seeded onto fibronectin-coated and uncoated culture wells. The numbers of adhering ASC were quantified after various incubation periods (5-30 min) by using DNA quantification assays. The proliferation of ASC was quantified after culturing ASC for various periods (0-9 days) by using DNA assays. Fibronectin accumulation after MI was quantified by immunohistochemical staining of heart sections from 35 patients, after different infarction periods (0-14 days old). We found that ASC attachment and proliferation on fibronectin-coated culture wells was significantly higher than on uncoated wells. Fibronectin deposition was significantly increased from 12 h to 14 days post-infarction, both in the infarction area and in the border-zone, compared with the uninfarcted heart. Our results suggest that a positive effect of fibronectin on stem cells in the heart can only be achieved when stem cell therapy is applied at least 12 h after MI, when the accumulation of fibronectin occurs in the infarcted heart. © 2008 The Author(s)