Factors Determining Industrial Competitiveness And The Role Of Spillovers

This article applied regressions and panel data analysis to determine how micro-economic spillovers enhance the competitiveness of firms and industries. What made this study unique was that it considered the interactions between various spillover factors working simultaneously and their effect on competitiveness and also investigated possible harmful effects of spillovers. Data from the Manufacturing Firm Survey of the World Bank was used, which covered the first decade of the third millennium, including world economic crises. The investigation on sales used cross-sectional regressions, following a survey conducted on sales and competitiveness. The general findings were that FDI and technological expenses offered little spillover advantages to firms, but that spillovers from research and development do enhance competitiveness. Managerial expertise and education of the workforce restrict spillovers and enhance competitiveness, while a larger and less educated workforce increases leakages of information and spillovers, suppressing competitiveness. The results further revealed that exports and spending on communication, machinery and equipment, a trained work force and innovation all enhanced sales, but the numbers of new firms and the number of privately owned businesses suppress competitiveness. Concerning the negative effects of spillovers, corruption, crime, theft and disorder increase spillovers and curb competitiveness. More spending on security decreases these negative spillovers, as does support from well-known suppliers. A larger workforce causes more negative spillovers, as do the number of new and temporary workers, more competitors and new suppliers. The findings of this study will be of special value to managers and project planners

The contribution of FDI, technology and R&D to spillovers in industrial development

This article studies the contribution of technological and knowledge spillovers towards the competitiveness of South African manufacturing firms. Literature often emphasizes the role of foreign direct investment (FDI), technology, and research and development (R&D) in spillovers, but seldom consider their effect simultaneously. This study focuses on the micro-economic production level and on the interaction of these factors. It determines their influence on the competitiveness, profits and eventual industrial development. The empirical study utilised data from the World Banks firm-level survey on South African manufacturers. The study reveals that direct foreign investments and ownership contribute little towards secondary spillovers, which probably depends on absorptive capacity. Technological advancement is not very significant, while research and development are dependent on absorptive capacity to enhance competitiveness, especially with regard to the investment in human capital. International quality certification, foreign licensing and capacity utilisation all contribute positively towards the ability to enhance productivity growth and the competitiveness of firms

Human capital constraints in South Africa

This paper examines human capital constraints in the South African economy, and the austerity of these constraints on firms in the country. The two key human capital constraints explored in this article are the inadequately educated workforce and labour market distortions. Regression analysis was applied to examine determinants of increased labour productivity in manufacturing firms. Education and labour market distortions were found to have a varying influence on output per worker. Principal Component Analysis (pca) of the explanatory variables achieved similar results. This study found that the highest percentage of the total variance is explained by latent variables that incorporate education, training, compensation, region and Sector Education Training Authority (seta) support and effectiveness

Disproportionate distribution of field potentials across the toad's tectal visual map in response to diffuse light ON and OFF stimulations

AbstractIn toads Bufo marinus and Bufo bufo spinosus, field potentials (FPs) were recorded from the surface of the optic tectum at different sites of the visual map in response to a sudden diffuse darkening (OFF) and lightening (ON) of the visual field of the contralateral eye. The OFF and ON responses were differently pronounced or even failed to occur. The latency of the former was significantly less than the one of the latter. FP amplitudes of the OFF and ON responses were strongest in the representation of a horizonto-superior anterio-lateral portion of the visual field and weakest toward the posterior field of vision. This phenomenon suggests various interpretations for subsequen

Sensation Seeking and Perceived Need for Structure Moderate Soldiers’ Well-Being Before and After Operational Deployment

This study examined associations between sensation seeking and perceived need for structure, and changes in reported well-being among deployed soldiers. Participants (n = 167) were assessed before and after a six-month deployment to south Afghanistan. Results indicated that although well-being declined in the soldier sample as a whole following deployment, the degree of decrease was significantly different among soldiers with different personality profiles. Differences were moderated by soldiers’ level of sensation seeking and perceived need for structure. Results are discussed in terms of a person-environment fit theory in the context of preparation and rehabilitation of deployed military personnel

Climate change adaptation in agriculture; the use of multi-scale modelling and stakeholder participation in the Netherlands

Abstract about a research project to develop a methodology to assess adaptation of agriculture to climatic and socio-economic changes at multiple scales, with a first application in the Province of Flevoland, the Netherlands

Structurally rich dry grasslands – Potential stepping stones for bats in open farmland

Agricultural intensification has caused decrease and fragmentation of European semi-natural dry grasslands. While a high biodiversity value of dry grasslands is acknowledged for plants and insects, locally and on landscape level, their relevance for mobile species, such as bats, is unknown. Here we investigate the use of dry grassland fragments by bats in an agriculturally intensified region in Germany and evaluate local and landscape factors influencing bat activity and assemblages. Specifically, we predicted that a combination of local dry grassland structural richness and landscape features as well as their interactions affect bat activity and foraging above dry grasslands. We also expected that these features influence compositions of local bat assemblages. We repeatedly sampled at 12 dry grassland plots with acoustic monitoring and assessed activity and foraging of bat species/sonotypes, which we grouped into guilds known for foraging in open land, at vegetation edges and in narrow spaces. We determined structural richness of the dry grassland plots in field and derived landscape features from digital landscape data. A relatively high proportion of bat species/sonotypes used dry grasslands regularly. The edge space foragers responded positively to higher local structural richness. Their dry grassland use increased when surrounding forests and woody features were less available, but they foraged more on dry grasslands closer to water bodies. Narrow space bat activity on dry grasslands decreased with less landscape connectivity. Open and narrow space foragers responded to local structural richness only in landscape context. For all bat guilds we found increased use of structurally richer dry grasslands when there was more open farmland in the surroundings. This was also the case for edge space foragers, when landscapes were more homogeneous. Lastly, with increasing structural richness, bat assemblages were more dominated by edge space foragers. We show the importance of European dry grassland fragments for the highly mobile group of bats under certain local structural and landscape compositional conditions. Our results underline the value of heterogeneous dry grassland fragments as potential stepping stones in intensively used farmland areas and contribute to evidence based decision making in dry grassland management and bat conservation

High-order propagation of jet noise on a tetrahedral mesh using large eddy simulation sources

Jet noise is an important area of research in commercial aviation due to its high contribution to the overall noise generated by an aircraft. Conventionally, CFD combined with surface integral methods is used to study jet noise because of its low cost. However, it is not always trivial to define integration surfaces around complex geometries. This study employs a different two-step approach that can handle complex geometries. It combines a large-eddy simulation (LES) to obtain the acoustic sources from the flow field, and an acoustic perturbation equations (APE) solver to propagate the sound to the far field. The LES is performed with an industrial 2nd-order finite volume solver. The APE code is a high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) spectral/hp solver of the Nektar+ + framework. The APE solver is validated on a canonical test case. A study on different polynomial expansion orders and meshes is further performed to estimate the mesh size for noise propagation in the high-order spectral/hp DG context. Finally, a three-dimensional jet noise case (Re = 10, 000 and Mach = 0.9) is simulated using unstructured tetrahedral mesh for the APE solver and improved noise results for high frequencies are obtained. The results demonstrate that the present approach is capable of predicting noise in complex geometry scenarios, such as installed jets under the aircraft wings