Towards development of a report on the state of the world's forest genetic resources

La disponibilité de données fiables est indispensable pour la conservation efficace et la gestion durable des ressources génétiques forestières. À ce jour, il n'existe aucune vision globale de l'état et de l'évolution de ces ressources, ni d'estimations fiables quant aux taux et aux causes de leur perte ou leur dégradation. En 2007, la Fao a été mandatée par ses pays membres pour préparer un rapport sur l'état des ressources forestières du monde. Ce rapport vise à établir les bases permettant d'élaborer un cadre d'action pour la gestion des ressources génétiques aux niveaux national, régional, éco-régional et global. Cette gestion devra accorder l'attention qui s'impose à l'intégration des problématiques de conservation dans les plans de développement plus globaux, comme les plans forestiers nationaux et les stratégies de réduction de la pauvreté. L'état et l'évolution des espèces et écosystèmes prioritaires feront l'objet de bilans fondés sur les informations nationales concernant la conservation en aires protégées, l'intégration des questions liées à la génétique dans la gestion des forêts naturelles et des plantations forestières, et la prise en compte de ces questions dans les stratégies d'amélioration des arbres forestiers. Ces efforts seront intégrés dans le cadre du processus de mise à jour régulière de l'évaluation des ressources forestières mondiales coordonnée par la Fao. La préparation du rapport sur l'état des forêts dans le monde ainsi que l'élaboration et la mise en oeuvre du plan d'action seront des efforts conjoints; les tâches seront partagées entre la Fao, les partenaires internationaux et les pays concernés. L'article décrit les principales étapes qui permettront de réaliser ces objectifs. (Résumé d'auteur

Why is strategic R&D (still) homebound in a globalized industry? The case of leading firms in wireless telecom

This paper looks at internationalization of R&D in the wireless telecommunications industry. We compare the international distribution of strategic R&D activities related to the development of wireless standards to other (non standard related) projects. While there is evidence that leading companies in this industry are sourcing globally their know how, still more strategic R&D projects remain homebound. This finding is further elaborated through conversations with R&D and IP managers at Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Qualcomm. These semi-structured interviews suggested that a closer look at the internationalization of R&D investment requires scholars to consider maturation and decentralization of R&D and R&D management.

Modes, challenges and outcomes of nanotechnology transfer: A comparative analysis of university and company researchers

Nanotechnology has been proposed as the next general purpose technology and^engine for growth for the 21th century. Increasing public R&D investments are foremost reflected in the growth of scientific publications, while nanotechnology still is in an uncertain phase of development with various directions of commercialization pending. This paper focuses on the challenge, modes and outcomes of nanotechnology as an emerging science‐based field in Finland. The paper contributes by interrogating how challenges and modes of nanotechnology transfer differ across universities and companies and determine outcomes broadly defined. It uses an extensive survey data covering university and company researchers in the Finnish nanotechnology community. The results show significant differences in the perceptions of researchers across these organisations, and highlight specific challenges and modes as determinants of outcomes. The specificities of nanotechnology are also assessed in this context

Commercialising eco-efficient nanotechnologies in the construction industry: The case of glass-processing in Finland

New and advanced process technologies are growing in importance for highly industrialized countries which increasingly have to compete with rapidly-developing, low-cost, countries. Nanotechnology is an interesting example in this context. It may evolve into a platform for industrial renewal in a broad range of sectors, and can also offer eco-efficient applications to address environmental concerns related to climate change. This paper assesses facilitating and inhibiting factors in the commercialisation and use of eco-efficient nanotechnology in the Finnish glass-processing and construction industry based on company case studies. The focus on the construction industry is motivated by its large contribution to economies while it also stands to gain significantly from new eco-efficient applications such as those enabled by nanotechnology. While there is an active community of nanotechnology-dedicated companies and research groups in this field, commercialization is inhibited by the absence of large and technologically progressive companies which could act as lead users, provide test markets, critical longer-term funding, and aid in the transition from R&D and piloting phases to industrial production. Public technology programs have provided a good basis for further developments and the construction industry could gain from nanotechnology once its benefits and value proposition to consumers and the general public become clearer

Ownership Structure, Board Composition and Investment Performance

In this paper the relation between ownership structure, board composition and firm performance is explored. A panel of Swedish listed firms is used to investigate how board composition affects firm performance. Board heterogeneity is measured as board size, age and gender diversity. The results show that Swedish board of directors have become more diversified in terms of gender. Also, fewer firms have the CEO on the board which can be interpreted as a sign of increased independency. The regression analysis shows that gender diversity has a small but negative effect on investment performance, and the same holds for CEO being on the board. The analysis also show that board size has a significant negative effect on investment performance. When incorporating all the explanatory variables into one equation however, the negative effect of larger boards dilutes the effect of gender diversity and having the CEO on the board.Corporate governance; board composition; investments performance; marginal q

Family Ownership and Returns on Investment – Founders, Heirs, and External Managers

This paper investigates how family ownership, control, and management affect firms’ investment performance. We use the identity of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board (COB) to establish under what management the firm is: founder, descendant, or external management. The results show that founder management has no effect on investment performance in family firms, whereas descendant management has a negative impact on returns on investment. Having an externally hired manager significantly improves investment performance. The results also indicate that the separation of voting right from cash flow right has a negative impact on investment performance in both family and non-family firms, but the negative effect is larger in family firms.Ownership; Control; Management; Family Firms; Returns on Investments

The economics of strategic R&D alliances: A review with focus on the ICT sector

Inter-firm collaboration in R&D is not a new phenomenon. What is new, however, is the rapid increase in such collaboration since the 1980s in parallel with increasing competition. Terms like “strategic R&D alliances” or “alliance capitalism” have been coined to conceptualise these patterns of collaboration and competition in industry. The aim of this paper is to briefly review theoretical frameworks to understand the formation, functioning and effects of strategic R&D alliances in industrial economies, to define more precisely and typologise different types of alliances, and to provide a descriptive analysis of alliance activity in the ICT sector as an empirical illustration. The empirical part of the paper draws on the world’s largest database of strategic R&D alliances and related research to identify characteristics of alliance activity in core ICT technology fields of special interest from a Finnish viewpoint. The paper concludes by discussing frictions between theoretical interpretations and empirical examples of alliance activity, the main results of the descriptive analysis, and suggests some new research directions to further our understanding of technical change and innovation in the ICT sector.Yritysten välinen tutkimus- ja kehitysyhteistyö on ollut jo kauan merkittävä tekijä teollisessa kehityksessä. Lisääntynyt kilpailu on kuitenkin erityisesti 1980-luvulta lähtien kasvattanut nopeasti tätä yhteistyötä ja muuttanut sen luonnetta. Käsitteet ”strateginen T&K-allianssi” tai ”allianssikapitalismi” ilmentävät näitä samanaikaisen yhteistyön ja kilpailun malleja. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on ollut kuvata teoreettista viitekehystä, jolla voidaan ymmärtää strategisten T&Kallianssien syntyä, toimintaa ja vaikutuksia, tyypittää tarkemmin eri alliansseja sekä käyttäen empiiristä aineistoa analysoida deskriptiivisesti allianssiaktiviteetteja. Aineistona on käytetty suurinta kansainvälistä strategisten T&K-allianssien tietokantaa sekä muuta alan uusinta tutkimusmateriaalia painopisteenä suomalaisen ICT-alan ydinalueisiin liittyvät allianssit. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksissä vertaillaan teoreettisia tulkintoja ja empiirisiä havaintoja, kerrotaan deskriptiivisen analyysin päätulokset sekä ehdotetaan joitakin suuntaviivoja jatkotyölle ICT-alan teknologisen muutoksen ja innovaatioiden vuorovaikutuksen ymmärtämiseksi. – yritysyhteistyö ; koordinointi ; strateginen T&K allianssi ; ICT-al

Towards a green post-crisis economy? - The position of Finland in environmental technologies

Climate change is a major global challenge and governments around the world are now promoting environmental technologies to address both climate change and realize new employment and growth opportunities in this rapidly expanding area. Investments have reached unprecedented levels and stimulus packages to tackle the recent economic crisis also contain noticeable commitments to green technologies. Innovation policies are now under pressure to capitalize these investments and define priorities in the application of environmental technologies to both boost competitiveness and eco-innovation. The aim of this paper is to clarify foreseen impacts of growing environmental technology investments, 'green' components of economic stimulus packages and the ideas of a 'Global Green New Deal' and 'Green Growth' and to assess how Finland is positioned in environmental technologies. The paper reviews existing studies, analyzes global and Finnish patenting and considers the role of environmental technologies in its industrial context in Finland. The findings suggest that renewable energy is the most rapidly expanding environmental technology area, while the economic stimulus packages will play a lesser role than originally anticipated in transitions to low-carbon economies. Finland is comparatively well positioned in environmental technologies by overall levels of patenting activity. Nonetheless, Finland does not have a specific specialization profile in the area, neither a comparative advantage in renewable energy technologies as the most rapidly expanding fields globally. Environmental technologies are developed in the context of a broad range of Finnish industries whereby the application potentials of these technologies are manifold

The Finnish telecom sector facing next generation standards: Indigenous capabilities versus R&D alliances

After the success related to the GSM standard, the Finnish telecom sector has come to the crossroads and now phases various possible paths to follow and challenges to master. At present there is technological and market competition both within and between different next generation telecom standards. Against this background we identify three possible future scenarios of these next generation standards, and analyse recent patterns of internal and external diversification of prominent Finnish telecom firms using data on patents and strategic R&D alliances. Our results indicate that the Finnish telecom sector has diversified its technological base in recent years. The sector appears internally/indigenously weak in Internet-related new telecom technology fields and related applications. However, telecom firms have also extensively engaged themselves in complementary R&D alliances in these fields. We assess the limitations, present and possible future implications of these findings.GSM-standardin luoman menestyksen jälkeen suomalainen tietoliikenneala on uusien valintojen ja haasteiden edessä. Tällä hetkellä on käynnissä kilpailu useiden seuraavan sukupolven teknologiastandardien välillä, sekä siitä mihin standardeihin nykyiset markkinat siirtyvät. Tätä taustaa vasten identifioimme kolme mahdollista skenaariota seuraavan sukupolven standardien valinnalle. Lisäksi analysoimme merkittävimpien suomalaisten tietoliikennealan yritysten sisäistä ja ulkoista diversifikaatiota lähihistoriassa käyttäen tietoja patenteista ja strategisista T&K alliansseista. Tutkimuksen perusteella suomalainen teleala on hajauttanut teknologiapohjaansa viime vuosien aikana. Vaikuttaa myös siltä, että sisäiset teknologiapanostukset uusiin Internetpohjaisiin tietoliikenneratkaisuihin ja sovelluksiin ovat olleet vähäisempiä kuin traditionaalisille alueille. Näille uusille alueille on kuitenkin käynnistetty runsaasti komplementaarisia T&K-alliansseja. Arvioimme näiden havaintojen tämänhetkistä ja tulevaa merkitystä sekä niiden mahdollisesti aiheuttamia rajoitteita

Determinants of internationalisation through strategic alliances: Insights based on new data on large Finnish firms

The internationalisation of firms is a salient feature of ongoing globalisation. Internationalisation has traditionally occurred through the extensions of the in-house activities of firms through foreign direct investments or other equity-based arrangements. However, the recent rapid growth of cross-border strategic alliances indicates that such international alliances increasingly complement in-house activities. Nowadays international alliances are typically based on looser non-equity agreements between firms in activities ranging from joint R&D, production, or various market-related activities. In this study we draw on new data to identify the determinants of nonequity international alliance formation of large Finnish firms and thereby contribute with new insights into the reasons behind the recent internationalisation of these firms through strategic alliances. The econometric analysis is framed in terms of organisational theories of the firm, which emphasise the relationships between uncertainties embedded in the activities undertaken within alliances and their organisation. The results suggest that the involvement of firms in uncertain R&Dor market- related activities, and ICT technologies, determine the preference for non-equity alliances over equity-based ones in their internationalisation effort. In contrast, production- related activities are associated with tighter equity-based alliance organisations. Non-equity strategic alliances have thereby contributed less to the internationalisation of production-related activities when compared with R&D and market-related activities.Yritysten kansainvälistyminen on oleellinen osa menneillään olevaa globalisaatiokehitystä. Yritykset ovat perinteisesti kansainvälistyneet suorien ulkomaisten investointien kautta. Kansainvälisten strategisten allianssien lukumäärän voimakas kasvu viime vuosina indikoi kuitenkin, että allianssit ovat lisäämässä merkitystään yritysten kansainvälistymisponnisteluissa. Alliansseja muodostetaan liittyen niin t&k-, tuotanto- kuin markkinointitoimintoihinkin. Nykyisin yhä suurempi osa alliansseista perustuu ei-pääomasidonnaisiin järjestelyihin. Tässä tutkimuksessa pyritään selittämään tämäntyyppisen ei-pääomasidonnaisten kansainvälisten allianssien muodostamiseen vaikuttavia tekijöitä hyödyntäen tutkimusta varten luotua uutta suomalaisten suuryritysten allianssitietokantaa. Viimeaikaisessa teoreettisessa kirjallisuudessa on korostettu allianssin toimintaan liittyvien epävarmuuksien merkitystä allianssin organisaatiomuodon valinnassa; epävarmuuden lisääntyessä ei-pääomasidonnaiset allianssit ovat tyypillisempiä. Empiirisen analyysin tulokset tukevat tätä käsitystä, sillä ei-pääomasidonnaiset allianssit ovat analyysien mukaan tyypillisiä silloin, kun niiden toiminta liittyy t&k:hon, markkinointitoimintoihin tai ICT teknologiaan. Sitä vastoin vähemmän epävarmuutta sisältävissä tuotantotoimintaan liittyvissä alliansseissa pääomasidonnaiset allianssijärjestelyt ovat tyypillisempiä ja kansainvälistyminen suhteellisesti vähempää strategisten allianssien näkökulmasta