Does internationalisation of technology determine technological diversification in large firms?

The purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between technological diversification and internationalisation of technology for large multinational firms, operating at the world technological frontier. More precisely we address the question as to whether internationalisation determines diversification. The analysis is based on a rich database of the European patenting activity of 345 large multinational firms with the highest levels of patenting over two periods of time (1988-1990 and 1994-1996). The relationship is tested using a variety of different regression models. The results show that for the sample as a whole there is no statistically significant relationship between technological diversification and internationalisation of technology. However when the sample is disaggregated according to the predominant internationalisation strategy adopted by a firm, we find a statistically significant relationship. Our results show that in a cross-section of firms adopting a homebase- augmenting strategy, internationalisation determines the level of diversification. Thus amongst such large firms a higher level of internationalisation of technology is associated with a greater level of diversification.multinational firms, technological diversification,internationalisation of technology, patenting

Everything you Always Wanted to Know about Inventors (but Never Asked): Evidence from the PatVal-EU Survey

By drawing information from a survey of inventors of 9,017 European patents (PatVal-EU), this paper provides novel and detailed data about the characteristics of the European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations among researchers and institutions, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents. This is important information as the unavailability of direct indicators has limited the scope and depth of the empirical studies on innovation.

Probiotic Amelioration of Azotemia in 5/6th Nephrectomized Sprague-Dawley Rats

The present study was to test the hypothesis that selected bacteria instilled into the gastrointestinal tract could help in converting nitrogenous wastes accumulated due to renal insufficiency into nontoxic compounds; thereby, ameliorating the biochemical imbalance. Herein we describe a prospective, blinded, placebo-controlled pilot study, using 5/6th nephrectomized Sprague Dawley rat as a chronic renal failure model. The study group consisted of 36 nephrectomized and 7 non-nephrectomized (control) rats. After two-week nephrectomy stabilization, cohorts of six nephrectomized rats were fed casein-based diet plus one of the following regimens: (A) Control, (B) Placebo (casein-based diet without probiotics), (C) Bacillus pasteurii, (D) Sporolac®, (E) Kibow cocktail, (F) CHR Hansen Cocktail, and (G) ECONORMTM. Subsequently, blood (retro-orbital) and urine (collected for measurements of blood urea-nitrogen and creatinine respectively), body weight and bacterial counts (feces) were obtained at regular intervals. The study end-points were to determine if any of the probiotic dietary supplements facilitated, (1) decreased blood concentrations of uremic toxins, (2) altered renal function, and (3) prolonged survival. After 16 weeks of treatment, regimens C and D significantly prolonged the life span of uremic rats, in addition to showing a reduction in blood urea-nitrogen levels, concluding that supplementation of probiotic formulation to uremic rats slows the progression of azotemia, which may correlate with prolonged life span of uremic rats. Derivative trials of probiotic treatment of larger animals and humans will further assess the potential role of probiotic formulations in delaying the onset and clinical severity of clinical illness at different stages of renal failure

Construction status and prospects of the Hyper-Kamiokande project

The Hyper-Kamiokande project is a 258-kton Water Cherenkov together with a 1.3-MW high-intensity neutrino beam from the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The inner detector with 186-kton fiducial volume is viewed by 20-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and multi-PMT modules, and thereby provides state-of-the-art of Cherenkov ring reconstruction with thresholds in the range of few MeVs. The project is expected to lead to precision neutrino oscillation studies, especially neutrino CP violation, nucleon decay searches, and low energy neutrino astronomy. In 2020, the project was officially approved and construction of the far detector was started at Kamioka. In 2021, the excavation of the access tunnel and initial mass production of the newly developed 20-inch PMTs was also started. In this paper, we present a basic overview of the project and the latest updates on the construction status of the project, which is expected to commence operation in 2027

Prospects for neutrino astrophysics with Hyper-Kamiokande

Hyper-Kamiokande is a multi-purpose next generation neutrino experiment. The detector is a two-layered cylindrical shape ultra-pure water tank, with its height of 64 m and diameter of 71 m. The inner detector will be surrounded by tens of thousands of twenty-inch photosensors and multi-PMT modules to detect water Cherenkov radiation due to the charged particles and provide our fiducial volume of 188 kt. This detection technique is established by Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande. As the successor of these experiments, Hyper-K will be located deep underground, 600 m below Mt. Tochibora at Kamioka in Japan to reduce cosmic-ray backgrounds. Besides our physics program with accelerator neutrino, atmospheric neutrino and proton decay, neutrino astrophysics is an important research topic for Hyper-K. With its fruitful physics research programs, Hyper-K will play a critical role in the next neutrino physics frontier. It will also provide important information via astrophysical neutrino measurements, i.e., solar neutrino, supernova burst neutrinos and supernova relic neutrino. Here, we will discuss the physics potential of Hyper-K neutrino astrophysics

National systems of innovation under strain: the internationalisation of corporate R&D.

The central components of national systems of innovation in the advanced OECD countries are the innovative activities performed by practitioners (mainly businesses), and the basic research and related training performed by universities. The close linkages observed between the national science base and innovative activities in nationally owned firms reflect the advantages of physical agglomeration in innovative activities, and allow companies and countries to extract major economic benefits from their investments. However, national systems of innovation are under increasing strain, because of emerging imbalances between what the science base has to offer, and the demands of the technology system. These imbalances reflect the combined effects of (1) the liberalisation of international exchanges, (2) uneven rates of national technological development, (3) increasing pressures of competition, (4) the increasing range of fields of potentially useful technology. These imbalances have long been felt by large firms in smaller countries. They have recently been experienced in different forms in Germany, Japan and the UK, in the last of which the dominant links between the science base and national firms has virtually disappeared in the electronics industry, and been replaced by more complicated links with foreign firms. These are likely to grow in all countries in future

Patterns of internationalisation of corporate technology: location vs. home country advantages.

Given the trends towards increasing globalisation of markets and of production, the globalisation of technology remains a subject of considerable interest to analysts and policy makers in the 1990s. This paper provides some new empirical observations for debate and discussion on the patterns of technological activities of large firms outside their home countries. It is based on a systematic analysis of the US patenting activities of 220 of the most internationalised firms in terms of their technology in the 1990s. Although firms are active outside their home countries in the 'high technology' fields (such as Computers, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications, Image and Sound and Materials), quite a sizeable proportion of their foreign activities are concerned with process and machinery technologies. Moreover, a comparison of the technological advantage of the company at home and the advantage of the location shows that in a large majority of cases, firms tend to locate their technology abroad in their core areas where they are strong at home. These results suggest that adapting products and processes and materials to suit foreign markets and providing technical support to off-shore manufacturing plants remain major factors underlying the internationalisation of technology. They are also consistent with the notion that firms are increasingly engaging in small scale activities to monitor and scan new technological developments in centres of excellence in foreign countries within their areas of existing strength. However there is little evidence to suggest that even these most internationalised firms routinely go abroad to compensate for their weakness at home