Sanjaya Lall: The Scholar and the Policy Advisor

This paper presents Sanjaya Lall’s biography with a focus on his major scholarly and policy works. It identifies Lall’s globally recognized contributions in the fields of multinationals and development, industrial policy, technological capabilities and methodologies on international competitiveness. Dissatisfied with mainstream neoclassical theory Lall used empirical evidence to build the evolutionary alternative to construct theory and provide policy advice to governments.(Please Puchase For Further Reading)Sanjaya Lall, multinationals, industrial policy, technology, competitiveness

Institutions and Public-Private Partnerships: Learning and Innovation in Electronics Firms in Penang, Johor and Batam-Karawang

Using the systemic quad model, this paper seeks to examine the extent to which electronics firms are linked with the critical pillars of basic infrastructure, high tech infrastructure, global integration and network cohesion, and their impact on knowledge depth and technological capabilities in Penang, Johor, and Batam-Karawang. Penang’s superior systemic quad is reflected in higher firm-level knowledge depth and technological capabilities compared to Johor and Batam-Karawang. It is only in HR practices that technological capabilities of electronics firms in the three locations are not very different. The results show that attempts to stimulate technological catch up will require policy efforts to strengthen the four critical systemic pillars. (Please Purchase For Further Reading)Systemic quad, technological capabilities, knowledge, Indonesia, Malaysia

Ownership and Technological Capabilities: Evidence from Automotive Firms in Brazil, India and South Africa

This paper examines the strength of embedding systemic and institutional support,firm-level technological capabilities and the relationship between the two in Brazil, India and South Africa. Despite Brazil and South Africa enjoying stronger exposure to external markets, firms in these countries enjoyed slightly lower technological capabilities than those in India. Stronger human capital endowments and network cohesion have helped firms in India to offset a lack of integration in external markets to drive higher technological capabilities compared to firms in Brazil and South Africa. The systemic pillars are positively correlated with firm-level technological capabilities. Foreign ownership was positively correlated with human resource practices and R&D, demonstrating the potential for strong technological spillovers from foreign to local firms. Export-intensity was positively correlated with R&D,demonstrating that the latter is critical for firms to compete in foreign markets.- automotives, Brazil, clusters, India, institutions, South Africa, technology

Ownership and Technological Intensities in Ugandan Manufacturing

This paper examines productivity, export-intensity and technological differences between foreign and local firms in metal engineering, food and beverages, and plastics firms in Uganda using an adapted version of the technological capability framework. Although the results were mixed, foreign firms enjoyed higher and statistically significant technological capabilities than local firms, and in its components of human resource, process technology and adaptive engineering. The relationship between labour productivity and export intensity, and technological intensity was stronger in foreign firms than in local firms. The relationship between foreign ownership and adaptive engineering was also positive and significant. Despite 25 per cent of the foreign firms enjoying no cross-border subsidiaries, foreign firms showed higher participation in adaptive engineering activities than local firms.(Please Puchase For Further Reading)Productivity, technological intensity, exports, skills, ownership, Uganda

Export and Innovation in Cambodian clothing manufacturing firms

Export and Innovation in Cambodian clothing manufacturing firm

Capturing design knowledge

A scheme is proposed to capture the design knowledge of a complex object including functional, structural, performance, and other constraints. Further, the proposed scheme is also capable of capturing the rationale behind the design of an object as a part of the overall design of the object. With this information, the design of an object can be treated as a case and stored with other designs in a case base. A person can then perform case-based reasoning by examining these designs. Methods of modifying object designs are also discussed. Finally, an overview of an approach to fault diagnosis using case-based reasoning is given