Internet Based Benchmarking

We discuss the design of interactive, internet based benchmarking using parametric (statistical) as well as non-parametric (DEA) models. The user receives benchmarks and improvement potentials. The user is also given the possibility to search different efficiency frontiers and hereby to explore alternative improvement strategies. An implementation of both a parametric and a non parametric model are presented.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Yardstick Based Procurement Design In Natural Resource Management

This paper discuss the design of multidimensional yardstick based procurement auction. The suggested design combines Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based yardstick schemes with the multidimensional score auction. The principal select a single winner to perform a project, characterized by a multidimensional vector. The design is especially useful when there are uncertainty about the underlying common cost structure as well as the principal's valuation function. Potential applications in natural resource management is provided.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Sub-quadratic Decoding of One-point Hermitian Codes

We present the first two sub-quadratic complexity decoding algorithms for one-point Hermitian codes. The first is based on a fast realisation of the Guruswami-Sudan algorithm by using state-of-the-art algorithms from computer algebra for polynomial-ring matrix minimisation. The second is a Power decoding algorithm: an extension of classical key equation decoding which gives a probabilistic decoding algorithm up to the Sudan radius. We show how the resulting key equations can be solved by the same methods from computer algebra, yielding similar asymptotic complexities.Comment: New version includes simulation results, improves some complexity results, as well as a number of reviewer corrections. 20 page

Innovation, Learning Organizations and Industrial Relations

Innovation may be seen as a process of knowledge creation and the speed and direction of knowledge creation reflects the organizational set-up of the firm as well as its investments in R&D and training. Establishing ‘a learning organization’ where horizontal interaction and communication inside and across the borders of the firm is a major factor promoting knowledge creation in the context of a learning economy. An important issue is to what extent direct and indirect participation of employees in shaping the new form of organization is critical for its realization. On the basis of a unique data set covering 2000 Danish private firms it is demonstrated that firms combining several of the organizational traits of the learning organization are much more prone to introduce new products than the others. It is also demonstrated that such firms have involved employees in different forms of direct and indirect participation much more frequently than the rest. As more sectors become exposed to the need to engage in incremental product and service innovation the economic potential of diffusing good practices in terms of organization and participation is growing and needs to be reflected in firm strategies and public policies aiming at promoting innovation and knowledge creation.Innovation, knowledge creation, learning economy

Twisted Reed-Solomon Codes

We present a new general construction of MDS codes over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. We describe two explicit subclasses which contain new MDS codes of length at least $q/2$ for all values of $q \ge 11$. Moreover, we show that most of the new codes are not equivalent to a Reed-Solomon code.Comment: 5 pages, accepted at IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory 201