Firm specialisation and growth. A study of the european software industry.

This paper analyses the process of growth and restructuring of 38 large European and US software firms during the period 1984-1992. Since the end of the 1960s, an independent software industry has emerged in the US and in Europe stimulated by technological and institutional change. Particularly, the diffusion of small computers and local area networks during the 1980s is largely responsible for the high growth rate of software market compared with other information technology segments. Moreover, software is a pervasive technology in that it tends to be used in all economic sectors. This has spurred the entry of many new firms and vertical disintegration of software activities from computer hardware manufacturing. In the 1980s a wave of M&As, joint ventures and corporate restructuring (new subsidiaries, reorganisations of divisions, etc.) took place in this industry. This paper aims to analyse the objectives of these operations (exploitation of new market opportunities or new joint research opportunities) and their directions (diversification or specialisation).

Codified-Tacit and General-Specific Knowledge in the division of labour among firms. A study of the Software Industry

This paper addresses the organisation and codification of knowledge in the software industry. It analyses various economic incentives to codification, including the need to improve the productivity and quality of software production processes and to access inter-firm collaborations. The paper examines the experience of four Italian software firms specialised in software packages and services. It compares their capabilities, the main sources of tacit knowledge, their specific incentives to invest in knowledge codification, their usage of formal software development methodologies and quality control systems. Finally, the paper analyses two distinct technological collaborations that two of these firms have recently established.

Open Source Software: From Open Science to New Marketing Models

-Open source Software; Intellectual Property; Licensing; Business Model.

ICT, Skills and Organisational Change: Evidence from a Panel of Italian Manufacturing Firms

This paper explores the complementarity between skills, organizational change and investments in information and communication technology (ICT). Our work contributes to the literature on the effects of ICT by testing the hypothesis of complementarity in a panel of 540 Italian manufacturing firms during the period 1995-2000. Our analysis provides strong support to the hypothesis of complementarity between skills and ICT (which is at the core of the skill-biased technical change theory). We also find some evidence in favour of the skill-biased organizational change hypothesis. The results obtained by drawing on different statistical methods suggest that interactions among ICT, skills and organizational change are complex and non-linear and difficult to explain.Organisational Change, ICT Investment, Workplace Organization, Human Capital, Productivity

How Provincial is your Region? Effects on Labour Productivity and Employment in Europe

This paper estimates the determinants of labour productivity and employment in European NUTS2 regions. We focus on technological capabilities (proxied by regional patents), agglomeration economies (employment density), and openness, proxied by the number of airplane passengers embarked and disembarked in the region. We employ 1989-1996 data drawn from the Eurostat REGIO data base. By using instrumental variables, we confirm existing results in the literature that patents and employment density affect labour productivity. Our novel finding is that openness affects labour productivity as well. This suggests that regional advantages also stem from the ability of the regions to connect to the world that is outside them, and not just on internal factors like local infrastructures, local networks, etc.. In addition, we find that technological capabilities affect employment, while the effect of agglomeration economies and openness on the latter is less marked. Thus, technology seems to be the crucial variable for a thorough regional development. Agglomeration economies and openness benefit mostly those who are already employed, as it implies increases in their incomes with limited increases in employment.-

Financial Patenting in Europe

We take a first look at financial patents at the European Patent Office (EPO). As is the case at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the number of financial patents in Europe has increased significantly in parallel with significant changes in payment and financial systems. Scholars have argued that financial patents, like other business methods patents, have low value and are owned for strategic reasons rather than for protecting real inventions. We find that established firms in non-financial sectors with diversified patent portfolios own a large share of financial patents at the EPO. However, new specialized technology providers in the financial area also hold a number of such patents. Decisions on the financial patent applications take longer and they are more likely to be refused by the patent office, suggesting greater uncertainty over validity than for other patents. They are also more likely to be opposed, which is consistent with the fact that their other economic value indicators are higher.market valuation, intangible assets, patents, software, Europe

Quali sono gli effetti dello sviluppo turistico sulla performance di un territorio nell'era della globalizzazione?

none2noneM.Presutti|; Torrisi S.M.Presutti|; Torrisi S

Skills, Division of Labor and Performance in Collective Inventions. Evidence from the Open Source Software

This paper investigates the role of skills and the division of labor among participants in collective inventions. Our analysis draws on a large sample of projects registered at Sourceforge.net, the world’s largest incubator of open source software activity. We explore the hypothesis that the level of skills of participants and their skill variety are important for project performance. Skill heterogeneity across participants is in line with two fundamental organizational features of the open source development model: team work and modular design. We also test the hypothesis whether the level of modularization of project activities is an important predictor of performance. The results provide support to the hypothesis that the skill level is important for the survival of open source projects. Moreover, we found that skill heterogeneity is positive for innovation. Finally, design modularity is positively associated with the performance of the project.Software, Technological innovation, Human capital, Modularity

Interplay between FGFR2b-induced autophagy and phagocytosis: role of PLCγ-mediated signalling

Signalling of the epithelial splicing variant of the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2b) induces both autophagy and phagocytosis in human keratinocytes. Here, we investigated, in the cell model of HaCaT keratinocytes, whether the two processes might be related and the possible involvement of PLCγ signalling. Using fluorescence and electron microscopy, we demonstrated that the FGFR2b-induced phagocytosis and autophagy involve converging autophagosomal and phagosomal compartments. Moreover, the forced expression of FGFR2b signalling mutants and the use of specific inhibitors of FGFR2b substrates showed that the receptor-triggered autophagy requires PLCγ signalling, which in turn activates JNK1 via PKCδ. Finally, we found that in primary human keratinocytes derived from light or dark pigmented skin and expressing different levels of FGFR2b, the rate of phagocytosis and autophagy and the convergence of the two intracellular pathways are dependent on the level of receptor expression, suggesting that FGFR2b signalling would control in vivo the number of melanosomes in keratinocytes, determining skin pigmentation