Public Protection from Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Terrorism * Editors: A. Brodsky, R. H. Johnson Jr and R. E. Goans * Published by: Medical Physics Publishing, 4513 Vernon Boulevard Madison, WI 53705, USA * ISBN: 1-930524-23-4, 832 pp (2004) $95 (Hard cover)

This volume was prepared by experts of the Health Physics Societyas a textbook, entitled ‘Public Protection from Nuclear,Chemical, and Biological Terrorism’, for the 2004 SummerSchool held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology     

Computing radiation dosimetry--CRD 2002 * Editors: P. Vaz, I. Goncalves and A. Costa * Published by: OECD-Nuclear Energy Agency, 2, Rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 Paris, France * ISBN: 92-64-10823-8, 255 pp (2004) {euro}65.00 (Soft cover)

This volume collects the proceedings of the workshop entitled‘Computing Radiation Dosimetry’, held in Sacavém,Portugal, 22–23 June 2002. Sponsored by the OECD/NEA NuclearScience Committee and hosted by Instituto TecnólogicoNuclear (ITN), the workshop addressed the increasingly crucialrole that computational radiation dosimetry methods and toolsplay in     

Specialized supply firms, property rights and firm boundaries

The proper specification of intellectual property rights (IPRs)is a delicate and controversial matter. In this paper, we considerone specialized context in which IPRs can add to efficiency.We build on contributions of both ‘firm capabilities’scholars (e.g. Teece, Pisano et al.) and ‘property rights’economists (e.g. Hart) to show that IPRs can affect efficiencyby influencing the location of technological innovation. Usinga simple set up, where the key choice is whether a technology-intensiveinput will be supplied by an independent firm or produced in-house,we analyze how the choice is affected by the strength of IPRsand by the existence (and nature) of information spillovers.Specifically, we show that when the supply relationship is likelyto produce new information of value to the supplier, strongerproperty rights favor independent suppliers over vertical integration.An important implication of our model (backed by empirical casestudies) is that strong IPRs therefore encourage investmentsin specialized firms with strong ‘firm capabilities’in the area of innovative input supply. IPRs therefore may playa role—along with multiple other factors—in thelocation of firm boundaries in some cases. This contributionto the viability of small, specialized firms, with their superiorability to innovate in some cases, must be taken into accountin evaluating recent criticisms of over-fragmented IPR ownership(i.e. the ‘anticommons’ problem). It also contributesto an understanding of IPRs in the ‘post-Chandlerian’economy, where smaller, specialized firms play a prominent role.     

Corporate Culture and Shared Knowledge

This paper defines the concept of ‘cultures’ oforganization in economic terms, analyzes it with economic toolsand studies some of its economic consequences. The concept ofcorporate culture is attractive because it may provide somelanguage for speaking about the ‘personalities’of organizations. Actual organizations seem to bave personalitieswhich are fairly stable over time and independent of their actualmembers. This paper focuses on ‘cognitive’ aspectsof corporate culture in terms of the question of why corporateculture is a factor of efficiency in the internal treatmentof information within organizations. The framework used is ‘team-theory’in a pre-Groves (1973) sense. It is assumed that human beingsare perfectly honest and trustworthy but have limited capacityfor processing, receiving and transmitting information. In turn,culture is defined as the stock of knowledge shared by the membersof the organization. The acquisition of this knowledge is aninvestment. The paper is divided into four sections. First,it studies the benefits of this investment. Second, the paperoffers a formal discussion of the concept of culture and someexamples to guide the formal discussion. Third, it presentsa formal model. Finally, it discusses the stability of corporateculture and applies the analysis of the second section to the‘limits on the size of firms’ problem.     

The Internet: a Paradigmatic Rupture in Cumulative Telecom Evolution

The paper investigates the impact the Internet may have in theevolution of telecommunications networks. First, we show whythe Internet, emerging from a different cognitive perceptionof the data communication problem, has led to a new networkarchitecture based on: (i) the distribution of the ‘networkintelligence’ to the user equipment; (ii) the very cost-effective‘statistical sharing’ of the network resources (i.e. getting the whole bandwidth of the network for short periodsof time); (iii) the establishment of an Internet Protocol (IP)‘gateway’ facilitating interoperability betweenheterogeneous infrastructure facilities—instead of theoperator—controlled homogeneity of the telecom networks;and (iv) an ‘adaptative’ way for open standards—setting.Second, we suggest that two technological trajectories (telecom—‘creative accumulation’ and Internet—‘creativedestruction’) should dynamically co-exist henceforth andcompete for market shares—possibly during later evolutionarystages generating relatively different national or even localized(e. g. local providers) trajectories of evolution (with differinginterfaces and standards). Furthermore, we explore the questionof whether the Internet’s interoperability model may bea useful policy paradigm for future information infrastructures,and we start to discuss the implications of requisite interoperabilityon the comunications industry‘s structure itself. Overall,our preliminary observations raise questions about the possibilitiesof two ‘technological trajectories’ co-existing,and the relationship between the interoperability and learningconditions in the network industries.     

Understanding the emergence of 'open science' institutions: functionalist economics in historical context

This essay exposes the limitations of the ‘logical origins’approach that has found favour among economists who seek tounderstand the workings of institutions in the past present.It pursues a different approach, applying functionalism in historicalcontext to explain the emergence of the characteristic ethosand institutions of ‘open science’. The emergenceduring the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries ofthe idea and practice of ‘open science’ representeda break from the previously dominant ethos of secrecy in thepursuit of ‘Nature’s secrets’. It was a distinctiveand vital organizational aspect of the scientific revolution,from which crystallized a new set of norms, incentives and organizationalstructures that reinforced scientific researchers’ commitmentsto rapid disclosure of new knowledge. To understand how thiscame about, it is necessary to examine the economics of patronageand the roles of asymmetric information and reputation in theearly modern reorganization of scientific activities. The riseof ‘cooperative rivalries’ in the revelation ofnew knowledge is seen as a functional response to heightenedasymmetric information problems posed for the Renaissance systemof court patronage of the arts and sciences; pre-existing informationalasymmetries had been exacerbated by increased importance ofmathematics and the greater reliance upon sophisticated mathematicaltechniques in a variety of practical contexts of application.Analysis of the court patronage system of late Renaissance Europe,within which the new natural philosophers found their support,points to the significance of the feudal legacy of fragmentedpolitical authority in creating conditions of ‘commonagency contracting in substitutes’. These conditions areshown to have been conducive to more favorable contract terms(especially with regard to autonomy and financial support) forthe agent–client members of western Europe’s nascentscientific communities. Some lessons may be drawn for contemporary scienceand technology policy debates, in which the open science modeof pursuing knowledge often seems to be viewed a robust concomitantof the power of scientific research techniques—whereasit is a fragile cultural legacy of western Europe’s history,upon which rests the ascendancy of modern science as a driverof long-term economic growth.     

The Incidental, Accidental Deregulation of Data ... and Everything Else

Existing regulatory codes for telephone, cable and broadcasttreat ‘data’ services as largely beneath ot outsideofficial attention. ‘Enhanced servuces’ have beenexclided from the ambit of ‘basic’, regulated telephony.They are exempt from access charges and almost completely freeof most other forms of common-carrier regulation. Data servicesprovided over mobile radio, cable, terrestrial broadcast andDirect Broadcasting Satellite likewise are excused from mostforms of rate, content and carriage regulation. Data has longbeen the ‘incidental’ service tagged onto somethingelse order and more important. As such, data has been the fotunatebeneficiary of regulatory accident, inattention, neglect andindifference. Wires and radios alike will all soon be digital,and bandwidth is increasing rapidly in every medium. ‘Data’traffic is growing far faster than analog voice or video. Andon broadband digital channels ‘data’ encompasseseverything. The data inmates ate taking over the regulatoryasylum.     

'Old Economy' Inputs for 'New Economy' Outcomes: Cluster Formation in the New Silicon Valleys

This paper discusses the results of a two-year research projecton the sources of success in regional clusters of entrepreneurshipand innovation like Silicon Valley. Our project has studieda number of locations, most of which have shown spectacularrates of growth of information and communcations technology-relatedactivities during the 1990s. Our case studies comprise someemerging regions, notably in Ireland, India, Israel and Taiwan,along with more advanced areas like Northern Virginia in theUS, Cambridge, UK, the Scandinavian countries and the SiliconValley 40 years ago by way of the memory of one of its ‘fatherfounders’, Gordon Moore. Through visits, interviews andother materials, we uncovered some regularities about the determinantsof success of these entrepreneurial-led models of economic growth.We find that the economic factors that give rise to the startof a cluster can be very different from those that keep it going.Agglomeration economies, external effects and ‘socialincreasing returns’ of any sort arise almost naturallyafter a cluster has taken off. But the most difficult and riskypart is to get the new clusters started. At that stage, ‘oldeconomy’ factors like firm-building capabilities, managerialskills, a substantial supply of skilled labor and connectionto markets were crucial for the take off of these ‘neweconomy’ clusters (including Silicon Valley 40 years ago).     

Biological and physical dosimetry for radiation protection

In the 5^th Framework Programme (5FP) of the European Commission(EC), the European Late Effects Project Group (EULEP) and theEuropean Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) were funded toco-ordinate research in radiation protection based on theirwell-established experience. This was termed ‘clustering’and was intended to encompass research funded by National Agenciesand that funded directly by     

Inertia and Change in the Early Years: Employment Relations in Young, High Technology Firms

This paper considers processes of organizational imprintingin a sample of 100 young, high technology companies. It examinesthe effects of a pair of initial conditions: the founders' modelsof the employment relation and their business strategies. Ouranalyses indicate that these two features were well alignedwhen the firms were founded. However, the alignment has deterioratedover time, due to changes in the distribution of employmentmodels. In particular, the ‘star’ model and ‘commitment’model are less stable than the ‘engineering’ modeland the ‘factory’ model. Despite their instability,these two blueprints for the employment relation have strongeffects in shaping the early evolution of these firms. In particular,firms that embark with these models have significantly higherrates of replacing the founder chief executive with a non-founderas well as higher rates of completing an initial public stockoffering. Some implications of these findings for future studiesof imprinting and inertia in organizations are discussed.     

European Integration and the Changing Structure of EU Manufacturing, 1987-1993

This paper reports the results from a project designed to trackthe evolution of industrial and corporate structure of EU manufacturingalongside the ongoing European integration process. At the heartof the work is the construction of an ‘EU market sharematrix’ for 1993. This includes estimates of the turnoversof a set of 300 leading manufacturing firms, disaggregated acrossnearly 100 industries and then, in turn, across the individualmember states. This allows us to estimate the extent of diversificationand intra-EU multinationality for each of the firms, and theconcentration of producers and measures of geographical concentrationfor each of the industries. When coupled with a similar matrixfor 1987, this provides a rich and detailed mapping of how thesestructural dimensions have changed with the final stage (sofar as the legislation is concerned) of the European singlemarket programme. Our main ‘headline’ findings arethat, on average, (i) concentration has remained stable; (ii)multi-nationality has increased rapidly—both the intra-EUmultinationality of European firms and the inward multinationalityof non-EU firms; and (iii) diversification has decreased slightly.     

Increasing Returns and the Genesis of American Resource Abundance

The USA became the world's leading mineral-producing nationbetween 1870 and 1910, a development paralleled by the risingresource-intensity of American manufacturing. This paper challengesthe premise that resource abundance simply reflected the country'sgeological endowment of mineral deposits. Instead, in the centuryfollowing 1850 the USA exploited its natural resource potentialsto a far greater extent than other countries, and did so acrossvirtually the entire range of industrial minerals. The paperargues that ‘natural resource abundance’ was anendogenous, ‘socially constructed’ condition thatwas not geologically preordained. It examines the complex legal,institutional, technological and organizational adaptationsthat shaped the US supply-responses to the expanding domesticand international industrial demands for minerals and mineralproducts. It suggests that strong ‘positive feedbacks’-evenin the exploitation of depletable resources-were responsiblefor the explosive growth of the American minerals economy.     

The German connection: shifting hegemony in the political economy of the South African automotive industry

Most value chain analyses remain at an abstract level, underplayingpolitical economy issues and the importance of local context.The paper analyses the manner in which global automotive forces(the dominance of the German assemblers and their multinationalcorporation first-tier suppliers) combine with local institutionalinfluences (the government’s automotive industrial policy)to drive, shape, and restructure the trajectory of the SouthAfrican automotive industry under the hegemony of the ‘Germanconnection’. It shows ‘how’ and ‘why’the German corporations, unlike their American and Japanesecounterparts, were able to successfully integrate their globalvalue chains with local institutional and policy conditionsand reap the benefits. Its conclusions both add to a generalunderstanding of how governance (power, command, control) operateswithin producer-driven value chains and illuminate the politicaleconomy dynamics of German control underpinning the South Africanautomotive industry.     

On the Rationales of Corporate Headquarters

This paper addresses the rationales of corporate headquarters(CHQ). In organizational economics, the role of the CHQ is mostlyseen to be limited to monitoring and incentive issues. Howeverit has also long been recognized that the CHQ may assist inexploiting economies of scope and other synergies and in buildingup internal capital markets—that is to say, it may ‘createthe positive’ rather than merely ‘avoid the negative’.This paper links up with the ‘positive’ view ofthe CHQ. but expands substantially on it. Starting from thecapabilities view of the firm, I suggest that an important partof the rationales of the CHQ lies in its ability to (i) peiform‘knowledge-direction’ (i.e. use, blend and directthe initial knowledge endowments of input owners) and (ii) exploitthe flexibility of incomplete contracts, particularly with respectto growing capabilities through coordinated organizational learning.While these functions of the CHQ are recognized within the businesshistory and strategy literature, they are neglected within theliterature on organizational economics. The novelty of the paperlies in giving an economically oriented treatment of these valuecreating capabilities of the CHQ.     

Structural reforms, technological gaps and economic development: a Latin American perspective

This paper explores the impact that recent structural reformshave had upon macro-to-micro linkages, as well as upon the patternof production specialization, the entry and exit of firms duringthe adjustment process, and the ‘sources’ of technicalchange in the present more open and deregulated Latin Americanmacroeconomic scenarios. From this exploration a major questionemerges: is the new ‘market-oriented’ developmentparadigm sustainable in the long run? The interpretation presentedin this paper suggests that the present pattern of productionspecialization—strongly biased in favour of industriesfeaturing low domestic knowledge generation and value-addedcontent—and the inhibition of local R&D and engineeringactivities resulting from the rapid expansion of internationallyintegrated production systems are pushing Latin American economiesinto a ‘low development trap’ from which it mightprove extremely difficult to escape on the basis exclusivelyof free market principles.     

Corporate strategy and the management of innovation and technology

This paper explores the evolution of corporate organizationwith special attention to the organization of R&D. Morespecifically, the paper addresses the comparative long-termorganizational dynamics of management of innovation and technologyin two different types of technology-based industrial companies:the ‘related diversifier’ pursuing ‘synergisticeconomies’ and the ‘vertical integrator’ pursuing‘vertical economies’. These types of companies areillustrated by case studies of two large Danish manufacturingcompanies. The analysis aligns the strategic management literatureon strategy and structure in large companies with the literatureon management of innovation and technology. It is argued thatthe organizational design for managing innovation and technologyis contingent on both the overall strategy–structure profileand dynamics of the companies, and on key characteristics oftheir particular innovation and technology strategies.     

Relative biological effectiveness (RBE), quality factor (Q) and radiation weighting factor (wR) * Editor: J. Valentin, Published by: ICRP Publication 92, Annals of the ICRP, Vol: 33(4), 117 pp (2003)

This report, prepared by a joint Task Group of Committees 1and 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection(ICRP), is one of a series of documents being prepared by ICRPCommittees to advise the Commission on the formulation of itsnext generation of Recommendations. The effects of ionisingradiation are influenced by the dose, dose rate and the type,or ‘quality’, of the radiation. Prior to the 1990Recommendations, dose equivalent quantities were defined bya quality factor Q(L) that     

Innovation as Collective Action: Conventions, Products and Technologies

This article argues that specific products evidence demand forspecific innovation systems. Economies must therefore supplydifferent innovation systems according to their trade specializationsand output compositions. Products (or product-based subsectors,the equivalent of five-digit SIC sectors) are the basic unitsaround which innovative action can be ‘supplied’.Understanding and promoting innovation requires understandingof both the demand and supply sides. A system of innovationrefers to the interaction of demands, attached to products,and supplies, attached to these organizational structures ofthe economy, as dual sequential processes ‘out of equilibrium’and involving reciprocal selection. The approach used in thispaper reflects the ‘economics of conventions’, anemerging school of economic thought which holds that economiescan be conceived as sets of rules, largely implicit in nature,which actors generate and by which they coordinate themselvesunder conditions of uncertainty. The task of analysis is tounderstand the cognitive and efficiency properties of functioningsytems of conventions, as well as their emergence and transformationover time.     

Moving base into high-value integrated solutions: a value stream approach

Some of the world’s leading suppliers are developing strategiesto move into the provision of innovative combinations of productsand services as ‘high-value integrated solutions’tailored to each customer’s needs. Rather than simply‘moving downstream’ into services (as much of thebusiness strategy literature assumes), this paper argues thatthe provision of integrated solutions is attracting firms—traditionallybased in manufacturing and services—to occupy a new basein the value stream centred on ‘systems integration’.In addition to an ability to design and integrate systems usinginternal or external sources of product supply, these firmsare developing novel combinations of service capabilities (operations,business consultancy and finance) required to provide completesolutions to each customer’s needs.