Transformative innovation policy or how to escape peripheral policy paradox in European research peripheral countries

The research peripheral countries (RPCs) are faced with the need to provide transformative change for long term sustainable development with scarce research and development resources which rests upon strengthening science base and the transformative innovation policy focused on societal and environmental challenges. The European Commission's proposal of a new recovery instrument – the Next Generation EU, incorporating the Recovery and Resilience Facility as a key instrument - is focused on green, sustainable, and digital economies, paving the way for a shift from the standard science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy towards transformative innovation policies which foster innovation focused on systematic change and sustainable socio-technical systems.This research seeks to understand the ways in which STI policy can contribute to the economic resilience and sustainable development of research peripheral countries and how STI policies can respond to new innovation policy paradigms, avoiding Europeanisation of STI policies and, ultimately, a peripheral policy paradox. Overcoming of the periphery paradox in STI policies requires unorthodox policy solutions to avoid inefficient replication of policy measures from advanced countries which pertain to science – industry cooperation to foster high tech industries and frontier research.This research proposes a new STI policy approach, based on interactions and interdependencies between standard STI policies for fostering scientific research and science-industry cooperation through transformative innovation policies. This policy allows for an experimental approach to policy-making, finding a way to best suit the national socio-economic context for the gradual replacement of the established socio-technical regime towards sustainable transitions. The fourth component of the new STI policy approach is the concept of the mission-oriented policy, which draws on frontier knowledge and large investments. Both new policy paradigms are discussed in order to highlight the pros and cons of their application in RPCs with regards to research capacities, socio-economic regimes/landscapes, and societal challenges.     

Order Picking In An Aisle

A classical order picking problem is the case where items have to be picked from both sides of an aisle and the picker cannot reach items on both sides without changing position. Hence the picker must cross the aisle one or more times. An efficient optimal algorithm is developed and shown to yield policies with up to 30% savings in travel time over commonly used policies. It is also shown that, for most practical aisle widths, it is significantly more efficient to pick both sides of the aisle in the same pass (a traversal policy) rather than pick one side and then pick the other side (a return policy) unless the pick densities are greater than 50%. All the algorithms presented here can be implemented in real time on a microcomputer.     

Sustainable governance of emerging technologies—Critical constellations in the agent network of nanotechnology

Emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, feature considerable uncertainty regarding benefits that can be realized and unwanted side effects that ought to be avoided. Sustainable governance of emerging technologies addresses this issue from an integrated societal perspective that proposes collaboration among agents from science, business, government, and the public during the process of technological innovation and diffusion. In this paper, we present agent network analysis as a method to identify critical constellations in the agent network against the normative background of sustainable governance. Results from a transdisciplinary study on the agent network of nanotechnology in Switzerland reveal, among others, missing key agents, non-fulfillment of required functions, non-availability of required knowledge, and deviations between self- and cross-perception. The study contributes to methodological discussions on the formation of agent networks in science, technology, and public policy studies.     

Spanish Scientific Productivity and Equipment in Magnetic Resonance from a Regional and European Perspective

The aim of this work was to provide a rational frame for the design of scientific policies in MR infrastructure implementation. To this end, we have investigated the relationships between MR instruments, their scientific productivity or medical performance and several socio-economic, R&D or health care indicators in a Spanish and European context. The distribution of MR spectroscopy instruments among Spanish Autonomous Communities suggests that the allocation policy resulted from a compromise between the pull of demand based on regional strength in R&D activities and the push of convergence criteria to bring underdeveloped regions up to a national standard. On the whole, the average value for Spanish MR spectroscopy equipment (1.6 units per TRDP) was within the average value of 1.7 found in 6 European countries. The scientific productivity of these spectrometres in Spain (10.3 publications per unit), compares with the ratio (12.4) found in the United Kingdom and was above the six countries' average (8.3). Larger differences in productivity were observed between Spanish Autonomous Communities, suggesting the existence of important laguna in the distributive side of the allocation policy. Consistent with its socio-sanitary importance, the regional distribution of MR imaging equipment in Spain correlated with the number of sanitary personnel and regional population or wealth. The average number of installed units per million inhabitants in Spain (3.3) is very close to the average found in five European countries and the diagnostic procedures per installed units are close to the 5 countries' average values of 3400/year. However, the scientific productivity of MR imaging equipment in Spain (1.6 publications per installed unit in the five year period) was very low as compared with other European countries (3.7 on average). Higher diagnostic demand or lower publication pressures could explain these differences equally well. Our results suggest that increases in scientific productivity and medical performance of MR instrumentation in Spanish Autonomous Communities may not necessarily involve a net increase in the number of MR instruments but rather, improvements in the global socio-economic throughputs derived from the organisation of R&D and medical service policies.     

Development and evaluation of cross-training policies for manufacturing teams

This study addresses the problem of developing and evaluating cross-training policies for manufacturing teams from a Human Resource Management (HRM) and Operations Management (OM) viewpoint. A cross-training policy can be regarded as a set of rules to determine the distribution of workers' skills. The specific way in which workers and machines are connected determines the agility of the workforce. In this article, we develop an integer goal programming model to support a consequent application of alternative cross-training policies. A simulation study is performed to assess the performance of the resulting cross-training configurations within three routing structures: a parallel structure, a serial structure, and a job shop structure. Results indicate that within all routing structures, the focus of cross-training policies depends on whether a HRM or an OM viewpoint is considered. Within the parallel and the serial structures, however, HRM and OM goals are compatible and can be integrated within a single cross-training policy. Within the job shop structure, the integration of both OM and HRM goals within one cross-training policy is more difficult.     

From industry targeting to technology targeting: A policy paradigm shift in the 1980s

The 1980s represent an era in which the governments of many industrialized countries changed their policies regarding international competition. This paper investigates the initiation of important technological programs and the adjustments made to the missions of government organizations and agencies in Japan, the United States, and nine countries in Western Europe. It is suggested that, over the past decade or so, there has been a pervasive shift towards the technological dimension in government policy in the industrialized world. On the one hand, overt industry targeting seems to have waned or not to have increased significantly; on the other hand, technology targeting has become more explicit and market-oriented. This trend implies a convergence of, and a head-on competition between, national innovation policies.     

Exploring the effect of dual use on the value of military technology patents based on the renewal decision

Concerns regarding the high level of research and development (R&D) expenditure on military technology have prompted many nations to pursue a dual-use regime in military R&D. However, the value of dual-use military technology has not yet been quantitatively investigated. We explore whether military technology with a higher level of duality has been more valuable than that with a lower level of duality. We assume that the patent of valuable military technology was renewed until its termination. We retrieve military patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office during 1976–2014 based on their International Patent Classification (IPC) as F41 or F42. Then, we propose three indicators to assess the duality level of them. The first indicator is based on the determination of whether the patented technology is utilizable in both the military and the civilian sectors using its IPC. For the second indicator, we estimate the potential of convergence of a patented technology with various technological fields using the degree of centrality of the IPC’s co-occurrence network. The third indicator is based on ratio of forward citation by the civilian sector over the total number of forward citations as a measurement of technology diffusion toward the civilian sector. Using logistic regression, we found that the first two indicators are positively associated with patent renewal decision, while the last indicator is nonsignificant. The effects of the two significant indicators suggests that military technologies are more valuable when the technology itself can be used in various sectors, including the civilian sector, and can be converged with technologies in different fields. However, the nonsignificant influence of the third variable suggests that the relation between patent value and diffusion effects toward following inventions is not confined to the civilian sector. Our findings provide evidence of the impact of dual-use policies in military R&D.     

Design technology transfer

Design technology and its transfer are defined and their significance stated. The history of design technology (DT) is outlined, noting a recent change in nature. Factors influencing the development and spread of DT are investigated, first by the use of pieces of available research results, and then through analysis of 12 case summaries assembled for the purpose. Hypotheses are advanced regarding the i influence of large ‘front-runner’ companies and, particularly, of companies in the information technology fields. Suggestions are offered to university departments wiching to participate more fully in design technology transfer.     

Academic response to the European Commission’s Questionnaire on the patent system in Europe: An economic approach

This paper presents an economic opinion on the questionnaire on the European patent system that was recently issued by the European Commission. We argue that the debate on patent reform in Europe needs to be more focused on its economic purpose, namely the promotion of innovation. As a first step we unfold sub-issues and trade-offs underlying the general and consensual goal which “promoting innovation” is. We contrast the protection and diffusion functions of the patent system, both of which must be taken into account in order to create an original European patent regime geared towards innovation. We also emphasize the possibility for the European patent system to answer more specific needs, such as those of small and medium enterprises or those of industries with highly cumulative innovations. We discuss as the second step the capacity of the European patent system to achieve these policy goals through various levers. We especially argue that patent fees or translation requirements should be viewed as policy instruments rather than as in a purely budgetary perspective. We moreover consider the positive or negative consequences one can expect from the coexistence of different patent systems in Europe.     

Determining the conditions for reverse triage in emergency medical services using queuing theory

In emergency health care, there are situations where the less wounded are treated in preference to the more severely wounded, so called reverse triage. This may arise in situations such as war where soldiers are required to return to the battlefield as quickly as possible, or disaster situations where medical resources are limited in order to conserve resources for those likely to survive without requiring advanced medical care. This article is to study the reverse triage in time-critical systems, where conditions of patients may deteriorate while waiting for treatment. A queueing model with transfers and abandonments is developed to study the health care system. Using smoothed rate truncation method, sufficient conditions of reverse triage are derived, under which non-critical patients are treated with priority. For other conditions, the optimal policy is very complicated. We suggest a dynamic control policy according to the system state rather than any static priority policies.     

Research on sustainable evolution of China's cloud manufacturing policies

The emergence and development of China's cloud manufacturing benefit from the national government's policies drive. The measurement and analysis based on the policy text will help clarify the evolution mechanism of cloud manufacturing and provide guidance and suggestions for the landing and application of cloud manufacturing. By collecting and sorting out China's cloud manufacturing policies from 2010 to 2020, using social network analysis, content analysis and other methods, Ucinet, ROST and other software, the sustainable evolution law of China's cloud manufacturing policies from the perspectives of policy issuing departments, policy focus topics and policy tools is explored. The research shows that the State Council of the People's Republic of China and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China are the core departments of policy issuing, and the topics of policies concerned mainly cover four aspects: “cloud manufacturing development goals, cloud manufacturing object-oriented, cloud manufacturing operation links and cloud manufacturing foundation”, and various policy tools are comprehensively used in various policies. The evolution of cloud manufacturing policies presents obvious stage characteristics, which mainly goes through three stages: “encouraging development-top-level design-implementation guidance”. China's cloud manufacturing industry is still in the development stage, and it is urgent to introduce policies that directly affect the industry. The government should continue to improve the policy system by strengthening the joint publication of departments and improving the structural imbalance of policy tools.     

Optimal piecewise-constant price under heterogeneous sensitivity to product freshness

When perishable products are priced uniformly, regardless of the amount of time remaining until expiration, consumers may gravitate towards fresher products, leaving some inventory unsold. This research considers dynamic pricing policies as well as replenishment policies in the context of perishable products with a fixed shelf life. Consumers are assumed to be heterogeneous in their sensitivity to freshness, i.e. their willingness to pay more for fresher products. We develop a model for identifying an optimal (profit-maximising) dynamic pricing policy and for evaluating the extent to which both the retailer and the consumer benefit from the implementation of a dynamic pricing policy as opposed to a static policy. The model assumes that the retailer is able to utilise knowledge regarding the heterogeneous characteristics of incoming customers (e.g. the retailer can gather specific information about customers’ historical purchases). Unexpectedly, it is proven that in an optimal pricing policy, the retailer should assign a lower price to fresher products and then raise the price as the products approach expiration. A numerical illustration shows that profits are strongly influenced by the volatility of consumer sensitivity to freshness; specifically, this variable has the potential to reduce optimal profits by up to 8%.     

Trust management for e-transactions

There has been enormous increase in transactions and cooperative-computing services on the internet. This is both a technical and a social phenomenon. Transactions and services over the internet have global reach and users, known or unknown to the service provider, might be interested in availing access or participating in the cooperative transaction in a distributed manner. Thus, it is very important for service providers to identify and establish trustworthiness of potential collaborators, which they do by writing contracts (e.g. access control, security policies; the words contract and policy are used interchangeably) without violating the privacy and confidentiality laws that prevail across geographical boundaries. But as the system becomes complex and dynamic, contractual incompleteness arises since it becomes cumbersome to mention potentially large set of outcomes of the user's choice of action. Trust plays a crucial role in the design of optimal contracts; not all the relevant, valuable information on the user's choice of action is incorporated in the equilibrium contract. It may also be noted in that traditional transactions, the notion ofseeing is believing plays a vital role. However, in e-transactions, this is not the case. The challenge is to see how in such a scenario trust can indeed be generated. Note that the presence of trust facilitates cooperative behaviour and allows for exchange to occur in situations where its absence would preclude trade. In this paper, we shall present a comparative analysis of various approaches of trust management in practice that integrates technology with other factors. We shall also bring out the relative deficiencies and how these issues are tackled in our ongoing work that facilitates execution of optimal contracts.     

Firm growth and R&D investment: SVAR evidence from the world’s top R&D investors

Understanding causal relationships among key economic variables is crucial for policy makers, who wish to e.g. stimulate private R&D growth. To this end, we applied a technique recently imported from the Machine Learning community (Structural Vector Autoregressions (SVARs) identified using Independent Components Analysis (ICA)) to a data-set of the world’s largest R&D investors. Our analysis highlights the key role of firm growth in the areas of employment and sales, rather than growth of profits or market capitalization, in stimulating R&D growth. R&D growth appears toward the end of the causal ordering of the growth process. Our results suggest that policies to increase private R&D would do better to target growth of sales and employment rather than market capitalization or profits.     

我国绿色设计政策的宣传推广机制研究

目的梳理我国绿色设计产业发展情况及政策体系,理顺政策推广机制,进一步提高绿色设计相关政策的宣传推广效果,提升社会对绿色设计的认知和认可。方法针对绿色设计行业的相关政策、标准、第三方评价指标及产品宣传路径进行政策梳理及文献研究。结论从国家层面来看,加强绿色设计政策的宣传推广工作是推进供给侧结构性改革、加快工业绿色产品有效供给的要求。为了加快推动我国工业企业绿色发展,畅通政企双向宣传推广机制,我国不断加强绿色设计政策体系建设,制定绿色制造标准和评价规范,完善绿色设计第三方评价指标,发布绿色设计产品名录,取得了较好的效果。下一步,政府相关部门要通过奖惩机制的设置落实多部门联动的监管效果,同时,也要充分发挥设计类专业媒体的作用和价值,以达到更好的宣传推广效果。     

A systematic review on unmanned aerial vehicles in Sub-Saharan Africa: A socio-technical perspective

In recent times, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) popularly known as drone technology have gradually gained widespread adoption all over the world. UAVs’ relevance within modern society stems from it being able to solve socio-economic issues as well as improve productivity. Sub-Saharan Africa has become a region of global interest with regards to technological development, leapfrogging and foreign investment, despite the lag in socio-economic development in comparison with other regions. Backed by socio-technical theory, the aim of this paper is to investigate UAV adoption and its usage in Sub-Saharan Africa by means of a systematic literature review methodology. Selected papers were reviewed, assessed and results were categorized according to the domain within which UAVs have been and are being deployed in Sub-Saharan Africa. We also determined whether the research reported on existing projects or rather made proposals on the use of UAVs.Our results reveal that UAV adoption in the sub-region is still in its early phase, with a number of implemented cases primarily focusing on healthcare and crop farming. The study makes theoretical and practical contributions to the topic of UAVs/drone technology within the sphere of Sub-Saharan Africa from a socio-technical perspective.     

A Linear Programming Model with Shortage Costs for Energy Planning and Allocation

Since the energy shortage is only a recent phenomenon, most of the quantitative models for energy planning have assumed that the demands can always be met by increasing imports. In this paper, the concept of an energy shortage cost is introduced, and a quantitative energy model with shortages is developed to study the interfuel competition, and optimal allocation policies during an energy shortage. The solution is approached through linear programming methods. In addition to the societal shortage cost for energy, other special features of our model include consideration of all forms of energy resources and new technologies of energy production. The model is illustrated through a number of case studies on an economic region using realistic energy data. Through these applications the model is shown to be a useful tool to assess the impact of future energy shortages, higher fuel prices, introduction of newer technologies, and various allocation policies.     

The hands of God: spiritual values for coping with technology in the 21st century

Technology is not just hardware but is constituted by a social system that focuses increasingly powerful means on social goals. Such technology defines the future, and demands extraordinary steering proficiency to match the driving forces of technology itself. Three sets of steering mechanisms are examined: the invisible hand of the economic free market, public policy and its generation by democratic government, and Judeo-Christian and Islamic spiritual values that mold conduct and ignite moral vision. The argument is that major decisions about technology are made by public policy rather than the free market. But there is also a key role for religious teachings to play in technological delivery systems. The paper concludes with speculations on possible relations between religious faith and technology.     

A framework for risk assessment and decision-making strategies in dangerous good transportation

The risk from dangerous goods transport by road and strategies for selecting road load/routes are faced in this paper, by developing an original site-oriented framework of general applicability at local level. A realistic evaluation of the frequency must take into account on one side inherent factors (e.g. tunnels, rail bridges, bend radii, slope, characteristics of neighborhood, etc.) on the other side factors correlated to the traffic conditions (e.g. dangerous goods trucks, etc.). Field data were collected on the selected highway, by systematic investigation, providing input data for a database reporting tendencies and intrinsic parameter/site-oriented statistics. The developed technique was applied to a pilot area, considering both the individual risk and societal risk and making reference to flammable and explosive scenarios. In this way, a risk assessment, sensitive to route features and population exposed, is proposed, so that the overall uncertainties in risk analysis can be lowered.