The institutionalization of ICT and civic participation: Evidence from eight European nations

In the present study we examine the impact of information technology on civic participation in eight European nations. Drawing from the social welfare regimes, social origins and media ecology perspectives, we employ a merged Eurostat and OECD data set (2014) to show that (a) investments in ICT are associated with an increase in civic participation, and (b) ICT effects are higher than the effects observed following investments in social welfare and nonprofit activity. More specifically, the study shows that after controlling for social welfare and nonprofit activity, (a) mobile broadband investment increases civic participation in social democratic regimes; and (b) fixed broadband investment is associated with an increase in civic participation in liberal regimes. We conclude that ICT exerts an institutional-level effect on civic participation that finds expression in significant variations in civic participation among European nations, after controlling for the traditional effects of social welfare and nonprofit activity.     

The Impact of Internationalization on Home Country Charitable Donation: Evidence from Chinese Firms

Does internationalization promote or inhibit home country charitable donation for firms from developing countries? This is an important question that remains poorly studied. This paper aims to address this question by focusing on Chinese internationalizing firms. We maintain that while broadening overseas markets brings financial returns to Chinese firms, their domestic charitable donation may decrease with the level of internationalization. Drawing on the resource dependence theory, we argue that the more Chinese firms depend on overseas sales, the less important domestic stakeholders are for their survival, and therefore they are less likely to make charitable donations within China. Further, we maintain that this negative relationship between internationalization and home country charitable donation is attenuated by Chinese firms’ state-ownership. This is because state-ownership provides the firms with alternative sources of critical resources that alleviate their dependence on the international markets. We tested and supported our theory using data collected from all public firms in China between 2008 and 2012. Theoretical and policy implications are provided.     

Technological catch-up in the biopharmaceutical sector: Evidence from Iran

This paper addresses the market and technological capabilities required for technological catch-up in the biopharmaceutical sector using a multi-case study method. The paper reveals that the firms that are catching up in biopharmaceuticals first developed their production capabilities (including API production, formulation and obtaining health approvals), then entered the process innovation. Iranian companies have locally re-produced existing products in the market in exact accordance with global standards, and then entered into the introduction of new strains by intensifying their R&D efforts. The paper observes that the existence of strong R&D efforts from the early stages is a prerequisite for technological growth. It also argues that assimilated migratory knowledge can not only complement indigenous efforts, but also stimulate further technological capability-building efforts by local firms. The paper shows that technological development in the Iranian biopharmaceutical industry was firstly geared towards the home market, which we refer to as the ‘test-bed’, before entering into international markets. A key strategic point here is that, despite the maximum use of domestic market capacity, our study considers it necessary to try to enter international markets. Therefore, presence in these markets and the development of capabilities in the biopharmaceutical industry are two blades of a pair of scissors.     

Science-based Firms Going Public: The Role of Patent Indicators and Top Management Teams

This paper examines how specific dimensions related to innovative capabilities influence the economic value of science-based firms when they go public. To test a set of hypotheses, we conduct an empirical research of a sample of dedicated biotechnology firms that completed an initial public offering (IPO) in the USA during 1983–2009. The results indicate that technological diversity, the patent stock’s value and dominant functional diversity in top management teams (TMTs) are positively associated with raising funds through an IPO. However, intrapersonal functional diversity in the TMT does not have a significant effect.     

The impact of the ICT4D project on sustainable rural development using a capability approach: Evidence from Bangladesh

Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) projects have shown a great promises in recent years. However, simply materializing of ICT4D projects is not enough for minimizing the prevalent digital divide in rural areas in developing countries. For the success of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) intervention, it is important to consider the capabilities of users, who are responsible for converting ICT resources into outcome. While most of the ICT-related studies are focused on the adoption of actual technologies and influences of different internal and external factors on intervention outcomes, very few studies are focused on evaluating intervention outcomes and redesigning intervention strategies. In this study, I opted for using a conceptual framework following the Capability Approach that simultaneously identifies the influence factors for intervention outcome as well as evaluates the outcome based on Noble Laureate Amartya Sen’s five freedoms concept. A qualitative technique has been chosen to conduct the study. As part of the impact evaluation of an ICT4D intervention, a project known as Union Digital Centres (UDCs) in Bangladesh was selected. A total of ten themes are identified indicating that the outcome of the intervention is contributing to socio-economic and human development. However, the study has revealed that lack of capabilities of users (e.g. prior knowledge and financial inability) bar the UDC programs to fulfill their goals at highest level. This study would practically help the UDC policy makers to adjust the UDC intervention design by addressing the shortcomings of the users to yield higher UDC program outcome. Additionally, this study theoretically contributes in ICT adoption literature by showing that there is a mutual influence between users’ capabilities and ICT-related project outcomes. Finally, using specific case study (ICT4D project in Bangladesh), this study contextualizes Amartya Sen’s five freedoms concept in the ICT-specific context.     

The Recent Growth Performance of US Firms in the Industrial Design Sector: An Exploratory Study

This paper assesses the competitive factors associated with company growth in the US industrial design sector. This small but technologically advanced sector delivers critical innovation inputs to firms that produce durable goods. Evidence from a survey of 85 US design companies suggests that competitive success hinges upon service diversity. Specifically, the most commercially buoyant companies have diversified their service offerings beyond product or component design. These firms have developed strategic competencies in fields such as contract research, prototype development, product testing, technological forecasting, market analysis and even advertising. Although most US design companies are small-to-medium-sized enterprises, successful firms do not differ from their less successful counterparts in terms of employment size, occupational structure, regional location or market focus (client sectors). Instead, the key differences lie in service diversity and the quality of human capital. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the empirical findings for future research on the dynamics of the design industry.     

Networks and Rapid Technological Change: Novel Evidence from the Canadian Biotech Industry

Former studies on inter-organizational relationships have fallen short of properly identifying networks and elucidating factors that cause firms to entertain relationships in one type of network rather than another. This study adopts a methodology that is both empirical and comparative and thus constitutes a methodological departure from these previous studies. It also explicitly accounts for two structural characteristics of networks, namely, interactions and learning, to identify four types of networks, accumulative advantage networks, follow-the-trend networks, homophilies and multiconnectivity networks. It then investigates factors that cause firms to participate in any of these networks rather than another. Results show that even though networking is a common practice among biotech firms, most of them would rather keep this activity to a minimum. In addition, participation in these networks is found to vary according to the firm's size, stage of development and its sector of activity.     

Surviving Radical Technological Change through Dynamic Capability: Evidence from the Typesetter Industry

Recent work in the field of management has focused on ‘dynamiccapability’, the ability of a firm to develop new capabilitiesin response to shifts in its external environment, as a significantsource of competitive advantage. This paper enhances our understandingof dynamic technical capability. While most established firmshave difficulty adapting when confronted with radical, competence-destroyingtechnological change, Mergentbaler Linotype, a firm foundedin 1886, has survived three such revolutions and led the marketin 1990. An examination of the history of this firm in contrastto other incumbents from the same era highlights two key contributorsto dynamic technical capability: external integrative capabilityand geographically distributed research sites. External integrativecapability comprises two elements: internal investments thatdevelop absorptive capacity and an external communication infrastructureto facilitate the transmission of external knowledge. In combination,these elements enable the firm successfully to identify andintegrate knowledge outside its boundaries. Geographically distributedresearch sites facilitate the development of new technical capabilityin three ways. First, competition among research sites spursinnovation. Second, multiple locations help to overcome organizationalinertia by allowing for the development of different generationsof technology in different locations. Finally, multiple locationsprovide a source of variation, enabling the firm to leveragedifferences in local environments.     

Editorial:Polymer Fibres 2000 The Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester, UK, 5-7 July 2000

Natural polymers fibres such as hair and wool have been exploited since antiquity. The development of synthetic polymers in the last century was driven partly by the need for man-made fibres. Because of this, polymer fibres have been the focus of intensive research for a many years and, by some people, the field is now perceived as being mature. This, however, is far from the case and in recent years there have been unparalleled developments in the preparation of new polymer-based fibres, new techniques of fibre characterisation and novel applications of polymer fibres. Moreover, polymer fibres are finding increasing use in high-performance composites where their high levels of stiffness and strength combined with low density give rise to materials with outstanding mechanical properties.     

Patterns of Innovation Capabilities in KIBS Firms: Evidence from the 2003 Statistics Canada Innovation Survey on Services

The aim of this paper is to shed light on complementarities and substitutions between various types of innovation capabilities in knowledge-intensive-based service (KIBS) firms. The data used in this study are the responses of 2,625 innovative firms to the 2003 Statistics Canada Innovation Survey on services. The empirical results suggest the presence of three patterns of complementary innovation capabilities, one pattern of substitute activities and finally, four patterns of innovation capabilities that are independent from each other. Hence, the results suggest the presence of complementarities: first, between internal R&D, external R&D, acquisition of equipment and machinery, and marketing activities; second, between external R&D, acquisition of equipment and machinery, acquisition of external knowledge and marketing activities; third, between acquisition of equipment and machinery, acquisition of external knowledge and marketing activities. Such complementarities lead to the conclusion that, in practice, managers of KIBS firms consider the consolidation of these capabilities jointly instead of separately. The paper also discusses issues related to patterns of capabilities that are substitutes and independent from each other. The results of this study also show significant heterogeneity in the determinants of the different patterns of innovation capabilities.     

Patent litigation precaution method: analyzing characteristics of US litigated and non-litigated patents from 1976 to 2010

This study aims to propose an early precaution method which allows predicting probability of patent infringement as well as evaluating patent value. To obtain the purposes, a large-scale analysis on both litigated patents and non-litigated patents issued between 1976 and 2010 by USPTO are conducted. The holistic scale analysis on the two types of patents (3,878,852 non-litigated patents and 31,992 litigated patents in total) issued by USPTO from 1976 to 2010 has not been conducted in literatures and need to be investigated to allow patent researchers to understand the overall picture of the USPTO patents. Also, by comparing characteristics of all litigated patents to that of non-litigated patents, a precaution method for patent litigation can be obtained. Both litigated patents and non-litigated patents are analyzed to understand the differences between the two types of patents in terms of different variables. It is found that there are statistically significant differences for the two types of patents in the following 11 variables: (1) No. of Assignee, (2) No. of Assignee Country, (3) No. of Inventor, (4) Inventor Country, (5) No. of Patent Reference, (6) No. of Patent Citation Received, (7) No. of IPC, (8) No. of UPC, (9) No. of Claim, (10) No. of Non-Patent Reference, and (11) No. of Foreign Reference. Finally, logistic regression is used for predicting the probability of occurrence of a patent litigation by fitting the 11 characteristics of 3,910,844 USPTO patents to a logistic function curve.     

The Nature of Innovation in R&D- and Non-R&D-Intensive Service Firms: Evidence from Firm-Level Latent Class Analysis

Innovation in services has been largely characterised by the predominance of non-technological innovation and low intensity in research and development (R&D) activities. However, most cross-industry analyses still overlook the organisational character of innovation in services. In this article, we use latent class analysis to examine the nature of innovation in 2148 firms from 20 service industries in Spain. On the basis of the analysis of 10 innovation types and 5 kinds of innovation activities, a taxonomy composed of 2 R&D-intensive and 2 non-R&D-intensive clusters is proposed. The findings indicate that organisational innovation counts for three of the four profiles, the new management techniques being the most common organisational innovation in all clusters. Furthermore, micro- and small-sized firms from several subsectors are more likely to be R&D-oriented than medium and large companies. The results underline the coexistence of different innovation patterns within the same industry as well as the predominance of hidden innovators in several industries.     

The External Sourcing of Technological Knowledge by US Pharmaceutical Companies: Strategic Goals and Inter-organizational Relationships

This study of the organization of the discovery function by large US pharmaceutical companies (LPCs) examines an important knowledge acquisition strategy—external sourcing of compounds and technologies. Through a critical examination of the “capabilities” thesis in strategic management and of the theoretical conceptualization in organization studies of innovation networks, we undertake an in-depth qualitative analysis of the network relationships LPCs establish with biotechnology firms/public research laboratories. We additionally examine the motivations and degree of strategic intent of R&D managers involved in external knowledge sourcing. The paper identifies the tensions and contradictions in network relationships and indicates how these lead to changes in knowledge sourcing. This qualitative analysis is placed in its industry and technology context. This reveals both the pressures towards and the trends in external knowledge sourcing, as compared with in-house discovery. Extensive interviews with US LPCs and biotechnology firms provide a rare glimpse of how some of the most important actors in global innovation networks handle a significant new innovation strategy.     

Job Mobility,Patent Ownership and Knowledge Diffusion: Evidence on a Sample of Italian Inventors

On the basis of the original data on the curricula vitae of a group of Italian inventors patenting in the pharmaceutical field, this paper distinguishes between inventors' employers and applicants, and provides new information on their professional careers and their patent ownership regimes, that is whether or not intellectual property rights on inventions are retained by their employers. In addition, the paper confirms that inventors' mobility is an important determinant of knowledge impact and, interestingly, shows that ownership, too, is associated with a greater potential for knowledge diffusion.     

The competitive dynamics of status and niche width: US investment banking, 1920-1949

By integrating the status-based model of market competitionand the resource partitioning model, this paper develops theresource-status space imagery of markets and two propositions.First, the paper argues that the benefit that an organizationderives from an increment in status is not independent of theorganization's niche width. Second, the paper considers theimplications of status-based stratification for the resourcepartitioning model's specification of the effects of increasingmarket concentration. Using the resource-status space imagery,this paper posits that if expanding generalists are reluctantto lower their status or are unable to increase their status,they will expand within their current status level. The expandinggeneralists will thus encroach on the niches of similar statusgeneralists and specialists, rather than expand into the nichesof generalists across the whole status spectrum. We discussimplications for the sociology of markets.     

Patent evolution in relation to public/private R&D investment and corporate profitability: Evidence from the United States

Summary In this paper we analyze the (historical) co-evolution of technological development and economic progress (by relating public and private R&D investment, patenting, and corporate profitability). We relate to the work ofSchmookler(1966),Griliches(1990),Pakes&Griliches(1980) andPakes(1986) who all have studied the techno-economic interplay by considering patents as in indicator of technological performance. We use United States industry and government data over the period 1953-1998 (45 years). Co-evolution analysis over this period reveals a strong interdependency among the variables. Patent evolution is strongly related to the development of private R&D and corporate profitability; the levels of public and private R&D expenditure in combination with the level of technological output (i.e. patents) have a strong predictive and explanatory power towards corporate profitability (R² value of 94.9%). Causality tests reveal a joint determination between R&D investment and corporate profitability (L=2; p<0.01).     

Investment Climate Constraints as Determinants of Political Tie Intensity in Emerging Countries: Evidence from Foreign Firms in Ghana

Foreign firms in emerging countries face various institutionally-driven challenges. Nonmarket strategy scholars argue that these challenges incite corporate political activity. Consequently, researchers have explored the influence of institutional factors on the choice and extent of political strategies. However, not much is known about how investment climate constraints affect the political ties of foreign firms in contexts other than US, Europe and Asia. Drawing on institutional theory, we propose that firms’ exposure to administrative and control constraints as well as the presence of public affairs (PA) functions will lead to political tie intensification. We test our propositions using data from foreign firms operating in Ghana, and find that whereas control constraints strengthen political ties, administrative constraints weaken these ties. The findings also suggest that PA functions and political ties can be substitutes, not complements, depending on the institutional contingencies. Altogether, our study enhances knowledge and understanding of how institutional environments and organizational structures affect the political behaviour of foreign firms in emerging countries.