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The article comments on a paper published within the issue. "Technology, Communication and the Performance of Financial Markets: 1840-1975," by Kenneth D. Garbade and William L. Silber, investigates the effects of innovations in information technology on security markets. The author discusses two points of criticism regarding the paper in question. He feels that the authors exaggerate the policy significance of their findings. He also believes they overstate their case regarding the importance of the consolidated ticker tape, noting that no impact on inter-market price differentials could be observed. The author feels that the automation of the trading processes is the next logical step for market integration, which is currently under active consideration by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Increasingly, strategy scholars are exploring the relationships between innovation, competition, and the persistence of superior profits. Sustained high profitability may result when a firm repeatedly introduces valuable innovations that service previously unmet consumer demands. While the returns to the firm from each innovation may erode over time, innovation ensures that, overall, the firm maintains a high performance position. At the same time, sustained high profitability may also accrue to firms that innovate less often, but effectively avoid the competition that otherwise erodes high returns. This paper elaborates these relationships before presenting an empirical analysis of the effects of differential innovative propensities and differential rates of competition on pharmaceutical firms' abilities to sustain profit outcomes that are above those earned by competing firms. The analysis, which is situated within the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, finds support for the expected relationship between high innovative propensity and sustained superior profitability, but no support for a link between persistence and the ability to avoid competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation inducement prizes have been used for centuries. In the United States, a recent federal policy change-the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010-clarified and simplified a path by which all federal agencies can offer innovation inducement prizes, thus intensifying interest in how government agencies can most effectively design and apply such prizes. This paper aims to review and synthesize the academic literature on innovation inducement prizes, to clarify what has been learned that is relevant to current policy discussions, and to highlight unresolved questions that would be fruitful areas for future academic research and policy experimentation. Relative to the existing literature, this paper aims to bridge two gaps. First, I synthesize the academic literature in this area with an eye toward drawing lessons for the types of innovation inducement prizes under consideration by federal agencies under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act. Second, I discuss the problem of how to evaluate the success or failure of innovation inducement prizes, arguing that careful empirical evaluations of innovation inducement prizes are needed in order to provide guidance to federal agencies (and others) on how to most effectively apply and design innovation inducement prizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the hypothesis that country-specific advantage embedded in firms of a particular nationality is a motivation for international interfirm cooperation. A sample of domestic and international cooperative relationships formed by Japanese firms in the commercialization of biotechnology is used to identify factors which differentiate domestic from foreign partners. The findings support our hypothesis that country-specific advantage is a significant variable in explaining differences between cooperative relationships with partners of different countries. The results of this study indicate that interfirm cooperation has implications for the international competitiveness of both firms and nations in high technology industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine factors that affect the encroachment speed of disruptive innovations with indirect network externalities. The authors focus on the 2010 introduction of a new generation of e-readers in Japan and explore the reasons why, relative to comparable e-readers in the United States, the Japanese e-readers were introduced later and adoption rates have been lower. Existing research suggests several possible explanations for these cross-country differences, including the attitudes and behaviors of the firms that compose the paper book value network in Japan, environmental variables such as legal and regulatory constraints, and cultural differences between Japan and the United States. To assess the importance of these explanations, the authors interviewed 20 key figures in the United States and Japan and reviewed a variety of published information sources. Findings indicate that the slower encroachment speed of e-readers in Japan reflects a kind of myopia among publishing industry insiders arising from three sources: (1) organizational factors, (2) technology factors, and (3) environmental factors. Important elements within these categories include the interpretation of the market performance of earlier generations of e-readers, the interdependence of partners within the value network for e-books, the presence of competing technology formats that create uncertainty among consumers regarding the availability of e-books for a specific platform, and the existence of regulations and institutionalized activities that constrain the supply of e-books and retail pricing flexibility. Findings have important implications for future studies of encroachment speed, the management of disruptive technologies, and strategic responses to potentially disruptive innovations launched by fringe competitors and new entrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Innovation is one of the key drivers of success that a firm must utilize to develop a competitive advantage. The ability to innovate is especially important for a firm's survival in dynamic, changing environments. Customer demands are constantly changing, and more purchases are made when a firm's product design incorporates what customers perceive as cutting-edge innovations. Satisfying customer demands is a distinct challenge for product designers because firms must develop a clear understanding of what aspects of design the customer wants. Although the importance of design has increased, very little research has been done to explain the relationship between product innovation and product design. Studies indicate that design innovation may create greater customer value through improvements in design value. Previous research has been limited and has not provided a clear concept of design innovation or defined the relationship between design innovation and marketing competencies. This paper seeks to offer a conceptual definition of design innovation, and to define the link between design innovation and marketing competencies. This paper utilizes cross-cultural research to discover how these concepts differ due to cultural differences between the United States and Korea. This research contributes substantially to our understanding of the relationship between design innovation and customer value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the search for papers by the "Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education" in the U.S. in 2009. DSJIE looks for papers with a theme-specific issue entitled "Leveraging Enterprise System Technology for Curricular Innovation and Redesign," and submission period starts from August 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010. The article must cope with the high standards of research originality and rigor of the DSJIE, while providing new insights for practicing educators.

Access to the Internet is an essential determinant of innovation, which has received little attention in the literature. This paper emphasizes the role of Internet accessibility in lowering information costs and therefore boosting regional innovation activity. We construct a simple theoretical model to illustrate the positive impact of decreased discovery costs, proxied by the accessibility of the Internet, on innovation. To test this hypothesis, we exploit a county‐level data set in the U.S. and run three types of regression with and without instruments: OLS, negative binomial, and Poisson. Within each method, we employ four levels of download speeds. We find a positive relationship between the access to the Internet and the number of patents filed in that specific county. This effect is particularly strong in the case of access to download speeds of 10 Mbps. Our analysis suggests that access to the Internet lowers information disseminating costs and therefore encourages more patents filed in the county. The results also indicate that access to the Internet matters more than faster Internet speed for innovation. Policy implications for these results suggest that if there were a minimum Internet access initiative, there could potentially be a significant increase in innovation by the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the emergence of resources. Our analysis of technological capability acquisition by global U.S.-based chemical firms shows that the emergence of resources is inherently evolutionary We find that path-creating search that generates resource heterogeneity is a response to idiosyncratic situations faced by firms in their local searches. Two such idiosyncratic situations--technology exhaustion and expansion beyond national markets--trigger firms in our sample to create unique innovation search paths. We also find that along a given path firms experiment in order to find the correct investment--in fact, some organizations seem to take a step backward for two steps forward--further demonstrating the evolutionary nature of the resource creation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much recent research on US labour markets has turned to tracing out the dramatic changes that accompanied and followed the events of the Great Recession (2007-2009). But to date this research has led to more temporal as opposed to spatial detail about those changes. This paper uses an online data set to assess the relative economic health (performance) of the US's more than 350 metropolitan labour markets during and after the Great Recession. These data address both the current level (e.g. unemployment rate) and the recent trend (e.g. 3-year job growth) in the economic health of those labour markets. Multivariate analysis generates one sub-index for level and a second sub-index for trend and then an overall performance index is calculated. But, after recognising that heterogeneity in these labour markets exists according to their different sizes, this paper re-examines those online data using four separate population size classes. New indices are then generated reflecting the relative sizes of the metropolitan labour markets and the new rankings that follow differ in important ways from the original rankings. The findings also indicate a disjuncture now exists between the economic health of Snowbelt versus Sunbelt cities. Coming immediately out of the Great Recession the average economic health of Northern cities is much better than that of Southern cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Currently, diagnosis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea relies on a multimodal approach, increasing costs and ultimately delaying diagnosis. In the United States and internationally, the crux of such a diagnosis relies on confirmation testing (via biomarkers) and localization (e.g., imaging). Biomarker testing may require analysis at an outside facility, resulting in delays diagnosis and treatment. In addition, specialized imaging may be nonspecific and often requires an active leak for diagnosis. There remains a clear need for innovative new technology. Methods: A comprehensive review was conducted on both foundational and innovative scholarly articles regarding current and emerging diagnosis modalities for CSF. Results: Current modalities in CSF rhinorrhea diagnosis and localization include laboratory tests (namely, B2T immunofixation), imaging (CT and/or MRI) with or without intrathecal administration, and surgical exploration. Each of these modalities carry flaws, risks, and benefits, ultimately contributing to delays in diagnosis and morbidity. Promising emerging technologies include lateral flow immunoassays (LFI) and biologically functionalized field-effect transistors (BioFET). Nevertheless, these carry some drawbacks of their own, and require further validation. Conclusion: CSF rhinorrhea remains a challenging diagnosis, requiring a multimodal approach to differentiate from nonpathologic causes of rhinorrhea. Current methods in diagnosis are imperfect, as the ideal test would be a readily accessible, inexpensive, rapid, highly accurate point-of-care test without the need for excess fluid or specialized processing. Critical work is being done to develop promising, new, improved tests, though a clear successor has not yet emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how technological change affects between‐ and within‐education‐group inequality in the United States. We develop a model with heterogeneous workers and firms in which the demand for skills is characterized by firms' recruiting behavior. We use the model to quantify the relative contribution of two types of technological change that affect the relative demand for skilled labor: technological change in firm‐specific productivity and technological change in labor productivity. We find that technological change in labor productivity, in the form of higher returns to skill in production, is the main driver of the increase in between‐ and within‐group inequality. Technological change in firm productivity, in the form of higher firm productivity dispersion, plays a less important role in explaining rising inequality, except for the increase in within‐group inequality for workers without a college degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of farm labor emphasize that much hired labor is of a low opportunity cost, "salvage" nature and that technological advance is reducing the need for labor in agriculture. However, these ideas do not explain a trend for an increasing proportion of hired farm workers to be employed for a longer duration or for family labor to decline at a more rapid rate than hired labor. This paper proposes that these trends can be explained by the technical and commercial development, or rationalization, of United States agriculture in line with goals of organizing resources to create a profitable set of commodities with manageable risk. The analysis has several empirical implications that are borne out by national-level relationships of trends in numbers of hired and family farm workers with technical change, commercialization, and unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I this paper, we survey and focus on developments in the chemistry curriculum in Israel over the past 70 years, as influenced by changes and reforms in the curricula around the world and specifically in the United States, by political, cultural and socio‐economic factors, scientific and technological innovations, and theories and studies in learning and teaching. The mentioned studies refer also to the influence of the learners, the teachers, the content, the pedagogy of teaching and learning both in and out of school, and the assessment of students' achievement on the curriculum changes. Three periods of changes are discussed in the chemistry curriculum in Israel, from the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st century, as influenced by the above factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and a diverse set of innovation outcomes in rural and urban establishments in the U.S. Existing studies in the broader knowledge management literature principally examine firms in a single industry, overwhelmingly rely on patent data to proxy for innovation, and cannot account for the innovations of businesses in rural American markets. By addressing these limitations using data from the 2014 Rural Establishment Innovation Survey of the USDA's Economic Research Service, this research provides novel insights into how externally acquired knowledge by American establishments may support innovation. Results of the analysis suggest that external knowledge sourcing may specifically promote product, process, and green innovation in U.S. firms. While collective results when external sources of information are divided by industry orientation fail to show that sources outside of a firm's industry play a dominant role in the innovation processes of American establishments in general, findings provide evidence for an outsized impact of these relationships within rural establishments specifically and suggest that external knowledge sourcing from extra‐industry organizations is most critical for promoting successful innovation in rural firms. Results additionally indicate that knowledge sourcing from non‐local organizations may be more important for supporting innovation in rural compared to urban markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the relationship between the involvement of family firms in R&D collaborations aimed at developing green solutions and the value of resulting innovations. To dig into this relationship, the moderating effects of two proximity dimensions (i.e., geographical distance and technological relatedness) are also assessed. Analyses are based on a sample of 156 joint patents classified into the "Alternative energy production" field, as defined by the International Patent Classification Green Inventory and successfully filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the period 1997–2010 by publicly listed companies. According to our conjectures, results reveal a positive relationship between the involvement of family firms and green innovation value. Moreover, our findings show that this relationship is hindered when partners are geographically distant or technologically proximate. Eventually, we contribute to the literature on green innovation by unveiling under which conditions inter‐firm R&D collaborations lead to more valuable innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much debate about the effect of institutional investors on firm innovation. This paper tests three competing hypotheses by including differences among institutions in their ability to influence firms. Results using an outcome-based measure of innovation indicate that institutions do not foster short-term orientation; instead they may influence firms increase innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows that firms in the pharmaceutical industry experience decreasing returns to scale in R&D as the level of R&D expenditures rises. The paper presents the results of our study of the innovative output of 16 pharmaceutical firms over a 19 year period. Given the strong correlation between R&D budgets and firm size, our study suggests the wave of mergers in the industry may yield less innovative productivity than managers expect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actual, not potential, relatedness determines the results of diversification strategies. An external examination of a firm's businesses, products, markets and technologies permits an assessment of potential relatedness among its various businesses. Potential relatedness is, however, often not realized. Also, relatedness may be externally invisible. Hence, actual relatedness may diverge from externally measured potential relatedness. This paper provides evidence suggesting that measures of corporate diversification strategy based on internal data differ significantly from those based on externally available data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on an extensive array of theoretical and empirical studies covering a variety of industries in the U.S. and elsewhere in order: (a) to review common shortcomings found in evaluating technological innovations both before and after adoption, as well as in generating proposals for new innovations; and (b) to suggest means of improving each of these efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the papers which discuss agricultural economics. An article discusses two primary determinants of today's agricultural work force characteristics: (1) continued rapid technological innovations in production leading to reduced labor demand, and; (2) steady supply of unauthorized and largely Mexican immigrant workers. Authors of another article highlight the short- and long-term costs and benefits associated with farm work. And the succeeding article focuses on a rarely studied aspect of farm workers' well-being and health, using an array of health indicators.

Prior to the precipitous drop in oil prices in 2014, the U.S. had experienced a substantial increase in oil and natural gas extraction due to technological advancements including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This increased energy development likely created both benefits and costs, but the net effects for local residents are not well understood. This paper examines the effects of conventional and horizontal oil and natural gas drilling in Texas on subjective assessments of life-satisfaction and bad mental health days for nearby residents. Horizontal drilling has statistically significant deleterious effects on well-being, but the effects are driven by the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metropolitan area, an area with both very high levels of horizontal drilling and a large urban population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the genesis of innovation in the U. S. from a territorial perspective. The analysis aims to disentangle the impact of local research and development (R&D) expenditure from other contextual conditions supportive of the process of innovation. Particular emphasis is devoted to the role of socio-economic factors and systems of innovation ('social filter' conditions) and to their impact on the returns of R& D expenditure in different territorial contexts. The empirical analysis is based on a regional knowledge production function approach, leading to an empirical model estimated by means of panel data analysis for the period between 1994 and 2007 at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis- Economic Area level. The results unveil the complexity of the territorial dynamics of innovation of the U.S. Local R& D investments are important predictors for regional innovative performance and their impact is highly localised. However, social filter conditions are fundamental for the productivity of innovation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commitment to recover water for the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin is unprecedented internationally. However, the use of water markets to reallocate water for the environment first occurred in the Western United States in the late 1980s as part of water reforms that remain ongoing. This paper explores lessons from institutional innovations in the Western United States, including design principles to coordinate environmental water management across jurisdictions and adapt to unintended consequences caused by socioeconomic and hydrologic interactions at multiple scales. Two decades of implementation experience in the Western United States suggest a middle path between top-down and bottom-up approaches: nested governance arrangements that invest in local institutional capacity while ensuring complementary state and federal roles for basin-scale integration and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Court decisions in the 1990s are widely viewed as having opened the door to a flood of business method and financial patents at the US Patent and Trademark Office, and to have also impacted other patent offices around the world. A number of scholars, both legal and economic, have critiqued both the quality of these patents and the decisions themselves. This paper reviews the history of business method and financial patents briefly and then explores what economists know about the relationship between the patent system and innovation, in order to draw some tentative conclusions about their likely impact. It concludes by finding some consensus in the literature about the problems associated with this particular expansion of patentable subject matter, highlighting the remaining areas of disagreement, and reviewing the various policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use a multisector specific-factors model with sector-specific capital and two mobile factors, skilled and unskilled labor, to examine the effects of trade, technology, and factor endowments on the skill premium in US manufacturing industries. Based on this model and data for the US manufacturing sector from 1958–96, we calculate changes in the skill premium and then carry out a decomposition to identify the changes caused by product price changes (trade), technological progress, labor, and capital endowment changes. The decomposition reveals that trade effects, working through product price changes, caused the skill premium to increase moderately. Changes in capital endowments (new investments) had a positive effect on the skill premium, with the strongest impact during the 1980s, while the effect of technological change on the skill premium varied over time. Finally, changes in relative labor endowments had a negative effect on the skill premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation can occur at the national level under a wide range of settings. However, the leading innovative countries internationally have several common traits, including economic, financial and political stability, which are reflected in various measures of country risk. The purpose of the paper is to examine, for the first time, the relationship between the economic, financial and political country risk ratings, on the one hand, and innovation, as measured by a country's registered patents, on the other. The relationships between various monthly country risk ratings and registered patents are analyzed for the leading 12 foreign patenting countries in the USA from 1975 to 1997. The empirical results show that economic, financial and political risk ratings have a considerable impact on the innovative activities of the 12 countries. Total US patent applications are also influential in inducing innovation in the 12 countries. Such issues have not previously been addressed in the literature on country risk and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change in evolutionary economics proceeds through the creative destruction of variety in firm characteristics. Firm routines, relational assets and the institutional environments in which firms operate shape the creation and destruction of variety. Despite the centrality of the concept of variety in evolutionary economics, analysis of the extent and the persistence of firm heterogeneity is rare. Notwithstanding the theoretical pronouncements of economic geographers who champion the difference that space makes, empirical investigation of firm variety over space is even rarer still. This paper attempts to remedy some of these empirical shortcomings exploring the spatial evolution of variety in techniques of production within three US manufacturing industries. The results suggest that technological variety exists and persists over time and that geography explains a significant portion of this variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a journal editor is one of the most exciting positions in any scientific field. You get a frontrow seat for all of the best research and scholarly work being done in the field. The Independent Sector (IS) Spring Research Forum for 2001, which was devoted to technology was held some months back. But as a longtime technology buff, the author had like to offer several impressions of the way nonprofits are now using information technology (IT), as reflected in the conference and elsewhere. First, it was interesting to see how far they have come in the six years since the first conference on nonprofit technology, organized by Tim Akers at Michigan State in 1995. One of the major subtexts of the 1995 conference was a not-so-subtle message to the nonprofit community: there is much to learn from what higher education has done with IT and this new thing called the Internet. Another strong impression was that after years of hesitation and uncertainty a sectorwide embrace of IT, though still somewhat halting and uncertain at times, is now real and widespread. Technology use is no longer restricted to the early adopters. The technology revolution is finally well under way in the mainstream of the nonprofit world.

A conference paper about the growth of the health care spending of the U.S. is presented. It discusses several theories that explain the country's historical growth in medical spending, which include the aging population and the technological innovations. It considers how the continuous growth of the elderly population will affect medical spending while the current subsidy structures and input prices remain constant. It presents a micro-economic theory that is said to be behind the medical spending model.

The acceleration of the U.S. productivity growth in the late 1990s suggests a significant advance in technological innovation, making the perceived probability of entering a “new economy” ever increasing. Based on macroeconomic data, we identify a Bayesian investor's belief evolution when facing a possible structural break in the economy. We show that such belief evolution plays a significant role in explaining both the stock market boom and crash during 1998 to 2001. We conclude that a rational investor's uncertainty about the future of the U.S. economy provides an alternative explanation for the late 1990s stock market “bubble.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the agency view of corporate governance, we propose that technology-intensive firms use both outcome and behavior-based performance criteria for rewarding CEOs. Using a sample of 206 firms from 12 U.S. manufacturing industries, we find that as technological intensity increases CEO bonuses are more closely linked to financial results and that total CEO incentives are associated with two indicators of desirable innovation behaviors: invention resonance and science harvesting. Invention resonance refers to the impact a firm's inventions have on other firms' inventions, while science harvesting reflects a firm's commitment to scientific research. As technological intensity increases, aligning bonus with financial results, total incentives with invention resonance, and total incentives with science harvesting predict firm market performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that when the technological basis of an industry is changing, the firm's approach to technology sourcing plays a critical role in building the capabilities needed to generate new technical outputs. Using survey and archival data from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry during the period 1981-91, we find that different approaches to technology sourcing (internal R&D and external R&D) are related to different types of biotechnology-based output at the end of the period. Internal R&D was positively associated with patent output. Acquisition activity was positively related to number of biotechnology-based products. Greater use of R&D contracts and licenses was associated with stronger reputation for possessing expertise in biotechnology. These findings underscore the importance of taking a multifaceted approach to technology sourcing in order to build the absorptive capacity needed to generate new technical output. Surprisingly, we also found that involvement in joint ventures was negatively related to patent output. This raises interesting questions about the strategic use of joint ventures in a regime of encompassing technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have advanced various theories to explain the common failure of market leaders in the face of revolutionary technological change. The history of NCR Corporation provides an instructive exception to that general pattern. This paper examines how NCR addressed the introduction of electronics to the field of business equipment and the advent of digital computers to widespread use. It describes NCR `s entry into the computer industry in the 1950s and its commitment to evolutionary adaptation of its core products. It shows how persistence in old modes of practice led eventually to a crisis, which was resolved favorably when new management and fundamental organizational transformations reversed adverse trends and restored robust profitability. While established academic theories can help to explain aspects of the story, no single theoretical perspective is sufficient to explain the path of NCR's behavior. NCR survived, we conclude, because new leadership provided the impetus to actualize latent dynamic capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important prediction of trade theories is that innovation can improve a country's export performance. Using data on patents granted by the US as a proxy for innovation and data on manufacturing exports from 105 countries over the period 1975-2001, I investigate the extent to which innovation increases the number of products traded (the extensive margin) and the export value of each product (the intensive margin). The empirical results show that (i) innovation has a positive and significant effect on both the extensive and intensive margins. The intensive margin contributes 70 per cent of the effect, and the extensive margin accounts for 30 per cent. (ii) The effect of innovation on exports is stronger for low-income countries than for high-income countries. (iii) More innovative countries export greater quantities and charge higher prices, suggesting that innovation increases the product quality of exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines variations in the adoption of new technology by firms operating in a network-based industry: telecommunications. These variations are explained as a function of three network effects: the first is the conversion effect, driven by operations-related increasing returns to scale; the second is the consumption effect, driven by demand-side increasing returns to scale; the third is an imitative effect We expect the conversion effect to be felt more strongly during earlier phases of a technology's evolution, while a strong consumption effect is felt throughout. The imitative effect is also expected to be felt throughout. These hypotheses are examined with respect to electronic switching adoption in the local operating sector of the U.S. telecommunications industry. An analysis of the variations in adoption levels of the 40 largest firms over a period lasting from 1973 to 1987 supports our expectations, except for the imitative effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both theoretical and conceptual understanding of innovation has developed significantly since the early 1980s. More noticeable, however, are the major changes that have been experienced in empirically-oriented innovation research as a result of the introduction of firm level innovation surveys. Collecting innovation related data via firm based surveys has now become a common practice for many countries for example, Canada, United States, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand as well as almost all EU countries. These survey-lead approaches have transformed our understanding of the nature and determinants of innovation and also increased our understanding of the role played by innovation in growth. At the same time, the surveys themselves have also been adapted as our conceptual understanding of innovation has increased. As such, the balance of innovation-related research has shifted from a theoretical to a primarily empiricist-lead agenda, and increasingly combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The objective of this paper is examine how our understanding of innovation has evolved over the last few decades, to identify the major theoretical and empirical influences on our understanding, and to assess the role which innovation surveys have played in this evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Applied Econometrics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Policy-makers typically interpret positive relations between venture capital (VC) investments and innovations as evidence that VC investments stimulate innovation ( VC-first hypothesis). This interpretation is, however, one-sided because there may be a reverse causality that innovations induce VC investments ( innovation-first hypothesis): an arrival of new technology increases demand for VC. We analyze this causality issue of VC and innovation in the US manufacturing industry using both total factor productivity growth and patent counts as measures of innovation. We find that, consistent with the innovation-first hypothesis, total factor productivity growth is often positively and significantly related with future VC investment. We find little evidence that supports the VC-first hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Technology and globalization have the potential to make higher education more affordable and accessible. In practice, however, rising costs limit educational access, and competition threatens the sustainability of many colleges and universities (Grummon, 2009). With the relevance of traditional curricula in question and the demand for alternate delivery methods expanding, many higher learning institutions face a challenge to reinvent themselves (Barnatt, 2008; Grummon, 2009; Lee, Brennan, & Green, 2009). We asked four higher education leaders from demographically and structurally diverse institutions to address the question, “How will colleges and universities serve the global knowledge economy in the coming decades?” Our respondents represent perspectives from multiple educational paradigms—public and private, local and international, for-profit and nonprofit, brick-and-mortar and online. George Mihel, president of Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, offers a position paper on the need to transform some of higher education’s deep-rooted institutional traditions. George Miller, chancellor of American InterContinental University, teams with Caroline Molina-Ray, a University of Phoenix faculty member, to address how higher education can foster both technological competency and critically reflexive thinking. Naana J. S. Opoku-Agyemang, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, offers insight into the unique challenges and accomplishments of higher education in Africa. Finally, Vicki T. Purslow, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Oregon University, and Christine Cook Florence, a higher education marketing consultant, present a commentary synthesizing the symposium contributions and issuing a call to action for higher education leaders. Together, these diverse perspectives offer a glimpse into the higher education of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology and globalization have the potential to make higher education more affordable and accessible. In practice, however, rising costs limit educational access, and competition threatens the sustainability of many colleges and universities (Grummon, 2009). With the relevance of traditional curricula in question and the demand for alternate delivery methods expanding, many higher learning institutions face a challenge to reinvent themselves (Barnatt, 2008; Grummon, 2009; Lee, Brennan, & Green, 2009). We asked four higher education leaders from demographically and structurally diverse institutions to address the question, “How will colleges and universities serve the global knowledge economy in the coming decades?” Our respondents represent perspectives from multiple educational paradigms—public and private, local and international, for-profit and nonprofit, brick-and-mortar and online. George Mihel, president of Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, offers a position paper on the need to transform some of higher education’s deep-rooted institutional traditions. George Miller, chancellor of American InterContinental University, teams with Caroline Molina-Ray, a University of Phoenix faculty member, to address how higher education can foster both technological competency and critically reflexive thinking. Naana J. S. Opoku-Agyemang, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, offers insight into the unique challenges and accomplishments of higher education in Africa. Finally, Vicki T. Purslow, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Oregon University, and Christine Cook Florence, a higher education marketing consultant, present a commentary synthesizing the symposium contributions and issuing a call to action for higher education leaders. Together, these diverse perspectives offer a glimpse into the higher education of the future.

I have recently traveled to South Korea, where Seoul National University hosted the XXII World Congress of Philosophy, the first time the congress has been hosted in Asia. I was astonished by the pervasive use of many of the latest technological advancements. Among the most impressive changes were environmental. The methods employed in hotels and at the University for minimizing unnecessary consumption of electricity were exemplary. Given the great need America has now for developing its economy, and preferably in a way that does not easily lend itself to outsourcing, South Korea can serve as a model for change implemented through the development and manufacturing of advanced technological tools including high-speed internet access, which will be the focus of the present paper. Some changes have begun already in some arenas of industry and responsiveness to environmental forces, such as in Toyota's decision to move from making SUV's in its new factory coming to Tupelo, Mississippi, to making only the Prius. But Americans have let the governmental incentives for a number of environmentally preferable products run out, and have not lead the way in the propagation of new renewable energy source technologies. Also, America's common approach to the propagation of technological and business development with the use of tax-incentives is fundamentally different far less forceful than the South Korean approach I will discuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examples the concomitant effects that competition, regulation, market characteristics, and corporate ownership have on the deployment of advanced telecommunications services (ATS) to business customers through the econometric analysis of a rich data set that identifies the competitive, regulatory, and economic climate for each incumbent's wire center in the United States. The authors conclude that local competition, inter-LATA (local access and transport area) approval by the Federal Communications Commission, and high unbundled network element price to embedded cost ratios have positive impacts on the deployment of ATS, while voluntary federal price cap regulation and location in a rural area have negative impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explores the links between drug, vaccine pricing and innovation in the U.S. He briefly discussed some implications of the pricing models for the analysis of changes in unit prices over time. The link between current or immediate past profit levels and the rate of research and development is included. The author also considered the investigation on whether there is a connection between the source and amount of funds for research and the price of new drug.

In this paper we study the geography of the IT revolution in the U.S. economy. By relating the intensity of IT production and diffusion to labor productivity growth for the United States, we find three main results. First, states with above-average production intensity of IT manufacturing show more growth acceleration than other states. Second, the same applies to states with above-average IT diffusion. Yet, while the result for IT-producing states is strong, the result for IT-using states is somewhat smaller and less robust across specifications. Third, we also reconcile our state-wide pieces of evidence with previous industry and aggregate evidence. Accelerating productivity growth in IT-producing states stems from both IT-producing and IT-using industries in those states and is not a manifestation of the exclusive importance of IT production. Moreover, the less robust evidence for IT-using states is due to lower growth contributions from IT-producing and other industries in these states, not a symptom of a missing effect of IT usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay provides an overview of the 11th International Conference of the Greening of Industry Network held in San Francisco, USA, on 12–15 October 2003. The conference gave Greening of Industry Network (GIN) members the opportunity to debate issues around the theme of Innovating for Sustainability in a location central to technological innovation in the United States. This special issue of Business Strategy and the Environment focuses on the diverse interpretations of innovation and their impacts on the different strands of sustainability. The conference was timely in its debates about the nature of innovation from system level to product level, and from technological innovation to innovations in the management of a wide range of stakeholders and the resulting impacts on environmental, economic, social and ethical sustainability. This essay briefly discusses the relationship between innovation and sustainability, and considers the factors that either facilitate progress towards a more sustainable future, or present barriers to achieving sustainability. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the impact of communication technology on scholarly productivity considering patterns of coauthored economic articles in the U.S. Components of high technology; Description of the production process model in scholarly writing in relation to cost of communications; Comparison of coauthored with solo-authored economic articles.