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Research and Development (R&D) service firms make significant contributions to innovation in other businesses. The extant literature considers these firms a homogenous sub-group of Knowledge Intensive Business Service firms (KIBS). The objective of this study is to investigate how R&D service firms innovate and the variety of innovation practices within these firms. Employing data from semi-structured interviews with senior managers from 32 UK-based R&D service firms, we suggest that there are two different modes of innovation: in the first mode, R&D service firms innovate similarly to KIBS whose innovation is ad-hoc in nature and driven by customers' requests; another group of R&D service firms innovate like New Technology-based Firms (NTBFs) relying more on structured in-house R&D activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay undertakes a comparative review of radical innovation in the early Cold War, when UK jet propulsion development far outpaced any US efforts. British ingenuity created a series of jet engines which Americans adopted. One among these, which captures contrasting organisational formats for handling complexity and innovation, was the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, a tough, reliable propulsion system. The USAF's licence assigned production to Curtiss-Wright, which had made piston engines for decades and which spectacularly botched the project, wasting millions. Eventually, the Pentagon shifted the J-65 American Sapphire to GM's Buick division, which finally fabricated adequate but obsolete engines in the mid-1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harrison R. T. and Leitch C. Voodoo institution or entrepreneurial university? Spin-off companies, the entrepreneurial system and regional development in the UK, Regional Studies. University spin-off companies occupy a prominent position in both government and university policies and aspirations for the commercialization of university research for economic benefit at regional and national levels. However, most university spin-off companies start small and remain small, reflecting founder aspirations, capabilities, and resource endowments. Based on detailed analysis of university spin-offs in Northern Ireland, it is concluded that these companies are technology lifestyle businesses not dynamic high-growth potential start-ups, and it is suggested that the prominence given to spin-offs in the analysis of technology transfer and in discussions of the economic impacts of universities is misplaced. [image omitted] Harrison R. T. et Leitch C. Une institution vaudou ou une universite entrepreneuriale? La creation d'entreprise, le systeme entrepreneurial et l'amenagement du territoire au R-U, Regional Studies. La creation d'entreprise par les universites jouit d'une importance de premier plan pour ce qui est des politiques du gouvernement et des universites, et vu l'aspiration de commercialiser la recherche universitaire pour en tirer un profit economique au niveau regional et a l'echelle nationale. Cependant, la plupart des nouvelles entreprises creees par les universites sont de petite taille et continuent de l'etre, ce qui reflete l'aspiration, les capacites et la dotation en capital du createur. A partir d'une analyse detaillee de la creation d'entreprise par les universites situees en Irlande du Nord, on conclut que ces entreprises-la sont des entreprises technologiques par styles de vie et ne sont pas des creations d'entreprise dynamiques a croissance forte. On laisse supposer aussi que l'importance accordee a la creation d'entreprise dans l'analyse du transfert technologique et le debat sur l'impact economique des universites s'avere deplacee. Transfert technologique Creation d'entreprise Systeme entrepreneurial Amenagement du territoire Universite entrepreneuriale Harrison R. T. und Leitch C. Voodoo-Institution oder Unternehmertum an Universitaten? Spin-off-Firmen, Unternehmenssysteme und Regionalentwicklung in Grossbritannien, Regional Studies. Spin-off-Firmen von Universitaten spielen in der Politik von Regierungen und Universitaten sowie bei den Bestrebungen zur Kommerzialisierung der universitaren Forschung fur einen wirtschaftlichen Nutzen auf regionaler und nationaler Ebene eine wichtige Rolle. Die meisten universitaren Spin-off-Firmen sind jedoch zu Beginn und auch spater von geringer Grosse und reflektieren die Bestrebungen, Fahigkeiten und Ressourcen der Grunder. Anhand einer detaillierten Analyse der Spin-off-Firmen von Universitaten in Nordirland ziehen wir den Schluss, dass es sich bei diesen Firmen weniger um dynamische Start-up-Firmen mit hohem Wachstumspotenzial als vielmehr um technologische Lifestyle-Unternehmen handelt und dass die starke Beachtung, die Spin-off-Firmen bei der Analyse von Technologietransfer und in den Diskussionen uber die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen von Universitaten finden, fehl am Platze ist. Technologietransfer Spin-off-Firmen Unternehmenssystem Regionalentwicklung Unternehmertum an Universitaten Harrison R. T. y Leitch C. ¿Institucion vudu o universidad empresarial? Empresas spin-off, el sistema empresarial y el desarrollo regional en el Reino Unido, Regional Studies. Las empresas spin-off universitarias ocupan un lugar destacado en las politicas gubernamentales y universitarias asi como las aspiraciones para la comercializacion de la investigacion universitaria para el beneficio economico a nivel regional y nacional. Sin embargo, la mayoria de empresas spin-off universitarias comienzan como empresas pequenas y siguen siendo pequenas, lo que refleja las aspiraciones y capacidades de los fundadores y las dotaciones de recursos. Basandonos en un analisis detallado de las empresas spin-off universitarias en Irlanda del Norte, concluimos que estas sociedades no son empresas emergentes dinamicas con un alto potencial de crecimiento sino empresas de estilo de vida tecnologico, y sugerimos que la importancia que se otorga a las empresas spin-off en los analisis de transferencia tecnologica y en las charlas sobre las repercusiones economicas de las universidades queda fuera de lugar. Transferencia tecnologica Empresas spin-off Sistema empresarial Desarrollo regional Universidad empresarial [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University technology transfer offices (henceforth, TTOs) play a critical role in the diffusion of innovation and the development of new technology infrastructure. Studies of the relative efficiency of TTOs have been based on licensing output measures and data from a single country. In contrast, we present the first cross-country comparison of the relative performance of TTOs, based on stochastic multiple output distance functions. The additional dimension of output considered is the university's propensity to generate start-up companies, based on technologies developed at these institutions. We find that US universities are more efficient than UK universities and that the production process is characterized by either decreasing or constant returns to scale. Universities with a medical school and an incubator are closer to the frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge transfer (KT) has entered the higher education arena in the UK as the ‘third sector’ of higher education activity—along with research and teaching. Its antecedents lie in the commercialization and technology transfer of the late 1980s and 1990s, and this business-like orientation remains dominant in the KT policy discourse. This paper explores the extent to which policy for KT may be understood both as ‘travelling’ policy shaped by globalizing trends in pursuit of successful competition in the new knowledge economy (KE) and as ‘embedded’ policy mediated by local contextual factors that may translate policy to reflect local priorities and meanings. In considering evidence of ‘embedded’ policy the paper develops its arguments through preliminary analysis of KT policy in Scotland where—at least at the level of discourse—there is an attempt in post-devolution Scotland to encourage KT in the broader public interest. However, KT’s antecedents may continue to shape the engagement of academic staff in Scotland, as may the wider context of UK policy steering in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since its appearance mobile telephony has shown a remarkably fast diffusion pattern in most advanced countries. This paper investigates technological and economic factors that have influenced the diffusion process of cellular phones, in particular the diffusion speed and the upper limit. The epidemic model widely used in diffusion studies is summarised and discussed highlighting the evolutionary disequilibrium nature of diffusion processes. Moreover, the econometric specification of some of the models distinguishes between long-run relationships and short-run adjustments to a continuously evolving pattern. We find that the new digital technology, which coincides with increased competition in both Italy and the UK, has made the process faster and increased the saturation level in Italy, but not in the UK; in Italy only the decreasing price of the handset has affected the diffusion process, whereas we find that, in addition to that, decreasing tariffs and increasing consumption expenditures have been significant in shaping the diffusion process of mobile telephony in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A supply and demand model of industrial invention is presented paying particular attention to the impact of past advances on present advances in knowledge. The model is estimated using a recent span of UK data: a good fitting specification is found, which passes a battery of diagnostic tests, and possesses sensible long-run properties and an interpretable lag structure. The specific results found should be of potential interest to governments wishing to encourage the flow of inventions by fiscal means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a cross-sectional study for the United Kingdom in which inter-industry total factor productivity (TFP) growth is associated with different indicators of innovative activity. R&D expenditures and the number of significant innovations commercialized in the UK are applied by taking into account both patterns of production (performance) and patterns of use (diffusion) among manufacturing industries.
Section II explores the relationship between innovative activities and productivity advance in the light of the inter-industrial character of technical change and according to the alternation of periods characterized by a dominant techno-economic paradigm with periods of rapid technological change. Section III analyses the performance of British manufacturing industries in terms of productivity growth across various periods between 1954 and 1984. Section IV describes how the indicators of innovative activity are measured by considering in particular the role of inter-industry technology transfer. Having related TFP rates of growth to the above-mentioned indicators, Section V presents the results of the cross-industry analysis for the different periods considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study of a pioneering enterprise founded in 1934 by a Cambridge scientist is used to explore the distinctive strengths and weaknesses of technology-based companies with academic origins. The case exemplifies the importance of a knowledge network for technology transfer and of collective effort by a professional team. The need for a close relationship with a major company is identified. Small innovative enterprises are vulnerable to takeover by a larger corporation, which provide needed resources at the price of a reduction in innovative capacity. Technology based ventures of this kind contribute to and are shaped by processes of technology transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]