Modeling the Triple Helix from a Small Country Perspective: The Case of Finland

In recent discussions on the science and technology system particularly two perspectives have been visible, one emphasizing the transitory changes in the modes of knowledge production, the other focusing on the institutional integration of the S&T system (Triple Helix). The article analyzes the development of the Finnish S&T system and policy as a national case from the point of view of the Triple Helix thesis. It concludes that both perspectives—systemic transition and integration—are essential for understanding recent changes in S&T, but do not yet cover the whole range of relevant issues. In addition, one should take into account the spatial, or international, dimension of S&T, which is crucial especially when viewed from a small country perspective. Furthermore, it is important to consider the cognitive dimension of S&T, as the socio-cognitive diversity of research fields affects their specific role in the transformation processes.     

Transforming the Post-Soviet Research Systems Through Incubating Technological Entrepreneurship

For many years the Soviet Union and the Eastern block countries (member countries of the former Warsaw pact) had been considered as the main military competitors of the western countries buttressed in their struggle against the West by their economic and scientific resources. The Warsaw pact countries had high levels of R&D investments, a large number of researchers and engineers, and diverse research facilities. On the other hand, output indicators (patent applications, number of papers, scientific citations, etc.), and especially the rates of technological innovation were not so impressive. This paper analyzes the sources of these differences with special attention to the functions played by science and technology (S&T) programs in the formerly communist societies of Europe and Russia. The dynamics of changes in the R&D potential in these countries are considered along with ways and possible scenarios of convergence towards the national systems of innovation of developed western economies. Special emphasis is assigned to the constructive role that technology transfer and commercialization processes along with the use of a network of virtual incubators and the promotion of technological entrepreneurship, can play in fostering a socio-economic renaissance in Eastern Europe and Russia.     

Firm innovation in policy-driven parks and spontaneous clusters: the smaller firm the better?

Mixed evidence has been found regarding how locating in a cluster or a park affects firms?? performance. This paper investigates how locating in different types of clusters and parks interacted by firm size or in-house R&D capability affects a firm??s innovation. Empirically testing the research hypotheses by the data of 165 Taiwan??s manufacturing firms in the information and communication technology sector and taking policy-driven parks (e.g., science parks and industrial parks) and spontaneously clusters as examples, we find that in emerging economies, firms with inferior in-house R&D capability gain more innovation benefits by locating in a science park or a spontaneous cluster while smaller firms gain more innovation benefits by locating in an industry park or a spontaneous cluster. Moreover, our findings also suggest that locating in a science park, smaller firms benefit more than larger firms in terms of innovation performance whereas larger firms benefit more than smaller firms in terms of market performance. The findings suggest that in emerging economies, compared to larger firms, smaller firms are less influenced by negative spillover effect when locating in clusters or parks.     

Technology transfer at land-grant universities

Improvement in the ability of universities in the United States to transfer technology to the private sector is seen as a factor in strengthening American competitiveness. To better understand the university's role in this process, a survey of formal university programs in technology transfer was performed through personal interviews at four midwestern land-grant universities. There are six basic types of programs in place: technical assistance, affiliate, licensing, business development, incubators and research parks, and information networks. For purposes of classifying these programs, we used the model developed by Janis et al. (1) It was found that, of the six modes of technology transfer, two could be considered active, three semi-active and one passive.     

On the structure of business incubators: de-coupling issues and the mis-alignment of managerial incentives

Business incubators are structurally complex and have resisted any major change to their internal structure, replicating throughout the world in large numbers, and delivering value through numerous models. A question, thus arises, what specific structural properties of incubators facilitate the organizational form’s replication and performance in a range of institutional contexts? In order to shed light on this question, an exploratory-inductive approach is adopted; and, utilizing the tools of organization theory, the internal environment of the business incubator is de-coded. This draws attention to attributes of the hybrid incubator-form’s internal structural properties that have not been discussed in the past, including de-coupling issues and the mis-alignment of managerial incentives with the actual role of incubating. These properties, rather than impacting incubators’ status, award incubators with ceremonial value and help their managements avoid close inspections of performance. This in turn, it is proposed, has allowed for their rapid replication in a variety of socio- cultural, economic and institutional contexts.     

知识产权私权性质的变化及其与技术创新政策的协调机制探析

从知识经济时代知识产权传统私权性质的变化以及知识产权法律公法属性增强的现实出发,阐 明21世纪在作为重要生产要素的知识产权已经成为社会科技进步和经济增长的主要动力的前 提下,技术创新政策与知识产权法律的协调配合就成为整个激励智力创造和技术创新制度安排 的必须。对技术创新政策与知识产权法律的协调机制从总体上进行探讨,并就科技计划制定和 科技战略规划、科技成果界定及其知识产权归属以及科技成果的奖励制度等方面作了具体研究。     

Technology parks in a developing country: the case of India

Following the economic liberalization of 1991, the government of India established the software technology parks of India (STPI) scheme and opened numerous software parks around the country. These parks have played a critical role in the growth of India’s software sector. In recent years, private software parks have also been established in different parts of India. The government of India is now promoting biotechnology (biotech) parks to encourage growth of this emerging sector. The biotech parks are still in their infancy with a few operating parks. There are several upcoming biotech parks in different Indian states with support from the respective state governments. The government of India continues to play an important role in establishing technology parks. Biotech-Information Technology (Bio-IT) park is the next type of park that the government is planning to promote. This article discusses the institutional history of these technology parks in India.

The consequences of deregulation: A comparison of the experiences of UK building societies with those of US Savings and Loan Associations

It has been estimated that deregulation of US S&Ls will cost the US taxpayer ￡500bn in terms of the compensation paid out for the resulting scandals and failures. In contrast, the deregulation of UK building societies, although initially followed by a series of scandals and losses of ￡1bn., eventually resulted in substantially increased profitability. The social effects in the UK have been quite different to those in the US. As a result of the increased importance placed on profitability as opposed to mutuality, many homeowners have had their properties repossessed, and investors been mis-soId unsuitable investments. However, UK building societies, by a mixture of good luck and judgement, have avoided the principal regulatory pitfalls, which beset the S&Ls in terms of bankruptcies and fraud. This paper seeks to explain these different post-deregulation experiences. It extends to the UK the looting model of Akerlof and Romer (1993) and the managerial diversion model of Nichols (1972) which went so far to explain and anticipate, respectively, the US experience. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Are science parks and incubators good “brand names” for spin-offs? The case study of Turin

In recent years there has been an increasing focus on universities’entrepreneurial orientation and their ability to exploit and transfer scientific knowledge to the commercial sector. Spin-off firms are recognised as an important opportunity for universities. This paper aims to examine the university spin-off firm context, with particular attention to the relationship with science parks-incubators and their importance as brand names. Evidence is taken from Turin case-study. Turin has a consolidated university framework: the University and the Polytechnic are examples of success all around Europe. A particular characteristic of Turin is given by the presence of two science and technology parks and two incubators.     

Industrial R&D Laboratories: Windows on Black Boxes?

This paper provides an overview of the survey-based literature on industrial Research and Development (R&D) laboratories, beginning with the work of Edwin Mansfield. Topics covered include R&D projects, new products, and new processes; the appropriability of intellectual property; the limits of the firm in R&D; and spillovers of knowledge from other firms and universities into the laboratories. I discuss the value of collecting information from industrial R&D managers, who participate in a wide range of R&D decisions and are the natural best source of information on these decisions. I also emphasize gaps in our knowledge concerning R&D from past studies, such as the private and social returns to R&D, the nature of firms' R&D portfolios, and other topics. The paper closes with a discussion of the benefits from building a national database on R&D laboratories that could be shared among researchers and that could take this area of research to a new and higher level of achievement.     

Dynamic risk and sexual offending: the conundrum of assessment

ABSTRACT

The potential to reduce sexual victimisation, promote community safety, and decrease incarceration costs has resulted in considerable progress in terms of how we understand and predict sexual recidivism. And yet, the past decade has seen a degree of fragmentation emerge as research attention has shifted away from relative risk prediction (with its focus on static risk factors) to the identification of factors capable of reducing risk through intervention (i.e. dynamic risk). Although static and dynamic risk are often treated as orthogonal constructs [Beech, A. R., & Craig, L. A. (2012). The current status of static and dynamic factors in sexual offender risk assessment. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 4(4), 169–185. doi:10.1108/17596591211270671], there are arguments to support a claim that the two are in fact functionally related [see Ward, T. (2015). Dynamic risk factors: Scientific kinds or predictive constructs. Psychology, Crime & Law (in 22(01–02), 2–16); Ward, T., & Beech, A. R. (2015). Dynamic risk factors: A theoretical dead-end? Psychology, Crime & Law, 21(2), 100–113. This discussion clearly affects how we assess dynamic risk. This review considered several commonly used methods of assessment and the evidence offered for their predictive accuracy. Of note were differences in the predictive accuracy of single psychometric measures versus composite scores of dynamic risk domains and the conventions used for establishing effect sizes for risk assessment tools.     

Halfway Homeowners: Eviction and Forced Relocation in a Florida Manufactured Home Park

The last four decades of US housing policy have seen a shift from the federal allocation of affordable housing as a public good to the neoliberal model of private and for‐profit provision of affordable housing. This shift warrants a study of the link between the interests that now shape low‐income housing markets and the stability of the housing they provide. Nowhere are the effects of this shift more evident than in the homes of the 20 million Americans living in manufactured housing, which is installed largely on the private lands of for‐profit developers who can close mobile home parks and force residents to move themselves and their homes with as little as 30 days' notice. This ethnography of mass eviction in a Florida mobile home park examines state regulations intended to protect residents of closing parks and analyzes how private interests shape the implementation of these policies.     

Venture’s economic impact in Australia

We empirically compare the contributions of venture capital (VC) and private equity backed firms, including those backed by government subsidized innovation investment funds (IIFs), in the Australian economy by analyzing employment, R&D, patents, time to IPO, and market capitalization from market inception to August 2012. Overall, the data highlight a central role for VC and IIF investment in facilitating R&D, innovation, and economic growth. Our IIF findings highlight the success of government sponsorship of VC under the Australian program design, which is sharply in contrast with the lack of success of government venture programs in other countries.     

Patenting and Invention Activity of U.S. Scientists and Engineers in the Academic Sector: Comparisons with Industry

Analyses have been performed of the patenting and invention activity of U.S. scientists and engineers (S&Es) in the academic sector and comparisons have been made with their counterparts in industry. The analyses are based upon survey questions concerning patent applications, grant awards and commercialization outcomes from two 1995 National Science Foundation (NSF) nationally representative workforce surveys. A series of new indicators – patent activity rates, patent activity shares and patent success rates – has been defined and utilized to examine patent activity by employment sector, educational field, demographic variables, status and location of university faculty, technological area, and selected S&E job characteristics. It is recommended that NSF collect data on patenting activity, including commercialization outcomes, in its surveys of the S&E workforce at least every four years. Data should also be collected on university-industry collaboration in patent activity in the U.S., and between S&Es in the U.S. and other countries.     

Do different types of incubators produce different types of innovations?

Incubators are heterogeneous but there is a lack of understanding of the variety of innovation involved. We use four archetypes of incubator discussed in the literature (basic research, university, economic development and private incubator) and analyze their generation of different types of innovation (product, technological process and organizational innovation) during a 4 years period (2005–2008). In a sample of 80 incubators, we find that incubatees in some types of incubators are more prone to generate product and technological process innovations than those hosted in other types.     

Measuring the Economic Returns from Successful NASA Life Sciences Technology Transfers

Since 1958 NASA has invested approximately $3.7 billion in life sciences R&D in the support of the successful human space flight program. There are numerous studies documenting the spin-off technologies that can be traced to NASA research and development activities. Most of these studies describe the technologies and their uses; however only a few measure the economic impact of the spin-offs and most of these are benefit/cost studies that tend to overstate benefits or underestimate costs. This study takes a different approach, measuring only economic impacts to the companies that developed successful spin-off products from NASA life sciences investments. A personal interview was conducted with each company and the benefits are conservatively estimated as the value-added by the NASA technology to the company's output and the amount of additional private R&D stimulated by the NASA R&D.This pilot study of fifteen companies, using a very conservative measurement technique, found a large return to companies that have successfully commercialized NASA life sciences spin-off products. Value-added benefits totaled over $3.7 billion in life sciences R&D in the support of the successful human space flight program. There are numerous studies documenting the spin-off technologies that can be traced to NASA research and development activities. Most of these studies describe the technologies and their uses; however only a few measure the economic impact of the spin-offs and most of these are benefit/cost studies that tend to overstate benefits or underestimate costs. This study takes a different approach, measuring only economic impacts to the companies that developed successful spin-off products from NASA life sciences investments. A personal interview was conducted with each company and the benefits are conservatively estimated as the value-added by the NASA technology to the company's output and the amount of additional private R&D stimulated by the NASA R&D.This pilot study of fifteen companies, using a very conservative measurement technique, found a large return to companies that have successfully commercialized NASA life sciences spin-off products. Value-added benefits totaled over 1.5 billion and a NASA R&D total investment in these 15 technologies of 64 million was found to stimulate an additional64 million was found to stimulate an additional 200 million in private R&D.     

Adverse selection and financing of innovation: is there a need for R&;D subsidies?

We study the interaction of private and public funding of innovative projects in the presence of adverse-selection based financing constraints. Government programs allocating direct subsidies are based on ex ante screening of the subsidy applications. This selection scheme may yield valuable information to market-based financiers. We find that under certain conditions, public R&D subsidies can reduce the financing constraints of technology-based entrepreneurial firms. First, the subsidy itself reduces the capital costs related to the innovation projects by reducing the amount of market-based capital required. Second, the observation that an entrepreneur has received a subsidy for an innovation project provides an informative signal to the market-based financiers. We also find that public screening works more efficiently if it is accompanied with subsidy allocation.     

全球化与当代中国科技法制建设

考察了全球化对于世界科技、经济及其法律的双重影响,分析了全球化对于当代中国科技法制建设的积极影响与严峻挑战;指出全球化时代中国作为后发国家欲振兴本国科技与经济,必须致力建构和完善促进与保障科技进步的法律体系,加强科技法制建设的战略研究。