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 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.

Science Parks and the Development of NTBFs— Location, Survival and Growth

This study investigates survival and growth of NTBFs located on and off two Swedish science parks. We find that firms located on science parks have significantly higher survival rates than off-park firms. However, we observe insignificant differences in sales and employment. Wider variation in the growth rates of firms located on parks together with the better survival suggests that the science parks may be providing favorable locations for NTBFs in a range of development phases. The image benefit associated with a science park location is not helpful in explaining growth, whereas a location benefit associated with cooperation with universities is positively associated with growth.     

Science and technology parks in Italy: main features and analysis of their effects on the firms hosted

We analyse the results of a survey conducted by the Bank of Italy in the spring of 2012 on Italian science and technology parks. First we describe the main features of science parks in Italy. Then we investigate whether they have been effective in improving the economic performance and innovative capacity of the firms located within them. We find a pronounced heterogeneity between science and technology parks, whose cooperation with public research institutions is characterized by physical proximity. Although the business situation of firms located in science and technology parks tends on average to be better than that of similar “non-park” firms, a difference-in-differences estimation shows that entering a science and technology park did not generally improve firms’ business performance and their propensity to innovate compared with external counterparts.     

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.     

Constraints to conservation at Okomu National Park: a ranger’s perspective

Park rangers form an integral part of national parks because they help to ensure that the objectives of the park are achieved. The objective of the study was to investigate the challenges facing rangers at the frontiers of conservation at Okomu National Park, Nigeria. Questionnaires and structured interviews using the purposive sampling method was used to collect data. Atlas.ti version 8.0 was used to analyse the data. The findings indicated that 46% of the respondents are natives of the area, major constraints faced by the park rangers are inadequate funding (86%), poaching (82%), and poor salaries (82%). These limitations affect the output of the rangers. The findings indicate that both internal factors (which can be solved by the management of the park) and external factors (which need to be addressed at the national level) affecting rangers in the field, which needs to be addressed to improve ranger productivity conservation efforts.     

信托基金模式在生态园行政管理中的引入——美国旧金山普雷西迪奥信托基金模式及启迪

目前,中国的生态园治理模式采用单一的行政管理模式,由于环境保护让位于经济利益、问责制度不完善等问题,我国生态园管理效果一直不明显。借鉴国外成熟经验—美国运营良好的旧金山普雷西迪奥公园的信托基金管理模式,该模式是兼具公法行政力和私法经营权的混合管理模式,能够调动市场配置资源的作用,有效配置资源的同时也满足公共需求,在经济利益与社会公共利益之间寻求到平衡,解决行政管理僵化,成本高昂的问题,可资借鉴。     

S&;T Parks and business incubators in middle-sized countries: the case of greece

This paper links the policy context regarding S&T parks to the objectives and characteristics of the established parks and incubators in a relatively small, converging European country. S&T parks and incubators in Greece during the past decade and a half have gradually shifted in terms of ownership and management from university/research institute to the private sector and in terms of financing from public to private funds, also involving the provision of seed capital and access to venture capital. This gradual shift toward more private engagement has created a variety of models out of which, it is hoped, successful innovative companies will emerge in larger numbers than in the past.

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Anatomy of Tsinghua University Science Park in China: institutional evolution and assessment

University science parks are the essential ingredient in the national innovation system of China. This paper examines the institutional evolution of Tsinghua University Science Park (TusPark). Established in 1994, TusPark has grown into the most notable university science park in China. Tsinghua University and TusPark have applied many effective strategies to develop their technology industry and promote innovational activities. This paper also assesses strengths and challenges of TusPark. Although TusPark experiences many constraints of internal and external institutions, it has brought its advantages into full play. The growth trajectory of TusPark is unique, but its experience can contribute to the understanding of science parks in advanced and other emerging economies in the context of globalization.     

Quadruple Helix and firms’ performance: an empirical verification in Europe

The emerging relationships connecting organizations are the condition on which innovation is founded nowadays, so it is pivotal to achieve a vaster comprehension of the phenomenon through the exploitation of new dynamics and the exploration of new trajectories. In line with the Quadruple Helix (QE) approach, it seems reasonable to expect that the different environments in which firms operate would highlight the expectations of the various market governance systems, which firms must comply with in order to gain social legitimacy and improve their capacity for survival. To determine whether the Quadruple Helix model has an effect on the firms’ profitability, the authors employed the classification analysis method (Classification And Regression Trees). The sample is composed by 4215 manufacturing firms located in science parks. In our empirical model, the variable “citizen” classifies businesses with high Return On Investment in the best way. This shows that in science parks “the fourth helix” (citizen) has an important role in classifying the firms with the highest performance. Moreover, the majority of firms that attribute high importance to the collaboration with private financial institutions in order to finance innovations have a high ROI. In addition, firms with high economic performance in the model of the quadruple helix generate product innovation.     

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.     

当代西方社会工作的十大发展趋势

当代西方社会工作在理论、实践和体制等不同层面呈现十大发展趋势:(1)实践方法的嬗变;(2)认识论的多元化;(3)介入取向的持续论争;(4)证据为本的实践的兴起;(5)介入聚焦的转移;(6)专业关系的重构;(7)短期治疗和折衷模式的盛行;(8)研究的重要性日益凸现;(9)社会服务机构的新管理主义取向;(10)社会工作教育的不断革新.在熟知国际前沿的基础上确立遵循国际规范的专业制度对于中国社会工作的未来发展至关重要.     

Crime Theory Evaluation Using Simulation Models of Residential Burglary

This paper provides new insights on the study of crime modeling through the development of a hybrid cellular automaton (CA) and Multi-agent System (MAS) simulation model that is able to combine components of multiple criminological theories to forecast the locations of residential burglary targets: journey to crime (JTC), social disorganization (SD) theory, and routine activity (RA) theory. In order to combine individual factors from each theory into a unified model, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed for hierarchical parameter selection. The model is then evaluated using data on offenders obtained from the Dallas Police Department to examine how different crime theories perform in the prediction of residential burglary. Compared to the SD- and RA-weighted models, the JTC-weighted model performed the best when comparisons were made to actual burglary locations. The findings demonstrate that the simulation models of crime provide test beds for research into the explanatory power of various crime theories.     

The measurement of specialization and escalation in the criminal career: An alternative modeling strategy

Recent research using indices of specialization and escalation, such as the forward specialization coefficient and the escalation coefficient, have generally shown that repeat offenders tend to commit the same type or a more serious type of crime on successive arrests. Unfortunately, there are two important limitations to the use of specialization and escalation indices: (1) the meaning and interpretation of the coefficients is often unclear, and (2) the coefficients cannot be tested for statistical significance across groups. In an attempt to account for these limitations and to extend prior research in this area, this paper applies a class of log-linear models developed for studying social mobility tables with matched categories (for one or more groups) to crime-type switching tables. The benefits of using these models, in comparison with prior specialization and escalation research, are that the parameter estimates can be interpreted directly as tests of specialization and escalation in a meaningful way and the parameter estimates can be tested for equality across groups, such as age, race, and gender. The application and interpretation of these models are illustrated with arrest data from a sample of felony offenders in Michigan.     

An Approach to Speaker Identification

This presentation will provide standards upon which any attempts to meet the challenge of identifying speakers by voice should be based. It is organized into a model based on (i) application of a rigorous research program validating the system, (ii) an upgrading of the organization of the SI area, and (iii) exploitation of new technology. The second part of the presentation will describe an illustrative speech/voice approach to SI development. This effort is also based on an extensive corpus of research. It is suggested that application of the cited standards, plus the illustrative model, will permit reasonable progress to be made. Finally, a number of procedural recommendations are made; they should enhance the efficacy of the proposed approach.     

The effects of closed-circuit television on crime: meta-analysis of an English national quasi-experimental multi-site evaluation

This article reports results obtained in an English national quasi-experimental multi-site evaluation of 14 closed-circuit television (CCTV) projects in residential areas, town and city centers, a city hospital, and car parks (parking lots). Both police and victimization data were collected before and after the installation of CCTV in target, control and buffer areas, and police Divisions. The results showed that CCTV was effective in reducing crimes in train station car parks but not in city centers or residential areas, seemed to be effective in reducing vehicle crimes (but not other types of crimes), and was most effective when the degree of coverage by CCTV was high and when CCTV was combined with other interventions such as improved lighting. Implications for situational crime prevention theory are drawn. There was no evidence of displacement or diffusion of benefits. It is concluded that CCTV needs to be implemented more effectively, based on an analysis of the crime problem and its causes, and needs to be evaluated using a randomized experimental design.

Accelerating commercialization: a new model of strategic foundation funding

Venture philanthropy presents a new model of research funding that is particularly helpful to those fighting orphan diseases, which actively manages the commercialization process to accelerate scientific progress and material outcomes. This paper begins by documenting the growing importance of foundations as a source of funding academic research as traditional funding from industry and government sources decline. Foundations are known for their innovative techniques and we consider the evolution of the ways that foundations fund academic research and form partnerships across academia and industry. We examine the example of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the development of the drug Kalydeco^® as a demonstration of the principals of strategic foundation funding. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation adapted to a venture philanthropy model and took an active role in drug development, stewarding the commercialization process from funding basic scientific work in academic institutions, to making an equity investment in a start-up firm. We conclude by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages to venture philanthropy for the academic researchers, industry partners, foundations, and universities and consider an agenda for future research.     

One lawyer acting for two clients: implications arising from an experimental practice model ‘Family Matters’

The legal services market has faced unprecedented change following implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO). Alternative business models and wider use of digital technologies have developed alongside debates about the future of legal practice in family law. Arguments have been made for new hybrid models that combine legal advice with mediation and for solicitors to be enabled to work with two clients. This paper contributes to that debate by highlighting implications for such practice innovations based on research evidence of solicitors’ experiences of delivering an experimental model of practice: ‘Family Matters Guides’. This model, piloted by Resolution, involved the Guides providing intensive support and legal information (not legal advice) to both separating parents to help them reach agreements. This paper is timely as the professions await the new regulations from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (autumn 2018) making flexible practice models a reality.     

THE IMPACT OF BRITISH COUNTERTERRORIST STRATEGIES ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN NORTHERN IRELAND: COMPARING DETERRENCE AND BACKLASH MODELS*

Since philosophers Beccaria and Bentham, criminologists have been concerned with predicting how governmental attempts to maintain lawful behavior affect subsequent rates of criminal violence. In this article, we build on prior research to argue that governmental responses to a specific form of criminal violence—terrorism—may produce both a positive deterrence effect (i.e., reducing future incidence of prohibited behavior) and a negative backlash effect (i.e., increasing future incidence of prohibited behavior). Deterrence‐based models have long dominated both criminal justice and counterterrorist policies on responding to violence. The models maintain that an individual's prohibited behavior can be altered by the threat and imposition of punishment. Backlash models are more theoretically scattered but receive mixed support from several sources, which include research on counterterrorism; the criminology literature on labeling, legitimacy, and defiance; and the psychological literature on social power and decision making. In this article, we identify six major British strategies aimed at reducing political violence in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1992 and then use a Cox proportional hazard model to estimate the impact of these interventions on the risk of new attacks. In general, we find the strongest support for backlash models. The only support for deterrence models was a military surge called Operation Motorman, which was followed by significant declines in the risk of new attacks. The results underscore the importance of considering the possibility that antiterrorist interventions might both increase and decrease subsequent violence.