Accounting for change in national systems of innovation: A friendly critique based on the U.S. case

This paper advances a friendly critique of the national systems of innovation approach and offers some suggestions for its future development. I argue that the approach has difficulty accounting for bounded change in national systems. I review three recent changes in the U.S. innovation system - the Internet boom and bust of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the acceleration of productivity growth since the mid-1990s - in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the framework in this respect. Future research might be enriched, at least in the case of large national innovation systems, by absorbing concepts developed in other strands of institutionalist literature, such as “intercurrence” and “embeddedness”.     

Technological paradigms,labour creation and destruction in a multi-sector agent-based model

This paper presents an agent-based model (ABM) of endogenous arrival of technological paradigms and new sectors entailing different patterns of labour creation and destruction, as well as of consumption dynamics. The model, building on the labour-augmented K+S ABM, addresses the long-term patterns of labour demand emerging from heterogeneous forms of technical change. It provides a multi-level, integrated perspective on so called scenarios of the future of work, currently often restricted or to firm-level or to short-time sectoral analyses, and studies the conditions under which labour creation and destruction tend to balance. It is a relatively fair and stable distribution of income granted by a Fordist-type of regulation of the labour market that guarantees that the model never reaches stages of persistent technological unemployment. On the contrary, a systematic mismatch between production and consumption spheres emerges out of a Competitive (post-Fordist) wage-labour nexus, wherein the labour shedding effect of process innovation tends to prevail over the labour creating effect of product innovation.     

Predictors of Downsizing in the U.S. Local Telephone Industry

Present U.S. local exchange employment is less than half of what it was in 1981. This study tests several alternative explanations from labor economics, industrial organization, and political economy for employment reductions by U.S. local telephone companies. It evaluates the relative strength of the relationship between each explanatory factor and employment change. The contributions of six potential explanatory factors (wages, sales, technological change, competition, productivity, and profit rate) were investigated. Regression equation models were formulated and tested using crosssectional time-series data on 50 local carriers who provided 90% of the service between 1988 and 1995. We found that digitalization and productivity increases were the most important factors in explaining employment reductions by firms. Wage increases and computerization were significant sources for employment reduction only in the short term.     

Yes, now we can: Technological change and the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities

The paper investigates how technological change in an industry influence which individuals will identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. We propose that the introduction of new development tools will change knowledge-barriers to entry because they enable the abstraction of specialized knowledge that was previously needed for development. Empirically we test the argument using data from the web design industry in a Nordic country during the period 1992–2003. We compare the education and experience of founders before and after the introduction of web administration tools in 1998 and find a significant difference, which supports the main thesis of our argument.     

抗日战争后期美国对华政策的演变

从太平洋战争到二战结束时期的美国对华政策,是中国抗日战争以来美国对华政策的延续。但在短短的几年中,美国对华政策却经历了两个阶段的转变。本文就抗战后期(1941.12—1945.8)美国对华政策的转变历及其原因进行论述,从而对正确处理当今中美关系提供借鉴。     

Sailing in all winds: Technological search over the business cycle

Business cycles modify firms’ incentives to innovate and the direction of innovation. By introducing a new measure of patent unconventionality this paper explores the impact of the business cycle on firms’ technological search strategies. We find that during upturns firms generate inventions characterized by a higher level of technological unconventionality. We also find that financially resilient and diversified firms produce more unconventional patents. While patent unconventionality is associated with technological impact and market value, firms extract more value by investing in unconventional inventions in downturns.     

Linking induced technological change, and environmental regulation: Evidence from patenting in the U.S. auto industry

This article uses a carefully screened patent database in automobile emission control technologies and a detailed regulatory action analysis to examine firms’ innovation in response to U.S. technology-forcing auto emissions standards enacted between 1970 and 1998. The study finds that under the performance-based technology-forcing (PBTF) auto emissions regulations, both automakers and component suppliers innovated and introduced more advanced emission control technologies for automobile applications. The study also shows that stringent PBTF regulation temporarily induced domestic U.S. firms to become more innovative than foreign firms that operated in the local U.S. market during the early phase of the regulatory regime. Findings of this research strongly imply that government intervention in the form of technology-forcing regulation can drive firms to invest in technological innovation.     

美国工业实验室的研究传统及其变迁

作为美国R&D重要组成部分的工业实验室 ,其研究传统正发生着意义深远的改变。面对全球范围内日趋激烈的市场竞争 ,置身科技日新月异的当今世界 ,美国工业实验室逐渐摆脱了V·布什所倡导的R&D线性模式 ,开始重新认识科学与技术、研究与发展、长期与短线等问题 ,并因此从较为重视基础研究转向全面理解发现、发明与创新的关系 ,以期寻求更为有效的生存发展之道。     

Information resources in U.S. manufacturing: A reassessment

Abstract

Previous production function studies analysing the use of information inputs in U.S. manufacturing seem to indicate their large underuse and, implicitly, advocate a policy of increased investment in such inputs. In the present study the degree of underuse of information inputs is reassessed by using techniques similar to those applied in the earlier studies and by using more comprehensive and appropriate alternative methods, i.e. estimating translog functions via the systems approach. By expressing all inputs in monetary terms, comparable marginal (value) products for all factors of production are obtained. The results prove to be highly sensitive to the changes in methodology. The degree of underuse of information inputs seems to have been overstated by previous authors. Our results are likely to be more reliable than previous findings because of the reductions in simultaneity and specification bias which the systems approach entails. Finally, we can say little about policy implications. To assess whether a strategy of increased investment in information inputs should be pursued would require detailed analysis of the supply and demand conditions of these inputs, and of the efficiency of information resource use.     

Universities as partners in U.S. research joint ventures

This paper investigates the conditions when a research joint venture (RJV) will involve a university as a research partner. We hypothesize that larger RJVs are more likely to invite a university to join the venture as a research partner than smaller RJVs because larger ventures are less likely to expect substantial additional appropriability problems to result because of the addition of a university partner and because the larger ventures have both a lower marginal cost and a higher marginal value from university R&D contributions to the ventures’ innovative output. We test this hypothesis using data from the COoperative REsearch (CORE) database, and those data confirm the hypothesis.     

美国风险投资的芳点及其启示

风险投资是美国金融创新的产物，作为资本运作的特殊形式，对支撑美国经济增长的高新技术发展起到了极大的推动作用。本文在探索美国风险投资特点和经验的基础上，联系我国实际，阐述了其对发展我国风险投资的启示。     

中美思想库比较研究

从发展演变、外部环境、运作机制等方面对中美思想库进行对比,为我国思想库的发展提供有益的启示。研究结果表明:(1)完善的民主决策体制和信息共享制度以及良好的捐赠环境为美国思想库的发展创造了一个有利的外部环境。中国在这些方面还存在着很多不足之处,已成为制约我国思想库发展的主要因素。(2)美国思想库在资金管理、研究管理、人员配置、成果推销等方面己经发展得非常成熟,通过科学的管理与运作,使得其在美国政治生活中获得了非常高的地位与巨大的影响,中国思想库的运作机制还处在探索阶段,还没有找到一条适合自己发展的道路。     

美国在研究型大学创立国家实验室的启示

通过对美国设在研究型大学中的国家实验室历史发展的分析,提出我国应在研究型大学中建立代表国家最高科技水平、为国家战略目标服务的国家实验室,使之成为国家创新的核心。     

美日欧跨国公司离岸服务外包模式的比较研究及启示

美国、日本和欧盟跨国公司分别采取的是倒T型、金字塔型和橄榄型离岸服务外包模式,这三种模式的发展背景和目的相同,但其形成基础、外包类型、管理方式和实施结果不同。通过对三种模式的比较,本文有针对性地给出了我国政府和企业承接服务外包的对策。     

美国科技政策方法学（SoSP）及其对我国的启示

 科技政策方法学 (Science of Science Policy, 简写为SoSP) 是近年来在美国兴起的一门新的学科,与现有科技政策相关学科相比,SoSP更加强调基于定量数据的分析、描述和展示,发展以证据为基础的科学决策方法。简要介绍了SoSP在美国兴起的背景、学科定位与发展动态,探讨了SoSP对我国的启示。     

美国风险投资业的发展及经验

本文系统地介绍和分析了美国风险投资业发展的状况。了解风险投资的性质、重要性、运行规律、投资模式及其必需的政策环境，可为我国发展风险投资提供借鉴。     

Innovation spaces: Workspace planning and innovation in U.S. university research centers

This paper reports findings of a study designed to test whether differences in spatial layout of research offices and labs (workspace planning) affects face-to-face technical consultations, and ultimately innovation process outcomes in research settings critical to government supported innovation strategies—university research centers (URCs). The study involved a mixed-method (multivariate predictive and multiple case comparison) evaluation of six organizationally similar but spatially different URCs. Data analysis revealed relationships between workspace planning, consultations and innovation process outcomes. Multivariate analyses showed that configurational accessibility, visibility and walking distances significantly affect the frequencies and locations of unprogrammed face-to-face consultations. Cross-case comparisons revealed that URCs featuring overall high configurational accessibility, shorter walking distances and intact territories exhibit higher face-to-face consultation rates, consultation network connectivity, and subjective/objective innovation process outcomes. Implications for research policy, practice and research are discussed.     

Applicant and examiner citations in U.S. patents: An overview and analysis

Prior art patent citations have become a popular measure of patent quality and knowledge flow between firms. Interpreting these measurements is complicated, in some cases, because prior art citations are added by patent examiners as well as by patent applicants. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) adopted new reporting procedures in 2001, making it possible to measure examiner and applicant citations separately for the first time. We analyzed prior art citations listed in all U.S. patents granted in 2001-2003, and found that examiners played a significant role in identifying prior art, adding 63% of citations on the average patent, and all citations on 40% of patents granted. An analysis of variance found that firm-specific variables explain most of the variation in examiner-citation shares. Using multivariate regression, we found that foreign applicants to the USPTO had the highest proportion of citations added by examiners. High-volume patent applicants had a greater proportion of examiner citations, and a substantial number of firms won patents without listing a single applicant citation. In terms of technology, we found higher examiner shares among patents in electronics, communications, and computer-related fields. Taken together, our findings suggest that firm-level patenting practices, particularly among high-volume applicants, have a strong influence on citation data and merit additional research.     

美国研究与实验基地科技成果转化系统构建与分析

通过对美国科技成果转化流程中关键问题的分析,构建以资金链条为基础的美国科技成果转化体系,该体系包括科技成果转化前的准备工作,科技成果转化中的商业化过程以及科技成果转化后的收益分配。对体系中的关键工作提出建议。     

美国大学薪酬设计的市场模式研究

大学是美国基础研究的主力,美国大学特别是研究型大学因其薪酬设计上的市场模式,在科研顶尖人才吸引和争夺上更具灵活性和竞争力。本文讨论了美国大学薪酬设计的市场模式,包括与公务员制的比较、主要特点、资金保障与管理机制等,并初步讨论了其运行的法制和文化环境。