Added value as a function of purchases of information services

Abstract

In this paper, an analysis is provided of data to evaluate the extent to which investment in information resources can be demonstrated to have direct value in greater industrial profitability. Specifically, it examines the statistical relationship between “added value” for the manufacturing industries of the country and the investment they make in purchased information services.

A review is presented of the context of evaluation of the value of information, with anecdotal evidence concerning its role. We review the theoretical background for the analysis and describe the data on which the analysis is based. The discussion of data covers the sources, the nature, and the structure of the data sets and provides a detailed listing of the data itself. We also present the results of the analysis, discuss the implications, and conclude with a commentary on potential problems due to the heterogeneous character of the data, including the analysis of a range of alternative models all of which produce the same qualitative results that were obtained in the basic regression.

We apply a Cobb‐Douglas model to value added as a function of labor, capital, purchases of information services, and purchases of other input. We do a regression analysis for that model on 50 manufacturing industries, using data from 1967, and 51 industries, using data from 1972. The theory states that, if industry is operating in an optimal manner, the marginal return from the external purchases (whether for information services or for other input), as expressed by the coefficient in the regression, should be zero. If the coefficient is positive, industry is not using enough of the external resource; if negative, industry is using too much of it.

Our results show that there is a demonstrable relationship between increased added value (and therefore profitability) and investment in information resources. Beyond that, the evidence suggests that manufacturing industry is using far less than the optimal amount of information resources than should be optimal.     

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.     

Topic‐specific market concentration in the information services industry: Evidence from the DIALOG group of data bases

Abstract

Recent interest has been expressed in the potential of information technology to create new kinds of monopolies. This paper looks at production and marketing factors in the information services industry which may increase concentration in the hands of fewer producers, potentially leading to monopoly formation. The research develops an economic model of topic‐specific market concentration and delineates the factors which might cause monopolies to occur in the markets of information data base production firms. The model shows that market concentration rises with inelastic demand, reduced marginal costs and efficient technology, and increased data acquisition costs exacerbated by low rates of data obsolescence. These effects are empirically investigated in the DIALOG group of data bases. The results of the research have implications for corporate information systems and information systems in the public sector.     

Rob Kling and the Irvine School

Abstract

During the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing and related commercial activities led to the evolution of “dense cores” of heavily populated areas. Fundamental to the operation of these industrial‐commercial cores was the development of service activities—banking, risk‐bearing, legal services—which depended on rapid exchange of information or quick “cycle times of information” for effective decision making and allocation of resources. As these cores radiate resources away from the central body toward less populated areas, the need for short cycle times of information in rural areas has become apparent. For example, modem agriculture is an enterprise that requires short time cycles of information exchange. The technology for building computer‐based information networks to facilitate the desired rapid transfer of information exists. However, the installation of hardware linked by reliable, cost‐effective communications networks is only in the beginning stages. One computer‐based information network that has successfully met the challenges of rapid transfer of agricultural management information to farmers is the University of Nebraska's AGNET system.     

Political aspects of communications and information resources in Canada

Abstract

“At present, the majority of [radio] programs heard are from sources outside of Canada. It has been emphasized to us that the continued reception of these has a tendency to mold the minds of the young people in the home to ideals and opinions that are not Canadian. In a country of the vast geographical dimensions of Canada, braodcasting will undoubtedly become a great force in fostering national spirit and in interpreting national citizenship.”¹

This statement, written fifty years ago, could just as well have been written today. But, while the basic issue has remained unchanged over time, the uses to which information and communications can be put have steadily grown. The scope of the issue has also therefore increased.

Included under the heading of communications and information today are such diverse but interconnected matters as broadcasting both by TV and radio, the newspaper, magazine, and book publishing industries, the film industry, advertising, computers and all computer communications, telephone and telecommunications, communications satellites, remote sensing, and, to a point, industrial know‐how and research and development.

In this paper, I shall examine how communications and information affect such issues as Canadian unity, Canadian cultural identity, and Canadian economic viability. I shall concentrate on how Canadian governments have seen this issue, and, to a lesser degree, will show where the views of individuals and other interest groups may differ from government policy.     

Asia's Leap into E-commerce: Analysis of Developments in Some Countries

The Internet is creating a global digital economy with new opportunities. Developing countries have to catch up with the developed world by establishing the required information infrastructure to overcome the dangers of isolation and polarisation. The growth path is through the development of IT industries and greater application of IT in society. These IT industries must be compatible with local conditions and conducive to industrialisation.     

Knowledge and Cooperation for Regional Development: The Effect of Provincial and Federal Policy Initiatives in Canada and Australia 1

Abstract

This paper examines how federal systems of government in Canada and Australia deal with the challenges of promoting regional innovation and knowledge‐based industries. It focuses on selected cases of federal and regional (provincial or municipally based) policy initiatives and structures that support cross‐sector collaboration between ‘knowledge institutions’ (such as universities) and locally based industries. The study reveals both anticipated commonalities in and unexpected differences between the Canadian and Australian innovation environments and policy approaches. Federalism, resource‐based economies and sparse population have led to similar concerns and solutions. However, building local innovation systems and networks is a question of building on social capital and Canada seems rather more inventive and effective than Australia in turning social capital into sustainable organisations. Several regions of Canada have developed very strong community involvement in networks and institutions for improving technological skills, awareness and programmes—examples which provide valuable lessons for Australia.     

Virtual Organization: Toward a Theory of Societal Transformation Stimulated by Information Technology,by A. Mowshowitz. Westport,CT: Quorum Books, 2002. xiii + 264 pp. $49.95. ISBN 1-56720-501-1.

Abstract

Australia's treatment of information technology (IT) has vacillated between two policy directions: laissez faire, market directed strategy on the one hand, and strong government interventionist, plan directed strategy on the other. The resultant policy mix is more a collection of individual initiatives than a coherent strategy. It produces conflict between initiatives aimed at developing indigenous information industries and those improving the productivity and competitiveness of all industry by encouraging the wider application of IT. Unlike its East Asian neighbors, Australia does not have a powerful, independent economic planning agency capable of creating and implementing industrial and technology policy. Policies must be developed through the give and take of a democratic political process, a process that can lead to fragmented, uncoordinated policies based on bureaucratic inertia, the demands of special interest groups, and short‐term political considerations, rather than long‐term strategic plans. The future of IT policy in Australia will depend upon the kinds of consensus that can be achieved on the role of IT in economic development. It will also depend on the government's skill in implementing policy and on the reactions of the private sector to whatever policies emerge.     

装备制造业发展对工业的带动作用及溢出效应——基于两部门模型的实证检验

本文将工业分为装备制造和非装备制造两类部门,应用两部门模型研究装备制造业发展对工业经济的带动作用以及对非装备制造部门的溢出效应,并运用2000-2007年我国31个省区的面板数据进行了实证检验,结果表明:(1)装备制造业对非装备制造部门存在显著的溢出效应,外溢弹性为7.996%;(2)装备制造业对整个工业经济的带动作用十分明显,贡献率达到9.15%;(3)装备制造业的平均要素边际产出比非装备制造部门高出10.07%。     

中国装备制造业的企业规模与创新

装备制造业在技术层面上决定了众多产业的竞争力和发展水平,而大企业又是装备制造业技术创新的主导力量。本文利用1995—2008年我国装备制造业14个3位数产业的面板数据,分别考察了技术创新投入、技术创新产出与企业规模之间的关系,主要结论为:(1)R&D经费支出、研发人员全时当量与企业规模之间表现为显著的倒U型关系;(2)新产品销售收入与企业规模之间呈现显著的倒U型关系,而以专利度量的创新产出与企业规模之间的关系并不明显;(3)市场结构对技术创新投入的影响并不明显,而市场结构与技术创新产出之间表现为显著的倒U型关系;(4)不论是对技术创新投入还是产出,国有企业比重都表现出显著的正效应。     

跨领域技术融合对企业新产品开发绩效的影响

技术融合是指原本相互独立的技术跨越其边界相互交叉渗透从而催生出新兴技术的现象，作为产业变革的核心动力其被认为是促进新兴产业形成及新产品开发的重要因素。本研究通过收集中国新能源汽车产业所有企业在2005至2017关于新产品的面板数据，通过专利IPC号的耦合结构与替代关系分别对互补性和替代性技术融合进行测度，并采用负二项固定效应回归模型，实证分析了跨领域技术融合与企业新产品开发绩效之间的关系。研究结果表明：当企业聚焦于特定领域采取替代性技术融合时，替代性技术融合强度越大越有利于提升企业新产品数量及新产品进入市场的速度；而当企业跨越多个领域采取互补性技术融合时，一开始有利于提升企业新产品数量及新产品进入市场的速度，但后期将不利于企业新产品数量与新产品进入市场速度的进一步提升。     

Telematics and development

Abstract

Developed countries are rapidly evolving into information economies, and given the increasing internationalization of trade and interdependence, developing countries will also have to become information economies if they are to achieve higher economic growth rates. The essence of the information economy is that information is now the main capital input into manufacturing industry and as such is the key input to economic development. The activities of enquiring, communicating, evaluating, and deciding have become the activities absorbing the major proportion of national resources, with the need to know of the business decision‐maker as the main driving force. In developed information economies, industrial firms have become learning systems and a new division of labor in the economic productive system has evolved. The government‐controlled primary information sector is the source of much of the information input and the provider of the means of information transfer. Developing countries must develop their own primary information sectors as an integrated part of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The problems of developing countries are highlighted in the isolation on the one hand of their information generating sectors from the productive sector and on the other of the native small firm sector from all sectors of information. Telematics, as the integration of computing, communication, and information services offers the means to integrate national resources with international and supply the required inputs to local agricultural and industrial development.     

Technological innovation in services and manufacturing: results from Italian surveys

This paper provides fresh empirical evidence on technological innovation in the service sector, and highlights major similarities and differences with manufacturing. The main findings are the following. Technological innovation is quite a diffused and variegated phenomenon in market services. Engineering, technical consultancy, computing and software emerge as the most innovative sectors. Innovation expenditure per employee in these industries is rather close to the manufacturing average. Service firms as well as the manufacturing ones rely on a wide range of innovation sources. The acquisition and development of software and investment in machinery are the most cited. Investment, R&D and software are the major components of firms' innovation expenditure. Both in services and manufacturing the most important objective of firms' innovation strategies consist of improving service/product quality, increasing market shares and reducing production costs. Major obstacles for introducing technological innovation in services, as well as in manufacturing, are of an economic nature—i.e. lack of appropriate sources of finance and cost of innovation too high. Technological information is drawn mainly from in-house production departments as well as from outside suppliers of equipment, clients and customers. Again this is a pattern which is quite similar to the one found in the manufacturing sector. Finally, in the near future the importance of technology for firms' performance is expected to increase in all service industries. Overall, service and manufacturing sectors show more similarities than differences with respect to some basic dimensions of innovation processes.     

R&D两面性、外部技术机会与行业间R&D关系-基于中国工业行业数据的实证分析

摘要：由于R&D投入具有两面性的特点,外部技术机会既可能替代企业的R&D投入,也有可能激励企业的R&D投入以提高吸收能力。本文利用1998-2006年中国34个工业行业的面板数据,实证分析行业间R&D投入的关系,结论表明,整体来看,我国工业行业之间的R&D投入呈现出较弱的互补关系;进一步的研究表明,制造行业相互之间的R&D投入具有显著的替代关系,而制造行业与其它工业行业的R&D投入呈显著的互补关系。       

Information,Organization, and development policy

Abstract

While economic systems have become increasingly information‐intensive, economic modeling has yet to incorporate a balanced view of information as a resource. A common substitute, the assumption that more information is better than less, has dangerous consequences because it usually lacks a typology of information, assumes that expected productivity increases are realized, and neglects both equity aspects and the need to search for more appropriate forms of organization. UNESCO's UNISIST program is reviewed to illustrate these consequences and to argue the relevance of the emerging information economics.     

NEW PRODUCTION CONCEPTS

Flexibilty within a framework of internal labour markets is now widely seen to be an important factor in the ability of manufacturing firms to respond quickly to changes in market conditions — which is increasingly coming to be the form that competitive advantage takes in advanced industrial economies. An emerging and flourishing literature has identified a number of ‘new production concepts’ being developed in manufacturing industries, that depart from time-honoured Taylorist systems of job fragmentation and skill minimisation. The new concepts, such as ‘flexible specialisation’, ‘human-centred production’, and ‘diversified quality production’, are all in one way or another seeking to characterise a form of ‘functional flexibility’, that both enhances productivity and offers workers themselves a greater sense of involvement with their activity. The new concepts rest on the identification of a critical linkage between work organisation, skill formation and advanced manufacturing technology; they point to a convergence between the previously separate worlds of work and of learning.

In this paper the new production concepts are characterised as elements of an emergent ‘post Fordist’ technoeconomic paradigm. The present period of uncertainty can be construed as a transition between the Fordist paradigm centred on mass production, and its successors. There is nothing predetermined about the shape of these successors: this will be the outcome of a prolonged economic, industrial and political process as much as of a technical process. The choices are identified as falling between a continuation and intensification of Fordism, dubbed Computer-Aided Taylorisation; or a break with Fordism, dubbed Skill-Dependent Innovation. The new production concepts are characterised as instances of the latter approach to manufacturing management and technology. It is through this notion of ‘competing paradigms’ that this paper formulates an approach to the ‘politics’ of technological change.     

Policy issues for electronic databases and database systems

Abstract

Database producers of all types, including the federal government, play many roles in the information “industry.” Because of mergers, acquisitions and vertical integration, a given producer may function in virtually any part of the nine‐membered database use chain. The database use chain, together with statistics showing dramatic growth, provides a framework for the discussion of policy issues, problems, and future requirements of the database industry.

The various stages of the database use chain are considered in terms of added value, added production cost, compensation, push and pull mechanisms, proprietorship of data, control of data, and use agreements. The framework for considering policy issues includes the characteristics of the public and private sectors, their products and services, the appropriateness of government involvement in certain subject areas of information and the benefits to society. Problems and issues are standardization, copyright, structural changes in the industry, transborder data flow, and competition between the public and private sectors.     

基于柯布-道格拉斯生产函数的广东农业与农村技术进步贡献率测算

运用柯布-道格拉斯生产函数方法,在公开发布的统计数据基础上对广东省农业与农村技术进步贡献率进行测算。试图运用计量经济方法对技术进步在我省农业与农村经济增长中所起的作用进行评价。     

Business teams in an information age

Abstract

A critical success factor for businesses in the twenty‐first century will be their ability to meet the environmental demands for complex coordination of action and rapid adjustments to volatile markets and global competition. Business teams are effective mechanisms for addressing the need for dynamic, flexible organizations that can effectively cope with complexity and turbulence.

Business teams are not a new phenomenon, but there is a new element in the equation: the use of information technologies (IT) to leverage team effort. Information technologies can enhance team performance through support of interaction processes by providing two types of functionality: coordination support and task execution support.

An agenda for action for moving forward a team‐based organization and use of information technologies for support of business teams is provided.     

Technological paradigms, regimes and trajectories: Manufacturing and service industries in a new taxonomy of sectoral patterns of innovation

This article presents a new sectoral taxonomy that combines manufacturing and service industries within the same framework. This exercise is relevant because it aims at greater integration between the study of sectoral patterns of innovation in manufacturing and services, stressing the increasing importance of vertical linkages and inter-sectoral knowledge exchanges between these interrelated branches of the economy. The relevance of the new taxonomy is illustrated with reference to the innovative activities and economic performance of manufacturing and service industries in Europe. This empirical evidence, which presents fresh results from the Fourth Community Innovation Survey, supports the relevance of the taxonomy by showing the great variety of sectoral patterns of innovation in European industries.