1,721,017 research outputs found
Outsourcing and Information Management.
Full text linkThis paper compares outsourcing processes in France, Italy and Japan in two types of firms, large firms and also small firms. It is shown that outsourcing has increased over the last two decades in both small and large firms in all three countries and that mainly in the last decade the tendency has been to increasingly involve some of the suppliers in product development. We interpret this evidence by means of a cognitive framework related to the activity of information management. Specifically, we show that the more the relationships among suppliers and users are characterised by two-way communication, decentralised information processing, and accordingly balanced contractual power, the more the incentives to create knowledge and to innovate autonomously are guaranteed.Firm size; Information; Network; Outsourcing
The Advantages of Outsourcing in terms of Information Mangement
No full textSubcontracting and, more generally, productive outsourcing increasingly characterise industrial organisation. The aim of this paper is to analyse information management in different cases of supplier networks, in order to provide hypotheses on the advantages of networks over other governance forms of suppliers' relationships. We review some empirical literature and compare specific cases. First, networks characterised by a large firm and more or less dependent suppliers is examined, in Japan, France and Italy. Second, outsourcing in systems of small firms, where power is more equally distributed along the productive process, is analysed for the same three countries. Finally, we derive theoretical insights by arguing that the study of information flows is key to explain such phenomena. More precisely, the advantages of outsourcing are due both to the particular way various types of information, on technology or on market conditions, are shared in the network and to the “governance” of the network, that has to be haracterised by a more equal distribution of contractual power between suppliers and user
"Academics’ Motivations and Depth and Breadth of Knowledge Transfer Activities", Working paper c.MET 01/2014
No full textThe debate on the entrepreneurial university has raised questions about what motivates academics to engage with industry as well as what forms these knowledge transfer activities can take. This paper analyses the relationship between different forms of motivations, namely mission (following the entrepreneurial mission of the university), learning (access to wider knowledge base for research enhancement) and funding (obtaining financial resources), and the depth and breadth of knowledge transfer activities, measured by the combination of various formal and informal activities and the frequency of interactions. The study is focused on the case of Italian academics but it covers all disciplines. We find that the learning motivation appears to be less important in Italy while mission and funding prevail, probably due to the peculiarities of the Italian industrial system and to the necessity for Italian academics to look for external funding sources for their research
"Relazioni tra imprese e università nel biotech dell'Emilia Romagna. Una valutazione sulla base della co-autorship delle pubblicazioni scientifiche".Quaderno del Dipartimento di Economia Istituzioni Territorio-Università di Ferrara n.21/2006
No full textThis paper explores the topic of the collaboration among research institutes and firms and its recent trends, using as indicators the scientific coauthored publications. The set of observation is represented by Emilia Romagna firms in the life-science biotech sector and the analysis includes the impact of firm's size on the quality and the frequency of collaboration with universities, hospitals and other firms; le geographical extent of collaborations and the structure of the network of collaborations and the relationship between these factors and the quality of the publications. From these empirical observations, some preliminary policy implications at local and regional level can be provided
Research collaboration and publication's citation impact: evidence in the Italian biotech sector
No full textWe analyse research collaboration in the Italian biotechnological sector using bibliometric data. We build a database of all scientific publications of Italian biotechnology firms over the period 1990 to may 2006 and we provide evidence on the institutional and geographical nature of research networks, their evolution and their effects on paper's citations impact. The results indicate that the collaboration with foreign institutions and institutional diversity of collaborators is particularly important for the research quality of Italian biotech firms
Relazioni tra imprese e università nel biotech dell'Emilia Romagna. Una valutazione sulla base della co-autorship delle pubblicazioni scientifiche
No full textQuesto lavoro analizza il tema delle collaborazioni tra istituti di ricerca e
imprese e le loro evoluzioni recenti, evidenziando il ruolo che può avere in un
tale tipo di analisi un indicatore relativamente poco utilizzato, almeno in Italia:
le pubblicazioni a firma congiunta. Il campo di osservazione sono le imprese
dell’Emilia Romagna che lavorano nel settore della salute utilizzando le
biotecnologie. L’analisi riguarda l’impatto che le dimensioni d’impresa hanno
sulle collaborazioni con università, ospedali ed altre imprese; l’ambito
territoriale delle collaborazioni; la struttura delle reti di collaborazione; le
relazioni tra questi fattori e la qualità delle pubblicazioni stesse. Da queste
osservazioni empiriche si cerca quindi di trarre delle implicazioni in termini di
lineamenti di policy a livello locale
"EU policies for innovation and knowledge diffusion". Quaderno del Dipartimento di Economia, Istituzioni, Territorio - Università di Ferrara, n.17/2002
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyse past and present EU policies towards innovation and knowledge diffusion and confront them with policies in other major industrialised countries. The confrontation we make primarily regards the innovative performance of the EU relative to the US and Japan, and points to a certain gap between Europe and the other two countries, especially in terms of the ability to transform innovation into commercial success.
We outline the fundamental trade-off of RTD policy, namely providing incentives to innovate, which requires the appropriation of the returns to innovation, and ensuring the diffusion of knowledge, which is larger, the less knowledge is appropriable. The review of policies over the last two decades points to a shift in emphasis of policy, from one side of the trade-off to the other, namely from the focus on incentives to innovate to a focus on diffusion. The main idea of policy is now to create an environment favourable to innovation and knowledge diffusion. For this purpose, networks should be developed within the economy: in particular the relationships between firms and
universities or other knowledge institutions have to be intensified.
What we show in the report is that, while the shift in emphasis has helped point to some previously neglected problems in innovative activities, it has also led to a lack of precise policy recommendation. It seems that all actions that favour relationships have to be adopted; networks have to be developed but the adequate type, size and institutional context of networks does not appear to be much discussed. In addition, the motivation for agents to take part in networks seem to be neglected, while this is essential for such networks to be created in the first place. In other words, the incentives to take part in innovative activities, and in particular the possibility to appropriate some of the returns from the innovation arising in the network, have to be specified. We show that the consideration of intangible assets brings new insights into the debate
Relazioni tra imprese e università nel biotech-salute dell'Emilia Romagna. Una valutazione sulla base della co-autorship nelle pubblicazioni scientifiche
No full text"How do the institutions involved in scientific collaboration deal with different kinds of distance? An analysis of the co-autorships of scientific publications"
Full text linkIn the scientific collaborations among different institutions at least two types of distance may be identified: spatial and institutional. We talk about spatial distance if the institutions are located in different places; about institutional distance if the collaborating institutions are of a different kind. Given that there are both barriers and incentives to overcome such distances, the specific focus of this paper is on the way the institutions involved in the collaboration deal with them. We are interested in studying if more stable collaborations have different characteristics from the more occasional ones on the point of view of spatial and institutional distance. We also aim to study also what kind of dependencies exist among these types of distance: if there is a trade-off among them, or a relation of complimentarity. Moreover, we take the content of the research, if basic or applied, into account. The phenomenon of collaborations among different institutions (firms, universities, hospitals and research centres) is seen through the lens of co-autorship of scientific publications in the Italian “red” biotech sector. As empirical tools, we adopt some indexes built in the context of the social network analysis (the E-I index and the equivalence coefficient) usually used in different applications. This kind of analysis may highlight how knowledge flows among innovative agents and should be taken into consideration by the policy maker that aims to promote research collaboration between different institutions
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