Absorptive Capacity for R&D: The Identification of Different Firm Profiles

Being competitive requires continuously performing product and process innovations nowadays. Because of this reason, the absorption of externally generated R&D is increasingly important for companies. It is well known that companies differ regarding their aptitude for knowledge absorption. This paper aims at the identification of different firm profiles by means of the identification and valuation of drivers that support the absorption of external R&D. For this, we have carried out an empirical work that is based on a random sample of companies located in the northern Spanish county of Biscay. We identify four company conglomerates according to their attitude to absorb externally generated R&D.     

Demographics,Innovative Outputs and Alliance Strategies of Canadian Biotech Firms

This paper focuses on the characteristics of biotech firms that consider alliances as critical to the innovation and commercialization of biotech-based products. First, we consider alliances with both universities and industries. Next, we examine attributes for those firms who consider proximity to universities as critical compared with others that do not put high value on physical proximity. Our study is informed by the literature on the biotechnology industry as well as studies on absorptive capacity, alliances and clusters in exploration and exploitation of knowledge, research and technologies. We analyse data based on a 2002 survey of Canadian biotech firms and find that while collaborative arrangements with universities are the most common among our sample firms, those who assign a high value to such linkages are not necessarily always the biotech firms experiencing commercial success.     

Bridge and Boundary: The Maritime Connections of Colonial Arequipa,Peru

International Journal of Historical Archaeology - European empires heavily relied on maritime connections for their expansion and operations. In the Andean region, where Spanish colonialism had a...     

Establishing Connections,Restoring Relationships: Exploring the Historiography of Nursing in Britain

This paper provides a comparative historiographical framework within which to reconsider the history of nursing. It asks why nursing has remained largely sidelined within the history of medicine, while the latter has gained mainstream respectability in the wider field of historical research. Gender historians are challenged to look at the under‐explored aspects of nursing's history such as pre‐Nightingale nurses and nursing, and the multiple and international meanings of race, class and gender as experienced by this unique cohort of women and men. The paper draws upon key texts in the history of nursing and of medicine and includes a discussion about use of imagery within significant publications and what this says about intended readerships. It concludes that, unlike medicine, nursing professionals have to some extent hijacked the history of nursing, while the subject has been further hampered by Florence Nightingale's legacy and the subsequent emphasis on the professionalisation of nursing.     

世界遗产:合作、交流与能力建设

1972年《保护世界文化和自然遗产公约》(简称《公约》)通过,其初衷旨在创造一种国际机制,促进合作,鼓励对文化和自然遗产突出普遍价值的自愿性保护.世界遗产名录自1977年设立以来,不断迎来新成员,截至2014年,全球世界遗产数目已突破千项.     

Masculinities,Race and Nationhood – Critical Connections

Books reviewed in this article: Hazel V. Carby, Race Men Gillian Creese, Contracting Masculinity: Gender, Class, and Race in aWhite‐Collar Union, 1944‐1994 Dana D. Nelson, National Manhood: Capitalist Citizenship and theImagined Fraternity of White Men     

A General Misspecification Test for Spatial Regression Models: Dependence, Heterogeneity, and Nonlinearity

There is an increasing awareness of the potentials of nonlinear modeling in regional science. This can be explained partly by the recognition of the limitations of conventional equilibrium models in complex situations, and also by the easy availability and accessibility of sophisticated computational techniques. Among the class of nonlinear models, dynamic variants based on, for example, chaos theory stand out as an interesting approach. However, the operational significance of such approaches is still rather limited and a rigorous statistical-econometric treatment of nonlinear dynamic modeling experiments is lacking. Against this background this paper is concerned with a methodological and empirical analysis of a general misspecification test for spatial regression models that is expected to have power against nonlinearity, spatial dependence, and heteroskedasticity. The paper seeks to break new research ground by linking the classical diagnostic tools developed in spatial econometrics to a misspecification test derived directly from chaos theory—the BDS test, developed by Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman (1987). A spatial variant of the BDS test is introduced and applied in the context of two examples of spatial process models, one of which is concerned with the spatial distribution of regional investments in The Netherlands, the other with spatial crime patterns in Columbus, Ohio.     

Heterogeneity,Group Size and Collective Action: The Role of Institutions in Forest Management

Collective action for sustainable management among resource‐dependent populations has important policy implications. Despite considerable progress in identifying factors that affect the prospects for collective action, no consensus exists about the role played by heterogeneity and size of group. The debate continues in part because of a lack of uniform conceptualization of these factors, the existence of non‐linear relationships, and the mediating role played by institutions. This article draws on research by scholars in the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research network which demonstrates that some forms of heterogeneity do not negatively affect some forms of collective action. More importantly, IFRI research draws out the interrelations among group size, heterogeneity, and institutions. Institutions can affect the level of heterogeneity or compensate for it. Group size appears to have a non‐linear relationship to at least some forms of collective action. Moreover, group size may be as much an indicator of institutional success as a precondition for such success.     

Local Production Systems and Organizational Change: Hierarchization and Competing Firm Networks in Marinha Grande,Portugal

European local production systems have evolved and restructured in recent decades. One path of change has been an internal reorganization towards more hierarchization among local firms and the emergence of formal firm networks and an economic reconcentration. This article supports these observations and provides evidence from the mould industry in Marinha Grande, Portugal. The formal firm networks are, however, heterogeneous and they constitute new competitive strategies, that challenge the historical organization and institutions of the industrial districts and local production systems in which small was beautiful.     

Complexity,Capacity, and Budget Punctuations

The budgeting literature has long focused on “institutional friction” as a cause of ubiquitous punctuated equilibrium (PE) findings. A recent wave of scholarship looks to identify specific institutional mechanisms that affect the number of punctuations in policy outputs. We contribute to this growing body of research by focusing on the complexity of the institutional environment surrounding a policy area as well as that of the government as a whole. These factors have opposite effects: the more complex a policy area, the greater the likelihood of extreme spending changes. But, higher institutional capacity in general leads to greater stability. To test these ideas, we develop a novel index of budgetary change that balances the conceptual importance of extreme changes while analyzing the entire distribution of budget changes, not only the tails. In addition, we also demonstrate that findings are robust to a number of important distinctions, such as between series associated with slowly moving demographic trends or quickly moving stochastic events. We, therefore, demonstrate the robustness of important findings from the established literature, add a new measure of the dependent variable, and push the literature forward with a new focus on issue complexity and institutional capacity.     

Global Strategies Compared: Firms,Markets and Regions

This paper explores the disembedding effects of globalization upon regional social ties as proposed in the relevant literature. It then asks questions about the limitations of such disembedding in relation to the prospects for new social movements. The analysis proposed offers an understanding of globalization as a societal, historical process. It shows that firms adopt diverse and distinctive strategies for going global which structure the overall process in question. These developments have organizational and spatial-regional effects which create tensions in the globlization process.     

Remembering Places Never Visited: Connections and Context in Imagined and Imaginary Landscapes

Despite the vast research on landscape and landscape archaeology conducted over the past decade little attention has been given to the role of memory and imagination in people’s engagement with their ancestral homelands, “country” or other meaningful landscape. An analysis of a range of case studies, both historical and contemporary reveal that people often feel great attachment to and desire to engage with lands that they may have never visited or have little empirical evidence for attachment. Further complicating this are those examples where a “heritage” landscape based on ancient homelands is constructed on the diasporic lands of their daily lives. Understanding these imaginary landscapes offers the opportunity to take a fresh look at the relationship between identity and landscape.     

Pricing, Capacity Choice, and Financing in Transportation Networks

Abstract.  This paper explores interrelations between pricing, capacity choice, and financing in transportation networks. We build on the Mohring‐Harwitz result on self‐financing of optimally designed and priced roads and investigate it in a network environment under various types of second‐best regulation. A small network model with endogenous car ownership demonstrates that optimal congestion pricing and capacity choice over an entire network may cause user prices to increase more in initially mildly congested areas compared to heavily congested areas. Furthermore, a flat kilometer charge under optimal capacity choice may result in first‐best efficiency gains.