Many warn that the next stage of globalization--the offshoring of research and development to China and India--threatens the foundations of Western prosperity. But in The Venturesome Economy, ...acclaimed business and economics scholar Amar Bhidé shows how wrong the doomsayers are. Using extensive field studies on venture-capital-backed businesses to examine how technology really advances in modern economies, Bhidé explains why know-how developed abroad enhances--not diminishes--prosperity at home, and why trying to maintain the U.S. lead by subsidizing more research or training more scientists will do more harm than good.
This open access book encompasses a collection of in-depth analyses showcasing the challenges and ways forward for macroeconomic modelling of R&D and innovation policies. Based upon the proceedings ...of the EC-DG JRC-IEA workshop held in Brussels in 2017, it presents cutting-edge contributions from a number of leading economists in the field. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current academic and policy challenges surrounding R&D as well as of the state-of-the-art modelling techniques. The book brings to the forefront outstanding issues related to the assessment of the macroeconomic impact of R&D policies and its modelling. It speaks to the rising importance of R&D and innovation policy, and the proliferation of macroeconomic models featuring endogenous technological change. The contents of this book will be of interest to both academic and policy audiences working in the fields of R&D and innovation.
Biomass as energy source in Brazil Lora, E.S.; Andrade, R.V.
Renewable & sustainable energy reviews,
05/2009, Volume:
13, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the programs, projects and technologies related to the use of biofuels in Brazil. An evaluation of the biomass availability and electricity ...generation potential for different industrial and agricultural sectors is also presented. As a result an estimation of the overall technical potential for electricity generation based on biofuels in Brazil is presented as well. In addition, the state-of-the-art of different biomass electricity conversing technologies is discussed. A diagram is presented about the organization links and funding of biomass energy research activities in Brazil. Main development and research activities being carried out in this area at the Excellence Group in Thermal Power and Distributed Generation - NEST at the Mechanical Engineering Institute of the Federal University of Itajubá - UNIFEI, located in the city of Itajubá, Brazil are presented.
This volume offers an up-to-date guide to the principles of socioformation, which represent the foundation of the development of formative projects through collaborative working in academia, not only ...for the construction of the knowledge, but also for the development of research. It provides the reader with insights into the processes of collaborative working, presenting an analysis that offers a clear distinction between collaborative working and cooperative working.
Inter-organizational knowledge transfer is widely considered to be an important source of competitiveness in the extant literature and by innovation policymakers. This paper reports on a study that ...investigated inter-firm knowledge transfer in research and development (R&D) projects that received public funding. All projects took place in Finland and included university and/or research institute member(s). Based on multiple case studies, the significance of social capital in knowledge transfer was analyzed. Aspects that limited the knowledge transfer were identified and the effects of motivation on collaboration were evaluated. In certain cases, the knowledge transfer between firms was minimal and existed only in formal meetings. Surprisingly, the firms shared their R&D results openly with other network members, but this was not considered particularly beneficial.
The knowledge transfer was limited by changes in consortiums, changes in project duration and/or budget, differences in R&D interests, insufficient resources, and ability to achieve R&D goal(s) without collaboration. In cases with active collaboration, several features of social capital in combination with complimentary business goals were perceived as facilitators of knowledge transfer. Based on the results, practical implications for innovation policymakers and project coordinators, and directions for future research, are proposed.
•Social capital supports the inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D projects.•Making knowledge available does not guarantee the transfer of the knowledge.•Shared business interests facilitated collaboration more than similar R&D topics.•Knowledge transfer between firms was weaker than expected.
The place-based regional industrial strategies provide a novel approach to examining the role of science parks in enhancing regional innovation with place-based policies. With qualitative interviews ...and case analyses, this study investigates how a place-based science park affects innovation activities of technology-focused companies. Our research findings demonstrate paradoxical nature with both positive and negative aspects of firms' strategies that cope with obstacles such as the lack of funding for R and D and weak policy on IP protection. These obstacles hinder the collaboration on innovation and strengthen the effect of economic uncertainty on companies' short-term survival orientation. Important implications for both theory and practice are discussed with possible future research directions identified.
This book delves into the research-policy nexus as it relates to development in Africa. It does so by examining four country-cases - Botswana, Cte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zambia - while referring to ...South Africa as a possible exemplar case.The book reaffirms that the majority of governments in Africa spend less than one per cent of their GDP on research and development (R&D) despite the commitment to raise their research funding levels contained in the Lagos Plan of Action (1980). Hence, reliance on external funding for research persists on the continent.To manage research engagements and public funds, Science Granting Councils (SGCs) have been established. These institutions are held accountable for how public funds are spent and how the research they fund contributes to the advancement of society.To-date, the SGCs and researchers have demonstrated in various ways how funded research contributes to the advancement of society. However, there appear to be differences in opinion amongst key stakeholders in terms of what constitutes research priorities as well as expectations in terms of the returns on research investments made.This book brings to the fore the importance of research and its outcome on societal development, and reveals the stake that African governments hold in the process. The book encourages African governments to show greater commitment to providing funding for research on the continent.This is critical if governments are to assume a lead role in the continent's development agenda. It would also set the stage for partnerships with other stakeholders, including industry and funding organisations. Researchers are also encouraged to work closely with the SGCs to ensure the valorisation of research products for societal benefit. This has a potential to unlock more funding for research in Africa which, in turn, would drive the development of the continent.
Abstract
With so much confusion around use case modeling, software developers may be reluctant to apply it. However, use cases are easy to apply and have great benefits even in research settings with ...nonprofessional software developers involved. We report on our experience on this within an innovative tourist information system developed in a research setting of an ongoing Horizon 2020 project named Promotion of Rural Museums and Heritage Sites in the Vicinity of European Pilgrimage Routes (rurAllure). The resulting use case model comprises forty use cases supported by class diagrams, use case diagrams, sequence diagrams, as well as by the domain model and dictionary. Three quarters of use cases have been implemented at least to some extent. Writing use cases provoked intense communication, which helped consolidate the system architecture. The use cases helped validate and better understand the GUI form wireframes designed beforehand and get quickly to a consistent implementation of the system that can be experimented with further in different ways. Finally, the forthcoming extensive system and user experience testing will be guided by the use case model. The paper also exposes the domain model and dictionary along with selected use cases and the hierarchy of user and system actors, which may be useful as such or as a stimulus for the development of other innovative tourist information systems.
This paper investigates a novel induced ordered weighted averaging (IOWA) distance operator and its application in Pythagorean fuzzy (PF) multiattribute group decision making (MAGDM). First, a new ...induced aggregated distance operator named the weighted IOWA distance (WIOWAD) operator is developed, which differs from the existing methods in that it considers the dual roles of the order‐inducing variables at the same time. In other words, in addition to inducing the order of the arguments, the order‐inducing variables of the WIOWAD operator also plays an important role in moderating the associated weight vector. Some useful properties and different families of the WIOWAD are also discussed. Then, an extension of the WIOWAD within the PF situation is presented, thus obtaining the PFWIOWAD operator. Furthermore, a MAGDM method based on the PFWIOWAD is introduced. Finally, the practicality and effectiveness of proposed approach are illustrated in a research and development project selection problem.
