Knowledge stocks, knowledge flows and innovation: Evidence from matched patents and innovation panel data

Successful innovation depends on knowledge – technological, strategic and market related. In this paper we explore the role and interaction of firms’ existing knowledge stocks and current knowledge flows in shaping innovation success. The paper contributes to our understanding of the determinants of firms’ innovation outputs and provides new information on the relationship between knowledge stocks, as measured by patents, and innovation output indicators. Our analysis uses innovation panel data relating to plants’ internal knowledge creation, external knowledge search and innovation outputs. Firm-level patent data is matched with this plant-level innovation panel data to provide a measure of firms’ knowledge stock. Two substantive conclusions follow. First, existing knowledge stocks have weak negative rather than positive impacts on firms’ innovation outputs, reflecting potential core-rigidities or negative path dependencies rather than the accumulation of competitive advantages. Second, knowledge flows derived from internal investment and external search dominate the effect of existing knowledge stocks on innovation performance. Both results emphasize the importance of firms’ knowledge search strategies. Our results also re-emphasize the potential issues which arise when using patents as a measure of innovation.

Innovation persistence: Survey and case-study evidence

Evidence on the persistence of innovation sheds light on the nature of the innovation process and can guide appropriate policy development. This paper examines innovation persistence in Ireland and Northern Ireland using complementary quantitative and case-study approaches. Panel data derived from innovation surveys is used, and suggests very different results to previous analyses of innovation persistence primarily based on patents data. Product and process innovation are found to exhibit strong general persistence but we find no evidence that persistence is stronger among highly active innovators. Our quantitative evidence is most strongly consistent with a process of cumulative accumulation at plant level. Our case-studies highlight a number of factors which can either interrupt or stimulate this process including market volatility, plants’ organisational context and regulatory changes. Notably, however, the balance of influences on product and process innovation persistence differs, with product innovation persistence linked more strongly to strategic factors and process changes more often driven by market pressures.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Photosensitiser delivery for photodynamic therapy. Part 1: Topical carrier platforms

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a medical treatment in which a combination of a photosensitising drug and visible light causes destruction of selected cells. Due to the lack of true selectivity of preformed photosensitisers for neoplastic tissue and their high molecular weights, PDT of superficial skin lesions has traditionally been mediated by topical application of the porphyrin precursor 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). Objective: This article aims to review the traditional formulation-based approaches taken to topical delivery of ALA and discusses the more innovative strategies investigated for enhancement of PDT mediated by topical application of ALA and preformed photosensitisers. Methods: All of the available published print and online literature in this area was reviewed. As drug delivery of agents used in PDT is still something of an emerging field, it was not necessary to go beyond literature from the last 30 years. Results/conclusion: PDT of neoplastic skin lesions is currently based almost exclusively on topical application of simple semisolid dosage forms containing ALA or its methyl ester. Until expiry of patents on the current market-leading products, there is unlikely to be a great incentive to engage in design and evaluation of innovative formulations for topical PDT, especially those containing the more difficult-to-deliver preformed photosensitisers.

Leading integrated schools: a study of the multicultural perspectives of Northern Irish principals

This article is concerned with the sustained peace education initiative of integrated schooling and in particular with leadership responses to cultural diversity. Using a case study group of principals of integrated (mixed Catholic, Protestant and other) schools in Northern Ireland, the author explores how principals perceive and lead their visions of integrated education. A combined framework of multicultural and school leadership theory is employed to analyse the findings. The perceptions of the principals reported are consistent with liberal interpretations of multiculturalism, although there is also evidence of a more pluralist perspective. Core liberal values appear to be central to the leadership style of these principals, in line with values-led contingency models of leadership. The article suggests that a sole emphasis on common humanity is an inadequate approach to peace education. It tentatively suggests a relationship between leadership styles and approaches to multiculturalism, and argues that a synthesis of multicultural and leadership theory can usefully guide the development of peace education leadership.

Microporation Techniques for Enhanced Delivery of Therapeutic Agents

Perhaps the greatest barrier to development of the field of transmembrane drug delivery is that only a limited number of drugs are amenable to administration by this route. The highly lipophilic nature and barrier function of the uppermost layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, for example, restricts the permeation of hydrophilic, high molecular weight and charged compounds into the systemic circulation. Other membranes in the human body can also present significant barriers to drug permeation. In order to successfully deliver hydrophilic drugs, and macromolecular agents of interest, including peptides, DNA and small interfering RNA, many research groups and pharmaceutical companies Worldwide are focusing on the use of microporation methods and devices. Whilst there are a variety of microporation techniques, including the use of laser, thermal ablation, electroporation, radiofrequency, ultrasound, high pressure jets, and microneedle technology, they share the common goal of enhancing the permeability of a biological membrane through the creation of transient aqueous transport pathways of micron dimensions across that membrane. Once created, these micropores are orders of magnitude larger than molecular dimensions and, therefore, should readily permit the transport of hydrophilic macromolecules. Additionally, microporation devices also enable minimally-invasive sampling and monitoring of biological fluids. This review deals with the innovations relating to microporation-based methods and devices for drug delivery and minimally invasive monitoring, as disclosed in recent patent literature. © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Learning Not to Curse: Swearing, Testimony, and Truth in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative

This article addresses swearing and testimony in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative (1789) by reading the work in the context of a broader contemporary discourse concerning profane swearing and cursing. Acts of profane enunciation inform a number of key episodes in Equiano’s life, and bear particular significance for his spiritual development and abolitionist witnessing. Within the Narrative, swearing is cast as a failure of piety, civility, and humanity, and shown to be actively avenged by a retributive deity. In Britain, profane swearing was also thought to undermine the validity of legal testimony; while, in the British West Indies, slaves were denied recourse to such testimony against their oppressors. By disavowing profane swearing and cursing, the essay argues, Equiano sought to assert both the validity of his oath and the truth of his testimony against the iniquities of the British slave trade.

E-Participation and E-Participants: solving the patent ‘crisis’

One of the major planks of some visions for E-Gov is that there is a willing participatory group who are more than happy to be involved in new forms of democracy and will be active and useful suppliers of input to e-consultation or e-participation processes. This group is different from that which goes online to the government site web and signs a petition asking the prime minister to resign. It is becoming clear, though, that the commitment to e-participation may well be there in theory, but difficult to access in practice. Further, the participation which is most welcome can frequently require training and expertise which is not widely available or there may be differences in opinion as to the point of participation. In this paper I will look to the attempts to encourage participation in the patent system. The UK is about to initiate a trial system utilising New York Law School’s Peer To Patent project, but has also attempted to involve participants in previous consultation exercises. I will use these as demonstrations of the sorts of problems which e-participation has met, and consider whether this new form of E-Gov is perhaps being oversold. The interesting question is whether participation is a growing tool which can ensure better public services from the State. My conclusion is that consultation and participatory projects can demonstrate involvement and are certainly educative but e-participatory projects are most likely incapable of achieving the goals set by their more optimistic advocates. The paper emphasises the patents field, but the lessons from it can – I suggest – be viewed as indicators having wider governance relevance. The primary point being made is that the technocratic view is always over-optimistic.

L'abime en moi: Franz Kafka et le dilemme de l'etre

This article elaborates the notion of the abbyssal in Kafka's poetics, presenting the idea of the role of art and the artist for humanity.