University-industry-relations - their role in technological innovation:the case of biotechnology in the UK

Biotechnology is one of a series of new `generic technologies' that have been identified by western governments as possessing stategic economic opportunities. In this thesis I examine the characteristics of the technology and the government policies that have been developed to both promote and exploit the underpinning scientific research for biotechnology. The approach I have taken involves an in-depth analysis of the role of university-industry research relations in the development of biotechnology. To this end I carried out a detailed survey of biotechnology companies in the UK on the nature of their interactions and objectives. Through individual case studies of the SERC and DTI club mechanisms in biotechnology, I provide a contemporary appraisal of the development of new mechanisms involving co-ordination and cooperation between industry, government and academia, established to couple state funded science and national economic development. The public policy implications of the club funding systems for science in the UK are examined.

The role of academic/industry partnerships in the development of supply chain managers

The need for improvement in the logistics and supply chain management capability of companies in Ireland is becoming increasingly recognised. One of the main bottlenecks currently is the shortage of supply chain management professionals. Education and training has a fundamental role to play if the supply of suitably qualified human resource is to be addressed in a meaningful way. Recent research indicates that demand for people with the right knowledge and skills greatly exceed supply. There are numerous techniques and technologies which can facilitate improvement in a company’s supply chain capability. However, experience has shown that these tools alone can not address the weaknesses – any improvement tool is only as good as a company’s ability to utilise it and effective utilisation depends above all on the knowledge and skill of employees. Education and training is essential in developing the requisite knowledge and skills. Consultants can play a role in terms of providing an objective view of a company’s requirements. But the only way to generate a sustainable competitive advantage is to ensure that the necessary knowledge and skills are available in-house. Indeed, the “consultancy culture” which has developed in many companies is a direct result of this lack of in-house expertise. Given the shortage of suitably qualified and experienced people in the job market, the only way that this problem can be addressed is through effective development of existing staff. This paper describes the partnership model adopted by the NITL to achieve its objective of combining academic excellence with real relevance to commercial needs in its supply chain management development programmes. The Executive Development Programme (EDP) is used to illustrate how the model is implemented.

Nurturing communities of practice for effective university-to-industry technology transfer:two exemplar cases from the Cauca Region of Columbia

This paper’s primary aim is to demonstrate how university-industry technology transfer can be achieved effectively by nurturing and bridging communities of practice amongst recipients of technology and stakeholders concerned with technology diffusion, productivity and economic development. Its empirical evidence is from an intervention initiative targeting two small-scale industries, namely fish farming and coffee production, in the Cauca region of Colombia. Results show how barriers to transfer have been overcome and the intervention’s design elements and outcomes are discussed.

The impact of university research on corporate patenting

This paper analyses the association between the number of patenting manufacturing firms and the quantity and quality of relevant university research across UK postcode areas. We show that different measures of research `power' and `excellence' positively affect the patenting of small firms within the same postcode area. Patenting by large firms, in contrast, is unaffected by research undertaken in nearby universities. This confirms the commonly held view that location matters more for small firms than large firms. We also investigate specific channels of technology transfer, finding that university-industry knowledge transfer occurs through both formal and informal channels. From a methodological point of view, we contribute to the existing literature by accounting for potential simultaneity between university research and patenting of local firms by adopting an instrumental variable approach. Moreover, we also allow for the effects of the presence of universities in neighbouring postcode areas to influence firms' patenting activity by incorporating spatial neighborhood effects.

Transferring technology from university to rural industry within a developing economy context:the case for nurturing communities of practice

The primary aim of this paper is to demonstrate how technology transfer between universities and rural industries in developing countries can be achieved effectively, using independent research and advisory centres as intermediaries. It draws on a longitudinal action research study, which experiments with the process of nurturing and bridging communities of practice amongst recipients of technology and stakeholders concerned with technology diffusion, productivity and economic development. Its empirical evidence is from an academic-related, non-government intervention initiative targeting two small-scale industries, namely fish farming and coffee production, in the Cauca region of Colombia. Results demonstrate how barriers to transfer can be overcome. The intervention is considered as instrumental; its key components and outcomes are discussed in detail. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The importance of team-working in knowledge transfer partnerships

Research capacity can be built by collaboration between industry and universities, and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are an ideal way to do this. While good collaboration and team-work has been recognised as crucial for success, projects tend to be evaluated on outcomes and not collaboration effectiveness. This paper discusses best practice for how a KTP project team might work together effectively.

International technology transfer and collaborative new product development:evidence and a case from the machine tool industry

In recent years, it has become increasingly common for companies to improve their competitiveness and find new markets by extending their operations through international new product development collaborations involving technology transfer. Technology development, cost reduction and market penetration are seen as the foci in such collaborative operations with the aim being to improve the competitive position of both partners. In this paper, the case of technology transfer through collaborative new product development in the machine tool sector is used to provide a typical example of such partnerships. The paper outlines the links between the operational aspects of collaborations and their strategic objectives. It is based on empirical data collected from the machine tool industries in the UK and China. The evidence includes longitudinal case studies and questionnaire surveys of machine tool manufacturers in both countries. The specific case of BSA Tools Ltd and its Chinese partner the Changcheng Machine Tool Works is used to provide an in-depth example of the operational development of a successful collaboration. The paper concludes that a phased coordination of commercial, technical and strategic interactions between the two partners is essential for such collaborations to work.

University to business technology transfer — UK and USA comparisons

University to business technology transfer offers specific challenges, beyond those encountered in industry more widely. This paper examines the issues in university to business technology transfer in the UK and USA and presents the results of a survey of UK and US university technology transfer officers. Findings indicate significant differences in the motivations of universities in each country to transfer technology, the consistency of university technology transfer policies and the accessibility of university technologies to business. The study also looks at perceived barriers to university to business technology transfer and offers suggestions for possible improvements to the process. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Intra-industry foreign direct investment, uneven development and globalization:the legacy of Stephen Hymer

This paper revisits the issue of intra-industry foreign direct investment (FDI). This issue was considered in Stephen Hymer's early work, but was not subsequently developed, and was largely ignored in the literature for some time. Using the example of the UK, this paper traces the patterns of intra-industry FDI, both across countries and industries, for both the manufacturing and service sectors. Despite the undoubted increase in the integration of goods and factor markets since the time of Hymer's writing, the analysis presented here shows that the pattern has changed little in the last 40 years. The paper then goes on to discuss the motives for intra-industry FDI, relating it to technology flows and factor cost differentials. Finally, we present some analysis relating intra-industry FDI to uneven development, both between developed and developing countries, and between regions of a developed country. It is clear that intra-industry FDI is still very much a developed country phenomenon, as Hymer suggested, with both developing countries and poorer regions of developed countries unlikely to reap any of the benefits. In this context, one-way and two-way FDI must be seen as different phenomena within the debate on globalisation. © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.

Productivity and labour demand effects of inward and outward FDI on UK industry

We relate the technological and factor price determinants of inward and outward FDI to its potential productivity and labour market effects on both host and home economies. This allows us to distinguish clearly between technology sourcing and technology exploiting FDI, and to identify FDI which is linked to labour cost differentials. We then empirically examine the effects of different types of FDI into and out of the United Kingdom on domestic (i.e. UK) productivity and on the demand for skilled and unskilled labour at the industry level. Inward investment into the UK comes overwhelmingly from sectors and countries which have a technological advantage over the corresponding UK sector. Outward FDI shows a quite different pattern, dominated by investment into foreign sectors which have lower unit labour costs than the UK. We find that different types of FDI have markedly different productivity and labour demand effects, which may in part explain the lack of consensus in the empirical literature on the effects of FDI. Our results also highlight the difficulty for policy makers of simultaneously improving employment and domestic productivity through FDI.

The impact of ICT on productivity of airline industry

Airline industry is at the forefront of many technological developments and is often a pioneer in adopting such innovations in a large scale. It needs to improve its efficiency as the current trends for input prices and competitive pressures show that any airline will face increasingly challenging market conditions. This paper has focused on the relationship between ICT investments and efficiency in the airline industry and employed a two-stage analytical investigation, DEA, SFA and the Tobit regression model. In this study, we first estimate the productivity of the airline industry using a balanced panel of 17 airlines over the period 1999–2004 by the Data Envelop Analysis (DEA) and the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) methods. We then evaluate the impacts of the determinants of productivity in the industry concentrating on ICT. The results suggest that regardless of all the negative shocks to the airline industry during the sample period, ICT had a positive effect on productivity during 1999-2004.

Regulatory price performance, excess cost indexes and profitability:how effective is price cap regulation in the water industry?

In this study we apply an index number approach to allow for cross sectional comparisons of relative profitability, productivity and price performance of the regulated Water and Sewerage companies (WaSCs) in England and Wales during the years 1991-2008. In order to better analyse the impact of regulation on WaSC performance, we decompose actual economic profits into spatial multilateral Fisher productivity (TFP) index, the inverse of which is demonstrated to be a regulatory excess cost index that measures the deviation of a firm’s actual costs from benchmark costs, and a newly developed regulatory total price performance (TPP) index, which measures the excess of regulated revenues relative to benchmark costs. Increases (decreases) in regulatory price performance are indicative of the loosening (tightening) of price cap regulation. Moreover, we also show that the relationship between actual economic profitability, regulatory excess costs and regulatory price performance indices can be used to categorize regulatory price caps as “weak”, “powerful” or “catch-up promoting”. The results indicated that throughout the entire 1991-2008 period, price caps were never “powerful”, in the sense that they required less productive firms to immediately and fully catch-up to the most productive firm to regain economic profitability. More specifically, during the years 1991-2000 price caps were “weak” as prices were high enough for the firms to achieve economic profits despite their low productivity levels. However, after 2001 prices became “catch up promoting” as they required less productive companies to eliminate at least some excess costs in order to eliminate economic losses. Finally, we emphasize that as our results also clearly demonstrated a much closer alignment between allowed revenues and benchmark costs after 2001, Ofwat’s approach during this period was not only appropriate, but should also be continued in the 2009 price review.