The innovation value chain in new technology based firms:evidence from the UK

We present the first innovation value chain analysis for a representative sample of new technology based firms (NTBFs) in the UK. This involves determining which factors lead to the usage of different knowledge sources and the relationships that exist between those sources of knowledge; the effect that each knowledge source has on innovative activity; and how innovation outputs affect the performance of NTBFs. We find that internal and external knowledge sources are complementary for NTBFs, and that supply chain linkages have both a direct and indirect effect on innovation. NTBFs’ skill resources matter throughout the innovation value chain, being positively associated with external knowledge linkages and innovation success, and also having a direct effect on growth independent of the effect on innovation. Exporting matters for performance, but not through any effect on innovation.

Offshoring:a multi-country study of FDI in high-technology sectors

This paper examines what is still a relatively new phenomenon in the literature, the outsourcing / offshoring of high technology manufacturing and services. This has become a concern for both policy makers and academics for two reasons. Firstly, policy makers have become concerned that the offshoring of high technology sectors in the West will follow the more labour intensive sectors, and move to lower cost locations. Secondly, international business theory has tended to view low costs, and high levels of indigenous technological development as being the two main drivers of location advantage in the attraction of FDI. We show that this may not be the case for offshored high technology manufacturing or services.

Changes in information processing in children and their implications for marketing strategy

This thesis examines children's consumer choice behaviour using an information processing perspective, with the fundamental goal of applying academic research to practical marketing and commercial problems. Proceeding a preface, which describes the academic and commercial terms of reference within which this interdisciplinary study is couched, the thesis comprises four discernible parts. Initially, the rationale inherent in adopting an information processing perspective is justified and the diverse array of topics which have bearing on children's consumer processing and behaviour are aggregated. The second part uses this perspective as a springboard to appraise the little explored role of memory, and especially memory structure, as a central cognitive component in children's consumer choice processing. The main research theme explores the ease with which 10 and 11 year olds retrieve contemporary consumer information from subjectively defined memory organisations. Adopting a sort-recall paradigm, hierarchical retrieval processing is stimulated and it is contended that when two items, known to be stored proximally in the memory organisation are not recalled adjacently, this discrepancy is indicative of retrieval processing ease. Results illustrate the marked influence of task conditions and orientation of memory structure on retrieval; these conclusions are accounted for in terms of input and integration failure. The third section develops the foregoing interpellations in the marketing context. A straightforward methodology for structuring marketing situations is postulated, a basis for segmenting children's markets using processing characteristics is adopted, and criteria for communicating brand support information to children are discussed. A taxonomy of market-induced processing conditions is developed. Finally, a case study with topical commercial significance is described. The development, launch and marketing of a new product in the confectionery market is outlined, the aetiology of its subsequent demise identified and expounded, and prescriptive guidelines are put forward to help avert future repetition of marketing misjudgements.

Finding structures in information networks using the affinity network

This thesis proposes a novel graphical model for inference called the Affinity Network,which displays the closeness between pairs of variables and is an alternative to Bayesian Networks and Dependency Networks. The Affinity Network shares some similarities with Bayesian Networks and Dependency Networks but avoids their heuristic and stochastic graph construction algorithms by using a message passing scheme. A comparison with the above two instances of graphical models is given for sparse discrete and continuous medical data and data taken from the UCI machine learning repository. The experimental study reveals that the Affinity Network graphs tend to be more accurate on the basis of an exhaustive search with the small datasets. Moreover, the graph construction algorithm is faster than the other two methods with huge datasets. The Affinity Network is also applied to data produced by a synchronised system. A detailed analysis and numerical investigation into this dynamical system is provided and it is shown that the Affinity Network can be used to characterise its emergent behaviour even in the presence of noise.

Recent developments in information retrieval:preface

This paper summarizes the scientific work presented at the 32nd European Conference on Information Retrieval. It demonstrates that information retrieval (IR) as a research area continues to thrive with progress being made in three complementary sub-fields, namely IR theory and formal methods together with indexing and query representation issues, furthermore Web IR as a primary application area and finally research into evaluation methods and metrics. It is the combination of these areas that gives IR its solid scientific foundations. The paper also illustrates that significant progress has been made in other areas of IR. The keynote speakers addressed three such subject fields, social search engines using personalization and recommendation technologies, the renewed interest in applying natural language processing to IR, and multimedia IR as another fast-growing area.

The innovation value chain in new technology-based firms:evidence from the U.K.

Innovation is central to the survival and growth of firms, and ultimately to the health of the economies of which they are part. A clear understanding both of the processes by which firms perform innovation and the benefits which flow from innovation in terms of productivity and growth is therefore essential. This paper demonstrates the use of a conceptual framework and modeling tool, the innovation value chain (IVC), and shows how the IVC approach helps to highlight strengths and weaknesses in the innovation performance of a key group of firms-new technology-based firms. The value of the IVC is demonstrated in showing the key interrelationships in the whole process of innovation from sourcing knowledge through product and process innovation to performance in terms of the growth and productivity outcomes of different types of innovation. The use of the IVC highlights key complementarities, such as that between internal R&D, external R&D, and other external sources of knowledge. Other important relationships are also highlighted. Skill resources matter throughout the IVC, being positively associated with external knowledge linkages and innovation success, and also having a direct influence on growth independent of the effect on innovation. A key benefit of the IVC approach is therefore its ability to highlight the roles of different factors at various stages of the knowledge-innovation-performance nexus, and to show their indirect as well as direct impact. This in turn permits both managerial and policy implications to be drawn. © 2012 Product Development & Management Association.

Cognitive orientation type as a source of individual differences in information processing

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Automatic indexing in information retrieval

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Dynamic Ontologies in Information Security Systems

Different types of ontologies and knowledge or metaknowledge connected to them are considered and analyzed aiming at realization in contemporary information security systems (ISS) and especially the case of intrusion detection systems (IDS) or intrusion prevention systems (IPS). Human-centered methods INCONSISTENCY, FUNNEL, CALEIDOSCOPE and CROSSWORD are algorithmic or data-driven methods based on ontologies. All of them interact on a competitive principle ‘survival of the fittest’. They are controlled by a Synthetic MetaMethod SMM. It is shown that the data analysis frequently needs an act of creation especially if it is applied to knowledge-poor environments. It is shown that human-centered methods are very suitable for resolutions in case, and often they are based on the usage of dynamic ontologies

Multialgebraic Systems in Information Granulation

In different fields a conception of granules is applied both as a group of elements defined by internal properties and as something inseparable whole reflecting external properties. Granular computing may be interpreted in terms of abstraction, generalization, clustering, levels of abstraction, levels of detail, and so on. We have proposed to use multialgebraic systems as a mathematical tool for synthesis and analysis of granules and granule structures. The theorem of necessary and sufficient conditions for multialgebraic systems existence has been proved.