Key principles for developing industrially relevant strategic technology management toolkits

When considering the potential uptake and utilization of technology management tools by industry, it must be recognized that companies face the difficult challenges of selecting, adopting and integrating individual tools into a toolkit that must be implemented within their current organizational processes and systems. This situation is compounded by the lack of sound advice on integrating well-founded individual tools into a robust toolkit that has the necessary degree of flexibility such that they can be tailored for application to specific problems faced by individual organizations. As an initial stepping stone to offering a toolkit with empirically proven utility, this paper provides a conceptual foundation to the development of toolkits by outlining an underlying philosophical position based on observations from multiple research and commercial collaborations with industry. This stance is underpinned by a set of operationalized principles that can offer guidance to organizations when deciding upon the appropriate form, functions and features that should be embodied by any potential tool/toolkit. For example, a key objective of any tool is to aid decision-making and a core set of powerful, flexible, scaleable and modular tools should be sufficient to allow users to generate, explore, shape and implement possible solutions across a wide array of strategic issues. From our philosophical stance, the preferred mode of engagement is facilitated workshops with a participatory process that enables multiple perspectives and structures the conversation through visual representations in order to manage the cognitive load in the collaborative environment. The generic form of the tools should be configurable for the given context and utilized in a lightweight manner based on the premise of 'start small and iterate fast'. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

The process of making the business case for technology: A sales and marketing perspective for technologists

Technological investment is a key driver of innovation and the evaluation of technology potential is becoming increasingly important in this context. There is a range of approaches and tools for developing an understanding of the value of technology. However the process of communicating this potential to possible customers is not well documented in terms of theory and practice and falls outside the skill set of many technologists. This paper seeks to integrate the concepts of marketing and consultative selling into making business cases for new technologies. It describes an exploratory study which results in an outline process activity model for technologists wishing to build an effective business case for securing investment internally or when selling a technology externally. Following a review of literature, we suggest that there is potential to learn from market research and consultative sales techniques, and propose a five step process. The work has been industrially validated and forms a novel foundation for further development. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Exploring industry dynamics and interactions

Within strategic technology management and innovation, often stakeholders extrapolate past industry dynamics, trends and patterns into the future. One frequently used concept is that of 'lifecycles' - an analogy of a sequence of stages encountered by living organisms. Lifecycle terms - such as technology, product, industry - are frequently used interchangeably and without clear definition. Within the interdisciplinary context of technology management and forecasting, this juxtaposition of dynamics can create confusion rather than simplification. This paper explores some of the dynamics typically associated with technology-based industries, illustrated with data from the early US automotive industry. A wide range of dimensions are seen to have potential to influence the path of industry development, and technology roadmapping architecture is used to present a simplified visualisation of some of these. Stakeholders need to consider the units of analysis, causality and synchronicity of relevant different dynamics, rather than isolated lifecycles. Some graphical curves represent simple aggregation of components; other dynamics have significant impact, but incur time lags, rather than being superimposed. To optimise alignment of the important dimensions within any technology development, and for future strategy decisions, understanding these interactions is critical. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Idea Competitions under scrutiny: Acquisition, intelligence or public relations mechanism?

Idea Competitions (ICs) are becoming a popular mechanism chosen by firms to perform Open Innovation. They are a way to engage with external sources of knowledge such as individual entrepreneurs and small firms who are asked to submit ideas and compete for a prize. However, little is known about the success of ICs as acquisition mechanisms. The researchers conducted interviews in five multinational companies to evaluate the effects of using ICs as an acquisition mechanism. Although still preliminary, the results of this study show that the success of ICs as an acquisition mechanism remains uncertain because their output (i.e. the number of ideas acquired) is often low compared to the input (i.e. the number of ideas submitted) and effort required to run them (e.g. to vet ideas). Across the cases observed, ICs appear to be more successful at identifying and acquiring early-stage ideas, particularly those outside the current business focus. The study shows that ICs deliver other functional benefits such as improved intelligence and public relations and that these need to be considered as part of the evaluation of the IC's success. The paper concludes by discussing the conditions in which ICs are implemented and the implications for Open Innovation theory. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Growth and food availability of silver and bighead carps: evidence from stable isotope and gut content analysis

A 2-year investigation of growth and food availability of silver carp and bighead was carried out using stable isotope and gut content analysis in a large pen in Meiliang Bay of Lake Taihu, China. Both silver carp and bighead exhibited significantly higher delta 13C in 2005 than in 2004, which can probably be attributed to two factors: (i) the difference between isotopic compositions at the base of the pelagic food web and (ii) the difference between the compositions of prey items and stable isotopes. The significantly positive correlations between body length, body weight and stable isotope ratios indicated that isotopic changes in silver carp and bighead resulted from the accumulation of biomass concomitant with rapid growth. Because of the drastic decrease in zooplankton in the diet in 2005, silver carp and bighead grew faster in 2004 than in 2005. Bighead carp showed a lower trophic level than silver carp in 2005 as indicated by stable nitrogen isotope ratios, which was possibly explained by the interspecific difference between the prey species and the food quality of silver carp and bighead.

Antibunching and blinking from a single colloidal CdSe quantum dot

We have investigated the optical properties of single CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals by conducting combinations of experiments on antibunching and photoluminescence intermittence under different experimental conditions. Based on photoluminescence in an antibunching experiment, we analyzed the emission lifetime of QDs by using stretched exponentials. The difference between the parameters obtained from average lifetimes and stretched exponents were analyzed by considering the effect of nonradiative emission. An Auger-assisted tunneling model was used to explain the power law exponents of off time distribution. The power law exponent under high excitation power was correlated with a higher Auger ionization rate. Using the parameters obtained from stretched exponential function and power law, the antibunching phenomena at different time and under different excitation intensity were analyzed.

基于组件属性的远程证明

提出了一个组件级的细粒度属性证明方案,用于向远程依赖方证明用户平台满足某种安全属性.与现有的远程证明方案相比,组件属性远程证明具有一定的语义和属性表述性等优势.该方案不但证明粒度细和扩展性强,而且属性证书的颁发、验证和撤销实现简单;本方案以组件承诺的方法保证属性证明的真实性,采用零知识证明实现平台组件的隐私性.基于强RSA假设,在Random Oracle模型下可被证明是安全的.实现的原型系统实验结果表明,组件属性证明是一种灵活、实用、高效的证明,对系统性能没有影响.

谓词μ演算和模态图的语义一致性

模态图是谓词μ演算的一种有效的图形表示形式。证明了谓词μ演算和模态图的语义一致性，详细讨论了谓词μ演算公式、嵌套谓词等式系和模态图之间的关系，并给出了一种优化的从线性公式到嵌套谓词等式系的转换算法。

基于MDA的TRISO-Model模型管理方法及应用

TRISO-Model(tridimensional integrated software development model)是为处理软件开发的复杂性和动态性而提出的三维集成软件开发方法学,其中,多维模型之间的语义一致性维护以及对模型应用中公共操作部分的重用,提出了基于一致语义进行模型管理的需求.给出了基于MDA(model driven architecture)进行模型管理的方法MDA-MMMethod(MDA based model management method),应用MDA的4层模型管理结构,基于MDA核心标准MOF(meta object facility)所提供的公共语义基础管理模型和元模型,MDA-MMMethod支持各种MDA模型操作标准实现在TRSIO-model应用中的重用.开发了相应的支持系统MDA-MMSystem(MDA based model management system),应用于SoftPM的项目实践中.与传统方法相比,模型应用的开发效率得到了显著提高,同时降低了开发成本.最后,给出了模型融合的应用实例介绍.

基于本体的发布/订阅系统的数据模型和匹配算法

现有的发布／订阅系统不能根据事件的语义来进行事件与订阅的匹配，且不能支持具有复杂结构（如图状结构）的事件．将语义Web技术引入发布／订阅系统中，提出一种基于本体的发布／订阅系统．该系统采用本体来表示事件的概念模型，采用RDF图来表示事件，采用图模式来表示订阅条件．它能较好地解决现有的发布／订阅系统的上述问题．实验结果表明，该系统具有较高的订阅匹配效率．

超声波对HCFC-141b水合物形成过程的影响研究

针对水合物形成过程中存在成核诱导期长、过冷度大，形成速度慢的问题，本文以HCFC-141b（1，1-dichloro-1-flooroethane）作为研究工质，将超声波引入水合物形成过程中，研究超声波对水合物形成的影响。建立了包括超声波水合反应系统、数据采集和图像采集系统的可视化低温实验系统。利用这套实验系统，分别实验研究了频率为20kHz和15kHz，功率为0-1000w的超声波对HCFC-141b水合物的形成影响。实验结果表明，超声波对水合物的形成有明显的影响。水合物形成过程主要分为三阶段：冷却期、