From evolution to co-evolution – An empirical study of the role of innovation, policy and public research in industrial dynamics

In the past decades since Schumpeter’s influential writings economists have pursued research to examine the role of innovation in certain industries on firm as well as on industry level. Researchers describe innovations as the main trigger of industry dynamics, while policy makers argue that research and education are directly linked to economic growth and welfare. Thus, research and education are an important objective of public policy. Firms and public research are regarded as the main actors which are relevant for the creation of new knowledge. This knowledge is finally brought to the market through innovations. What is more, policy makers support innovations. Both actors, i.e. policy makers and researchers, agree that innovation plays a central role but researchers still neglect the role that public policy plays in the field of industrial dynamics. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to learn more about the interdependencies of innovation, policy and public research in industrial dynamics. The overarching research question of this dissertation asks whether it is possible to analyze patterns of industry evolution – from evolution to co-evolution – based on empirical studies of the role of innovation, policy and public research in industrial dynamics. This work starts with a hypothesis-based investigation of traditional approaches of industrial dynamics. Namely, the testing of a basic assumption of the core models of industrial dynamics and the analysis of the evolutionary patterns – though with an industry which is driven by public policy as example. Subsequently it moves to a more explorative approach, investigating co-evolutionary processes. The underlying questions of the research include the following: Do large firms have an advantage because of their size which is attributable to cost spreading? Do firms that plan to grow have more innovations? What role does public policy play for the evolutionary patterns of an industry? Are the same evolutionary patterns observable as those described in the ILC theories? And is it possible to observe regional co-evolutionary processes of science, innovation and industry evolution? Based on two different empirical contexts – namely the laser and the photovoltaic industry – this dissertation tries to answer these questions and combines an evolutionary approach with a co-evolutionary approach. The first chapter starts with an introduction of the topic and the fields this dissertation is based on. The second chapter provides a new test of the Cohen and Klepper (1996) model of cost spreading, which explains the relationship between innovation, firm size and R&D, at the example of the photovoltaic industry in Germany. First, it is analyzed whether the cost spreading mechanism serves as an explanation for size advantages in this industry. This is related to the assumption that the incentives to invest in R&D increase with the ex-ante output. Furthermore, it is investigated whether firms that plan to grow will have more innovative activities. The results indicate that cost spreading serves as an explanation for size advantages in this industry and, furthermore, growth plans lead to higher amount of innovative activities. What is more, the role public policy plays for industry evolution is not finally analyzed in the field of industrial dynamics. In the case of Germany, the introduction of demand inducing policy instruments stimulated market and industry growth. While this policy immediately accelerated market volume, the effect on industry evolution is more ambiguous. Thus, chapter three analyzes this relationship by considering a model of industry evolution, where demand-inducing policies will be discussed as a possible trigger of development. The findings suggest that these instruments can take the same effect as a technical advance to foster the growth of an industry and its shakeout. The fourth chapter explores the regional co-evolution of firm population size, private-sector patenting and public research in the empirical context of German laser research and manufacturing over more than 40 years from the emergence of the industry to the mid-2000s. The qualitative as well as quantitative evidence is suggestive of a co-evolutionary process of mutual interdependence rather than a unidirectional effect of public research on private-sector activities. Chapter five concludes with a summary, the contribution of this work as well as the implications and an outlook of further possible research.

What is Abstinence? Definitions and Examples of Abstinence, to Prevent the Sexual Transmission of the HIV Virus, According to Spanish University Students

Research carried out in several Anglo-Saxon countries shows that many undergraduates identify oral sex and anal sex as examples of abstinent behaviour, while many others consider kissing and masturbation as examples of having sex. The objective of this research was to investigate whether a sample of Spanish students gave similar replies. Seven hundred and fifty undergraduates (92% aged under 26, 67.6% women) produced examples or definitions of the term ‘abstinence’. Spanish students made similar errors to those observed in the Anglo-Saxon samples, in that behaviours that were abstinent from a preventive point of view (masturbating and sex without penetration) were not considered as such, while a number of students reported oral sex as abstinent behaviour. The results suggest that the information on risky and preventive sexual behaviour should cease to use ambiguous or euphemistic expressions and use vocabulary that is clear and comprehensible to everyone

Lecture 1: The Pioneers and History (pre-WWW)

A Powerpoint file for a Lecture on the development of the world wide web. Intended for lecturers and undergraduates. Produced by Hugh Davis, ECS for a 3rd year Module.

Engineering Foundation Year - Sustaining Success - Lecture 1 - slides

These materials are used in student tutorials as part of the routes to success course. The tutorials are typically delivered to a large group (~50) in an interactive manner, with the slides serving as reference/check materials. Some of the questions in the slides can also be used as individual handouts

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 1

Lecture 1: The Pioneers and History of Hypertext (pre-WWW) Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: Bush: As We may Think; Engelbart: NLS and A Framework for Augmenting Human Intelligence; Nelson: Xanalogical Structure; Conklin: A Survey of Hypertext; Halasz 1987: Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems; Berners-Lee 1994 The World-Wide Web.

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 2

Lecture 1: Contributions of Pre WWW Research: Open Hypermedia Systems Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: Industrial Strength Hypermedia: Requirements for a Large Engineering Enterprise (Malcolm et al. 1991); Towards An Integrated Information Environment With Open Hypermedia Systems (Davis et al. 1992); Unifying Strategies for Web Augmentation (Bouvin 1999); Hyper-G (Adapted from Lowe and Hall); OHP:A Draft Proposal for a Standard Open Hypermedia Protocol (Davis et al. 1996); XML Linking (DeRose 99)

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 3

Lecture 3: Contributions of Pre WWW Research: Spatial Hypertext and Temporal Hypertext Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: Spatial [SPATIAL] VIKI: spatial hypertext supporting emergent structure (Marshall, 94); Towards Geo-Spatial Hypermedia: Concepts and Prototype Implementation, (Gronbaek et al. 2002); Cyber Geography and Better Search Engines; [TEMPORAL] Anticipating SMIL 2.0: The Developing Cooperative Infrastructure for Multimedia on the Web (Rutledge 1999); Its About Time: Link Streams as Continuous Metadata (Page et al., 2001); Everything You Wanted to Know About MPEG-7:Part 1 (Nack & Lindsay 1999)

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 5

Lecture 5: Web 2.0 and Social Hypertext Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software . Tim O'Reilly (2005); Web 2.0: Hypertext by Any Other Name? (Millard & Ross, 2006)

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 6

Lecture 6: Where are all the links taking us: Web Science Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: The Literati (The Cyberspace and critical theory website) (Eastgate website); Pervasive Hypertext at Southampton and at Aarhus; Adaptive Hypertext - The Next Big Thing: (De Bra & Chepegin, 2004); Web Science: Creating a Science of the Web (Berners-Lee, Hall, Hendler, Shadbolt & Weitzner, 2006).

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand "Web Science" Lecture 1

Lecture 1: Introduction to Web Science Lecture slides and video by Directors of Web Science Research Initiative (Wendy Hall and Tim Berners-Lee)

Lecture 15 - Interface this

A quick word about abstract How a class interfaces Making Pets The Deadly Diamond of Death Interfaces (not interfaces)

Lecture 16 - I can't hear you through the static

Static Types of methods Instance Static Example Calling Static methods Why Static Final

TU Graz: Course: 707.000 Web Science and Web Technology: Lecture 12: User Intentions and Intentional Structures on the Web II

In this lecture, we will focus on analyzing user goals in search query logs. Readings: M. Strohmaier, P. Prettenhofer, M. Lux, Different Degrees of Explicitness in Intentional Artifacts - Studying User Goals in a Large Search Query Log, CSKGOI'08 International Workshop on Commonsense Knowledge and Goal Oriented Interfaces, in conjunction with IUI'08, Canary Islands, Spain, 2008.

TU Graz: Course: 707.000 Web Science and Web Technology: Lecture 11: User Intentions and Intentional Structures on the Web

Search engines - such as Google - have been characterized as "Databases of intentions". This class will focus on different aspects of intentionality on the web, including goal mining, goal modeling and goal-oriented search. Readings: M. Strohmaier, M. Lux, M. Granitzer, P. Scheir, S. Liaskos, E. Yu, How Do Users Express Goals on the Web? - An Exploration of Intentional Structures in Web Search, We Know'07 International Workshop on Collaborative Knowledge Management for Web Information Systems in conjunction with WISE'07, Nancy, France, 2007. [Web link] Readings: Automatic identification of user goals in web search, U. Lee and Z. Liu and J. Cho WWW '05: Proceedings of the 14th International World Wide Web Conference 391--400 (2005) [Web link]

TU Graz: Course: 707.000 Web Science and Web Technology: Lecture 9: Metadata, Tagging and Folksonomies

In this class, we will discuss metadata as well as current phenomena such as tagging and folksonomies. Readings: Ontologies Are Us: A Unified Model of Social Networks and Semantics, P. Mika, International Semantic Web Conference, 522-536, 2005. [Web link] Optional: Folksonomies: power to the people, E. Quintarelli, ISKO Italy-UniMIB Meeting, (2005)