From national innovation systems to national innovation capacity:internationalisation and technology transfer perspectives

The last decade or so has witnessed the emergence of the national innovation system (NIS) phenomenon. Since then, many scholars have investigated NIS and its implementation in different countries. However, there are very few investigations into the relationship between the NIS of a country and its national innovation capacity. This paper aims to make a contribution in this area by examining the link that currently exists between these two topics. Whilst examining this relationship, we also explore internationalisation and technology transfer, being cognate areas that have been investigated during the same period. This follows our assertion that the link between NIS and national innovation capacity is the mechanism of internationalisation and technology transfer. The NIS approach was introduced in the late 1980s (see Freeman, 1987; Dosi et al., 1988) and further elaborated later (see Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993; Edquist, 1997). In essence, a country?s NIS is a historically grown subsystem of the entire national economy consisting of organisations and institutions which play a major role in the innovative activity in the country. In the NIS approach, interactions within organisations as well as the interplay between organisations and institutions are of central importance. The NIS approach has been used to reveal the structure of the innovation processes and the main actors involved in them in industrialised and emerging countries. Although the national focus remains strong, it has been accompanied by studies seeking to analyse the notion of systems of innovation at an international level and at a sub-national scale (Archibugi et al., 1999). Dosi in the edition of Archibugi et al. (1999) argues that the general background of the discussion of national systems is the observation of non-random distributions across countries of: corporate capabilities; organisational forms; strategies; and ultimately revealed performances, in terms of production efficiency and inputs productivities, rates of innovation, rates of adoption/diffusion of innovation themselves, dynamics of market shares on the world markets, growth of income and employment. They also mention that there are several approaches to NIS. Nelson (1993) focuses upon the specificities of national institutions and policies supporting directly or indirectly innovation, diffusion and skills accumulation. Patel and Pavitt (1991) have stressed the links between the national patterns of technological accumulation and the competencies and innovative strategies of a few major national companies. Amable et al (1997) and Soskice (1993) and Zysman (1994) focus on the specifics of national institutions including, for example, the forms of organization, financial and labour markets, training institutions, forms of state intervention in the economy etc. However, the most common reference is by Lundvall (1992) who argues that the focus on the national level is associated with the fact that national economies vary according to their production system and their institutional framework and these differences are in turn strengthened by different historical experiences, language and culture. On the other hand, the national innovation capability consists of abilities to create and carry new technological possibilities through to economic practice. The term covers a wide range of activities from capability to invent to capability to innovate and to capability to improve existing technology beyond the original design parameters (Kim, 1997). The term innovation is often associated by many with technological change at international frontiers. However, technological capability is not the same as innovation capability. Technological capability refers to assimilation, use, adaptation, and change to existing technologies. It also enables the creation of new technologies and development of new products and processes in response to changing economic environments. It denotes operational command over knowledge (Kim, 1997). It is manifested not merely by the knowledge possessed, but, more important, by the uses to which that knowledge can be put and by the proficiency with which it is applied in the activities of investment and production and in the creation of new knowledge (Westphal et al., 1985). Therefore, the analytical framework that is used in this paper is based on the way a country derives from its NIS a national innovation capacity. There are two perspectives that are identified on this way. These are internationalisation and technology transfer. Even though NIS is not directly related to national innovation capacity, to achieve national innovation capacity from NIS, the country should have the ability for technology transfer. Technology transfer is a link between these two phenomena. On the other hand, internationalisation can be either the input or the output of the relationship between NIS and national innovation capability. If a company is investing in a country because of its national innovation capacity, this can be regarded as an input to the relationship between NIS and national innovation capacity. If this company is investigating the national innovation capacity of a country then, for its internationalisation, the national innovation capacity should be important, which in turn means this company is active in innovation and innovation is also an important success factor. The interrelationship between the investment of the company and the NIS of the country (assuming that the country is competent and competitive in technology transfer) will generate and improve that country?s national innovation capacity. This is the output of internationalisation from the relationship between NIS and national innovation capacity. When companies are evaluating whether to internationalise, they investigate certain factors in the countries in which they are considering to invest. The ability to transfer technology is dependent on ability to adopt a new technology and also on the learning derived from this technology. If countries wish to attract innovation related investment they need to show their ability to have a NIS and also the capability to transfer technology. Without the technology transfer capability, the NIS is not functioning. Therefore, companies that internationalise will investigate the factors common to NIS, technology transfer, and their business needs. Through this paper we will demonstrate this link though its mechanisms. Our research will be through extensive literature review and identifying relevant aspects of previous research carried out by the authors. It will investigate certain factors of different countries that are successful in attracting innovation related foreign direct investment. Through these, we will point out the factors that are important for the link and mechanisms of NIS and national innovation capability.

Optical communications applications of ultra-long Raman fiber lasers

Recent work on ultra-long Raman fiber lasers has shown that it is possible to create quasi-lossless transmission conditions in fiber spans long enough to be considered for high speed optical communications. This paper reviews how quasi-lossless transmission conditions are reached and presents experimental results of 40Gb/s transmission in a quasi lossless system. The performance is compared with a conventional EDFA based system.

Expert systems for fault analysis

The initial aim of this research was to investigate the application of expert Systems, or Knowledge Base Systems technology to the automated synthesis of Hazard and Operability Studies. Due to the generic nature of Fault Analysis problems and the way in which Knowledge Base Systems work, this goal has evolved into a consideration of automated support for Fault Analysis in general, covering HAZOP, Fault Tree Analysis, FMEA and Fault Diagnosis in the Process Industries. This thesis described a proposed architecture for such an Expert System. The purpose of the System is to produce a descriptive model of faults and fault propagation from a description of the physical structure of the plant. From these descriptive models, the desired Fault Analysis may be produced. The way in which this is done reflects the complexity of the problem which, in principle, encompasses the whole of the discipline of Process Engineering. An attempt is made to incorporate the perceived method that an expert uses to solve the problem; keywords, heuristics and guidelines from techniques such as HAZOP and Fault Tree Synthesis are used. In a truly Expert System, the performance of the system is strongly dependent on the high quality of the knowledge that is incorporated. This expert knowledge takes the form of heuristics or rules of thumb which are used in problem solving. This research has shown that, for the application of fault analysis heuristics, it is necessary to have a representation of the details of fault propagation within a process. This helps to ensure the robustness of the system - a gradual rather than abrupt degradation at the boundaries of the domain knowledge.

Investigative framework for research into the design of manufacturing processes

This paper is based a major research project run by a team from the Innovation, Design and Operations Management Research Unit at the Aston Business School under SERC funding. International Computers Limited (!CL), the UK's largest indigenous manufacturer of mainframe computer products, was the main industrial collaborator in the research. During the period 1985-89 an integrated production system termed the "Modular Assembly Cascade'' was introduced to the Company's mainframe assembly plant at Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester. Using a methodology primarily based upon 'participative observation', the researchers developed a model for analysing this manufacturing system design called "DRAMA". Following a critique of the existing literature on Manufacturing Strategy, this paper will describe the basic DRAMA model and its development from an industry specific design methodology to DRAMA II, a generic model for studying organizational decision processes in the design and implementation of production systems. From this, the potential contribution of the DRAMA model to the existing knowledge on the process of manufacturing system design will be apparent.

Adaptive congestion control of DSRC vehicle networks for collaborative road safety applications

Congestion control is critical for the provisioning of quality of services (QoS) over dedicated short range communications (DSRC) vehicle networks for road safety applications. In this paper we propose a congestion control method for DSRC vehicle networks at road intersection, with the aims of providing high availability and low latency channels for high priority emergency safety applications while maximizing channel utilization for low priority routine safety applications. In this method a offline simulation based approach is used to find out the best possible configurations of message rate and MAC layer backoff exponent (BE) for a given number of vehicles equipped with DSRC radios. The identified best configurations are then used online by an roadside access point (AP) for system operation. Simulation results demonstrated that this adaptive method significantly outperforms the fixed control method under varying number of vehicles. The impact of estimation error on the number of vehicles in the network on system level performance is also investigated.

Transferring knowledge of manufacturing techniques within a subsidiary of a multi-national corporation

With the growth of the multi-national corporation (MNCs) has come the need to understand how parent companies transfer knowledge to, and manage the operations of, their subsidiaries. This is of particular interest to manufacturing companies transferring their operations overseas. Japanese companies in particular have been pioneering in the development of techniques such as Kaizen, and elements of the Toyota Production System (TPS) such as Kanban, which can be useful tools for transferring the ethos of Japanese manufacturing and maintaining quality and control in overseas subsidiaries. Much has been written about the process of transferring Japanese manufacturing techniques but much less is understood about how the subsidiaries themselves – which are required to make use of such techniques – actually acquire and incorporate them into their operations. This research therefore takes the perspective of the subsidiary in examining how knowledge of manufacturing techniques is transferred from the parent company within its surrounding (subsidiary). There is clearly a need to take a practice-based view to understanding how the local managers and operatives incorporate this knowledge into their working practices. A particularly relevant theme is how subsidiaries both replicate and adapt knowledge from parents and the circumstances in which replication or adaptation occurs. However, it is shown that there is a lack of research which takes an in-depth look at these processes from the perspective of the participants themselves. This is particularly important as much knowledge literature argues that knowledge is best viewed as enacted and learned in practice – and therefore transferred in person – rather than by the transfer of abstract and de-contextualised information. What is needed, therefore, is further research which makes an in-depth examination of what happens at the subsidiary level for this transfer process to occur. There is clearly a need to take a practice-based view to understanding how the local managers and operatives incorporate knowledge about manufacturing techniques into their working practices. In depth qualitative research was, therefore, conducted in the subsidiary of a Japanese multinational, Gambatte Corporation, involving three main manufacturing initiatives (or philosophies), namely 'TPS‘, 'TPM‘ and 'TS‘. The case data were derived from 52 in-depth interviews with project members, moderate-participant observations, and documentations and presented and analysed in episodes format. This study contributes to our understanding of knowledge transfer in relation to the approaches and circumstances of adaptation and replication of knowledge within the subsidiary, how the whole process is developed, and also how 'innovation‘ takes place. This study further understood that the process of knowledge transfer could be explained as a process of Reciprocal Provider-Learner Exchange that can be linked to the Experiential Learning Theory.

Strategies for sustaining manufacturing competitiveness:case studies of Australian firms

This study investigates the strategies adopted by Australian manufacturing firms to sustain their local production and competitiveness, including during the period of the recent global financial crisis. Six Australian manufacturing organisations in different sectors were selected and analysed using the market-based and resource-based views, and components of the DRAMA framework. The findings highlight several factors and company efforts to sustain manufacturing operations. These organisations pursued a range of manufacturing strategies to enable distinctive offerings in the marketplace and used various ways to differentiate themselves. This was possible through the portfolio of capabilities that determine their continued production and business performance over the period. This study provides important lessons for managers in manufacturing organisations and demonstrates how differing capabilities and strategies of firms can impact the competitiveness of local production, not only in times of economic crisis but also in the long run to sustainable competitiveness in the future.

Transferring knowledge of manufacturing techniques in multinational corporations:preliminary findings

With the growth of the multinational corporation (MNC) has come the need to understand how parent companies transfer knowledge to, and manage the operations of, their subsidiaries. This is of particular interest to manufacturing companies transferring their operations overseas. Japanese companies in particular have been pioneering in this regard, with techniques such as the Toyota Production System (TPS) for transferring the ethos of Japanese manufacturing and maintaining quality and control in overseas subsidiaries. A great deal has been written about the process of transferring Japanese manufacturing techniques, but much less is understood about how the subsidiaries themselves, which are required to make use of such techniques, actually acquire and incorporate them into their operations. The research on which this paper is based therefore examines how, from the perspective of the subsidiary, knowledge of manufacturing techniques is transferred from the parent company. There is clearly a need to take a practice-based view to understanding how the local managers and operatives incorporate knowledge about manufacturing techniques into their working practices. In-depth qualitative research was, therefore, conducted in the subsidiary of a Japanese multinational, Denso Corporation, involving three main manufacturing initiatives (or philosophies), namely ‘TPS’, ‘TPM’ and ‘TS’. The case data were derived from 52 in-depth interviews with project members, moderate participant observations, and documentations. The aim of this paper is to present the preliminary findings from the case analyses. The research contributes to our understanding of knowledge transfer in relation to the circumstances of the selection between adaptation and replication of knowledge in the subsidiary from its parent. In particular this understanding relates to transfer across different flows and levels in the organisational hierarchy, how the whole process is managed, and also how modification takes place.

Beyond defoaming:the effects of antifoams on bioprocesses productivity

Antifoams are often added to bioprocesses with little knowledge of their impact on the cells or product. However, it is known that certain antifoams can affect the growth rates of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms in addition to changing surface properties such as lipid content, resulting in changes to permeability. This in turn can be beneficial to a recombinant protein production system for soluble proteins, as has been demonstrated by increased secretion of a-amylase and GFP, or achievement of greater yields of protein due to increased biomass. However, in some cases, certain concentrations of antifoams appear to have a detrimental effect upon cells and protein production, and the effects vary depending upon the protein being expressed. These findings emphasise the importance of optimising and understanding antifoam addition to bioprocesses.

Optical communications applications of ultra-long Raman fiber lasers

Recent work on ultra-long Raman fiber lasers has shown that it is possible to create quasi-lossless transmission conditions in fiber spans long enough to be considered for high speed optical communications. This paper reviews how quasi-lossless transmission conditions are reached and presents experimental results of 40Gb/s transmission in a quasi lossless system. The performance is compared with a conventional EDFA based system.

All-optical passive regeneration of 40 Gbit/s soliton data stream using dispersion management and in-line NOLMs

The feasibility of stable soliton transmission system was demonstrated using a practical dispersion map in conjunction with in-line nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLMs). The system's performance was examined at 40 Gbit/s data rate in terms of maximum propagation distance corresponding to a bit error rate of more than 10-9. The bit error rate was estimated by means of the standard Q-factor.

Large volume metrology technologies for the light controlled factory

In the Light Controlled Factory part-to-part assembly and reduced weight will be enabled through the use of predictive fitting processes; low cost high accuracy reconfigurable tooling will be made possible by active compensation; improved control will allow accurate robotic machining; and quality will be improved through the use of traceable uncertainty based quality control throughout the production system. A number of challenges must be overcome before this vision will be realized; 1) controlling industrial robots for accurate machining; 2) compensation of measurements for thermal expansion; 3) Compensation of measurements for refractive index changes; 4) development of Embedded Metrology Tooling for in-tooling measurement and active tooling compensation; and 5) development of Software for the Planning and Control of Integrated Metrology Networks based on Quality Control with Uncertainty Evaluation and control systems for predictive processes. This paper describes how these challenges are being addressed, in particular the central challenge of developing large volume measurement process models within an integrated dimensional variation management (IDVM) system.

Comparison of numerical bit error rate estimation methods in 112Gbs QPSK CO-OFDM transmission

We demonstrate an accurate BER estimation method for QPSK CO-OFDM transmission based on the probability density function of the received QPSK symbols. Using a 112Gbs QPSK CO-OFDM transmission as an example, we show that this method offers the most accurate estimate of the system's performance in comparison with other known approaches.

The use of sodium carboxymethylcellulose in the preparation of spray-dried proteins for pulmonary drug delivery

The use of sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) as a spray-drying excipient in the preparation of inhalable formulations of proteins was investigated, using alkaline phosphatase as a model functional protein. Two spray-dried powders were investigated: a control powder comprising 100% (w/w) alkaline phosphatase and a test powder comprising 67% (w/w) NaCMC and 33% (w/w) alkaline phosphatase. Following physicochemical characterisation, the powders were prepared as both dry powder inhaler (DPI) and pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI) formulations. The aerosolisation performance of the formulations was assessed using a Multi-Stage Liquid Impinger, both immediately after preparation and over a 16-week storage period. Formulating the control powder as a DPI resulted in a poor fine particle fraction (FPF: 10%), whereas the FPF of the NaCMC-modified DPI formulation was significantly greater (47%). When the powders were formulated as pMDI systems, the control and NaCMC-modified powders demonstrated FPFs of 52% and 55%, respectively. Following storage, reduced FPF was observed for all formulations except the NaCMC-modified pMDI system; the performance of this formulation following storage was statistically equivalent to that immediately following preparation. Co-spray-drying proteins and peptides with NaCMC may therefore offer an alternative method for the preparation of stable and respirable pMDI formulations for pulmonary delivery. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

An exergy based engineering and economic analysis of sustainable building

To achieve the goal of sustainable development, the building energy system was evaluated from both the first and second law of thermodynamics point of view. The relationship between exergy destruction and sustainable development were discussed at first, followed by the description of the resource abundance model, the life cycle analysis model and the economic investment effectiveness model. By combining the forgoing models, a new sustainable index was proposed. Several green building case studies in U.S. and China were presented. The influences of building function, geographic location, climate pattern, the regional energy structure, and the technology improvement potential of renewable energy in the future were discussed. The building’s envelope, HVAC system, on-site renewable energy system life cycle analysis from energy, exergy, environmental and economic perspective were compared. It was found that climate pattern had a dramatic influence on the life cycle investment effectiveness of the building envelope. The building HVAC system energy performance was much better than its exergy performance. To further increase the exergy efficiency, renewable energy rather than fossil fuel should be used as the primary energy. A building life cycle cost and exergy consumption regression model was set up. The optimal building insulation level could be affected by either cost minimization or exergy consumption minimization approach. The exergy approach would cause better insulation than cost approach. The influence of energy price on the system selection strategy was discussed. Two photovoltaics (PV) systems—stand alone and grid tied system were compared by the life cycle assessment method. The superiority of the latter one was quite obvious. The analysis also showed that during its life span PV technology was less attractive economically because the electricity price in U.S. and China did not fully reflect the environmental burden associated with it. However if future energy price surges and PV system cost reductions were considered, the technology could be very promising for sustainable buildings in the future.