Technological Innovation Investment Research Articles

Knowledge and Innovation for New Zealand:

Policy makers in New Zealand advocate investments in training and Research and Development (R&D) as effective policy options to increase the country's level of productivity. However, uncertainty remains about the strategic prioritisation of these policy options. The article examines the impact of public investment in training and R&D on productivity, technological advancement and innovation. Based on an international survey of empirical findings, the article rejects calls for substantial government funded training programmes and highlights the limitations of public investment in business R&D. Instead, the article wishes to advance knowledge by developing a two-stage wage strategy in support of a process of ‘creative destruction’, first through initial wage growth, subsequently through wage restraint and, ultimately, in pursuit of a sustainable platform for investment in technological advancement, skills, innovation and economic growth. It concludes with an assessment of political pressures and respective reasons why this strategy, although capable of meeting multiple policy objectives, is unlikely to be favoured by policy makers and political interest groups.

Defining response capacity to enhance climate change policy

Climate change adaptation and mitigation decisions made by governments are usually taken in different policy domains. At the individual level however, adaptation and mitigation activities are undertaken together as part of the management of risk and resources. We propose that a useful starting point to develop a national climate policy is to understand what societal response might mean in practice. First we frame the set of responses at the national policy level as a trade off between investment in the development and diffusion of new technology, and investment in encouraging and enabling society to change its behaviour and or adopt the new technology. We argue that these are the pertinent trade-offs, rather than those usually posited between climate change mitigation and adaptation. The preference for a policy response that focuses more on technological innovation rather than one that focuses on changing social behaviour will be influenced by the capacity of different societies to change their greenhouse gas emissions; by perceived vulnerability to climate impacts; and by capacity to modify social behaviour and physical environment. Starting with this complete vision of response options should enable policy makers to re-evaluate the risk environment and the set of response options available to them. From here, policy makers should consider who is responsible for making climate response decisions and when actions should be taken. Institutional arrangements dictate social and political acceptability of different policies, they structure worldviews, and they determine the provision of resources for investment in technological innovation and social change. The importance of focussing on the timing of the response is emphasised to maximise the potential for adjustments through social learning and institutional change at different policy scales. We argue that the ability to respond to climate change is both enabled and constrained by social and technological conditions. The ability of society to respond to climate change and the need for technological change for both decarbonisation and for dealing with surprise in general, are central to concepts of sustainable development.

Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Biomass and Petroleum Energy Futures in Africa

We analyzed the mortality impacts and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by household energy use in Africa. Under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, household indoor air pollution will cause an estimated 9.8 million premature deaths by the year 2030. Gradual and rapid transitions to charcoal would delay 1.0 million and 2.8 million deaths, respectively; similar transitions to petroleum fuels would delay 1.3 million and 3.7 million deaths. Cumulative BAU GHG emissions will be 6.7 billion tons of carbon by 2050, which is 5.6% of Africa's total emissions. Large shifts to the use of fossil fuels would reduce GHG emissions by 1 to 10%. Charcoal-intensive future scenarios using current practices increase emissions by 140 to 190%; the increase can be reduced to 5 to 36% using currently available technologies for sustainable production or potentially reduced even more with investment in technological innovation.

Planning new coal-fired power plants

The energy sector has an essential role in limiting the global average temperature increase to below 2 °C. Redirecting and advancing technological progress contribute to carbon-free transition solutions. Energy transition is currently one of the most debated issues in the world. This paper reviews and summarizes the current policy projections and their assumptions organized by some major countries in the energy sector, particularly in the coal sector, and provides a detailed discussion on specific and significant socio-technical pathways taken by countries to achieve zero-carbon targets. Their implementation involves restructuring the existing energy system and requires appropriate policy support and sufficient investment in infrastructure development and technological innovation. Some basic principles and countermeasures that have already been implemented by some major emitters, such as India and China, are also discussed, with different transformation pathways. Critical suggestions are also provided, such as implementing best practice policies at the national level, moving to more efficient transition strategies, national and regional cooperation, cross-border energy grid integration, and private sector involvement to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, not only by reducing coal consumption but also by introducing various low carbon technologies.

Multi-Factor Criteria Comparison of Successful Information Technology Based Regions: The Silicon Valley, Route 128, and Dulles Corridor (Virginia) Examples

Multi-Factor Criteria Comparison of Successful Information Technology Based Regions: The Silicon Valley, Route 128, and Dulles Corridor Examples The evolution of Information Technology (IT) has been equated to the industrial revolution in terms of its potential scope and impact on regions. IT has the capacity to affect the way people work, live, learn, communicate, and govern themselves in particular regions. Since 1996, several researchers attempted to benchmark the growing role of IT in American society contributing to the success of IT based regions, namely Silicon Valley. At the present, the research indicated that there is little available systematic data on the impact of IT in regions. The goal of this research was to evaluate the success factors of information technology based regions and to compare two regions, Route 128 and the Dulles Corridor, with Silicon Valley. The review of the literature indicated ten factors responsible for IT based regional success. Data were collected for seven of the factors for each IT based region. The analyses performed included: Regional Classifications using the Strategic Matrix Framework; Regional Description and Characterization using Microsoft Excel 2000; Regional Comparisons and Evaluation using Expert Choice Professional; and Analysis of Factors. The findings of the Regional Comparisons and Evaluation analysis showed three primary factors explained the economic success of Silicon Valley and other successful IT based regions. The primary factors and their relative contribution to IT based regional success included: Human Capital and Education/Training (34%), Investment in Technological Innovation (30%), and Firm Types and Business Infrastructure (17%). These three factors were highly interrelated. Four secondary success factors included: Information Infrastructure (6%), Transportation Infrastructure (5%), Region Economic Conditions (4%), and Quality of Living (4%). In addition, three other factors including Region Identity, Government Policies/Regulation, and Corporate Culture/Management Styles were required to establish IT based regions. Silicon Valley was the most successful IT based region followed by Dulles Corridor and then Route 128. Over the last twenty years, Silicon Valley was 11% more successful as an IT based region than either Dulles Corridor or Route 128. Hence, the factors that made Silicon Valley more successful are either not being effectively replicated/managed or are not as intense in Dulles Corridor or Route 128.

The Relationship between Firm Investments in Technological Innovation and Political Action

Economic theory recognizes the importance of investments in both technological innovation and political activity in firm behavior, and extensive research exists which examines independently these expenditures. However, surprisingly little attention is devoted to analyzing technological innovation and political action expenditures jointly. Technological innovation and political action are two of the options firms face regarding how to achieve lower costs or market power; the characteristics of these choices not only affect the degree to which each is used, but also have widely divergent normative and policy implications for society. Furthermore, many forms of technological innovation require regulatory approval, so that firms may use the two forms of investment in conjunction with each other in addition to treating them as separate investment alternatives. This paper investigates the relationships between firm investments in technological innovation and political activity. Both forms of investment seek to lower costs and/or create market advantage, but economists have long recognized the social importance of technological innovation to economic growth, while treating most firm political activity as inefficient. Growing social concerns surrounding declining innovation, productivity, and growth and increasing firm political activity suggest that these are timely dimensions to explore jointly. In the next section I discuss the relationship between firm investments in technological innovation and political action. This discussion motivates the subsequent empirical modelling presented in section III. Because of the possibility of simultaneity between firm spending in research and development (RD these results hold true to various degrees over industries and industry groups. Section VI offers conclusions and suggestions for further research.

An empirical study of capital budgeting practices for strategic investments in CIM technologies

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have been struggling to justify strategic technology investments using traditional capital budgeting systems. The existing accounting-based decision models (such as discounted cashflow) are said to be no longer adequate to help evaluate investments in technological innovation, mainly because of the strategic, intangible nature of the benefits involved. As a result, traditional capital budgeting methods have been heavily criticized of discouraging the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and thus undermining the competitiveness of western firms. Some authors would argue that the only alternative is to exempt these strategic investments from the control of accounting systems. Others have developed sophisticated methods for performing an integrated strategic and financial investment analysis. At this point, however, it is still unclear which approach is prevalent in practice and which factors contribute to effective investment decisions. This empirical study attempts to shed some light on the problem by examining the capital budgeting practices of firms with regard to strategic investments in Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) technologies. Questionnaire data are used to provide a better insight into the ways in which manufacturing firms go about controlling major investments in new process technologies. In addition, tentative findings are presented about hypothesized relationships between characteristics of the investment decision making process and the perceived ex post financial performance of CIM investments.

Innovation in medical technology: reading the indicators.

Investment in medical technology innovation has enabled significant advances in patient care. An understanding of the dimensions and measures of innovation is critical in fully assessing the implications of many policy initiatives under debate. This Data Watch presents several indicators of inputs and outputs associated with medical device innovation, including public- and private-sector research and development (R&D) investment, patent activity, product regulatory clearance patterns, and market acceptance trends. Changes in these selected indicators point to a potential shift occurring in both the nature of and the investors in the innovation process.

The risk of investment in technological innovation

It is shown that the prevalent view that investment in technological innovation is particularly risky is incomplete. Specifically, while such investments may be very risky when viewed from the perspective of a project manager, they are less so when viewed from the perspective of top management (or the firm), and they are no more risky than average when viewed from the perspective of investors.

Japanese management practices and productivity

2 roductivity or output per worker -is a key measure of economic health. When it increases, the economy grows in real terms and so do standards of living. When it declines, real economic growth slows or stagnates. Productivity is the result of many factors, including investment in capital goods, technological innovation, and workers’ motivation. After a number of years of sluggish productivity growth, the United States now trails most other major industrial nations in the rise in output per worker, although it still enjoys the best overall rate. This state of affairs is increasingly bemoaned by many critics in both academic and business circles. Some reasons suggested to “explain” the U.S. decline in productivity rankings include excessive government regulation, tax policies discouraging investment, increases in energy