Source Of New Products Research Articles

172 Flexible Elemental Stoichiometry in Trichodesmium IMS101: Implications for Buoyancy‐Mediated Vertical Migration

The cyanobacterium Trichodesmium is considered the most abundant and active nitrogen fixing plankton genus in tropical and subtropical marine waters. In the northern subtropical gyres of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, this organism is notable as a source of new production and as a potential biological shuttle for phosphorus to surface waters. We have conducted recent laboratory experiments revealing the remarkable stoichiometric flexibility exhibited by this diazotroph. These results indicate that Trichodesmium spp. are capable of viable growth with carbon to phosphorus ratios approximately 16 times Redfield stoichiometry. Such P‐sparing is clearly an adaptation to the oligotrophic environments from which these cultures were isolated. Building on this research, additional work was performed to determine the maximal temporal scale of vertical migration and the implicit dark period physiology. An experiment was designed to assess the physiological changes that would occur as cells of varying growth stages migrated below the euphotic zone into more phosphorus replete waters. At different stages of growth sub‐samples of phosphorus replete or phosphorus limited cells were transferred to dark conditions. For each dark bottle, chl‐a, particulate carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen, trichome count and fluorescence parameters were measured daily. Our experimental results indicate that the maximum duration of dark period survival (and hence vertical migration) is approximately three days during which period cells were able to fully recover from light depravation and resume typical growth rates. The knowledge of Trichodesmium bioenergetics gained from this research will serve to further constrain the potential role of Trichodesmium spp. in biogeochemical cycling.

Production of secreted hydrolytic enzymes by continuous high-cell-density cultivation of Colpidium campylum

The aim of the present study was to test the suitability of the ciliated protozoon Colpidium campylum for axenic high-cell-density fermentation and for production of acid hydrolases. Subsequent to an initial batch fermentation with generation times of 12.4 h, the culture medium was exchanged continuously by means of a perfusion module made of polypropylene hollow fibres. The same technique was used for harvesting the secreted enzymes. With the cells being retained completely, the stationary phase could be maintained for 33 days, reaching a maximal cell density of 1.15 × 106 cells ml–1 and a dry weight of 8.7 g l–1. Protease, acid phosphatase, β-N-acetylhexosaminidase, α-mannosidase, α- and β-glucosidase were secreted in high amounts into the spent medium, but only low activities of α- and β-galactosidase were detected. The latter observation corresponds with an almost stable concentration of lactose in the culture broth, indicating that this disaccharide is neither broken down nor taken up by C. campylum. In contrast, glucose and nutritional protein were consumed completely during the first phase of fermentation. The data provide evidence that enzyme secretion is more widely distributed among holotrich ciliates than generally assumed and that Colpidium campylum might be considered as a suitable new source for production of enzymes useful in biocatalysis.

High-tech management buy-outs

Management buy-outs have typically been viewed as occurring in mature sectors with wellestablished technology but the buy-out concept is also applicable to high-tech sectors. The paper examines this neglected form of buy-out drawing on the Centre for Management Buy-out Research (CMBOR) data base as well as a special mail questionnaire survey of high-tech and non-high-tech buy-outs. The study finds that over the past 6 years, high-tech transactions have accounted for about 10% of the UK buy-out and buy-in market. Hightech buy-outs are significantly more likely than non-high-tech buy-outs to be sourced from foreign parent companies, to be larger, to use R&D as a major source of new products, to develop new products internally, to have been non-core in their former parent companies, to be valued using liquidation values, to perceive technology to play a strong strategic role, and to require further finance to fund internal growth.

Fermentation-derived compounds as a source of new products

Abstract

The impact of unilateral OECD carbon taxes on the location of aluminium smelting

Aluminium smelting is electricity intensive. Within the OECD region, electricity generation is based largely on fossil fuels, and a carbon tax would have a significant impact on the cost of electricity. Outside the OECD, there are large amounts of additional electricity that could be generated through hydro–electricity or flare gas. If carbon limits were adopted unilaterally by the OECD nations, domestic producers would be at a competitive disadvantage. To quantify these ideas, we have updated a global aluminium trade model constructed at the World Bank during the early 1980s. According to our business–as–usual scenario, there will be a gradual shift toward new sources of production located outside the OECD region. Unilateral OECD carbon restrictions could dramatically accelerate this process.

The Wal‐Mart Innovation Network: An Experiment in Stimulating American Innovation

The Wal‐Mart Innovation Network (WIN) is a cooperative experiment designed to test an infrastructure for stimulating American innovations—new products invented and manufactured in the U.S.A. The WIN venture focuses on independent and small business inventors because it is here that WIN is likely to have the greatest impact. Contrary to the opinions of many, inventors continue to be a major source of new products, processes and services. Unlike their corporate and institutional counterparts, noncorporate inventors suffer from the lack of viable channels for getting their creative efforts to the marketplace and often are lacking in some essential resource or expertise. Rather than attempt to stimulate invention, the WIN strategy is simply to make it easier for existing ideas and inventions to reach the marketplace. In addition to other resources, WIN draws on the expertise of some 160 volunteer Wal‐Mart executives, buyers and marketing specialists who provide an assessment of marketability. Although innovation is the primary focus of the WIN venture, the bottom line objective is the creation of new, domestic manufacturing jobs.

The Wal-Mart innovation network: An experiment in stimulating American innovation

The Wal-Mart Innovation Network (WIN) is a cooperative experiment designed to test an infrastructure for stimulating American innovations—new products invented and manufactured in the U.S.A. The WIN venture focuses on independent and small business inventors because it is here that WIN is likely to have the greatest impact. Contrary to the opinions of many, inventors continue to be a major source of new products, processes and services. Unlike their corporate rate and institutional counterparts, noncorporate inventors suffer from the lack of viable channels for getting their creative efforts to the marketplace and often are lacking in some essential resource or expertise. Rather than attempt to stimulate invention, the WIN strategy is simply to make it easier for existing ideas and inventions to reach the marketplace. In addition to other resources, WIN draws on the expertise of some 160 volunteer Wal-Mart executives, buyers and marketing specialists who provide an assessment of marketability. Although innovation is the primary focus of the WIN venture, the bottom line objective is the creation of new, domestic manufacturing jobs.

Inward Technology Licensing as an Alternative to Internal R&D in New Product Development: A Conceptual Framework

Many marketing practitioners and authors already accept that inward technology licensing (ITL) can be a viable alternative source of new products to internal R&D. Yet, new product development research focuses mainly on internal development with little attention to external methods. Kwaku Atuahene‐Gima reviews the small body of literature on ITL and examines the factors that may influence a firm to adopt ITL as an alternative to internal R&D. Using a conceptual framework to provide additional insights, he argues that the ITL adoption decision is an organizational behavioral response to internal and external environmental stimuli.

Inward technology licensing as an alternative to internal R&D in new product development: A conceptual framework

Many marketing practitioners and authors already accept that inward technology licensing (ITL) can be a viable alternative source of new products to internal R&D. Yet, new product development research focuses mainly on internal development with little attention to external methods. Kwaku Atuahene-Gima reviews the small body of literature on ITL and examines the factors that may influence a firm to adopt ITL as an alternative to internal R&D. Using a conceptual framework to provide additional insights, he argues that the ITL adoption decision is an organizational behavioral response to internal and external environmental stimuli.

It's still caveat, inventor

Independent inventors are major contributors to industrial innovation and provide an important source of new products to industry. However, they are more often abused than appreciated by the marketplace. In addition, they frequently lack the skills, knowledge and resources either to translate their inventions into innovations or to transfer them effectively to others. In this article, Gerald G. Udell describes the invention development and commercialization services available to independent inventors. He places particular emphasis on the growing problem of ineffectual and perhaps fraudulent invention marketing and promotion in the United States.

It's Still Caveat, Inventor

Independent inventors are major contributors to industrial innovation and provide an important source of new products to industry. However, they are more often abused than appreciated by the marketplace. In addition, they frequently lack the skills, knowledge and resources either to translate their inventions into innovations or to transfer them effectively to others.In this article, Gerald G. Udell describes the invention development and commercialization services available to independent inventors. He places particular emphasis on the growing problem of ineffectual and perhaps fraudulent invention marketing and promotion in the United States.

England and the Columbian Discoveries: The Attempt to Legitimize English Voyages to the New World

In the century-and-a-half following the opening of the New World by Christopher Columbus, the non-Iberian nations of Europe watched with emotions of astonishment and desire tinged with more than a little envy as gold and silver riches poured into Spain and Portugal. Not content to allow these nations to monopolize the booty from the new-found lands, non-Iberian countries such as England quickly mounted campaigns to obtain their own share of this wealth. In England, propagandists such as the well-known Richard Hakluyt the Younger used a variety of arguments to both popularize and legitimize English voyages of exploration and colonization in areas that, legally at least, were strictly Spanish. These arguments ranged from those based upon religious obligations to the benighted Indians of the new lands, to the potentially beneficial aspects of the New World as a drain for the undesirable elements of English society. Likewise, the economic benefits of New World explorations and colonies were widely touted, both as sources for new products, and as potential markets for traditional ones. Popular political views propagandized the necessity for the English to develop an Impirel rivalling those of its Iberian competitors. Another significant political ramification of New WorId colonization would be the annoyance these would prove to the Spaniards. In a period of rising nationalism, all of these arguments found a number of supporters.

MANAGERIAL WORK IN CORPORATE INNOVATION: FIELDS OF WORK AND FRONTIERS OF CONTROL

In modern corporations, internal R&D is considered an important source of new products and, therefore, a major mechanism of new business generation. Innovation studies report, however, that only a small fraction of all R&D projects are successful. They recognise that the quality of management is a key factor in predicting the outcome of innovation processes. In spite of this consensus, only a few empirical studies have described how managers from various organisational positions jointly produce certain innovative outcomes in certain industries and corporate contexts (Maidique 1980, Burgelman & Sayles 1986).

Strategies of user-initiated product innovation

Several studies of success and failure in industrial new product development have demonstrated that, in order to be effective innovators, manufacturers must appreciate thoroughly the needs and behaviour of potential users. Attention has also been focused on the needs for precise and adequate communication between producers and customers during the innovative process and for close interaction between buyers and sellers at all stages. The research reported here deals with situations in which the required appreciation, communication and closeness ought to be readily available, for user-initiated innovation refers to the inauguration of new industrial processes and products by users rather than by external manufacturers. Since the user-initiator who invents the innovation also applies it directly in his own productive processes before approaching a manufacturer who will produce and market it under license or undertaking these tasks himself, there is a rare closeness between producer and (at least the initial) buyer which is founded upon a unique access to information about the operational performance of the innovation. The paper is especially concerned with identifying for further research the strategic, managerial and organisational issues which arise out of the expansion of the entrepreneurial role of the user-initiator in the commercial exploitation of his invention as a product innovation. Given the compelling evidence that many companies fail to make full use of the technologies available to them as sources of new products, this research is seen as an essential component of the regeneration and increased competitive advantage of British industry.

Are we Forgetting External Sources of New Products?

A review of 17 marketing principles texts published in the 1980s reveals that only three briefly mention the use of external sources for new product development. External sources such as licensing, joint development programs, subcontracting, and acquisitions or mergers are also neglected by these authors in product life cycle discussions. Since business managers routinely consider external sources for product development and improvement programs, these textual presentations do not accurately reflect marketing practice. We argue that these authors should consider the use of external sources in their presentations of product strategy development and suggest how this might be accomplished. In the long run, more consideration of external sourcing at all levels of marketing curricula will alleviate some of the problems students have in learning these concepts, contribute to more marketing involvement in external sourcing strategies, and help internationalize the marketing educational process.

Cocoa Industry in Jamaica

IN Extension Circular No. 7 (Department of Agriculture, Jamaica), J. Wright discusses “The Resuscitation of the Cocoa Industry in Jamaica". Good cocoa countries are limited, as the crop requires a temperature of not less than 60° F., a well-distributed rainfall of more than sixty inches, a suitable soil and an adequate population to ‘attend to its cultivation. The bulk of the world's cocoa is produced in West Africa and Brazil ; but since output has fallen so heavily in the former area owing to the ravages of insect pests and virus disease, new sources of production must be found. In times past, Jamaica had quite a thriving cocoa industry which was superseded by the more lucrative banana crop. Large tracts of land, however, which would be suitable for cocoa, still exist, and in view of the present-day troubles with banana disease, the re-introduction of the cocoa industry would seem very desirable ; the more so as, with a properly planned economy, the two crops should fit in well together. Bananas form a good nurse crop and provide the necessary shade for cocoa, while cocoa plus shade would check soil erosion on steep lands. Good quality cocoa of the Criollo and Trinitario types are suggested as most suited to the climate, and emphasis laid on the necessity for marketing a high-grade product if the scheme is to be an economic success.

The Theory of Economic Cycles Based on the Tendency Toward Excessive Capitalization

AT the request of the editor of this REVIEW I give in the following article a summary of my theory of economic crises and shall endeavor to indicate the statistical data that may serve for its verification.' My view that cyclical fluctuations in industry and trade with periodic economic crises are inevitable consequences of the process of accumulation of capital which accompanies the evolution of economic life. With the increase of population and the progress of civilization social consumption rises. A corresponding increase of social capital a necessary condition for the satisfaction of these increasing requirements of society. The accumulation of social capital effected by individuals by way of savings, which appear in two forms: the creation of means of production, as a source of income, and the acquisition of rights to existing sources of wealth. The first proceeding increases the social capital, the second affects only the distribution of existing social wealth. By the second method of exclusively private accumulation, one individual can increase his capital at the expense of the savings of other individuals; society, as a whole, can increase its capital only by way of the creation of new sources of production. On the social scale, the result of savings of the last klnd will consist in a corresponding proportion of the productive force of labor and of existing capital being allotted to the increase of new means of production at the expense of consumption goods. But experience shows that the tendency toward the accumulation of social capital, as a result of savings by individuals, always exceeds the tendency toward increased consumption; in other words, experience shows that the increase of demand for consumption goods has a tendency to grow slower than the accumulation of social capital and the production of these goods resulting from that accumulation. The cause of this phenomenon to be found in the fact, that savings by individuals are called forth not only by their desire to increase their consumption in the same proportion, but also by other motives, i.e., the desire to provide for old age or the future of the family, of creating favorable conditions for the development and display of personal faculties, which the possession of a large capital, especially in our days of democracy so much facilitates, the so widespread passion of accumulating for its own sake without any obvious object, as well as the acute competition between rival enterprises, where a large and increasing capital often an indispensable condition for the possibility of maintaining an established position. The tendendy toward an excessive accumulation still encouraged by the circumstance, that the development of requirements, as Malthus says, is a plant of slow growth, whereas the final value of the consumed goods falls with accelerated velocity as the quantity of these goods increases. This tendency toward an excessive accumulation must inevitably produce a tendency toward overcapitalization, that is, of supplying social economy with means of production surpassing the requirements of the growth of social demand. It must likewise inevitably lead to a tendency of overproduction, for the means of production in social economy, based on division of labor and on exchange, cannot fulfil their destination and yield profits unless they produce the goods they have been created for. And these products, surpassing the needs of their producers, not meeting a demand adequate to the circumstances under which their means of production have been I My theory of crises was set forth in my work, Wirtschaftskrisen und Uberkapitalisation, Munich I907, E. Reinhardt ed. Russian edition, Moscow I915. The French edition appeared under the title, Les crisese conomiques, Paris I922, M. Giard ed. See also my other work, Geschichte der Handelskrisen in England i640-I840, Munich I908, E. Reinhardt ed. The law of the variation of value was set forth more particularly in a special work, La loi de variation de la valeutr et les inouvements gcturautx des prix, Paris I927, M. Giard ed. The reader will notice the great resemblance of several points of my theory with the conceptions of A. Aftalion, recently summarized in this REVIEW. At this occasion it may be mentioned that my theory was fully set forth in the above cited German edition of my work, which appeared in October I907 (with the date of i908), consequently before the first work of A. Aftalion on the theory of economic crises, published in I909.