Science-based Industries Research Articles

Is cluster policy useful for the energy sector? Assessing self-declared hydrogen clusters in the Netherlands

Research on science-based industries has shown that it is important for organisations to be active in interorganisational networks. Cluster policy has been developed as a means to stimulate the development of these networks and thereby the success rate of these industries. Cluster policy is however not a common policy instrument in the energy sector. In this paper, we focus on three self-declared clusters active in hydrogen-related R&D in the Netherlands and address several characteristics of these clusters. We conclude that cluster policy is a useful addition to existing energy R&D policies but that monitoring whether self-declared clusters actually function as clusters and what their contribution is to the overall system is pivotal in reaping the benefits of cluster policy.

Optimal layout and work allocation in batch assembly under learning effect

This research investigates the effect of system's configuration (layout) and work allocation on the makespan of batches of different products characterised by significant learning. Frequently, in science-based industries the layout of the batch assembly could be relatively easily setup separately for each batch, where each batch contains different type of products. The research aims at finding guidelines for configurations and work allocations that will minimise the makespan for a given number of workers. Analytical expression of the makespan is developed and analysed.

Modeling the co-evolution of national industries and institutions

Important contributions within the realms of industrial dynamics and evolutionary economic theory have shown the need to explore the sources of industrial leadership in high-tech industries. Several of these studies suggest that the co-evolution between national industries and certain supporting institutions could play a fundamental role as a source of competitive advantage, although an analysis of these processes still poses significant formal and theoretical challenges. In this article, we draw on previous contributions to formal evolutionary theorizing in order to build up a co-evolution model suitable for the dynamic analysis of industrial leadership. This model involves national firms competing on a worldwide level in a science-based industry, and co-evolving with their respective national university systems. Certain national firms may influence university funding by institutional shaping, while national university systems crucially affect the competitive advantage of said firms in the global market. The model highlights important mechanisms through which institutional, technological, and market interrelated factors determine the dynamics of industrial leadership and, eventually, the emergence of industrial leadership shifts. Some of the implications regarding policy and future research on economic development follow.

Volatile organic compound emissions from wastewater treatment plants in Taiwan: Legal regulations and costs of control

This study assessed volatile organic compound (VOC) emission characteristics from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in five Taiwanese industrial districts engaged in numerous manufacturing processes, including petrochemical, science-based industry (primarily semiconductors, photo-electronics, electronic products and biological technology), as well as multiple manufacturing processes (primarily pharmaceuticals and paint manufacturing). The most aqueous hydrocarbons dissolved in the wastewater of Taiwanese WWTPs were acetone, acrylonitrile, methylene chloride, and chloroform for the petrochemical districts; acetone, chloroform, and toluene for the science-based districts; and chlorinated and aromatic hydrocarbons for the multiple industrial districts. The aqueous pollutants in the united WWTPs were closely related to the characteristics of the manufacturing plants in the districts. To effectively prevent VOC emissions from the primary treatment section of petrochemical WWTPs, the updated regulations governing VOC emissions were issued by the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration in September 2005, legally mandating a seal cover system incorporating venting and air purification equipment. Cost analysis indicates that incinerators with regenerative heat recovery are optimal for treating high VOC concentrations, exceeding 10,000 ppm as CH 4, from the oil separation basins. However, the emission concentrations, ranging from 100 to 1000 ppm as CH 4 from the other primary treatment facilities and bio-treatment stages, should be collected and then injected into the biological oxidation basins via existing or new blowers. The additional capital and operating costs required to treat the VOC emissions of 1000 ppm as CH 4 from primary treatment facilities are less than US$0.1 for per m 3 wastewater treatment capacity.

Analysing the link between export intensity, innovation and firm size in a science-based industry

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between export intensity, innovation and size in a particular technological setting: a science-based industry. Using a sample of 121 firms in the French biotechnology industry, we have found that firm size is not a determinant for innovation or for export intensity. However, the results show a positive and significant link between innovation and export intensity. Our findings open a new agenda for policy-makers when interpreting how they should promote innovation and exports in science-based firms.

Can Newly Industrializing Economies Catch Up in the Science-Based Industries? A Study of the Korean Biotechnology Sector

This paper analyzes the Korean biotechnology sector with an analytical framework of National Innovation System (NIS). We examine whether newly industrializing economies (NIEs) can catch up with advanced economies in newly-emerging, knowledge-intensive industries such as biotechnology. We demonstrate that Korea is emerging as a key player in the global biotechnology scene in terms of R&D activities, catching up with other advanced countries, such as Japan, and keeping pace with regional competitors like Taiwan, Singapore and China. While the substantial increase in innovation capabilities lends support to the plausibility of the catching-up view, we also find that improvements and adaptations need to be made in transferring knowledge effectively from public to private sector and in commercializing biotechnology with the institutional support of private funding. Our study highlights the mechanisms by which collective competence of managing knowledge creation and diffusion is facilitated in a developing economy.

Analysis of propensity to patent and science-dependence of large Japanese manufacturers of electrical machinery

The paper aims to clarify the extent to which the results of scientific-oriented research conducted by corporations are reflected in their application-oriented research. Focusing on large Japanese manufacturers of electrical machinery, the paper analyses firm-level data on presentations of scientific papers that represent the results of scientific-oriented research activities, citations of scientific papers in patents, and inventions. The electrical machinery industry, a prototypical science-based industry, has been placing a growing emphasis on scientific-oriented research during the 1990's as is evident from trends in R&D expenses, scientific papers, and inventions. Regression analysis results suggest a complementary relationship between citations of basic scientific knowledge as presented in scientific papers on the one hand and acts of invention on the other hand, in the sense that a rise in citations corresponds to a rise in inventions. Moreover, the results suggest that invention efficiency (number of patent claims per unit of R&D expenditure) has been increasing during the 1990's. Furthermore, the results suggest that, given the exogenous influences on the patent system in Japan, it is necessary to include the number of patent claims when attempting to measure corporate technology development activity through the volume of patent applications. However, there was no finding of a clear relationship between the number of scientific papers and inventions. Implications of these results for corporate R&D strategy are examined.

Science and technology in society: from biotechnology to the Internet

Acknowledgments. Abbreviations. 1. Science is Political/ Technology is Social: Concerns, Concepts, and Questions. Why is Thinking about Science and Technology so Hard?. Technoscience is Social. Technoscience is Political. 2. Ceding Debate: Biotechnology and Agriculture. Biotechnology and the Social Organization of Agriculture and Agri-business. The Discursive Landscape in the Debate over Biotechnology. Conclusions. 3. Rethinking Information Technology: Caught in the World Wide Web. Understanding the Digital Divide. High Technology Education. Politics, Civil Action, and the Internet. Conclusions. 4. Owning Technoscience: Understanding the New Intellectual Property Battles. Intellectual Property, Social Common Sense, and the Knowledge Commons. Intellectual Property and the Information Technology Revolution. Owning Life: Intellectual Property in Biological Materials. Intellectual Property and Innovation. Conclusion. 5. Technoscience in the Third World: The Politics of Indigenous Resources. Introduction. Science, Technology, and Colonialism. From Colonialism to Bio-Colonialism. Towards Equity in the Exchange of Biological Resources. Conclusions. 6. Gender and the Ideology of Merit: Women, Men, Science, and Engineering. Merit and Stratification in Science. Women, Men, and Academic Science. Women and Men in Science-Based Industry. Beyond Stratification in Science and Engineering: Artifacts and Research as Gendered. Conclusions. 7. Democracy and Expertise: Citizenship in a High Tech Age. The Limits to Expert Knowledge. The Virtues of Lay Knowledge. Barriers to Democratizing Technoscience and Expertise. Strategies for Overcoming the Obstacles. Conclusions. 8. Confronting the Problem: A Summary and Coda. References. Index.

Increasing complexity and limits of organization in the microlithography industry: implications for science-based industries

This paper tries to clarify how current science-based industries become required to respond to their rapidly advancing complexity and what kinds of new organizational forms are inevitable to cope with such complexity. The microlithography industry is used for this purpose as a typical example. The central analytical concept is “interim modularity,” defined as the modular architecture at trial-and-error development and/or prototyping phases, to effectively orchestrate the dispersion of specialized knowledge and know-how over a wide range of professionals inside and outside of corporations. Such complex tools have to be system-designed with built-in interim modularity for pre-architecture search and post-architecture finetuning.

How organizational structures in science shape spin-off firms: the biochemistry departments of Berkeley, Stanford, and UCSF and the birth of the biotech industry

This article examines how the organizational capabilities of academic spin-off firms in new industries are shaped by the organization of the research communities in universities from which these spin-off firms emerge. Contrasting the organization of research in the biochemistry departments of the University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley), Stanford University (Stanford), and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and key biotech firms spun-off from these departments, this article attempts to explain the central role UCSF scientists played in comparison with their Berkeley and Stanford counterparts, in the formation and development of the biotech industry in the San Francisco region during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is demonstrated how the research environment at UCSF during this period positioned UCSF scientists comparatively well to identify in the context of their research new technological opportunities in therapeutic product markets and pursue these opportunities in the industrial research environment of the biotech industry. Finally, drawing parallels between this study on the role of UCSF in the formation of the San Francisco biotech industry and other studies on the role of Stanford in the formation of the Silicon Valley high-tech electronics industry, this article attempts to infer some general insights into the institutional dynamics that give rise to new science-based industries.

Knowledge bases and regional innovation systems: Comparing Nordic clusters

The analysis of the importance of different types of regional innovation systems must take place within a context of the actual knowledge base of various industries in the economy, as the innovation processes of firms are strongly shaped by their specific knowledge base. In this paper, we shall distinguish between two types of knowledge base: analytical and synthetic. These types indicate different mixes of tacit and codified knowledge, codification possibilities and limits, qualifications and skills, required organisations and institutions involved, as well as specific competitive challenges from a globalising economy, which have different implications for different sectors of industry, and, thus, for the kind of innovation support needed. The traditional constellation of industrial clusters surrounded by innovation supporting organisations, constituting a regional innovation system, is nearly always to be found in contexts of industries with a synthetic knowledge base (e.g. engineering-based industries), while the existence of regional innovation systems as an integral part of a cluster will normally be the case of industries-based on an analytical knowledge base (e.g. science-based industries, such as IT and bio-tech). In the discussion of different types of regional innovation systems five empirical illustrations from a Nordic comparative project on SMEs and regional innovation systems will be used: the furniture industry in Salling, Denmark; the wireless communication industry in North Jutland, Denmark; the functional food industry in Scania, Sweden; the food industry in Rogaland, Norway and the electronics industry in Horten, Norway. We argue that in terms of innovation policy the regional level often provides a grounded approach embedded in networks of actors acknowledging the importance of the knowledge base of an industry.

The fruits of intellectual production: economic and scientific specialisation among OECD countries

This paper brings together data from 17 OECD countries on scientific publications, patents and production, to explore the relationship between scientific and economic specialisation for 17 manufacturing industries. Since Marx, there has been a fundamental debate in economics about the link between science and the economic system. Marx argued that the needs of production shape scientific developments and that science has become a factor of production, whereas Polanyi argued that developments in science are largely independent of the economic sphere. Using a panel data model and econometric estimations at the industry level, the paper derives some hypotheses from the two positions and finds that, while the overall evidence on the link between national production and scientific specialisation is mixed, it is important to have high levels of relevant to-the-industry scientific strength per capita in order to be specialised in science-based industries.

Mapping the future in science-intensive industries: Lessons from the pharmaceutical industry

Companies operating in industries that are subject to fundamental changes caused by innovations in science or technology search for ways to anticipate future business and scientific or technological developments so that they can react to them in profitable ways. Using the example of the pharmaceutical industry, which is currently moving from chemically based medications to targeted treatments based on biology, we demonstrate a process for forecasting how the future will look a decade from now. Illustrating the process with a variety of studies already done on this industry, we provide a strategy for mapping the future as well as an analysis of the strengths and limitations of our planning approach. We argue that this approach is applicable to both science-based and technology-based industries.

Electrical Degradation of N-Channel Poly-Si TFT under AC Stress

Electrical Degradation of N-Channel Poly-Si TFT under AC Stress C. W. Chen, T. C. Chang,* P. T. Liu, H. Y. Lu, T. M. Tsai, C. F. Weng, C. W. Hu, and T. Y. Tseng Institute of Electronics, Department of Physics and Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Department of Photonics and Display Institute, and Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan National Nano Device Laboratory, Science-based Industry Park, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

Modelo para análise estratégica de indústrias baseadas em ciência

Este artigo apresenta um modelo para análise estratégica de indústrias em processo de capacitação tecnológica, baseadas em ciência e sediadas em países em desenvolvimento. O modelo é baseado em cinco elementos principais: regime tecnológico, estrutura mercadológica, processo organizacional, conhecimentos e recursos disponíveis, e papel do governo. Ele pode ser aplicado tanto no nível da indústria como no nível da empresa, e visa apoiar o alinhamento das estratégias de inovação à estratégia geral da empresa. Aplicado à indústria brasileira de vacinas, o modelo permitiu evidenciar limitações no regime tecnológico e nos processos organizacionais dos produtores brasileiros, bem como identificar oportunidades de crescimento mercadológico.

Networks of Innovation or Networks of Opportunity? The Making of the Spanish Antibiotics Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is a typically research-intensive, first world-industry. This article seeks to explain why it has been so difficult for late industrialised nations to reproduce the networks of innovation on which the design and manufacturing of new drugs has historically based, and why alternative concepts are needed in order to understand the dynamics of science-based industries in emerging countries. The article analyses the development of the Spanish antibiotics industry, built after the World War II under the strong influence of the new international order and Spain's political framework, academic traditions and business groups. Focusing on the long-term relationships established between two Spanish companies (Antibióticos SA and Compañia Española de Penicilina y Antibióticos, CEPA), their American technological partners (Schenley and Merck), and their social and scientific environment, the article identifies networks of opportunity as the key institutional arrangement of this new industry in Spain. Opportunity (as opposed to innovation) networks are thus proposed to conceptualise the development of technologically complex industries in the European periphery.

Risk Analysis of Prion Diseases in Animals

Although scrapie, a prion disease of sheep, has been recognized since the 18th century, it was the dramatic emergence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in British cattle in the late 1980s that brought the dangers of prion diseases into prominence. The subsequent spread of this disease into humans as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) remains one of the unsolved emerging infectious disease mysteries of the 20th century. This issue (OIE Scientific and Technical Review 22 [2003]) of the Scientific and Technical Review of the Office International des Epizooties comes 11 years after a previous issue about BSE. Much has happened since then; this multi-author volume provides an excellent account of what is known about prion diseases in animals, including BSE, which has now spread from the United Kingdom to 14 other countries, and remains an important risk to human health. As a consequence of BSE emergence, research has been expanded considerably into transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). This research has resulted in improved diagnostic tests, which have contributed to risk management, even though our understanding of the underlying molecular pathogenesis of TSE remains limited. The 17 chapters in this book are written by experts from many countries and illustrate the various approaches to risk management in specific regions of the world. In addition to BSE, the book contains chapters about TSE of North America such as scrapie, transmissible mink encephalopathy, and chronic wasting disease of deer and elk; the last disease has recently spread from its endemic Colorado-Wyoming area to six other states in the United States, as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. With the recognition that BSE had spread in the United Kingdom and many other countries through feeding contaminated mammalian meat-and-bone meal to ruminants, a ban on this practice was instigated in the European Union in 1994. This ban has since been adopted by many other regions of the world. In 2000, the European Union strengthened the ban to prohibit feeding processed animal proteins to farmed animals kept, fattened, or bred to produce food. This measure has undoubtedly helped to prevent or reduce numbers of cases of BSE in ruminants but incidentally has led to a new science-based industry for feed analysis. This industry uses sophisticated molecular techniques such as near infrared spectroscopy and microscopy, polymerase chain reaction, and immunoassays to check feed for animal by-products, and to prevent intraspecies recycling (cannibalism), which undoubtedly caused the BSE epidemic that resulted in the death of 186,000 cattle from 1985 to 2002. I recommend this book as an excellent source of information on all aspects of prion diseases in animals.

A Guide to Research on the New Economy

This report focusses on new studies that analyse information and communications technology industries, science-based industries, high-technology industries and firms, the knowledge-based economy, and knowledge workers.

What sort of science education do we really need?

The research aims to explore the role of science for employees in science-based industries and for members of the public interacting with science in their everyday lives. Case studies were carried out in a small sample of industries, in community action groups and in personal decision making. The methodology, informed by a tentative model of science, included scrutiny of available relevant documentation and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that procedural understanding was essential in the higher levels of industry and in interacting effectively with everyday issues, while conceptual understanding was so specific that it was acquired in a need-to-know way. The implications for science education hinge on a substantial reduction in the conceptual content and the explicit teaching of the nature of evidence (procedural understanding). The authors suggest building on primary pupils' enthusiasm for investigative work at UK Key Stage 3 (11-14 years) and developing an issues-based curriculum at Key Stage 4 (14-16 years).

The Regional Geography of Corporate Patenting in Information and Communications Technology (ICT): Domestic and Foreign Dimensions

In the new techno-socio-economic conditions, characterized by an increasing reduction of temporal and spatial barriers, and further globalization of economic activity, paradoxically geography seems to matter more than ever before. This particularly applies to science-based industries (e.g. information and communications technology - ICT), where links between corporate competitors, and firm-university and user-producer relationships are crucial in the development and adoption of new flexible technologies. Using US patents granted to the largest European electronic firms, this paper looks at the interplay between the patenting by domestic and European foreign electronics companies of research and development carried out in ICT fields in German, UK and Italian regions. The findings suggest that patenting is attracted to existing areas of industrial strength taking a form of cumulative causation. Nonetheless, policy measures may be successful in reversing the trend. Sous de nouvelles conditions techno- et socioéconomiques, caractérisées par la poursuite du démantèlement des barrières temporelles et géographiques et par la mondialisation accrue de l'activité économique, il semble que paradoxalement la géographie importe plus que jamais. Cela s'applique en particulier aux industries basées sur la science (à savoir, la technologie de l'information et de la communication - la TIC), où les liens entre les concurrents, et les rapports entre les entreprises et les universités, et entre les utilisateurs et les producteurs, sont essentiels au développement et à l'adoption des nouvelles technologies flexibles. A partir des brevets américains accordés aux plus grandes entreprises européennes du secteur de l'électronique, cet article cherche à examiner l'interaction de la demande de brevets par les entreprises étrangères nationales et européennes du secteur de l'électronique pour ce qui est de la recherche et développement effectuée dans le domaine de la TIC dans les régions en Allemagne, au Royaume-Uni et en Italie. Les résultats laissent supposer que la demande de brevets se concentre sur des activités industrielles puissantes existantes et s'explique par une sorte de causalité cumulée. Toujours est-il que la politique pourrait faire marche arrière. In den neuen technisch-sozialwirtschaftlichen Verhältnissen, die durch zunehmenden Abbau zeitlicher und räumlicher Schranken sowie durch weitere Giobalisierung wirtschaftlicher Betätigung charaktrisiert wird, scheint der Verteilung paradoxerweise größere Bedeutung denn je zuvor zuzukommen. Dies gilt besonders für wissenschaftlich fundierte Industrien (z.B. Informations-und Kommunikationstechnologie (ICT), wo Verknüpfungen zwischen korporativen Konkurrenten und Beziehungen zwischen Firmen und Universitäten, sowie Anwendern und Herstellern für Entwicklung und Übernahme neuer, flexibler Technologien entscheidend sind. Mit Hilfe von US Patenten, die den größten Elektrofirmen Europas erteilt wurden, betrachtet dieser Aufsatz das Zusammenspiel von Patentierungen durch inländische und ausländische europäische Elektronikfirmen für Forschung und Entwicklung, die auf dem Gebiet der ICT in deutschen, britischen und italienischen Regionen durchgeführt wird. Die Befunde legen nahe, daß Patentierungsinstitute von bereits bestehenden Industriegebieten angezogen werden, und damit eine Form kumulativer Kausalität annehmen. Nichtsdestoweniger könnten Bestrebungen, diesen Kreislauf in entgegengestzte Richtung zu lenken, erfolgreich sein.