Location Strategies for Agglomeration Economies

Geographically concentrated industry activity creates pools of skilled labor and specialized suppliers, and increases opportunities for knowledge spillovers. The strategic value of these agglomeration economies may vary by firm, depending upon the relative value of each economy, and upon firm and agglomeration economy traits. To better determine when a firm will be attracted to agglomeration economies, we develop a three-layer framework. The first layer assesses the relative importance of skilled labor, suppliers, and knowledge spillovers. The second layer considers whether firms can benefit from geographic concentration without co-locating. The final layer examines why some firms are more inclined to co-locate than others based upon firm and agglomeration economy traits. We test our framework on the U.S. location choices of new manufacturing entrants between 1985 and 1994 and find that firms are far more attracted to skilled labor and specialized suppliers than they are to potential knowledge spillovers, even in R&D intensive industries. We also find that leading firms will be more attracted to pools of labor, suppliers, and potential knowledge spillovers when their own contributions are less fungible, and cannot be easily leveraged for strategic advantage by proximate competitors.agglomeration economies, location choice, firm strategy

Spanning the Institutional Abyss: The Intergovernmental Network and the Governance of Foreign Direct Investment

Global economic transactions such as foreign direct investment must extend over an institutional abyss between the jurisdiction, and therefore protection, of the states involved. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), whose members are states, represent an important attempt to span this abyss. IGOs are mandated variously to smooth economic transactions, facilitate global cooperation, and promote cultural contact and awareness. We use a network approach to demonstrate that the connections between two countries through joint-membership in the same IGOs are associated with a large positive influence on the foreign direct investment that flows between them. Moreover, we show that this effect occurs not only in the case of IGOs that focus on economic issues, but also on those with social and cultural mandates. This demonstrates that relational governance is important and feasible in the global context, and for the most risky transactions. Finally we examine the interdependence between the IGO network and the domestic institutions of states. The interdependence between these global and domestic institutional forms is complex, with target-country democracy being a substitute for economic IGOs, but a complement for social and cultural IGOs.

Applicant and Examiner Citations in US Patents: An Overview and Analysis

Researchers studying innovation increasingly use indicators based on patent citations. However, it is well known that not all citations originate from applicants--patent examiners contribute to citations listed in issued patents--and that this could complicate interpretation of findings in this literature. In 2001 the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began reporting examiner and applicant citations separately. In this paper, we analyze the prior art citations of all patents granted by the USPTO in 2001-2003. We show that examiner citations account for 63 per cent of all citations on the average patent, and that 40 per cent of patents have all citations added by examiners. We use multivariate regression and analysis of variance to identify the determinants of examiner shares. Examiner shares are highest for non-US applicants and in electronics, communications, and computer-related fields. However, most of the variation is explained by firm-specific variables, with the largest patent applicants having high examiner shares. Moreover, a large number of firms are granted patents that contain no applicant prior art. Taken together, our findings suggest that heterogeneity in firm-level patenting practices, in particular by high-volume applicants, has a strong influence on the data. This suggests that analysis of firm-level differences in patenting strategies is an important topic for future research.Technology, patents, patent examiners, prior art, citations

Internationalization in the information age: a new era for places, firms and international business networks?

The new techno-economic paradigm of the information age has brought about new structures and processes in international business (IB). In this article, we examine the changing nature of the competitive advantages of places, the competitive advantages and strategies of firms, and the governance structure of IB networks in what has also been called the third industrial revolution. These three areas of change in IB activities can be mapped respectively to the location (L), ownership (O) and internalization (I) advantages of the eclectic paradigm. We interpret these OLI factors as dynamic constructs in order to depict analytically the shifts in the IB environment and their implications for IB

PSYCHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A SPANISH TRANSLATION OF THE MANCHESTER FOOT PAIN AND DISABILITY INDEX: VALIDATION AND RASCH ANALYSIS

Background: The Manchester Foot Pain and Disability Index (MFPDI) is a self-assessment questionnaire developed in the UK to measure foot pain and disability in the general population1. It has been translated and validated in several languages 2,3 Objectives: The aim of this study was to conduct cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the MFPDI into Spanish Methods: The cross-cultural adaptation process was undertaken using International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)4 recommendations. This involved 8 stages: i) Forward translation, ii) Reconciliation, iii) Back translation, iv) Back translation review, v) Harmonisation, vi) Pilot, vii) Pilot review, and viii) Proofreading. In the validation phase, the MFPDI datasets from the UK (original) and Spain (adapted) were pooled and subjected to Rasch analysis. Fit to the Rasch model, unidimensionality, reliability and cross-cultural invariance is reported Results: The pooled dataset comprised 1015 patients (Spain n=333 and UK n=682) with characteristics summarised in Table 1. Rasch analysis confirmed three subscales for both the Spanish and UK datasets and fit to the Rasch model X2 (df) = 15.945 (12), p = 0.194 and 31.024 (21), p = 0.073, for Spain and UK . The reliability (Person Separation Index - PSI) was .85 and .82 for Spain and UK respectively. Significant cross-cultural non-invariance was present on the Functional and Personal appearance subscales. Adjustment for the bias was achieved by ‘splitting’ the affected subscales and creation of cultural-specific subscales for each country and cultural-general subscale. Fit to the Rasch model was satisfied following cross-cultural adjustment (Table 1). The MFPDI was calibrated into interval-level scales for Spain and UK to enable future data pooling or comparisons. Sampl e size Gender Age Item Fit Residual Person Fit Residual Chi Square Interaction PSI Analysis N Female (%) Mean (SD) Mean SD Mean SD Value (df) p Spain 333 248 (74.4) 51.6 (15.2) -0.164 3.07 - 0.364 0.93 15.95 (12) 0.19 0.85 UK 682 416 (61.0) 55.2 (16.7) -0.366 2.80 - 0.429 0.99 31.02 (21) 0.07 0.82 Pooled 1015 663 (65.4) 52.8 (15.8) -0.766 4.40 - 0.441 1.06 49.17 (27) 0.01 0.84 DIFAdjusted -0.420 2.98 - 0.415 0.98 57.94 (45) 0.09 0.84 Table 1: P = Χ2 interaction probability, (non-significant P = Fit to the model), PSI = Person separation index Conclusions: A gold standard translation process (ISPOR) has been used to develop a Spanish (for Spain) version of the MFPDI, a widely used foot-specific patient-reported outcome measure. Rasch analysis has confirmed that the MFPDI is a robust 3-subscale measure of foot pain, function and appearance in both its English and Spanish versions. Future work can make cross-cultural comparisons using the calibrated scale

Elaboracion de un plan de promocion a Reino Unido para la Vina Domaire Oriental y su vino, Casa Donoso, resultante de un sistema de gestion ambiental certificado segun la norma ISO 14001

130 p.En el caso de los intercambios internacionales producidos por el vino, se Babe que se ha entrado a competir fuertemente con clasicas vitivinicolas como Francia e Italia, una nueva horneada de paises productores como E.E.U.U., Chile, Australia, Argentina y Sudafrica los que han logrado posicionarse con relativa fuerza en varios paises de todo el orbe. De todas maneras, siguen liderando las exportaciones mundiales de vino Italia, seguida por Francia y en tercer lugar Espana. El 75% de la produccion comercial de vino chileno es logrado por cerca de diez empresas que representan aproximadamente el 90% de las exportaciones. Mas de la mitad de la produccion de vinos chilenos se dedica al extranjero, de hecho el mercado internacional desempena un papel importante y frente a la competencia de los otros paises productores las vinas chilenas deben hacer esfuerzos para competir en el mercado. Asi, no es necesario sino obligatorio tener una ventaja competitiva para los proximos anos a fin de quedarse con un posicionamiento consecuente en el mercado internacional. Ademas, hoy en dia, debido a los problemas del medio ambiente, las vinas deben disenar e implementar un sistema de gestion ambiental aplicable al proceso productivo para competir en el mercado internacional. Esta reglas se iran desarrollando a futuro, las empresas que no las tengan en los proximos anos, se arriesgan a fracasar. Estas normas son reconocidas en el mundo de los negocios internacionales. Asi, la OMC, Organizacion Mundial del Comercio, las examino en el tratado de Marrakech en 1994. Es una prueba de calidad que facilita los negocios y que se volvera obligatorio. La certificacion ISO 14001 se inscribe en estos procesos. Por lo tanto, la villa Domaine Oriental esta implementando la norma ISO 14001 en su proceso de produccion y tiene en la idea comunicar sobre eso a fin de incrementar sus ventas al extranjero y especialmente en paises ya sensibilizado sobre el tema. Por eso, una vez analizadas las necesidades del mercado ingles y la politica de mercadeo de la villa Domaine Oriental en este pais, le sugerimos un plan de promocion a Reino Unido para la viva Domaine Oriental y su vino, Casa Donoso resultante de una produccion certificada segun la norma ISO 14001

Magnetic Field Dependent Behavior of the CDW ground state in Per2M(mnt)2 (M = Au, Pt)

The Per2M(mnt)2 class of organic conductors exhibit a charge density wave (CDW) ground state below about 12 K, which may be suppressed in magnetic fields of order 20 to 30 T. However, for both cases of counter ion M(mnt)2 species studied (M = Au (zero spin) and M = Pt (spin 1/2)), new high field ground states evolve for further increases in magnetic field. We report recent investigations where thermopower, Hall effect, high pressure and additional transport measurements have been carried out to explore these new high field phases.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, 27 reference