Does it pay to invest in IT? Research over the last two decades has resulted in mixed findings. While many studies have shown a positive and significant relationship between IT investments and firm productivity and performance measures, the question of causality remains: Do higher IT investments contribute to better performance or does better performance contribute to higher IT investments? In ...

We contribute a novel approach to the existing literature on the effects of restructuring on R&D investment by focussing on a single industry, chemicals. The chemical industry is very research intensive and has experienced thorough restructuring since the early 1980s. By focussing on a single industry we are able to identify the technological and R&D features of its segments. This is important,...

This article discusses the ethical issues unique to the science and practice of chemistry. These issues arise from chemistry's position in the middle between the theoretical and the practical, a science concerned with molecules that are of the right size to directly affect human life. Many of the issues are raised by the central activity of chemistry--synthesis. Chemists make thousands of new s...

This article discusses the recent technology transfer to Chinese software firms from Japanese offshore software development. Since the end of the 1990s, Chinese software firms have obtained a significant amount of technology contract work from Japan, including coding, testing, and design. Chinese firms have been increasing their design skills through this joint software development with Japan. ...

Enzymes are protein molecules functioning as specialized catalysts for chemical reactions. They have contributed greatly to the traditional and modern chemical industry by improving existing processes. In this article, we first give a survey of representative industrial applications of enzymes, focusing on the technical applications, feed industry, food processing and cosmetic products. The rec...

R&D depreciation rates are critical to calculating the rates of return to R&D investments and capital service costs, which are important for capitalizing R&D investments in the national income accounts and harmonizing BEA statistics with those of the productivity program of BLS. Although important, measuring R&D depreciation rates is extremely difficult because both the price and output of R&D ...

Background To identify peer-reviewed research on consumers' usage and attitudes towards the nutrition label and the food industry's response to labelling regulations outside Europe, North America, and Australia and to determine knowledge gaps for future research. Design Narrative review. Results This review identified nutrition labelling research from 20 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle Ea...

Beginning in the 1870s and continuing for over three-quarters of a century, the Draper Company was the dominant force and worldwide leader in shaping mechanical innovations in the cotton textile industry. The Draper Company was the central and directing agency in the development and continued improvement of high-speed ring spinning (the most important spinning innovations of the late 19th centu...