Introduction After the Second World War, many countries have found the increasing need for progressive technology as a major means of achieving a competitive edge in the marketplace and also for effective welfare. It was not only under-developed countries that focused on this emerging phenomena, but many advanced nations which had been devastated during the War, tried to achieve the highest lev...

As the time between initial concept and commissioning of submarine cable systems decreases, the need for automated tools and procedures to facilitate the acceleration of the route and cable engineering processes increases. Cable installers are now faced with more projects and less time to design, engineer, and install these systems. These increased demands mean that, in many cases, traditional ...

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We discuss the ability of the nation's measurement system to meet future metrology needs of the semiconductor industry. Lacking an acceptable metric for assessing the health of metrology for the semiconductor industry, we identify a limited set of unmet measurement needs. Assuming that this set of needs may serve as proxy for the galaxy of semiconductor measurement needs, we examine it from the...

The dramatic decline in oil prices, from around $110 per barrel in June 2014 to less than $50 in January 2015, highlights the importance of competition between different energy sources. Indeed, the sustained price drop has been primarily attributed to OPEC’s strategic decision not to curb its oil production in the face of increased supply of shale oil in the US, spurred by the technological inn...

This paper deals with the characteristics of two basic elements for the study of innovation in the firm: the concept of technological innovation, which is defined as a flow magnitude; and the concept of technology, which is defined as a stock magnitude. The technological innovation process is characterized by: being of a continuous nature; being path dependent; being irreversible and being affe...

We propose that searching for and transferring knowledge across divisions in a diversified firm can cultivate innovation. Using a sample of 211,636 patents from 1,644 companies during the period 1985–96, we find that the use of interdivisional knowledge positively affects the impact of an invention on subsequent technological developments. Furthermore, the positive effect of the use of interdiv...

Organization of research personnel We should highlight here the efforts that have been made by the Catalan administration to coordinate research. The structure, size, objectives and affiliation of consolidated research groups (CRGs) have not changed significantly since the previous six-year period (see Table 2). Nor has specific financing changed, continuing to be quite modest. These groups hav...

Technological innovation is vital to enhancing agricultural productivity and reducing poverty in many developing countries. Public investment in research and development has historically driven technological change in agriculture; however, recent trends suggest that the private sector may play a larger role in the future. Although there is optimism about the private sector’s ability to generate...