R&D, Value Chain Location and Firm Performance in the Global Electronics Industry (journal article)
by Namchul Shin; Kenneth L. Kraemer; Jason Dedrick
from Industry and Innovation, Vol 16 N0 3 June 2009, pp. 315 – 330
"In today's global electronics industry, innovation is carried out by various value chain participants, including brand-name manufacturers (sometimes called lead firms), contract manufacturers and component suppliers, but there is little understanding of who benefits most from innovation in such networks. This research examines empirically the relationship of R&D spending and location in the value chain (lead vs. non-lead firms) to firm performance in the global electronics industry by using the Electronic Business 300 data set for 2000-2005. Our results show that firms spending more on R&D have higher gross profits, but do not have higher return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). There is a strong positive relationship between lead firms and performance as measured by gross profit, ROE and ROA, but the relationship between lead firms and gross profit becomes insignificant when the interaction term of R&D and lead firm is included in the analysis. Finally, lead firm status has a positive interaction effect on the relationship between R&D and gross profit. These findings suggest that the relationship of R&D to performance is mixed, but that lead firms can capture higher value (gross profit) from R&D than contract manufacturers and component suppliers. "

Organizing the Innovation Process: Complementarities in Innovation Networking (journal article)
by James H. Love and Stephen Roper
from Industry and Innovation, Vol 16 N0 3 June 2009
"This paper contributes to the developing literature on complementarities in organizational design. We test for the existence of complementarities in the use of external networking between stages of the innovation process in a sample of UK and German manufacturing plants. Our evidence suggests some differences between the UK and Germany in terms of the optimal combination of innovation activities in which to implement external networking. Broadly, there is more evidence of complementarities in the case of Germany, with the exception of the product engineering stage. By contrast, the UK exhibits generally strong evidence of substitutability in external networking in different stages, except between the identification of new products and product design and development stages. These findings suggest that previous studies indicating strong complementarity between internal and external knowledge sources have provided only part of the picture of the strategic dilemmas facing firms. "

Power, Culture, Economy: Indigenous Australians and Mining (e-book)
by Jon Altman and David Martin (Editors)
from CAEPR Monograph No. 30
This collection of papers focuses on three large, ongoing mining operations in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory under two statutory regimes—the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the Native Title Act 1993. The authors outline the institutional basis to greater industry involvement while describing and analysing the best practice principles that can be utilised both by companies and Indigenous community organisations.

The role of creative industries in industrial innovation (journal article)
by Kathrin Müller, Christian Rammer and Johannes Trüby
from Innovation Management Policy and Practice Vol 11 No 2 August 2009 p.148-
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"This paper analyses the role of creative industries in affecting an economy's innovation performance. Conducting a survey of more than 2,000 creative industry enterprises, we show that creative industries are among the most innovative sectors in the economy. They support innovation in a variety of other sectors through creative inputs, such as ideas for new products, supplementary products and services or marketing support for product innovations. They are also an important user of new technology and demand innovations from technology producers, particularly information and communication technologies. Own innovative activities are a key driver for supporting innovation. Creative industries are no homogenous sector, however. While software and advertising show the strongest links to industrial innovation, architecture and content providers contribute rather little.

Intelligent cities and globalisation of innovation networks [book]

Author: Nicos Komninos

"Asks key questions of the movement towards intelligent environments and cities, such as: What makes an intelligent city and how do we define it? What makes some cities and regions more efficient in developing knowledge, technologies and innovations? How important is the external under environment to the innovation performance of an organisation? How is innovation changing along with digitalisation and globalisation?" - cover.

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OECD biotechnology statistics 2009 [online]
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
"Contains government survey data for 22 OECD countries and additional data for four nonmember countries. The survey data provide results on the number of biotechnology firms, business expenditures on R&D, biotechnology employment, and sales of biotechnology goods and services." - foreword.

Death by INFORMATION OVERLOAD (journal article)
By Paul Hemp
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Issue 9 Sept 2009, pp. 82-89
"The value of information in the knowledge economy is indisputable, but so is its capacity to overwhelm consumers of it. HBR contributing editor Hemp reports on practical ways for individuals and organizations to avoid getting too much of a good thing. Ready access to useful information comes at a cost: As the volume increases, the line between the worthwhile and the distracting starts to blur. And ready access to you -- via e-mail, social networking, and so on -- exacerbates the situation: On average, Intel executives get 300 e-mails a day, and Microsoft workers need 24 minutes to return to work after each e-mail interruption. Clearly, productivity is taking a hit. Technological aids can help, such as e-mail management software for you, a message-volume regulation system for your organization, or even more-sophisticated solutions being developed by Microsoft, IBM, and others. Yet, battling technological interruptions on their own turf only goes so far. You also need to change your mind-set, perhaps by seeking help from personal-productivity experts or by simply accepting that you can't respond to every distraction that flits across your screen. Similarly, organizations must change their cultures, for instance by establishing clear e-communication protocols. In the end, only a multipronged approach will help you and your organization subdue the multiheaded monster of information overload. The secret is to manage the beast while still respecting it for the beautiful creature it is."

SIX SOURCES OF LIMITLESS ENERGY? (journal article)
By Gardiner Morse
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Issue 9 Sept 2009, pp. 66-67
"The article reports on six sustainable sources of energy that use technologies based on the wind, the sun, algae, ocean waves, and nuclear and geothermal energy. Innovations in the energy technologies are discussed including the stages of development for high-altitude wind turbines, genetically engineered algae that is used for biofuel, wave power from the ocean, nuclear fusion, enhanced geothermal systems, and solar cells on satellites that will be placed in space."

Australia's Indicator-Based Sustainability Assessments and Public Policy (journal article)
By Adnan A. Hezri and Stephen R. Dovers
from Australian Journal of Public Administration Vol 68 Iss 3 2009, pp. 303 - 318
"Operationalising sustainability has proven difficult because the concept is ambiguous and fraught with contradictions. In response, sustainability indicator systems to characterise and measure sustainable development have been developed globally. The focus of this article is on how indicators function as an instrument of policy to enhance achievement of environmental and sustainability policy in Australia at national scale. In theory, by integrating information from the environmental, social and economic domains and then feeding knowledge to a wide range of policy sectors, sustainability indicator systems may facilitate cross-agency and -portfolio connectivity. Key characteristics of the various sustainability indicator systems developed to inform policy at the national level are described, noting the diverse approaches to indicator development in Australia. The structural relevance of indicator systems to the mechanisms of policy and institutions in Australia is discussed, and corresponding issues of institutional fit are analysed."

What every intranet team should know [book]

Author: James Robertson, Step Two Designs

A succinct overview of managing and growing intranets which includes the following chapters: Four purposes of the intranet, How to find out what staff need, How to design the intranet, How to deliver great content, The role of the intranet team, How to plan intranet improvements.

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Clusters, innovation and entrepreneurship [online]

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Explores the success of major innovation and entrepreneurship clusters in OECD countries, the challenges they now face in sustaining their positions and the lessons for other places seeking to build successful clusters. What are the key factors for cluster success? What problems are emerging on the horizon? Which is the appropriate role of the public sector in supporting the expansion of clusters and overcoming the obstacles?" - abstract.

Australia’s increasing PV power (journal article)

from EcoGeneration July/August 2009

"Australia’s PV power market grew substantially in 2008, bringing Australia’s total installed capacity to 104.5 MW. The figures come from a key report into Australia’s photovoltaic (PV) power market – National Survey Report of PV Power Applications in Australia 2008, prepared by Dr Muriel Watt on behalf of the Australian PV Association (APVA) and published in May this year."

Fuel cells in Australia (journal article)
by Adrian Horin and Dr Andrew Dicks
from EcoGeneration, July/August 2009
"Compared with many countries, such as the USA, Europe and Japan, who have established fuel cell R&D programs and emerging industries, Australia has some catching up to do. However, Australia does have some of the leading hydrogen research scientists in the world based here."

Greater transportation energy and GHG offsets from bioelectricity than ethanol (journal article)
by J.E.Campbell, D.B.Lobell and C.B.Field
from Science, Vol 324, 22 May 2009
"The quantity of land available to grow biofuel crops without affecting food prices or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land conversion is limited. Therefore, bioenergy should maximize land use efficiency when addressing transportation and climate change goals. Biomass could power either internal combustion or electric vehicles, but the relative land use efficiency of these two energy pathways is not well quantified. Here, we show that bioelectricity outperforms ethanol across a range of feedstocks, conversion technologies and vehicle classes."
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Four Steps to Redefining the Economics of IT (journal article)
by Brenton Smith
from CIO 05 August, 2009
"CIOs need to drive more economic value from their IT investments and projects than ever before. A four-pronged approach is key."

Innovation and entrepreneurship in biotechnology, an international perspective : concepts, theories and cases [book]

Authors: Damien Hine & John Kapeleris

"The biotechnology industry across the globe is growing dramatically in line with rapidly emerging scientific and technological developments. This book explores both the theoretical and practical aspects of entrepreneurship in the biotechnology industry, focusing on the innovation processes underpinning success for new biotechnology firms (NBFs). It argues that biotechnology is at a crossroads: to date the science has been solid, yet commercial success remains elusive, and that it will be the commercial success of NBFs which will dictate the long term viability of this crucial industry." - cover.

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OECD Communications Outlook 2009 [online]
Author: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
"Presents the most recent comparable data on the performance of the communication sector in OECD countries and on their policy frameworks. The data provided in this report map the eight years of competition for many OECD countries that fully opened their market to competition in 1998. The 2009 edition analyses the communications sector over the years following the "dot com bubble" crisis and explores future developments. The OECD Communications Outlook provides an extensive range of indicators for the development of different communications networks and compares performance indicators such as revenue, investment, employment and prices for service throughout the OECD area."

Picking winners is government's real task (journal article)
By Michael Vitale
From ATSE Focus, June/July 2009
"Objections to picking winners are generally either philosophical or practical - both lack factual support and fly in the face of actual government practice. The goal of government support for commercial R&D is to encourage projects with large social benefits but inadequate returns to private investors, and around the world many governments offer such support.
There have been relatively few rigorous attempts to demonstrate the benefits of such support, and there is an ongoing dispute about 'picking winners' - although theoretical objections to that approach rarely seem to stand in the way of accepting cash when it is offered, even if not all the companies shall have prizes. "

The creative city : a toolkit for urban innovators [book]

Author: Charles Landry

"Describes a new method of strategic urban planning and examines how people can think, plan and act creatively in the city. It explores how we can make our cities more liveable and vital by harnessing people's imagination and talent. It does not provide answers, but seeks to open out an 'ideas bank' of possibilities from which innovations will emerge." - introduction.

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Green building market in Singapore [online]
Author: International Business Strategies
"The market potential in Singapore for technologies, systems and equipment used in the construction of environmentally sustainable buildings (green buildings) is becoming stronger. This covers all types of systems and products to improve energy and water efficiency of a building, technologies and equipment that improve indoor air quality, construction systems that reduce noise and air pollution, as well as recyclable building materials." - summary.