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The purpose of this paper is to outline the key determinants of innovation performance of a firm in a cluster. This paper probes the role of absorptive capacity in furthering the cluster linkages and thereby enhancing the innovation performance of a firm.

This study adopts stratified random sampling technique to choose sample firms from the identified population of firms in a cluster. Further, it employs primary data collection method to collect data from sample firms through a semi-structured questionnaire based in-depth interviews with the top level management of sample firms. It uses multiple linear regression (MLR) techniques to ascertain the influence of absorptive capacity on degree of cluster linkages (both intra-cluster and extra-cluster linkages), and degree of cluster linkages (both intra-cluster and extra-cluster linkages) on innovation performance of a firm.

On the one hand, internal factors of absorptive capacity of a firm have a significant positive influence on the degrees of both intra-cluster linkages and extra-cluster linkages. On the other hand, external factors of absorptive capacity of a firm significantly impact the degree of intra-cluster linkages (DICL). But, they have no significant influence on the degree of extra-cluster linkages (DECL). Further, both the DICL and the DECL drive innovation performance of a firm in a cluster. Notably, subsidiaries of externally based firms exhibit superior innovation performance compared to those firms based in a cluster.

This paper contributes to the extant literature in two ways. First, it empirically validates the effect of absorptive capacity of a firm on its degree of cluster linkages (both intra-cluster and extra-cluster linkages) taking into account both internal and external factors of absorptive capacity. Second, it ascertains the influence of degree of cluster linkages (both intra-cluster and extra-cluster linkages) on the innovation performance of a firm in a cluster.

THE reliability of ships' structures and machinery is of utmost concern to activities in a marine environment. Corrosion can have a major effect on this reliability. A number of practical examples will be discussed to illustrate the corrosion hazards that appear between design office and field execution, the weaknesses inherent in some commonly used metals, and how an understanding of corrosion can be of major significance in ensuring reliability.

In the summer of 1954, several A and B row tubes failed in one boiler of an R.C.N. light cruiser based on Esquimalt, B.C. These tube failures have been described in detail in Corrosion. In brief, the chief phenomena observed were indications of overheating and intergranular cracking. A length of one of the burst tubes was forwarded to Naval Research Dockyard Laboratory, Halifax, for examination, and it was noticed that the failures were associated with considerable deposits of copper around the bursts. This paper describes the investigation conducted to determine the significance of these copper deposits, and their bearing on the failures.

Mr. Cutter commences his classic “Rules” with a statement of the objects some or all of which a catalogue is intended to compass. I have put these objects in the form of “wants,” confining them, it will be observed, to the catalogue considered merely as a finding list I may go to the catalogue, then, with any of the following half‐dozen wants:—

I.C.I. Expansion. The third define plant of I.C.I. Heavy Organic Chemicals Division has recently been completed and successfully brought into operation at Wilton, Yorkshire. This raises I.C.I.'s total olefine capacity by 60%. Output of the chief product, high‐purity ethylene, is now about 110,000 tons p.a. and plans are under consideration for increasing this to perhaps 140,000 tons p.a. by additions to and modifications of this and the two other I.C.I. olefine plants at Wilton.

Summary An investigation on the Corrosion behaviour of aluminium bronze and 70–30 brass in H2SO4, HCl, NaOH, NaCl and sea water has been made.

Wettability and corrosion inhibition. In the course of an ambitious research programme on corrosion inhibitors and related problems, the Institute of Chemistry at Ferrara, Italy, has investigated certain special aspects of corrosion inhibition in the presence of wetting agents. It would appear that the surface conditions have an important bearing on the mechanism of the corrosion phenomena, and that the action of the wetting agents tends to modify the distribution of the local cells so that the corrosion mechanism is re‐orientated.

This paper aims to deal with the sale of the bare ownership subject to the lifetime usufruct to the seller as an alternative channel for housing investments in Italian cities. The first aim of the study is to understand in greater detail the bare ownership market while also stimulating the interest of researchers in this segment of the housing market that up until now has been marginally analyzed so far. The second aim is to make the estimation of the bare ownership easier and more reliable for market investors and institutions. The third aim is to quantify on the markets investigated in this paper, the “actual” appraisal coefficients for the usufructuary presence, as well as compare these coefficients with the ones set for tax purposes to highlight either the concordance or discordance.

A hedonic price model is developed, with which it is possible to evaluate the market price of the bare ownership as a function of the determinants of value in the market segments in question, in particular the life expectancy of the usufructuary.

Through the hedonic models defined in this work, it is possible to appraise the market value of the bare ownership of residential flats in a building located in the same districts overcoming the limitations of the procedures currently used. Comparing the appraisal coefficients for the usufructuary presence estimated through the hedonic models defined in this work, with the legally defined coefficients applied countrywide for tax purpose, it is possible to conclude that the latter markedly underestimate the market value of bare ownership, thereby leading to fiscal iniquities and substantial social costs.

It has not been possible to know the gender of the usufructuary. Rather limited size of the apartment sales samples.

The bare ownership market is currently an important sector that deserves greater attention from the institutions, market investors and real estate research. The model developed allows to estimate the “actual” coefficients for the determination of the market value of the bare ownership of residential units.

There are currently no studies nor descriptive investigations relating to either the bare ownership market segments or recent cases of estimates. The present study is the first in current literature that both systematically deals with the quantification of the “actual” appraisal coefficients for the usufructuary presence, as well as compares these coefficients with the ones set for tax purposes.