REORGANIZATION within the Industrial Unit of Tribology at Leeds University confirms the appointment of Dr C.N. March, BSc, PhD, as manager of the Unit in place of Dr R.J. Wakelin…
Abstract
REORGANIZATION within the Industrial Unit of Tribology at Leeds University confirms the appointment of Dr C.N. March, BSc, PhD, as manager of the Unit in place of Dr R.J. Wakelin who recently retired. The Unit now becomes fully integrated with the Institute of Tribology, of which Professor Duncan Dowson is the Director. This should be a beneficial move in that Professor Dowson plans to play a more active role than hitherto in the many activities of the Unit. He was, of course, its founder and first director in 1968.
“A flying squad of industrial detectives” was how the local press described the Industrial Unit's engineers, on the occasion of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to the Unit after the…
Abstract
“A flying squad of industrial detectives” was how the local press described the Industrial Unit's engineers, on the occasion of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to the Unit after the Tribo‐International 78 exhibition.
WHEN Professor W. B. Heginbotham, Director General of the Production Engineering Research Association, officially opens Tribo‐International 80 at Bodington Hall, Leeds, on Tuesday…
Abstract
WHEN Professor W. B. Heginbotham, Director General of the Production Engineering Research Association, officially opens Tribo‐International 80 at Bodington Hall, Leeds, on Tuesday morning, September 16, he will set in motion the fourth and biggest Exhibition in the biennial series staged by the Leeds Tribology Unit. The event, which has come to be called the “moving parts show”, is a commercial exhibition providing visitors with a rare opportunity of seeing all aspects of lubrication, bearings seals and allied equipment presented under one roof at the same time.
ADDITIVES today are important ingredients in lubricating compositions whose efficiency they enhance by an improvement in certain desired characteristics. The inclusion of such…
Abstract
ADDITIVES today are important ingredients in lubricating compositions whose efficiency they enhance by an improvement in certain desired characteristics. The inclusion of such substances in lubricating mixtures has therefore occupied the attention of both the engineer and chemist.
Rico Baldegger, Pascal Wild and Patrick Schueffel
Today, newly founded businesses are inevitably driven to start in a digital form from day 1. Moreover, most existing businesses conceive digitalization as an important part of…
Abstract
Today, newly founded businesses are inevitably driven to start in a digital form from day 1. Moreover, most existing businesses conceive digitalization as an important part of their strategic orientation by developing and improving their digital assets and digitalizing their processes. By taking account of this development, this chapter investigates how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) affects a small firm’s proclivity to both digitization and internationalization and their performance that comes from it. Internationalization has been a key topic for many small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) over the past decades. As digitization is currently taking over the helm from internationalization as the most pressing topic affecting business, we carried out research among SMEs to understand the interplay of these factors influencing business performance. The focus of the research was on the precursory factors inducing firm performance as well as on their interrelationships. Using a sample of 357 SMEs, EO is found to be significantly closely associated with an SME’s degree of digitization as well as with its overall performance. In contrast, EO does not affect the SME’s level of internationalization. This result is surprising considering that proactive and risk-taking firms tend to be more inclined to enter foreign and distant markets.
Details
Keywords
Among the prominent economic trends in recent decades is the exponential increase in flows of goods and capital driven by technological progress and falling of restrictions. A key…
Abstract
Among the prominent economic trends in recent decades is the exponential increase in flows of goods and capital driven by technological progress and falling of restrictions. A key driver of this phenomenon has been the cross-border production, foreign investment, and trade both final and intermediate goods by multinational corporations. Research has sought to understand how foreign direct investment (FDI) affects host economies. This paper reviews the main theories and empirical evidence of two streams of literature: the mechanisms by which multinational activity might create positive effects and externalities to countries and the role of complementary local conditions, also known as “absorptive capacities,” that allow a country to reap the benefits of FDI paying particular attention to the role of factor markets, reallocation effects, and the linkages generated between foreign and domestic firms. The survey focuses mainly on work related to developing countries.
Details
Keywords
Although the theoretical arguments provide several channels through which innovation affects export, empirical validation of this relationship is scarce. Further, the impact of…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the theoretical arguments provide several channels through which innovation affects export, empirical validation of this relationship is scarce. Further, the impact of the diverse channels of domestic and foreign research and development (R&D) on export is assessed in isolation by previous studies. This paper empirically investigates the impact of technological innovation on export capacity and intensity of industrial enterprises in emerging countries by considering three channels of domestic innovation and foreign R&D spillovers, namely internal R&D, embodied knowledge and disembodied knowledge in a unified framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on China's industrial enterprises in the manufacturing sector are extracted from the China National Bureau of Statistics (NBSC), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MST) and the UN Comtrade database for the period from 1998 to 2020. The instrumental variables two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) and three-stage least squares (IV-3SLS) methods are used to control for the possible endogeneity bias and the problem of cross-equation correlation between residuals.
Findings
The results show that internal R&D is a critical factor to enhance the export performance of enterprises in emerging countries, while the effect of embodied spillovers and public–private collaboration on export capacity and intensity of industrial enterprises is substantial. Further, disembodied knowledge that is acquired through licensing of technology from advanced countries does not directly contribute to the export performance of enterprises but requires a threshold level of internal R&D capability. This study’s results also report a greater effect of embodied knowledge spillovers on export capacity and export intensity than internal R&D in emerging countries. The results are consistent to changes in the sample period and the estimation methods. The findings of the paper suggest that developing countries can speed up the process of export upgrading by relying on both domestic and foreign R&D efforts.
Practical implications
The findings would help policymakers to keep in mind the relative importance of internal R&D and embodied and disembodied knowledge spillovers for export performance before formulating a catch-up strategy and the outcome would encourage them to consider prior related knowledge in terms of internal R&D capability while acquiring external technology.
Originality/value
This study fills the gap in the existing literature by providing empirical validation of the innovation–export interplay and simultaneously assessing the effect of three diverse channels of technological innovation on the export performance of industrial enterprises. This paper enunciates important policy lessons for emerging countries' smooth transition to a knowledge-based economy.
Details
Keywords
Ajay Chandel and Anjali Sharma
Purpose: Since its inception in 1987, the literature on the VUCA that represents the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of the business environment has…
Abstract
Purpose: Since its inception in 1987, the literature on the VUCA that represents the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of the business environment has progressively increased. This study systematically evaluates the vast literature on the VUCA world. Since review-based studies have been criticised as biased, this study uniquely amalgamates bibliometric analysis with content analysis, thereby taking a research triangulation discourse.
Need of the Study: This study was conducted to consolidate the literature about the VUCA environment and uncover the foundational and emerging themes for future research agendas.
Design/Methodology/Approach: This study conducts a performance analysis and science mapping of 193 carefully selected articles (using PRISMA) published in various sources during 2012–2023. Articles for the study were procured from the SCOPUS database. While performance analysis focused on analysing publication and citation evolution, thematic evolution, leading publications, country publication analysis, and most relevant authors and sources. On the other hand, science mapping revealed conceptual structures (keyword plus co-occurrence analysis and thematic maps) and intellectual structures (co-authorship analysis). VOSviewer and Biblioshiny (R-tool for comprehensive science mapping) were used for this study’s choice of application.
Findings: This chapter concludes with future research agendas using content analysis of the ‘scope for the future research’ section of selected publications and bibliographic coupling (to unearth emerging themes).
Practical Implications: The work presented in this chapter will help the researchers gain a structured conceptual, intellectual, and social understanding of the vast literature on the VUCA environment.