ISSN : 2287-1608
This paper articulates the STI strategy development principles and methodologies that have been elaborated through iterative processes of STI strategy development cases for the past ten years. The consultation cases include poverty traps in Nepal and Laos, African health challenges in Nigeria and Tanzania, and ASEAN global challenges in Indonesian Water, Vietnamese Green Energy, and Filipino Food, in partnership with some multilateral agencies.The iterative elaboration process has continued with consultation activities on Thailand and on Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in planning partnership with Thailand. The principles were originally conceptualized from the benchmarking process of the Korean STI development experience. They were further incorporated as methodologies with which relevant planning bodies are guided to address individual and regional challenges through science, technology and innovation strategies. The methodologies are strong in providing plausible holistic perspective scenarios by which various stakeholders can be engaged in the planning and implementation process. But it is heuristic in nature and can be learned only through on-the-job training process. This is the structural limitation for scaling up.
This study aims to understand the importance of commercialization of research and development projects and examines key factors that allow successful technology transfer and commercialization. Given the characteristics of the railway research project, and assuming that R&D input factors would vary depending on the technology readiness level and the degree of research convergence, this study analyzes the moderating effect of each R&D input factor on technology transfer and commercialization to determine their eventual impact. Through this study, it was found that it was necessary to proceed to technology transfer and commercialization of the national research and development projects via strategic workforce composition and allocation of research funding given the subjects and development goals of R&D projects.
This paper explores the relationship between network cooperation, innovation, internationalization and economic performance of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of engineering goods industry located in Bangalore city, India. At the outset, it is observed that SMEs receive the maximum assistance in the realm of product specifications. Moreover, they do not resort to manufacturing new products as much as they resort to product modifications or process improvements. Further, it is found (using Chi-square test of independence) that higher the network assistance received from an external network, greater is the innovation performance of SMEs. Subsequently, using analysis of variance (ANOVA), export intensity (proxy for internationalization performance) of SMEs is found to have a significant positive association with both the degree of their network cooperation and of their innovation performance. Lastly, it is observed that higher the degree of each of network cooperation, innovation performance and internationalization performance, better is the economic performance (measured by total sales turnover) of SMEs. These results have significant implications for the policy makers of the country to give due attention to network cooperation, innovation and internationalization as the means of enhancing the economic performance of SMEs.
Institution-based Technology Business Incubators are on the rise in India, as a means of promoting innovation-based tech start-up ecosystems, due to increased policy initiatives. Against this background, we have traced the origin and process of building a start-up ecosystem in IIT Madras, Chennai of India, based on semi-structured interviews held with the stakeholders of the ecosystem. Subsequently, we have ascertained the key components of IIT Madras start-up ecosystem, and the process of incubation comprising pre-incubation, incubation and post-incubation phases. Finally, we have derived the key lessons from the ecosystem development experience and incubation process which enable generation of start-ups from both students and faculty, apart from alumni and ex-industry executives. Though this ecosystem model has emerged over a period of time through learning and experience, the ecosystem is able to generate more than 100 start-ups, majority of them being from students and faculty. Thus, the evolved start-up ecosystem of IIT Madras is able to generate faculty-supported and student-led entrepreneurship successfully.
As the developed and developing economies make the transition to knowledge-based economies, the high-tech sector has been the primary engine in enabling this transformation. Given this context, the policy making and implementation abilities of the countries’ local administration assume significance. This study therefore attempts to examine the policy evolution undertaken by China and India which resulted in the emergence of high-tech startup ecosystems in these countries. Further, using a theoretical framework for an ideal entrepreneurial ecosystem, it tries to understand the similarities and differences prevalent currently in the Indian and Chinese high-tech startup ecosystem. The results of the study indicate that although both the countries took different paths, from a macro-perspective, they follow the same pattern as observed in the US and Israel policy making - that of the change in the role of Government as a regulator to that of an enabler of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The differences and similarities between the key entrepreneurial ecosystem components provide additional knowledge about the currently prevailing conditions of the ecosystem in these countries.
Venture Capital Firms (VCs) encounter severe information asymmetry risks at almost every stage in their investment lifecycle. This paper explores the agency risks arising from information asymmetry during the stage of exits by VCs from the funded companies in their portfolio and how that impacts the incidence of specific types of type of exits (IPOs/M&As). In this empirical study, by using the data on IPO and M&A exits from venture capital-funded companies, we show how the ability of prospective buyers to better resolve agency risks is directly correlated with the incidence of the above exit types. Using the technique of logistic regression, we demonstrate that factors such as syndication, specialization focus of the VC firm (in terms of stage and sector) and the level of its social capital (proxied by its age and experience) drive the success rate of exits. This is one of first studies in context of exits from VC funded companies in the Indian context.
The creation of academic start-up firms is an important and practical issue in the management of technology in Japan. The present study designs a model for creating academic start-up firms that fits into the social context. It focuses on the case of FIRST Program, an initiative that consists of 30 projects in innovative arenas, analyses the presence of large-scale public funding, and investigates the role of venture capitalists as support personnel in each project. As a result, the presence and significance of ‘long-term escort’ by an ‘entrepreneurial venture capitalist (EP-VCist)’ were confirmed as common features across the cases observed. EP-VCist refers to a person who can maintain and fulfil dual roles at a university and a venture capital firm, and who can take the lead throughout the venturing process as a risk taker. ‘Long-term escort’ is a form of support that reduces risks in the venturing process by supporting university researchers in the pre-entrepreneurial stage and by exerting a robust bridging role between a university and an industry.
In the soft drink industry, especially small and medium enterprises in Japan, there is a possibility of conversion from a labor-intensive industry to a capital-intensive. The demand for soft drinks may not be satisfied in the summer because the supply is too low to meet the demand. To address this situation, this paper proposes optimal investment that integrates demand uncertainty, based on real options approach (ROA) and seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average. Two alternative options are compared and evaluated. One is the Bermudan option: to employ additional workers to elevate efficiency in summer and laying off in winter, this attitude is repeated each year. The other is the American option: to replace equipment to increase machine ability throughout the year. Results in ROA show that the highest improvement is gained if the two options are in a symbiotic relationship. Soft drink producers should search for replacing equipment, using the employees repeatedly. A temporary decision is not equal to an infinite decision.
Patent infringement is defined as implementing a whole patent product without authorization, which is called literal infringement. However, the alleged infringer sometimes does not directly produce the same product with the patented invention, but they simply replace some claimed elements with new materials, or they only produce a certain part of the patent product. Therefore, there is an issue on whether the above cases should also be deemed as patent infringement. This paper uses specific cases to analyze the formation and development process of the doctrine of equivalents and indirect infringement theory in Japan. Then, by discussing the interpretation of Article 101 of the current Japanese patent law, this paper makes it clear that whether it constitutes direct or indirect infringement in some particular cases. The objective of this paper is to clarify the specific requirements of patent infringement under Japanese patent law by case studying and comparing with the patent legal system of China.
This paper’s objective is to draw a decision guideline to continue research and development (R&D) investments in biotech start-ups facing the “Valley of Death” syndrome ¬- a long negative profit period during a financial crisis. The data include financial indices as Net income, Revenues, Total stockholders’ equity, Cash & equivalents, and R&D expenses of 18 major biotech companies (nine in negative profit and nine positive, in FY2008) and 15 major pharmaceutical corporations as benchmarks both in FY2008 and in FY2016 derived from the US SEC Database, EDGAR. A first methodology dealing with real options analysis assumes Total stockholders’ equity as a growth option. And a second methodology, Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis, is applied to test the probability relationship between the Total stockholders’ equity and the R&D expenses in these three groups. This study confirms that Total stockholders’ equity can play the role of a call option to support continuing R&D investments even in negative profits.