Mario Calderini

A hierarchical bicriterion approach to integrated process plan selection and job shop scheduling

Abstract The job shop scheduling literature deals with problems characterized by a fixed linear process plan for each job: it is assumed that the process planning problem has been solved before scheduling, and no flexibility in the process plan is considered. Our aim here is to propose a solution approach for a joint process plan selection and job shop scheduling problem, taking both operations cost and makespan into account within a multi-objective framework. Due to the complexity of the problem, a two-phase hierarchical method is proposed. In the first phase, a relaxed version of the problem is solved, yielding an approximation of the set of efficient process plans with respect to cost and load balancing objectives. Each process plan is then considered and the corresponding scheduling problem is solved by tabu search; the process plan selection is improved by a two-level hierarchical tabu search algorithm.

Corporate Governance, Market Structure and Innovation

This book investigates the relationship between corporate governance, market structure and innovation. The editors observe that a number of radical mutations are occurring in industries that have played a crucial role in sustaining and fostering the pace of technological progress.

Liberalisation, industry turmoil and the balance of R&D activities

Abstract In this paper we investigate the relationship between market structure and the composition of R&D activities. We present an empirical model to demonstrate that when market structure is shuffled by an institutional discontinuity, such as liberalisation, basic and applied activities respond in opposite ways: the former decrease whereas the latter increase. As a consequence, market turmoil is likely to provide firms with short-term incentives, shifting the allocation of resources towards applied and development activities. The model is tested on an original data set including innovation measures from the incumbent Public Telecommunications Operators of 17 European countries. We argue that the dynamics outlined in the model are likely to prevent firms (industries) sustaining an appropriate rate of innovative activity.

The Unequal Benefits of Academic Patenting for Science and Engineering Research

The increase of university patents has raised issues of potential conflicts of interest in Faculty activities. Nonetheless, recent empirical evidence has indicated that very productive scientists contribute disproportionally to academic patenting and that inventing is likely to encourage an increase in scientific productivity. This article adds to this evidence by showing that such beneficial effects are not likely to be earned equally by every scientist. The analysis was run in a large sample of Italian scientists contributing to materials sciences in either chemistry or engineering of materials, and makes use of several econometric techniques that are suitable for treating unobserved heterogeneity, excess zeros, and incidental truncation. Results indicate that benefits are higher when the feedback from applied research is richer, and when regimes of secrecy are less harsh, which is more likely to be the case with engineering, as opposed to hard science research. If confirmed by further evidence, the findings suggest that academic policies in matters of intellectual property rights should be refined and tailored to field specificities.

THE GOVERNANCE OF KNOWLEDGE COMPOSITENESS AND TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IN EUROPE

Abstract Knowledge compositeness measures the variety of scientific disciplines that it is necessary to command in order to generate new technological knowledge. The paper investigates the relations between the knowledge compositeness of the flow of patents delivered to the main European automobile companies and the evolution of their technological and product market shares. Compositeness confirms to be an important characteristic of private knowledge: its governance exerts strong and positive effects on the technological and competitive advantage of firms. Knowledge compositeness has strong effects on the mechanisms of knowledge governance and management of technology. Appropriate measures of knowledge compositeness make it possible to qualify the quantitative measures of the technological competence of firms based upon patents counts.

Innovation paths in product development: An empirical research

Abstract The paper presents the results of a research which investigated the dynamics of technological change and organisational structure in discrete-parts manufacturing firms located in the industrial area surrounding Turin, in north-western Italy. The field study focused on a micro-level analysis of the impact of innovation in product development practices on small and medium enterprises. Specifically, the paper shows that exogenous determinants of innovation, computer-aided technologies, design methodologies and organisational structures interact in a fairly complex fashion and adapt themselves to a changing competitive environment. Eventually, in order to provide an aggregate view of the phenomena, a causal model of innovative behaviour in product design is proposed.

Standardisation in the ICT sector: The (complex) interface between antitrust and intellectual property

This article investigates the issue of standardisation in the ICT sector, analysing the most relevant aspects concerning intellectual property rights and anticompetitive strategies that can arise in standard setting organisations. The strategic dimension of this activity is also scrutinised, highlighting the different approaches followed by the United States and by the European Union. In this respect, after underlining the benefits of processes not lead by public structures, the article describes the fundamental role of internal regulations, which are necessary both for the purpose of having a sound process, and also reducing the risk of collusion and other anticompetitive conducts among members.

Meta-Models for Integrating Production Management Functions in Heterogeneous Industrial Systems

Several heterogenous processes can be found in industrial practice, such as plants involving partly continuous, partly discrete manufacturing and companies composed by departments managed by different production planning philosophies. An efficient management of heterogeneity calls for decentralization. This paper addresses a distributed approach to job-shop scheduling in discrete manufacturing, by analysing conditions for a robust integration of a set of autonomous multiple agents for the shop-floor control in a time-varying manufacturing environment. Instead of machines processing jobs according to a plan established by a global controller, a population of intelligent local controllers should cooperatively operate in order to achieve both individual goals (the best possible utilization of machining and transportation resources) and the overall system target (minimum waiting time).

SMEs’ Access to Innovation Finance. An Analysis of Public Funds in Piedmont

Using data on public funds in Piedmont, the article argues that SMEs’ access to innovation finance is influenced by firm-level determinants, as well as by framework conditions. Use of a Heckman two-step procedure shows that internal determinants are more relevant than external ones represented by relationships with local academia, industry, and governance domains. Legal status and sector, in particular, prove to perform a major role in determining both the likelihood of fund access and the intensity of fund transfers. Revenue too is important, though with a negative effect, while size has a positive impact on fund access alone.

Financial Constraints and Industrial Districts: Does Internal Finance Matter?

This paper investigates the relationship between finance and capital investment for a panel of more than 1.000 Italian manufacturing firms. We estimate the sensitivity of capital investment to cash flow, testing for the presence (absence) of informational frictions in the credit market for companies located in industrial districts. The underlying hypothesis is that the sensitivity of investment to cash flow, which is interpreted as a measure of financial constraints, is assumed to be higher for firms that show a higher wedge between the internal and external cost of finance. The costs of generating borrower-specific information are, in fact, increasing with territorial distance and the co-location of banks and firms in the same area facilitates the exchange of relevant information upon which relationships of mutual trust can be built. This is the case of Italian industrial districts in which socio-economic interactions, both at the firm and credit market level, are favoured by spatial concentration. We use a GMM method that controls for unobserved firm-specific effects and endogenous explanatory variables. Cash flow plays an important role in explaining capital investment, especially for firms which are not located in a district. The results confirm that the reduced geographical distance with credit suppliers in district areas can lead to overcoming information asymmetries between lenders and borrowers.