Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen

The dynamics of industrial location : the factory, the firm and the production system

Part 1: The Problem of Industrial Transformation Industrial Geography Manufacturing Change in Historical Perspective The Geography of Manufacturing. Part 2: The Location of Factories Location Conditions and Location Factors Factory Location as a Cost Minimizing Exercise Factory Location as a Decision Making Process Factory Location as a Strategic (Bargaining) Process. Part 3: The Manufacturing Firm and its Geography The Size Distribution of Firms - Geographical Perspectives The Formation and Function of New (and Small) Firms Medium Size Firms, Big Firms Locally The Growth of Multi-National Firms Corporate Restructuring and Employment Flexibility. Part 4 Production Systems and Local Development Production Systems and Industrial Districts Core Firm-Based Production Systems and the Japanese Auto Industry Production Systems in Home and Host Economies Deindustrialized Districts - Restructured - and Rejuvenating? Industrial Transformation and Jobs - Contemporary Dilemmas.

A study of R&D, innovation, and business performance in the Canadian biotechnology industry

Abstract This study examines the relationships among R&D intensity, innovation measures, and business performance in the Canadian biotechnology industry, which experienced rapid growth in the number of firms and revenues between 1994 and 1997. A sample of 74 biotechnology companies in Canada is used for the analysis (the response rate of the postal questionnaire survey was 23.8%). In addition, geographic variations in barriers affecting innovation and factors influencing the business performance of biotechnology firms are analyzed. Results of the study show that R&D intensity correlates with patent measures, while innovation measured in terms of new product introductions is associated with business performance. Canadian firms attribute their business performance to internal advantages to a greater extent than external factors. The Canadian regulatory process is the greatest barrier to innovation. This study shows that while R&D and scientific breakthroughs drive innovation in the biotechnology industry, market demand plays a critical role in business performance of firms.

The research university, entrepreneurship and regional development: Research propositions and current evidence

The objective of this paper is to set a framework for examining the conditions under which a research university becomes more than a latent asset [Power, D., and A. Malmberg. 2008. The contribution of universities to innovation and economic development: In what sense a regional problem? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 1, no. 2: 233–46.] in regional economies. The framework is comprised of four propositions used to identify drivers of change, evidence of change and evidence of impact. As an exemplar, we examine the University of Oxfords growing engagement in its local region. This paper shows that the convergence between the interests of the university and the local high-tech economy is particularly associated with broader technological trends and with the Universitys capacity to draw on national funding programmes designed to stimulate ‘third-stream’ activities, including entrepreneurship courses and regional networking activities.

University-Industry Interactions: the Case of the UK Biotech Industry

This papers focus is on both the geography of entrepreneurship and on industry‐collaborative links internationally, nationally and at the local level in the UK biotech industry, the worlds second largest biotech industry. The paper reports on a pilot survey of the UK biotech industry. The survey has two goals: to understand the business goals of the firms and to examine the relative importance of local conditions to the business of biotech. Further evidence on these two themes comes from two studies of Oxfordshire, one of the UKs centres of biomedical science and biotechnology. The first is a survey of the countys biotech firms. The second, of academic spin‐offs, demonstrates how the business of biotech in the UK is intimately tied to the national innovation system, which in turn is dependent upon highly localised elite science which in turn signals to world elites that the region is a hot‐spot for innovation.

A Spatial and Temporal Model of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

This study analyzes the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment among metropolitan areas in the United States for the periods 1974–1978 and 1979–1983. A model is developed to test the importance of population size, population growth rate, and per capita retail sales in determining levels of foreign investment. Casettis expansion method is used to test whether or not the regression parameters of the explanatory variables are spatially and temporally unstable. The results indicate that the model varies both spatially and over time. Heavily concentrated in northeastern metropolitan areas in 1974–1978, especially New York, foreign direct investment dispersed widely to the south and west in 1979–1983. In keeping with the general transformation of the U.S. metropolitan economy, foreign direct investment shifted noticeably from the manufacturing sector to the service sector during the study period.

Product innovation and competitive advantage in an area of industrial decline: the Niagara region of Canada

Abstract This paper examines similarities and differences between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with different levels of reported product innovation. These SMEs are located in an area (the Niagara region in southern Ontario) that has suffered industrial decline during the last three decades. Furthermore, SMEs in this region are in traditional or late-cycle manufacturing sectors (e.g., fabricated metal). The research findings show that SMEs claiming to pursue product innovation are better performers in terms of total and export sales. SMEs with higher levels of product innovation rated the following strategies as significantly more important compared with SMEs with lower levels of innovation: the expansion of R&D efforts, incremental innovation, new product development, and new export market development. In contrast, SMEs with lower levels of product innovation emphasized the importance of cost-based pricing and their market development is focused on Canada. Both groups of product innovators have adopted similar types of process innovation, but the SMEs with higher levels of product innovation note higher levels of benefit from process changes compared with manufacturers with lower levels of product innovators. In a similar fashion, SMEs with higher levels of product innovation use external service inputs for problem-solving and business development in the face of a multitude of competitive problems within the local economy (such as the lack of skilled or specialist labor, tax burden, etc). In sum, SMEs pursuing innovation in traditional sectors in peripheral regions are showing better possibilities of adjustment in a dynamic global environment.

The US Biotechnology Industry: Industry Dynamics and Policy

The inseparability of the biotechnology industry and the state is a central theme in the analysis of the location and performance of biotechnology industry in the US and elsewhere. This paper reports on the results of a survey of US biotechnology companies looking particularly at their assessment of needs, barriers, strategies, and government programs. The paper shows that although there is an increasing level of federal and state intervention, there are considerable barriers faced by biotechnology firms, which may or may not be resolved in the near future because of the nature of the business of biotechnology, which involves uncertainties at every stage of innovation and commercialisation.

Triple helix and regional development: a perspective from Oxfordshire in the UK

This paper illustrates that distinctive patterns of regional development can be understood as resulting from the relative dominance of the three components in the triple helix model at any one time. This approach can be used to understand why high growth sectors, such as biotechnology, are concentrated at particular locations. Using the example of the biotechnology sector in Oxfordshire (UK), we examine how differences in formal (e.g. institutional arrangements) and informal networks are influenced by broader geographical, political, economic and social environments. These differences produce distinctive regional forms of the triple helix model. Oxfordshire is a national centre of the sector, having the key ingredients of a concentration of universities and government laboratories, heavily supported by government, and a growing number of biotech firms. The distinctive features of the Oxfordshire variant are that the role of Oxford University, a world centre for biomedical research, is secondary at the regional level rather than being dominant as might be expected and that the availability of skills, underplayed in traditional presentations of the model, is far more significant.

Extent of private information disclosure on online social networks: An exploration of Facebook mobile phone users

The present study adopts the Communication Privacy Management theory and investigates the factors that influence the extent of private information disclosure of Facebook mobile phone users. Using a sample size of 488 adult mobile phone users, the study further investigates the differential impact of age on the extent of private information disclosure. Results from the logistic regressions run reveal that use of smartphones to access social networking sites, use of multiple social networks, and being female decrease the likelihood of private information disclosure. In addition, usability problems increase the likelihood of information disclosure by older adults. The analyses show no association between perceived benefit and private information disclosure.

FDI in US Producer Services: A Temporal Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate Sectors

BAGCHI-SEN S. (1995) FDI in US producer services: a temporal analysis of foreign direct investment in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors, Reg. Studies 29, 159–170. Much of the expansion of FDI in the United States in the 1980s has been a direct result of the growth of FDI in the service sector. Dominant positions in FDI in services are occupied by banking and other finance-related services. In this study, the temporally varying effects of a set of location determinants on the location of FDI in finance, insurance and real estate sectors are examined. The literature on the location of service industries indicate that the location of producer services is affected by market pull factors, specialized labour pools and large diversified service agglomerations. The determinants considered in the state-level analysis of FDI are agglomerations of domestic employment in finance, insurance and real estate, the size of the metropolitan population, population growth and the value of commercial and industri...