An Exploratory Study on the Transition from OEM to OBM: Case Studies of SMEs in Korea

This study investigates how the transformation of latecomer small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies from dependent or subcontracting original equipment manufacturing (OEM) firms into independent or original brand manufacturing (OBM) firms is possible to achieve a significant catch-up in their share of regional or global markets. Given that SMEs are rarely able to make such a transition, we elaborate this dynamic process by performing case studies on eight Korean SMEs. These SMEs created their own paths instead of following their forerunners. These paths are neither entirely new nor take the form of leapfrogging, but are characterized by new combinations of existing paths. We identify several risk factors, such as counterattacks and intellectual property lawsuits, that latecomer SMEs face from incumbent SMEs. In addition, we emphasize the importance of cultivating firm-specific knowledge by engaging in a continuing process of trial and error type in-house experiments.     

An Innovative Distributed Project Control Approach: A Case Study of the Cassini Management Information System (CMIS)

ABSTRACT

The Cassini Project, a NASA-funded exploration mission to Saturn that is being managed by the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA, has developed a distributed project schedule control system for complex development programs. The system is called the Cassini Management Information System (CMIS). The system was built to make schedule control simple, user-friendly, and low-cost. CMIS is distributed across a local area network of PCs and Macintosh computers and consists of four major modules: schedule control, action item tracking, work package implementation plan, and budget tracking. This article focuses on the schedule control module of CMIS. CMIS was one of the innovations introduced in response to the decrees of the U.S. Congress, and subsequently NASA, to conduct space exploration on a fixed-price basis. This article summarizes CMIS development history as a schedule control tool, its key features, and its use by more than 130 engineers and managers.     

Searching Near and Far: Determinants of Innovative Firms' Propensity to Collaborate Across Geographical Distance

The paper explores the relation between absorptive capacity and the propensity to collaborate across geographical distance. The analysis is based on quantitative data from two neighbouring Danish regions on the location of the main partner in product-innovation activities. The findings indicate that the importance of absorptive capacity in relation to collaboration across geographical distance depends on the location of the innovative firm. Firms located in the relatively sparsely populated region are more likely to collaborate with firms located outside the region; and for these firms, the level of absorptive capacity matters for the distance to the collaboration partners—firms with a low level of absorptive capacity tend to collaborate with domestic partners, while those with a high level of absorptive capacity are much more likely to find their main product-innovation partner abroad.     

Strategies of European SMEs in Biotechnology: The Role of Size,Technology and Market

Both the technological and market focus of 228 European biotechnology SMEs are analysed in this paper. Data from the Genetic Engineering catalogue provide a complementary representation compared to the patent publications that are most commonly used. Results of the analysis produce a new view of the development of biotech SMEs. First, no pattern of specialisation by country is observed, even though three types of company with different technological focus can be distinguished in the sample. Second, it is argued that the rapid technological evolution in this domain can hardly be explained by a rapid evolution of the technological basis of the companies, and should consequently be explained primarily by the creation of new SMEs. Third, four different patterns of linkage between technology and market focus are observed, by means of co-word analysis.     

Developing and marketing patent information services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Birmingham, UK

The Patent Information Service of Birmingham Central Library was re-assessed in the light of changing customer requirements and new opportunities to better meet those needs. A substantial funding injection enabled research to be carried out and the results put into practice, e.g., in expanding the range of services – with particular emphasis on helping small and medium enterprise (SME) businesses, and in positive marketing of the services, rather than the previous passive provision of services. The resulting integrated business and intellectual property service was then re-branded as ‘Business Insight' and given wide promotion in the Birmingham area.     

The alcohol-related accident risk in Germany: procedure, methods and results

This paper presents the first reliable estimation of the alcohol-related accident risk in Germany by comparing a representative sample of accidents to a representative sample of trips not leading to a crash. The information about the trips was taken from the German Roadside Survey 1992-1994 (n=9087) conducted in Unterfranken, part of Bavaria. These data were weighted according to a representative study of driving in Germany (KONTIV 89). The accident study comprises a representative sample of accidents in Unterfranken in 1993 (n=1968). Relating accident risk to BAC, the global risk function indicates an exponential increase of accident risk for BACs above 0.05%. Controlling for correlating factors leads to an overall lower estimation with, however, the same structure, indicating that alcohol is consumed by drivers in circumstances which further increase the risk introduced by alcohol. Analyzing the attributable risk (AR) shows that about 12% of all accidents are attributable to alcohol. Over 96% of these happen with BACs of 0.05% and above. Thus, measures aimed at reducing the alcohol-related accident risk must focus on larger BACs, especially of 0.08% and above.     

1993 Intercomparison of Photometric Units Maintained at NIST (USA) and PTB (Germany)

A bilateral intercomparison of photometric units between NIST, USA and PTB, Germany has been conducted to update the knowledge of the relationship between the photometric units disseminated in each country. The luminous intensity unit (cd) and the luminous flux unit (lm) maintained at both laboratories are compared by circulating transfer standard lamps. Also, the photometric responsivity s_v is compared by circulating a V(λ)-corrected detector with a built-in current-to-voltage converter. The results show that the difference of luminous intensity unit between NIST and PTB, (PTB-NIST)/NIST, is 0.2 % with a relative expanded uncertainty (coverage factor k = 2) of 0.24 %. The difference is reduced significantly from that at the 1985 CCPR intercomparison (0.9 %). The difference in luminous flux unit, (PTB – NIST)/NIST, is found to be 1.5 % with a relative expanded uncertainty (coverage factor k =2) of 0.15 %. The difference remained nearly the same as that at the 1985 intercomparison (1.6 %). These results agree with what is predicted from the history of maintaining the units at each laboratory.