Search results for "Operation"
showing 10 items of 2969 documents
French firms’ strategies for protecting their intellectual property
2012
In attempting to protect their innovations, firms can choose from a range of mechanisms, which may be either non-statutory (trade secrets, design complexity, and lead-time advantage over competitors) or statutory (patent, design registration, trademark, copyright). Yet, little is known about how firms do actually make their choices from among these different appropriability mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to determine how French firms’ use of intellectual property protection mechanisms relates to the type of innovation, the characteristics of the market sector in which they operate, the firms’ characteristics, and their human resources strategies. Our empirical model draws on four Fren…
Multilayer neural networks: an experimental evaluation of on-line training methods
2004
Artificial neural networks (ANN) are inspired by the structure of biological neural networks and their ability to integrate knowledge and learning. In ANN training, the objective is to minimize the error over the training set. The most popular method for training these networks is back propagation, a gradient descent technique. Other non-linear optimization methods such as conjugate directions set or conjugate gradient have also been used for this purpose. Recently, metaheuristics such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms or tabu search have been also adapted to this context.There are situations in which the necessary training data are being generated in real time and, an extensive tr…
Governance forms drivers in bio-pharmaceutial inter-firm relationships
2012
Networking benefits are acknowledged by many studies in the industrial organization and strategic management fields; transaction cost theory agency and property right theory provide the economic foundations to the market-hierarchy dilemma; while Resource based-view (RBV), relational and evolutionary theories provide the strategic foundation of the inter-firm relationships. All this theoretical strands investigate reasons that push firms to formalize their relationship in different governance structures. The bio-pharmaceutical industry has the characteristics to offer to the potential partners both exploitation or exploration alliances benefits. In particular some elements play a “pivot” rol…
Inter-organizational networks and innovation in small, knowledge-intensive firms: A literature review
2013
Published version of article from the journal: International Journal of Innovation Management In this study, we address the effect of innovation strategy and an innovative working climate on financial performance in the Norwegian wood industry. Innovation strategy embodies four dimensions: the degrees to which innovation in the form of products, processes, and business systems are embedded in the management values and priorities as well as the degree of expenditure in R&D. An innovative working climate is exemplified by team cohesion, supervisory encouragement, resources, autonomy, challenge, and openness to innovation. Previous studies have indicated a lack of research in traditional manuf…
The effect of buyer specific-monitoring procedures on buyer control in dynamic supply chain links
2015
Based on transaction cost analysis (TCA), resource dependency theory (RDT), and supply chain management literature, this study explores the effect of buyer-specific monitoring procedures on buyer control in industrial buyer-seller transactions, particularly in relation to how environmental uncertainty affects the buying firm's ability to exercise control over the supplier firm. The research design is based on primary data from a survey of 168 industrial buyer-seller relationships which map a broad set of dimensions of the economic transactions and structures in these business-to-business relationships. The empirical findings provide support for the hypotheses, and demonstrate that the effec…
Drivers influencing the governance of inter-firm relationships in the biopharmaceutical industry: an empirical survey in the Italian context
2013
This paper focuses on factors influencing the choice of the governance form in inter-firm relationships (IFRs) between pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. By reviewing the relevant literature on transaction cost economics, property right theory, real option and resources-based view, we located some drivers that might influence such relationships and we formulated a set of hypotheses linking them to governance forms. Such a theoretical framework has been empirically tested through a survey conducted among the Italian companies associated to Farmindustria. Empirical results provide some interesting insights on how shaping bio-pharmaceutical deals; we found that the developmental stage…
How the purpose of the inter-firm relationships influences the choice of the governance form: evidence from the machine tool and the pharmaceutical i…
2013
In today's competitive landscape, the choice of the appropriate mode to govern an inter-firm relationship is a critical factor for companies. In the literature several theoretical strands have examined the impact of the purpose of inter-firm relationships on the forms of governance. Building on a robust literature review on the topic, this study focuses on a specific issue influencing the choice of the form of governance in inter-firm relationships, i.e. the purpose of inter-firm relationships with relation to partner's resources. We gather in a unique framework three typologies of partner's resources, i.e. production, R&D and marketing, and through two empirical analyses in two different I…
Pre-requisites of successful strategic electronic coordination : the moderation effect of the ownership mechanism of inter-organisational information…
2017
In this paper, we attempt to explain how the ownership mechanism of an interorganisational information system (IOS) may impact strategic information exchange (electronic coordination) induced by specific investments in the IOS. Recent research and practice show that heavy investments in IOSs demonstrate mixed results with respect to their impact on the electronic coordination. Consequently, the search of additional factors is needed to help and explain under what circumstances the IOS investments for strategic purposes become beneficial for the companies in a buyersupplier dyad. Transaction cost economics (TCE) and the hostage model are used as a framework for the research. 198 observations…
Robustness in railway transportation scheduling
2008
Railway scheduling has been a significant issue in the railway industry. Over the last few years, numerous approaches and tools have been developed to compute railway scheduling. However, robust solutions are necessary to absorb short disruptions. In this paper, we present the robustness problem from the point of view of railway operators and we give some guidelines to measure robustness in timetabling. We have developed some formulae to compare robustness between two timetables based on the study of railway infrastructure topology and buffer times. Thus, each buffer time is pondered by some factors such as tightest tracks, number of subsequent trains, remaining stations, etc. This method i…
Appropriateness between physical space and multicentre economic space in localization problems
1991
Location models are constructed in mathematical economic spaces whereas people locate themselves in real or physical spaces. If economic spaces are multicentric ones, their properties are different from physical spaces. We say that these two spaces are not symmetric. Hence, mathematical location model can lead to an optimal location solution which doesn't' exist in physical space. But, if we admit that an optimal location solution owns more or less to a function of demand of location, we can resolve this question. Then, fuzzy demand functions of location are defined in multicentric spaces and an illustration of this concept is presented.