Emerald Publishing Limited

Description innovation is universally recognized as an important source of economic growth. Patents may be considered as a potential measure of innovation. As such, patents may alter isoquant maps, and measuring their elasticities is both intuitively and empirically appealing. This book investigates the impact of U.S.A. patent activity on technical change in 35 industries given in the KLEM (Jorgenson, 1996) data set for the period 1958-1996. Four patent variables, namely total patent applications, total patents granted, unsuccessful patent applications and foreign patents granted, are introduced as technology-changing parameters into the generalized Fechner-Thurstone (GFT) production function to determine the effect on the elasticity of the marginal rate of technical substitution (MRTS) between inputs of the GFT production function over time.It is found that all four patent variables have significant impacts on the marginal rates of technical substitution between various production inputs over time, with foreign patents granted being the most 'effective' parameter, and unsuccessful patent applications the least effective. In addition, the elasticity of the MRTS between materials and energy is found to be the most affected by patent activity, and that between materials and labor the least. The extent of technical change by patent activity varies across industries. Patent activity is found to be less effective as technology changes in some traditionally high patenting industries and more effective in others, which indicates that there are significant spillover effects of patents. Patent activity is found to have the greatest impact on technical change in the metal mining industry and the least impact in the chemicals industry.

Concerns over urban blight, environmental degradation, climate change, inner-city unemployment, and a host of other socio-economic and environmental problems have forced policy makers, planners, and others interested in the future of our planet to take a closer look at ways to foster more sustainable urban development. Drawing on the author's extensive research, this book examines the role that brownfields redevelopment is playing and can play in our quest for sustainability, focusing primarily on efforts in the US and Canada to build better places for urban dwellers to live, work, and play. It commences by reviewing the nature and scope of the brownfields problem and puts it into a sustainability context, both theoretically and in terms of real costs and benefits. The book then looks at how brownfields are being used as spaces for developing an array of residential, recreational, and employment-oriented projects that have breathed new life into the urban environment. For a more sustainable future, however, the author argues that more still needs to be done to connect sustainability objectives and processes to redevelopment efforts. This is a study of the nature of urban brownfields redevelopment in North America over the last two decades. It outlines the reasons behind the emerging success of recent brownfields redevelopment. It critically examines how affected stakeholders have overcome the numerous challenges facing brownfields redevelopment.

Distance education is arguably one of the major developments in education during the 20th Century. From schooling through to university education, distance education blossomed to facilitate frontier expansion in the New World, capacity-building in developing nations, access and equity provision in post-War societies and flexible professional development and workplace training for late-modernity. "The International Handbook of Distance Education" explores the array of distance education theories and practices as they have been shaped by the late-20th Century and then positions these in terms of the contemporary circumstances of the 21st Century. The "Handbook' is intended to be a comprehensive reference work for practitioners, researchers and administrators engaged in forms of distance education in private and public education, from schooling through undergraduate and postgraduate coursework to doctoral research programs. A critical thread runs throughout the "Handbook" to provide the reader with stimulation to critique policy and practice with a view to being creative and responsive in their own policy development and educational work. It discusses lifelong and flexible learning environments.

During the past decade new approaches to educational measurement have become more widely recognized and the use of computer programs has been developed to make sound use of the procedures and techniques associated with item response theory. However, the implications of these developments for research methodology have not yet been fully recognized. This Encyclopedia will address not only these changes for which the extent of developments are currently becoming evident but will also look forward to the major advances in the methods employed in empirical research which will arise from the use of improved measurement and scaling procedures.The Encyclopedia is divided into three sections. The first section seeks to provide a broad coverage of topics related to the methods of educational inquiry. This section includes articles that trace the history of educational research and the methods of both humanistic and scientific research which are linked by a key article on research in education: epistemological issues. Other general articles consider the methods of evaluation and policy-oriented research. The contribution of critical theory is also discussed. The second section includes articles on research methodology and statistical analysis, with consideration given to increasing both the strength of inferences from evidence and the confirmation of hypotheses and models developed from theory. The procedures employed in both the humanistic and scientific approaches, as well as in a wide range of techniques employed in the statistical analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data are also presented. The third section contains articles on measurement for educational research and covers the fields of measurement theory, achievement testing, attitude measurement and the applications of measurement in research. The focus of this section is towards the improvement of measurement for educational research. Articles include updated and revised material from the "International Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd Edition" (described by "Choice" as being "a premier reference work when judged on virtually every criteria applied to a reference work") together with newly commissioned material.

The 13th International Conference on Management of Technology (IAMOT) convened during the period of April 37, 2004 in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. The theme of the conference was: New Directions in Technology Management: Changing Collaboration between Government, Industry and University. The Conference chairs were Drs. Tarek Khalil from the University of Miami, John Aje and Frederick Betz from the University of Maryland and the Program chair was Dr. Yasser Hosni, from the University of Central Florida. This book is derived from the 13th Annual International Conference on Management of Technology (IAMOT) held in Washington DC, April 2004. It discusses collaboration between government, industry, and university. The contributions are international in scope.

This tenth volume of papers emanating from the annual International High Technology Small Firms Conference represents a full decade of research and policy relevant papers on innovation and growth problems of New Technology-based Firms (NTBf). Because this series has become the major vehicle for publication among the best international researchers working on the formation and subsequent growth problems of NTBfs, it represents an authoritative voice on NTBf development problems. Topics covered in this volume include strategy, spin offs - their contribution to NTBf growth and the problems they encounter during the traumatic spin off process, the current hot topic of clusters and their role in enhancing NTBf formation and growth, networking and global issues since many NTBfs are truly born global.

The book is a collection of original research papers by a number of industrial organization economists active in the field of Research and Development theory and policy. The contributions gathered here cover several relevant topics in this area; namely patent policy, the effects of market structure and the internal organization of the firm on R&D incentives and technical progress, R&D cooperation and technological spillovers, innovation and the entry process. Comprehensive views of the acquired knowledge of these topics are presented together with new insights on these issues, including policy insights wherever appropriate. The book is intended for professional researchers in industrial organization, antitrust officers, plus graduate students (at both Master and PhD level).