Managerial and economic barriers and incentives to the commercialization of solar energy technologies

This paper considers the emerging solar industry with emphasis on the active solar systems industry. Active solar systems use thermal collectors, pumps, storage devices and associated equipment to provide hot water and space-heating. Solar systems can provide an important portion of the nation's energy in the future. However, diffusion of these technologies will require several years or decades depending upon the innovation characteristics of the systems. The innovation characteristics of active solar systems are measured, in part, by economic measures, reliability, and communicability of the qualities of the system among others. The active solar systems industry is characterized as emerging, struggling, underfinanced and diverse. A questionnaire and interview survey of 97 solar industry firms was accomplished. Based on the survey results it is recommended that while the government continue incentive tax credits, the industry develop itself as a strong, high-quality industry through the emergence of industry leaders dependent upon improved manufacturing process innovation.     

Developing an energy conservation program at united technologies corporation

In this article, the authors explain United Technologies Corporation (UTC) efforts to develop and design a natural resource conservation program; establish a worldwide baseline inventory of energy consumption; develop corporation-wide conservation goals; and develop and implement systems and procedures to collect and analyze relevant data and measure performance.Since there are no federal regulatory programs requiring energy conservation or greenhouse gas emissions reporting, UTC has the flexibility and the time to develop a model program appropriate to its own organizational needs. The authors present this model as an example of a successful pragmatic program to measure and report energy consumption at the corporate level.     

Red power: Government publications and the rising Indian activism of the 1970s

The proliferation of government publications about American Indians has continued at a steady pace since World War II, but the 1970s marked a minor watershed. Not only did the numbers of publications increase, but also a high percentage of these were directed at mass audiences, and many reports candidly investigated the problems caused by government policies. Although few items were written by Indians, some of the more important ones were based upon Indian testimony taken at the grassroots level. The person truly interested in learning about today's Indian concerns can therefore begin with readily available government documents, and from these move into Indian writings and direct interviews. To dismiss all government documents as mere justifications of federal policy would be a serious mistake for any scholar, and this article attempts to alert readers to the most important types of government-sponsored studies.     

Delayed creative destruction and the coexistence of technologies

Disruptive innovations often engage in a fierce battle with incumbent technologies for hegemony. Past studies on technological innovations are silent about factors that extend the duration of the ‘era of ferment’—that is, the period during which competing technologies fight for dominance. We argue that complexity of the underlying technology, ecological and institutional dynamics may permit coexistence of competing technology regimes. The paper illustrates such coexistence by discussing the persistence of disparate technologies in steel making and kidney disease treatment. We conclude that the process of ‘creative destruction’ can be delayed in certain settings.     

Calculating the cost of capital

One of the most important recent advances in corporate finance is the use of risk measures in setting discount rates or required rates of return for capital projects. An understanding of this area is of crucial importance to senior managers and corporate planners. This article explains how to calculate required rates of return using the modern approach to the cost of capital.     

用友软件产品选择问题研究

本文首先研究企业应该如何结合自身特点选购用友软件产品的问题,认为大型企业集团应该选择用友NC系列,中小型企业应选择用友U8系列,微小型企业应该选择用友通系列;其次以8.50版为例,对用友U8产品模块组成进行了比较分析;最后提出了企业选择用友模块的组合策略.     

Development and implementation of new technologies in the steel industry

At each successive stage in the R&D cycle leading to the commercialization of a new technology, management in any industry must reevaluate prospects and make decisions accordingly. However, for the steel industry the difficulties of this kind of decision-making throughout the usually lengthy R&D cycle are heightened by the very nature of the industry. For example, the large scale of its processes and the high capital costs for plants for new processes mean that the progressive scale-ups during a given development may themselves cost millions. From Bethlehem Steel's experience the author cites one new product and two major process developments to illustrate technical and economic considerations that enter into decision-making as R&D moves step by step toward the commercialization of new technology.     

Time lags and the weighted average cost of capital

This paper analyses the effect on the weighted average cost of capital of lags between the times of raising debt and equity finance. It shows the results of such lags when associated with differing levels of gearing and differing costs of debt and equity.     

Alternative forms of charismatic leadership in the integration of mergers and acquisitions

It is becoming increasingly clear that post-merger and acquisition (M&A) performance, especially in terms of achieving the integration of merging firms, is strongly affected by organizational factors, such as leadership. This paper presents a theoretical model showing how alternative forms of charismatic leadership can be relevant to the implementation of M&As. A unique aspect of our conceptualization is that we recognize the distinction between charismatic leaders with more of a personalized versus socialized power motive, the behaviors emanating from each respective type, and likelihood of resulting effects on the post-combination organization of an M&A. We also propose that personalized charisma will result in an absorption strategy and accompanying stress, resistance to change, and turnover that vary in degree between acquiring and acquired firms. Conversely, socialized charisma will result in collaborative vision-formation and decision-making processes that will ultimately achieve transformation in both of the combining firms. We further argue that absorption strategies can result in effective integration of the target firm into the acquiring firm when the pre-merger condition of the former is unfavorable.     

An Alternative Approach to the Modeling of Probability Distributions

This note suggests the use of Bézier curves to model probability distributions on computers. This represents an approach completely different from the current practice, which mostly employs parametric families or piece-wise polynomials. The Bézier curves combine simplicity and flexibility with an easy manipulation method, allowing more accurate curves to be modeled to data.     

Avoiding skill shortages in the new technologies

In many countries skill shortages are acting as a constraint on the development of the new technologies, such as information technology (IT), microelectronics and biotechnology. As the lead times to develop skilled people can be 5–10 years, the planning of future education and training provision to meet these needs can be extremely difficult. Drawing on current research in the U.K., this paper identifies the types of key skills needed to develop the new technologies and shows the critical role of higher education in providing the basic supply of skilled manpower. The extent of current shortages is considered as well as the likely direction of future demand. The past linkages between higher education and labour market demand are explored and directions for future policy to alleviate likely future shortages are suggested. The paper concludes that future supply and demand trends need to be monitored and better understood, and employment, education and training policies adjusted accordingly if skill shortages are not to be a recurring problem.     

Vendor Performance and Alternative Manufacturing Environments*

Today, many American firms are demanding a high level of performance from their major suppliers while at the same time reducing the number of them. Vendor performance is an important aspect of maintaining low production costs and high product quality. In this study, we examine the effects of poor vendor quality and vendor lead time uncertainty in a variety of manufacturing environments using a comprehensive simulation model. The results indicate that the effect of poor vendor performance on various manufacturing firms depends on the number of stocking points and the degree of component commonality. Moreover, disruption of the manufacturing system caused by poor vendor performance can be manifested in higher levels of inventory and order backlogs. We introduce the concept of supplyside uncertainty, as it relates to component-part commonality, to demonstrate that in certain environments commonality reduces order backlogs but increases total inventories and creates an environment that is very sensitive to vendor quality problems. Finally, several conjectures are posited for future research.     

The energy market and energy planning

The purpose of this paper is to apply economic analysis to two important international energy problems. One is the short-and medium-term prospects for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The second is the much longer run, though related matter of how the transition from presently used energy sources to those we may use in the future can be accomplished.     

新兴技术管理研究综述

20世纪90年代后期以来,新兴技术管理正在成为国际学术研究的新兴领域,我国也正在蓬勃展开这方面的研究.文章对该领域的研究进行了扫描.从理论渊源入手,通过对新兴技术的概念及其不确定性和创造性毁灭特征、新兴技术管理的概念和特征的讨论,认为新兴技术管理是与技术管理、技术创新管理同源异质的新兴学科领域;分别从新兴技术演化及评估、新兴市场识别及拓展、新兴技术战略研究、新兴技术管理的组织创新、新兴技术的融投资管理、新兴技术的知识管理等方面,介绍了目前新兴技术管理研究的领域、内容、观点和成果;从新兴技术聚群创新、新兴技术边缘竞争、新兴技术管理研究方法等方面,展望了新兴技术管理的研究领域.