Search

This study provides a cross-dimensional analysis of two equity concerns related to Canadian nanotechnology, investigating the relationship between the development of nanotechnology applications tha...

The role of geographical proximity in facilitating international scientific collaboration has been studied thoroughly in recent years. However, the effect of geography and its interaction with network proximity on forming scientific collaborations among researchers who work under the same national systems has not been appropriately addressed. Using co-publication data of Canadian AI scientists from 2000 to 2019, we studied the relationship between different forms of geographical proximity and national scientific collaboration in Canada. The logit regression results show that geography is still an important impediment to national scientific collaboration despite the tremendous improvements in transportation and communication technologies during recent decades. Besides, we found a substitutability pattern between network proximity and some forms of geographical proximity in national collaborations., 2021 5th International Symposium on Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies (ISMSIT), Oct. 21-23, 2021, Ankara, Turkey

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an optimization model to better allocate cost of quality (COQ) in the supply chain (SC). In addition, the paper provides a roadmap based on COQ that allocates limited given budget among the SC entities. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a comprehensive SC model while introducing six different scenarios, where each scenario minimizes fixed costs and COQ of the SC. Findings The results showed that the highest portion of the COQ should be allocated at the retailer echelon while the lowest portion should be kept at the manufacturer echelon. The findings also presented that the retailer should always maintain the highest quality level (QL) compared to the manufacturer and supplier. Originality/value Considering prevention, appraisal and failure (PAF) cost model, this research defines the tradeoff among PA, F costs, QL and material flow in the SC network; no work has been published regarding integrating PAF, QL and material flow into SC modeling.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the cost of quality (COQ) expenditure allocations on a capacitated supply chain (SC) network. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a non-linear optimization model which integrates the opportunity cost (OC) (i.e. customer satisfaction cost), into the COQ with consideration of the QL in the supply chain network design decisions. In addition, it examines the effect of considering an investment at each SC echelon to ensure the best overall QL. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the behavior of the model. Findings The results show how the QL, COQ and facility location decisions change when incorporating the OC, investments and transportation costs into the SC model. Originality/value The novelty of this paper is that it considers the effect of OC, investment at each echelon and transportation costs on SC design by minimizing the overall spending on the COQ. These issues have not been explored, and for that reason, this paper contributes to the understanding of the critical factors that optimizes the SC COQ.

Purpose By developing a better understanding of costs associated with improving organizational quality and costs incurred by neglecting it, banks could devise more optimal operational policies. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a generic banking cost of quality (COQ) model developed from Colombian banking data. The model has been developed using the product performance approach, which is consistent with strategizing from a long-term and organization-wide perspective. The proposed COQ function is composed of prevention and appraisal categories, costs caused by events of operational risks and opportunity costs caused by events of credit risks measured though non-performing loans. Findings The model was validated using data obtained from three major Colombian banks. The significant theoretical contribution of this research stems from the development of a banking COQ model which represents a pioneer effort at quantifying quality costs in financial institutions. Originality/value This is a unique attempt at using a product performance approach in service industry and also a rare effort toward incorporating opportunity costs in COQ. Managerially, the proposed COQ model can be established as a holistic business strategy and can serve as a tool helping managers to evaluate the impact of quality management initiatives and to decide on trade-offs between quality level and quality costs.

Purpose Material procurement constitutes a large share of the overall cost of construction projects. Understanding the factors influencing the cost of quality (COQ) in the procurement process could help identify opportunities for lowering quality cost without compromising quality. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a COQ model for the construction material procurement process is developed using the traditional prevention–appraisal–failure (PAF) approach. Using data from a $4bn aluminum smelter construction project, the authors conducted a simulation of the COQ model to evaluate various quality assurance policies. Findings This paper confirms that raising the prevention cost leads to a drop in failure cost as well as COQ for the project studied. While the authors are unable to provide blanket recommendations as the results are derived from a single project case study, it does suggest that construction material procurement processes would benefit from a higher prevention expenditure. And for certain cases where the authors observe a deviation from the traditional Juran’s model of COQ – the high appraisal cost in the procurement process – reduction of appraisal expenditure may in fact be more beneficial than its increase. Originality/value The research results suggest that appraisal expenditure should be tailored to each purchase order in order to maximize the total benefits. Additionally, this paper presents the first COQ model developed for the construction material procurement process. Another unique feature of the model is its inclusion of supplier-side costs, which are excluded in the conventional COQ analysis.

The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of incorporating the opportunity cost (OC) into quality costing calculations in order to build a general framework for the behaviour of all qua...

The diversification of electricity generation is necessary for the sustainable development of developing countries and to reduce greenhouse emissions. Solar thermal power technologies are advancing and expected to play a significant role in energy portfolios in the future. Accordingly, it is essential to identify comprehensive combination of criteria for assessing these technologies. Various researchers used different parameter combinations for multiple criteria evaluation in renewable energy portfolio planning. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in the structured deliberation and the following analysis to formulate a combination of assessment parameters for solar thermal power technologies based on data providers’ judgment. A generic value tree of evaluation parameters is therefore obtained for solar thermal power technologies in developing countries. Expert elicitation was conducted through the Delphi method, with a total of 140 data providers from multidisciplinary solar thermal power fields affiliated in educational institutes, research centers, governmental organizations, and industrial companies from 32 countries participating in the survey. Five impact categories and nineteen performance measures were combined following a comprehensive literature review to derive a preliminary value tree. Based on participants’ judgments, as expressed during two rounds of Delphi questionnaires, parameters with importance and consensus degrees > 50% were incorporated into the final value tree. Each parameter had a variation coefficient of

Novelty of nanotechnology and its invaluable application in almost all fields makes innovation in this sector an interest for many countries, including Canada and the United States. The collaboration between academia and industry is considered to be particularly beneficial in nanotechnology, as it is an emerging field where the science is interdisciplinary and applications are far and wide. This paper compares the nanotechnology innovation diffusion and knowledge transfer in Canada and the United States. In addition, it investigates the interaction between universities and industry in these countries and analyzes their network characteristics to highlight the distinct roles that academic and industrial researchers play in the collaboration network. The collaboration patterns are studied through co-authorship and co-inventorship data using social network analysis. The results show that the American nanotechnology subnetwork involves more collaboration, and is more centralized than the Canadian one. Moreove...

This paper investigates the impact of funding on scientific production of the researchers affiliated with the top Ten Canadian Universities. NSERC funding data in the period of 1996-2010 is considered, and the numbers of published articles in one-year and three-year time windows are counted as the proxy for the scientific production. In addition, we assess the impact of funding on quality of the funded researchers’ papers and their scientific team sizes.Results suggest a positive impact of funding on not only the quantity of the publications but also on the quality of the works and scientific team sizes of the funded researchers.

Studying the research output of sustainability science from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries can give a good indication of the region’s commitment to the science of sustainability, and by extension the region’s commitment to developing a sustainable lifestyle model. Furthermore, such a study also reveals the strengths and deficiencies of the sustainability research being carried out in the region. We present and discuss the results of a bibliometric study on sustainability publications originating from GCC countries using data from Elsevier’s Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.

The paper studies the network of Canadian biotechnology co-inventors and compares the structure of the links between inventors within, and outside of, the cluster. Two types of proximity between individuals are compared: within cluster co-invention refers to geographical proximity while co-patenting links (network component) represent social proximity between inventors of an epistemic community. We show that the cluster-based subnetworks are more fragmented and less centralized than the network components. The paper then proposes two indicators measuring an inventor's importance as a gatekeeper, i.e. an individual at the cluster's frontier responsible for the inflow of the external knowledge to the cluster.

This article studies the impact of collaboration and co-inventorship network characteristics of Canadian nanotechnology inventors on the quality of their inventions. We investigate the impact of four types of variables on patent quality, using the number of claims as a proxy for quality: (a) the presence of highly central inventors; (b) the presence of star inventors; (c) repeated collaboration; (d) international collaboration. We show that the presence of more central inventors and of stars in the research team has a positive influence on patent quality, while repeated collaboration has a negative impact. Patents owned by foreign organisations, controlling for whether assignees are firm, yields patents of higher quality.

This paper identifies the prominent inventors (star scientists) in the Canadian biotechnology co-inventorship network by taking into consideration either only patent quantity or both patent quantity and quality. The paper studies the positions of these stars in the network structure and results show that inventors with a higher number of patents assume more central positions in the network: they have more collaborators, enjoy better access to information and also have greater control over knowledge flows in the network. Nevertheless, their network positions do not have higher levels of local cliquishness, suggesting that a clustered local neighbourhood may not have any positive impact on a scientist's innovative productivity. We also find that the majority of the stars play a knowledge gatekeeping role – nurturing clusters with knowledge originating outside. Finally, we examine and discuss the network dynamics and the role of these stars in the information transmission efficiency.

In this study we explore the patent ownership for the innovations created by Canadian nanotechnology inventors. We find that although there is a great innovative potential and inventive productivity among Canadian researchers, a lot of the intellectual property actually leaves the country: Around 50% of the nanotechnology patents invented by Canadian inventors are owned by foreign assignees. We also note the predominance of private companies among the patent owners. Almost one-third of all the Canadian-invented nanotechnology patents is assigned to a single American firm, Xerox Corporation. Furthermore, we explore the role of Canadian nanotechnology star inventors. The results show that the fruits of their great inventive productivity are collected outside Canada.

The performance of new product development (NPD) is greatly affected by communication strategy and the information technology tools used to support the strategy. A number of users of NPD processes claim that an adequate communication strategy decreases their product cycle time and cost. However, the problem with evaluating the impact of information transfer is that no one has ever specifically measured how performant communication strategies are, or how effective information transfer tools are. For this purpose, a model was developed to evaluate communication strategies, and a set of communication measurement tools was identified to gauge the efficiency of information transfer. This study examines communication within NPD processes at three companies and measures how well information was transmitted, stored, and retrieved. The results indicate that a shorter, more efficient communication process reduces time and effort, and that a shift toward formal methods and passive information tools (computer-based systems) results in more effective and easier coordination as well as better integration.

The objective of this work is to investigate the role of individual scientists and their collaborations in knowledge creation networks. In order to study the networks in their dynamic context, an agent-based simulation model is developed using real data based on the Canadian biotechnology publications. We observe that while the repetitiveness of the collaborative relationships among scientists shows negative effects, the presence of the gatekeepers is found to be critical for the overall efficiency of the network. We also find positive impact of star scientists on the network productivity, but their negative effects on the flow of knowledge are detected as well.

This article studies innovation in Canadian nanotechnology clusters and networks using data from the intersection of the Nanobank database for Canadian inventors with that obtained from a search strategy modified from Porter et al. (2006). Using this selection of patents, we identify, analyze and characterize 8 Canadian nanotechnology clusters. We then construct the Canadian nanotechnology innovation network and describe the collaborative behaviour of the inventors. Most collaborative activity takes place inside nanotechnology clusters and Canadian inventors who decide to build cooperation ties outside their clusters most often prefer to do so with collaborators from abroad, mainly from the USA. A distance-based analysis confirms an important role of the geographical proximity when searching for a cooperation partner. Nevertheless, this importance significantly decreases when no partners are found within 600 km. Very distant or overseas collaborations are then preferred while the mid-range distance options are overlooked. JEL Codes: L24, L14, O32, R1

A large amount of literature provides empirical evidence in support of Marshall or Jacobs theories regarding the specialization or diversity effects on the economic performance of regions. This paper surveys these scholarly contributions and summarizes their results according to their similarities and differences. The reviewed empirical work presents a diverse picture of possible conditions and circumstances under which each kind of externalities could be at work. The wide breadth of findings is generally not explained by differences in the strength of agglomeration forces across industries, countries or time periods, but by measurement and methodological issues. The levels of industrial and geographical aggregation together with the choice of performance measures, specialization and diversity indicators are the main causes for the lack of resolution in the debate. The 3-digit industrial classification seems to be the level at which MAR and Jacobs effects are undistinguishable from one another, and this is often exacerbated by a high level of geographical aggregation.