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This article examines how two core factors--strategic and entrepreneurial dynamics--influence research and development (R&D) investment in new technology-based firms (NTBFs) using data from a questionnaire survey conducted in Japan. Among the strategic dynamics, it is found that joint R&D projects with universities have a positive, complementary effect on R&D investment. Moreover, among the entrepreneurial dynamics, a chief executive officer's higher education and prior industry experience in an R&D role (the latter implying at least a tertiary-level education in order to have acquired such experience) are positively related to R&D investment. These results indicate that the impact of universities on R&D expenditure in NTBFs occurs in strategic and entrepreneurial dynamics, and is expressed both directly and indirectly, with consequent implications for R&D capability and innovation.

Knowledge spillovers from universities and other public research institutions (PRIs) are viewed as essential for innovation. Previous studies examining the impact of such spillovers have been confined to the West, and there are no comparable studies using empirical data from Japan that explore the relationship between spillovers from PRIs and innovation in firms. The author attempts to address this gap by using data from Japanese PRIs and new technology-based firms (NTBFs). He examines several topics: the evidence that knowledge spillovers from PRIs are localized in Japan; the extent to which such spillovers are contingent on geographical proximity; whether the type of tool used to measure spillovers--patents or scientific publications--has a bearing on the results; and the relationship between spillovers and innovation in Japanese NTBFs. (Contains 19 notes, 5 tables and 2 figures.)

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study into spin-out firms established during a five-year period at ten UK universities. The author suggests that merely counting the number of spin-outs formed reveals little about the overall efficiency of technology transfer efforts at universities. Instead, one has also to consider other aspects, such as the institutional setting from which spin-outs emerge, as well as several characteristics of the spin-outs themselves, including their origins and growth, the investments received and their continuing presence in the local economy. The paper also conveys the attitudes of directors of technology transfer offices on issues such as technology transfer policy, the management of the spin-out process, and the demand to achieve targets for spin-out numbers. The directors reveal reservations about the legitimacy and value of count data and simple comparisons between universities as a measure of commercialization efforts, and express concern about the use of targets as performance indicators. (Contains 11 tables and 7 endnotes.)

Very few, if any, empirical studies have been conducted on innovation in technology-based start-up firms in Japan, mainly because there has been little up-to-date data on such firms, and because [...]

IAN INKSTER, The Japanese Industrial Economy: Late Development and Cultural Causation (London and New York: Routledge, 2001. Pp.xii + 161; illus. ISBN 0 415 25001 3, £55). Arguably, the most [...]

Byline: Michael J. Lynskey Knowledge spillovers from public research institutions (PRIs) to the private sector are considered essential for innovation. Studies examining the impact of such spillovers have been confined to the West, and there is no comparable research from Japan. We address this gap by examining several topics: the evidence that knowledge spillovers from PRIs are localised in Japan; the extent to which such spillovers are contingent on geographical proximity; whether the type of tool used to measure spillovers – patents or scientific publications – has a bearing on the results; and the relationship between spillovers and innovation in Japanese New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs).

Byline: Michael J. Lynskey In this paper, we suggest that, although Intellectual Property (IP) is an intangible asset of a firm, it is now treated effectively as if it were a tangible product. It is also a strong determinant of the success of biotechnology firms, since it is assessed carefully by investors, potential partners and acquirers, who understand that the value of a biotechnology firm is ultimately related to the sophistication with which it operates in the IP arena. As such, we propose that a viable corporate strategy should be one that recognises IP as an activity, like research and development, as part of a value chain, and which can only create value in combination with other production factors. A well-defined, cohesive strategy should deliver a balanced and effective IP production process, to ensure that what is protected and leveraged by firms is of real business value and has the best chance of being licensed.

Byline: Michael J. Lynskey Japan has few biotechnology start-up firms and they have not played a significant role to date in the commercialisation of university research results. This is surprising, given the pivotal role ascribed to such firms elsewhere in the commercialisation of biotechnology. The aim of this paper is to present a case for the use of such bio-ventures as a mechanism to commercialise biotechnology research results from universities in Japan. In order to do so, first we provide an overview of the current methods of knowledge transfer from universities to the private sector in Japan, in the light of recent deregulation and legislative changes. This highlights several weaknesses in the commercialisation of public research. Second, we explain why the use of bio-ventures is a viable and appropriate means to commercialise Japanese biotechnology discoveries. Finally, we examine several examples of Japanese bio-ventures that are active in therapeutics and platform technologies, based on interviews conducted with the founders and chief scientists of these firms in Japan. Some of the salient characteristics of these firms are illustrated, including the extent of university collaboration and their ownership of intellectual property rights.

Byline: Michael J. Lynskey High-technology venture firms are considered to play an important role in the knowledge-based economy. In Japan, policy makers have belatedly advocated the creation of such firms, focusing on two primary fields - biotechnology and information technology (IT) - which are expected to make major economic contributions to Japan's international competitiveness, to the creation of new industries and to employment opportunities. Although a number of empirical studies have been conducted into such high-technology venture firms in the West, very few, if any, comparable studies have been undertaken in Japan using data from indigenous firms. This paper addresses this gap by using firm-level data from an original questionnaire survey. Our purpose is to profile several firm-level and managerial characteristics of biotechnology and IT venture firms in Japan to understand how they differ, if at all, from those in the West.

MASAHIKO AOKI and GARY R. SAXONHOUSE (eds.), Finance, Governance, and Competitiveness in Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, Pp.viii + 290; illus. ISBN 019829721 1, £65. This book is a [...]

DAVID FLATH, The Japanese Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.xv + 368; illus. ISBN 0 19 877504 0, £40). Despite the importance of Japan's economy, there is a peculiar [...]

Janet Hunter, Women and the Labour market in Japan's industrializing Economy: The Textile Industry before the Pacific War (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Pp. iiiv + 326; illus. H/back [...]

(Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2003. Pp.xiv + 372; illus. H/back ISBN 0 262 03303 8, 19.95 £; $29.95). Until the late 1960s, software was seen as having [...]

PATRICIA L. MACLACHLAN, Consumer Politics in Postwar Japan: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Pp.xi + 322. H/back ISBN 0 123 12346 9, $45/£30; [...]

WILLIAM M. TSUTSUI, Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2001. Pp.xi + 279; illus. ISBN 0691 07456 9, $21.95). The manufacturing sector [...]

MIKIO SUMIYA (ed.), A History of Japanese Trade and Industry Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, Pp.viii + 662; illus. ISBN 0 19 829251 1, £60). The first thing to [...]

New technology-based firms are acknowledged as playing an important role in the knowledge-based economy. Policy makers in Japan have advocated the creation of such firms, focusing on two primary fields - biotechnology and information technology (IT) - which are expected to make major contributions to Japan's international competitiveness, to the creation of new industries, and to employment opportunities. Although several empirical studies have been conducted into such firms in the West, few comparable studies have been undertaken in Japan using original data from indigenous firms. This paper addresses this gap by examining several firm-level and managerial characteristics of Japanese biotechnology and IT venture firms, in the context of three social institutional variables that impact on entrepreneurship and the growth of such firms: knowledge, finance and human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrospective assessment of maternal smoking or substance use during pregnancy is sometimes unavoidable. The unusually close relationship of twin sister pairs permits comparison of self-report data versus co-twin informant data on substance use during pregnancy. Information about smoking during pregnancy has been gathered from a series of mothers from an Australian volunteer twin panel (576 women reporting on 995 pregnancies), supplemented in many cases by independent ratings of their smoking by twin sister informants (821 pregnancies). Estimates of the proportion of women who had never smoked regularly (56-58%), who had smoked but did not smoke during a particular pregnancy (16-21%), or who smoked throughout the pregnancy (16-18%), were in good agreement whether based on self-report or twin sister informant data. However, informants underreported cases who smoked during the first trimester but then quit (1-3% versus 7-9% by self-report). Women who smoked throughout pregnancy (by informant report) rarely denied a history of regular smoking (< 1%), although a small proportion of apparent false negative cases were identified where they either denied smoking during a pregnancy (9%) or denied smoking beyond the first trimester (10%). We conclude that retrospective smoking data can safely be used to identify potential associations of later child outcomes with maternal smoking during pregnancy.