bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
R&D at Indian Organic Chemicals Limited (IOCL) – from a service to an enterprise: a case study
Authors: Divakar Kikkeri J. 
Published: March 2003

IOCL is a pioneer in the country in the field of bulk chemical manufacture. The company achieved its leadership position by utilizing the locally available feedstock i.e. ethyl alcohol from molasses and homegrown technologies to produce a range of bulk chemicals.The R&D activity in the company started almost simultaneously with the erection of the first production plant. It was envisaged to play a role of a typical ‘in‐house’ R&D set up. Thus, its activities encompassed the traditional spectrum that most in‐house R&D departments of the times were built to perform. These were:1. Supporting ongoing production activity.2. Value addition by extending the product line.3. Improving the quality of the products.The R&D department played these roles competently. Towards this end, the department was well served by trained task oriented staff. However, perhaps the very success of its efforts led to the development of a highly inward‐looking culture. However, the post liberalization era brought with it a new set of challenges. With entry barriers slowly diminishing, the company was no longer able to sustain its position of pre‐eminence in the fields that it was a leader. Local competition by leaner and meaner players equipped with better technology also played its part in this erosion. Unfavourable economies of scale and lower margins on the traditional products led to the management to rethink on future business strategy.A change of course was called for. For a company with IOCL’s resources, the course change that the management thought would preserve share holder value, was to shift the product mix from bulk chemicals characterized by high volume/low value to fine and specialty areas characterized by low volumes and high value. It decided that the R&D would provide the driving force for this strategic change. In essence, the R&D would be supporting a cluster of new activities, which would be revenue generating and thus be able to metamorphose from a cost center to a profit center. In order to play its new role, the R&D required to redefine its own character. Several changes in the existing systems and introduction of some newer management practices were necessary. The steps to be taken were identified as follows:1. Shifting from a skill‐based to knowledge‐based staffing;2. Creating a structured approach to project management;3. Initiating a multi functional approach to shorten the project time cycles;4. Putting in place mechanisms to interface and interact with the customers;5. Inculcate a business orientation into a traditionally groomed group of scientists and technicians;6. Integrating the activities of R&D into the enterprise resource planning network of the company;7. Most importantly, set up a mechanism to market the R&D services.
Leveraging talent: spin–off strategy at Industrial Research
Authors: Davenport Sally , Carr Adrian , Bibby Dave 
Published: March 2003

The formation of new businesses from research organisations has historically been seen as one of the more effective ways in which new knowledge and technology is commercialised. These spin–offs result from the transfer of people and intellectual property from the parent institution. It is the transfer of the tacit knowledge embodied in the human capital that differentiates this technology commercialisation mechanism from technology sale, licensing or joint ventures and alliances.Science parks and cooperative centres associated with universities are examples used internationally of incubator environments designed to nurture spin–offs. In New Zealand, however, there have been very limited attempts to develop such incubators. However, one Crown Research Institute, Industrial Research, has recognised that developing a spin–off strategy is a valid way for it to leverage its intellectual property and motivate its scientific talent, in order to satisfy the institute’s mandate to ‘create benefit for New Zealand’.It is rare to find studies of the spin–off activity focused primarily on the parent. This paper charts the development of Industrial Research’s spin–off strategy over the past eight years from an unintentional consequence of restructuring and changing funding priorities, towards a purposive strategy requiring different management structures and processes. A three–stage model is developed to describe the spin–off strategy evolution and the risks, benefits and components of such a strategy are discussed.
Unemployment Shocks and Income Distribution: How did the Nordic Countries Fare during their Crises?
Authors: Aaberge Rolf , Wennemo Tom , Bjorklund Anders , Jantti Markus , Pedersen Peder J. , Smith Nina 
Published: March 2003

We study the inequality of disposable income in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during the late 1980s and early 1990s when unemployment rose dramatically in all four countries. A standard measure of inequality — the Gini coefficient – was surprisingly stable in all countries during this period. By decomposing the Gini into income components, we test hypotheses about the reasons for this stable income distribution. Our most straightforward hypothesis, that rising unemployment benefits counteracted the impact of more unequally distributed earnings, receives only limited support. More complex mechanisms seem to have been at work.JEL classification: D30; D31; J60
The Malmquist Productivity Index and Plant Capacity Utilization
Authors: De Borger Bruno , Kerstens Kristiaan 
Published: March 2003

A new decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index is proposed to account for changes in plant capacity utilization. Using a primal, non‐parametric specification of technology, the Malmquist index is decomposed into technical efficiency change, variations in plant capacity utilization and frontier shifts. It provides an alternative to the available methods of incorporating capacity utilization changes into measures of productivity change. Such measures are based on parametric (and, in many cases, dual) technology specifications; moreover, they typically do not allow for technical inefficiency.JEL Classification C61; D24
Who Wants an Independent Central Bank? Monetary Policy‐making and Politics
Authors: Ozkan F. Gulcin 
Published: March 2003

The costs and benefits of cooperative monetary and fiscal policy are analysed in the framework of a partisan business‐cycles model. It is shown that political parties with different ideologies prefer to choose different arrangements for macroeconomic policy‐making. More specifically, right‐wing parties favour independent central banks more than left‐wing parties. An independent central bank is also the generally preferred option from a social welfare point of view. In addition, the form of policy‐making arrangements between the fiscal and monetary authorities is shown to influence the extent of partisan cycles. JEL classification: E32; E58; E63; C72
Monetary Policy with Uncertain Parameters
Authors: Söderström Ulf 
Published: March 2003

This paper shows that—in contrast to the received wisdom—uncertainty about the parameters in a dynamic macroeconomic model may lead to more aggressive monetary policy. In particular, when there is uncertainty about the persistence of inflation, it may be optimal for the central bank to respond to shocks more aggressively in order to reduce uncertainty about the future development of inflation. Uncertainty about other parameters, on the other hand, dampens the policy response. JEL classification: E43; E52
European Banking Distress and EMU: Institutional and Macroeconomic Risks
Authors: Hutchison Michael M. 
Published: March 2003

Financial stability in Europe has received renewed attention with the advent of EMU. This paper examines whether EU country banking systems are particularly vulnerable to systemic risk. Our approach is to explore episodes of banking sector distress for a large sample of countries, highlighting the experience of the EU. We estimate multivariate probit models linking the likelihood of banking problems to a set of macroeconomic variables and institutional characteristics such as aspects of bank supervision and regulation, restrictions on bank portfolios, and development of the banking system. Given these characteristics, the model predicts a low probability of banking sector distress in EMU countries. JEL classification: G21; E44; F41
Communicative Development in Swedish Children 16‐28 months old: The Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory—Words and Sentences
Authors: Berglund Eva , Eriksson Mårten 
Published: March 2003

To describe the development of words and sentences in Swedish children 16‐28 months old, 900 parental reports on 336 children were analyzed. Subjects were randomly selected from the national birth register, and there was a response rate of 88%. The assessments were made using the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory—words and sentences (SECDI—w&s).Age‐based norms for productive vocabulary, pragmatic skills, grammar skills, and maximum length of utterance (MaxLU) were determined. We describe the development of feedback morphemes, semantic categories, and single words and tasks. Correlation across measures was significant, and especially strong between vocabulary size and grammar skills. Optimized positive predictive values were high for 25 to 28 month predictions (71%‐88%), and vocabulary scores were found to be of particular predictive importance. No significant gender differences were detected. The clinical relevance of the instrument is discussed.
An Irony of History or the Exception as the Rule: The Implementation by Swedish Municipalities of an Economic Housing Policy Instrument
Authors: Vedung Evert 
Published: March 2003

Perverse effects and ironies should be at the center of attention in academic public policy analysis. A ‘perverse effect’ is not any inadvertent result produced by a public measure but a result, inside or outside the target area, that is entirely opposite to the result intended. An ‘irony’, as defined here, is different from a perverse effect in that it designates any unintended and unexpected result whose causes are unknown or left without comment. The pronouncement ‘this is an irony’ means ‘this is an unexpected result’; the statement ‘this is a perverse effect’ means ‘this is an unexpected, diametrically opposite result at least partly produced by the intervention’ (Vedung 1998a. Utvärdering i politik och förvaltning. Lund: Studentlitteratur, p. 62).The article deals with the ironic result of an economic policy instrument in Swedish national housing land policy, the Land Stipulation Requisite for State Housing Loans 1974–91. The purpose of the requisite was that the pertinent municipality (not a private landowner) must have allocated to the building commissioner the land for his planned residential development if he was to be granted state housing loans.The policy makers expected that the share of the total housing production taking place on land supplied by municipalities would increase. Yet between 1972 and 1990 the housing production on land supplied by municipal authorities decreased. This puzzling gap, referred to as the ‘enigmatic irony’ of the Land Stipulation Requisite, is explained. The explanation is phrased in the terminology of a general theory of public intervention results. The explanation may be summarized as ‘exception as the rule’.
Developmental Influences and Gang Awareness among African‐American Inner City Youth
Authors: Cadwallader Tom W. , Cairns Robert B. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis research aimed to clarify the correlates of gang awareness in inner city youth as a function of age, gender and peer group affiliation. It is proposed that the influence and hegemony of street gangs is a distinguishing feature of inner city neighborhoods, and that this influence is mediated by development. Participants (N =489) were African American boys and girls from the 1st, 4th, and 7th grades in four inner city public schools. Students’ knowledge of gangs in the local community was determined. Social networks for 4th and 7th grade students were identified. Girls’ and boys’ familiarity with local gangs increased with age and differed by peer group affiliation. The relationship of gang familiarity to teacher and self‐ratings of aggression, popularity, and academic competence changed with age. These findings support the proposition that neighborhoods have nontrivial effects on social development, and these effects are likely to interact with developmental status and social affiliations.
The Local Politics of Inclusion: The State and Community Safety
Authors: Pitts John , Hope Tim 
Published: March 2003

While the tendency for low‐income groups to become economically marginalized may be a structural feature of the globalizing, post‐Fordist economy, the degree to which they are allowed to become socially excluded is arguably a political issue. In many of the polities of the Western world, debate has focused not only on whether the State could or should intervene economically to ameliorate the causes of the “new poverty” but also on how the State should address the increasing rates of “social dislocation”—including youth crime, interpersonal violence, and drug misuse—which have been associated with its emergence. The postware welfare settlement produced a particular institutional nexus of welfare, justice, punishment and citizenship (Hay 1996; Garland 1985); yet the pressure of increasing social dislocation has also placed great strain on the institutions of the welfare state, particularly at the local level, notwithstanding the ideological commitment of differing governments to continue with the social welfare project.In this paper, we explore some circumstances in which the politics of the “local state” might mediate—in one way or another—the consequences of economic marginalization. In particular, we draw attention to the role which might be played by local state agencies—as intermediaries between the individual and the national State—in deploying policies which could offset the social exclusion of minorities and youth. By comparing the responses of local agencies to youth crime in two communities in Britain and France we highlight the “vertical” dimension of political relations which links marginalized communities with the wider resources of the State. And while many economies are experiencing similar social dislocations within disadvantaged communities, the vertical dimension may prove crucial in preserving the linkage between their residents and those of the wider, more privileged, society.
From Pavement to Piazza: Grassroots Social Work to Counteract the Globalization of Marginality
Authors: Ferraro Ermete 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis paper—inspired by the experience of grassroots social work in Naples begun by M. Borrelli in the 1950s—emphasizes that “consciousness‐raising” and “community development” can be useful processes to stimulate responsible social participation on the part of the most marginal individuals and groups. To overcome a bureaucratic and pietistic model of the welfare state which serves in the long run to increase their dependence and socio‐cultural subordination, there is a need for alternative social policies, capable of improving people's empowerment and social citizenship. Giving more resources and decision‐making power to the most marginal could amount to changing an unfair and oppressive society from the roots up. This goal remains a moral imperative for both professional and voluntary social workers who believe in a fair, non‐violent and ecological model of development. Unfortunately, in Italy as elsewhere, neo‐liberal reforms of welfare states are tending in the opposite direction, partly as a result of out‐of‐date functionalist theories and by means of a worrying process of welfare marketization and globalization that actually increases the exclusion and marginality of the lower classes. This paper takes issue with current neo‐liberal trends by returning to a territory‐based and resident‐focused image of social work. This way, non‐profit agencies can play a more active and stimulating role in support of communitarian networks and help avoid the risk of the Third Sector's alternative spur being compromised by the otherwise “commodification” of welfare. Only in this way might one stop the transformation of non‐profit organizations into mere private providers for a buyer/controller state, more business‐minded than really concerned with freeing the poor and the marginal “underclass” from subordination and exclusion.
Urban Order and the Preventive Restructuring of Space: The Operation of Border Controls in Micro Space
Authors: Franzén Mats 
Published: March 2003

This paper is about a specific aspect of the present restructuring of space: the cumulative, but unintended, effects on the public urban order, by a growing, and more intense, deployment of border controls. Border controls are recognized to operate both in public space, and at the entrances to those organized activities that directly face public space. Their working is understood as actuarial practices. Two preventive impetuses are identified, one specific, police-related, one general, related to the on-going socio-economic changes. To try to follow the aggregate effects of such a preventive spatial restructuring, an analytic thought experiment is made. Its focus is the public order in a square, or a segment of a street, located centrally in a relatively large Western European city and the effects of the following variations. To begin with, the targets of border controls: the volume and the composition of, first, the passers by, and second, the direct visitors of this public space, and third, different visitors to the organized activities adjoining this space. Then, of course, the variations in the deployment of border controls by both public and private police. Thus, it is possible to delineate how the preventive restructuring of space works upon the urban order. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a certain robustness in the urban order since many agents of the preventive restructuring do not work in concert.
Making health services management research critical: a review and a suggestion
Authors: Learmonth Mark 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis piece reviews the qualitative research literature on NHS management published since 1990. It suggests that much of the established work in this field takes for granted managerial assumptions that are consequently not subjected to sustained critical examination. It is argued therefore that this research has tended to create a version of the world that supports elite interests whilst appearing to be disinterested. A framework for seeing management in a radically different manner is also proposed – Critical Management Studies. Its approaches to analysing management and organisation are offered in the belief that they articulate the kind of challenges to orthodox views that many with an interest in health care are likely to find attractive and perhaps emancipatory.
Does Social Mobility Affect the Size of the Socioeconomic Mortality Differential?: Evidence from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study
Authors: Blane D. , Harding S. , Rosato M. 
Published: March 2003

Summary
The effect of social mobility on the socioeconomic differential in mortality is examined with data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. The analyses involve 46 980 men aged 45–64 years in 1981. The mortality risk of the socially mobile is compared with the mortality risk of the socially stable after adjustment for their class of origin (their social class in 1971) and class of destination (their social class in 1981) separately. Among those in employment there is some evidence that movement out of their class of origin is in the direction predicted by the idea of health-related social mobility. This evidence, however, seems strongest for causes of death which are least likely to have been preceded by prolonged incapacity. Movement into the class of destination, however, shows the opposite relationship with mortality. Compared with the socially stable members of their class of destination, the upwardly mobile tend to have higher mortality and the downwardly mobile tend to have lower mortality. This relationship with the class of destination, it is suggested, may explain why socioeconomic mortality differentials do not widen with increasing age.
Multivariate Multilevel Analyses of Examination Results
Authors: Yang Min , Goldstein Harvey , Browne William , Woodhouse Geoffrey 
Published: March 2003

SummaryIn the study of examination results much interest centres on comparisons of curriculum subjects entered and the correlation between these at individual and institution level based on data where not every individual takes all subjects. Such ‘missing’ data are not missing at random because individuals deliberately select subjects that they wish to study according to criteria that will be associated with their performance. In this paper we propose multivariate multilevel models for the analysis of such data, adjusting for such subject selection effects as well as for prior achievement. This then enables more appropriate institutional comparisons and correlation estimates. We analyse A- and AS-level results in different mathematics papers of 52 587 students from 2592 institutions in England in 1997. Although this paper is concerned largely with methodology, substantive findings emerge on the effects of gender, age, intakes of General Certificate of Education pupils, examination board and establishment type for A- and AS-level mathematics.
Semiparametric Bayesian Inference for Time Series with Mixed Spectra
Authors: Carter C. K. , Kohn R. 
Published: March 2003

Summary
A Bayesian analysis is presented of a time series which is the sum of a stationary component with a smooth spectral density and a deterministic component consisting of a linear combination of a trend and periodic terms. The periodic terms may have known or unknown frequencies. The advantage of our approach is that different features of the data—such as the regression parameters, the spectral density, unknown frequencies and missing observations—are combined in a hierarchical Bayesian framework and estimated simultaneously. A Bayesian test to detect deterministic components in the data is also constructed. By using an asymptotic approximation to the likelihood, the computation is carried out efficiently using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method in O(Mn) operations, where nis the sample size and Mis the number of iterations. We show empirically that our approach works well on real and simulated samples.
The EM Algorithm—an Old Folk-song Sung to a Fast New Tune
Authors: Meng Xiao-Li , Van Dyk David 
Published: March 2003

Summary
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the presentation of the paper by Dempster, Laird and Rubin which popularized the EM algorithm, we investigate, after a brief historical account, strategies that aim to make the EM algorithm converge faster while maintaining its simplicity and stability (e.g. automatic monotone convergence in likelihood). First we introduce the idea of a ‘working parameter’ to facilitate the search for efficient data augmentation schemes and thus fast EM implementations. Second, summarizing various recent extensions of the EM algorithm, we formulate a general alternating expectation–conditional maximization algorithm AECM that couples flexible data augmentation schemes with model reduction schemes to achieve efficient computations. We illustrate these methods using multivariate t-models with known or unknown degrees of freedom and Poisson models for image reconstruction. We show, through both empirical and theoretical evidence, the potential for a dramatic reduction in computational time with little increase in human effort. We also discuss the intrinsic connection between EM-type algorithms and the Gibbs sampler, and the possibility of using the techniques presented here to speed up the latter. The main conclusion of the paper is that, with the help of statistical considerations, it is possible to construct algorithms that are simple, stable and fast.