(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-03)
Hicks, Diana
Since 1980, national university departmental ranking exercises have developed in several countries. This paper reviews exercises in the U.S., U.K. and Australia to assess the state-of-the-art and to identify common themes and trends. The findings are that the exercises are becoming more elaborate, even unwieldy, and that there is some retreat from complexity. There seems to be a movement towards combining peer evaluation with bibliometric measures. The exercises also seem to be effective in enhancing university focus on research strategy.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005)
Hicks, Diana; Hegde, Deepak
This industry-level study examines the impact of foreign country factors like market size, technological strength, and science and engineering (S&E) capability on the conduct of U.S. overseas R&D during the 1991-2002 period. We find that while overseas markets primarily predict the entry of U.S. R&D, the S&E knowledge base of nations critically determines the level
and sophistication of U.S. foreign subsidiaries' innovative activity. We also find important interindustry differences: U.S. electrical, electronics, computers, and communication industries are strongly drawn towards overseas S&E capability; industries including machinery, automobiles, and transport equipment are primarily attracted by the technological strength of foreign nations; U.S. R&D in chemicals mostly follows overseas markets.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005)
Hicks, Diana; Hegde, Deepak
Long-lived small firms with a substantial, public record of innovative success are the focus of this paper. We label such firms "serial innovators" and argue that they are often specialist suppliers in markets for technology. To survive as specialist suppliers, firms must produce technology that is broadly tradable. Using Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella's markets-for-technology framework, we hypothesize that such technology has certain characteristics. It is: high quality, general purpose, broadly based, quite basic, and concentrated in newer generations of technology. We find that serial innovators, survivors among the specialist technology suppliers, have mastered innovating in technology with these characteristics. This helps explain why these firms have become serious players in these markets—at least for a few years until a new generation of technology emerges.