In over twenty years of operations the Canadian Innovation Centre has evaluated, through its Inventor's Assistance Program (IAP), the commercial potential of over 12,000 early stage inventions. Prior to 1989, the Canadian Innovation Centre (CIC) used a version of the Preliminary Innovation Evaluation System (PIES), developed by Gerald Udell at the Oregon Innovation Center in 1974, to evaluate the commercial potential of early stage inventions. Since 1989, the CIC has used a modified version of PIES in their evaluation process. I first estimate the ability of this program's analysts to forecast the probability that an invention will become commercialized. I also estimate a model to predict the probability that an invention will become commercialized based on the IAP's evaluation of several underlying early stage characteristics of the invention. I find that such a statistical model is based on a limited set of variables and predicts future commercial success almost as well as the IAP's forecast of success. I then use factor analysis to determine if the ratings provided by the CIC evaluation service are representative of the underlying theoretical variable structure of PIES or their modified version. Factor analysis is applied to two distinct periods that are separated by a distinct alteration of the theoretical variable structure in 1989. While I find that the factor analysis provides evidence that the post 1989 theoretical structure does provide interpretation of some of the dimensions in the ranking variables, when a combination of the post 1989 and the pre 1989 structure are examined interpretability of the extracted factors is significantly improved. Finally, I compare the model estimated on the underlying early stage characteristics with a model estimated on the extracted factors. When the predictive accuracy of the two models is compared, I find that both procedures produce models that predict almost equally well. The models and the IAP perform better than R&D managers' predictions of their own R&D projects' successes. The thesis provides recommendations for the assessment and maintenance of evaluation models for inventions, innovations and R&D projects.

This paper investigates how the size of a firm affects its licensing strategy for patented technologies through empirical analysis of the characteristics at the technological, firm, and industry levels. Only firms with commercialization capabilities are considered in this study in order to compare the incentives of utilizing technologies internally with the incentives of selling them for licensing revenue. Focusing on licensing motivated by non-strategic purposes, empirical analysis shows that large companies are less willing to license patents that fit into their business focus, as well as those which have a low technological value in general. On the other hand, small firms are more inclined to license patents which are more relevant to their business focus, but less innovative on average. This study also finds that market share and competition intensity are important factors in their licensing decisions: the more competitive and the smaller the market share of the patents owned by large firms, the higher the chance that firms will list them on the market. In line with the revenue versus competition framework by Arora and Fosfuri (2003), this paper concludes that large firms are generally more concerned about the rent dissipation effect over the revenue effect from licensing, while the opposite is true for smaller firms.

Title:  The Situation of Digital Books’ Market in Spain. The acceptance by consumers and companies Authors: Amaia García Barberena and Leyre Díaz Pinillos Supervisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire. Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Marketing Key words: digital books, electronic books, digitalization, Spain, consumers´ behavior, innovation, adaptation, publishers… Purpose: The purpose is to explore what the current situation of the electronic books’ market in Spain is, concerning the changes in consumer behavior and companies’ adaptation. Method: Our research method is an explorative and descriptive one.  Thus, we collected data from secondary resources such as books, studies, articles, journals and so on. We use also primary data in order to answer our purpose. We do two different questionnaires; one focused on consumers and the other one focused on publishers of different companies.  Theoretical framework: First, we define the consumer behaviour in a general context and then related to innovations and digital environment. Then, we explain the companies’ behaviour and adaptation to changes, and we finish with and interaction between both parties. Conclusion: We highlight and summarize the findings of our study, giving a clear image of the current situation of the digital books’ market in Spain. We also give our point of view towards this topic, and suggestions for further researches.

BackgroundThe biggest issue of our time is the environmental damage we have caused. Publics are becomingincreasingly aware of this challenge: environmental concern has risen. This change toward greenvalues is commonly referred to as “greening of society”. Having generally been considered theenvironmental villains, companies are now also seen as the solution to the environmentalproblem. More and more companies are going green as they have realized the potential of greeninnovations to yield competitive advantages. Therefore, a greening of the business domain canalso be observed. However, only little research has been conducted on why and howenvironmental issues are integrated into the development of new products. Considering thatchemical companies are the epitome of the environmental villains, investigating the case of amanufacturer of branded chemical goods that has been the market leader in the highly contesteddetergent market for more than a century – despite or even because of – pursuing an ecoleadershipstrategy becomes more intriguing.AimThe aim of this study is to investigate the how and part of the why of integrating environmentalissues into product development by analyzing and discussing Henkel’s environmentallycompatible product innovations and their relation to the greening of society.MethodThe method of choice is content analysis. Drawing on secondary data, the research strategy isqualitative and the design is longitudinal while the approach is descriptive and idiographic.ResultsSocietal values and Henkel’s product portfolio seem to move in the same direction as both havebecome greener and greener ever since the 1970s. However, concluding that the portfolio changesas a response to the value change is premature, especially because the innovations are often theresult of decades of research and development. Also, the portfolio has not become greener at anincreasing pace because the corporate goals have changed. Rather, the greening progress has beenaccelerated by technological progress. While over the years Henkel’s innovations have offeredgreen benefits at an increasing proportion, this development is not strongly reflected inadvertisement. Until recently green values have – if at all – only been addressed rather as an aside;the most emphasis has always been on performance. While the latest positioning of innovations astruly green indicates that promotional strategy now acknowledges that preserving the environmenthas become a mainstream value, societal value change has been more strongly reflected inadvertisement in terms of values associated with convenience rather than with the environmentand sustainability.

In over twenty years of operations the Canadian Innovation Centre has evaluated, through its Inventor's Assistance Program (IAP), the commercial potential of over 12,000 early stage inventions. Prior to 1989, the Canadian Innovation Centre (CIC) used a version of the Preliminary Innovation Evaluation System (PIES), developed by Gerald Udell at the Oregon Innovation Center in 1974, to evaluate the commercial potential of early stage inventions. Since 1989, the CIC has used a modified version of PIES in their evaluation process. I first estimate the ability of this program's analysts to forecast the probability that an invention will become commercialized. I also estimate a model to predict the probability that an invention will become commercialized based on the IAP's evaluation of several underlying early stage characteristics of the invention. I find that such a statistical model is based on a limited set of variables and predicts future commercial success almost as well as the IAP's forecast of success. I then use factor analysis to determine if the ratings provided by the CIC evaluation service are representative of the underlying theoretical variable structure of PIES or their modified version. Factor analysis is applied to two distinct periods that are separated by a distinct alteration of the theoretical variable structure in 1989. While I find that the factor analysis provides evidence that the post 1989 theoretical structure does provide interpretation of some of the dimensions in the ranking variables, when a combination of the post 1989 and the pre 1989 structure are examined interpretability of the extracted factors is significantly improved. Finally, I compare the model estimated on the underlying early stage characteristics with a model estimated on the extracted factors. When the predictive accuracy of the two models is compared, I find that both procedures produce models that predict almost equally well. The models and the IAP perform better than R&D managers' predictions of their own R&D projects' successes. The thesis provides recommendations for the assessment and maintenance of evaluation models for inventions, innovations and R&D projects.

This paper investigates how the size of a firm affects its licensing strategy for patented technologies through empirical analysis of the characteristics at the technological, firm, and industry levels. Only firms with commercialization capabilities are considered in this study in order to compare the incentives of utilizing technologies internally with the incentives of selling them for licensing revenue. Focusing on licensing motivated by non-strategic purposes, empirical analysis shows that large companies are less willing to license patents that fit into their business focus, as well as those which have a low technological value in general. On the other hand, small firms are more inclined to license patents which are more relevant to their business focus, but less innovative on average. This study also finds that market share and competition intensity are important factors in their licensing decisions: the more competitive and the smaller the market share of the patents owned by large firms, the higher the chance that firms will list them on the market. In line with the revenue versus competition framework by Arora and Fosfuri (2003), this paper concludes that large firms are generally more concerned about the rent dissipation effect over the revenue effect from licensing, while the opposite is true for smaller firms.

¡@In pace with the digital service development and technology expansion, the traditional media environment is in a transformation period. Along with the innovation of mobile reading, there is coming an emerging trend, digital mobile reading in the entire world. Therefore, it is clear that print media is toward to the digital convergence trend. ¡@ ¡@It is iPad, first launch tablet in 2011. Apr., contributed to the highest tablet market share among all for Apple Inc. In the future, tablet is going to be a kind of innovative and leading media tools. For that reason, there are plenty of traditional print media companies plan to launch iPad applications. Then, print media not only becomes the potential novel media technology but also leads the trend of print media transformation. However, print media application at present is still in the primary stage. It is still waiting for market test that print media application could be the main stream or not, in the coming future. ¡@¡@This research, on the basis of Rogers¡¦ ¡§Diffusion of Innovations,¡¨ investigates and analyzes the print media applications. Also, setting United Daily News iPad Application as an example, it is focus on the relationship among the features of the early adopters, demographic variables, perceived characteristics of innovations, lifestyle and the willing of print media applications intension. Through the collaboration between academy and industry, UDN. COM, it is 396 effective samples after collecting that distributes to United Daily News iPad Application and UDN. COM. (digital information area) ¡@¡@The result shows that the profiles of the early adopters using United Daily News iPad Application are middle-aged males, well-educated and high income. It is demographic variables, perceived characteristics of innovations and media usage behavior that significantly impact on the willing of print media applications intension. Further, the lifestyle prototype, much closer to sophisticated and fashionable, life expansionists and preference for foreign products, owns superior adoption intensions to United Daily News iPad Application.

Although the aluminium rolling industry is considered a traditional industry, but the majority of its products are supplied to the 3C market. Hence the industry can also be classified as a high-tech industry, and must therefore adapt to rapid changing market environments. In recent years, the rise of the four BRIC countries with their low cost labor and land, have gained advantages in the low end products. Yet,escalations of international raw material prices have forced the cost of raw materials in the aluminium rolling industry to close in at nearly 80%. Substitute products are at the same time being developed feverishly, posing great threats to the aluminium industry. The China Steel Aluminium Corporation (CSAC) is taken as a case example to study how concepts of innovation management can be applied to product development in an intense competitive environment. If both product differentiation and low cost can both be achieved to explore niche markets, innovative value is created and the company will find itself in a blue sea. This study is pivoted on management of innovations. The principal factors of innovation are innovation flow, technology innovation, product innovation, process innovation and organization innovation. Each principal factor is represented by four to five sub-factors, totaling 21 sub-factors. Through analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a questionnaire was developed. Experts and scholars in the field of aluminium rolling industry were requested to rate the factors. The results were analyzed using Expert Choice 2000 statistical software, and the key success factors for management of innovation in the CSAC derived. The principal factor for innovation is technology innovation, with product innovation, process innovation, innovation flow and organizational innovation being secondary factors. Among the sub-factors, eight sub-factors emerged as key success factors with evaluation weights over 5%. These are, in ranking sequence, technology optimization, product innovation leadership, technology enrichment, technology stocktaking, cross-functional team, technology monitoring and protection, product application and development, and, execution and application. Overall speaking, technology innovation is the core value of CSAC, particularly in the areas of strengthening technology optimization and technology enrichment. CSAC should dedicate more resources in research and innovation. Product strategy should evolve from application and development into product defense development. It is further suggested that the proportion of product leading innovation strategy should be increased. In the short run, the research resources of the mother company should be fully utilized. In the long term, internal research capability should be developed, that is to increase research funding. Additionally, organization learning is the source of enterprise innovation, while exploration for change opportunities is the basis for strategy formulation. Although these two factors have not been incorporated as key success factors, they should not be overlooked.

The Fifth Discipline¡¨,written by Dr. Peter M Senge in 1990, offers the prevalent concept of learning organization. Since its release, the book has generated a great deal of enthusiastic responses and much popular support from academic circles and authorities in other related areas of activity, in which people with practical experience regard the concept of learning organization as the source of enterprising competitive advantages. This research takes financial services industry of the automobile as an example, probe into the influence that learning organization characteristics brings in this industry, and combine several theory, with the factor that its influences, the view from the enterprise activity (information-collected ), organizational innovation and organizational performance to make deep analysis of the financial services industry of the automobile. The purposes of the research are as follows:To examine material resource of both learning organization characteristics and organizational innovation. The integration of learning organization characteristics and organizational innovation is a concept that impacts the organizational performance. By applying the concept, a newly developed theoretical structure among learning organization Characteristics, organizational innovation and organizational performance is formed.Probes into the learning organization characteristics in the financial services industry of the automobile to the influence of organizational innovation. Probes into the learning organization characteristics in the financial services industry of the automobile to the influence of organizational performance. Probes into the organizational innovation in the financial services industry of the automobile to the influence of organizational performance The sample of this study has 203 analyse samples effectively in the financial services industry of the automobile.Many quantitative methods, including principal component analysis,confirmatory factor analysis,Pearson correlation,Cronbach¡¦s £\ and LISREL analysis, and used to test the hypothesis of this research. The main findings of this research are as follows: There was significant and direct relationship between learning organization characteristics and organizational innovation. There was significant and direct relationship between organizational innovation and organizational performance.The learning organization characteristics would indirectly affect the organizational performance through the intermediate function of organizational innovation.The learning organization characteristics should have a result of synergy via the way of organizational innovation.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to present and analyze the innovations in the home video game industry and their impact on the competitive strategies of the companies in the indus-try. The existing literature about business cycles and business dynamics is scarce from busi-ness administrative perspective. This thesis contributes to fill the gap in the academic literature. The choice of the home video game industry has been done, due to its fast growing economic nature and the rapid changes that can be noticed, especially for the last decade. A qualitative research method with secondary qualitative and quantitative data and primary qualitative data through interviews has been used for this thesis. The home video game industry is highly driven by technological product innovations. Incremental innovations do not affect in a significant way the dynamics within the industry. Radical innovations create a competitive advantage through differentiation and they increase market share for the company which followed this strategy. Disruptive innovations open new markets, change the business environment for every firm and generate a shift in consumer preferences. Hence, the company which implements a disruptive innovation gains extensive market share. Innovations are possible due to the strategic orientation a company aims to pursue. If a company pursues a high market orientation and a low inno-vation orientation it manufactures an upgraded product to keep customers satisfied. When the firm pursues a high market and innovation orientation, the final product includes cha-racteristics that the customers desire. While at the same time the product created offers services and features hard to be matched by the competition. Finally, if a firm pursues a high innovation orientation and a low market orientation strategy, it creates an easier and more convenient alternative on the existing products while being cheaper. At the same time this strategic orientation disregards the established customers' desires.The purpose of this thesis is to present and analyze the innovations in the home video game industry and their impact on the competitive strategies of the companies in the indus-try. The existing literature about business cycles and business dynamics is scarce from busi-ness administrative perspective. This thesis contributes to fill the gap in the academic litera-ture. The choice of the home video game industry has been done, due to its fast growing economic nature and the rapid changes that can be noticed, especially for the last decade. A qualitative research method with secondary qualitative and quantitative data and primary qualitative data through interviews has been used for this thesis.The home video game industry is highly driven by technological product innovations. Incremental innovations do not affect in a significant way the dynamics within the industry. Radical innovations create a competitive advantage through differentiation and they increase market share for the company which followed this strategy. Disruptive innovations open new markets, change the business environment for every firm and generate a shift in consumer preferences. Hence, the company which implements a disruptive innovation gains extensive market share. Innovations are possible due to the strategic orientation a company aims to pursue. If a company pursues a high market orientation and a low inno-vation orientation it manufactures an upgraded product to keep customers satisfied. When the firm pursues a high market and innovation orientation, the final product includes cha-racteristics that the customers desire. While at the same time the product created offers services and features hard to be matched by the competition. Finally, if a firm pursues a high innovation orientation and a low market orientation strategy, it creates an easier and more convenient alternative on the existing products while being cheaper. At the same time this strategic orientation disregards the established customers' desires.</p>