No description available.

ix, 254 leaves : tables, graphs ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economics, 1977

R&D can be considered the driving force of the modern economy. The economy is organized to utilize scarce resources. R&D through technological change results in a transformation of scarcities, in the creation of new resources, new products and new prices. "The central stupendous truth about developed economies today is that they can have the kind and scale of resources...they decide to have. It is no longer resources that limit decisions, it is the decision that makes the resources" (Toffler, 1971, p. 15). In technological society resources are created. Yet recent publications indicate a universal decline in R&D investment. This dissertation focuses upon some important aspects of R&D decision making in Canada. The first chapter analyzes available information about determinants and practices of R&D investment decisions, describes the inventory of normative models developed to improve decision making, and identifies empirical studies investigating their implementation. A review of the state of the art leads to the identification of the following four areas of information which are deficient: 1. information about the nature of selective perception processes of R&D decision making, 2. the objective functions (explicit and latent) which guide choices among alternative R&D investment opportunities, 3. the impact of R&D upon the positions of prime bargaining units organizations, and 4. the impacts of organizational structure and processes upon implementation of investment decisions. The first two categories of information relate to the question of what different decision units consider relevant in defining their problems and what they value. The last two categories relate to the organizational impact of R&D and the processes by which decisions are reached and implemented. These areas provide a focus for required additional research aimed at improvements in R&D decision making. This dissertation attempts to contribute to the first three areas of research outlined above. The focus in Chapter 2 is upon the impact of R&D in shifting resource shares of labour, capital and energy in the total output. Chapter 3 focuses upon processes of information selection in R&D decision making, identifying what environmental conditions are important to whom in making R&D investment decisions. Chapter 4 investigates multi-attribute preferences in R&D project selection. Each chapter draws some normative implications for R&D public policy, and the postscript identifies, promising areas for future research. Some of the major findings of this sequence of studies are: 1. Accepting a neoclassical framework of analysis, in most sectors, R&D has had no impact on input shares, indicating that scale and price effects dominate the structure of technology. Where R&D has had impact on the structure, it has sometimes had a labour using and sometimes a capital using bias. 2. Significant differences in patterns of attention to environmental conditions were identified. These differences are related to executive attributes and firm characteristics. 3. High concensus exists with respect to tradeoffs among project attributes across all firm-executive groupings. 4. Compensatory actuarial models provide a good fit with observations of R&D investment judgments. Some normative implications of the study for public policy include the following: 1. As R&D impact upon the economic objectives of the major bargaining units in firms is neutral in most cases, perhaps an effort should be made to eliminate technological development as part of the traditional arena of labour-management bargaining. 2. In creating favourable R&D investment climates, government ought to develop a sensitive strategy which recognizes explicitly the selective impact of single dimension interventions on alternative target populations. 3. The role of government as an independent insurance agent for R&D ventures is recommended to replace direct participation in project funding. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

No description available.

Resources devoted to science, or rather to "new science" or research and development and related technical activities have undergone a remarkable rate of increase over the past two decades throughout most of the world. This phenomenon has been symptomatic not only of the development of the majority of nations in the 'western world' but also of the Soviet bloc, and furthermore, all the indications are that this expansion of scientific activities will continue throughout the present decade. Intro., p. 1.

Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 1999. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Historically, commercial agricultural research in South Africa has been state supported, but due to recent political changes in South Africa this is changing. The political transition has been accompanied by changing economic policies, causing a tightening of public funds allocated to agricultural research. In 1992 the Agricultural Research Council was formed, primarily to enable greater industry involvement in research as a result of the expected long term budget cuts in publicly funded research. As a result there has been an increased recognition of the need to evaluate research in terms of the economic returns to investment so that decision makers have hard evidence on which to prioritize their investments. This study employs the well known production function approach to evaluate the economic benefits of publicly funded research in the South African deciduous fruit industry. In reporting the results of the research the study proceeds from an overview of the deciduous fruit industry, as well as an analysis of the structure of deciduous fruit research in South Africa. This is followed by a description of the economics of research expenditure, a description of ex post methods of evaluating the economic benefits of research, and the manner in which the data for the analysis was collected. The analysis suggests there is a statistically significant relationship between research and development and industry output as well as industry prices and output. However the results should be interpreted with care, and more effort should be made to ensure that required data are gathered. Nevertheless, the results show that increased research expenditure m the industry is justified. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Histories gesien is kommersiele landbou-navorsing in Suid Afrika deur die owerheid ondersteun, maar as gevolg van die onlangse politieke veranderinge in Suid Afrika is hierdie toedrag van sake besig om te verander. Die politieke oorgang in die land het gepaard gegaan met 'n verandering in ekonomiese beleid, wat 'n inkorting van owerheidsbefondsing aan die Landbounavorsingsraad meegebring het. Hierdie Raad is in 1992 gestig, met die primere doe! om grater privaatsektor betrokkenheid in navorsing vanuit die betrokke sektor te verseker, as gevolg van die verwagte onttrekking van owerheidsteun. As gevolg hiervan, is daar nou 'n toenemende erkenning aan die behoefte om navorsingsprojekte te evalueer in terme van die ekonomiese opbrengs op sulke investering, sodat besluitnemers geldige bewyse het waarvolgens bestedingsprioriteite gemaak kan word. Hierdie studie gebruik die bekende produksie-funksie benadering om die ekonomiese voordele van navorsing in die Suid-Afrikaanse sagtevrugte bedryf te evalueer. Die studie begin met 'n oorsig oor die sagtevrugtebedryf, insluitend 'n analise van die navorsingstruktuur wat tans heers. Bogenoemde word gevolg deur 'n beskrywing van die bestaande ex post metodes om ekonomiese voordele van navorsing te evalueer, sowel as die wyse waarop die data vir die analiese ingesamel is. Die resultate wys dat daar 'n beduidende statiese verhouding is tussen besteding op navorsing en pryse en die opbrengs behaal deur produsente in die bedryf Hierdie resultate moet egter met sorg gelnterpreteer word, en meer moeite moet gedoen word om te verseker dat die nodige data ingesamel word. Nietemin toon die resultate dat verhoogde navorsingsbesteding in die bedryf geregverdig is

Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 1999. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of the study is to determine the rate of return to cover crop research in the wine industry. The method followed will prove an invaluable contribution toward the need to determine a suitable approach for evaluation studies. The importance behind such a study is the development of appropriate ex ante evaluation approaches, which will assist in the allocation of public research resources in both a social and economical manner. The wine industry is currently enjoying healthy international demand, but will need to remain competitive to reap the full benefit of international exposure. The need therefore exists for a continuation of research at the institutional level, in order to maintain the progressive nature of research knowledge that was available in the past. The evaluation of ex post and ex ante research will assist in maintaining government funding for research and help with campaigning for private investment of research in the wine industry. The use of two evaluation approaches was used for the analysis. Firstly, the production function approach achieved a rate of return of 44 percent, using weather and research expenditure as a means to explain the variations in wine grape yield. Secondly, a cost benefit approach was devised in order to make a direct comparison between the cost and benefits related to the cover crop research. The rate of return achieved for this mode of analysis is 37 percent, using trial plot data as a source of information on potential benefits. In addition to this the cost benefit approach was used to show the difference in rate of return that is achievable between two growing regions. The variable that exists between the two regions, is the higher rate of irrigation in one of the regions. The high rate of return achieved for the investment, provides suitable motivation for the increase in state funding for research in the wine industry, and provides valuable information for the enticement of support by private investors. The two methods used in the study will both draw a certain amount of criticism, largely as a result of the lack of available data. The empirical nature of the approaches is however simple and applicable down to the project level. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om die opbrengs op navorsing oor dekgewasse in die Suid- Afrikaanse wynbedryf te bepaal. Hierbenewens het die studie dit ook ten doel om gepaste metodieke vir die evaluering van navorsingsprojekte daar te stel. In hierdie opsig maak hierdie studie ' n bydrae tot besluitneming oor die allokering van openbare fondse vir landbounavorsing op 'n ekonomies en sosiale optimale wyse. Die Suid- Afrikaanse wynbedryf beleef tans ' n bloeifase, hoofsaaklik as gevolg van sterk internasionale vraag na sy produkte, maar salop sy internasionale mededingendheid moet let indien die volle voordele hiervan benut kan word. Daarom is dit noodsaaklik dat die bedryf op tegnologiese gebied moet kan meeding, en dus dat navorsingsbesteding nie onoordeelkundig ingekort word rue. Inligting oor die opbrengs op navorsingsbesteding is dus noodsaaklik om die volgehoue betrokkenheid van die staat te kan regverdig, hetsy as finansier of as katalisator vir privaatsektor betrokkenheid. In hierdie studie is die opbrengs op navorsing gemeet deur beide die bekende produksiefunksie benadering sowel as deur koste-voordeel ontleding. In die eerste geval is 'n opbrengskoers van 44% gemeet, en in die tweede geval is dit 37%. By die kostevoordeel ontleding is ook 'n verdere onderskeid gemaak tussen twee wynbou-streke om die invloed van meer besproeiing te bepaal. Ten spyte van dataprobleme, veral wat betref die koste van navorsing, kan beweer word dat die inligting so verkry van nut sal wees vir besluitnemers by die toekenning van skaars navorsingsfondse, asook by bedinging om privaatsektor fondse.

Crop research has undergone a major transformation in North America and many other parts of the word. The introduction of biotechnology and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) alter the nature of research products, which in turn changes the structure of the agricultural research industry from perfectly competitive to imperfectly competitive. The implications of these changes are not fully understood. The objective of this thesis is to develop a broader understanding of how biotechnology, changes in IPRs and the resulting changes in industry structure have affected private and public incentives for agricultural research. The specific goals include development of an analytical framework to examine the incentives for private R&D expenditure, and the spillovers between basic and applied research and between private and public firms. To achieve the objective of this study, a stochastic analytical model within an imperfect competitive framework was developed. Specifically, what is developed is a three-stage search/imperfect competition model characterized by two research firms developing and selling differentiated products to producers who are heterogeneous with respect to some attributes. Agricultural research is modeled with explicit recognition of the search process, which allows us to recognize research as a stochastic process with sporadic outcomes and to explicitly model the interaction between basic and applied research. The findings of this study are mainly in the form of propositions. It was shown that basic public research "crowds in" applied private research while applied public research "crowds out" applied private research. The current technology level and the cost of the experimentation negatively affect private investment, while the price of the final product positively affects the private investment. Moreover, it is concluded that, the greater the product heterogeneity, the higher the price charged with the same amount of R&D. Finally, it is shown that the increase in IPR's and the firm's market size has a positive effect on the private firm's amount of R&D investment. The econometric analysis, using data from the canola industry, provides empirical evidence to support the analytical framework and the proposition derived in this study. The study also draws a number of policy implications from the derived propositions.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The role of the media as a watchdog for the social institution of science is viewed as part of the media’s role to protect society. In this regard, the role of media was studied in reporting the phenomenon of the commercialisation of academic research at universities. The current study was conducted by analysing articles in 2 scientific journals (Science and Nature) and 4 printed newspapers (The New York Times, London Times, Mail & Gaurdian, Business Day) for the year 2003. The methods of investigation for each publication included the number of articles covering the topic, the percentage coverage, headline analysis, summary of contents and analysis of the themes. The New York Times had more articles on the topic of the “commercialisation of science at universities” than the other publications. However, based on the number of issues per year, Science and Nature had a greater coverage of the topic than The New York Times. Based on the analyses of the articles, it is concluded that The New York Times had the most balanced and informed coverage of all the issues and stakeholders involved in the commercialisation of science at universities. This is attributed to the The New York Times’s position of standing outside the realm of science and its experience in covering broad issues. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die rol van die media as ‘n waghond vir die sosiale instelling van die wetenskap, word gesien as deel van die media se rol as die beskermer van die samelewing. In hierdie opsig is die media se rol in die verslaglewering van die kommersialisering van die wetenskap by universiteite ondersoek. Hierdie studie is uitgevoer deur artikels in 2 wetenskaplike vaktydskrifte (Science en Nature) en 4 koerante (The New York Times, London Times, Mail & Guardian, Business Day) vir die jaar 2003, te analiseer. Die metodes wat gebruik is om elke artikel te ontleed, het die aantal artikels, die persentasie van artikels in elke publikasie, hoofopskrif analise, opsomming van inhoud en ‘n analise van die artikel se tema, ingesluit. The New York Times het meer artikels omtrent die onderwerp, die “kommersialisering van die wetenskap by universiteite”, as die ander publikasies gehad. Gebaseer op die aantal uitgawes per jaar, het Science en Nature meer aandag geskenk aan die onderwerp as The New York Times. Volgens die analises van die artikels, word afgeleui dat The New York Times die mees gebalanseerde en ingeligte dekking gehad het oor die betrokke sake en partye in die “kommersialisering van die wetenskap by universiteite”. Dit word toegeskryf aan die The New York Times se posisie as buitestaander in die wetenskap en die koerant se ondervinding om ‘n wye veld te dek.

No description available.