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Canada and the US are highly integrated economies and yet persistent productivity gaps exist between them. This raises the question whether there is a relationship in productivity between Canada and the US, and if so, what industry-specific characteristics are important. This dissertation focuses on the manufacturing sector and its component three-digit industries. The first chapter investigates the interdependence of labour productivity (LP) between the two countries. It finds no evidence of long-run convergence of US and Canadian LP. There is, however, some evidence of short-run dependence within industries. Regarding industry characteristics, only industry-specific export intensity is found to be an important channel for the long-run productivity transmission. The second chapter develops measures of total factor productivity (TFP) that are comparable across Canada and the US. The third chapter investigates the interdependence of TFP between the countries. As with LP, there is no evidence of long-run convergence. In both the short and long run, the dependence of Canadian manufacturing industries upon their US counterparts is limited and non-uniform. The fourth chapter examines industry-specific characteristics. Export, import and foreign direct investment (FDI) intensities are found to be important channels in the short run for technology diffusion from the US. Surprisingly, a higher research and development intensity reduces short-run technology diffusion. In the long run, export and FDI intensities are shown to contribute to technology diffusion. / Graduate / 2015-04-17 / 0501 / berylli@uvic.ca

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The factors affecting innovation have been largely investigated in the context of industrialized or large developing countries. Innovation is, however, equally important for small developing countries also. It is argued in this thesis that the context of innovation in such small economies is sufficiently different to justify research into the relative potency of factors influencing innovation and the practice of innovation management. These differentiated innovation practices will also have repercussions for the national innovation policy of a small developing country. The present research was conducted in Cyprus, a small developing country. A large number of manufacturing small and medium sized firms (n =140), were surveyed, during 1995, via a questionnaire administered during personal interviews with the firms' owners or managers. The survey was complemented with more extensive case studies of a subset (n = 25) of the survey sample of firms. A research model based on the antecedents approach was used in the survey research and the data were subjected to various statistical analyses including multivariate techniques. The results indicate that the SME owner/manager plays a central role in innovation, influencing directly and indirectly the main variables affecting innovation. From the multivariate analysis these factors include: strategy, expenditure on R&D, cooperation with external technology providers, use of technological information sources and overall performance of the firm. The case material supports in general these findings and also emphasizes the importance of government policies for innovation. The importance of networking for innovation was partially confirmed, in terms of the cooperation with technology and information providers. However contrary to expectations and literature claims, horizontal networking (cooperation within the sector) was not found important for innovation. Based on these results a number of practical suggestions are offered to both industrial managers and policy makers. It is believed that these suggestions are relevant, not only for Cyprus, but also for other small developing countries.

The thesis examines the adoption of Activity Based Cost Management (ABCM) by Small - and Medium - Sized Enterprises' (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. A generic methodology is proposed, developed and tested to enable the target recipients to assess their requirements for an advanced costing system and to facilitate implementation of an ABCM solution. In support of the methodology, a literature survey, implementation survey and software review have been undertaken. The implementation survey considers the adoption of ABCM by European organisations and the application of published theory. This established the validity behind the adoption of ABCM by SMEs and defined implementation considerations. The software review reports an evaluation of software systems available in the United Kingdom. A software matrix is established by the author to enable organisations to assess their software requirement against their organisational and project orientation. The distinct and original methodology establishes the costing system requirement for SMEs. The methodology is based upon a critical examination of the processes, activities and data prevailing in an organisation. This enables an in-depth appraisal of organisational requirements and appropriate solutions to be facilitated. Part two of the methodology details the implementation of an operational ABCM solution. The designs of ABCM models for three organisations participating in the research programme are presented and the effects upon product and activity cost for these organisations is reported. Utilisation of the methodology and the implementation of ABCM in collaborating SMEs is critically appraised with theory proposed by prominent authors relating to ABCM implementations in large organisations. The thesis concludes with discussion of the proposed methodology and considerations for its adoption by SMEs. Overall conclusions are established and opportunities for exploitation and further research work are detailed.

This thesis presents the results of an investigation into the process of damage and failure in small diameter high performance synthetic fibre ropes namely Dyneema, Vectran and Technora ropes. This study was prompted by a series of fatal accidents on paragliders as a result of the line failure. All the different rope materials, including the rope with cover, without cover and the core with different number of strands, have been tensile tested. The transfer of loading and subsequent damage in different rope constituents, fibres and strands, are also discussed. The residual strength of the rope after static and cyclic preloading regimes is discussed and possible mechanisms for the damage accumulation in the rope are given. The acoustic emission monitoring of the tensile and residual strength tests shows distinctive differences between the different types of rope and permits the identification of characteristic effects of preloading on the tensile damage and failure mechanisms of all three materials. The process of damage in the Dyneema and Vectran is similar, in which damage progresses in steps during the loading history whereas Technora rope accumulates gradual increase in damage until the catastrophic failure. The application of the static preloading improves the strength of Dyneema and Vectran ropes whereas it deteriorates the mechanical properties of Technora rope. The cyclic response of Dyneema rope shows a dramatic downturn at lives in excess of 1000 cycles, but moderate cyclic loading improves the strength. The variation in surface temperature of Dyneema rope during tensile loading has been measured analysed and related to the process of damage. Dyneema fibres melt and fuse together under loading, since Dyneema is disadvantaged by its low melting temperature. Rope on rope abrasion tests, carried out on covered and uncovered Dyneema and Technora ropes, show that Dyneema rope has superior abrasion properties compared to Technora. This is due to the low compression properties of Technora, as abrasion process involves compressing the fibres. The effect of exposure to different environments, including natural weathering, -22'C, +54'C and seawater on tensile performance is discussed. The tensile properties of the Dyneema ropes are little affected by the environmental conditioning except the effect of synthetic sea water, in which case the salt crystals damage the rope fibres, once the water has evaporated.