INNOVATION IN AGRIBUSINESS

The IPM-innovation development process is incomplete without the diffusion and adoption of IPM methods by the end users, and through its consequences. The book covers the underlying concepts and methodologies of the diffusion of innovation theory and program evaluation; and reviews the progress and impact of IPM programs implemented in the industrialized, the green revolution and the subsistence agricultural systems of the world. The impact of IPM is discussed with an interdisciplinary perspective by experts from entomology, plant pathology, environmental science, agronomy, anthropology, economics and extension education from North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. The book provides invaluable resource material to scientists, professionals, students, program planners and farmers.

During the past twenty-five years, biotechnology has revolutionized agricultural research. The enormous potential, together with a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court to allow the patenting of genetically-engineered organisms has encouraged private sector companies to invest in agricultural biotechnology research programmes. This has contributed to a rapid growth in interest in intellectual property rights as applied to this subject.The first edition of this book was published in 1998. Now fully revised and updated it presents definitive information on intellectual property law in a simplified form (with a minimum of legal jargon). New chapters have been added which cover plant variety protection and farmers rights, and additional case studies.

PAARLBERG, Robert L et al Regulation of GM Crops: Shaping an International Regime 

LAVOI, B. F Market Structure in Botechnology: Implications for Lorg-run Comparative Advantages

GRAFF, Greg et al Agricultural Biotechnology and Globalization: U.S. experience with public and private sector research 

The increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, and pests to pesticides, threatens to undo some of the most remarkable advances made in public health and agriculture during the past century. Though the potential consequences of increased antibiotic and pesticide resistance are far reaching, regulatory efforts to address the problem are at a very early stage. "Battling Resistance to Antibiotics and Pesticides" moves discussions forward by presenting cutting edge research and the first comprehensive application of economic tools to analyze how antibiotics and pesticides should be used to maximize their value to society. Laxminarayan and his contributors explore lessons from past experiences with resistance, especially in agriculture. They consider what incentives would be ideal for the individuals who prescribe or apply antibiotics and pesticides, and what would be ideal for the firms engaged in developing and producing these products. The chapters in this groundbreaking book reflect the fact that efforts to combat resistance will require contributions from a broad range of scholars and professionals, representing a broad range of expertise. The analysis in Battling Resistance demonstrates that, for all these participants, an understanding of economic issues is an essential complement to a knowledge of medical or biological factors

The genetic modification of crops continues to be the subject of intense debate, and opinions are often strongly polarised. Environmental Impact of Genetically Modified Crops addresses the major concerns of scientists, policy makers, environmental lobby groups and the general public regarding this controversial issue, from an editorially neutral standpoint. Included is a chapter by Bruce Tabashnik on the recent discovery of the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to a crop genetically modified to carry the gene for the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. While the main focus is on environmental impact, food safety issues for both humans and animals are also considered. The book concludes with a discussion on the future of agricultural biotechnology in the context of sustainability, natural resource management and future global population and food supply.

There is a veritable gold rush mentality in the life science world as scientists, entrepreneurs and multinationals are staking claims to the a ~code of lifea (TM) embodied in the worlda (TM)s current stock of plants, animals, microbes and human populations. In response, the communities that see themselves as the custodians of both that traditional knowledge and specific genetic resources have demanded greater recognition of their role in creating and conserving this resource, access to any resulting improvements and a share of the benefits arising from their patrimony. This has precipitated a widespread efforta "in local communities, in the marketplace, in many developing and developed countries and at the talks in the Doha Round of the WTOa "to reconcile the interests and concerns of the two opposing groups. This edited volume explores the legal, economic and political context for the debate about intellectual property rights for traditional knowledge and genetic resources and critically analyses the theory and practice of access and benefits sharing efforts around the world. The book also investigates the current flashpointsa "the David and Goliath battle between Monsanto and Percy Schmeiser over farmersa (TM) rights; the dispute over coexistence of GM and organic production; and the ownership and control of human genetic materials stored in human gene banks around the world.

This important collection prepared by Robert E. Evenson and Terri Raney - leading scholars in the field - focuses on one of the most controversial issues of our time - the genetic modification of agricultural produce. Whilst the US and Canada are supportive of GM crops, the European Union urges other countries to involve the `precautionary principle¿ in regulatory policy. This comprehensive volume, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners alike, includes papers discussing this European Union-North American divide and possible resolutions of differences on this subject. Topics examined include: the technology; the industry; farmer adoption; consumer acceptance; economic impacts; the emergence of GM free markets and GM products for developing countries.

"After almost fifteen years in the laboratory and in the test plots, bioengineered crops arrived to the market in the mid-1990s. Adoption was rapid and widespread. In 1996, less than 4 million acres in six countries were planted with bioengineered plants. By 2001, worldwide adoption had expanded to more than 115 million acres." The foretelling of a scientific revolution has persistently raised expectations on the potential of agrobiotechnology, and first-generation agrobiotechnologies have had to confront such expectations in the field and in the market. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective explains how well they have fared. It brings together leading authors from around the world who have analyzed the production, environmental and economic impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. By pooling experiences across various countries, time periods, crops, and traits this global panel synthesizes a complete picture of the impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective offers this assessment, accounting for the full range of differences in geography, weather, pests, farm structures and institutions that had not been completed previously, and answers these important questions: *What were the factors driving the widespread adoption of these first generation agrobiotechnologies? *What were their economic and environmental impacts? *How were such impacts distributed among innovators and adopters, developed and developing countries, exporters and importers, domestic and foreign consumers? *How were such impacts and their distribution affected by market structures and government policies?

This book presents the first thorough economic analysis of current agricultural biotechnology regulation. The contributors, most of whom are agricultural economists working either in universities or NGOs, address issues such as commercial pesticides, the costs of approving new products, liability, benefits, consumer acceptance, regulation and its impacts, transgenic crops, social welfare implications, and biosafety. Richard E. Just is Distinguished University Professor and former Chair, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland at College Park. Julian M. Alston is Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Davis. David Zilberman is Chair, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley.

Scribd Launches Readcast, Integrates With Facebook® Social Plugins to Make Reading More Social SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - April 21, 2010) -   f8 Developer Conference -- Scribd, the world's largest social publishing and reading site, launches Scribd Readcast along with Facebook's new social plugins. Readcast is a set of features that enables people to automatically share what they're reading on Scribd with their friends on Facebook and other social sites. The Facebook Like button and Activity Feed are also now part of the Scribd social reading experience. "Scribd is the place where connections form around shared reading interests," said Trip Adler, CEO and co-founder Scribd. "Now, the universe of social reading suddenly opens up to include Twilight fan fiction, investigative reports about Goldman Sachs, Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 presentation, tips for using solar power. This reflects the breadth and depth of what people read on a daily basis, not just what they're reading on news sites." Readcast is a customizable feature that enables people to automatically share what they're reading on Scribd with friends on Facebook and contacts on other social media sites. People can also choose to share Scribd reading events such as scribbles, comments, ratings, downloads, and eventually mobile reading activity, printing and purchases. Visit http://blog.scribd.com for more information about Readcast. Faceboook social plugins integration enables Scribd users to "like" their favorite reading material and to see -- without leaving Scribd.com -- which Scribd books, research, presentations, illustrations and other written works their friends on Facebook friends "like," comment on, and share. "Scribd's integration with our new social plugins allows people to create social connections around written works," said Ethan Beard, director of Facebook Developer Network. "Now, it's easier to connect with friends on Facebook who are reading the same books, researching the same topics or s

Abstract In Varieties of Capitalism; The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (H&S) argue that technological specialization patterns are largely determined by the prevailing "variety of capitalism". They hypothesize that "liberal market economies" (LMEs) specialize in radical innovation, while "coordinated market economies" (CMEs) focus more on incremental innovation. Mark Zachary Taylor [Taylor, M.Z., 2004. Empirical evidence against varieties of capitalism's theory of technological innovation. International Organization 58, 601-631.] convincingly argued that Hall and Soskice's empirical test is fundamentally flawed and proposed a more appropriate test of their conjecture. He rejected the varieties of capitalism explanation of innovation patterns. We extend and refine Taylor's analysis, using a broader set of radicality indicators and making industry-level comparisons. Our results indicate that Hall and Soskice's conjecture cannot be upheld as a general rule, but that it survives closer scrutiny for a substantial number of industries and an important dimension of radicality. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Innovation in liberal and coordinated market economies 3. Tests based on patent citation indicators 3.1. Indicators of radicality 3.2. Construction of radicality quantiles 3.3. Analytical techniques 4. Data issues 5. Empirical results 5.1. Revealed Comparative Technological Advantages 5.2. Histograms for radicality distributions 5.3. Statistical tests on equality of distributions 6. Conclusions Acknowledgements Appendix A. Appendix References

Abstract This paper combines insights from different streams of literature to develop a more comprehensive framework for the analysis of knowledge transfer via value chain relationships. We integrate the existing literature in three ways. First, we consider value chain relationships as a multi-facet process of interaction between buyers and suppliers, involving different modes of knowledge transmission and development. Second, we assess whether and to what extent value chain relationships are associated with the presence of multinationals and with their embeddedness in the host economy. Third, we take into account the capabilities of local firms to handle the technology as a factor influencing knowledge transfer through value chain relationships. Using data on 1385 firms active in Thailand in 2001-2003, we apply a multinomial logit model to test how the nature and intensity of multinational presence and the competencies of local firms affect the organization of international knowledge transfer. We find that knowledge intensive relationships, which are characterized by a significant transmission of technical and organizational competencies along the value chains, are positively associated with the presence of global buyers in the local market, with the efforts of MNCs to adapt technology to local contexts, and with the technical capabilities of domestic firms. By contrast, the age of subsidiaries and the share of inputs purchased locally appear to increase the likelihood of value chain relationships with a lower technological profile. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Previous literature 3. An integrated framework for the analysis of value chains and knowledge transfer 4. Data and variable specification 4.1. Sample and sources 4.2. Why Thailand 4.3. Variable description 5. Empirical analysis 5.1. Empirical model 5.2. Discussion of results 5.2.1. Multinational presence (SUB) 5.2.2. Multinational embeddedness 5.2.3. Domestic firms' capacity "to handle the tech

Abstract An historical framework for the analysis of the role of science in public policy is outlined and then applied to analyse a series of institutional reforms that have emerged in 8 separate institutional settings, using as examples the ways in which risks to public health and environmental conditions from food and agriculture are assessed and managed. The discussion explores the extent to which patterns of reform that have been consequent on food safety scares in the late 1990s and early years of this decade have matched the rhetorics in terms of which they were justified, and solved the problems of legitimation that they had highlighted.Article Outline 1. Introduction2. A 3-fold typology of models of science-based policy-making2.1. Technocratic models of science-based policy-making2.2. A 'Decisionist' alternative to the technocratic model3. Critiquing technocratic and Red Book models4. The co-evolutionary model of science and policy-making5. Analytical summary6. Institutional and rhetorical developments since 19967. Operationalising a co-evolutionary approach8. Rhetorical orthodoxies, institutional structures and practices9. 'Two-Body' solutions10. Variable institutional geometries10.1. The EU10.2. France10.3. Germany10.4. Japan11. Reality rarely coincides with Red Book rhetoric or with Codex provisions12. A Codex saga13. Developments in other jurisdictions13.1. Substantive RAPs13.2. Procedural RAPs13.3. Interpretative RAPs14. Summary and conclusionReferences

Abstract This paper addresses the emergence and development of firm-centred knowledge networks within learning and innovation systems in late-industrialising countries. A key contribution of the paper is conceptual and methodological: the development of an original typology of knowledge network properties to trace out changes in the form of networks as they evolve over time. A second contribution consists in providing an example of the application of the typology by examining the emergence and development of a firm-centred knowledge network in the case of Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company over more than 30 years between the late 1960s and the early 2000s. This demonstrates that the properties of Petrobras' knowledge networks continuously evolved through a succession of stages towards (i) increasing intentionality in the management decision-making underlying network development, (ii) growing complexity and diversity in selected cognitive characteristics, and (iii) greater complementarity in the division of innovative labour between Petrobras and its network partners. These original results from applying the typology, in conjunction with retrospective historical methods, illustrate only one aspect of its potential value in the analysis of knowledge networks in late-industrialising economies: tracking out organisational evolution over long periods of time. Others include the comparative examination of network differences across different circumstances and the analysis of relationships between changes/differences in network properties and other characteristics of learning/innovation systems and their contexts. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Petrobras and its context 3. The emergence and development of knowledge networks: a framework for analysis 4. Research design and method 5. Petrobras' knowledge network: from passive learning to strategic innovation 5.1. The late 1960s-1984: from a passive towards an active learning network 5.2. From 1985 to 1991: cons

Following up on recent debates about sectoral systems of innovation and production, the paper introduces a heuristic framework for analyzing and explaining distinct patterns of technology-based sectoral change. The concept is based on two interrelated influencing factors. The first is the sectoral-specific transformative capacity of new technologies themselves, that is, their substantial or incremental impact on socioeconomic and institutional change in a given sectoral system. The second is the sectoral adaptability of socioeconomic structures, institutions, and actors confronted with the opportunities presented by new technologies. The first factor-the sectoral transformative capacity of new technologies-enables us to identify the technology-based pressure to change and adjust the structural, institutional, and organizational architectures of the sectoral system. The second, complementary factor-sectoral adaptability-helps us to discern the distinct social patterns of anticipating and adopting this technology-based pressure. The specific interplay between the two influencing factors creates distinguishable modes of sectoral transformation, ranging from anticipative and smooth adjustments to reactive and crisis-ridden patterns of change. Even processes of radical sectoral change continue over longer periods of mismatch and are characterized by numerous and mostly gradual organizational, structural and institutional transformations. Article Outline 1. Technology-based socioeconomic and institutional change: starting points 2. Sociotechnical systems and periods of mismatch 3. New technologies and their transformative capacity 3.1. Specification I: endogenous vs. exogenous technology 3.2. Specification II: low vs. high transformative capacity 4. New technologies and sectoral adaptability 4.1. Specification I: low adaptability 4.2. Specification II: high adaptability 4.2.1. High intensity of innovation and market competition 4.2.2. Transformation-supporting in

Both funding agencies and scholars in science studies have become increasingly concerned with how to define and identify interdisciplinarity in research. The task is tricky, since the complexity of interdisciplinary research defies a single definition. Our study tackles this challenge by demonstrating a new typology and qualitative indicators for analyzing interdisciplinarity in research documents. The proposed conceptual framework attempts to fulfill the need for a robust and nuanced approach that is grounded in deeper knowledge of interdisciplinarity. As an example of using the framework, we discuss our empirical investigation of research proposals funded by a national funding agency in Finland. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Typology and indicators 3.1. Scope of interdisciplinarity 3.2. Type of interdisciplinary interaction 3.2.1. Encyclopedic - contextualizing - composite multidisciplinarity 3.2.2. Empirical - methodological - theoretical interdisciplinarity* 3.3. Type of goals 4. Discussion and conclusions Acknowledgements References

The strategies of rent appropriation and industry structure are inter-dependent. How firms use patents depends upon industry structure, and in turn, affects industry structure. In the 19th century, market leaders in the chemical industry combined patents and secrecy to deter entry. Within cartels, patents were used to stabilize cartels and organize technology licensing. The role of patents changed in the less concentrated post World War II markets. In bulk organic chemicals and petrochemicals, chemical producers use licensing as an important means of generating revenue from process innovations. The increased importance of technology licensing is closely related to the emergence of a class of specialized process design and engineering firms that have played an important role in the development and diffusion of process innovations.