LABORATORY OF TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY

 

Mission:

  • To develop and use advanced research methodologies for the analysis of techno-economic systems.

  • To promote the exchange of knowledge in advanced technologies and the management of technology and innovation for the optimisation of industrial processes, as a way to promote competitive advantages at the corporate level;

  • To derive science and technology policies and innovation strategies, namely in terms of socio-economic growth.

Main Research Areas:

The Laboratory is organised on the basis of Research Areas, which include a range of projects. These projects provide the necessary external funding, namely from national and international funding agencies and/or private companies. The following is a list of the main Research Areas, under which the most important activities under development are presented.

  • Systems for Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Usage:
    • Higher Education Policy and Management: main research results >>
    • S&T and Innovation: Competences and Performance >>

  • Learning Economy: Institutions, Technological Change and Employment.
    • Towards a "Learning Society": avenues for S&T policy research >>
    • The Process of Technical Change: Innovation and History >>
    • Technological Change and the challenges for Regional Development >>
    • Technology and Economic Inequality >>
    • Globalization, diversification and technology capacity in the auto parts sector >>

  • Management of Technology and Innovation: Technology Commercialization
    • The IMPACT PROGRAM >>
    • Collaborative Learning And Virtual Teaming >>
    • Fostering entrepreneurship at the University >>
    • Case Study: Biotecnol >>

Research Topics and Sample Results

 

Higher Education Policy and Management: main research results

1. Building a conceptual framework for the Reserach University:

  • Conceição, P., Heitor, M.V. and Oliveira, P.(1998), Tech. Forescating & Social Change - download paper
  • Conceição, P., and Heitor, M.V. (1998), Coloquio Educacão e Sociedade, Fundacão Calouste Gulenkian
  • Conceição, P., and Shariq, S.(1998), Coloquio Educacão e Sociedade, Fundacão Calouste Gulenkian
  • Conceição, P., and Heitor, M.V. (1999), Science and Public Policy, vol 26(1), pp.37-51. - download paper

2. Reforming European Univerities - institutional integrity and organizational diversity:

  • Conceição, P., and Heitor, M.V. (2000), in :"The Globalising Learning Economy: Major Socio-Economic trends and European innovation Policy". Oxford University Press - download paper
  • Conceição, P., and Heitor, M.V. (2000), in: "Knowledge for Inclusive Development", QUORUM BOOKS - download paper

3. Policies and strategies for Portugal:

  • A Summary (in portuguese) - download paper
  • Reforming the Portuguese Universities (in portuguese) - download paper
  • Caraça, J., Conceição, P., and Heitor, M.V. (1998), Higher Education Policy, 11(1) pp. 37-58. - download paper
  • Caraça, J., Conceição, P., and Heitor, M.V. (2000), Higher Education Policy, June 2000. - download paper
  • Our book: "New Ideas for the University", IST PRESS (in portuguese)
  • Contributo para a Discussão Publica sobre Ensino Supeior, Fevereiro 2003: Conceição, Heitor e Horta (2003) - download paper

4. Protecting the intellectual property - fostering institutional integrity:

  • Conceição, P., Heitor, M.V. and Oliveira,P. (1998), Technovation - download paper
  • Conceição, P., Heitor, M.V. and Oliveira, P.(1999), In "Technology Transfer: from invention to innovation", Kluwer Publ. - download paper

5. Towards Sustainable Universities - environmemtal education in place!:

  • Ehrenfeld, J. R., Conceição, P., Heitor, M.V. and Vieira, P. (2000). - download paper

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S&T and Innovation: Competences and Performance

1. Main evaluation exercises carried out with the colaboration of IN+ researchers:

  • Evaluation of Portuguese Research Units in 1999-2000, as conducted by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation:
    Final report coordinated by Manuel Heitor available at     http://www.fct.mct.pt/unidades/relatorio/

  • Community Innovation Survey applied to Portugal in 1999, as conducted by the Portuguese Observatory of Science and Technology:
    Final report coordinated by Pedro Conceicão available at     http://www.oct.mct.pt/pt/actividades/inquerito/index.htm
    See book published by CELTA publishers, Lisboa (in portuguese)

2. Analysis and main publications:

  • Engineering and technology for Innovation in Potugal: a study on the dynamics of technological change
    A prospective study 2000-2020, by Pedro Conceicão and Manuel Heitor
    more info

  • Mapping S&T competences in Europe: building on the Portuguese experience of evaluating S&T excellence
    download paper - download presentation

  • Inovacão e Desenvolvimento de Competencias: uma perspectiva para a sociedade da aprendizagem para Portugal (in portuguese) - download presentation

  • Pedro Conceição and Manuel V. Heitor (2003), "Policy Integration and Action Diversification: Learning from the Portuguese Path" in "INNOVATION, COMPETENCE BUILDING, AND SOCIAL COHESION IN EUROPE: Towards a Learning Society" (P. Conceição, M Heitor, B.A- Lundvall, Eds) - download paper

  • Pedro Conceição and Manuel V. Heitor (2003), Systems of innovation and competence building across diversity: Learning from the Portuguese path in the European context Published in International Handbook on Innovation , Editor: Larisa V. Shavinina - download paper

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Towards a "Learning Society": avenues for S&T policy research

Improved understanding of innovation patterns has contributed for the analysis of different challenges for policy research in the context of the emerging importance of knowledge for development, including:

1) balancing innovation and diffusion;
2) beyond the excludability of software;
3) deepen the conceptual framework establish through the interactive model of innovation, making use of policy measures;
4) promoting wetware and software interaction; and
5) the need for the inclusive development.

Conceição et al. (1998), Technological Forecasting & Social Change

download paper


…the dynamics of technological innovation, together with competence building and social cohesion, has been considered with attention focused on the ability to build "social capital" towards a learning society.

Conceição et al. (2001), Technological Forecasting & Social Change, vol 66(1)

download paper


...while much attention has been devoted to digital technologies, a more fundamental change at the start of the new millennium is the increasing importance of knowledge for economic prosperity and the emergence of a learning society. The ways new competencies, namely in conventional engineering, economics and management, may positively influence the development of a country and/or region depend on the institutional framework, which is currently particularly determined by regulation policies and the process of market liberalization. Again, this calls for the need to promote education and research in technology policy and related challenges are presented and discussed in a context where innovation should be understood as a broad social and economic activity within the framework of the learning society.

Conceição et al. (2001), Technological Forecasting & Social Change, vol 67(2)

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Concepts such as learning ability, creativity and sustained flexibility gain greater importance as guiding principles for the conduct of individuals, institutions, nations and regions. It is thus legitimate to question the traditional way of viewing the role that contemporary institutions play in the process of economic development and to argue for the need to promote systems of innovation and competence building based on learning and knowledge networks.

Conceição & Heitor (2002), Technological Forecasting & Social Change, vol 69

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 we emphasize the relative importance of infrastructures and incentives, but considering the increasingly important role of institutions towards the development of social capital. This is because learning societies will increasingly rely on “distributed knowledge bases”, as a systematically coherent set of knowledge, maintained across an economically and/or socially integrated set of agents and institutions.

Conceição, P., Heitor, M. and Veloso, F. (2003), Technological Forecasting and Social Change

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The Process of Technical Change: Innovation and History

This project provides a conceptual structure for the analysis of the history of engineering in Portugal, based on a systemic view of the processes of technological change. The importance of these aspects is reinforced by Portugal’s relatively small size as a country, which prohibits any analysis where the external environment is not properly understood. In fact, at the beginning of the 21st century the main problem in terms of the role of engineering in economic development processes is related to the way engineering stimulates innovation based on the sharing and dissemination of knowledge.

"Engenho e Obra - Engineering in Portugal in the 20th Century":
 The way science and technology have changed societies and human behaviour is particularly associated with engineering achievements such as great creations showing the true sense of engineering activity, in particular after the Industrial Revolution. The engineer’s talent, founded on experimentation and scientific calculation, has been characterised by a growing audacity and entrepreneurial determination, in a way that emphasizes “technological beauty” criteria. Consequently, several international exhibitions have been held, including: “Twentieth Century Engineering” held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1964); “Architecture d’Ingénieurs, XIX et XX siècles”, at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 1978; “Great Engineers”, at the Royal College of Art of London in 1987 and, more recently, “L’art de l’ingénieur”, at the Centre Georges Pompidou from May to September 1997. Therefore, the purpose of this project is also to show significant aspects of the “art of the engineer” which have had an impact on Portuguese society during the 20th century, in a way that fosters a better understanding of the situations in which technological innovation has been promoted and has taken place endogenously within Portuguese society. To access to the virtual exhibition and data base: www.engenhoeobra.com.pt

Sample publications:

  • Manuel Heitor, Hugo Horta e Pedro Conceição (2002), Engenharia e Conhecimento: Ensino Técnico e Investigação em "Engenho e Obra", J M B Brito, M Heitor, F Rollo (Eds), Dom Quixote [download] [download images]

  • Pedro Conceição e Manuel Heitor (2002), Engenharia e mudança tecnológica: AS DINÂMICAS DO CONHECIMENTO E O DESAFIO DA INOVAÇÃO em "Engenho e Obra", J M B Brito, M Heitor, F Rollo (Eds), Dom Quixote [download]

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Technological Change and the challenges for Regional Development :
Building social capital in Less Favored Regions

In view of the current socio-economic context, in which innovation is a key driving force for the sustainable development, which challenges are facing technology-based development and cooperation, in a way to contribute for regional policies that stimulate localized learning, innovation and indigenous development within Less Favored Regions, LFR's? This broad question has motivated the present research, which considered the development of case studies in selected Portuguese regions, including the North, Algarve and Lisbon, and included international comparisons. It is argued that value-based networks have the potential to make both public trajectories for the inclusive development of society, but require effective public investments in intangible structures and the use of new metrics for knowledge. The analysis builds on the concept of social capital, as a relational infrastructure for collective action, in a context much influenced by a dynamic of change and a necessary balance between the creation and diffusion of knowledge.

  • Technological Change and the challenges for Regional Development: building social capital in Less Favored Regions
    by Pedro Conceição, Manuel Heitor and Robert Wilson -     download paper

  • NAG: Norte, Abruzzo and Galicia. A Benchmarking Exercise
    by Alexandra Campino, Jorge Monteiro and Danilo Rubini -     download paper

  • LISBON AND TAGUS VALLEY REGION - An Econometric Analysis
    by Ana Galvão, Ângela Canas, Rita Ferreira and Paulo Ribeiro -     download paper

  • The Algarve: Fate and Will
    by Paulo Silva Pedro Borges de Almeida -     download paper

  • Building Systems of Innovation and Competence Building Through Collaborative Learning
    by Pedro Conceição and Manuel Heitor -     download presentation
  • Pedro Conceição and Manuel V. Heitor (2003),Techno-economic Paradigms and Latecomer Industrialization, Published in UNESCO Enciclopedia - download presentation



DIGITAL CITIES: a knowledge-based view of the territory to foster institutionally organized metropolitan systems of innovation and competence building has been developed for the analysis and forecast of “digital cities”. The analysis is based on observations in different metropolitan areas and regions with the ultimate goal of increasing regional competitiveness, by promoting public awareness and participation in decision-making processes. It is argued that the territory is a basic infrastructure that justifies and invites for the construction of several layers of information, but above all for communication infrastructures and digital contents, but well arranged with local contexts. It is suggested that knowledge driven communities, KIC´s, are importnat drivers of larger communities of users and different types of KIC´s are identified.

  • Digital Cities and the challenges for a Knowledge-Based View of the Territory: evidence from Portugal
    by José L. Moutinho and Manuel Heitor - download paper


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Technology and Economic Inequality

Technological Innovation, economic development and income inequality have been increasingly discussed and the analysis has suggested the need to develop either advanced research methodologies, or improved empirical analysis, for better understand possible linkages among the various issues, as well as improved policies and strategies. The work will continue to be performed in close collaboration with the UTIP - University of Texas Inequality Project, http://utip.gov.utexas.edu/, and will focus on the Theil statistics. In fact, the calculation of income inequality from survey data is an exacting business; it requires ranking individuals (or families) into groups of equal size and exact ordering on the income scale. But there is another statistic, originating with the econometrician Henri Theil, that can be computed from almost any type of grouped data, even if incomes within the groups overlap. This is Theil's T statistic, and the realization that it can be computed from industrial data sets is the basis for the work to be considered.

At the empirical level, and using extensively the analytical OECD databases on employment and wages, the work will bring together a rich data set that conveys how the recent rise in inequality in some of the most developed countries is associated to the levels of technology intensity of their industries. The ultimate goal is to discuss the extent to which the higher the technology intensity of industries, the stronger this association is.

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Globalization, diversification and technology capacity in the auto parts sector

The project investigates questions in technology strategy and supply chain management related to how firm strategies and capabilities interact with geography. Specifically, the project examines firm diversification and internationalization decisions and how they vary across regions and firm characteristics, especially in what concerns their technological capabilities. The research is based in a panel of firms in the automotive supplier industry, a sector that has been extremely active in product and international diversification. The project addresses three areas. The first focuses the interaction between international investment and product diversification decisions and how they relate to firm performance, looking at the role of technological capabilities in these decisions. The second investigates the distinction between international greenfield investments and mergers or acquisitions as sources of external technical knowledge. The third analyses how regional policy conditions influence these decisions.

The research work is coordinated by Francisco Veloso and has been performed in close cooperation with INTELI, Lisboa, and the Materials Laboratory at MIT, Cambridge, USA. Main related publications include:

1. Veloso, F. and Fixson, S., Make-Buy Decisions in the Auto Industry: New perspectives on the role of the supplier as an innovator, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Forthcoming in 2001 - download paper

2. Veloso, F., The automotive supply chain: Global trends and Asian perspectives, Asian Development Bank Working Paper, Forthcoming - download paper

3. Veloso, F. and Soto, J., Incentives, Infrastructure and Institutions: Perspectives on Industrialization and Technical Change, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol 66 (1), January 2001 - download paper

4. Veloso, F., Henry, C., Roth, R., Clark, J. Global Strategies for the Development of the Portuguese Autoparts Industry. Lisboa: IAPMEI, May 2000. - download paper

5. Veloso, F. Henry, C. and Roth, R. Can Small firms leverage global competition? Evidence from the Portuguese and Brazilian Automotive Supplier Industries. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Tech. Policy and Innovation, Curitiba, Brazil. - download paper

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COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND VIRTUAL TEAMING

How can universities foster innovation and the creation of new business and jobs, helping to transform organizations to address the challenges of science and technology commercialization in a global economy? This broad question has motivated reserach and development work at IN+, which has been performed on the basis on the current understanding of the new challenges raised by the advent of the learning economy.

In the emerging socio-economic context, the required combination of expertise in a productive manner breaks with existing concepts of time, space, mass and behavior. In fact, current technological systems are complex, and carry many levels of cultural meaning. In this context, the renewal of education and training systems is based on the idea that technological innovation is chiefly a social activity and that technical education with a multidisciplinary orientation provides an important role in the critical acceptance and social embedding of technical innovation outputs.

This has been possible due to advances in information and communications technologies, which have increased the ability of networking. We consider learning networks, that is, networks that lead to self-reinforcing learning cycles. The technologies used include video-teleconference and other Internet based GroupWare. In this context, "virtual teams" have been associated with the emergence of distributed cross-organizational arrangements, which involve people from different organizations who work in different places. The result is the process of entrepreneurial education, through which the acquisition of new knowledge is followed by living and experiencing entrepreneurial environments, in order to facilitate the creation of new knowledge. The goal is to establish a learning triangle, integrating academic, vocational and experimental activities.

  • Collaborative Learning - Download presentation
  • A CASE STUDY: The Glass Chair - a project for competence building »»
  • see our book: "Collaborative Design and LEARNING: competence building for innovation" »»
  • A CASE STUDY: The IMPACT Program - a project fostering entrepreneurship in a international context - Download presentation

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Fostering entrepreneurship at the University

The role of intellectual property protection in strengthening the impact of European universities and in preserving their institutional integrity has been analysed in the context of a technology transfer model that represents the interactions between universities and the market. The analysis is presented with the background of the new growth theories, which differentiate knowledge from objects, namely in terms of the level of exclusion and rivalry in consumption. As a consequence, various elements that are to be considered in the decision to protect intellectual property have been discussed and policy implications for the European universities derived. The key idea relates to the rationale for undertaking intellectual property measures at universities, namely as a complement to traditional types of research and as an effort to clarify the role of the university (defining the boundaries of academic activities), but, above all, as a critical element to promote the diffusion on new products in the market place.

  • Conceicão, Heitor and Oliveira (1999), Technovation - Download paper
  • Conceicão, Heitor and Oliveira (1999), In "Technology Transfer", Kluwer Publ.
  • Protecting intellectual property at the University - Download presentation

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CASE STUDY: BIOTECNOL

In the next few years a number of patents for branded biopharmaceutical drugs are scheduled to expire. While the generic drug industry is well established for traditional drugs, this creates a new opportunity to produce and market substitutable generic drugs for these recombinant protein drugs. A new entrant in this field is BIOTECNOL LDA, an R&D-focused firm located in Portugal. Their primary strategy is to provide existing pharmaceutical firms, with the production know-how and technology to allow them to diversify into this new generic drug market. BIOTECNOL LDA intends to develop low-cost technical production processes, gain requisite certification, and then license these technologies to existing pharmaceutical firms so that they can produce and market the generic drugs.
Issues center on the evaluating the viability and risks of their strategy, analyzing revenue income with regard to differing time-to-market scenarios, and evaluating a proposal to obtain needed new venture capital in exchange for a ownership share of the firm.

CASE OBJECTIVES: To provide students with an opportunity to:

  • Gain an overview of the international biopharmaceutical industry
  • Analyze the strategy of an entrepreneurial R&D startup company
  • Evaluate the merits and risks of being first-to-market/late-to-market
  • Compute expected sales revenues based upon forecasted demands, time-to-market, market share, etc.
  • Make a decision regarding the attractiveness of new venture capital funds in exchange for a percent share of ownership.

CASE STUDY presented at the Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute - 2000, Orlando - USA, November 2000
by M. Bommer, M. Heitor, C. Vedovello and P. Pissara

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