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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Luis Aguiar (Departamento de Economía - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Philippe Gagnepain (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to assess the impact on the performance of firms that participate in Research Joint Ventures (RJVs) funded by the Fifth European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (EU-FP5). A special emphasis is made on the User-friendly Information Society (IST) programme, one of the most important thematic programmes of the EU-FP5. We use the funding available to the firms as an instrumental variable to account for self-selection and estimate the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) of participation by considering labor productivity and profit margin as performance measures. Our results show a large and positive impact of participation on the labor productivity of the firms, whereas the effect on profit margin is weaker. When taking into account the size of the RJV, we find that the positive impact on labor productivity comes mainly from participation in large projects and that participation in smaller RJVs has a negative effect on the profit margin. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00622969&r=ppm |
| By: | Pugalendhi, Subburethina Bharathi; Nakkeeran, Senthil kumar |
| Abstract: | A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing. The fundamentals of mind map are arranged naturally according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information. Mind maps may also aid recall of existing memories. The ideas are documented in a mind map radiate from the center of diagram, similar the branches or root system of a tree. The colors are important because they provide an extra dimension of information to help your brain interpret the data more effectively. The mind mapping technique can be used as a authoritative, creative and dynamic way to administer projects, structure and classify multifaceted information, and provide motivating reports that grasp people’s attention. By minimizing words and focusing on associations, mind maps allow project managers and team members to rapidly see dependencies and problems, saving time and money. Using mind maps can notably improve a project team’s productivity. |
| Keywords: | Mind mapping management |
| JEL: | C45 M10 |
| Date: | 2011–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33366&r=ppm |
| By: | Axel Dreher (Heidelberg University); Andreas Fuchs (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | Foreign aid from China is often characterized as ‘rogue aid’ that is not guided by recipient need but by China’s national interests alone. However, no econometric study so far confronts this claim with data. We make use of various datasets, covering the 1956-2006 period, to empirically test to which extent political and commercial interests shape China’s aid allocation decisions. We estimate the determinants of China’s allocation of project aid, food aid, medical teams and total aid money to developing countries, comparing its allocation decisions with traditional and other so-called emerging donors. We find that political considerations are an important determinant of China’s allocation of aid. However, in comparison to other donors, China does not pay substantially more attention to politics. In contrast to widespread perceptions, we find no evidence that China’s aid allocation is dominated by natural resource endowments. Moreover, China’s allocation of aid seems to be widely independent of democracy and governance in recipient countries. Overall, denominating aid from China as ‘rogue aid’ seems unjustified. |
| Keywords: | Aid allocation; China’s foreign aid; new donors; donor motives |
| JEL: | F |
| Date: | 2011–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:093&r=ppm |
| By: | Giebel, Olaf; Breitschopf, Barbara |
| Abstract: | Renewable energy support mechanisms affect the attractiveness of projects by influencing uncertainties in revenues or expenditures and ultimately result in a change in the financing costs. The influence of feed-in tariffs on financing costs was investigated. 26 wind onshore investors were surveyed in a conjoint analysis and the results were used in a cash flow model to quantify the impact. The introduction of premium models under a fixed remuneration tariff scheme seems to increase the financing costs considerably. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s112011&r=ppm |
| By: | Norovsambuu Tumennasan (School of Economics and Management, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Economists perceive moral hazard as an undesirable problem because it undermines efficiency. Carefully designed contracts can mitigate the moral hazard problem, but this assumes that a team is already formed. This paper demonstrates that these contracts are sometimes the reason why teams do not form. Formally, we study the team formation problem in which the agents’ efforts are not verifiable and the size of teams does not exceed quota r. We show that if the team members can make only balanced transfers, then moral hazard affects stability adversely. However, if the team members cannot make transfers, then moral hazard affects stability positively in a large class of games. For example, a stable team structure exists if teams produce public goods or if the quota is two. However, these existence results no longer hold if efforts are verifiable. |
| Keywords: | team formation, hedonic game, moral hazard, assortative partition |
| JEL: | C71 C78 |
| Date: | 2011–09–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2011-12&r=ppm |
| By: | Solga, Heike; Fromm, Sabine; Richter, Maria |
| Abstract: | "This research report is based on the evaluation of the project 'Werkstatt-Schule Saarland'. The project aimed at the reintegration of highly disadvantaged young people into institutional education, helping them graduating from school and thus increasing their chances of a successful school-to-training-transition. In so called 'Werkstattklassen', which were installed at vocational training centres ('Berufsbildungszentren') and into which low-achieving young people could proceed after eight years of schooling, the students were taught in small classes, received intense supervision from social workers, and attended a practical training of two days a week. Thereby, the project sought to improve the occupational orientation and social skills of the young people as well as to increase their learning motivation. With regard to the objective of reintegration into institutional education the project can be seen as successful. The share of absentees in project classes could be reduced by 30 percentage points (compared to a reduction of 10 percentage points in the control classes). In general, the students' motivation of attending school increased drastically. At the end of school, only 68 per cent of the project students, but 77 per cent of the control students graduated successfully with a lower secondary school degree ('Hauptschulabschluss', equating the ISCED level 2). However, as the target group of this project were young people who were classified as not being able to graduate at a regular school this quota can be seen as a success. A comparison of different achievement groups reveals, however, that only participants who enter into the project with good grades did perform better than comparable students in control classes. In contrast, students with mixed or poor grades at the beginning of the project did not better than comparable students in control classes. This difference can be found although the project's students showed a larger increase in their grades than the control students over the course of the ninth grade. Regarding the transition into vocational training there are no differences between these two groups: 17 per cent of the students in project classes and 18 per cent of the students in control classes had started an apprenticeship three months after leaving the Berufsbildungszentrum." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Date: | 2011–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfob:201105&r=ppm |
| By: | José Albors-Garrigos (Dpto. Organización de Empresas); José L. Hervas-Oliver (Dpto. Organización de Empresas) |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to use an integrated theory based on a firm’s internal and external sources of knowledge framework to analyze how different are R&D from non-R&D activities to innovate, specially in a context of low and medium low tech (LMT) sectors where most of the firms are SMEs. Simultaneously, the paper also explores the key differences between R&D and non-R&D innovators. The empirical analysis is based on a representative panel of 2023 Spanish manufacturing firms for 2005 and 2006 from the Spanish Ministry of Industry. Innovation in product and process is explained using non-R&D variables such as in Marketing, Design or hiring tertiary degree employees. Only innovation in product is explained by R&D expenditures. Addressing innovation in process, R&D variables work in few cases and neither R&D expenditures but occasionally R&D employees and are specially relevant the non-R&D variables. The interaction (moderating) effect is specially negative and significant, addressing the substitution effect with different implications regarding product or process innovation. Therefore, innovation can be explained using non-R&D variables such as investments in Marketing, Design, and other routines linked to human resources, technology monitoring committees or the existence of a formal plan to innovate. The firms with more internal resources, those which conduct R&D activities present a better AC and it leads to engage in cooperation agreements and access to external flows of knowledge. The paper has important implications for policymakers due to the fact that most of policies for R&D are based on R&D programmes, while there are other realities: non-R&D factors which also explain innovation, specially when considering low tech sector contexts. El presente artículo usa la teoría de recursos y capacidades para, a través de los recursos internos y externos de las empresas, analizar las actividades de R&D y las actividades de no-R&D en su impacto sobre la performance de innovación de la empresa, en un contexto sectorial de baja y media tecnología. Asimismo, el artículo explora el rol innovador de las empresas que hacen R&D y las que no lo hacen. Con una muestra de 2023 empresas manufactureras españolas, obtenemos un comportamiento innovador para la innovación en producto y en proceso y, sobre todo, observando que las actividades de R&D tienen muy poco peso explicativo sobre el resultado de innovación. El artículo presenta implicaciones para la Academia y los policymakers, sobre todo por el hecho de que la mayoría de las políticas de innovación se basan en actividades de R&D. |
| Keywords: | fuentes de innovación, estrategias de búsqueda de conocimiento externo, cooperación tecnológica, capacidad de absorción. innovation sources, technology cooperation, absorptive capacity, search strategies. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasec:2011-06&r=ppm |