European credit transfer and accumulation system

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European credit transfer and accumulation system (64)

Synopsis: Education: School: Schoolwork: Academic assessment: Study credits: European credit transfer and accumulation system:

anned for a en d a ve idn't his hs udy se d the in ges ects are 2015 ACTION PLAN FOR JOBS 77 6. Growing Irish Enterprise and Foreign

or extra-cluster ties (ECTS), are important gateways of critical knowledge and information (Giuliani & Bell, 2005).

ECTS complement them by bringing in diverse, novel knowledge inputs. 4 From a resource based view (RBV) the network encompassing ICTS and ECTS of a firm can be seen as its resource pool, contributing to the firm s technical know-how, trade contacts,

and capital (Wernerfelt, 1984). In addition, network ties provide legitimacy, increasing a firm s odds of forming partnerships with highly valuable potential partners (Eisenhardt & Schoonhoven, 1996).

This is particularly true for ECTS because assimilating knowledge elements from non-local partners requires distinct capabilities to those required for assimilating knowledge from partners within a firm s own cluster.

and maintain ECTS, to take chances with these ties, and to proactively uncover new opportunities (Covin & Miles, 1999).

and examine their specific roles in generating innovative gains through ICTS and ECTS. Proactiveness represents a first mover orientation of the firm,

We propose that proactiveness exerts only an indirect effect on innovation through ICTS and ECTS,

Such ties (ECTS) not only bring new insights to a firm, but also enable it to think out of the box such that the firm is able to adopt new technologies faster than would be otherwise possible.

In spite of these risks, a firm that nurtures its ties through the necessary investments in relationship building and knowledge sharing might stand to benefit more from its linkages than a firm that makes little investments in its ECTS.

While both ICTS and ECTS carry risks, the risks associated with the latter are likely to be higher due to the relatively higher differences in business practices,

On the other hand, the pay offs to 6 risk taking may also be higher in respect to ECTS, given the potentially novel and non-redundant information that such ties bring about.

We now distinguish among intra cluster ties (ICTS) and extra cluster ties (ECTS. We argue that ICTS

and ECTS can be the sources of distinct knowledge. Therefore, we see that ICT and ECT development should be treated as an investment that enhances innovation.

Research has demonstrated that firms that maintain ECTS are looked upon for advice and up to date knowledge by fellow firms who do not maintain such ties (Giuliani,

Therefore, an SME s sustained innovative performance and long run competitive advantage hinges on its ability to complement the intense exchange of knowledge associated with its ICTS with ECTS that bring in information and knowledge that is locally not available (Bathelt, 2004;

Interplay of ICTS and ECTS with Entrepreneurial Orientation To be successful, a firm must possess a certain ability to continually build

In this paper therefore we attempt to integrate the theories related to geographical clusters that emphasize the importance of ICTS and ECTS (Giuliani & Bell, 2005) and the literature on EO that stresses the role of an organization s entrepreneurial culture for firm

and risk taking in relation to a firm s ICTS and ECTS. However, prior literature does emphasize how a firm s absorptive capacity (Larrañeta, Zahra,

and risk taking on a firm s network ties (ICTS and ECTS) in the specific context of an emerging-economy,

and ECTS We argue that proactiveness contributes to a firm s innovative performance indirectly through the firm s ICTS

and ECTS because firms with high levels of proactiveness find opportunities, anticipate future developments, and identify new trends and available niches faster than their competitors (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996).

The resulting ICTS and ECTS therefore represent an important resource for the firm (Eisenhardt & Schoonhoven, 1996),

we propose that proactive orientation enhances innovative performance through its effect on ICTS and ECTS:

How Does Risk Taking Moderate the Effect ICTS and ECTS on Innovative performance? Establishing network ties do not necessarily mean that a firm is fully tapping into the resources available to it through such ties.

This suggests that some level of risk taking is essential for effective use of firms ICTS and ECTS.

When ICTS and ECTS are supported by an adequate degree of risk taking though investment of time, money,

The interplay between risk taking on the one hand and ICTS and ECTS on the other can contribute to innovation, right from the discovery of an opportunity or the conception of an idea to its planning and implementation.

we suggest that the extent to which risk taking is essential can vary for ICTS and ECTS.

Greater trust and the threat of sanction can make risk taking less salient for ICTS compared to for ECTS.

A firm's risk-taking orientation positively moderates the positive impact of its network ties (both ICTS and ECTS) on innovative performance.

A firm's risk-taking orientation has a greater moderating effect on the impact of its ECTS,

ECTS, proactiveness and risk taking affects innovation. Figure 1 Innovative performance and the interplay between ICTS, ECTS,

Proactiveness and Risk-Taking METHODS Proactiveness Intra-cluster ties Extra-cluster ties Innovation Risk taking H1a H1b H1a H1b H2b H2a

so ICTS and ECTS constitute key resources for the firms (Biggs & Messerschmidt, 2005). Research Design and Data Collection We collected the data in 2012 based on an extensive survey in this cluster,

and ECTS by determining the number of partners with which the producers interact (Giuliani & Bell, 2005).

We constructed ICTS and ECTS variables as the number of a firm s diverse set of partners, such as suppliers, distributors,

while that of ECTS is much smaller at about 5. Correlation coefficients are all within acceptable limits, further confirming the absence of multicollinearity.

while ECTS may be mediating the effect of proactiveness on innovative performance, ICTS may not be playing such a role.

n s.).This confirms that ECTS fully mediates the effect of proactiveness on innovative performance, in support of our hypothesis 1b.

to test whether risk taking moderates the effect of ICTS and ECTS on innovative performance,

which stated that a firm s risk-taking orientation has a greater moderating effect on the impact of the firm s ECTS,

Figure 2 The Moderating Effect of Risk-Taking on the Relationship between ECTS and Innovative Performance 18 From figure 2 we can better understand the extent to which risk taking moderates the effect of ECTS on innovative performance.

It shows the predicted innovative performance across a range (from low to high) of ECTS for high-and low-risk taking firms.

The horizontal axis measures the number of ECTS, and the dotted and solid lines respectively represent firms with high and low risk taking.

Both lines have a positive slope indicating the positive effect of ECTS on innovative performance.

underscoring that risk taking substantially moderates the impact of ECTS on innovative performance. This suggests that firms that are greater risk takers benefit the most from increasing the number of their ECTS.

Robustness checks In addition to the tests described earlier, we conducted further tests to conclude that the assumption of BLUE (Best Linier Unbiased Estimator) of OLS is satisfied (Gujarati, 2003).

while the literature on innovation in regional clusters stresses the importance of ICTS and, more importantly, ECTS (Giuliani & Bell, 2005).

and proactiveness interact differently with a firm s ICTS and ECTS. On the one hand, proactiveness is likely to influence innovative performance indirectly through the creation of a firm s ICTS and ECTS.

Risk taking on the other hand positively moderates the impact of ICTS and ECTS. We empirically tested our conjectures on a sample of 120 SMES in a creative-industry manufacturing cluster in an emerging economy, Indonesia.

Our analysis, based on primary data collected through interviews and questionnaires, provided mixed support for our hypotheses.

We found that ECTS mediate the proactive orientation of firms. A proactive-oriented firm is particularly adept at seeking resources from outside its cluster

and therefore may engage actively in search of new ideas outside of their cluster, though ECTS.

We found that risk taking strengthens the relationship between ECTS and innovative performance. For SMES in particular, external knowledge is a key source of innovation (Jacob & Szirmai, 2007;

) In this context, firms that take calculated risk are able to invest resources in their ECTS such that they are able to draw potentially valuable external resources.

Fourth, it was beyond the scope of this study to account for the heterogeneity of a firm s network of ICTS and ECTS

Department of education and Skills Table 5. 2 Education Providers in the South East participating in the Springboard 2011 Provider Programmetitle NFQLEVEL ECTS Years Iot Carlow Certificate in Computer systems

The general trend to the le hand side refl ects the decrease in manufacturing in the overall economy.

and growth through a wide variety of mechanisms and eff ects (Salter and Martin 2001).

‘Analysis of Chain-link Eff ects of Public Policy: Eff ects on Research and Industry in Swedish Life sciences within Innovative Food and Medical Technology'.

'Report for the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems. VINNOVA report series, available at www. vinnova. se.

Problems with regard to the availability of data were reported mainly on issues of academic staff (e g. fte data, international staff), links to business (in education/internships and research) and the use of credits (ECTS.

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