with approximately $25. 1 billion spent on video games, consoles, and accessories (Entertainment Software Association 2011) and $30 billion on crafts and hobbies in 2010 (Craft and Hobby Association, 2011;
Luo, Ratchford, and Yang, 2013. In terms of digital and online consumption, the numbers are also noteworthy.
Individuals can now access software, games, and social communities through smartphones, computers, and their gaming consoles (Williams, Yee,
and Caplan, 2008), and according to Nielsen, 81 billion minutes were spent on social networks and blogs in 2011 and 42%of tablet owners use them daily while watching TV (Nielsen, 2011).
Closely related to the empirical application in this paper, the worldwide market for online games surpassed $15 billion in 2010 with additional sales of virtual goods likely to exceed $1 billion (Playlogic Entertainment
Inc, 2010. With online connectivity and the presence of the Internet, online or network games have been growing exponentially,
As an alternative, until recently, surveys or self-reported questionnaires have been used to study usage behavior, especially regarding technology products (Ram and Jung, 1990;
and consumers alike was provided in May of 2011 at the earnings call of Activision Blizzard, one of the major developers of computer games.
For example, in video games, product updates are common and demand expertise from users to enjoy newly introduced content.
or a guild or clan of players in a video game, as it is the case in our application.
For example, in computer games, a player's level is defined usually as a function of most complex completed content;
in our application, users of a video game can choose content that is hard to complete and have to repeat it in some cases multiple times before proceeding with the game storyline.
, hired programmers) to support a fairly stable schedule of content introduction; according to announcements from the firm, new content is launched
when server maintenance is performed, which makes Pr (pt+1=pt+1 ept, Xt)= 0 except when XMONDAY t=1. For the estimation of the duration model,
while Ishihara and Ching (2012) estimates a discount rate of 0. 885 per week for video games.
We demonstrate its application with the study of consumer demand in the online computer gaming industry. 3. 1 An Online Game We use data from the online game World of Warcraft developed by Blizzard Entertainment, a division
/15 dividuals explore the environment developed by programmers. The game was introduced originally in 2004 and became the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide.
By 2011, Blizzard had launched three full-fledged expansions and dozens of patches that added new content.
but the majority of revenues comes from additional fees paid by users to access the online game server and consumer content.
and most additional content is introduced in a test server available to users, giving an almost perfect knowledge about the quality of content before it goes live
and timing of future updates. 13 3. 3 Player Participation and Progression The product usage data include actions of 206 users from one of the game servers, for
In our application, the firm published ability measures for each user before the product launch, called badges (a term also used in gamification:
we assign each gamer to a particular segment based on the highest estimated individual probability of segment membership Pr (i 2 g). 24 In the four panels of Figure 4,
The panels in Figure 5 show the results by segment and content choices j=1,..20.
for example due to server capacity. 5. 4. 2 Change in Product Difficulty: Should Managers Make Content More or less Challenging?
The darker line displays participation in the lower complexity setting, the lighter line reflects higher complexity,
or facilitate the transmission of knowledge to beginners-through changes in the parameter 2. The results are presented in the two panels of Figure 9. On the top panel,
while the lower panel reveals the percentage of participating users, for both the actual and counterfactual cases.
as the bottom panel shows, consumers are more active with the content. This engagement is especially important in later stages of the game
such as video games, TV SHOWS, mobile applications, book series, and, in more general terms, any durable good where practice is essential to develop the expertise necessary to use advanced product features.
Entertainment Software Association (2011), Top 10 industry facts, October 10th. 12. Golder, P. N. and G. J. Tellis (2004), Growing, Growing, Gone:
The Case of Japanese Video games, Working paper. 21. Kopalle, Praveen K.,Scott A. Neslin, Baohong Sun, Yacheng Sun,
Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, pp. 993-1018.44. Yao, S.,C. F. Mela, J. Chiang,
At the same time, much less is written about the majority of small and micro size firms that constitute the core of the economy.
At the same time, most small businesses that constitute the core of the economy do not innovate. Most SME innovations are marginal improvements of already existing products,
Monitor, Rapport voor Bel en Vlaanderen, 2006.17 Wickham, Philip A.,Strategic Entrepreneurship, Pearson, Fourth Edition, 2006.18 Williamson, O. E.,The Institutions of Governance
and long-term outlook (Anderson and Reeb 2003). These differences might be explained partly that family involvement affects activities and processes differently,
Global entrepreneurship monitor. Report on high-expectation entrepreneurship. Wellesley: London Business school/Mazars/Babson. Barney, J. 1991.
software of the mind. London: Mcgraw-hill. Holt, DT, Rutherford, MW, & Kuratko, DF. 2010). ) Advancing the field of family business research:
Petrakis, PE, & Kostis, PC. 2012). ) The role of knowledge and trust in SMES. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 1 20. doi:
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2003 global report. Wellesley: Babson/London Business school/Kauffman Foundation. Reynolds, PD, & White, SB.
where the core actors and suitable investment priorities and to allocate resources efficiently are more easily identifiable.
The analysis is reproduced also by focusing exclusively on a number of core and peripheral EU regions,
was subsequently transform into a panel variable by combining it with the World bank Governance Indicators (WBGI)( Kauffmann et al.,
R&d expenditures and R&d spillovers both display a positive and significant correlation with innovation. And finally
78 are classified as‘periphery'and 147 as‘core'.'A relevant characteristic of the regions in the‘periphery'group is a much lower average score for quality of government with respect to the‘core,
'both for the composite Qog index and for all of its four categories. 3 The regression results of the fixed effects model estimated for the two subgroups are presented in Table 3 in the appendix.
while columns (6)-(10) report the same specification for the regions in the core of Europe.
The estimates confirm the presence of significant differences in the factors that affect innovation in the core and the periphery of Europe.
By contrast, core regions whose quality of government institutions is generally much higher, benefit little in terms of innovation from further increases in quality of government.
Patents application Peripheral regions Core regions (1)( 2)( 3)( 4)( 5)( 6)( 7)( 8)( 9)( 10) Patents application (t-1
It can be accessed through the Europa server http://europa. eu/.How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop. europa. eu),
Existing research on developing economies has shown that SMES typically act as catalysts of economic growth and the scarce literature on OI in SMES indicates that small firms engaging in OI practices are more innovative
and resulting innovation capacities serve as catalysts to (developing) economies (Benácek, 1995; Peng, 2001; Wachtel, 1999.
the owner/manager's deep understanding of the industry and market contribute to creating a‘realistic'outlook:
Another reported disadvantage that is very typical of SMES is the difficulty concerning the development of a long-term strategic outlook that is necessary for OI to be successful.
a maturing venture capital scene as well as higher workforce mobility. v Each participating SME's core area of operation was standardized using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system whereby‘Finance,
In summary, a set of core issues and recommendations were agreed, as follows: recognition of the role of universities as a key partner in taking forward successful Smart Specialisation Strategies in partnership with other stakeholders in the region;
The above set of core issues and recommendations could valuably feed into the assessment of RIS3 and monitoring and evaluation of Structural Fund Operational Programmes that fund research and innovation activities.
The core question is how to design calls to meet common interests aligning regional development strategies with university research expertise and interests.
aerospace and embedded systems, health (ageing, cancer and use of ITCS) and agriculture and agronomics, which has had strong structuring effects.
improving transparency and allowing software programmers to create extra value from underused data by, for example,
Social Innovation Camp's bring together software developers and service designers with social innovators to build effective,
This call to focus innovation and R&d policy on the Grand Challenges has also been echoed by the recent Business Panel on Future EU Innovation Policy,
'the Panel argues that within innovation policy, the‘priority has been investing in knowledge rather than utilizing it rapidly and 10 powerfully for societal benefit and development'.
'The Panel proposed broadening the concept of innovation to include social innovation as well as business innovation.
the Business Panel on Future EU Innovation Policy allude to a new kind of research which is multi-disciplinary
‘Corporate social innovation'may be an important new business area for private companies and a core driver of innovation'.
Together, The New Nature of Innovation and the recommendations of the European Technology Platforms Expert Group, the Business Panel on Future EU Innovation Policy and the European Research Area Board make a strong
using open source methods or crowd sourcing solutions. The view of innovation in the EU 2020 strategy risks being seen as somewhat top down
The Center for Independent Living, founded in 1972 by disability activists in Berkeley, California, developed technologies such as telecaptioners, text telephones, voice-recognition systems, voice synthesizers and screen readers.
These might include employers seeking new types of skills (e g. better ability to work in teams, or software programming.‘
printing, carpet weaving, gardening, furniture manufacture, paper recycling and car washing. The first 9 social cooperatives to be set up employ more than 150 people with mental health problems
and most donors prefer funding projects and programmes rather than core costs. The lack of reliable and sustainable grant funding has left the sector vulnerable to outside shocks
software developers code continuously for 24 hours and prizes are given for the best hacks. Seedcamps are week long events
Those who have submitted the selected ideas are invited then-along with software developers, designers, marketing and business experts as well as those who have knowledge of specific areas of social need-to a two-and-a-half day weekend event.
One is new forms of mutual action between individuals such as open source software and web-based social networking around issues such as the management of chronic disease or childcare.
students and small manufacturers, the UK based business Riversimple is creating the first, open source, highly energy efficient eco car.
Through this visual display, residents can see their greenhouse gas contributions in the areas of transportation, energy, and waste.
Open source technology, such as wikis,‘can make government decision-making more expert and more democratic'.'cx Examples from the US and New zealand show how open
The public can submit art and commentary on claims of pending patent applications in computer architecture, software, and information security.
training programmes lack coherence, comprehensiveness or global outlook, and few developed channels exist for spreading skills, knowledge and experience.
The Business Panel on Future Innovation Policy notes that the current finance system is not fit for the new types of innovation required to address grand societal challenges.
or a global outlook. There are scattered elements of what is needed in civil service colleges, NGO training programmes, schools for social entrepreneurs and business schools.
I and II programmes (with Urbact created in 2003 to support networking between cities in Urban II) cxxxix Programme EQUAL, funded by the European Social Fundor the EU's Community Initiative cxlaccording to a Business Panel
The development of new spaces for collaboration is one of the five major recommendations of the Business Panel on Future Innovation Policy. clxxi SIX,
Developing materials, curriculum, case studies, open source materials Coordinating universities, civil service colleges etc to work collaboratively through the development of a network of institutions to spread
, Special Business Panel (2009) Reinvent Europe through innovation: From a knowledge society to an innovation society.
Recommendations by a Business Panel on future EU innovation policy. Available at: http://www. eurosfaire. prd. fr/7pc/doc/1261563738 business panel report en. pdf. Accessed 3 december 2009. xii Ibid. xiii Fora et al (2009) The New Nature of Innovation, p. 12
European commission, DG Enterprise & Industry, Special Business Panel (2009) Reinvent Europe through innovation: From a knowledge society to an innovation society.
Recommendations by a Business Panel on future EU innovation policy. Available online: http://www. eurosfaire. prd. fr/7pc/doc/1261563738 business panel report en. pdf (accessed 08 january 2010.
/equal/index en. cfm cxli European commission, DG Enterprise & Industry, Special Business Panel (2009) Reinvent Europe through innovation:
Recommendations by a Business Panel on future EU innovation policy, p. 25. Available online: http://www. eurosfaire. prd. fr/7pc/doc/1261563738 business panel report en. pdf cxlii Op cit. pg 9. cxliii Op cit. pg 25. cxliv NESTA (2007
See European commission, DG Enterprise & Industry, Special Business Panel (2009) Reinvent Europe through innovation: From a knowledge society to an innovation society.
Recommendations by a Business Panel on future EU innovation policy. Available at: http://www. eurosfaire. prd. fr/7pc/doc/1261563738 business panel report en. pdf. Accessed 3 december 2009. clxxii"Unleashing the innovation potential of European SMES,
"INNO-Partnering Forum's view on the future European Innovation Plan, 8th december 2009. clxxiii European commission, DG Enterprise & Industry, Special Business Panel (2009) Reinvent Europe
Recommendations by a Business Panel on future EU innovation policy. Available at: http://www. eurosfaire. prd. fr/7pc/doc/1261563738 business panel report en. pdf. Accessed 3 december 2009
ELECTRIC VEHICLE INITIATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHARGING STATION INFRASTRUCTURE THE CREATION OF CRITICAL MASS AND FOSTERING OF THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR OBJECTIVE Users SUPPLIERS Core Government DISTRIBUTION R&d Agents
This is an intervention carried out with a comprehensive outlook with regard to strategic projects for the region.
For example, bringing together diagnostic computer programmes, call centres and nurses to provide new kinds of healthcare; bringing together the very old idea of‘circles of support'brought within the criminal justice system;
Examples include computers in classrooms, the use of assistive devices for the elderly, or implants to cut teenage pregnancy.
Through experiment it is discovered then how these work best (such as the discovery that giving computers to two children to share is more effective for education than giving them one each.
including software, gaming and music. Other landmark projects that gave people a licence to be creative in other fields include:
and the ideas being developed by Mydex that adapt vendor relationship-management software tools to put citizens in control of the personal data held by big firms and public agencies.
and Industry (now DBIS) and the Food Standards Agency. 68) Citizen's panels are similar to citizen juries
which was held in Second life. Participants attend as a‘virtual'version of themselves (an avatar), and 2 engage as these selves in cyberspace. 73) Webinars are a fairly simple device for organising seminars over the web.
and Global Warming, speaks to the crowd at Oneworld. net's‘Virtual Bali'initiative on Second life.
The best think tanks can act as catalysts, combining research, policy ideas, and prompts for practical innovation in advance of policy change.
but is used increasingly to refer to services as well. 82) Fast prototyping emerged first in the software field,
which brings people together from all around the world in conversation through the use of Telepresence screens.
A business model that runs parallel to the core idea of the venture and which sets out how it can become sustainable.
which core stakeholders can be incorporated in the structure of an organisation and its processes. These include the constitution
but the goal should always be to find ways for the core finance to come from those who share the venture's mission.
and trains suppliers in the use of the software of the bidding process. The auction takes from two hours to a few days
and is held together by a common core of meaning. Transmitters We look at platforms as the nodes of the new economy,
Image courtesy of The Climate Project. 5 SCALING AND DIFFUSION 97 Prize in conjunction with the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for‘their efforts to build up
and Bed Zed in the UK. 254) Designing and trialling platforms to trigger systemic innovation including peer-to-peer models such as the School of Everything and digital learning environments such as colleges in second life. 255) Comprehensive pilots,
which brings together web designers and developers with those involved in meeting social needs to design web-based solutions to particular social challenges.
an event which takes place every month in London to connect start-ups, designers, programmers, and funders. 309) Platforms for aggregating action such as Pledgebank, an online platform
and open-source software such as the Linux operating system, the Mozilla Firefox browser, and the Apache web server.
These rely on a large and highly distributed community of programmers to develop, maintain, and improve the software.
Peer-to-peer platforms can be characterised by decentralisation, self-selected participation, self-allocated tasks, community based moderation,
and diversity of participants. However, none of these are of themselves defining features. 140 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION End notes 1. Sustainability (2008)‘ The Social Intrapreneur:
and are reluctant to provide core funding. Grantaided organisations are often the first to suffer in state budget cuts and economic recessions.
and the coverage of core costs. 4 403) Direct funding for individuals, including the grants given by Unltd, The Skoll Foundation,
volunteering and, in some cases, social uses of marginal business assets, such as Salesforce's provision of software to nonprofit organisations,
of alternative models for running schools in India. 455) Social uses of commercial technology such as IBM's use of translation software on its Meedan website of Arabic blogs,
One is new forms of mutual action between individuals whether in the form of open-source software,
Paris. 4 SUPPORT IN THE INFORMAL OR HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY 197 providing others, selling information on users and so on. 1 In the field of opensource software,
99 Group Health 21 Hackney's Online Citizen Panel 43 Hammarby Sjöstad 112 Harvard university Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation 162 Hattie
200 Liftshare 198 Limited liability Partnerships (LLPS) 65 Linux 139 Live Work 31 London Climate Change Agency 158 Mapping 17-19
200 Open Organisation 74-77 Open Publication Licenses 200 Open source 154; 139 Open Space 45-46 Open Testing 53 Organisation 6-7;
which seeks to promote positive social change by building innovative software solutions with a social conscience 7. Initiatives such as Games for Change1,
The study, reflection and policy intervention on this tension is at the core of Amartya Sen's Capability Approach (CA) 13. CA is a way to approach human well-being that posits human freedoms at its core.
we are investigating the role of low-cost distributed and independent manufacturing (e g. 3d printing) in personalised digital-health
20 Basic principles for the infrastructure 20 Open source basic infrastructure...20 The components the basic infrastructure...
which involve directly hundreds of SMES throughout Europe together with many catalysts: local or regional organisations that work with SMES to facilitate the change process.
procuring hardware and /or software tools (installation, training, and subsequent reorganisation), continuous maintenance, servicing costs and telecommunications charges.
However, getting the right ICT equipment is only part of the equation..SMES often have limited very resources for experimentation;
Small organisations are reluctant to invest in ICT rather than concentrating the investments in their core business. 2. THE DIGITAL SYSTEMS EVOLUTION
partially solved by the establishment of vertical, thematic or regional e-marketplace portals and efficient search engines, On average, across European union (EU),
e-business (from 1999) Internet technology has gone far beyond a mere means of electronic transactions becoming a foundation for applications linked to the core business systems,
The major obstacles could be overcome by having a software infrastructure with services at acceptable costs
and includes outsourcing non-core operations, changes in processes and systems, and paying attention to legal and audit considerations.
The ecosystems are, in fact, characterised by intelligent software components and services, knowledge transfer, interactive training frameworks and integration of business processes and egovernance models.
The latter step in the adoption of Internet-based technologies for business, where the business services and the software components are supported by a pervasive software environment,
and software components and services developed for that area of business will appear. These components are based on a set of specific requirements in sectorial,
which could be software components, applications, services, knowledge, business models, training modules, contractual frameworks, laws, These digital species,
WTC regulations Basic protocols, network infrastructure TCP IP XML, ebxml organs Software components, business models Open source models, operating systems Simple species Grass, worms
, tiger Small organizations, universities, chambers o f commerce Basic e-services, Simple services Accounting sys, Payment sys, Groupware sys. Group
and software components and services developed for that area of business appear. These components are based on a set of specific requirements in sectorial,
Generic software components and applications adapted for the specific sector (e g. adaptation of customer relationship management systems,
user profiling systems,)New developed or imported sector-specific software components (e g. reservation systems or yield management systems for tourism sector;
The technological infrastructure, the components, the services lives within a set of interconnected computer nodes based on the geographical areas
In this landscape of virtual distributed communities, the active participation of open source developer communities is a measure of the success of the initiative.
software sharing, common development of open source software open and distributed common infrastructure use of digital business ecosystems Complexity of regulations Actions:
The realization of living, 1980, D. Reidel Publishing company, Dordrecht, Holland Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores, Understanding Computer and Cognition, a new foundation for design, 1986, Ablex
an open source model adopting multiple business models; for the digital species of specialised ecosystem: encouraging the maximum coexistence and diversity of models and licences, supporting as much as possible the equal opportunities of service/solution publishing and fair competition;
to guarantee the independence from hardware and software platforms, the highest interoperability and the possibility to reuse the preexisting information and services..
Open source basic infrastructure To guarantee that the ecosystems attracts a critical mass of developers of services
Models for sector-specific ecosystems The use of open source infrastructure, the convergence on open standard and open systems, the strong support for interoperability (if necessary through the creation of compatible free software;
or component (open source or proprietary), could substitute it as soon a more adequate one appears on the ecosystem,
provides the digital support for the economical development of small organisations fosters the private entrepreneurship on the sector of production of software components and services.
Stimulus for small and local ICT software and service providers The ecosystems stimulates the innovation
the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations. Competitiveness and innovation is increased then,
generating a supply of software with better conditions of usability, in a model of continuous improvement.
at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by multinational companies do not have the knowledge and the possibility of high-level development.
The possibility to develop software components and solutions creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of competence
which have become the core of a thriving regional innovation network including incubators, science parks, business centres, venture capitalists, spin-off companies and international R&d intensive 20 companies,
like computer networking, winnowed from a larger collection (Miller, 1997). Yet another situation is when one space becomes the basis for the enhancement of the others,
the making of the personal computer. Mcgraw-hill, New york. Galende, J.,Suarez I. 1999. A resource-based analysis of the factors determining a firm's R&d activities.
also the firm's ability to attract highly qualified labor force will become one of its core competencies (Bougrain and Haudeville, 2002).
Especially the firms located in peripheral and rural areas are forced often to rely on the generally available information sources due to the lack of relevant local network partners and the inadequateness of public support instruments (cf.
As Na°s and Leppa lahti (1997) remark, a notorious problem with longitudinal statistical analyses such as enterprise panels is attrition
Science, Technology and Industry Outlook, OECD, Paris. OECD (2005), The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities:
evidence from the Vienna software sector, Economic geography, Vol. 85 No. 4, pp. 443-62. To dtling, F. and Kaufmann, A. 1999), Innovation systems in regions of Europe a comparative perspective, European Planning Studies, Vol. 7 No. 6, pp. 699-717.
) Martijn Visser (CWTS) Don Westerheijden (CHEPS)* Erik van Wijk (CWTS) Michel Zitt (OST) International expert panel Nian Cai Liu (Shanghai
The international panel was consulted at key decision making moments in the project. Crucially, given the user-driven nature of the new transparency instrument designed within the project,
and how those are linked to the data they gather and display. The global rankings that we studied limit their interest to several hundred preselected universities,
which may have negligent or even harmful effects on their performance in core activities. Most of the effects discussed above are rather negative to students, institutions and the higher education sector.
Teaching and learning 3. 3. 1education is the core activity in most higher education and research institutions.
(compulsory or recommended) Data easily available. 14 Computer Facilities: internet access Index including: hardware; internet access, including WLAN;(
field specific) software; access to computer support Data easily available. 15 Student gender balance Number of female students as a percentage of total enrolment Indicates social equity (a balanced situation is considered preferable.
Generally available. But indicator of social context, not of educational quality. Student satisfaction indicators Indicators reflecting students'appreciation of several items related to the teaching & learning process.
Student satisfaction is of high conceptual validity. It can be made available in a comparative manner through a survey.
One may mention audio visual recordings, computer software and databases, technical drawings, designs or working models, major works in production or exhibition and/or award-winning
They are more or less‘ready to use',such as machinery, software, new materials or modified organisms. This is often called‘technology'.
8 Number of Spin-offs The number of spin-offs created over the last three years per academic staff (fte) EGKTM regards Spin-offs as core indicator.
This is a service based on the automatic recording by Google's search engine of citations to any author's publications (of whatever type) included in other publications appearing on the worldwide web. 24 See:
Social climate A a Quality of courses A a Support by teacher A a Computer facilities A a Overall judgment A a Libraries B A Laboratories B A There are no major
Experience from the CHE ranking and other field-based rankings show that there is a core set of indicators that is relevant and meaningful for (virtually) all fields.
Similarly some disciplines may see dimensions such as knowledge transfer or regional engagement as less relevant to their core activities.
The table displays the ranking groups (in different colours) representing the relative scores on the indicators.
more and more countries could come in step by step with a core set of indicators used in each ranking.
and at the same time provide a core set of joint indicators that can be used for European and global rankings.
A core set of indicators should be defined, definitions of data concepts should be fixed, standardized elements of data collection tools should be developed.
further development and implementation of the on-line tool and related software development. Marketing and communication:
"On Doctors, Mechanics, and Computer Specialists: The Economics of Credence Goods"Journal of Economic Literature 44 (1): 5-42.
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