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This study claims that policy makers may not be sufficiently aware of the importance of maintaining an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation networks for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On the basis of the open innovation model, policy makers are also increasingly stimulating SMEs to develop their exploration skills. In the Netherlands, a government subsidy called the 'innovation voucher programme' was introduced to stimulate SMEs to develop innovation in cooperation with knowledge institutes. Yet, although many studies show that SMEs tend to have a higher R&D productivity than larger firms, and innovative SMEs are more likely to make external networks with other SMEs or institutions such as universities, there is still little examination of the successfulness of SME's innovation activities. The growing policy attention for the role of SMEs in innovation prompts the questions how innovation in SMEs can be facilitated, and which factors contribute to the success (or failure) of their innovation efforts. This study explores the innovation strategy of innovative Dutch SMEs by means of their sources of innovation, innovation capabilities, innovation performance, and commercialization sources. By means of structural equation modelling of a sample of 243 Dutch SMEs, this study shows that exploring (technology) opportunity together with institutions such as universities and private research establishments is important for successful innovation in SMEs. But, in addition, our model shows that contacts with competitors are also important for successful innovation performance. Our finding that openness of open innovation also applies to the commercialization phase is too often neglected by researchers and policy makers. © 2012 The Author(s).

This study claims that policy makers may not be sufficiently aware of the importance of maintaining an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation networks for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On the basis of the open innovation model, policy makers are also increasingly stimulating SMEs to develop their exploration skills. In the Netherlands, a government subsidy called the 'innovation voucher programme' was introduced to stimulate SMEs to develop innovation in cooperation with knowledge institutes. Yet, although many studies show that SMEs tend to have a higher R&D productivity than larger firms, and innovative SMEs are more likely to make external networks with other SMEs or institutions such as universities, there is still little examination of the successfulness of SME's innovation activities. The growing policy attention for the role of SMEs in innovation prompts the questions how innovation in SMEs can be facilitated, and which factors contribute to the success (or failure) of their innovation efforts. This study explores the innovation strategy of innovative Dutch SMEs by means of their sources of innovation, innovation capabilities, innovation performance, and commercialization sources. By means of structural equation modelling of a sample of 243 Dutch SMEs, this study shows that exploring (technology) opportunity together with institutions such as universities and private research establishments is important for successful innovation in SMEs. But, in addition, our model shows that contacts with competitors are also important for successful innovation performance. Our finding that openness of open innovation also applies to the commercialization phase is too often neglected by researchers and policy makers.

This paper presents an overview of European policy on interconnected cross-border transport networks as well as of severe problems in estimating empirically the avalanche of goods movements in the European Union (EU). In particular, it deals with the Transalpine freight transport case, which represents one of the most challenging operational and policy issues of the present and future - both international (EU) and national (the Alpine countries) - freight transport developments. The paper is organised to briefly describe the main objectives of EU transport policy, to generally introduce the concept of intermodal transport with particular emphasis on intermodal freight transport and to describe past, present and future developments of the Trans.Alpine inter-modal transport. Various scenarios on the future development of Trans.Alpine intermodal transport are analysed as well.

The aim of this book on the use of multiple criteria analysis in physical planning is to synthesize most of the relevant work in this field. Its first objective is to provide a concise and systematic overview of the state of the art in the area of multiple criteria analysis, with a strong emphasis on practical use and planning. Secondly, this book attempts to show the wealth of potential applications of multiple criteria analysis by providing a presentation and discussion of various real-world uses of multiple criteria decision-making in the practice of physical planning.The book is mainly int

Complexity and uncertainty are key issues in exploring future developments. Moreover, although the future cannot be predicted, it is clear that certain decisions/actions can influence the future in desired directions. In this respect, planners are being challenged to focus on the development of new approaches and tools, capable of dealing with complexity and uncertainty, in order to be able to effectively support policy makers in making more knowledgeable decisions to achieve desirable future outcomes. The focus of the present paper is on the development of such an approach, i.e., a backcasting policy-scenario design approach, used for the study of the future developments in EU agriculture in 2020. In this respect, the paper presents the main stream of methodological approaches for scenario building, i.e., forecasting and backcasting approaches; it elaborates on the steps involved in the backcasting policy-scenario design framework; and it follows these steps by adopting the backcasting policy-scenario design framework in the AG2020 EU project on the future of EU agriculture in 2020. Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

This paper discusses a number of issues centred around the evaluation of the benefits and costs of transport. It is argued that, for various reasons, transport cannot be treated as an 'ordinary' economic sector, and in the paper the policy implications of a number of the sector's peculiarities are addressed. Both efficiency aspects and considerations of equity and social feasibility of policies are dealt with.

The authors extend previous literature on variations in mobility rates across local housing markets by examining the linkage of mobility rates at the household level to the structure of local housing markets. The results suggest that residential mobility rates differ widely across local housing markets, substantiating the view that residential relocation is intimately intertwined with conditions at the local level. Local housing-market conditions also have different effects on mobility rates for renters and owner-occupiers. The results suggest that variation in residential mobility rates across housing markets can be in part explained by level of urbanization, the tenure structure, the degree of government intervention, and the size of the housing market. Remarkably, these differences in local housing markets cannot be seen to be related to housing-market features only. The results suggest that these differences can also be attributed to the behavior or attitude of households with respect to housing.

In general terms, the general Common Transport Policy (CTP) objectives of the European Union may be formulated in efficiency, regional development and environmental categories. Setting objective targets in the environmental field based on scientific evidence is not yet possible, so that it is still necessary to resort to policy documents. The same holds largely for economic efficiency and regional development issues, so that also here a pragmatic approach is required. The first part of the paper analyses relevant scientific frameworks, in this context followed by a specification of the targets. In the second part, future developments and policy packages are assessed by applying a multicriteria evaluation method based on the so-called regime analysis to the scores on these targets in six CTP-policy scenarios. Two external social and institutional frameworks - Cooperation and Polarization - and three policy directions (optimizing efficiency, regional development and environmental objectives, respectively) are investigated. It is concluded that European and societal cooperation and policies aiming at increasing efficiency and environmental objectives (especially by means of price measures) will result in satisfactory achievement of European transport policy targets.