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Innovative capability, the knowledge a firm uses to innovate, is an input into and an output of the process of innovation. In this paper, I put forward the notion that innovative capability, similar to experience in production, accumulates by learning by doing and that innovation is characterized by a learning curve. Using patent data from 20,886 scientists working in 611 biotechnology firms in the U.S. and Canadian biotechnology industry from 1970 to 2007, I estimate a learning curve in innovation and determine the loci of innovative capability. Although knowledge stocks in the different loci accumulate over time in day-to-day firm activities, empirical results suggest that the individual is the primary repository of innovative capability and that experience working together in teams has a secondary influence on productivity. Contrary to prior learning curve research, accumulated firm experience has no direct effect on productivity. However, when individuals possess relevant domain knowledge and have experience working together, they benefit from knowledge spillovers within the firm. This suggests that knowledge stocks in the different loci are complementary to one another and that the comingling of these disparate bins of knowledge is an important facet of innovative capability.

Many organizational theories are not sanguine over the chances of organizations to adapt and evolve, even if they should learn from the past through memory. Innovative search in the adaptive biology tradition leads quickly to dead ends. However, memory is useful for rendering innovative search more efficient. The concept from evolutionary biology of neutrality and drift along neutral pathways introduces the possibility that organizations are robust to local innovations and therefore potential candidates for evolvability. Through simulations in a neutral NK hypercube, our analysis shows that neutrality does not create value when future payoffs are discounted and change is costly. Here is the role for memory. Memory enables the faster development of better capabilities and reverses the negative assessment of evolvability. Even when allowing for forgetting, memory is a positive capability that improves evolvability of organizations so they can achieve better performance and better ways of doing so. Memory and neutrality are complementary for creating organizational evolvability, a finding consistent with the overwhelming evidence that organizations are more productive today than before because of innovation.

Transition metal salt, manganese chloride was incorporated into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to prepare metal salt filled polymer material (M-PVA) and their optical properties were evaluated. XRD, UV-vis, and FTIR analyses reveal that there is strong interaction between PVA and the manganese chloride salt. From XRD analysis, the inter-chain separation in pristine PVA and M-PVA was found to be 5.62 Ǻ and 4.70 Ǻ, respectively; thus indicating that the packing of polymer chains is more compact under the influence of manganese chloride. Optical band gap of PVA was found as 5.06 eV but such band gap was reduced on incorporation of manganese chloride into the PVA matrix system with corresponding increase in optical conductivity. Spectral evaluation indicates that refractive index of M-PVA decreases faster than that of PVA in the visible range. Abbe Number was found to have decreased on incorporation of manganese chloride into the PVA matrix system indicating increase in optical dispersion in conformity with the trend of increase in dispersion energy (Ed). The average interband oscillator wavelength was found close to the respective values of absorption edges.

Europe enlarged its boundaries in 2004 with the accession of ten new member states to the European Union. The creation of an effective information society is seen as critical to the global competitiveness of Europe. Based upon detailed data collection and rigorous analysis, the book presents a benchmarking study of the 10 new member states and 3 candidate countries of the European Union as compared to the 15 incumbent countries with respect to the development of their information societies. Using a framework based on the Europe 2005 benchmarking framework, the 28 EU members and candidate countries are ranked according to their level of information society development, and then classified into 4 categories. The results presented in this book are of importance to all managers and companies doing business in the IT sector in the European Union.