Reference no: EM132211741 , Length: word count : 2000
Essay Topics for Science, Technology and Innovations: Markets, Firms and Policies
Autumn Term
Choose 1 (one) of these topics for your 2,000-word essay. Details in time and place for submitting your essay are in your Sussex Direct site for the course.
1) You have been asked to take over a large American consumer electronics firm that makes high value added, well designed communications devices and personal computers and decide on their global technology strategy.
One group of consultants suggests keeping all activities within California, while another suggests distributing them equally between the USA, Europe and Asia. Explain the possible thinking behind each proposal and why you would favour one over the other based on your evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses.
2) Your company has been asked by your country's energy minister to consider the role of innovation in developing energy options for the future that will contribute to a reduction in your country's contribution to CO2 emissions. Your role in your company is as a strategy and policy analyst.
Based on the issues discussed this term with regard to innovation, scale economies, learning, and the nature of knowledge exchange or transfer, identify two types of emission reducing activities where innovation might play an important role and identify and evaluate the positive and negative features of each of them as means of reducing CO2 emissions.
3) You are asked by your company's Managing Director to develop a new product for your company. One group of your colleagues believes that all the resources should be put into creating a product that does not rely on existing company capabilities because the market potential will be larger.
The other group suggests that the new product should have a close relationship with the company's current products even though the new product will reduce the sales of some of these products. What issues would you take into account in making a recommendation to your managing director, what would be your recommendation and why?
4) You have been asked to contribute to the design of an innovation policy for a recently industrializing country. Please identify which country you will be considering.
Drawing upon on the various theories and models of innovation that have emerged over time (i.e. science push, market pull, coupling, system etc.), outline the three most relevant lessons that need to be incorporated or included in the innovation policy and explain why you consider each of these lessons to be particularly important in the context of the country you are considering.
5) You have been asked to explain a difficult policy problem. A national government has been implementing a number of policy approaches to create a more environmentally friendly infrastructure system, but evaluations have shown that these policies are ineffective.
Drawing on the
various theories and frameworks discussed in the module, and choosing an infrastructure system of your choice (i.e. energy, transport, telecommunications etc), and a national setting of your choice, use real world examples to diagnose the problem and suggest remedies.
6) You have been asked to design a science and innovation policy for your country (or a country of your choice). The editor of a local paper has just returned from California and has been writing editorials about the need to recreate a Californian system of innovation in your country.
You have been asked to evaluate that proposal. Explain why your country's needs might differ from California and what that implies for local innovation and science policy.