How innovation can be defined, evaluated and rewarded in health technology assessment

Background What constitutes innovation in health technologies can be defined and measured in a number of ways and it has been widely researched and published about. However, while many countries mention it as a criterion for pricing or reimbursement of health technologies, countries differ widely in how they define and operationalise it. Methods We performed a literature review, using a snowballing search. In this paper, we explore how innovation has been defined in the literature in relation to health technology assessment. We also describe how a selection of countries (England, France, Italy, Spain and Japan) take account of innovation in their health technology assessment frameworks and explore the key methodologies that can capture it as a dimension of value in a new health technology. We propose a way of coming to, and incorporating into health technology assessment systems, a definition of innovation for health technologies that is independent of other dimensions of value that they already account for in their systems, such as clinical benefit. We use Spain as an illustrative example of how innovation might be operationalised as a criterion for decision making in health technology assessment. Results The countries analysed here can be divided into 2 groups with respect to how they define innovation. France, Japan and Italy use features such as severity, unmet need and therapeutic added value as indicators of the degree of innovation of a health technology, while England, Spain consider the degree of innovation as a separate and additional criterion from others. In the case of Spain, a notion of innovation might be constructed around concepts of `step-change’, `convenience’, `strength of evidence base’ and `impact on future research & development’. Conclusions If innovation is to be used as operational criteria for adoption, pricing and reimbursement of health technologies, the concept must be clearly defined, and it ought to be independent from other value dimensions already captured in their health technology assessment systems.

The Impact of Innovative Capabilities and Innovation Types on the Financial Performances of Insurance Companies

The ability to innovate is essential for achieving a competitive position, and digital innovations have become one of the main drivers of competitive advantage. The factors that affect the degree of innovation (innovation efforts, competitive priorities, market strategy, the internal organisational atmosphere) impact the financial performance of insurance companies considering the market conditions. In order to shed some light on that research gap in post-transition countries, survey research has been conducted on a sample of insurance companies in the Republic of North Macedonia. The results obtained from the structural equation modelling analysis, which seeks to determine the structural relationship between the measured variables and the latent constructions, reveal positive effects of innovation performance on the profitability of insurance companies.

INNOVATION POTENTIAL OF NATIONAL ECONOMIES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Currently, with the expansion of technological innovations, the economy of the Russian Federation is being transformed. For this reason, it becomes necessary to assess its innovation potential and compare it with the level of innovation potential of other countries. The economies of the BRICS countries were selected for the study, and the United States was also considered as an example of a developed innovation economy. To assess the innovation potential of these countries, groups of indicators were identified that determine the degree of innovation development. The study used data from the Science and Technology section of the World Bank site and applied the methods of correlation and regression analysis. The results of the analysis make it possible to identify and compare the key factors in the development of innovation potential in the countries under consideration.

Innovation First and Foremost: The Case of Oman's Ranking in the Global Innovation Index

One of the most important reports that evaluate the degree of innovation in countries is the Global Innovation Index (GII). Oman's score has been exceptional from 2013, with experts anticipating it to ascend to the first 40 nations in GII; nevertheless, over the previous two years, the ranking of the country has significantly dropped to 80 in 2019 and is expected to remain to decline after being 57 in 2018. The study's objective is to determine the factors that led to the Oman decline in GII, analyze the involvement of public institutions in this drop in terms of policy change or reform, and explore the societal impact of this drop. Because of a lack of data on the subject, this exploratory, descriptive research used a combination of data collection methods, involving an interview with five specialists and a circulation of 204 survey questionnaires. To achieve uniformity and relevancy, participants were chosen based on the study's themes. This research focused on identifying the factors contributing to the sudden decline in the GII compared to prior years. Additionally, it layout a framework for key stakeholders to execute the major adjustments required to enhance performance in crucial innovation indicators. Finally, it will result in increasing professional and organizational awareness of policy instrumentation in Oman and will offer avenues for future research on this topic and governmental policies that will enhance several of the GII indicators, notwithstanding Oman's drop in ranking.

Icon Generation Based on Generative Adversarial Networks

Icon design is an important part of UI design, and a design task that designers often encounter. During the design process, it is important to highlight the function of icons themselves and avoid excessive similarity with similar icons, i.e., to have a certain degree of innovation and uniqueness. With the rapid development of deep learning technology, generative adversarial networks (GANs) can be used to assist designers in designing and updating icons. In this paper, we construct an icon dataset consisting of 8 icon categories, and introduce state-of-the-art research and training techniques including attention mechanism and spectral normalization based on the original StyleGAN. The results show that our model can effectively generate high-quality icons. In addition, based on the user study, we demonstrate that our generated icons can be useful to designers as design aids. Finally, we discuss the potential impacts and consider the prospects for future related research.

¿Innovación bajo presión? Autoridades educativas, familias y profesionales e innovación educativa

INTRODUCTION. Educational innovation is experiencing in Catalonia (Spain) what has begun to be called a "third pedagogical spring" that is leading to a significant increase in schools that make changes at different levels. METHOD. In this context, taking as a reference classifications of types of educational innovation (innovations in the formative structure, pedagogical, process, teacher training and the educational chain), the article presents the analysis of questionnaire carried out on the whole of the population (N) of non-university educational centers of the Territorial Education Service of Lleida (Catalonia). The intention of the questionnaire, and of the research project, was to detect: the degree of innovation of the non-university educational centers as a whole (differentiating the different educational levels), the degree to which this innovation is sustainable over time, the reasons that lead to innovation and its degree of success. In summary, the RESULTS indicate that there really is an "innovative spring" (although some levels of education are higher than others) that can be generalized, as other studies indicate, to the whole of Catalonia. This spring focuses mainly on the implementation of pedagogical actions, formative structure and with the educational chain and is motivated by the interest of improving results, motivation, learning... of students. Although entering into DISCUSSION with other studies also responds to pressure from society and families for educational change.

Empirical Study on the Evaluation of the Transformation of China's Foreign Trade Development Mode under Dual Perspectives

By analyzing the current studies about the transformation of foreign trade development mode, we find that the researches involving the change of necessity of foreign trade pattern ,the evaluation of the result , the way of the transformation and the power of it ,but there exist some problems which focus on the unreasonable index systems and empirical method . Therefore, The paper constructs two equations from the two angles such as trade process and trade outcome based on the analysis of connotation of foreign trade patterns. And then the author use the method named Sharp value decomposition to evaluate the effects of each factors on the trade patterns transformation from the level of trade process and result. The results show that the effect of the scale factor is the biggest in our scale of foreign trade development, the contribution of the technical factors need to be improved, and there is poor coordination between the domestic economy and the technology of the export sector. On the view of the trade result, the growth of the effect of price is the highest, and then is the quantity; the effect of species has a large decline. This indicates the quality of our product has been improving, but the degree of innovation needs to be improved. Hence, our transformation of foreign trade development mode has a certain degree of improvement, but still needs efforts. Our next step should be improving the technical coordination between the export sector and the other sectors, as well as the innovation ability of enterprise.

Sustainable innovation practices and the degree of innovation of business models in Brazilian industrial companies

PurposeThis study has aimed to analyze the relationship between the adoption of sustainable innovation practices and the degree of innovation of business models in Brazilian industrial companies.Design/methodology/approachThe study has been characterized as quantitative and comprised the conduction of a survey with Brazilian industrial companies.FindingsResults have shown that companies with a high degree of innovation in their business models invest more strongly in strategic dimensions of sustainable innovation, which in general involve stakeholders and cross the organization's internal boundaries, requiring proactive attitudes from the company, probably because this type of investment gives them greater competitiveness in their market and also requires a radical modification of their business model.Practical implicationsThis study seeks to present contributions to entrepreneurs and policy makers, in the face of the innovative and sustainable challenges imposed by society and the guidelines for sustainable development in order to reflect on positive impacts on local and global development.Social implicationsComprehending the behavior of industrial companies in Brazil in relation to sustainable innovation and its impact on society contributes to understanding the benefits of adopting a strategic management of sustainable innovation, minimizing negative socio-environmental impacts.Originality/valueBy analyzing the themes of sustainable innovation and business model, the present study may contribute to adopting business behavior that strategically and systemically integrates the objectives of sustainable innovation.

Land, Inheritance and Firstborn Problematics

Introduction. In this article land as the first input factor in the classical production function is analyzed. In economic theory, land is linked to heritage and the firstborn problematics. The methods used are based on history of entrepreneurial research, philosophy, legal and theological aspects. Land represents both opportunities but also obstacles, especially in connection with the firstborn problematics. Purpose. The article deals with land, inheritance and the firstborn problematics, its historical basis and consequences for economic and social development. Results. Land is the first input factor in the production process, whose utility and purpose is to create financial profit. Land is covered by everything that is given by nature. The human organism and all that can be extracted from it is land; in processed condition a product or commodity. In an economic theoretical context, inheritance means receiving property from someone who has died, or to bequeath or make a deathbed will, and inter-vivos gifts made by donors in anticipation of their eventual demise. Inheritance by primogeniture not only secures the firstborn son a greater share of the wealth of the entrepreneur, but it also makes the firstborn son in charge of the clan, which is practically similar to being a king. Primogeniture is linked to factors in business and society that are characterized with static economy. Control, routine and stability represent the framework of static production. Schumpeter characterizes entrepreneurs according to will and act, which is the opposite and thereby the forces behind the young men who change to world to the better for all. Entrepreneurs are the creators of civilization. Conclusions. Land as an input factor in the production function represents an infinite wealth in the world. As a result of the increased degree of innovation, the world’s wealth is accelerating. Only wealth can be inherited, the ability to innovate cannot be inherited or transferred from father to son. Keywords. Land, inheritance; firstborn problematics; production function; primogeniture.