Holistic Approach to R&D Products’ Evaluation for Commercialization under Open Innovations

A holistic approach to R&D products’ evaluation for commercialization under open innovations is developed. The approach is tested on the example of the device of the interferometric determination of the refractive index of crystalline materials in the optical range. The proposed approach will allow setting a price that will satisfy all the parties of a transfer agreement with a higher level of accuracy and will meet market requirements. Unlike popular methods of evaluating the R&D product, a holistic approach will, on the one hand, be based on the actual costs and the break-even level of a R&D product and, on the other hand, will determine how much the consumer is receptive to a R&D product, and, then again, will show how the added value of the product will develop under the influence of market effects. It is noted that the application of a holistic approach to R&D products’ evaluation for commercialization should be supplemented by assessing the willingness of potential customers to purchase this R&D product at a specific price. It is proved that the proposed holistic approach to R&D products’ evaluation for commercialization is multifunctional. The approach can be applied to different types of economic activity, R&D products, and types of markets. The obtained prices based on the application of a holistic approach to R&D products’ evaluation for commercialization and the results of marketing research of the interferometry market testified to potential prospects of the commercialization of a R&D product of the interferometric determination of the refractive index of crystalline materials in the optical range and its long-term competitiveness. Based on the results, the key provisions of the concept of providing competitive benefits for the period of implementation of the analyzed R&D product are identified. Taking into account fundamental elements of the open innovation paradigm underpins the authors’ holistic approach.

Do Board Gender Quotas Matter? Selection, Performance, and Stock Market Effects

From business to politics and academia, the economic effects of gender quotas are under scrutiny. We provide new causal evidence based on the introduction of mandatory gender quotas for boards of directors of Italian listed companies. Exploiting staggered board elections, we find that quotas are associated with a new selection of board members, characterized by higher education and lower age, and no significant costs on firm performance or the stock market. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Government Environmental Pressure and Market Response to Carbon Disclosure: A Study of the Early Chinese ETS Implementation

We studied how companies’ carbon disclosures affect the cost of capital under the Chinese government’s introduction of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) regulation. We also tested how much the effect varied between state-owned and private enterprises, and between polluting and non-polluting industries. Since, at its early stage, the market may perceive signals and implementations of environmental regulation as a cost burden, the effect of environmental disclosure, which is traditionally known to reduce the cost of capital, may be different. Using a comprehensive index through content analysis and targeting companies in China’s pilot ETS regions between 2011 and 2016, our study showed the following test results. First, for the companies in regions where the ETS regulation was introduced, while carbon disclosure was below a certain level, disclosure raised the cost of capital, and after carbon disclosure was sufficiently high, disclosure decreased the cost of capital. Second, this inverted-U-shaped relationship appeared in non-state-owned enterprises only, and state-owned enterprises showed a traditional linear relationship that disclosure lowers the cost of capital. Third, this non-linear relationship was statistically significant only in the non-heavy pollution industries. This study contributes to the literature in that there are limited studies on the market effects of China’s early introduction of the ETS regulation.