Small firms

You are probably working for a medium-sized or large organization (be this as a full-time/part-time employee or a consultant). That said, this chapter, and indeed the whole book, is highly relevant to mentoring schemes in small firms too. 

In the electronics industry, a large number of relatively small firms play a key role in generating new process concepts and equipment. These firms face important research problems in fundamental science and engineering that would benefit markedly from the insights of academic chemical engineering researchers. Academic researchers should seek out and forge links to these small firms that stand at the crucial step between laboratory research and production processes. Potential mechanisms for accomplishing this are described in Chapter 10. 

Health and safety in small firms An introduction to health and safety ... 

Crane, W.M. (2005) The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms. Lafayette College, Easton, PA for the United States Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. Under contract SBHQ-03-M-0522. 

In my own direct contacts with industry, I have heard many times that small firms just don t have the personnel to assemble the pertinent data and fill out the PMN form for a new chemical. 

Infosys has also set up proximity centers and development centers in different geographic locations around the world to mine local knowledge and resources. Besides, Infosys periodically undertakes joint projects with start-up firms and makes minority investments in small firms to track or gain access to cutting-edge technologies. 

There are at least three very important flaws in the basic mechanism proposed by Project BioShield II (and Transferable Intellectual Property Rights in general). First, the way the reward for the innovator is financed through a patent extension is inefficient and inequitable. Second, the incentive mechanism is poorly defined, and does not offer a clear methodology to determine how large a reward to pay for a given innovation. Third, the mechanism discriminates against small firms. 

Small firm used about 4,000 gallons of TCA to clean metal stock Firm converted to a water-based cleaning system... 

Small firm used up to 5,000 pounds of TCA annually to clean stainless steel pots used in their operations Firm switched to pots of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which did not need to be cleaned by TCA... 

Small firm uses methylene chloride to strip coatings off small aircraft Firm identified and tested low mediylene chloride-content strippers to replace use of only methylene chloride. 

Semiconductor A generic term for a device that controls electrical signals. It specifically refers to a material (such as silicon, germanium or gallium arsenide) that can be altered either to conduct electrical current or to block its passage. Carbon nanotubes may eventually be used as semiconductors. Semiconductors are partly responsible for the miniaturization of modem electronic devices, as they are vital components in computer memory and processor chips. The manufacture of semiconductors is carried out by small firms, and by industry giants such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. 

Several small firms market more sophisticated equipment than the domestic microwave oven, and research departments in a number of pharmaceutical companies continue to work with the technology to aid their synthesis of APIs and their intermediates. Several microwave equipment companies70 are developing larger-scale equipment to produce kilogram quantities. Their systems are evolving to meet some of the needs identified by the earlier practioners such as ... 

The planning process for a not-too-small firm might look like that in Figure 18-2. In many... 

Structural weaknesses, e.g. in applied research and training programs, lack of collaboration and targeted programs, short-term funding, small firms ... 

This leaves a wide gap between those who do fimdamental research and the industry which builds on applied research to develop innovative products. The industry, particularly if it consists of small firms, is only to a very limited extent in a position to bridge this gap by internal research activities and by fimding external research. 

Liedholm, C. (2002). Small firm dynamics evidence from Africa and Latin America, Small Business Economics, 18(1-3) 227-242. 

Free allocation had another indirect positive effect it improved existing data on emissions by requiring closer cooperation between different actors and administrative levels. This was so because small firms whose emissions were not initially identified requested an allocation (ceramics sector). 

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