Sector Archives - Page 6 of 68

Government Support of SME’s is not a Bad Thing

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies often have difficulties improving their technological capabilities in terms of product or process innovation. Therefore, some kind of government support is necessary.

Policies for stimulating technological development and innovation in SMEs can be divided into three groups:

(i) supply-side policies aim at increasing firms’ incentives to invest in innovation by reducing costs

(ii) demand-side policies are public actions to induce innovation and/or speed up the diffusion of innovation

‘Global Nomads’ are Proliferating and Working from Anywhere

In the past two weeks, I have met two people who introduced themselves as global nomads. By “nomads”, they mean someone who moves from place to place with no fixed address, other than their email address. They consult wherever they go, and are enabled through technology to live and work from anywhere.

This new thinking about what and where work is performed is starting to influence thinking on where we live, offering an entirely new take on work-life balance.

Don’t be so Quick to Judge Nuclear Power

Let us for a second imagine a world without nuclear energy. That is a tough one but let us try. No nuclear bombs, of course, no Chernobyl and Fukushima, no worries about Iran and North Korea. A wonderful world, maybe?

Probably not, because without nuclear energy we would have burned millions more tons of coal and billions more barrels of oil. This would have brought about climate change of such proportions that what we have today would have seemed negligible.

Businesses Race to Turn Science Fiction into Fact

The race is on to bring a jetpack to market. New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft has a jetpack which is due to go on sale this year and US-based JetPack Aviation is working on a more streamlined offering. Therefore, aviation junkies with the cash to spare will soon be able to get their hands on what has long been the preserve of science fiction.

Gig Workers’ Risky Business

To secure work in the gig economy, workers often have to contribute not just their time and labour but also their capital. This means workers are not only shouldering the risks associated with insecure employment but also the risks associated with investing capital into businesses that they have little control over.

What is a Swing Trade and How is it Helping Businesses?

Businesses benefit from having substantial shareholders as directors on audit committees, but only when they are utilising swing trades, new research shows. The research compares the presence of these experienced directors as opposed to independent directors in management of Australian companies listed on the ASX.

Iran May Reach Oil Deal with Kurdistan

Iran and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are on the verge of solidifying a deal exporting up to 250,000 a day of oil to Tehran, according to Al Jazeera. KRG is an autonomous region of Iraq, and Iranian authorities stressed that the deal will not go through without approval from Baghdad. Turkey is a major recipient of KRG oil, but has made no comment about KRG-Iranian talks.

An Oil Drilling and Service Catch 22

The impact of rising oil prices on North American light tight oil (LTO) production is said to be a “Catch 22”, the title of Joseph Heller’s popular 1961 novel set in WWII. The premise was you could get out of the army if you were crazy but you weren’t crazy to try to get out of the army. Therefore, this avenue to escape the war didn’t work for the book’s main character John Yossarian

Tech Disruptors to Government…Stay Out of the Way

A complacent government could easily adopt a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the effects of technology on our economy, but a report from the Productivity Commission advocates what governments need to do to confront digital disruption – get out of its way.

Uranium Bottom: Are We There Yet?

With prices set to double by 2018, we’ve seen the bottom of the uranium market, and the negative sentiment that has followed this resource around despite strong fundamentals, is starting to change.

Billionaire investors sense it, and they’re always the first to anticipate change and take advantage of the rally before it becomes a reality. The turning point is where all the money is made, and there are plenty of indications that the uranium recovery is already underway.