BizResearch

Financial Market Trends: Europe vs. US brings together and compares the size of key financial market in Europe with the US. IFSL’s October 2008 report found that in more than half of the activities monitored trading in Europe outstrips the US in 2007.

IFSL’s annual report Financial Market Trends: Europe vs. US brings together and compares the size of key financial market in Europe with the US.

IFSL’s October 2008 report found that in more than half of the activities monitored trading in Europe outstrips the US in 2007. Over the longer period since 2001 activity in Europe rose relative to the US in 13 out of 18 markets

The survey reveals that in over half of activities, 10 out of 16, Europe’s share
rose relative to the US between 2006 and 2007, with no relative change in
one activity. Over the longer term between 2001 and 2007 Europe’s share
rose in 13 out of 18 markets. Most of the gains over the past six years have
been in 8 out of 9 sectors where activity in Europe is smaller than the US.
The largest gains in Europe have been in management of hedge fund assets
and issuance of domestic bonds. Europe has also made some large relative
gains since 2001 in sectors where it has the larger market, including cross border bank lending, issuance of international bonds, IPOs and isurance premiums.

The US has made up ground in a few areas in recent years, particularly
foreign equity trading, where the gap with Europe has been largely closed, as
well as OTC derivatives where Europe’s lead has been curtailed. The overall
trend over a number of years demonstrates London’s continuing importance
as the capital for many of Europe’s wholesale financial markets.

To read the report go to:

http://www.ifsl.org.uk/output/ReportItem.aspx?NewsID=44

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MarketLine

MarketLine is an online service that provides Datamonitor research data on companies, industries and countries. Contents can be accessed via PDF reports or by using the interactive database functions and includes the following:

Industry reports: contain industry profiles as well as information on related financial deals. Look for "Value consumer markets" or "Consumer markets" on the right hand side of the two main tabbed screens.

Company profiles for 50,000 public and private companies including: company history; products and services; revenue analysis; biographies; SWOT analyses; key competitor; partnerships and M&A. Look for look for "Assess M&A activities" or "Financial deals" on the right hand side of the two main tabbed screens.

Country data: includes fundamental figures and political and macroeconomic analysis and comparison. Related company, industry and deal data is also presented in a country's view. Look for "Understanding country dynamics" or "Base drivers" on the right hand side of the two main tabbed screens.

The website also offers live feed of news, comment and analysis to keep you fully up-to-date with all the latest business developments

MarketLine is available to current London Business School students, faculty and staff via the A-Z list of library databases in Portal

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Pulse of the industry: US medical technology report 2008

This latest research report from Ernest & Young examines the current state of the US medical technology (medtech) industry. The past 18 months has seen private investment in medtech companies remain strong despite the effects of the global credit crunch. The report forecasts that growth in this industry is likely to continue given emerging demographic trends. Demographic data from the US Census Bureau shows that the 85+ age group is now the fastest growing segment of the US population, a trend that can be found in all industrialized nations. With an aging population, the prevalence of chronic disease will inevitably drive tremendous growth opportunities. Still, the industry will have to contend with a number of risks and challenges, including growing pricing pressures from governments and third-party insurers, increased regulatory oversight, and product safety concerns and new regulations, which are limiting traditional methods for cooperating with physicians on product development and refinement.

The companies covered in this report are defined as US-headquartered public companies that primarily design and manufacture medical technology equipment and supplies. This includes medical device, diagnostic, drug delivery and analytical/life science tool companies but excludes distributors and service providers such as contract research and manufacturing organizations.

To read the report in full click here (PDF, 1.3m)

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Oxford Business Group – The Report

Oxford Business Group is a leading publisher of economic and political intelligence on the markets of Eastern Europe, North and South Africa, the Middle East and Asia. ‘The Report’ is a series of annual country reports written by a team of analysts based on the ground for six months. It offers comprehensive and accurate analysis of political, macroeconomic and sectoral developments. Regular sections covered include: politics, the economy, energy, construction, banking, tourism, capital markets, industry and transport. The library now has Oxford Business Group reports covering 27 countries with the latest to be added being Bahrain 2008 and Emerging Syria 2008.

The Oxford Business Group reports can be found in the journal collection located in the library basement. A full list of reports held can be found via the Library Catalogue.

The hottest clean technology companies in Europe

The hottest clean technology companies in Europe

"In its simplest form, clean (or green) technology is anything that helps consumers or industries to use basic materials such as energy, water and waste more efficiently and, while using it, lessen their environmental footprint. Unlike IT, biotech or telecommunications, there is no agreed definition of "cleantech" but it is a hot area, thanks to heightened awareness of climate change and the rising cost of fossil fuels.

And it is poised for a boom: according to the analysts Library House, venture capital investment in European cleantech companies went from £407m in 2006 to £805m last year. Ben Goldsmith of WHEB Ventures, an investment firm specialising in environmental businesses, says that globally the figures are even more impressive: "around $850m in 2004 against $6bn in 2007".

Clean technology represents more of a theme than a specific sector, says Patrick Sheehan, a partner at the Environmental Technologies Fund. He says that waves of investment in the arena have come and gone for more than 20 years, and identifies the most recent as starting with investors in the US, mainly those used to dealing with technological startups in Silicon Valley, around 2004.

Library House, in collaboration with the Carbon Trust, proposes the idea that cleantech can be divided into four parts along the energy chain: the discovery and development of new energy sources; generation of clean power; the infrastructure needed to store and distribute energy; and, finally, more efficient use of energy by consumers."

To see the list of top companies click here.

To find out more about Library House who research and profile fast-growth, innovation-led private companies, their people and investors click here.

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Foundations of High Impact Entrepreneurship

Foundations of High Impact Entrepreneurship

This is the latest issue in:  Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship Volume 4, Issue 6

By Zoltan J. Acs (George Mason University)

This survey reviews the theoretical literature on high impact entrepreneurship. The survey is guided in part by the recent classification changes at the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) regarding entrepreneurship. The review covers the intersection of entrepreneurship with labor markets, innovation, and capital markets -- the three pillars of high impact entrepreneurship.

If you are a member of staff, faculty or a current student at the London Business School and are logged onto the Portal click on the link below to read the article:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0300000025

About Foundations and Trends

Foundations and Trends combines the peer-review of journals, the high usage of reference works, and the pedagogy of textbooks. Each "issue" of FnT comprises one or more monographs of up to 100 pages written by research and opinion leaders in the field that surveys the literature and offers a state-of-the-art review of the subject in full including a complete bibliography.

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The sustainability agenda: industry perspectives

For many businesses, sustainability has been viewed more in terms of corporate philanthropy rather than something that should underpin core business strategies.  However, this perspective has changed according to a new research report from PwC. Corporations now realise that how they respond to the challenges of a carbon-constrained world and other issues on the sustainability agenda will impact on how they succeed. A recent survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which also looked at the impact of sustainability on business, found that 57% of top executives believe that the benefits of sustainability far outweigh the costs. The report ‘Doing good: business and the sustainability challenge’ also confirmed sustainability’s rise on the corporate agenda and its link to competitive advantage with 53% of executives reporting that they have coherent sustainability policies in place. The same percentage reported that responsibility for sustainability in their organisations has been placed at the CEO or board level.

So what does this all mean for future business practices? There is no doubt that sustainability presents both major challenges and tremendous opportunities. Many companies have realised that by investing in energy-efficiency measures, responding to changing consumer buying patterns and ensuring sustainable business practices in their supply chains, they can operate more efficiently and create value in new ways. This report from PwC discuss some of these challenges, looking specifically at the dynamics of complex global supply chains across five key sectors; energy, transportation and logistics, retail and consumer, technology and banking and capital markets.

Click here to read the report in full

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Chemistry of Talent (New ways to think about people and work)

Today “Talent” is at the top of the business agenda according to the latest research report from Deloitte. There is increasing concerns about the scarce supply of critical employees, and how to keep and develop the employers they already have. Globalization has also made a huge impact on organizations as they find ways to manage global customers, global workforces and distributed work. Unfortunately, most companies have not set up their talent and HR programs to compete in a flat world. The Chemistry of Talent (New ways to think about people and work) is the 10th in a series of Straight Talk books dedicated to helping companies improve performance. Accompanying this report is the “Periodic Table of Talent” which helps organize talent “elements” across the categories of strategy and metrics, solutions, catalysts and talent infrastructure. Elements are defined as “core” or “differentiating.” Core elements are those that support the traditional employee lifecycle, whilst Differentiators have higher potential to drive competitive advantage. Understanding how the right talent elements combine to form the winning combination for an organization begins with creating a business-focused, fact-based, analytics-driven strategy.

The Periodic Table of Talent and the research report are both freely available from the Deloitte website.

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InformationWeek 500

The InformationWeek 500, now in its 20th year, identifies companies using technology in innovative ways in order to improve business. Unique among corporate rankings, it spotlights the power of innovation in business technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders. To qualify for the InformationWeek 500 list, a company must have a minimum revenue of $500 million and must demonstrate a pattern of technological, procedural, and organizational innovation. The ranking methodology is based on a proprietary weighting system created by InformationWeek. On average, the companies included in the ranking allocate around 2.8% of their revenue to IT. This means that the average respondent devotes $354 million to IT; approximately half of which is spent on products and services, and one-third on staff. The balance goes to R&D and "everything else."

Even with the current economic conditions these companies are investing huge amounts in technology, spending an average of 39% of their IT budgets on new projects. Web 2.0 is proving to be one of the hottest ideas in technology; this year’s list shows a 70% increase in the use of Web 2.0 collaboration tools such as wikis, blogs, and social networking. Meanwhile, adoption of more tactical technologies, such as WAN optimization has exploded in the past year.

Click here to see the full ranking

Alternatively, the latest issue of InformationWeek can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

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Small-scale wind energy

There is increasing interest in the use of small-scale wind energy as one of a number of microgeneration technologies that have the potential to reduce carbon emissions. Recent years have seen new products being made available on the UK market, which a survey by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) suggests is growing quickly.  Policy initiatives such as the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP), Permitted Development Rights (PDRs) for domestic microgeneration and the Code for Sustainable Homes are further helping developments in this area. However, the overall potential of small-scale wind energy to reduce carbon emissions, and the conditions under which maximum carbon reductions can be made, have not been entirely clear. Recognising this, the Carbon Trust commissioned this research report from the Met Office and Entec to determine the following:

• The overall UK carbon prize associated with small-scale wind energy; and
• How small wind turbines can best be sited to save most carbon.

To read the report in full click here

In addition, the Carbon Trust and Met Office have also published a companion technical report, which provides a review of existing scientific literature and engineering methods for calculating energy yields.

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