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Sole Technology, Inc. , known informally as Sole Tech , is an American footwear and apparel company, specializing in skate shoe design, production and distribution. The company is owned and operated by Pierre-André Senizergues, a former professional freestyle skateboarder . The company's headquarters are in Lake Forest , California , United States.

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48-431: Sole Technology was founded in 1996 to be the parent company of the etnies, éS, Emerica and ThirtyTwo brands. The Sole Technology Institute (STI) was established in 2003. STI Lab is a first-of-its-kind research and development facility that conducts biomechanical skate shoe research. In May 2024, etnies, éS, Emerica and ThirtyTwo were acquired by Nidecker Group , a Swiss action sports equipment conglomerate. Following

96-407: A hiatus in mid-2012, the brand returned in 2014 with special edition runs of their shoes distributed to select skateboard shops. Emerica was launched in 1996, and, in addition to selling apparel, has produced a number of skateboarding-themed videos. Their 2013 video, MADE: Chapter One , was offered to consumers at a price of their choosing, with a minimum price of US$ 1.00 established. In July 2013,

144-637: A legal partnership entity, agency, or corporate affiliate relationship. Typically, two companies form a strategic alliance when each possesses one or more business assets or have expertise that will help the other by enhancing their businesses. Strategic alliances can develop in outsourcing relationships where the parties desire to achieve long-term win-win benefits and innovation based on mutually desired outcomes. This form of cooperation lies between mergers and acquisitions and organic growth. Strategic alliances occur when two or more organizations join together to pursue mutual benefits. Partners may provide

192-690: A new product. If the development is technology driven, R&D is directed toward developing products to meet the unmet needs. In general, research and development activities are conducted by specialized units or centers belonging to a company, or can be out-sourced to a contract research organization, universities , or state agencies. In the context of commerce , "research and development" normally refers to future-oriented, longer-term activities in science or technology , using similar techniques to scientific research but directed toward desired outcomes and with broad forecasts of commercial yield. Statistics on organizations devoted to "R&D" may express

240-424: A recent phenomena in our time, in fact collaborations between enterprises are as old as the existence of such enterprises. Examples would be early credit institutions or trade associations like the early Dutch guilds. There have always been strategic alliances, but in the last couple of decades the focus and reasons for strategic alliances has evolved very very quickly: In the 1970s, the focus of strategic alliances

288-618: A successful alliance include: Using and operating strategic alliances does not only bring chances and benefits. There are also risks and limitations that have to be taken in consideration. Failures are often attributed to unrealistic expectations, lack of commitment, cultural differences, strategic goal divergence and insufficient trust. Some of the risks are listed below: The "dark side" of strategic alliances has received increasing attention across different management fields, such as business ethics, marketing, and supply chain management. Many companies struggle to operate their alliances in

336-445: A way of amortizing the high overhead. They often reuse advanced manufacturing processes, expensive safety certifications, specialized embedded software, computer-aided design software, electronic designs and mechanical subsystems. Research from 2000 has shown that firms with a persistent R&D strategy outperform those with an irregular or no R&D investment program. Research and development are very difficult to manage, since

384-528: Is an agreement between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon objectives needed while remaining independent organizations. The alliance is a cooperation or collaboration which aims for a synergy where each partner hopes that the benefits from the alliance will be greater than those from individual efforts. The alliance often involves technology transfer (access to knowledge and expertise), economic specialization , shared expenses and shared risk. A strategic alliance will usually fall short of

432-660: Is appealing to bidders because they could gain technologies from acquisition targets. Therefore, firms may gain R&;D profit that co-moves with takeover waves, causing risks to the company which engages in R&D activity. Global R&D management is the discipline of designing and leading R&D processes globally, across cultural and lingual settings, and the transfer of knowledge across international corporate networks. Former President Barack Obama requested $ 147.696 billion for research and development in FY 2012, 21% of which

480-810: Is called " R&D intensity ". A high technology company, such as a computer manufacturer, might spend 7% or a pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co. 14.1% or Novartis 15.1%. Anything over 15% is remarkable, and usually gains a reputation for being a high technology company such as engineering company Ericsson 24.9%, or biotech company Allergan , which tops the spending table with 43.4% investment. Such companies are often seen as credit risks because their spending ratios are so unusual. Generally such firms prosper only in markets whose customers have extreme high technology needs, like certain prescription drugs or special chemicals, scientific instruments , and safety-critical systems in medicine, aeronautics or military weapons . The extreme needs justify

528-405: Is crucial for acquiring larger shares of the market through new products. R&D&I represents R&D with innovation. New product design and development is often a crucial factor in the survival of a company. In a global industrial landscape that is changing fast, firms must continually revise their design and range of products. This is necessary as well due to the fierce competition and

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576-483: Is followed by textiles (19%), digital (18%), and aerospace (15%). Other sectors allocate less than 10% of their total investment to R&D. While 17% of the world’s top R&D investors are based in the European Union, they accounted for only 1% of acquisitions involving EU-based companies between 2013 and 2023. In 2015, research and development constituted an average 2.2% of the global GDP according to

624-641: Is lower than the EU average of 18%. In 2022, 67% of enterprises in the same region deployed at least one sophisticated digital technology, and 69% EU firms did the same. As of 2023, European enterprises account for 18% of the world's top 2 500 R&D corporations, but just 10% of new entrants, compared to 45% in the United States and 32% in China. As of 2024, the electronics sector leads in R&D investment, with 28% of its total investment dedicated to it. This

672-451: The Europe 2020 strategy which will run from 2014 to 2020, a multidisciplinary effort to provide safe, economically feasible, environmentally sound and socially acceptable solutions along the entire value chain of human activities. Firms that have embraced advanced digital technology devote a greater proportion of their investment efforts to R&D. Firms who engaged in digitisation during

720-628: The Office of Chief Scientist In the 1980s to 1992, the Chief scientist of Israel significantly expanded R&D subsidies in the Israeli industrial sector. Israel invested in the creation of clusters of startups in the high-tech sector as well as venture capital investments. In 1993, Israel initiated the Yozma program , which led to the doubling of value of Israel's 10 new venture capital funds in 3 years. In

768-626: The UNESCO Institute for Statistics . By 2018, research and development constituted an average 1.79% of the global GDP according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics . Countries agreed in 2015 to monitor their progress in raising research intensity (SDG 9.5.1), as well as researcher density (SDG 9.5.2), as part of their commitment to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, this undertaking has not spurred an increase in reporting of data. On

816-465: The acquisition, a new company was created to operate the four brands under Nidecker, with Pierre-André assuming the role of CEO for each of them. The Sole Technology name will gradually be phased out. The company's first and largest brand is etnies . Established in 1986, etnies produces footwear and apparel for skateboarding, BMX , motocross , surfing and snowboarding —the brand also sponsors teams in all of these " action sports ." From 2005 to 2011,

864-436: The alliance. So nowadays managing an alliance focuses on leveraging the differences to create value for the customer, dealing with internal challenges, managing daily competition of the alliance with competitors and Risk Management which has become a company-wide concern. The percentage of revenues for the top 1000 U.S. public corporations generated by strategic alliances increased from 3-6% in the 1990s to 40% in 2010, which shows

912-529: The brand released its "Workwear" line, a collaboration with skateboarder Andrew Reynolds . Emerica sponsors a skateboard team which includes Collin Provost, Ed Templeton , Justin "Figgy" Figueroa, Kevin "Spanky" Long, Leo Romero, Jeremy Leabres, Jon Dickson, Eric Winkowski, Rob Maatman, Dakota Servold, Kevin Baekkel, Victor Aceves and Chris Wimer. ThirtyTwo, a snowboarding boots, apparel, and outerwear brand,

960-432: The companies lead to the need for constant innovation for competitive advantage. The focus of strategic alliances relocated on the development of capabilities and competencies. For companies there are many reasons to enter a strategic alliance: Disadvantages of strategic alliances include: The success of any alliance very much depends on how effectively the capabilities of the involved enterprises are matched and whether

1008-639: The company also operated etnies plus, a sub-brand which specialized in limited-run footwear. Etnies sponsored athletes include Ryan Sheckler , Willow, Nick Garcia, Jose Rojo, Chris Joslin and David Reyes. Founded in 1995, éS produces skateboarding footwear and apparel. The brand subsequently sponsored a team that included professional skateboarders John Rattray , PJ Ladd , Eric Koston , Paul Rodriguez , Ronnie Creager, Chad Muska, Justin Eldridge, Rodrigo Teixeira (TX), Bob Burnquist , Arto Saari , Nyjah Huston , Tom Penny , and Rick McCrank . After announcing

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1056-485: The contrary, a total of 99 countries reported data on domestic investment in research in 2015 but only 69 countries in 2018. Similarly, 59 countries recorded the number of researchers (in full-time equivalents) in 2018, down from 90 countries in 2015. UNESCO Institute for Statistics is the global custodian of these R&D data; data can be freely obtained from the UIS database . Strategic alliance A strategic alliance

1104-411: The defining feature of research is that the researchers do not know in advance exactly how to accomplish the desired result. As a result, "higher R&D spending does not guarantee more creativity, higher profit or a greater market share". Research is the most risky financing area because both the development of an invention and its successful realization carries uncertainty including the profitability of

1152-408: The evolving preferences of consumers. Without an R&D program, a firm must rely on strategic alliances , acquisitions , and networks to tap into the innovations of others. A system driven by marketing is one that puts the customer needs first, and produces goods that are known to sell. Market research is carried out, which establishes the needs of consumers and the potential niche market of

1200-464: The fast changing necessity to align in partnerships. The number of equity-based alliances has dramatically increased in the last couple of years, whereas the number of acquisitions has decreased by 65% since the year 2000. For a statistically examination over 3000 announced alliances in the USA have been reviewed in the years 1997 to 1997 and results showed that only 25% of these alliances were equity based. In

1248-424: The field of Strategic Alliances. Others see joint ventures as possible manifestations of Strategic Alliances. Some definitions are given here: Various terms have been used to describe forms of strategic partnering. These include ‘international coalitions’ (Porter and Fuller, 1986), ‘strategic networks’ (Jarillo, 1988) and, most commonly, ‘strategic alliances’. Definitions are equally varied. An alliance may be seen as

1296-434: The first stage of development of a potential new service or the production process. Although R&D activities may differ across businesses, the primary goal of an R&D department is to develop new products and services. R&D differs from the vast majority of corporate activities in that it is not intended to yield immediate profit, and generally carries greater risk and an uncertain return on investment . R&D

1344-476: The full commitment of each partner to the alliance is achieved. There is no partnership without trade-offs, but the benefits of it must preponderate the disadvantages, because alliances are made to fill gaps in each others´capabilities and capacities. Poor alignment of objectives, performance metrics, and a clash of corporate cultures can weaken and constrain the effectiveness of the alliance effectiveness. Some key factors that have to be considered to be able to manage

1392-445: The high risk of failure and consequently high gross margins from 60% to 90% of revenues. That is, gross profits will be as much as 90% of the sales cost, with manufacturing costing only 10% of the product price, because so many individual projects yield no exploitable product. Most industrial companies get 40% revenues only. On a technical level, high tech organizations explore ways to re-purpose and repackage advanced technologies as

1440-782: The invention. One way entrepreneurs can reduce these uncertainties is to buy the licence for a franchise, so that the know-how is already incorporated in the licence. In general, it has been found that there is a positive correlation between the research and development and firm productivity across all sectors, but that this positive correlation is much stronger in high-tech firms than in low-tech firms. In research done by Francesco Crespi and Cristiano Antonelli, high-tech firms were found to have "virtuous" Matthew effects while low-tech firms experienced "vicious" Matthew effects, meaning that high-tech firms were awarded subsidies on merit while low-tech firms most often were given subsidies based on name recognition, even if not put to good use. While

1488-555: The late 1990s, Israel was second only to the US in private equity as a share of the general economy. The high tech sector in Israel, known as Silicon Wadi , which earned Israel the nickname - Start-up Nation , was ranked the 4th leading startup ecosystem in the world by Startup genome with a value of $ 253billion in 2023. Europe is lagging behind in R&D investments from the past two decades. The target of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP)

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1536-501: The life of a strategic alliance, an internal structure occurs under which its functions develop. While operating it, the alliance becomes an own new organization itself with members from the origin companies with the aim of meeting all previously set objectives and improving the overall performance of the alliance which requires effective structures and processes and a good, strong and reliable leadership. Budges have to be linked, as well as resources which are strategically most important and

1584-424: The number of strategic alliances increased dramatically. Some of these partnerships lead to great product successes like photocopiers by Canon sold under the brand of Kodak, or the partnership of Toshiba and Motorola whose joining of resources and technology lead to great success with microprocessors. In the 1990s, geographical borders between markets collapsed and new markets were enterable. Higher requirements for

1632-456: The operational skills and resources required for the competitive success of a venture. Partner-related criteria are associated with the efficiency and effectiveness of partner cooperation. The activities most often associated with the analysis phase are: The activities most often associated with the selection phase are: Forming a strategic alliance is a process which usually implies some major steps that are mentioned below: In this phase in

1680-478: The pandemic report spending a big portion of their expenditure in 2020 on software, data, IT infrastructure, and website operations. A 2021/2022 survey found that one in every seven enterprises in the Central, Eastern and South Eastern regions (14%) may be classed as active innovators — that is, firms that spent heavily in research and development and developed a new product, process, or service — however this figure

1728-408: The performance of the alliance has to be measured and assessed. This phase focuses on creating frameworks both legally and organizational for the strategic alliance relationship, on agreeing and finalizing operational plans, making sure that key leadership is in place, and creating a formula for risk-and-reward that will motivates both parties to make the relationship a success. This phase ends with

1776-433: The state of an industry , the degree of competition or the lure of progress . Some common measures include: budgets , numbers of patents or on rates of peer-reviewed publications . Bank ratios are one of the best measures, because they are continuously maintained, public and reflect risk. In the United States, a typical ratio of research and development for an industrial company is about 3.5% of revenues; this measure

1824-422: The strategic alliance with resources such as products, distribution channels, manufacturing capability, project funding, capital equipment, knowledge, expertise, or intellectual property. There are several ways of defining a strategic alliance. Some of the definitions emphasize the fact that the partners do not create a new legal entity, i.e. a new company. This excludes legal formations like joint ventures from

1872-490: The strength of the correlation between R&D spending and productivity in low-tech industries is less than in high-tech industries, studies have been done showing non-trivial carryover effects to other parts of the marketplace by low-tech R&D. Business R&D is risky for at least two reasons. The first source of risks comes from R&D nature, where R&D project could fail without residual values. The second source of risks comes from takeover risks, which means R&D

1920-759: The way they imagined it and many of these partnerships fail to reach their defined goals. Some common mistakes are: Strategic alliances have developed from an option to a necessity in many markets and industries. Variation in markets and requirements leads to an increasing use of strategic alliances. It is of essential importance to integrate strategic alliance management into the overall corporate strategy to advance products and services, enter new markets and leverage technology and Research & Development. Nowadays, global companies have many alliances on inland markets as well as global partnerships, sometimes even with competitors, which leads to challenges such as keeping up competition or protecting own interests while managing

1968-579: The years 2000 to 2002 this percentage increased up to 62% equity-based alliances among 2500 newly formed alliances. In the analysis phase performance goals for the partnership are defined. These goals are used to determine the broad operational capabilities that will be required. In the selection phase those performance goals are used as some of the criteria to evaluate and select potential alliance partners. In addition, partner selection criteria can be categorised as being either task-related, or partner-related. Task-related selection criteria are associated with

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2016-590: The ‘joining of forces and resources, for a specified or indefinite period, to achieve a common objective’. There are seven general areas in which profit can be made from building alliances. Some types of strategic alliances include: Michael Porter and Mark Fuller, founding members of the Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte ), draw a distinction among types of strategic alliances according to their purposes: Further kinds of strategic alliances include: Some analysts may say that strategic alliances are

2064-477: Was destined to fund basic research. According to National Science Foundation in U.S., in 2015, R&D expenditures performed by federal government and local governments are 54 and 0.6 billions of dollars. The federal research and development budget for fiscal year 2020 was $ 156 billion, 41.4% of which was for the Department of Defense ( DOD ). DOD's total research, development, test, and evaluation budget

2112-581: Was launched in 1995 by snowboarders and has been privately held since that time. As of September 2013, the brand sponsors a team of snowboarders. ThirtyTwo's Global Pro team includes J. P. Walker , Jeremy Jones , Scott Stevens, Chris Grenier, Chris Bradshaw, Halldór Helgason, Jordan Small, Johnny O'Connor, Joe Sexton, Corey Smith, Dylan Alito, Toni Kerkela, Desiree Melancon, Zeb Powell , Pat Fava and Phil Hansen. Its Global Am team includes Brandon Hobush, Spencer Schubert, Chris Brewster, Toni Kerkela, Benny Urban, Dylan Alito and Johnny O'Connor. Altamont Apparel

2160-557: Was launched in October 2006 as a concept of Justin Regan and Reynolds, who enlisted UK artist Mark "Fos" Foster as the head designer. Over time, the brand has expanded beyond skateboarding to involve musicians and artists. Research and development Research and development ( R&D or R+D ) is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes

2208-528: Was meant to be reached by 2020, but the current amount is below this target. This also causes a digital divide among countries since only a few EU Member States have R&D spending. Research and innovation in Europe are financially supported by the programme Horizon 2020 , which is open to participation worldwide. A notable example is the European environmental research and innovation policy , based on

2256-508: Was roughly $ 108.5 billion. Israel is the world leader in spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP as of 2022, spending 6.02%. According to CSIS, During the 1970s and 1980s Israel initially built up Israel's research infrastructure through various programs, often in the defence industry. In 1984, a law for Encouragement of Research and Development in Industry encouraged the commercial sector to invest in R&D in Israel as well as empowered

2304-418: Was the performance of the product. The partners wanted to attain raw material at the best quality at the lowest price possible, the best technology and improved market penetration, while the focus was always on the product. In the 1980s, strategic alliances aimed at building economies of scale and scope. The involved enterprises tried to consolidate their positions in their respective sectors. During this time

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