Measures, metrics, and myopia: The challenges and ramifications of sustaining academic entrepreneurship
ISBN: 978-1-84855-466-5, eISBN: 978-1-84855-467-2
Publication date: 19 May 2009
Abstract
Contemporary life is replete with all manner of rankings, metrics, and benchmarks (Power, 1997; Espeland & Stevens, 1998). From J.D. Power evaluations of cars to Zagat restaurant reviews to US News and World Report ratings of colleges and universities, modern life seems to be deep in the grip of assessment and evaluation. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the introduction of scientific management transformed the workplace, altering relations between labor and capital, and embedding control over the nature and pace of work into the technical organization of production (Edwards, 1979; Shenhav, 1995). In a similar fashion, the current embrace of rankings may reflect a new “Taylorism,” as metrics have the capacity to not only reorder the social institutions they are purported to assess, but also provide a patina of objectivity, especially for the uninitiated.
Citation
Colyvas, J.A. and Powell, W.W. (2009), "Measures, metrics, and myopia: The challenges and ramifications of sustaining academic entrepreneurship", Libecap, G.D. (Ed.) Measuring the Social Value of Innovation: A Link in the University Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship Equation (Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 79-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1048-4736(2009)0000019004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited