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A growing number of African countries are starting to produce science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators. The purpose of this paper is to provide some lessons learnt in the production and use of STI indicators in Malawi and South Africa. It is compares the two countries’ efforts to conduct Research and Development (R&D) surveys and examines whether and how STI indicators are used in policymaking processes.

The study approach is qualitative. The research methodology encompasses a thorough review of both policy and academic literature as well as some interviews.

The study demonstrates that South Africa has a relatively developed institutional arrangement for undertaking R&D and innovation surveys and developing related STI indicators. There is evidence that efforts are being made to use STI indicators to inform policymaking in the country. On the other hand, Malawi conducted its first R&D survey under the African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators Initiative (ASTII) and has not established an institutional mechanism dedicated to producing STI indicators. There is no evidence that indicators are used in, or to inform, policymaking in the country.

Because of significant differences in STI policymaking histories, capacities and cultures of the two countries, it is not really useful to compare the STI production and use. Rather it is important to draw lessons from the efforts of the two countries.

The results suggest that the production of STI indicators should be embedded in policy processes. To be useful and effective, STI indicators production needs to be explicitly linked to policy formulation, evaluation and monitoring activities without necessarily undermining the independence of producing STI indicators.

Creating stand-alone programmes or agencies for R&D and innovation surveys without clear articulation with policymaking needs erodes opportunities of having evidence-based STI policy regimes.

Although in 2005 only South Africa and Tunisia had national programmes dedicated to the generation of R&D statistics, by the end of 2010 at least 19 African countries had experimented with conducting R&D surveys under the auspices of the ASTII of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. These countries accumulated different experiences and consequently build different kinds of institutional capacities. Through the Malawi and South Africa case studies, some important lessons for STI indicators production and use and STI policymaking can be drawn for developing countries in general and African countries in particular.

While the importance of “science and technology-based innovation” (STI) and “doing, using and interacting-based innovation” (DUI) innovation modes in firm innovation performance has been well-established, little is known about how they affect the innovation performance of young firms. The author examines the most effective innovation mode and boundary conditions for the innovation performance of developing companies.

The author tests the two modes of innovation using data from 159 young firms in China.

The author’s analysis indicates that a higher level of DUI innovation mode is more relevant to the innovation performance of newly established enterprises. Moreover, the effectiveness of the innovation mode is bound by the networks in which the company operates and interacts. The effectiveness of STI and DUI innovation modes is enhanced when there are high levels of innovation and business network interconnectedness from the technology network partner.

These findings have important implications on innovation research as they highlight the joint effects of innovation modes and quality of network ties on young firms seeking to improve their innovation performance.

STI and DUI innovation modes represent different forms of innovation activities that may affect the knowledge and resources of young firms used to improve innovation performance. Knowing this can help young firms to choose effective innovation mode.

This study makes three contributions. The first is to pay specific attention to the neglected topic of the influence of STI and DUI innovation modes on innovation performance of young firms. Understanding that the two innovation modes offer different methods of gaining knowledge and resources can help young firms choose an effective innovation mode for their business; Second, the author examines the boundary conditions of the effectiveness of innovation modes. Specially, the author examines the moderating role of external networks, which can help clarify conflicting results in this regard. 10;The third contribution is to investigate the importance of network relationships for innovation activities moving beyond the extent of network relationships to instead consider the ability of those relationships to expose a firm to innovative techniques and methods.

The purpose of this paper is to initially evaluate the most current and important complications of sustainable mega rail transportation projects. This purpose is assisted by thoroughly reviewing the foremost uncertainties and challenging issues of STI. Once these factors are established, they will be the base of STI indicators. Finally, to consolidate such alignment, the Sydney Metro and Melbourne Metro are then compared and analyzed. The analysis would then create a platform to measure sustainability and relevant complexities in mega rail transportation projects.

To further consolidate such hypothesis, this research investigated two mega rail transportation projects in Australia. Both Sydney Metro and Melbourne Metro Rail were selected as the basis of case study, as both possess similar sustainability aspects.

As an outcome this research found that, complexities in both of these projects were based on future challenges and opportunities including imperfect equalization or not balancing all the four sustainability indicators; and where and how to emphasize the overlapping of these four indicators. In summary, these findings can assist the relevant planners, to better prepare and manage mega railway infrastructure and their operations.

While the sustainability for transportation infrastructure has been covered extensively by other authors, this paper strengthens the four specific and separate STI indicators – especially for mega rail infrastructure. Although, there are some crossover areas within these indicators, however, this research separately validates each as an independent entity. Commonly, there are three dimensions within the sustainability domain – environmental, economical and social. Nevertheless, for this research, a fourth dimension engineering which includes all the technical focus, has been separately developed. This is particularly important to effectively deal with all the complexities, particularly for mega projects, such as rail transportation infrastructure. Accordingly, separating the engineering dimension would thus reshape the triple bottom line factors to include a separate technical focus. To further evaluate this separation of the four specific areas, two mega Australian rail transportation projects are then reviewed as experiments.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify and evaluate transport sustainability from an integrated perspective. It is argued that transportation systems being interdisciplinary and complex, the integrated approach towards quantification and evaluation would present its sustainability goals’ attainment in a much better way.

The proposed integrated methodology is divided into five major steps that are sub-divided. It adopts a three-tier classification system i.e. pillar, sub-division and indicator. In total, 116 sustainable transportation indicators (STIs) were classified into 10 subdivisions corresponding to three sustainability pillars. The weighting and aggregation of STIs were done using a combination of a statistical tool called principal component analysis/factor analysis, a machine learning tool called fuzzy logic and equal weighting method. The final output that the proposed integrated methodology generates is a new composite index called the integrated sustainable transportation index (IIST).

To check the credibility of the proposed integrated methodology, it was applied to 26 states and the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, India. Based on the computed IIST, 27 study zones were ranked and mapped. The results showed that while Tamil Nadu (0.643), Telangana (0.574) and Maharashtra (0.564) were the best-performing states, Goa (0.347), Chhattisgarh (0.436) and Meghalaya (0.439) were the worst-performing states, as far as the relative transportation sustainability is concerned.

The proposed integrated methodology could be useful for transportation evaluators, planners and policymakers who can recognize, track and improve the strengths and overcome the weaknesses within a transportation system.

The novelty of this research work is that it uses a multi-stage multi-tool approach to quantify and evaluate transport sustainability that minimizes the demerits of single-stage individual tools while maximizing their merits.

The authors study the effect of access to smartphones on the socio-economic well-being in the case of rural base of the pyramid (BoP) women. While smartphone access may have its benefits, the paper suggests augmenting access with a sociotechnical intermediary (STI) that facilitates training and online community building to enhance the well-being outcomes.

The authors conducted a survey from three groups of women from rural West Bengal (India) – (1) who do not own smartphones, (2) who have their own smartphones and (3) who receive smartphones and STI support (over two years). The authors evaluate the effect of access to smartphones and STI support on social well-being (including structural social capital and empowerment) and economic well-being (including entrepreneurial intent and subjective economic well-being).

The analysis results suggest a high relationship between smartphone ownership and higher structural social capital, empowerment (in terms of freedom of movement) and entrepreneurial intent. The authors further find these effects to be enhanced amongst women who received smartphones and support from STI.

The authors attribute this enhanced well-being amongst women with smartphones and STI support to peer-learning and cultivation of virtual role models facilitated by the STI through creation of intra-community online groups. The results have significant policy implications for socio-economic well-being of rural BoP women.

The purpose of this paper is to survey and analyse the literature emanating from less developed countries (LDCs) and international agencies and dealing with their perception of the needs of LDCs for scientific and technical information (STI) in relation to social and economic development.

The literature stresses the importance of collaboration patterns and the role of public funding in regional competitiveness. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of this subject by focusing on two key dynamics of technological cooperation. First, the authors focus on the ability of public funding to support regional technological demand through the promotion of science and technology-based innovation (STI) and innovation based on learning-by-doing, learning-by-using, learning-by-interacting (DUI) cooperation. Second, the authors investigate whether such cooperation patterns influence the companies’ ability to support the development of novel products through the effective transfer of knowledge.

The data used in this longitudinal study are taken from the Basque statistics agency’s (EUSTAT) technological innovation survey, which compiles activities, personnel, funding sources, support institutions and other innovation-related aspects of businesses in the Basque region. The survey was carried out following the methodology of the community innovation survey (CIS). CIS data are used to generate official innovation statistics for the EU and its member countries and have been used extensively for analysis in economics. The sample included an unbalanced panel of 17,431 companies that reported research and development expenditure for the period 2013‐2017.

The results of the analysis confirm that the relationship between STI cooperation and regional funding is positive (Piñeiro-Antelo and Lois-González, 2019), but regional DUI cooperation will have a greater impact than STI cooperation on a company’s ability to generate novel products. The authors can, therefore, say that public funding is successful at supporting cooperation between science and technology agents and firms but fails to promote the transfer of knowledge and subsequent development of novel products in companies in the region.

Following a quadruple helix approach, it is important to underline the need for public policies to strengthen the connections between all the key agents in the ecosystem (where the research community, industry, public sector and citizens are all active actors), promoting technology transfer and dissemination, as well as trust among the parties, absorptive capacity and business access to resources and financing. Thus, the design of public policies should be oriented to support a firm’s innovation, balancing the exploration and exploitation of STI and DUI regional cooperation.

The contribution of this research is threefold. First, it serves to emphasize the importance of the impact of regional innovation systems on business innovation modes and their performance. Second, it takes the study of innovation systems and their impact on companies a step further by examining the impact of public funding on the companies’ ability to explore and exploit regional innovation modes. Thirdly, the authors offer a dynamic view of the region’s ability to support its own demand for technology and study the impact of regional business modes on the firms’ ability to support novel products.

Scientists are known for their good ideas, but packaging those ideas into a commercial format requires skills, funding, and processes for which many scientists and their research institutions are all too often not equipped. The Victorian Government of Australia has developed a successful initiative designed to facilitate and commercialise scientific innovations. The purpose of this paper is to document the processes and the lessons drawn from the establishment of the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Initiative.

This case study describes the Australian state of Victoria's STI Initiative over a four year period from its inception. The program was designed to enhance the ability to compete globally through commercialisation of Victoria's science capability and to facilitate greater industry innovation through collaboration with the science community.

The STI case demonstrates how the program has exceeded expectations with proven return on investment in less than four years. The case describes the STI's history, structure, strategies, processes, and methods of monitoring and evaluation. It also describes problems and difficulties that have occurred and how these were overcome. One of the major findings of the STI Initiative concerns the development of governance structures for each project. Rather than introducing rigidity and decision speed‐bumps, the introduction of well‐designed governance structures provides rapid and useful feedback and favourable control measures.

A large part of managing STI projects involves the establishment of funded grants and the development and management of commercial objectives and cooperation between the science and commercial sectors. It is argued that this successful format for commercialising science and facilitating innovation can be templated and therefore duplicated by governments almost anywhere in the world.

The lessons from this case study support the argument that there is a need for structure to formalise a successful relationship between industry, science, government, and investors. The paper provides a format for such a structure based on the experiences of the STI Initiative based in Victoria, Australia.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the long-term ex-post impacts of Vision 2023 technology foresight (TF) on the defense sector and to identify critical success factors (CSFs) of impactful foresight.

In the present research, a theory-based evaluation approach was adopted with the logic-model of defense TF to identify the intended outcomes, impacts and leading mechanisms. The impact assessment framework developed by Johnston, R. (2012) was adopted to identify (un)intended impacts and possible measures.

TF had some effects on technological developments, foresight capacity and capability and skills on the sector. The overall impact was assessed at the “some contribution” level with 2.9 out of 5.0 points. It contributed to the development of science technology and innovation (STI) policies and research and development programs, awareness-raising in STI, increase in cooperation between government-university-industry and the development of foresight culture. However, the impacts were more visible in the early years of TF. Additionally, country/sector-specific CSFs were identified. In consequence, it was proposed to measure the maturity of strategic technologies with technology readiness level as a tangible indicator.

According to the authors, this is the first study to assess the long-term ex-post impact of TF in defense. An instrument was developed to assess TF’s contribution to impact measures. The constructs and weights of the instrument differentiated from the adopted framework/schema reflecting the national/sectoral context of TF. Additionally, the study revealed country/sector-specific CSFs and new tangible impact measures.

Social factors can shape economic decisions. Corporate governance (CG) studies and guidelines usually neglect that the chief executive officer (CEO) and board members may be socially tied. This study investigates the effects of social ties between the CEO and board members on earnings management (EM).

The authors run a series of regressions using a sample of Brazilian companies listed on the Brazilian Stock Exchange [B]³ between 2011 and 2017 to assess the effect of the social ties between the CEO and board members on EM using a social ties index. The authors also employ five robustness tests to verify the consistency of results, including alternative proxies of EM and social ties and an estimation using fixed effects.

After developing and computing a social ties index between the CEOs and members of the board of directors (BD) and the fiscal council (FC), the study’s findings indicate that a significant level of social ties between the CEO and BD has a negative impact on EM. However, for FC members, the authors found non-significant results.

Unlike previous studies, the authors built a social tie index (STI) from five elements of social ties assessed in an environment with a two-tier board system. Results show that elements of social interactions and personal relationships can benefit the company, as a CEO's level of social ties with the BD reduces EM practices.