Search results
1 – 10 of over 164000The debate about university technology transfer policy would benefit from increased attention to two parts of the technology transfer equation: the societal purpose of basic…
Abstract
The debate about university technology transfer policy would benefit from increased attention to two parts of the technology transfer equation: the societal purpose of basic scientific research and the characteristics of scientific researchers.11This Chapter was prepared for the Colloquium on University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer hosted by the Karl Eller Center of the University of Arizona and sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. I am grateful to them for their support. I am also grateful to the participants in the Colloquium for helpful comments. Finally, I thank my research assistant, David Zelner, for assistance with this project. One purpose of curiosity-driven research is to provide a demand function that can serve as a proxy for the socially optimal (but unknowable) demand function for the unpredictable research that is necessary for long-term technological progress. Preserving the curiosity-driven research peer review “market” is thus important for that progress. This analysis highlights the importance of adequate funding for curiosity-driven research. A model of typical university scientists’ preferences can be used to assess how technology transfer policies may affect the social norms of the research community and the long-term viability of the curiosity-driven research endeavor. The analysis suggests that patenting will be an ineffective technology transfer mechanism unless researchers are precluded from using patenting to maintain control over follow-on research.
Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in…
Abstract
Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.
Details
Keywords
Korea’s Institute for Basic Science (IBS), the first research institute dedicated to basic science in Korea, started ten years ago as part of a science policy called the Science…
Abstract
Purpose
Korea’s Institute for Basic Science (IBS), the first research institute dedicated to basic science in Korea, started ten years ago as part of a science policy called the Science Belt. It is noteworthy that Korea, with a short history of basic science, established such a research institute exclusively for basic science within a short period of time and made it one of the representative institutions of basic science in Korea. This paper aims to uncover the impetuses and constraints surrounding the policy of Science Belt, centering on the IBS.
Design/methodology/approach
Kingdon’s stream theory is used to clarify the factors that acted as impetuses or constraints for the Science Belt. For the analysis, in-depth interviews with the active policy participants were conducted in addition to the thorough literature review. The interviews enabled an in-depth understanding of the underlying factors for the Science Belt and the actual procedures of the policy decision.
Findings
This study found that the most powerful impetus in the Science Belt policymaking process was the President and a small group composed of a few scientists who played a leading role in the political stream. The constraint of the Science Belt was that the participation of scientist experts and governmental officials, the so-called invisible participants of Kingdon, was insignificant. In particular, there was no system in place to select policy alternatives for basic science through discussion between scientists and governmental officials.
Research limitations/implications
The temporal scope of this study was limited to policy formation, that is, until the establishment of IBS. Therefore, future studies shall conduct a research on the implementation of the actual policy, IBS’s achievements and IBS’s impact of Korea’s basic science community.
Originality/value
This study applied both a theoretical framework and in-depth interviews along with the literature overview to understand a policymaking process from various angles.
Details
Keywords
Martina Dal Molin and Ezio Previtali
The purpose of this paper is to estimate and assess the impact of public procurement activities of an Italian basic research center (the National Institute for Nuclear Physics…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to estimate and assess the impact of public procurement activities of an Italian basic research center (the National Institute for Nuclear Physics [INFN]) on supplier companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting from the exploratory nature of this research, a single case study research strategy has been applied. The impact of basic research public procurement has been estimated using survey data on 168 INFN supplier companies. Supplier companies have been surveyed on six different categories of company outcomes, namely, sales volume, learning and innovation, relationship with the market, alliances and network and social impact.
Findings
Results of the analysis reported that the activity of INFN public procurement generates a positive impact on supplier companies on different dimensions, especially related to learning and innovative outcome and economic impact and market penetration outcome.
Social implications
Policy implications can be derived from the current study. In particular, to support the policymakers in the effort of assessing the impact of basic research public procurement, this study, first highlights the impact dimensions on supplier companies, and second, it provides empirical evidence of public procurement as a viable tool to foster companies’ innovation.
Originality/value
This research explores a relevant but understudied topic that has recently attracted the attention of policymakers. In fact, although public procurement have been recognized as a tool to foster companies’ innovation, empirical evidence is still scant, particularly in the case of basic research.
Details
Keywords
Shinya Suzuki, René Belderbos and Hyeog Ug Kwon
We examine the determinants of multinational firms’ propensity to conduct R&D activities in host countries, with specific attention to the influence of host countries’ university…
Abstract
We examine the determinants of multinational firms’ propensity to conduct R&D activities in host countries, with specific attention to the influence of host countries’ university research. We consider heterogeneous locational drivers related to the type of R&D activity: basic research, applied research, development for local markets, and development for global markets. Drawing on official survey data on R&D activities by 498 Japanese multinational firms in 24 host countries and estimating two-stage models, we find that the likelihood that firms conduct R&D in a host country is generally increasing in the strength of university research. Conditional on a firm’s R&D presence, university research strength is associated with a greater propensity to conduct (basic) research activities rather than (local) development, while the intensity of host country university–industry collaboration is most strongly associated with applied research. Host country experience and the depth of the firm’s manufacturing presence are also associated higher propensities to engage in research.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of R&D sourcing strategies and their governance modes on basic and developmental R&D. Following the concept of cognitive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of R&D sourcing strategies and their governance modes on basic and developmental R&D. Following the concept of cognitive distance, this research proposes that there are trade-offs between basic and developmental R&D when emerging economy firms engage in different R&D sourcing strategies. R&D sourcing can enable emerging economy firms to access different level of heterogeneity of knowledge inputs depending on the cognitive distance between the firm and its suppliers. Distance in cognition increases when firms obtain knowledge from abroad and independent suppliers in comparison to the acquisition of knowledge from home boundaries and affiliates.
Design/methodology/approach
Tobit maximum likelihood estimation approach is used.
Findings
Using data from Turkish firms, this study finds out that offshore R&D with an outsourcing governance mode affects basic R&D. In contrast, domestic R&D with an insourcing mode influences developmental R&D.
Originality/value
This research extends recent efforts to better understand the determinants of different R&D types by examining offshore and domestic R&D together and by taking into account different governance modes of each R&D sourcing strategy. This study becomes important because it investigates this issue from the perspective of emerging economy firms.
Details
Keywords
The horizons ring me like faggotsTilted and disparate, and always unstable.Touched by a match, they might warm me,And their fine lines singeThe air to orange (Plath, 1977).I first…
Abstract
The horizons ring me like faggots Tilted and disparate, and always unstable. Touched by a match, they might warm me, And their fine lines singe The air to orange (Plath, 1977).I first read Sylvia Plath’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ almost twenty years ago, when I taught it as part of a poetry anthology. I am a keen walker, and I have often repeated these lines to myself when out walking, to encourage myself over particularly difficult terrain. At times, I have wondered why Sylvia Plath, an American, had written a poem entitled ‘Wuthering Heights’. It was only this year, when I read Sylvia Plath’s Letters Home (Plath, 1999) and Elaine Feinstein’s biography (Feinstein, 2001) of Plath’s husband Ted Hughes, that I realized that Ted Hughes’ family lived near Wuthering Heights. In short, to enrich my understanding of the poem, I needed biographical detail.
Marcelo J. Alvarado-Vargas, Stephen K. Callaway and Sonny Ariss
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effects of different R&D funding inputs – including funding for basic research, applied research, and development – on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effects of different R&D funding inputs – including funding for basic research, applied research, and development – on different innovation outcomes (e.g. inventions, patents, licenses, and start-ups).
Design/methodology/approach
The study borrowed the resource dependence theory perspective by focusing on the proportion of funding secured from various external sources that fund university R&D, and assessed its effect on the nature and outcomes of the university research activity.
Findings
Results indicated that greater funding of basic research was associated with more inventions and patents; greater funding of applied research was associated with more licenses; and greater funding for development activities was associated with more university start-ups.
Originality/value
The contributions of this study are two folded: first, it added to the debate that more R&D investment is indeed associated with more innovation outcomes; and second, it is important to differentiate the R&D funding inputs as they are related to different innovation outcomes.
Details
Keywords
In this article, the ideas and methods behind the “patent-paper citation” are scrutinised by following the intellectual and technical development of approaches and ideas in early…
Abstract
Purpose
In this article, the ideas and methods behind the “patent-paper citation” are scrutinised by following the intellectual and technical development of approaches and ideas in early work on patentometrics. The aim is to study how references from patents to papers came to play a crucial role in establishing a link between science and technology.
Design/methodology/approach
The study comprises a conceptual history of the “patent paper citation” and its emergence as an important indicator of science and technology interaction. By tracing key references in the field, it analyses the overarching frameworks and ideas, the conceptual “hinterland”, in which the approach of studying patent references emerged.
Findings
The analysis explains how interest in patents – not only as legal and economic artefacts but also as scientific documents – became evident in the 1980s. The focus on patent citations was sparked by a need for relevant and objective indicators and by the greater availability of databases and methods. Yet, the development of patentometrics also relied on earlier research, and established theories, on the relation between science and technology.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt at situating patentometrics in a larger societal and scientific context. The paper offers a reflexive and nuanced analysis of the “patent-paper citation” as a theoretical and historical construct, and it calls for a broader and contextualised understanding of patent references, including their social, legal and rhetorical function.
Details
Keywords
Jian Tang and Ping Zhang
Drawing upon the motivational affordance theory, this paper aims to investigate how gamification design and human motivational needs are associated in extant literature.
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the motivational affordance theory, this paper aims to investigate how gamification design and human motivational needs are associated in extant literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a literature analysis of 60 journal articles that studied motivational influences of gamification in information technology design. Content analysis was used to identify game design features and motivation variables studied in prior literature, and correspondence analysis was used to show the co-occurrence of game design features and basic motivational needs.
Findings
The results showed that four types of game design features and eight basic motivational needs are studied in this pool of literature. Correspondence analysis indicates some interesting associations between game design features and basic human needs.
Research limitations/implications
This research used a motivational affordance perspective to interpret the impact of game design features and suggested directions for future investigations. It is limited due to its sample size and considered as an exploratory study.
Practical implications
This research provided suggestions for technology designers that game design features vary in their motivational influence, and therefore, game design features should be used accordingly to meet users’ motivational needs.
Originality/value
This research is one of initial studies which explored the association between game design features and basic motivational needs. The findings of this study provide the groundwork for guidelines and strategies to facilitate motivational design in information technology.
Details