Capitalist theory and socialist practice: The organization of Chinese mathematics in the early 1950s

This article explores how the Chinese state organized scientific research in the 1950s, through a case study of mathematics. By examining the organizing process of the Chinese Mathematical Society and the establishment of the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the article explains how a number of state agents were selected to lead national level research institutes as a means for guiding scientists in serving the needs of the state. In addition, under state corporatism, all scientists were attached to discipline-specific academic societies, forming a large hierarchy consisting of societies at different levels. When the political leaders needed to transform the agendas of the scientists, these organizations served as channels for communicating to constituent members what to do. Given this kind of organizational structure in the early days of the People’s Republic of China, it was hard to differentiate between scientists and the organizational apparatus, especially for the scientists holding top-level leadership positions. Nevertheless, this study shows that individual researchers often resisted official mandates and found ways to pursue independent research interests by employing the state's rhetoric.     

Brand communities based in social media: How unique are they? Evidence from two exemplary brand communities

Understanding how brands should operate on social media is very important for contemporary marketing researchers and managers. This paper argues that due to the social and networked nature of social media it is an ideal environment for brand communities. Taking a deep qualitative approach and with analysis of a vast array of data, the article articulates the existence of brand communities on social media. More importantly, it delineates five unique and relevant dimensions of brand communities based in social media. The authors advise researchers to consider these dimensions while conducting research on brand communities and social media. Further implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.     

Scientists’ collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital

“Scientific and technical human capital” (S&T human capital) has been defined as the sum of researchers’ professional network ties and their technical skills and resources [Int. J. Technol. Manage. 22 (7-8) (2001) 636]. Our study focuses on one particular means by which scientists acquire and deploy S&T human capital, research collaboration. We examine data from 451 scientists and engineers at academic research centers in the United States. The chief focus is on scientists’ collaboration choices and strategies. Since we are particularly interested in S&T human capital, we pay special attention to strategies that involve mentoring graduate students and junior faculty and to collaborating with women. We also examine collaboration “cosmopolitanism,” the extent to which scientists collaborate with those around them (one’s research group, one’s university) as opposed to those more distant in geography or institutional setting (other universities, researchers in industry, researchers in other nations). Our findings indicate that those who pursue a “mentor” collaboration strategy are likely to be tenured; to collaborate with women; and to have a favorable view about industry and research on industrial applications. Regarding the number of reported collaborators, those who have larger grants have more collaborators. With respect to the percentage of female collaborators, we found, not surprisingly, that female scientists have a somewhat higher percentage (36%) of female collaborators, than males have (24%). There are great differences, however, according to rank, with non-tenure track females having 84% of their collaborations with females. Regarding collaboration cosmopolitanism, we find that most researchers are not particularly cosmopolitan in their selection of collaborators—they tend to work with the people in their own work group. More cosmopolitan collaborators tend have large grants. A major policy implication is that there is great variance in the extent to which collaborations seem to enhance or generate S&T human capital. Not all collaborations are equal with respect to their “public goods” implications.     

2014-2019我国高被引科学家群体特征计量分析

以我国入选2014—2019年高被引科学家名单科技人才为研究对象,通过个人履历信息、科学文献表征信息、公开网络信息等多源信息挖掘构建高被引科学家人才群体特征信息数据库,从学科分类、年龄、学历分布、人才荣誉、教育经历等方面对高被引科学家群体特征进行分析,并与美国等世界主要科技强国进行比较,其分析结果对于了解科学家成长规律、完善人才制度、合理配置科研资源、吸引全球科技精英人才以及集聚全球创新要素等提供决策支持与理论依据。     

Commercializing university research in transition economies: Technology transfer offices or direct industrial funding?

There is a paucity of knowledge on research commercialization by university scientists worldwide. The objective of this paper is to identify the role that Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and direct Industrial Funding play in university research commercialization in transition economies of Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan during 2015–2017. We do this by developing a novel database and a multi-level model which explains how individual attributes, organizational and ecosystem characteristics explain the extent of knowledge commercialization.We apply the generalized Heckman approach to account for two selection biases, reducing the sample from 2602 to 272 scientists, and further use a mixed-method approach to analyse 27 face-to-face interviews with researchers and TTO managers. The results demonstrate that research commercialization is not associated with the existence and awareness of TTO or the establishment of commercialization contracts via TTO, but the direct industrial funding of university research. Taken together the findings have clear implications for scholars, scientific entrepreneurs, TTOs and investors who aim to exploit university knowledge in transition economies.     

公共财政支持的科研项目如何保障公众利益——来自美国加州干细胞研究项目的启示

美国加利福尼亚州于2004年通过第71号法案,允许州政府在未来10年内以发行公债的方式为干细胞研究筹集30亿美元经费,用于资助干细胞研究。为了确保实现对加州纳税人的承诺,第71号法案中提出了保障公众利益的三项核心原则以及详细、具体的惠及加州研究人员和公众的知识产权政策。本文以此案例为基础,介绍并分析了加州干细胞研究项目中保障公众利益的政策措施,总结了该项目在知识产权政策方面的相关问题和经验,进而提出了在中国制度背景下如何促进公共财政支持的科研项目更好地保障公众利益的几点启示和政策建议。     

从文献统计分析看诱导多能干细胞的研究

诱导多能干细胞是近年来干细胞研究的焦点,本文基于pubmed数据库,通过对诱导多能干细胞的文献检索,利用TDA及spss软件,对诱导多能干细胞的文献进行年代分布、重要来源期刊、多产作者及研究热点的统计分析,旨在探讨ips的研究现状及其发展态势。     

重构科学发现的概念框架:元科学理论、理论与实验

本文将致力于阐述这样一种哲学努力:它意在沿着库恩所提示的历史的科学哲学方向,直面发现的与境,重构科学发现的概念框架,它承认"观察渗透理论",但却并不由此走向相对主义,而坚持以理性的方式理解科学探索的过程。(1)在理解科学发现尤其是科学理论的构作过程时,引入元科学理论概念。元科学理论是指在自然哲学或科学的学科或学科分支领域上、在长时段意义上对科学探索实践起组织和引导作用的种种形而上学学说,具体地说,是指科学家关于其研究对象的本体论承诺及相关方法论构架。它们往往以成对形式出现于自然哲学或科学发展的早期阶段,并在此后科学发展过程中以升级或综合的形式不断丰富、发展。(2)以元科学理论、理论和实验三元互动框架理解科学探索和发展的过程,强调科学探索的系统性。即使是在理论缺位的情形下,科学实验探索的系统性也并没有因之解体——在元理论的组织和引导作用下,科学实验依然保持为彼此关联的、有活力的系统。(3)承认实验陈述在其产生之初以及学术交流过程中是理论负载的或元理论负载的,但坚持认为它们仍然具有跨理论或跨元理论的普遍科学意义——至少,持有不同元理论的科学家可以在充分理解的基础上以自己的术语重新表述他人的实验陈述,这是因为科学探索的主体是积极行动的主体,因为元理论之间的不相容只是局部的不相容,允许被暂时搁置,也因为实验陈述所描述的外部世界是同一的。(4)在元理论引导下发生的实验的精致化进程往往是科学发现的关键,成功的探索过程最终伴随着判决性实验(组)的出现,判决性实验(组)能够提升整个实验系统的认识层次和判决力,使之一致否决过时的理论,肯定新理论。(5)在元理论概念框架下解科学变化的类型和级别。文章对某些重要案例进行了简要的历史分析,以进一步说明元理论概念框架及其编史学价值。     

医学信息资源管理与服务平台的研究与实现

采用元数据管理理念,研究了如何有效地对医学信息资源进行管理。同时在平台开发中,灵活运用分布式服务模式,方便医学工作者及科研人员便捷获取医学信息资源。最后,运用混合推荐算法,实现了医学信息资源的自动推荐,帮助医学工作者及科研人员更有效地发现自己所需的医学信息资源。     

Research upon return: The effect of international mobility on scientific ties,production and impact

Highly skilled return migrants contribute to the establishment of ties between the home and host systems. This paper studies how the professional ties, which Argentinean researchers built up during the time spent in foreign research systems, influence their collaboration patterns and their research outputs upon return. It confirms the expectation that having foreign work experience helps to explain the propensity to co-publish internationally and it also shows that researchers collaborate to a higher degree with their former host system. Another central finding is that foreign work experience has a positive effect on the propensity to publish in journals with a high impact factor. Additionally, a large share of this type of research is published without international co-authorship. We therefore do no not find evidence of a lack of publication autonomy in the case of Argentinean returnees.     

Disentangling international research collaboration in the Spanish academic context: Is there a desirable researcher human capital profile?

A number of studies has focused on examining those academic researchers attributes-demographics or not- that condition international research collaboration (IRC) and its results. However, it is not possible to speak about an ‘ideal’ type of researcher so far. Should we assume that just only those ‘star researchers’ collaborate internationally?. The literature is not clear enough on this topic, offering interesting but insufficient support to know the set of individual characteristics that ensures fruitful IRC. To deepen the analysis of academic researchers attributes, in particular, the human capital characteristics, this study proposes in-depth research on exploring different combinations on human capital dimensions and testing potential differences in IRC levels. To do so, from an exploratory perspective, a cluster analysis was conducted in a sample of 937 Spanish academics, obtaining three researcher profiles: (1) consolidated international research collaborators, (2) effective international research collaborators, and (3) skilled international research collaborators. Far from the recurrent analysis of single or disconnected researchers' attributes, this paper contributes to the extant literature with a new typology based on the variables of academic human capital, providing an useful starting point to better understand who really can develop international networks to collaborate and, therefore, how to foster IRC in Universities.     

International scientist mobility and the locus of knowledge and technology transfer

Despite the growing interest of scholars and policymakers to better understand the determinants for researchers in public science to transfer knowledge and technology to firms, little is known how temporary international mobility of scientists affects both their propensity to engage in knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) as well as the locus of such transfer. Based on a sample of more than 950 German academics from science and engineering faculties, we investigate how the duration and the frequency of scientists’ visits at research institutions outside their home country affect KTT activities. We find that most mobile scientists engage in KTT to firms both in the host and in their home country, suggesting that KTT activities to firms abroad do not substitute or crowd out, but complement KTT to firms in the home country. We further find that the longer research visits abroad are, the higher the likelihood that scientists engage in KTT to firms, again both in the host and the home country. However, the more frequently scientists visit institutions abroad, the more likely they are to engage in KTT to firms only in their home country. Our results therefore provide evidence for the benefits of “brain circulation”. The article contributes to the growing strand of the literature on scientist mobility and on the determinants of industry-science linkages at the individual level.     

Knowledge integration mechanisms in high-technology business-to-business services vendors

Employing a multidisciplinary approach this paper addresses an important area of how born global high-technology firms develop knowledge integration capability through their internal and external networks. Knowledge integration is noted as a critical capability in the innovation process. Our exploratory study contributes by: presenting evidence from India’s high-technology IT/BPO offshore outsourcing business-to-business (B2B) vendors; adding to the theoretical body of knowledge by identifying the three critical operational routines of learning, market and quality orientations that are critical in developing knowledge integration capability and supporting innovation processes; and develops a theoretical framework for future researchers to test it through survey designs. We conclude by identifying future research and managerial implications for firms operating in such milieus.     

国内外干细胞研究和产业发展态势分析

干细胞研究是近年来生物医学领域的热门方向之一,干细胞产业具有巨大的社会效益和市场前景,受到世界各国的高度重视.美国、欧盟、日本、韩国和中国在干细胞领域投入重金支持基础和临床研究,大力推动干细胞产业化发展.通过对比分析国内外干细胞研究和产业化发展现状,我们发现中国对干细胞治疗存在巨大的潜在需求,近年来在干细胞研究和产业化方面也取得了较大进展,但是与发达国家相比仍存在较大差距.为抢占未来干细胞研究和产业发展的制高点,中国应该不断加强干细胞研究的原始创新能力建设、创新发展模式,积极推动风险投资和金融资本进入干细胞产业,重视配套法律法规建设,大力推进干细胞产业发展.     

Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing

The increasing interest in fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) in Information Systems and marketing raises the need for a tutorial paper that discusses the basic concepts and principles of the method, provide answers to typical questions that editors, reviewers, and authors would have when dealing with a new tool of analysis, and practically guide researchers on how to employ fsQCA. This article helps the reader to gain richer information from their data and understand the importance of avoiding shallow information‐from‐data reporting. To this end, it proposes a different research paradigm that includes asymmetric, configurational‐focused case‐outcome theory construction and somewhat precise outcome testing. This article offers a detailed step-by-step guide on how to employ fsQCA by using as an example an already published study. We analyze the same dataset and present all the details in each step of the analysis to guide the reader onto how to employ fsQCA. The article discusses differences between fsQCA and variance-based approaches and compares fsQCA with those from structured equation modelling. Finally, the article offers a summary of thresholds and guidelines for practice, along with a discussion on how existing papers that employ variance-based methods are extendable and complemented through fsQCA.     

Funding model and creativity in science: Competitive versus block funding and status contingency effects

In many countries the scientific funding system is shifting from an internal block funding model toward a competitive project funding model. However, there is growing concern that the competitive project funding system favors relatively safe, conventional projects at the expense of risky, novel research. It is important to assess different funding models in order to design better funding systems for science. This paper empirically tests for differences in the novelty of funded outputs between internal block funding and competitive project funding, in the setting of Japan, where both funding models play a significant role. Combining survey data from a large sample of research projects in Japan and bibliometric information about the publications produced from these projects, we find that projects funded by competitive funds on average have higher novelty compared to those funded by internal block funds. However, such positive effects only hold for researchers with high status, such as senior and male researchers. In contrast, compared to internal block funding, competitive project funding has a negative relation to novelty for low status scientists (especially junior and female researchers). The findings suggest that the competitive project selection procedure is less receptive to novel ideas from researchers with low academic status and therefore discourages their novel research. These findings can serve as a warning about potential biases in competitive funding allocation procedures and suggest the importance of secure stable funding for allowing researchers with low status to pursue their novel ideas.     

Professional guilds, tension and knowledge management

Scientific research is a crucial success factor for knowledge intensive firms and is often a joint effort of scientists and managers. However, scientists and managers belong to different “professional guilds,” subscribing to different belief systems and valuing different types of incentives. These differences give rise to tension between scientists and managers. We integrate a large body of literature from knowledge management to develop a new theoretical model predicting that this organizational tension is affected by environmental factors such as the degree of industry munificence, firm-specific factors like knowledge-management policies, and the individual roles of boundary spanners within the firm. Further, we argue that this tension can lead to positive or negative outcomes.     

Using APIs for Data Collection on Social Media

This article discusses how social media research may benefit from social media companies making data available to researchers through their application programming interfaces (APIs). An API is a back-end interface through which third-party developers may connect new add-ons to an existing service. The API is also an interface for researchers to collect data off a given social media service for empirical analysis. Presenting a critical methodological discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with quantitative and qualitative social media research based on APIs, this article highlights a number of general methodological issues to be dealt with when collecting and assessing data through APIs. The article further discusses the legal and ethical implications of empirical research using APIs for data collection.