Working knowledges before and after circa 1800: practices and disciplines in the history of science, technology, and medicine

Historians of science, inasmuch as they are concerned with knowledges and practices rather than institutions, have tended of late to focus on case studies of common processes such as experiment and publication. In so doing, they tend to treat science as a single category, with various local instantiations. Or, alternatively, they relate cases to their specific local contexts. In neither approach do the cases or their contexts build easily into broader histories, reconstructing changing knowledge practices across time and space. This essay argues that by systematically deconstructing the practices of science and technology and medicine (STM) into common, recurrent elements, we can gain usefully "configurational" views, not just of particular cases and contexts but of synchronic variety and diachronic changes, both short term and long. To this end, we can begin with the customary actors' disciplines of early modern knowledge (natural philosophy, natural history, mixed mathematics, and experimental philosophy), which can be understood as elemental "ways of knowing and working," variously combined and disputed. I argue that these same working knowledges, together with a later mode-synthetic experimentation and systematic invention-may also serve for the analysis of STM from the late eighteenth century to the present. The old divisions continued explicitly and importantly after circa 1800, but they were also "built into" an array of new sciences. This historiographic analysis can help clarify a number of common problems: about the multiplicity of the sciences, the importance of various styles in science, and the relations between science and technology and medicine. It suggests new readings of major changes in STM, including the first and second scientific revolutions and the transformations of biomedicine from the later twentieth century. It offers ways of recasting both microhistories and macrohistories, so reducing the apparent distance between them. And it may thus facilitate both more constructive uses of case studies and more innovative and acceptable longer histories.     

从专利引文看公共科学对技术创新的重要作用

定量考察公共科学对技术创新的贡献大小 ,可以为政府支持基础研究提供有用的论据。专利引文分析 ,是测度基础研究对技术创新的贡献的一个重要方法论。通过对专利引证的科学论文的计量研究 ,发现 :工业技术与公共科学的联系不断加强 ,公共科学在技术创新中起着重要的作用。其政策意义在于 ,政府应该继续支持基础研究 ,而企业应该加强对外部知识资源的“吸收能力”的建设。     

浅析企业所得税对技术创新的激励作用

技术创新具有公共品性质,在创新过程中存在不确定性,这就需要政府通过财政政策等各种手段进行调控。作为第二大税种,企业所得税应该对技术创新有很大的激励作用,但是我国除了在活跃技术市场方面起到了明显的作用外,在其他方面影响并不明显。从深层次来看,这与我国企业所得税的内外两套税制以及税收优惠的不足等是分不开的。     

Reinventing the public sector in Africa through knowledge management

There is extensive coverage in literature of knowledge management (KM) implementation based on private sector entities. Although recent trends have been characterised by a shift towards understanding KM in the public sector organisations, there is very little focus on the public sector entities in Africa. KM has become popular in modern organisations because it is capable of enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of entities if properly implemented. While the explosion of the internet has seen the emergence of public sector transformation programmes such as e-government plans, most African states have wholly adopted these without due consideration to the structural constraints they would face in their implementation. Having observed that e-government is technology-based and most African states lack the necessary information technology (IT) tools to effectively implement it, my proposition in this paper is that the most viable option of transforming the public sector in Africa could be through KM, rather than e-government. Nevertheless, e-government plans in African states should be implemented as a component of the overall KM strategy.     

Advancing innovation in the public sector: Aligning innovation measurement with policy goals

There is sufficient evidence, drawn from surveys of innovation in the public sector and cognitive testing interviews with public sector managers, to develop a framework for measuring public sector innovation. Although many questions that are covered in the Oslo Manual guidelines for measuring innovation in the private sector can be applied with some modifications to the public sector, public sector innovation surveys need to meet policy needs that require collecting additional types of data. Policy to support public sector innovation requires data on how public sector organizations innovate and how a strategic management approach to innovation can influence the types of innovations that are developed. Both issues require innovations surveys to delve deeply into the innovation processes and strategies that are used by public sector managers. Implementation of the measurement framework proposed in this paper would open up opportunities for a new, policy-relevant research program on public sector innovation.     

重新理解创新型国家建设的“企业本位论”

在建设创新型国家的过程中,“企业是创新的主体”已成为中国社会各界的流行语言。但长期实践表明,这种流行仍然浮于表面,“科技成果转化”“市场倒逼升级”等竞争性认识在更深层次影响深远。这使得有限的政策资源并未充分且恰当地用于企业创新需求。因此,本文将“企业是创新的主体”作为整个讨论的核心议题。我们认为,当代创新表现出日益强烈的多技术、动态性、以科学为基础和以组织为载体的特征。正是这些基本特征决定了,与大学等科研机构相比,企业更能够适应当代创新的这些要求。这也从根本上决定了“科技成果转化”的局限性。与此同时,创新型企业所需的战略控制、财务承诺和组织整合,也不是市场机制“倒逼”的自然产物,而必须在特定的制度背景下、在非市场机制的支持下实现。这些回答共同构成了创新型国家建设的“企业本位论”,文末在此基础上给出了相应的政策建议。     

Entrepreneurial innovation: The importance of context

The purpose of this article and the special issue is to improve our understanding of the theoretical, managerial, and policy implications of entrepreneurial innovation. We accomplish this objective by examining the role of context in stimulating such activity, as well as its impact on the outcomes of entrepreneurial innovation. Our analysis begins by outlining an overarching framework for entrepreneurial innovation and context. With reference to this framework we then compare the attributes of national innovation systems, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial innovation, and categorize contextual influences on entrepreneurial innovation. We then situate the papers presented in this special issue within this framework. We conclude by outlining an agenda for additional research on this topic, focusing on the relationships between contexts and entrepreneurial innovation and then discuss policy implications, focusing on how public and private actors can meet these challenges.     

Public funds and local biotechnology firm creation

A long stream of academic literature has established that public funding towards research and development matters for economic growth because it relates to increases in innovation, productivity and the like. The impact of public funding on the creation of new firms has received less attention in this literature despite theoretical constructs that support such association. In the present paper we study whether indeed there is a relationship between public research funds and local firm births in the context of the U.S. biotechnology industry. In doing so, we introduce a number of changes that strengthen the robustness of our findings when compared with existing literature. These changes include a direct measure of research expenditures and a considerably lengthier longitudinal dataset which allows us to capture a structural relationship and not a chance event. We empirically demonstrate that increases in the level of research funding from the National Institutes of Health towards biotechnology associate with increases in the number of biotechnology firm births at the Metropolitan Statistical Area level. Further, we reveal that public funds towards established firms associate with local firm births considerably more strongly when compared with funds towards universities and research institutes/hospitals. We conclude the paper with academic and policy implications of the present work that highlight the complexity of factors that underlie the creation of local firms in high technology industries.     

财政分权、地方政府效率与区域创新

文章利用1999—2016年30个省份的面板数据,检验财政分权对地区创新的影响,并将政府效率因素纳入框架,以深入探讨财政分权的创新驱动绩效。结果表明,地方财政分权在区域创新发展中发挥了积极作用。进一步地,地方财政资源支持创新的有效程度离不开政府运作效率的影响,将政府运作效率保持在合理区间,是发挥财政分权促进地区创新的一大条件。特别的,调整地方财政力量支持导向,是促成地区有竞争力创新驱动的重要路径。此外,建构一个适配创新产出转化成为切实经济、社会福利的基础条件,是当前创新驱动发展的必由之路。     

Foresight for public procurement and regional innovation policy: The case of Lombardy

Public procurement can be a major source of innovation. The potential benefits of public procurement might be fully exploited through the acquisition not only of appliances which are already available in the market, but also of new appliances which are tailored to the specific needs of the local community and might be exported as well to the international markets. In this way, public procurement might allow to improve the services delivered to the local community and to increase the technological competitiveness of the local industrial and research system. In this context, regional foresight might help identify both long-term societal needs and the patterns of evolution of emerging technologies that can match these needs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, trough the recent experience of the regional government of Lombardy, the role of foresight for enhancing public procurement and innovation policy at the regional level.     

Regulatory policy as innovation: Constructing rules of engagement for a technological zone of tissue engineering in the European Union

This paper addresses the question of the part that regulation plays in processes of innovation in sectors of technology. The politico-economic phenomenon of ‘Europe’ is partly constituted by regulatory regime-building, and new technologies are one of the major sites of regime-building. A constructionist social theory perspective shows that study of the conflictual processes of regulatory policymaking affords insights into the formation of the rules of engagement that constitute technology domains. Adopting the concept of emergent ‘technological zone’ in preference to industrial ‘sector’ or technoscientific network, the paper presents, using empirical research, a detailed account of the case of the debate and development of regulatory policy for therapeutic tissue engineering in the European Union's policy institutions and stakeholder networks. It describes how the jurisdiction of an emergent zone has been formed through such negotiations, providing a counter-example to the common view that regulation ‘lags behind’ innovation. The analysis takes account particularly of the part played by the malleability of the definition of the material technology itself in such constructive governance processes, and it also suggests various consequences for the array of producers of the technology, for market structuring and for the innovation pathways taken by tissue engineering technology. Concluding, the paper argues that there is conceptual advance to be made by bringing together constructionist social theory with innovation studies approaches that highlight the part played by non-firm, public institutions in shaping innovation ecologies.     

Technology transfer from national/federal labs and public research institutes: Managerial and policy implications

While technology transfer at universities has received considerable attention in the innovation and entrepreneurship literature, we know much less about technology transfer at national/federal labs and (non-university) public research institutes. In this article and the related special section, we aim to fill this void. We provide a rationale for our special section on technology transfer from national/federal labs and public research institutes, summarize the papers in the special section, highlight research questions, theories, data and methods, key findings and conclusions. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for multi-level research on agents, institutions, and regions to improve our understanding of the managerial and public policy implications of technology transfer from these institutions.     

我国支持雾霾防治类中小企业技术创新的政策研究

近年来我国雾霾污染天气频发,大气污染越来越严重,因此支持雾霾防治类中小企业的技术创新工作势在必行,但这类企业面临自身规模不大,资金投入有限,融资渠道单一,专业技术人才缺乏等多种条件限制,其技术创新工作亟需相关政策的大力支持。文章把我国支持雾霾防治类中小企业技术创新政策体系分为财政、税收、金融、技术、人才和公共服务几个部分;探讨了支持雾霾防治类中小企业技术创新政策的积极作用;分析了目前我国支持雾霾防治类中小企业技术创新政策存在财政支持不足,税收政策不完善,金融扶持政策缺乏针对性,技术政策落实不到位,人才激励政策存在缺陷,国际合作技术创新政策缺位等问题,并针对这些问题给出了相应的解决方案。     

政府采购促进技术创新政策效果空间计量评估

本文通过构建空间计量模型,基于省际面板数据对中国政府采购促进技术创新政策效果进行了科学评估,研究发现中国政府采购政策在实施初期阶段不仅没有促进技术创新,反而显著地阻碍了创新,但随着中国政府采购政策自主创新激励目标的确定,其政策效果有所改善,但到目前为止其促进技术创新的政策功能仍十分有限。为此提出了遵守国际规则,建立和完善创新导向型政府采购政策体系;完善制度设计,遏制寻租行为,营造良好的创新环境;优化政府采购结构,强化创新激励导向等政策启示,以期为未来改进和完善政府采购政策提供科学依据。     

政产教研共建创新方法实训咨询平台路径探析

从虚拟组织的视角考察创新方法实训咨询平台的组建基础、运营环境。运用战略分析方法,结合政策文本、推广案例,辨析政府、企业、高校、智库在创新方法实训咨询平台中的最优协作关系模式,即政府由经办者转为促进者,高校和智库是核心建设和维护方,企业是需求提出和资源供给方。以“用什么教”“怎样教”“谁来教”“谁来学”“办得好”等为线索,运用优选法挖掘创新方法实训咨询过程中教学资源、核心教学模块、特色训练方法、师资建设、培养对象选拔、平台品质管控方式等关键控制节点的有效建设机制。     

Using the security triad to assess blockchain technology in public sector applications

This conceptual paper explores the impact of blockchain technology on public sector processes through the lens of information security. It includes an overview of the evolution of e-government, a synopsis of existing applications of blockchain technology, and innovative blockchain developments. We utilize the Confidentiality-Integrity-Accessibility (CIA) triad to guide our discussion of the security, governance, and regulatory implications of this technology. Leveraging the CIA triad model, we provide context for public managers who may consider blockchain technologies, and we highlight certain advantages arising from the “non-reputability” of distributed ledgers.In particular, we highlight the advantages of blockchain technologies with regards to non-reputability to help public managers understand how to best leverage blockchain technology to transform operations.     

Design thinking and public sector innovation: The divergent effects of risk-taking,cognitive empathy and emotional empathy on individual performance

Traits that predict whether an employee will generate promising new ideas do not necessarily predict that they will also implement those ideas. This is especially relevant within the public sector, which is typically more risk averse than the private sector, and where barriers to innovation include staff resistance, rigid organizational structures, and a lack of shared innovation goals. To shed light on why some public sector employees are better intrapreneurs than others, we examine the role of risk-taking, emotional empathy, and cognitive empathy on the likelihood of innovation implementation. Using a sample of public sector employees who attended a prominent design thinking bootcamp run by the Bangladeshi Prime Ministers Office, results indicate that individuals are more likely to implement their innovative ideas if they have higher cognitive empathy and risk-taking propensity, but lower emotional empathy. We find evidence for the ‘empathy divergence thesis’ within a public sector setting, extending growing evidence from neuroscience and psychology that cognitive and emotional empathy are distinct processes with divergent effects on behavior. In sum, we provide a nuanced understanding of the overall effect of three important individual level traits on the likelihood of innovation implementation among public sector employees.     

Broadening out and opening up technology assessment: Approaches to enhance international development,co-ordination and democratisation

Technology assessment (TA) has a strong history of helping to identify priorities and improve environmental sustainability, cost-effectiveness and wider benefits in the technology policies and innovation strategies of nation-states. At international levels, TA has the potential to enhance the roles of science, technology and innovation towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, effectively implementing the UN Framework on Climate Change and fostering general global transitions to ‘green economies’. However, when effectively recommending single ostensibly ‘best’ technologies or strategies, TA practices can serve unjustifiably to ‘close down’ debate, failing adequately to address technical uncertainties and social ambiguities, reducing scope for democratic accountability and co-ordination across scales and contexts. This paper investigates ways in which contrasting processes ‘broadening out’ and ‘opening up’ TA can enhance both rigour and democratic accountability in technology policy, as well as facilitating social relevance and international cooperation. These methods allow TA to illuminate options, uncertainties and ambiguities and so inform wider political debates about how the contending questions, values and knowledges of different social interests often favour contrasting innovation pathways. In this way TA can foster both technical robustness and social legitimacy in subsequent policy-making. Drawing on three empirical case studies (at local, national and international levels), the paper discusses detailed cases and methods, where recent TA exercises have contributed to this ‘broadening out’ and ‘opening up’. It ends by exploring wider implications and challenges for national and international technology assessment processes that focus on global sustainable development challenges.