Battle of the Sexes on E-Mail-Or Is It?

Few studies have attempted to link e-mail use to power and politics. The purpose of this article is to offer some initial evidence and analysis of e-mail's role in organizational power and politics. To frame the discussion, the article reviews the relevant writings on power and politics. The review is concluded with a theoretical critique that suggests that contextual and, particularly, temporal aspects should be incorporated into research on power and politics in organizations. To demonstrate how an analysis based on temporal aspects can be undertaken, a case study that outlines the use of e-mail for power and politics in a university is presented. The discussion and conclusions sections synthesize the analysis by demonstrating that what was interpreted by many organization members at the early stages of the conflict as a ''battle of the sexes'' can be seen (and, indeed, was interpreted by many organization members at the later stages of the conflict) as an elaborate exercise in misinformation created by top management to further its political objectives. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications from this case to e-mail research and practice.     

Popular evolutionary psychology in the UK: an unusual case of science in the media?

This paper presents findings from quantitative analyses of UK press and print media coverage of evolutionary psychology during the 1990s. It argues that evolutionary psychology presents an interesting case for studies of science in the media in several different ways. First, press coverage of evolutionary psychology was found to be closely linked with the publications of popular books on the subject. Secondly, when compared to coverage of other subjects, a higher proportion of academics and authors wrote about evolutionary psychology in the press, contributing to the development of a scientific controversy in the public domain. Finally, it was found that evolutionary psychology coverage appeared in different areas of the daily press, and was rarely written about by specialist science journalists. The possible reason for these features are then explored, including the boom in popular science publishing during the 1990s, evolutionary psychology's status as a new subject of study and discussion, and the nature of the subject its as theoretically based and with a human, "everyday" subject matter.     

The skeleton in the closet: should historians of science care about the history of mathematics?

Up until the 1950s, the history of mathematics was an integral part of the history of science. To George Sarton and his contemporaries, mathematics was the rational skeleton that organized science and held it together, and its history was a fundamental component of the broader history of science. But when historians began focusing on the cultural roots of science rather than its rational structure, the study of mathematics was marginalized and ultimately excluded from the history of science. The alienation between the two fields is detrimental to both, and in recent years there has been a sustained effort to reestablish meaningful communication between the two. This time, however, mathematics is seen not as the static skeleton of science but, instead, as a dynamic and historically evolving field in its own right-just like science itself. The new approach allows for a culturally sensitive study of mathematics, as well as a new and fruitful relationship between the history of science and the history of mathematics. The essays in this Focus section offer a sampling of the new approaches, opening the way to a rapprochement between fields that have gone their separate ways but should by rights be closely interconnected.     

Is there a Bin Laden in the Audience? Considering the Events of September 11 as a Possible Boomerang Effect of the Globalization of US Mass Communication

The images of America exported by entertainment and information media companies have created very high expectations in foreign audiences. Some recipients overhearing American media want to immigrate to the US and/or study in Western universities. In the process, a few of them encounter difficulties deceiving their high expectations. Their frustrations have been exploited by some fanatic ideologues for their own agendas, resulting in anti-American terrorism. The American media should be aware of the unintended consequences of their global exhibition of media, and more careful attention should be given to the way immigrants or graduate students sojourning in the US live their day-to-day encounters.     

Spatial differences in the quality of university patenting: Do regions matter?

This paper uses patent citation data to analyze the quality of university technology across European regions. The empirical analysis draws on a panel dataset of 4580 European university-owned patents classified by 202 European regions over the period 1998-2004. The methodology involves a multilevel framework to identify the effects of factors at three hierarchical levels (individual, university, and regional) on the quality of university patenting. The results suggest that regional factors, such as the level of development, industrial potential, and regional higher education R&D expenditure, do not play any significant role in determining the quality of European university patents. We instead find that the factors affecting patent quality stem from their specific characteristics. We also find that university size does not explain the quality of patents. However, there is significant unobserved heterogeneity at the university level in all models, suggesting that differences in other university characteristics explain a substantial part of the variance in patent quality.     

Innovation and firm value: An investigation of the changing role of patents, 1985–2007

This paper examines how the relationship between firm value and patent-based indicators of inventive activity has changed over time. We use data from more than 33,000 mergers and acquisitions deals between 1985 and 2007, and distinguish between American (USPTO) and European (EPO) patents. Our results indicate that over time EPO patents have become the dominant indicator of innovative activity, while USPTO patents have no effect on firm value near the end of the sample period. The results are robust to controlling for citations and are especially strong for small firms, for firms operating in the drug and chemical industries, and when target and acquiring firms operate in different industries or countries.     

Investment in the Future:Training of Young Researchers in Times of Globalization

In light of research policy development and the global efforts we are seeing to strengthen universities, and in light of the increasing need for junior scientists, non-university research facilities, too, are facing new challenges.     

Evaluating the social value of online health information for third-party patients: Is uncertainty always bad?

Online health interactions (OHIs) can benefit patients, physicians, and society. However, little research has been conducted that studies the social value of OHIs for third-party patients who view previous OHIs concerning similar health issues to theirs. Drawing on the literature on social support and information uncertainty, this study established a theoretical model to explore the roles of treatment information, prevention information, and emotional support in determining information usefulness perceived by third-party patients, and whether such relationships are contingent on information uncertainty. The model was tested using “health questions and answers” textual data from 1,848 OHIs. The results indicate that prevention information and emotional support significantly improve information usefulness perceived by third-party patients. When the level of information uncertainty regarding physicians’ replies is high, the effect of treatment information is strengthened and the effect of emotional support is weakened, indicating both the bright and dark side of information uncertainty. This study has implications for practitioners and contributes to the literature on online health information, social support, information science, and information uncertainty.     

Unravelling the drivers of technological innovations in the Czech Republic: Do international technological linkages matter?

This study aims to investigate the main factors driving technological innovation within firms in the manufacturing and service sectors of the Czech Republic. We apply a binary logistic regression model to cross-sectional data from 502 firms, obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The results of our empirical investigation show that certain elements of the business environment, such as the tax rate, serve as significant obstacles to firms’ product innovations. The results also confirm that international technological linkages—measured by international quality certificates and foreign technology licenses—affect technological innovations. Moreover, we found that internal R&D activities positively impact technological innovation across all sectors; contrarily, we found that process innovation in the manufacturing sector is positively influenced by foreign technology licenses and business association membership. Process innovations in the service sector are positively correlated with external R&D and financing from banking institutions. Finally, business association membership does not positively influence technological innovation in the service sector. Our findings have salient implications for firm managers, policymakers, and scholars aiming to explore and improve innovation outcomes in transitional economies.     

Ethical control of innovation in a globalized and liberal world: Is good science still science?

The independence of science was long seen as of prime importance. This position has become less common today. The perception of scientific research as a public service has led to the opinion that it must be accountable to citizens and produce knowledge and innovation that meet their expectations. Numerous authors have voiced the need for anticipatory ethical control of innovation focusing on the scientific research process. This control is considered as the must-have guarantee for “good science.” The current article attempts to trace the ideological origins of the ethical control of innovation, examines its effectiveness against the challenge of globalization and technology-derived major threats and its compatibility with scientific methodology. It also suggests ways to both regulate the innovation process and preserve the independence of science. On the whole, we conclude that truly effective ethical regulation of innovation, i.e. one that protects the greatest number from its adverse effects, is achieved first and foremost by questioning our liberal economic model and the place given to science in our societies.     

Biotechnology in the Netherlands: controversy or consensus?

This paper addresses the issue of public perception of modern biotechnology in the Netherlands. Contrary to expectations, data from the 1999 Eurobarometer on biotechnology indicate that the position of the Dutch public in general is rather ambiguous, which is in contrast to many of its neighboring countries. The issue is described in terms of differences between the Netherlands and other European countries on political-economic, social-cultural, or media coverage indicators. On many indicators, the Dutch population differs from that of other European countries, and the Dutch opinion-leading media present a rather balanced perspective on modern biotechnology.     

Is chess the drosophila artificial intelligence? A social history of an algorithm

Since the mid 1960s, researchers in computer science have famously referred to chess as the 'drosophila' of artificial intelligence (AI). What they seem to mean by this is that chess, like the common fruit fly, is an accessible, familiar, and relatively simple experimental technology that nonetheless can be used productively to produce valid knowledge about other, more complex systems. But for historians of science and technology, the analogy between chess and drosophila assumes a larger significance. As Robert Kohler has ably described, the decision to adopt drosophila as the organism of choice for genetics research had far-reaching implications for the development of 20th century biology. In a similar manner, the decision to focus on chess as the measure of both human and computer intelligence had important and unintended consequences for AL research. This paper explores the emergence of chess as an experimental technology, its significance in the developing research practices of the AI community, and the unique ways in which the decision to focus on chess shaped the program of AI research in the decade of the 1970s. More broadly, it attempts to open up the virtual black box of computer software--and of computer games in particular--to the scrutiny of historical and sociological analysis.     

Pandemic in print: the spread of influenza in the Fin de Siècle

The rapid spread of the 1889-1890 influenza epidemic was widely reported in the periodical press. As Londoners read that another European capital had succumbed, they were struck that the illness was not only travelling as fast as the news, but was also moving along the same routes. Although medical science quickly resolved that a germ was the cause of the illness, its mild nature but widespread social impact lead many to suspect that it was actually caused by newspaper hype. This link between the press and the illness made the epidemic seem a curious symptom of the modern communications technologies that increasingly defined the age.     

Anticipating Ethical Challenges: Is There a Coming Era of Nanotechnology?

In this paper I question the claims made for a ‘coming era of nanotechnology’ and the ethical challenges, it is argued, that are entailed by this particular technological revolution. I argue that such futurist claims are sustained by an untenable modernist narrative which separates the technical and the social. This is exemplified by the work of K. Eric Drexler and his claim that whilst the course of scientific knowledge may remain unpredictable we nevertheless can predict with accuracy the trajectory of technology and particularly the emergence of nanotechnology. The problem then, on the basis of knowledge about the future state of technology, is to make choices now which will forestall unintended and undesirable consequences. Firstly, the paper argues for a radical scepticism towards all forms of forecasting or prediction but especially technological forecasting of the type exemplified in the debate around nanotechnology. Secondly, given this radical scepticism the paper criticises the idea that a prospective ethics can be created on the basis of an assessment of consequences of nanotechnology.