Mario Bunge (1919–2020): Physicist,philosopher, champion of science,and citizen of the world

Mario Bunge, the centenarian Argentine/Canadian physicist/philosopher passed away in the loving company of his wife Marta and children Eric and Silvia on February 24, 2020 in Montréal, Ontario. This memoriam reviews his life and work, particularly his contributions to physics and philosophy of science.     

Energy Economics:New Challenges and Solutions——Review of the 4th Asian Conference of the International Association for Energy Economics(IAEE)

Sustainable development is facing new challenges especially in relation to energy use.Energy economics,an emerging and rapidly developing interdisciplinary field,will play a fundamental role in efforts aimed at coping with these challenges.     

Investigating factors influencing the physicians’ adoption of electronic health record (EHR) in healthcare system of Bangladesh: An empirical study

Electronic Health Record (EHR) can promote awareness or knowledge about healthcare among patients and healthcare professionals to improve collaboration between different governmental bodies, and enhance healthcare quality. The aim of the study is to identify the critical farctors affecting the physicians’ adoption of EHR in healthcare system of Bangladesh by extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to include Personal Innovativeness in Information Technology and Resistance to Change. A cross-sectional survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 participants in different private and public hospitals in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The study used partial least square (PLS) method, a statistical analysis technique based on the structural equation modeling (SEM), to analyze the collected data. The results of the study determined that Social Influence (β = 0.19, P < 0.05), Facilitating Conditions (β = 0.19, P < 0.05), and Personal Innovativeness in Information Technology (β = 0.19, P < 0.05) had a significant influence on physicians’ Behavioral Intention to adopt the EHR system, whereas Performance Expectancy (β = 0.08, P > 0.05), Effort Expectancy (β = -0.02, P > 0.05), and Resistance to Change (β = 0.03, P > 0.05) had no significant influence. The findings suggest that policymakers should increase the adoption of the EHR system by developing social strategies to encourage physicians to stimulate each other to use the EHR system and ensuring technical sufficiency, training to facilitate the use of the EHR system. In addition, the policymakers should identify physicians who possess a propensity to experiment with new information technologies as well as reduce existing challenges and barriers such as computers crush, poor infrastructure with erratic power supply etc. Moreover, we identify future research areas that provide scholars opportunities to push theoretical and empirical boundaries and offer further insights into the study of the EHR system.     

Towards a holistic innovation policy: Can the Swedish National Innovation Council (NIC) be a role model?

A holistic innovation policy is defined in this article as a policy that integrates all public actions that influence or may influence innovation processes. The Swedish National Innovation Council (NIC) was created by the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, in February 2015. It is personally chaired by the prime minister. Another atypical characteristic of the Swedish NIC is that it has a dominant and wide focus on innovation policy. In other countries, such councils focus predominantly on science and/or research policy and treat innovation policy, if at all, as an “appendix” to research policy. The purpose of this article is to answer the following four questions:1. Has Swedish innovation policy recently become more holistic?2. Has the Swedish National Innovation Council (NIC) had a role in the transition towards a holistic innovation policy?3. Have conceptual specifications and advancements played a role in the changes in Swedish innovation policy?4. Can the Swedish NIC serve as a role model for other countries and regions in their attempts to initiate and govern a holistic innovation policy?     

The destabilisation of existing regimes: Confronting a multi-dimensional framework with a case study of the British coal industry (1913–1967)

Because innovation studies are oriented towards novelty, scholars in this field have paid less attention to the destabilisation of existing regimes. This paper discusses four views on industry destabilisation and presents an encompassing conceptual framework, which addresses interactions between the build-up of external pressures, industry response strategies, and the gradual weakening of commitment to existing regime elements. We confront the framework with an in-depth longitudinal case study of the British coal industry (1913–1967). Specific conclusions are developed about different degrees of regime inertia, the ebb and flow of external pressures, the relative importance of economic and socio-political pressures, and interactions between them.     

Blind in the right eye? The practice of awarding honorary memberships by German and Austrian dental societies (1949–1993) to Nazi dentists: A study on the role of National Socialism in post-war dentistry

According to ongoing public discourse, the dental profession in Germany and Austria has found it rather difficult to come to terms with the National Socialist past. Against this background, this study focuses on the practice of awarding honorary memberships by German and Austrian dental societies in the years 1949–1993. In particular, it examines how previous memberships in the Nazi party or other Nazi organisations were handled. We identified a total of 86 honourees, 47 of whom (55 %) were members of the NSDAP during the Third Reich, whereas only two were of Jewish origin. This leads to two conclusions: (1) Previous involvement with Nazi organisations was obviously not a limiting factor in the selection of honourees, and (2) after 1945, the Jewish colleagues were marginalised for a second time—now by being largely overlooked. The reasons of both findings are analysed and contextualised.