Is Italian science declining?

The paper analyses the Italian contribution to the world scientific production, its relative citation impact, its international collaborations and scientific productivity compared with the most productive EU countries over the period 1980–2009. It shows that despite the fact that the level of funding has been dramatically low during the past decades, Italian science has been able to increase its performance up to 2007. Italian science is a “cathedral in the desert”. However, a recent reduction in the level of scientific production, the lagging behind in international scientific collaboration (highly correlated with the relative citation impact) and the great heterogeneity of researchers’ productivity (absence of correlation of number of researchers with quality and quantity of scientific production) may mark the start of a decline of Italian science. The paper concludes that the increased funding must go hand-in-hand with reform of autonomy and governance and calling for a sound system of internal quality control and performance enhancement.     

The bumpy road of technology partnerships: Understanding causes and consequences of partnership mal-functioning

Research on technological partnerships has traditionally sought explanation of their high failure rates in partner characteristics and relationship features. This study introduces the notion of a ‘bumpy road’ in technology partnerships which refers to undesired outcomes such as ‘partnership mal-functioning’ and ‘instability’ to the degree to which innovation activities are hampered. We explain how firm-level strategies can reduce the probability of a ‘bumpy road’ in partnerships. We also assess the impact of this ‘bumpy road’ on innovative performance. We find that firms that excel in diversification of external activities (in terms of different types of partners) perform best. Moreover, a persistent product oriented innovation strategy geared at developing new products, new markets, or higher product quality will yield more stable partnership outcomes. Our results confirm that engagement in partnerships is beneficial for innovative performance. However, firms that experienced a ‘bumpy road’ in their technological partnerships have to pay a price in terms of a negative effect on their innovative performance.     

How do collaborations with universities affect firms’ innovative performance? The role of “Pasteur scientists” in the advanced materials field

This article aimed to identify the effect of university-industry (U-I) collaborations on the innovative performance of firms operating in the advanced materials field, and by doing so, it proposed an original classification of the research organization partners. The main contribution resides in the estimation of the role played by collaborations with differently experienced scientists. In contrast with previous studies, whose empirical setting was the life science industry, in the advanced materials industry the most effective collaborations are not with “Star scientists”, but with “Pasteur scientists”. The latter concept was empirically tested first by the authors of this article, to deepen the present understanding of industrial heterogeneity in innovation processes and to offer new insights for the formulation of corporate innovation strategies. The results of the estimation of a negative binomial regression model applied to a sample of 455 firms active in the photocatalysis in Japan confirm the idea that engaging in research collaborations, measured as co-invention, with “Pasteur scientists” increases firms’ R&D productivity, measured as number of registered patents. In contrast, we found that firms’ collaborations with “Star scientists” exert little impact on their innovative output.     

The influence of knowledge-based resources and business scholars’ internationalization strategies on research performance

This study investigates how business research scholars’ internationalization strategies influence their research performance and how this relationship is moderated by the availability of different knowledge-based resources. The authors analyze citations to journal articles authored by business research scholars with German affiliations and examine how the number of citations is determined by international collaborations and a researcher's knowledge resources in terms of language skills, research experience, and foreign market knowledge. The results demonstrate that the augmentation of complementary knowledge resources (i.e., when researchers lack language skills and foreign market knowledge) positively influences the performance of a collaboration-based internationalization strategy (i.e., collaborations with international researchers). The collaboration-based strategy also improves performance for less experienced researchers, but this advantage diminishes with increasing research experience. The findings provide further insights into drivers of scholars’ research performance and have practical implications for science policy.     

基于TFP视角的西部大开发战略实施绩效评价

在1992～2007年面板数据的基础之上,运用Malmquist生产率指数,从全要素生产率(TFP)角度分析了西部大开发战略的实施绩效。研究发现,西部大开发战略的实施,使得西部地区全要素生产率增长率在全国平均TFP增长率处于下滑趋势的情况下,从1992～1999年期间的-0.9%上升到2000～2007年期间的1.2%。从区域差异来看,西部大开发战略实施前西部地区TFP增长率低于全国平均水平,且在三大区域中处于最低水平;而在西部大开发战略实施后,西部地区TFP增长率远高于全国平均水平,且在三大区域中处于最高水平。因此,从全要素生产率角度来看,西部大开发战略实施绩效显著。     

Performance impact of research policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences

We present evidence on productivity improvement experienced by the research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) after its implementation of the Knowledge Innovation Program (KIP). Using a balanced panel of data on R&D inputs and outputs of 59 research institutes in CAS, we analyze the productivity, technological and efficiency changes from 1997 to 2005. We document that the CAS research institutes have a productivity growth of 12.5% from 1998 to 2005, which can be further decomposed into 8.8% attributed to technological progress and 3.3% to efficiency improvement. Results of regional analysis show that institutes in Beijing and Shanghai, performed better than institutes in other regions during the same period.     

山西省经济转型发展策略分析——以煤炭行业和化工行业为例

山西省以＂煤、焦、冶、电＂为特征的经济结构严重制约了经济转型战略的实施,经济和社会发展趋势迫切要求改变这种长期形成的经济结构矛盾。本文通过分析计量得出的山西省煤炭行业和化工行业的全要素生产率结果,提出了按照山西省总体利益制定和实施煤炭行业发展战略,减少传统煤炭产业的资源配置,提高大型煤炭集团的公司治理水平,及对化工行业等新兴支柱产业坚持市场化导向等经济转型发展策略。     

Governing the virtual academic commons

This paper investigates the way in which certain institutions governing the common resources shared by academics and others are affected by the increase in communication facilities, disciplinary transgression and the value of knowledge. By taking its point of departure from concepts such as ‘tragedy of the commons’ and social dilemmas, the paper argues that institutions which have traditionally governed the so called ‘academic commons’ are now challenged by a number of factors pertinent to the evolution of knowledge society. As a result the governance principles for the academic commons must be further explicated and revised in the light of the new situation. A case in point from a recent on-line initiative by the US National Institute of Health (NIF) is presented to illustrate how such institutions can be built. Finally, a number of governance strategies are presented for an increasingly wired “virtual academic commons”.     

智能制造政策能否提升企业全要素生产率？

制造业向智能制造转型升级是中国实现制造强国战略的必由之路。本文采用双重差分法，以《中国制造2025》政策出台为准自然实验，利用A股上市公司2010-2019年数据实证检验了智能制造政策对企业全要素生产率的作用效果及机制。研究发现：（1）智能制造政策能有效促进智能制造领域企业全要素生产率的提高；（2）智能制造政策一方面诱导企业增加无意义或低效率的研发投入，降低企业全要素生产率，另一方面引导企业增加有效发明专利数，进而提高企业全要素生产率；（3）智能制造政策作用效果在不同所有制性质、不同市场化程度地区的企业中存在显著差异。上述结果证实了智能制造政策的作用效果，并部分打开其作用机制黑箱，对下一阶段智能制造产业政策的制定与落实具有重要借鉴和启示意义。     

Critical decisions for ERP integration: Small business issues

Small enterprises are facing significant challenges to become suppliers of bigger customers due to the excessive costs associated with accessing a vast market of potential customers. It is essential for small businesses to adopt an ERP system to maintain control of their operations and to compete globally. An ERP implementation is expensive and risky for all businesses, but it is still more challenging for small businesses, which have particular characteristics. We identified from archived literature, key decisions necessary in selecting and implementing an ERP system. While these critical decisions are applicable to all types of businesses, the focus of this research was to recommend the best practices for each one of these key decisions for small businesses. We interviewed six small businesses to recommend best practices for the critical decisions: (1) project team structure, (2) implementation strategy, (3) database conversion strategy, (4) transition technique, (5) risk management strategy and (6) change management strategy. Our results indicate that these best practices greatly enhanced the success of an ERP implementation for small businesses. Further, we recommend studying the impact of ERP systems on the small business’ participation in supply chain management.     

Patterns of preservation, restructuring and survival: science and technology policy in Russia in post-Soviet era

This paper analyses the role of S&T policy in the adjustment and restructuring of Russian S&T system in the post-Soviet period. The principal argument is that the adjustment of S&T system in Russia has been evolving between ‘preservation of S&T potential’, its restructuring, and survival strategies developed by researchers and R&D organisations. Interaction of these factors explains much of the pace and patterns of restructuring of Russian S&T system observed in the post-Soviet period. The model that emerged is the post-Soviet R&D model, which is relevant for Russia and also for other CIS. The paper analyses strategic options available to Russian policy makers.     

An analysis of image retrieval behavior for metadata type image database

The aim of this paper was to analyze users’ behavior during image retrieval exercises. Results revealed that users tend to follow a set search strategy: firstly they input one or two keyword search terms one after another and view the images generated by their initial search and after they navigate their way around the web by using the ‘back to home’ or ‘previous page’ buttons. These results are consistent with existing Web research. Many of the actions recorded revealed that subjects behavior differed depending on if the task set was presented as a closed or open task. In contrast no differences were found for the time subjects took to perform a single action or their use of the AND operator.     

Investigation of a novel perforation technique in petroleum wells—perforation by drilling

The objective of perforating the petroleum wells is to maximize well productivity. A good connectivity between the wellbore and formation can lead up to achieve that goal. However, the conventional method of perforation, which basically involves the use of explosive charges, rarely meets the expected well productivity. It is mainly because of the formation of a region of reduced permeability around the perforation tunnel. To offset such and several other shortcomings of present practices, a new technique is required, the highlight of this paper. Described as the ‘perforation by drilling’ (PD), this new technique is examined and compared for its performance with that of another technique, ‘Perforation by Shooting’ (PS). For this, the experimental and numerical results of the PS technique on cylindrical sand samples of varying amounts of strength and porosity are studied. Moreover, in order to achieve a so-called ‘perfect perforation’, results are compared with the ‘Casting technique’. Three different samples were selected for the measurement of fluid flow rate and differential pressure across the perforation using a ‘geotechnical digital system’ (GDS), which is a triaxial testing device. Profiles such as fluid flow rate with a change in differential pressure and pressure build-up data with time, signify that the PD technique can achieve maximum wellbore productivity when compared to the PS technique. Results also indicate that at a 100 kPa differential pressure, the PS, PD and Casting techniques can achieve 0.20, 0.65 and 1.00 mL/s fluid flow rates respectively across a sample. The paper also implements a 1-D time dependent porous media flow model to simulate flow across the perforated cylindrical samples created by the PS, PD and Casting techniques. Results show a good consistency between the experimental and numerical approaches.     

The temporal trajectories of innovative search: Insights from public hospital services

This article explores the temporal trajectories of innovative search. Drawing on conceptual ideas from the behavioural theory of the firm, it proposes that the level of temporal persistence in organisations’ innovative search activities is affected by four key factors. These include (i) the mode of innovative search as well as organisations’ (ii) strategic aspirations, (iii) slack resources and (iv) performance feedback. This conceptual model is tested in the context of public hospital services in England. Results from dynamic panel data analyses reveal stronger temporal persistence in science- than in practice-based innovative search activities. Findings also suggest that specialist hospitals relying on a continuous stream of new products, services and processes to meet their strategic aspirations are better positioned to sustain science-based innovative search activities than their generalist counterparts. Similarly, results uncover a positive association between the availability of financial slack and hospitals’ ability to continuously engage in superior levels of science-based innovative search. Contrary to theoretical expectations, however, positive performance feedback does not appear to have any persistence-enhancing effect.     

Email overload: Exploring the moderating role of the perception of email as a ‘business critical’ tool

The management of email remains a major challenge for organisations. In this article, we explore the extent of the perceptions of email as a business critical tool within an organisation and how the level of such perceptions may moderate the level of email overload experienced by individuals within the organisation. Data from a sample of 1100 employees of a multinational technology firm are analysed using multivariate techniques. The results suggest that without a clearly stated code of email practice within an organisation, there are likely to be large variations in what is perceived as ‘business-critical’ email and, as a result, a substantial amount of email generated within the organisation may not be ‘business-critical’, potentially increasing the level of ‘email-overload’ experienced by individuals within the organisation.     

Does R&D performance decline with firm size?—A re-examination in terms of elasticity

There have been many previous studies exploring the relationship between R&D performance and firm size; however, to our knowledge, this issue has never been examined in terms of R&D output elasticity. This paper therefore sets out to re-examine the relationship of the two variables using R&D output elasticity as a measure of R&D performance. A total of 126 manufacturing firms, listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange over the period from 1994 to 2000, are taken as the analytical sample. One practical consideration for choosing these particular firms is the relative abundance of data available for the variables for a longitudinal investigation. The estimates suggest that there is an approximating ‘U-type’ relationship between R&D productivity and firm size. This finding suggests that both large and small firms have higher R&D productivity, and even when the sample is divided into the high-tech and traditional sectors, such a finding still holds. Therefore, in contrast to the prior studies, this study shows that size offers advantage in R&D performance.     

Research quality and efficiency: An analysis of assessments and management issues in Dutch economics and business research programs

Assessments of quality and productivity of academic research programs become more and more important in gaining financial support, in hiring and promoting research staff, and in building academic reputation. Most assessments are based on peer review or on bibliometric information. In this paper we analyze both bibliometric data and peer review assessments of 169 research groups in economics, econometrics and business administration. The evaluations are achieved in two independent rounds in 1995 and in 2001, permitting replication of our study.The purpose of this study is twofold. In the first part we want to see to what degree bibliometric information relates to peer review judgments. The results convey how evaluators weight different output categories in their final overall judgment of academic quality. The results also have practical meaning, since they indicate what the predictive ability of bibliometric data is for future peer review outcomes. In the second part of this study we aim at explaining differences in research output quality and productivity by organizational factors, like size of the research group, composition of staff, sources of research funding and academic discipline. In this part, a composite indicator is used to represent the review committees’ overall assessment. The bibliometric data most strongly related to the peer reviews’ overall assessment are used to construct data envelopment analyses’ efficiency scores as measure of research productivity.The main conclusions from our study are that the number of publications in international top journals is the best predictor of peer review assessment results. Changes in the classification of bibliometric information, as introduced in the second evaluation round, do not alter this conclusion. Size of the research group appears to be the only permanent characteristic associated with research quality and productivity. Size is positively related to research quality but negatively related to research productivity. Larger groups appear to have the potential to improve quality, but as groups become larger, they also experience problems in maintaining the research productivity of the research team's members. The remaining organizational characteristics appear to be temporarily related to research quality and productivity. In the first evaluation round, research productivity and quality are associated with the discipline variable: research programs in more quantitative areas and characterized by a higher level of paradigm development like econometrics and operations research achieved higher levels of research quality and productivity than programs in more diverse and less quantitative areas like business administration. This relation however is not permanent, since it becomes insignificant in the second evaluation round. Instead, funding relations become more apparent in the second review round. The relative amount of national funding in the research group's funding becomes positively related to academic quality, whereas the portion of income from committed research is negatively related to academic quality of the programs’ research output. This may have been caused by the increased importance of alternative sources of research funding in the period of the second review.     

绿色增长战略的系统动力学模型构建及评价研究

摘要：本文针对绿色增长策略实施绩效的评价问题,引入系统动力学构建绿色增长策略动力学模型。以绿色增长策略力度为主要控制变量,以绿色福祉指数为绿色增长策略实施绩效的评价变量,搭建绿色增长策略评价及模拟平台,探讨政府绿色增长策略力度与实施绩效间的动态作用机制。研究发现：我国实际绿色增长策略力度为0.17,最佳绿色增长策略力度为0.55,绿色增长策略实施力度缺口达到69%,表明绿色增长策略在国家战略制定中的重要性较弱。同时,本文对消费指数、环境服务指数及绿色福祉指数的实际演化曲线与动态最优演化曲线进行比较研究。在最佳绿色增长策略背景下,环境服务指数的增长是绿色福祉指数增长的主要拉动力;消费指数与绿色福祉指数的演化曲线始终保持一致,表征了绿色增长策略应始终以提升人民生活质量,优化人们生活生产环境为主旨。同时,三个指数的演化曲线最终呈现出逐渐收敛的态势,表明最佳绿色增长策略最终目标是生态环境状况、人民生活水平及绿色福祉水平实现协同优化、和谐发展。     

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.