Government centrality to university–industry interactions: University research centers and the industry involvement of academic researchers

This paper uses data from a national survey of academic researchers in the US to detect how different types of university research centers affect individual-level university–industry interactions. The results suggest that while affiliation with an industry-related center correlates positively with the likelihood of an academic researcher having had any research-related interactions with private companies, affiliation with centers sponsored by government centers programs correlates positively with the level of industry involvement, no matter whether these centers additionally have ties to private companies. The analysis takes the “scientific and technical human capital” approach, which draws from theories of social capital and human capital and proves useful for framing the institutional and resource-based perspectives that characterize much of the literature on university–industry interactions. The scientific and technical human capital approach is taken because its emphasis on the research capacities of individual academic researchers provides a more direct explanation of government centrality to academic researchers’ industry involvement than provide either the resource-based or institutional views. Implications for policy and management as well as for future applications of the scientific and technical human capital approach are discussed.     

Does the merger of universities promote their scientific research performance? Evidence from China

University mergers fundamentally aim to enhance the level of higher education and scientific research performance through resource integration by “reorganization”. However, whether university mergers achieve the latter goal has been subject to controversy. With the help of the “quasi-experiment” of Chinese colleges and universities merged in the 1990s, this study determines the impact of university mergers on scientific research performance. Panel data of 431 colleges and universities from 1993 to 2013 in The compilation of scientific and technical statistics of Chinese higher education and difference in differences method are used. Results show that the merger of colleges and universities exert a significant negative impact on the scientific research performance due to excessive government interventions and difficulties in cultural integration. The merger effect is related to the number of university participants and degree of government intervention. Therefore, university mergers cannot effectively promote the level of scientific research, unable to bring economies of scale and rather lead to diseconomies of scale.     

How does openness influence the impact of a scholar’s research? An analysis of business scholars’ citations over their careers

How do the effects of cognitive openness and structural openness on the research impact of business scholars vary over their careers? By analysing a longitudinal sample of 35,296 scholars who published in business and management journals, we show that the cognitive openness and the structural openness of business scholars have non-linear relationships with their research impact. In particular, we found that, whereas moderate levels of cognitive openness and structural openness are desirable for increasing young scholars’ citations, a high level of cognitive openness and a low level of structural openness contribute to senior scholars’ citations. This study contributes to our understanding of different search behaviour across business scholars’ career paths and its implications for scholars’ research impact.     

Minding the communications gap: How can universities signal the availability and value of their scientific knowledge to commercial organizations?

We posit that a communications gap exists between universities and commercial organizations, attributed to their idiosyncratic goals, interests, and incentives. To bridge this gap, universities need to recognize and leverage observable differences in the strength of signals and the width of channels used to disseminate their scientific knowledge externally. We explore these ideas by analyzing knowledge dissemination and academic engagement activities in 133 UK universities in the period 2011–2019. Our analysis shows that universities with a lower scientific impact have a higher intensity of collaborative research, contract research, and consultancy activities if they communicate that impact through more prominent scientific outlets. In turn, universities with a higher scientific impact have a lower intensity of interaction with commercial organizations if they communicate their scientific impact through less prominent scientific outlets. We further reveal that universities with a higher economic impact show a higher intensity of collaborative research. At the same time, we find no evidence that the social impact generated by universities is linked to the intensity of university-industry interaction, no matter the channels through which that impact is communicated. Using these findings, we draw implications for practice and policy.     

How do men and women differ in research collaborations? An analysis of the collaborative motives and strategies of academic researchers

Do men and women academic faculty vary in their research collaboration patterns and strategies? This straightforward question does not lend itself to a straightforward answer. A great many sex-correlated variables could possibly mitigate the relationship of sex and collaboration. If one finds sex-correlated differences in the number of collaborators, can one infer that there is something intrinsic to men's and women's work strategies and preferences? Or would such differences owe instead to women's and men's different positions in work structures and hierarchies? The focus here is on two sets of research collaboration variables, numbers of collaborators and the collaboration strategies employed. The study uses questionnaire data from the U.S. National Survey of Academic Scientists (n = 1714) and tests several hypotheses about collaboration numbers and strategies. Regression results indicate, counter to the core hypotheses and almost all published literature, that in a properly specified model, one taking into account such factors as tenure, discipline, family status and doctoral cohort, women actually have somewhat more collaborators on average than do men. For both men and women, those with more industrial interactions and those affiliated with university research centers have more collaborators. Men and women differ in their collaborator choice strategies. Men are more likely to be oriented to “instrumental,” and “experience” strategies, while both men and women are motivated by “mentoring” strategies. Regression analyses show that for both men and women, having a coherent collaborator choice strategy predicts the number of collaborators.     

Batman forever? The role of trademarks for reuse in the US comics industry

We study how trademarks affect reuse of creative works in the comics industry. As a creative industry, the comics industry systematically relies on copyrights. But trademark protection can also be exploited to generate income from the reuse of comic characters or to strategically exclude others from reuse. Our unique data set combines US trademark records of comic characters with information on reuse in print media and franchise products from 1990 to 2017. We find that, on average, additional trademark protection is associated with a reduction in reuse in printed comic books of about 19%. We highlight three mechanisms: first, the negative relationship between trademarking and reuse has been especially pronounced since the early 2000s, when the arrival of digital technologies lowered the costs of entry, promotion, and distribution. Second, our results are driven by less reuse by third parties, not trademark holders. Third, reuse is higher when trademark owners license comic characters to third parties. The negative association between trademarking and reuse carries over to franchise products, but it is weaker and tied to the era of digitization, with a 2% decline in reuse in franchise movies and 9% lower reuse in video games.     

Who are the researchers that are collaborating with industry? An analysis of the wine sectors in Chile, South Africa and Italy

Research on University-industry (U-I) linkages and their determinants has increased significantly in the past few years. However, there is still controversy on the key factors explaining the formation of U-I linkages, and especially related to individual researcher characteristics. This paper provides new empirical evidence and, in particular, looks at the importance of researchers’ individual characteristics and their institutional environments in explaining the propensity to engage in different types of U-I linkages. Based on an original dataset, we present new evidence on three wine producing areas - Piedmont, a region of Italy, Chile and South Africa - that have successfully responded to recent structural changes in the industry worldwide. Empirical findings reveal that researchers’ individual characteristics, such as centrality in the academic system, age and sex, matter more than publishing records or formal degrees. Institutional specificities at country level also play a role in shaping the propensity of researchers to engage with industry.     

What leads to post-implementation success of ERP? An empirical study of the Chinese retail industry

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been implemented globally and their implementation has been extensively studied during the past decade. However, many organizations are still struggling to derive benefits from the implemented ERP systems. Therefore, ensuring post-implementation success has become the focus of the current ERP research. This study develops an integrative model to explain the post-implementation success of ERP, based on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) theory. We posit that ERP implementation quality (the technological aspect) consisting of project management and system configuration, organizational readiness (the organizational aspect) consisting of leadership involvement and organizational fit, and external support (the environmental aspect) will positively affect the post-implementation success of ERP. An empirical test was conducted in the Chinese retail industry. The results show that both ERP implementation quality and organizational readiness significantly affect post-implementation success, whereas external support does not. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

How the emoji use in apology messages influences customers’ responses in online service recoveries: The moderating role of communication style

This research investigates the impact of using emojis (i.e., the pleading-face emoji) on customer forgiveness in relation to handling complaints on social media. Specifically, this research proposes that perceived firm sincerity and perceived firm empathy play mediating roles in the relationship between emoji use and customer forgiveness. In addition, the research identifies the moderating role of communication style in the proposed relationship. Results of three experimental studies indicated that the presence of the emoji in online complaint handling leads to an increase in perceived firm sincerity, which in turn increases perceived firm empathy and, subsequently, leads to customer forgiveness. The serial mediation effects (use of emojis → perceived firm sincerity → perceived firm empathy → customer forgiveness) were moderated by the service provider’s communication style. Specifically, the serial mediation effect occurs when an informal communication style, but not a formal communication style, is used. Furthermore, no difference exists in the research findings across different service types (hedonic vs. utilitarian).     

Content analysis of e-petitions with topic modeling: How to train and evaluate LDA models?

E-petitions have become a popular vehicle for political activism, but studying them has been difficult because efficient methods for analyzing their content are currently lacking. Researchers have used topic modeling for content analysis, but current practices carry some serious limitations. While modeling may be more efficient than manually reading each petition, it generally relies on unsupervised machine learning and so requires a dependable training and validation process. And so this paper describes a framework to train and validate Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), the simplest and most popular topic modeling algorithm, using e-petition data. With rigorous training and evaluation, 87% of LDA-generated topics made sense to human judges. Topics also aligned well with results from an independent content analysis by the Pew Research Center, and were strongly associated with corresponding social events. Computer-assisted content analysts can benefit from our guidelines to supervise every process of training and evaluation of LDA. Software developers can benefit from learning the demands of social scientists when using LDA for content analysis. These findings have significant implications for developing LDA tools and assuring validity and interpretability of LDA content analysis. In addition, LDA topics can have some advantages over subjects extracted by manual content analysis by reflecting multiple themes expressed in texts, by extracting new themes that are not highlighted by human coders, and by being less prone to human bias.     

Applying a principle of explicability to AI research in Africa: should we do it?

Ethics and Information Technology - Developing and implementing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in an ethical manner faces several challenges specific to the kind of technology at hand,...     

How can tacit knowledge be shared more in organizations? A multidimensional approach to the role of social capital and locus of control

This multidimensional study looks at the influence of social capital and internal vs external locus of control on tacit knowledge-sharing intention and behaviour, and the relationship between the two. The relations studied within the framework of the proposed model are tested by regression analyses. The findings indicate that social capital and its basic structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions tend to increase tacit knowledge-sharing intention, which gradually turns into behaviour because, according to Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour, behavioural intention is the immediate antecedent to behaviour (or according to Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour, a person’s intention to perform a behaviour increases as subjective norms become more favourable). It is further concluded that having an internal locus of control increases both the intentions and behaviour, whereas external locus of control only increases the behaviour. The study also concludes that tacit knowledge-sharing intention gradually turns into sharing behaviour. The study is considered to contribute to the field of knowledge management in various ways. In this study a multidimensional survey of 42 questions was used to investigate the research topic and its sub-dimensions, and the data were collected via face-to-face interviews. The population of the study was 106 nursing students, and all components of the research universe were reached. It was found that social capital positively affects and increases tacit knowledge-sharing intentions and behaviour. A research model based on the conceptual framework was developed and research questions were addressed by means of this model and the findings.     

How to deal with corruption? Examining the roles of e-government maturity,government administrative effectiveness,and virtual social networks diffusion

The role of e-government in combating corruption is an active area of research in Information Systems (IS). Drawing on the value framework for assessing e-government impact, and grounding our discussion on three theoretical perspectives, namely, (1) technological determinism theory, (2) general deterrence theory, and (3) Habermas’ public sphere perspective, we seek to explore how the diffusion of virtual social networks (VSNs) influences the relationships among e-government maturity, government administrative effectiveness, and corruption in a country. Our analyses based on publicly available archival data substantiate the (1) indirect relationships between e-government maturity in a country and corruption in three branches of its government (i.e., legislature, executive, and judiciary) through government administrative effectiveness, (2) interaction effect of VSN diffusion on the relationship between e-government maturity in a country and its government administrative effectiveness, and (3) interaction effects of VSN diffusion on the relationships between government administrative effectiveness in a country and its corruption dimensions. The key contributions of this research include the establishment of the (1) role of e-government in combating corruption in three branches of the government, and (2) idea of the public sphere in the context of VSN diffusion, and the subsequent exploration of its effects on e-government outcomes of a country.     

From ivory towers to online bazaars? The internet,social media and competing discourses in the newspaper industry

In line with the development of new media, newspaper companies are facing drastic changes in their competitive environment. Managing change requires both new capabilities and new ways of thinking. Organizational learning could be seen in terms of increasing shared organizational knowledge through changing social practices, which in turn consist of discourses. In this article we investigate the Internet and social-media-related discourse among newspaper journalists, in order to enhance understanding of how social reality is constituted and made sense of in this environment. We identify four types of discourse: Ivory-tower-creating and Shielding, which seem to impede learning, and Accelerating and Connecting, which encourage adaptation to learning and change within newspaper companies.     

Digital transformation of everyday life – How COVID-19 pandemic transformed the basic education of the young generation and why information management research should care?

Children of today have been surrounded by digital technology since their birth. However, children of today are not equally equipped for their technology rich future: various kinds of digital divides still prevail in the society and affect the young generation and their digital futures. Schools and education of children should undergo an extensive digital transformation to be able to meet the needs of the young generation and their digitalized future. The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly and abruptly forced schools and education indeed to engage in such a transformation. In this study we examine the digital transformation initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the basic education of the young generation, the variety of digital divides emerging and reinforced, and the possible barriers reported along the way. We argue that information management research should better acknowledge children, their digitalized everyday life and their basic education as significant areas of concern. We should understand them as well as allow them to shape the education we offer in the context of higher education, but we should also aim at influencing the basic education of the young generation – for the purpose of equipping them with important skills and competencies for their digital futures but also for the purpose of arousing their interest in this important field, maybe even as a career option.     

What's Wrong with the 'Golden Rule'? Conundrums of Conducting Ethical Research in Cyberspace

Three key values for ethical cyberspace research practices are evident in recent discussions: (1) protect the subjects from harm as a result of the research fieldwork and the research practices; (2) produce good social science research; and (3) do not unnecessarily perturb the phenomena studied. Much of the argumentation aims to negotiate the ethical conflicts that often emerge between these goals. Bakhtin argues that one can only strive for a bottom-up ethical wisdom built upon concrete examples, and disputes the possibility that rigid top-down application of universal rules constitutes ethical action. His perspective has key implications for ethical research practices. I illustrate this perspective at work through my recent fieldwork and writing practices in a virtual community. Research ethics for cyberspace are like research ethics for any other site. They should be situated, dialogic agreements that develop over time between researchers and the participants of the research study. It is unlikely that such research ethics can be abstractly codified, because there will often be differences between research sites, the situations of participants, and researcher goals. Researchers can, however, develop ethical wisdom that comes from experience with many configurations of research in cyberspace, and report on the conditions that grounded their ethical choices, and the results that emerged from their work in the site. These results will often be improved by feedback from participants about their experiences with the fieldwork and the effects of publication.     

How do you mean `global'? An empirical investigation of innovation networks in the multinational corporation

Literature on technological activity in the multinational corporation has recently emphasized the overall advantages from establishing internationally dispersed technological capabilities. This paper builds a taxonomy of innovation networks in the multinational corporation, differentiating between international duplication and international diversification of advanced technological capabilities. Cluster analysis of major Swedish multinationals suggests significant differences in the geographical dispersion of technological capabilities, implying different approaches to the upgrading of competitive advantage and unequal pre-conditions for becoming engaged in internationally integrated research efforts.     

An emerging paradigm or just another trajectory? Understanding the nature of technological changes using engineering heuristics in the telecommunications switching industry

The theoretical literature on technological changes distinguishes between paradigmatic changes and changes in trajectories. Recently several scholars have performed empirical studies on the way technological trajectories evolve in specific industries, often by predominantly looking at the artifacts. Much less - if any - empirical work has been done on paradigmatic changes, even though these have a much more profound impact on today's industry. It follows from the theory that such studies would need to focus more on the knowledge level than on the artifact level, raising questions on how to operationalize such phenomena. This study aims to fill this gap by applying network-based methodologies to knowledge networks, represented here by patents and patent citations. The rich technological history of telecommunications switches shows how engineers in the post-war period were confronted with huge challenges to meet drastically changing demands. This historical background is a starting point for an in-depth analysis of patents, in search of information about technological direction, technical bottlenecks, and engineering heuristics. We aim to identify when such changes took place over the seven different generations of technological advances this industry has seen. In this way we can easily recognize genuine paradigmatic changes compared to more regular changes in trajectory.