Combining entrepreneurial and scientific performance in academia: towards a compounded and reciprocal Matthew-effect?

The increase of entrepreneurial activity within academia has raised concerns that the research orientation of universities might become ‘contaminated’ by the application-oriented needs of industry. Empirical evidence on this concern is scarce and ambiguous. We examine whether entrepreneurial and scientific performance in academia can be reconciled. Our empirical findings (KU Leuven, Belgium) suggest that both activities do not hamper each other; engagement in entrepreneurial activities coincides with increased publication outputs, without affecting the nature of the publications involved. As resources increase, this interaction becomes more significant, pointing towards a Matthew-effect. We finally suggest that balancing both activities further depends on the institutional policies deployed.     

Publication and patent behavior of academic researchers: Conflicting, reinforcing or merely co-existing?

Increasing entrepreneurial activity within academia has raised concerns that the number of publications added to the scientific commons might be reduced or that academic research would be directed exclusively towards the application-oriented needs of industry. In the case of academic inventions, the potential conflict between public- and private-oriented considerations seems most salient. In this contribution, we examine whether the publication behavior of academic inventors (at K.U. Leuven) differs from their colleagues (non-inventors) working within similar fields of research. Our analysis reveals that inventors publish significantly more. Moreover, no empirical evidence was found for the ‘skewing problem’. These findings not only suggest the co-existence of both activities; they may actually reinforce each other.     

āwhina: a programme for Māori and Pacific tertiary science graduate and postgraduate success

In New Zealand, Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) and Pacific students tend not to attain the same levels of educational success as Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent). Addressing this problem is a particular challenge in the sciences. The kaupapa (values-base) of Te Rōpū Āwhina (Āwhina) is to produce Māori and Pacific professionals to contribute to Māori and Pacific development and leadership through the creation of an inclusive off- and on-campus whānau (extended family) environment where high expectations, aspirations and achievement, collective success, and reciprocity are normalised. This paper reviews theories and practices of recruitment and retention relevant to Māori and Pacific students at tertiary level, presents the rationale for Āwhina in the Faculties of Science and Architecture and Design at Victoria University of Wellington, and assesses the impact of the whānau. Based on analyses of quantitative measures of student achievement, and biennial surveys of student responses from the first 6 years of Āwhina, it is suggested that the results are consistent with improving Māori and Pacific graduate and postgraduate achievement and retention. Potential implications for efforts to reduce disparities in tertiary education in New Zealand and elsewhere are summarised.     

The influence of competences and support on school performance feedback use

Information‐rich environments are created to promote data use in schools for the purpose of self‐evaluation and quality assurance. However, providing feedback does not guarantee that schools will actually put it to use. One of the main stumbling blocks relates to the interpretation and diagnosis of the information. This study examines the relationship between data literacy competences, support given in interpreting the information, actual use of the feedback and potential school improvement effect. A randomised field experiment with 188 school principals from primary education was set up and a post‐test was used to investigate the effects of a support initiative. The results revealed that a minority of schools invested significantly in the interpretation and diagnosis of the school performance feedback (SPF), despite the fact that most of the respondents showed an interest in the SPF report. In addition, data competence support and the subsequent use of feedback were found to be limited.     

Entrepreneurial effectiveness of European universities: An empirical assessment of antecedents and trade-offs

The phenomenon of entrepreneurial universities has received considerable attention over the last decades. An entrepreneurial orientation by academia might put regions and nations in an advantageous position in emerging knowledge-intensive fields of economic activity. At the same time, such entrepreneurial orientation requires reconciliation with the scientific missions of academia. Large-scale empirical research on antecedents of the entrepreneurial effectiveness of universities is scarce. This contribution examines the extent to which scientific productivity affect entrepreneurial effectiveness, taking into account the size of universities and the presence of disciplines, as well as the R&D intensity of the regional business environment (BERD). In addition, we assess the occurrence of trade-offs between different transfer mechanisms (contract research, patenting and spin off activity). The data used pertain to 105 European universities. Our findings reveal that scientific productivity is positively associated with entrepreneurial effectiveness. Trade-offs between transfer mechanisms do not reveal themselves; on the contrary, contract research and spin off activities tend to facilitate each other. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

Software product evolution for Intellectual Capital Management: The case of Meta4 PeopleNet

Software must evolve in order to adapt to new demands and scenarios. In the case of packaged software that can be customized, this evolution implies the maintenance of both out-of-the-box and customized functionality alike. New user interface technologies provide a way to interact with applications that software vendors are forced to incorporate in order to meet new user and market requirements. Packaged software vendors are facing software evolution processes in order to attract more customers and conserve the existing ones. This case analysis describes the evolution of packaged software, Meta4 PeopleNet, towards the addiction of Rich Internet Applications features to a Human and Intellectual Capital Management tool. The findings and lessons learned presented in this case study provide useful insights for packaged software vendors facing software product evolution.     

Bringing together acculturation theory and intergroup contact theory: Predictors of Flemings’ expectations of Turks’ acculturation behavior

The present paper explores Flemish majority members’ expectations concerning the acculturation of Turkish minorities. We studied two kinds of antecedents: majority members’ perceptions of Turkish minorities’ acculturation behavior and their experiences of intergroup contact. The possible mediating role of outgroup affect was also investigated. 247 Flemish high school students completed a survey. Data were analyzed using path analyses. Results show that positive contact experiences and perceiving that Turkish immigrants make efforts to engage in contact with the host group and/or to adopt the host culture are associated with less negative affective reactions towards Turkish migrants. Perceiving that Turkish immigrants maintain their heritage culture is associated with more negative affective reactions. Our results further revealed that increased negative affective reactions are associated with less support for culture maintenance and for contact with the host group but with a higher demand for host culture adoption. The present results also show that expectations of contact engagement and expectations of host culture adoption cannot be considered as equivalent. This implies that results from studies using Berry's conceptualization of acculturation expectations (Berry, 2001) and results from studies using Bourhis’ conceptualization of acculturation expectations (Bourhis, Moïse, Perreault, & Senécal, 1997) are not directly comparable. Our data also clearly disconfirm the orthogonal structure of the fourfold acculturation model for majority members’ acculturation expectations, suggesting that relying on the specific dimensions defining acculturation expectations may constitute a more valid approach to understand ongoing acculturation processes.     

Finite element modelling and experimental study of oblique soccer ball bounce

In this study, we develop a finite element model to examine the oblique soccer ball bounce. A careful simulation of the interaction between the ball membrane and air pressure in the ball makes the model more realistic than analytical models, and helps us to conduct an accurate study on the effect of different parameters on a bouncing ball. This finite element model includes a surface-based fluid cavity to model the mechanical response between the ball carcass and the internal air of the ball. An experimental set-up was devised to study the bounce of the ball in game-relevant impact conditions. Ball speed, angle, and spin were measured before and after the bounce, as well as ball deformation and the forces during the impact. The finite element model has been validated with three different sets of data, and the results demonstrate that the finite element model reported here is a valuable tool for the study of ball bounce. After validation of the model, the effect of the friction coefficient on soccer ball bounce was studied numerically. Simulation results show that increasing the friction coefficient may result in reversal of the horizontal impact force.     

Bandpass sorting of heterogeneous cells using a single surface acoustic wave transducer pair

Separation and sorting of biological entities (viruses, bacteria, and cells) is a critical step in any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device. Acoustofluidics platforms have demonstrated their ability to use physical characteristics of cells to perform label-free separation. Bandpass-type sorting methods of medium-sized entities from a mixture have been presented using acoustic techniques; however, they require multiple transducers, lack support for various target populations, can be sensitive to flow variations, or have not been verified for continuous flow sorting of biological cells. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first acoustic bandpass method that overcomes all these limitations and presents an inherently reconfigurable technique with a single transducer pair for stable continuous flow sorting of blood cells. The sorting method is first demonstrated for polystyrene particles of sizes 6, 10, and 14.5 μm in diameter with measured purity and efficiency coefficients above 75 ± 6% and 85 ± 9%, respectively. The sorting strategy was further validated in the separation of red blood cells from white blood cells and 1 μm polystyrene particles with 78 ± 8% efficiency and 74 ± 6% purity, respectively, at a flow rate of at least 1 μl/min, enabling to process finger prick blood samples within minutes.