Competition in UKHigher Education: Competitive Advantage in the Research Assessment Exercise and Porter's Diamond Model

The UK public sector has been exposed to competition as a means of enhancing its performance. HE institutions now compete for resources on the basis of research. In this competitive environment the crucial question is not why one HE institution is more successful than another at research but why some institutions are home to a large number of departments that are successful. The answer lies in exploring what gives competitive advantage at the level of the department, discipline and nation. Porter' three layer ‘diamond’ model of competitive advantage is proposed as a framework for this exploration. This identified four major components: factor conditions (research orientation and accumulated wealth of institution); demand conditions (demand by academy for departmental research as measured by ability to secure external income/research students); related and supporting departments (research strength of institution and presence of a relevant cluster of research‐strong departments) and departmental strategy, structure and rivalry (ability to focus departmental attention on the successful training of research students and publication in refereed journals). In a linked paper this model provided a framework to evaluate research performance in the discipline of geography (Curran, 2001).     

服务业创新的新熊彼特定义：基于新分类法的概念探讨

创新是一项复杂的过程并具有多面性。在众多以创新与生产率之间联系为主题的研究中，由于数据限制，往往只采用单一指标来测度创新。本文对这种方式提出了质疑，认为这种研究方法可能会系统地偏向于某类经常通过参与创新活动以达到各种商业目的的公司或产业。为了更好地测度创新，本文介绍了一种创新索引，即以潜变量模型为基础的含有多项创新指标的线性指标组合。这一尝试得到加拿大制造业公司的大量微观数据组合的支持。     

Making decennial census data available

Data from the 1980 census were published in printed reports, computer tape files, and microfiche. This article discusses the various attributes of these media, how they came into their current forms, and the mechanisms in place to help these products reach the people who need them. The article closes with some speculations as to what may be in store for users of data from the 1990 census.