Scientific research evaluation: a review of methods and various contexts of their application

The author has conducted a critical review of methods for evaluating R and D, focussing on levels above the individual project or researcher. Methods are classified as peer review, interview and questionnaire, qualitative methods, and case studies. The author reviews their methodological strengths and weaknesses, the types of criteria applied (eg internal or external) in judging their values, and the uses to which the results of the evaluations are put, especially in policy-making.
She concludes that at the level considered evaluations have come to stay, but she can find no accepted rationale guiding the choice of method for a particular purpose or circumstance. Caution is therefore needed in selecting methods. She points out the need for empirical study of the effects of such evaluations.     

资本深化、产业结构与中国城市劳动生产率

提高城市化质量和劳动产出效率是中国未来经济发展的必然选择。然而目前关于城市劳动生产率的研究大多是基于发达国家城市化平稳期假定做出的,这与中国当前发展情境不符。本文在城市产出总量函数中引入了资本存量和产业结构变量,考察快速城市化时期的资本存量、劳动投入、产业结构和城市规模等关键经济变量对城市劳动生产率的影响。基于中国1995—2010年地级以上城市市辖区数据,本文发现:劳均资本存量、产业结构和城市规模等因素对中国城市劳动生产率的提升有显著作用,并且呈现阶段性和趋势性特征。总体上看,资本深化的作用最大但呈缓慢下降态势,产业结构和城市规模的作用为正且呈"倒U型"变动,而人口集聚呈"规模报酬递增",要素投入呈"规模报酬递减"现象。     

Innovative productivity and returns to scale in the pharmaceutical industry

This study shows that firms in the pharmaceutical industry experience decreasing returns to scale in R & D as the level of R & D expenditures rises. The paper presents the results of our study of the innovative output of 16 pharmaceutical firms over a 19 year period. Given the strong correlation between R & D budgets and firm size, our study suggests the wave of mergers in the industry may yield less innovative productivity than managers expect.     

区域工业企业R&D投入产出绩效的DEA评价及分析

为解释不同区域工业企业RD活动投入规模、结构和绩效之间的关系,找出区域工业企业RD活动的差异和特点,利用数据包络分析方法(DEA)的C2 R模型和BC2模型,构建了由2个投入指标和3个产出指标构成的区域工业企业RD投入产出绩效评价指标体系,运用详实的统计数据对2014年和2010年中国部分省市区工业企业的RD投入产出绩效进行了DEA测度及分析。结果表明,中国区域工业企业RD投入产出绩效的技术效率小于规模效率,各省市区工业企业RD投入产出绩效的技术有效性与规模有效性呈现很强的正相关关系。各省市区要根据自身的经济、技术基础,因地制宜地制定提高其工业企业RD投入产出绩效的有效对策。     

Annual Review Article 1993: British Public Sector Industrial Relations

Abstract : Developments in public-sector industrial relations during 1993 have raised questions about unions, pay determination and conflict resolution. This review explores some of the tensions in these areas created by new restrictions on pay increases, changes in reward structures and further market-testing across services. Where the different forms of pay determination buy industrial peace, the price may be too high in terms of the productivity and efficiency requirements gains now being demanded. But co-operation is needed too, and the dilution of the Whitley system of collective bargaining may be more likely to produce the very co-operation embodied in its philosophy, but not always present in its practice. The new 'superunion' UNISON will play a role here, as single-table bargaining and even single-union deals develop. These institutional developments will also be affected by pay flexibility measures which endeavour to improve individual performance at the front line of services, while in practice increasingly giving the rewards to management.     

中国的劳动生产率：是高还是低?——兼论劳动生产率的计算方法

本文用不同的计算方法 ,从企业、制造业和国家三个角度进行了劳动生产率的国际比较 ,计算结果表明 :和大家普遍接受的观点相反 ,中国的劳动生产率并非低于发达国家 ,而是高于发达国家。这种结论上的差异并非来源于所采用的数据和计算公式 ,而是来源于计算劳动生产率时投入和产出的计量单位。在比较研究中 ,我们习惯于投入产出均用价值量指标即“元 /元”来计算资本的生产率 ,用“元 /人·年”指标来计算劳动的生产率。由于不同国家同样数量的“人·年”劳动投入折算为价值量投入会存在很大的差异 ,致使使用不同计量单位计算和比较劳动生产率会得出完全相反的结论。本文认为 ,进行国家之间劳动生产率的比较 ,正确的计算方法应当是和计算资本生产率的公式一样 ,投入产出均使用价值量指标。     

产权结构、技术差距与R＆D收益率

对2000～2003年中国各地区大中型企业的考察发现R＆D与生产率的相关性很弱,技术落后地区企业与技术先进地区企业的R＆D收益率没有显著差异。进一步回归分析表明,产权结构是影响R＆D收益率的一个重要因素：当控制了产权结构这个因素后,R＆D与生产率的关系变得显著,而且技术落后地区企业的R＆D收益率明显大于技术先进地区的企业。造成技术落后地区企业和技术先进地区企业的R＆D收益率无差异的原因在于技术落后地区企业的国有资本比重较高,R＆D使用效率比较低。因此形成合理的产权结构,提高R＆D的技术吸收能力对技术落后地区企业的生产率增长有重要的意义     

A study of the diffusion of management concepts and techniques amongst R & D managers

The management of R & D has been the focus of a great deal of research and writing during the past decade. It is, however, by no means certain that these have produced a significant effect amongst R & D decision makers. This paper describes a study of the extent to which R & D managers are aware of management concepts and techniques. The subjects were 57 senior R & D managers from British and Continental organizations who attended courses at the Management Centre, University of Bradford in 1974/5. The study was conducted by means of a questionnaire and a 100 question forced choice Quiz. The paper suggests that knowledge of modern management thinking has, to date, made only a limited penetration into R&D.     

The search for the latent information star

Abstract: R & D groups are knowledge-intensive organizations. As such, their principal assets are the men and women with scientific and technical training who constitute these groups. The raw materials that they work on and the products that they produce are ideas or information. The patents, papers, and hardware which emanate from these groups represent the physical manifestations of these ideas. One important concern for increasing productivity in R & D laboratories, therefore, is the facilitation of information flow into, within, and out of research group (Fischer, 1980). This paper considers an approach for improving the performance of an R & D group by increasing its information acquisition and processing capabilities and reports findings from a field study undertaken to examine this approach.     

Creativity and organization in pharmaceuticals R & D

This paper reviews the results of a study carried out in conjunction with the Chemical and Allied Products Industry Training Board to link internal environmental factors of an organization to measures of creativity in R & D in the pharmaceutical industry. The methods adopted have been described and the preliminary results of the pilot study carried out in one organization in order to develop, refine and test methodology. It is hoped in the future that the techniques developed will be extended to provide comparisons in other organizations in the pharmaceutical industry in order to draw firm conclusions. The paper also sets the study in the context of a brief historical review of other studies in this field. It is concluded that the investigation has evolved a methodology capable of identifying and measuring some facilitatory and inhibitory influences on creativity in an R & D environment, allowing comparisons to be drawn between environmental influences in different parts of the same organization.     

Fruit and vegetables as an international commodity : The relocation of horticultural production and its implications for the producers

The author traces the background to the emergence of fruit and vegetables as an internationally traded commodity. She traces the resultant trends in geographical relocation of production, examines the institutional structure under which this has been carried out, and assesses the implications for European farmers and for small farmers in poor countries.     

How can we predict management potential in research scientists?

The success of an R&D operation depends on selecting the right speciailists to occupy management positions. Errors of selection mostly arise because the choice is made on the basis of the candidate's current performance as a scientist or technologist. However, the author makes the point that persons likely to make good Rand D managers differ qualitatively from good researchers. Good scientists adopt an innovative, unconstrained, independent approach to their work, have high self-esteem, are not much interested in people and, above all, prize technical soundness. R&D managers are interested in people, active, enterprising and want to manage.
The organization's problem is therefore to find reliable ways of predicting management potential with sufficient but not exclusive regard to current performance. The author recommends the use of a Career Aspirations Programme, based on exposure to the processes operating in an Assessment Centre. This is a systematic procedure using an array of personnel evaluation techniques through which a person is made aware of the demands of a management job and managers made aware of the likelihood of that person's meeting them.
At the end of the process a course of personal development is agreed upon. In concrete terms this means for the potential manager that promotion may follow. Especially important if the verdict is that he or she is to continue as a technical specialist, the job may be re-designed to give it more scope and impact, or the person concerned may be retrained or placed under the care of a senior colleague acting as a mentor.     

Project team aging and performance: The roles of project and functional managers

The authors have explored further the effect of the tenure of an R&D group (that is, the length of time in which it has existed) on its performance. Several studies have shown that groups tend to reach a peak of productivity after a few years and decline thereafter. However, it seems that not all teams so decline and the aim of the authors' study reported in this paper was to see what could be learned from those groups that continued to be successful.
They therefore studied a sample of 181 teams comprising 2000 subjects drawn from a wide variety of R&D organizations. Their objectives were first to pick out those teams that remained effective and second, to discover the secret of their success. Group performances were assessed subjectively by senior members of each organization. Group tenures were measured by calculating the average time each individual member had spent in the group. Further information was obtained from questionnaires completed by participants.
Analysis of the results led to the surprising conclusion that there was no evidence whatever for the previously reported curvilinear relationship between performance and tenure. Nevertheless, some long-tenured teams per-formed much better than others and better than newly-formed teams, for which the authors have sought an explanation.
From information deduced from the questionnaires they conclude that the crucial factor is the extent to which the functional manager (department head) as distinct from the project manager nurtures individual researchers, especially in ensuring that they keep abreast of progress in relevant areas of expertise. The role of the project manager on the other hand is to maintain connection between the team and institutional objectives.     

基于可持续发展的国家物质流分析

210003本文采用物质流分析方法,研究了1995—2002年中国经济系统的物质输入和输出等相关指标,发现经济系统的物质需求总量和物质输出总量巨大,自然环境的生态压力短期内无法得到缓解;人均物质需求量不高,物质生产力也很低;环境库兹涅茨曲线呈现出倒“U”型,最高点出现在人均收入700美元,然后进入下降通道;技术水平是影响物质需求总量变化的关键因素;出口能源中的煤炭存在巨大隐藏流是导致生态贸易赤字的主要原因。     

Measuring maintenance performance – in search for a maintenance productivity index

A partial maintenance productivity goal is that the firm should seek to maximize its maintenance productivity in economic terms, and should aim at producing any level of output which is decided upon at minimum maintenance cost with respect to the production system's state. The state of objects or production systems is such a property, i.e., a multidimensional property. In this paper we amalgamate these various dimensions into a single measure of the property involved. All things considered it would seem, that in measuring partial maintenance productivity, minimization of maintenance costs is incorporated as a subgoal, based on the maintenance inputs called for an “optimal budget”. These imputed maintenance costs do not have to be calculated separately, but emerge as a by-product of finding a high productivity index. In our partial productivity model, the output prices of the produced products and input prices (maintenance costs) will change over time. Expected changes in the prices of outputs and of current inputs would be built into the model.     

R&D in the People's Republic of China

Since her founding in 1949, China has gone a long way in formulating her own R&D structure and policy. There are successful stories and painful lessons as well. In this paper the author intends to examine the evolution of the Chinese R&D structure and policy; the pros and cons with this structure and policy. And finally how China is at present reforming the structure and policy, and why she is doing so.
Structure and policy are two of the key factors that affect the effectiveness of R&D. With appropriate structure and policy, R&D will not only advance the state of art of science and technology, but also contribute a great deal to the progress of the society and the prosperity of the nation's economy. Therefore, the main theme of the paper will be concentrated on how China could reform her R&D structure and policy so that R&D can play a bigger role in building up China's economy and modernization.     

Some determinants and effects of FDI in Singapore

This article analyses the microeconomic determinants of effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Singapore by seven propositions, using the available secondary data. Variables discussed are related to the areas of industrial structure, economic growth, trade, international competitiveness, productivity and skill intensity. It attempts to draw a pattern on the determinants and effects of inward and outward FDI in Singapore.The research for this paper was partially funded by the Centre for International Business Studies, The University of Western Ontario. This paper is a revised version of a paper presented in Bellagio, Italy in October 1983 which will appear in Dunning (1985).The author is a Professor at the School of Business Administration, The University of Western Ontario.     

Literature indexing systems for corporate R & D strategy: a case-study in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract . Information retrieval systems in R & D laboratories are normally used to provide information about the state of the art in fields of corporate interest and to help to solve day-to-day problems. The authors show that such systems can also be used as a tool for planning by R & D managers, corporate planners and others involved in evaluating and setting strategic objectives for the firm. Their approach is to use the Science Citation Index to ascertain the specific institutional setting and geographical locations of researchers in whom material published by the subject firm excited a 'resonance'.
In their study they used the publications lists covering a five-year period provided by two West German companies. They point out that it is possible not only to assess the scientific standing of the R & D laboratory but also to get early warning of spin-offs into hitherto unrecognized fields, to identify 'markets' for the profitable exchange of information and to locate complementary sources of expertise.     

The effects of funding source and management ownership on the productivity of R&D

This study investigates the influence of the source of R&D funds and management ownership on R&D productivity. The lagged effect of the source of R&D funds on R&D output is investigated for a sample of US manufacturing firms in five industries over the 1996–99 period. Estimates based on 779 firm-years show that R&D productivity increases with the proportion of stock held by managers and directors of firms primarily in the Other Electronics industry. The estimates also show that recipients of government-sponsored R&D funds in the Chemicals industry have lower levels of output (sales) for each dollar committed to R&D. In addition, output for firms in the Chemicals industry worsens as management stockholding increases, implying an agency cost rationale for the observed difference in output. The implication is that firms with high manager-owner content are less productive with government-sponsored R&D than with company-financed R&D. The reported results suggest that potential agency costs should be incorporated in government-sponsored R&D contracts. It also suggests that the source of R&D funds should be disclosed and incorporated into the valuation of intangible assets attributable to research and development.     

Service productivity and service quality: A necessary trade-off?

This paper is about service productivity and perceived service quality. Both a high service productivity and a high customer perceived quality are two main drivers of good performances in service companies and they simultaneously occur as a consequence of a synergy of several drivers such as employees' competences and motivation, organizational efficiency, technical devices availability, information technologies employment, etc. In scientific literature a trade-off between productivity and perceived service quality is asserted and several cases derived both by market observations and academic research could bear such trade-off out. But, is it possible to state that, under some circumstances, such a trade-off between productivity and perceived service quality could be avoided? And if yes, why such certified substitution should not work?In this paper, in order to trace some theoretical answer to the above questions, a managerial model based both on service science and production economics will be proposed. The model aims to find out some key causes that allow to explain the foundations of the mentioned trade-off and the potential conditions for its overcoming; moreover, such model will be employed in order to integrate services' productivity function with new variables and to provide some managerial guidelines for improving service management.