高校新农村研究院：科技支撑乡村振兴的有效载体

[目的]较之前开展的新农村建设,乡村振兴战略是一种更高层次的发展手段和目标。文章旨在对高校新农村研究院推动乡村振兴的实践经验和困难问题进行梳理,分析背后的成因与制约因素,以期为以高校新农村研究院为抓手、从科技引领和支撑的角度推动乡村振兴战略的落地实施提供有针对性的建议。[方法]该文从协同创新理论出发,基于对沈阳农业大学新农村发展研究院的实地调研,采用文献梳理、归纳总结和定性分析等方法对高校新农村研究院为乡村振兴战略提供科技支撑的机理、模式、作用和困难问题进行了梳理。[结果]高校新农村发展研究院通过整合政府、高校、企业等多方资源,从技术协同、人才协同与理念协同3方面为乡村振兴提供了有效支撑。但目前各级政府对高校新农村研究院的作用地位还缺乏充分认识,存在财政支持不到位、技术推广激励与考评机制不完善等问题。[结论]整合各方科技创新资源,构建起各类主体跨界协同、不同技术集成应用、创新资源全链配置、关联产业融合发展的新型农业科技协同创新体系;进一步强化高校新农村发展研究院在农业科技服务中的主体地位,增强财政对新农村发展研究院的持续投入,改革高校农技推广人员职称评定与考核激励机制。     

Evaluation of the green technology innovation efficiency of China's manufacturing industries: DEA window analysis with ideal window width

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) window analysis with ideal window width is applied to evaluate the green technology innovation efficiency of 28 manufacturing industries in China during 2006–2014. The obtained results are compared with those calculated using the traditional DEA model, and convergence analysis of the efficiency is conducted. Five years is the obtained ideal window width and DEA window analysis with ideal window produces results closer to reality for China's manufacturing industry. The overall efficiency of the green technology innovation in the manufacturing sector is low following a wave-shaped curve – first decreasing, then increasing and decreasing again, with large inter-industrial differences. There are 8 high-, 14 medium- and 6 low-efficiency industries. A convergence trend in the green technology innovation efficiency within the 28 manufacturing industries exists, implying a catch-up effect between them.     

Exploring the interdisciplinary potential of the Agenda2030—Interactions between five Danish societal demands for sustainable land use

This article explores the potential of the SDG framework for interdisciplinary research. The aim is to illustrate the process of creating a shared platform of operation by the clarifying the positive and negative interactions between societal demands for land use on a national and local level. The research question is answered by making use of the systemic approach introduced by Niklas Luhmann including his arguments about autopoietic communication systems reproducing themselves. An interdisciplinary research group is firstly applying the SDG framework to the demands for sustainable land use by activating the land consolidation in Denmark. By doing so a ‘national framework’ anchored in the SDG framework is created. Secondly, the national framework is applied to a multifunctional land consolidation project in a Danish case area. The findings from the mapping of interactions between societal demands on a concrete case area revealed that some indicators and societal demands are more prone to conflicts than others but also on the local level there may be variations. Thus, a localised and contextualised SDG framework has shown useful insight for future projects on sustainable land use including land consolidation projects. The paper concludes that the SDG framework may be used for facilitating interdisciplinary research, however there is also a need for guidelines and examples on how to integrate the framework in academia. The paper offers a suggestion for integrating the Agenda2030 and the SDG framework in projects about sustainable land use.     

Business model innovation in cultural and creative industries: Insights from three leading mobile gaming firms

This paper contains an exploratory analysis of the business model innovations (BMIs) that firms in cultural and creative industries (CCIs) undertake along their life-cycle. Despite the role that creative and cultural and creative firms (CCFs) have in the economic development of industrialised countries, they tend to remain small and often fail due to industry-specific constraints and tensions, such as the lack of managerial capabilities and complexity in nurturing value chain relationships. However, there has been relatively limited scholarly interest into the specific conditions and processes that enabled CCFs to overcome these liabilities, and in particular into the identification of the business models they have adopted along their life-cycle. In this paper, this issue is analysed by using the concept of BMI, which sheds light on how the reconfiguration of the activity system through which a CCF creates, delivers and captures value enables the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities over time. This paper builds on an in-depth historical study of three leading firms operating in the mobile gaming industry, namely Rovio, Zynga and King Digital Entertainment. Three main results emerge from this study. First, in the ramp-up phase of their life-cycle, CCFs organize their resource architecture to build a strong and recognized reputation. Second, in the development phase, BMI is used to leverage new distribution paradigms. Finally, in the maturity phase, firms dedicate resources to innovate their product portfolios by providing platforms that support the development and testing of new creative ideas and solutions. Findings and implications are then discussed.     

Beyond antitrust populism: Towards robust antitrust

The populist use of competition policies is on the rise again, associated with the growth of big-tech companies in the era of digital platforms. This article sees antitrust populism as a re-emerging force in the United States and Europe via greater politicisation of competition law enforcement. It addresses the basic tenets of antitrust populism in order to expose the fundamental problems that populist use of competition law entails. I argue for a rethink of antitrust policy on the intellectual foundations laid down by what Mark Pennington describes as ‘robust political economy’. We need greater regulatory humility and antitrust enforcement which takes both innovation and welfare seriously.     

The cognitive and the action-oriented elements of competence along the innovation process – evidence from R&D teams in the medical equipment sector

Abstract

Organizations are constantly searching for ways to enhance their innovative capacity and to sustain their competitive advantage. Much of the literature focuses on knowledge as the key driver for this pursuit. Unlike other studies, we define experience and knowledge as two basic elements of competence by borrowing from the experiential and cognitive learning theories and contrast their impact on the innovativeness of R&D teams. Building on the competence based perspective, we posit that the differences in competence inputs explain variations in team innovation performance along the innovation process. To test our assumptions, we analyzed the aggregated knowledge and experience levels for different technology competences of 868 employees in 49 R&D teams in a large contract-engineering corporation in the medical equipment sector. The findings reveal that technology experience is particularly fruitful within innovation implementation and is a driver for successful market introduction. The research contributes to the understanding when competence elements are especially important.     

Successful eco‐innovators: Exploring the association between open inbound knowledge strategies and the performance of eco‐innovative firms

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the association between open inbound knowledge strategies and the performance of eco‐innovative firms in the food and beverage industry. We propose a mixed framework based on the eco‐innovation literature and the open innovation approach. We consider the characteristics in a traditional sector based upon a resource‐based perspective. Three types of firms are distinguished in terms of their sales growth in the Spanish food industry from the least to the most successful eco‐innovators. Using multinomial logistic regression models, it is shown that the diversity of collaborators (breadth of external sources of knowledge) and joint adoption of product and process eco‐innovations are positively associated with the probability of achieving high sales growth. Moreover, we find an inverted U‐shaped relationship between the breadth of the external search and firm performance, but only for the group of the most successful firms. Moreover, operational flexibility, knowledge‐based capabilities and company size are also positively related to the group of successful eco‐innovators.     

Moving beyond the tensions in open environmental innovation towards a holistic perspective

This paper analyses factors determining open environmental innovation (EI) and explores the possibility of embracing their tensions to achieve integrated environmental strategic goals. Building on recent literature linking open innovation and EI, the study assumes open EI strategic goals as a multidimensional construct based on the “synergistic and interwoven nature” of four identified enabling factors, that is, partners, knowledge, benefits, and motivations. A fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) based on Boolean algebra is conducted to analyse a set of 186 European companies operating in the telecommunication and information and communication technology (ICT) service industries. Making important theoretical, managerial, and policy contributions, this paper offers insights into the key factors enabling open EI and the tensional relationships within and between them. In doing so, it captures the non‐linear effects among these factors and the strategic goals related to an open EI strategy. It also suggests how the paradox theory might help in addressing the tensional dilemma of open EI strategy.     

Using reputation for corporate sustainability to tackle banks digitalization challenges

The new landscape in the financial sector, characterized by fierce competition and the entrance of new technological players, has forced banks to speed up their digital transformation. However, for banks, digitalization entails challenges that can hinder the potential benefits and compromise their survival. In this context, we argue that the reputation generated by corporate sustainability (RCS) may offset these digitalization drawbacks. In particular, we find that the combination of RCS and digitalization facilitates in transforming the organizational nature of banks by simultaneously narrowing their boundaries and expanding their scope. We empirically confirm our hypotheses by analyzing a panel of 110 multinational banks from developed countries.     

Organizational characteristics explaining participation in sustainable business models in the sharing economy: Evidence from the fashion industry using conjoint analysis

Environmental and social challenges require new sustainable business models, like sharing platforms. However, sharing platforms differ widely in their contribution to a more sustainable society. Whereas idealistic sharing platforms have dominant social goals, other sharing platforms are, or became, commercial. We explore the attractiveness of the typical organizational characteristics of idealistic sharing platforms in the fashion industry context, an industry with negative environmental and social impacts. Based on a literature review and exploratory focus groups, we conduct an online survey using conjoint analysis, completed by 1,512 respondents. Our results reveal that potential users prefer clothes sharing platforms to be small, to not partner with large clothing retailers, to have the possibility to participate in decision‐making, but to not require shareholding.