The evolution of public industry R&D institute – the case of ITRI

Public industrial research institutes are important in regard to aiding industry development in many countries. Research institutes have to constantly change their strategies according to their industrial environments in order to remain influential. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has been recognised as a successful institute in facilitating industrial development. During its 40‐year development process, ITRI has gone through three stages of strategic repositioning and organisational reforms. The evolution of the organisational structure and the interactions with its social‐technological environment are both complex and dynamic. This study proposes a framework which integrates the role of the institutes with organisation structures and strategies to analyse the process of the evolution of ITRI. Based on the framework, this study uses system dynamics to identify the underlying structure driving the process of its evolution. The result shows that it is important to align the organisational structure with development strategies; in a long‐term perspective, the strategies for short‐term and long‐term goals can reinforce each other. The recent transition of ITRI suggests a new direction‐seeking role for public research institutes to play among the national innovation systems. This study also discusses the potential impacts of the system dynamics approach to R&D management.     

Determination of the research of computer-based technologies for urban traffic systems some experiences in project organisation and management

Research and development activities concerning urban traffic systems are the subject of a long-standing program at the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology. A fairly recent field of investigation is the deployment of computer-based technologies in urban traffic situations. The German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology has sponsored a study to determine a comprehensive middle-term research-program for these technologies.
The study contained the following steps of investigation:
(1) Determining possible areas of deployment for computer-based technologies.
(2) Selecting deployment areas from those generated.
(3) For the deployment areas selected, deriving the required research activities, coordinating and consolidating them into a research program.
Because of the comprehensive nature of urban traffic the know-how and results from many and diverse scientific disciplines had to be incorporated into the study.
As the study has significant real-life consequences for the direction and funding of urban traffic research by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology it had to be ensured that its outcomes were operational.
To arrive at an operational research program, the study required inputs from areas, in addition to the scientific disciplines:
(a) politics (traffic policies in general, research and funding strategies etc.)
(b) industries (manufacturers of vehicles, electronic parts etc.) and traffic operating authorities.
Some experiences gained in managing the project are reported in this paper. They pertain to the study described. Hopefully, they can be put to use in some other projects of comparable structure and objectives.     

Analysis of agricultural research investment priorities for sustainable poverty reduction in Southeast Asia

Underinvestment in agricultural research remains rife across Southeast Asia, despite the remaining importance of the subregion’s agricultural sector and ample evidence of agricultural technology impact to date. To help identify specific areas where additional investment is most needed, this study compares the impact potential for the poor of alternative agricultural research foci, taking changes in production patterns, consumption patterns and environmental sustainability into account. New spatial data on the distribution of poverty and the expenditure patterns of households below international poverty lines are used to offer more detailed assessment of the poverty relevance of alternative foci than possible previously. Patterns of impact potential are evaluated against evidence of impact to date to discern probabilities of success in achieving potential impacts. Impact patterns discerned are contrasted with current relative funding allocations across research areas in the subregion by National Agricultural Research Systems (NARSs) and International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) to identify key funding gaps.     

Leveraging talent: spin–off strategy at Industrial Research

The formation of new businesses from research organisations has historically been seen as one of the more effective ways in which new knowledge and technology is commercialised. These spin–offs result from the transfer of people and intellectual property from the parent institution. It is the transfer of the tacit knowledge embodied in the human capital that differentiates this technology commercialisation mechanism from technology sale, licensing or joint ventures and alliances.
Science parks and cooperative centres associated with universities are examples used internationally of incubator environments designed to nurture spin–offs. In New Zealand, however, there have been very limited attempts to develop such incubators. However, one Crown Research Institute, Industrial Research, has recognised that developing a spin–off strategy is a valid way for it to leverage its intellectual property and motivate its scientific talent, in order to satisfy the institute's mandate to 'create benefit for New Zealand'.
It is rare to find studies of the spin–off activity focused primarily on the parent. This paper charts the development of Industrial Research's spin–off strategy over the past eight years from an unintentional consequence of restructuring and changing funding priorities, towards a purposive strategy requiring different management structures and processes. A three–stage model is developed to describe the spin–off strategy evolution and the risks, benefits and components of such a strategy are discussed.     

Management of scientific institutions NPL 1995–98: the transition from agency to government-owned contractor operated (GOCO)

The last 10 years have seen a number of changes taking place in the management of publicly funded research institutions. Some have been transferred wholesale to the private sector, some closed and most encouraged to diversify their sources of funding. One management approach is that of the Government Owned Contractor Operated (GOCO). In this approach, the assets of the institute remain in state ownership but the responsibility of managing the institute and its research programmes is passed to a private sector management company. The UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has been managed under such an arrangement since 1995. NPL is responsible for the physical measurement standards which underpin much of the UK industrial base. This study, undertaken three years after the change in status, was concerned to identify what changes had taken place and what general management lessons could be learnt which might be applied elsewhere. The study wanted to discover if there had been any change in the ‘values’ of NPL, such as quality, integrity etc., as seen by industry, partner research groups and the research staff at NPL itself. The interviews of staff took place at the end of 1998. The study found that the contract has led to significant savings in the cost of research programmes through the adoption of greatly improved programme formulation processes and better resource management. Better commercial practice in marketing, finance, procurement and general business administration has permitted significant one‐off and on going savings in the costs of operating the facility. Less restrictive recruitment has led to an influx of new, younger, scientific staff bringing in new ideas and values. At the same time GOCO has not adversely affected the quality of scientific work, diminished the high international standing of NPL or led to significant staff demotivation. But neither has the change made much progress in changing deep rooted cultural factors nor resolving certain internal communication challenges. Improved responsiveness to customers is still an issue. GOCO has undoubtedly started to release the remarkable potential of NPL and has brought into much sharper focus some new challenges. Continuous rapid change is taking place in many of the eventual users of NPL work. Companies are looking for new ways of meeting their needs. This will create science and business opportunities.     

海洋石油勘探开发重大技术研发项目质量管理实践与思考

研究总院是中国海洋石油总公司的勘探、开发、工程科学研究和决策研究的参谋机构。为公司业务提供技术支持,承担了大量国家级和公司级重大技术研发项目,面临着研究领域多,技术难度高,专业跨度大,研究时间紧迫,研究资源有限等诸多困难。为解决面临的这些困难,保证研究成果的质量,研究总院经过多年的探索和实践,按照ISO9001质量管理体系的要求,在对重大技术研发项目管理过程中,大胆进行实践和思考,逐步形成了一整套的对技术研发项目质量控制的管理方法和程序,取得了良好的效果。     

Is the share of agricultural maintenance research rising in the United States?

Public research is a major contributor to agricultural productivity growth, but if research investments are not maintained, agricultural productivity can decline over time. Maintenance research replaces deteriorated research knowledge to forestall a productivity decline. Knowledge of the magnitude of maintenance research can facilitate a more complete assessment of the value of agricultural research programs. Trends in maintenance research and sources of change in those trends are investigated. Results indicate that overall, about 40% of US agricultural research is devoted to maintenance, up from about a third 25 years ago. A model is developed and estimated to explain maintenance research expenditures. Research funding, climatic conditions, insect and pathogen control, and agricultural production choices influence maintenance research expenditures. Increased reliance on out-of-state funding sources may skew agricultural research away from maintenance research, while climate change may increase the need for such research.     

The Changing Systems of British Industrial Relations, 1954–1979: Hugh Clegg and the Warwick Sociological Turn

With hindsight, the appointment of Richard Hyman to the Warwick Industrial Relations (IR) group marked a new direction for the academic field. The 1960s Oxford IR group had already begun to borrow from sociological research to better understand and reform the workplace. Alan Fox was emerging as a sociologist. However, it was only after Hugh Clegg had established the Warwick Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) that workplace sociology became a fully indigenous part of British IR, illustrated by both Hyman's Marxist analysis and Eric Batstone's qualitative factory studies. This article charts the development of Oxford/Warwick social science through the shifting content of the three ‘System’ texts. IR pluralism proved unsuccessful as public policy reform, but Clegg's Warwick research programme fostered a theoretical and empirical engagement between pluralism and radical sociology that revitalized the field. Alongside Clegg's post‐Donovan determination to study management, this new intellectual dynamic facilitated the 1980s emergence of a sceptical and empirical tradition of IR‐shaped HRM in British business schools.     

Value-chain innovation in aquaculture: insights from a New Zealand case study

We report a case study of value-chain innovation in a niche, export-oriented aquaculture industry, namely, Chinook/King salmon, that contrasts with the much more common Atlantic/Norwegian salmon. The firm in question is vertically integrated, thus offering a 'cradle-to-grave' vista of innovation that spans 'production' (i.e. farming), processing, marketing, and distribution. A major finding is the need for a delicate balance between the relative expenditures on production research and developmental research in integrated aquaculture firms, especially those that focus on niche species. Interaction effects between the two research strands complicate the trade-off: production research adds value at the fish farm by lowering the unit cost of production – and in turn facilitates new product development as it is easier to add value to a lower-cost product than a higher-cost product. From the case study findings, we synthesize a process model of value-chain innovation that is applicable for integrated aquaculture firms. We also induce several implications for the management of Research & Development and innovation in such firms.     

Collective Bargaining as Industrial Democracy: Hugh Clegg and the Political Foundations of British Industrial Relations Pluralism

Hugh Clegg and Allan Flanders are generally recognized as the founding fathers of postwar British academic Industrial Relations (IR). While Flanders is regarded as the chief ‘theorist’ of pluralism, Clegg’s own contribution is seen mainly in terms of his empirical research and public policy work: as the author of numerous detailed studies and the field’s major textbook, the first Director of the Industrial Relations Research Unit at the University of Warwick, a member of the Donovan Commission and many other enquiries. Indeed, Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining (1976) is often regarded as Clegg’s one and only foray into IR theory. This paper explores Clegg’s largely forgotten early writing on industrial democracy to argue that he made a critical, independent theoretical contribution to the British IR paradigm.     

增强我国高新技术产业创新效率的方法研究

本文以申请专利数、新产品销售收入为因变量,以科技与发展人员全时当量（LNpeo）、高技术产业研究与试验发展经费（LNrd）、研究与试验发展机构数（LNjg）、产业总产值（LNcz）、高技术产业利润额（LNlre）为自变量,进行加权最小二乘（WLS）回归估计,实证研究得出：申请专利数、新产品销售收入与其影响因素,即科技与发展人员全时当量（LNpeo）、高技术产业研究与试验发展经费（LNrd）、研究与试验发展机构数（LNjg）、产业总产值（LNcz）、高技术产业利润额（LNlre）之间存在正相关关系;其中科技与发展人员全时当量（LNpeo）、高技术产业研究与试验发展经费（LNrd）是影响我国高新技术产业创新效率两个最重要的变量,其影响系数为0.673、0.783。     

Involving the process dimensions of time in case-based research

The lack of consideration of process dimensions of time in business marketing and management literature in general and in B2B case-based research in particular is in sharp contrast to the importance of time in our society. Marketing scholars need a stronger involvement of time to enrich case study research. This paper offers a structure and a set of questions on critical elements of time and presents a review of the debate on and treatment of time in management and (case-based) marketing science. Based on case-based articles in Industrial Marketing Management and the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing (2004-2006), a content analysis of seven process dimensions is presented that reveals a limited presence of time aspects. Our findings indicate that case studies can benefit from an explicit incorporation of time and its different dimensions. While often only steps or stages are described and references to the flow of time are made, richer case studies also include the dimensions of duration, timing, frequency, pace and order. That way business marketing researchers will be able to deepen their case observations thereby increasing their learning.     

Book Reviews

Technical Insights, Inc. Annual report on research and development… 1982: the year that was… 1983: the year to come
Project Management
Industrial R&D Management—the modern issues
Trends in Information Transfer
Information Society, For Richer, For Poorer
Cybernetics and Systems Research     

Food and health research in Europe: Structures,gaps and futures

BackgroundFood and health research is concerned with production, marketing, choice, regulation and policy for food as it affects health, and the mechanisms and control of diet-related diseases, nutrition and obesity. It covers positive and negative impacts of food on health, as well as issues related to under and over consumption of food. The European Union-funded study FAHRE (Food and Health Research in Europe) has described structures and identified gaps and needs for food and health research across Europe.MethodsFAHRE was conducted by a consortium of partners in 7 European countries, including private and public research organisations, university-based researchers and civil society organisations. National advisers in 32 European countries made reports on the structures of food and health research, and nine experts made reports on food and health research themes. At the end of this phase, a stakeholder conference was held to review and discuss the findings, and from this a Strategic Document was developed and distributed electronically for wider consultation at national level. This report presents the findings of the Strategic Document.ResultsFAHRE proposed that future research using public funding should address the global issue of unhealthy eating, including obesity, which causes preventable disability and disease, reduced working life and increased healthcare costs. FAHRE suggests a move of the focus of research from healthy food to healthy eating, and to overcome the existing separation between food research and health research through a shift of research towards food for health.EU member states have widely differing national systems for research management, and information is poorly standardised for comparisons. There are many research programmes in both food and health, usually managed by ministries of science, but rarely in collaboration with ministries of health. Industry mainly contributes ‘near product’ research: few industry small and medium enterprises are engaged with food and health research, nor are civil society organisations. EU food and health research has been focused within the agriculture research theme, and not sufficiently linked to health research.FAHRE recommends coordination of food and health research through an EU-level Coordinating Agency, with budget and representation from the three EU directorates Agriculture, Health and Research, the member states, and wider stakeholders including civil society and industry. There should be corresponding ‘food and health research agencies’ in the member states bringing together national policy-makers and stakeholders, and directing research funding. Food safety agencies may provide a model for this joint approach. Further proposals include strengthening social and policy research, accessing Structural Funds for research programmes, and more strategic approaches to determining research programmes and funding.ConclusionFood and health research in Europe should move from ‘healthy food’, which concentrates on food as a product, to research for ‘healthy eating’ which is concerned with appropriate intake and reducing disease. Coordination of research on this theme, at European level, and between member states, could deliver major economic and social returns.     

Report: EMCRA — The chemical division of EVAF

It is editorial policy to encourage officials, of the European Association for Industrial Marketing Research (EVAF), to write occasional articles on the activities of EVAF. In this article Mr. J. W. Vernon, Chairman (UK) of the European Chemical Marketing Research Association (ECMRA), has written a refreshingly frank “history”, and discussed the promising future plans, of the Chemical Division of EVAF.     

石油管材所驻厂监理与国外监理比较

介绍了石油管材所驻厂监理的理念及模式,与国外监理公司进行了对比并加以分析。指出,管材所驻厂监督模式是适合中国国情的有效产品质量控制模式,但还应借鉴国外监理公司的经营模式,适当增加部门应用基础研究,最终实现产品质量的有效控制。     

Costs and benefits of an agricultural research institute

This paper represents an attempt to assess the economic impact of a publicly funded agricultural research institute in cost-benefit terms. The institute is the Scottish Plant Breeding Station which was responsible for breeding two successful main-crop potato varieties. Benefits, achieved and prospective, from new crop varieties are calculated from estimates of resources saved in producing constant crops at reduced acreages but with higher yields. Over the timescale 1951-97, costs (discounted at 10/SL to 1972) total 9-7 M/SL and benefits total 29-8 M/SL (of which 21-1 M/SL is attributable to the two successful potatoes). The net present value is estimated as 20-1 M/SL (B/C 3-1) (very probably in the range 12-37 M/SL, B/C 2-2-4-8). In discussion it is pointed out that few cost-benefit studies of agricultural research are available and that the administrative implications of the present study are far from clear. Plant breeding, in general, being largely free of environmental or welfare effects, seems to be economically attractive and socially benign; and it must become even more attractive with rising food prices and land values.     

Maintaining a Scholarly Community: Casual Authorship and the State of IR Research

Any field of study must have a core of journals devoted to a literature and a critical mass of scientists interested in a problem area to permit knowledge to accumulate and grow (Crane 1969). Analyzing authors' institutional affiliations and the topics of the articles published in the field's premier journals from 1986 to 1995, this article assesses the vitality of the contemporary industrial relations (IR) publication network. We find that authorship in IR journals is largely casual and that the quantity of publications by Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA) members in IR journals has declined. In addition, more than half the frequent contributors to IR journals do not belong to the IRRA, and notable differences exist between IRRA members and nonmembers in the substance of their published research. These results lead us to question the survival of IR as a distinct scholarly community.     

The framing of innovation among European research funding actors: Assessing the potential for ‘responsible research and innovation’ in the food and health domain

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has recently emerged as a new framework for science and technology governance. The concept articulates the need for mutual exchange by which societal actors become responsive to each other early on in the process of innovation, with a view to facilitate ethically acceptable and sustainable innovation. There is relatively limited evidence to explore the extent to which the process of research and innovation under the terms of RRI is realised in practice, particularly in the context of food and health research. Although research to date has been examining innovation from the point of view of inputs and outputs—R&D funding and patents—we propose to examine the cognitive framing of innovation that shapes decisions of those who constitute a part of the innovation chain. This paper explores how the concept of innovation is understood and used in policy implementation, with a particular focus upon ‘food and health’ science and research policy and funding. Our analysis is based on 55 interviews of various actors engaged in research funding decision-making across eight European countries. Three themes emerged from the analysis: concept of innovation; conditions for innovation; and drivers of innovation; through these themes, the cognitive framing was drawn out. The cognitive framing suggests that innovation in the food and health domain is perceived to be focused on biosciences and marketable applications to the neglect of social sciences and broader public interest; that the “innovation network” is primarily viewed as centred around scientific/technical and industrial actors; and that the demand-pull dynamic is relevant to innovation in the area of food and health, despite having been relegated in contemporary thinking and policies around innovation. These findings point to the inadequate consideration of the normative issues—how problems are to be defined and addressed—among national research funders in the food and health domain, and indicate a gap between the ideas of innovation under the terms of RRI and innovation as conceptualised by those involved in its governance.