Mandatory Retirement Rules and the Retirement Decisions of University Professors in Canada

We examine the impact of mandatory retirement on the retirement decisions of professors in Canada using administrative data. Estimation of a discrete time hazard model indicates that faculty members at universities with mandatory retirement at age 65 have exit rates at age 65 that are around 30 to 38 percentage points higher than those of their counterparts at universities without mandatory retirement. This overall difference in exit rates is found when the sample is restricted by discipline, professional rank and type of university. Similar results are found for both men and women; however, the magnitude of this effect is somewhat smaller for women. Restricting the analysis to include faculty members who received their highest degree at age 34 or older does not affect the magnitude of the difference in exit rates between faculty at universities without mandatory retirement and those at universities with mandatory retirement. The estimated survival probabilities indicate that only 22.7% of faculty members employed at age 64 at universities without mandatory retirement will continue to be employed at the same university at age 72.     

The role of the research university in the spin-off of high-technology companies

A new type of university—industry relationship has developed in the 1980s that centers around the process of technology transfer from research universities to private firms. One expression of this new, closer relationship is the several university—industry research centers in microelectronics, of which the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas is the most noted example. The universities, private companies, and federal, state, and local governments all seem to benefit from the new university—industry relationships, but certain problems may accompany these benefits. The main hope-for result of industry—university collaboration is the rise of high-technology spin-off firms. The information technologies produced by the microelectronics industry are driving the Information Society.     

我国研究型大学教师薪酬体系管窥

一流的师资队伍是世界一流大学的核心竞争力,当前,国内研究型大学无不把人才强校作为学校的主战略,对人才的竞争也变成了没有硝烟的战场。尽管将队伍建设提升到前所未有的高度,但无论作为教育主管部门还是大学管理者自身,对于大学薪酬配置体系的优化与整合,都还处于探索阶段。本文通过对当前研究型大学薪酬管理模式的历史沿革、现状问题的梳理与描述,深刻剖析产生诸多问题的原因,并从大学薪酬体系的定位、资金来源等方面提出改革建议。     

Innovation by design: SPARK and the Overcoming of Stanford University's Translational “Valley of Death” in Bio-Medicine

Stanford University's world leadership as an entrepreneurial university induced a “paradox of success,” inhibiting further development of its organizational infrastructure for entrepreneurship support. Nevertheless, some prospective academic entrepreneurs realized that there were invisible persisting gaps in the university's innovation system. We discuss the role of the entrepreneurial university and provide a case study of SPARK, an organizational innovation, created to address Stanford's translational research gap, that was then spread to other universities. The creation of a support structure to encourage students and faculty to define entrepreneurial projects as part of their education and research revealed a novel organizational change dynamic.     

‘Repeat commercializers,’ the ‘habitual entrepreneurs’ of university–industry technology transfer

Among academic faculty, is there a class of ‘repeat commercializers’ who account for a disproportionate share of commercialized technologies arising from university research? In a survey of 172 engineering, mathematics, and science faculty members from a major Canadian university, we found evidence that a class of repeat commercializers does exist. Further, we found that the 12% of the faculty who are repeat commercializers account for 80% of the commercialized innovations. Interviews with repeat commercializers in the same faculties at the same university suggest that repeat commercializers parallel habitual entrepreneurs in that they have the ability to commercialize (i.e. the ability to generate and identify commercializable inventions and the ability to acquire resources for the commercialization of their inventions) and the aspiration to do so (i.e. commercialization-friendly attitudes). Since repeat commercializers account for such a large percentage of commercialization activity, it is important that programs and policies associated with technology transfer address the needs of this subpopulation of the faculty.     

ENTRE-U: An entrepreneurial orientation scale for universities

The development of a new scale, ENTRE-U, that measures the entrepreneurial orientation of university departments is described. Governments, industry, and funding organizations challenge universities to become more "entrepreneurial", often in the context of increasing the commercialization outcomes of publicly funded research. The extant literature on corporate entrepreneurial orientation (EO) suggests this orientation is beneficial when organizations face dynamic or hostile environments. However, the EO concept and related empirical research focus on firms in competitive markets. Little is known about the nature of EO in other organizational contexts. ENTRE-U was developed to facilitate empirical research on EO within public universities. Interviews and a follow-up focus group with faculty members from departments in computer science, health science, and engineering at Canadian Universities elicited items for the new scale. A survey of university department heads provided data for statistical development of the scale. ENTRE-U consists of four dimensions – research mobilization, unconventionality, industry collaboration, and perception of university policies – that successfully predict department involvement in commercialization activities. Implications of the findings and opportunities for research using the ENTRE-U scale are discussed.     

STATE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS AND INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES*

Because of the growth of new technology based economic development policies at the state level in recent years, this research project provides an assessment of the experiences of users of one such program: the technology research center in microelectronics. A survey of a large number of companies gave us results that should be of interest to decision makers in universities, private industry as well as the public sector. Access to students as future employees was seen as a major reason why companies get involved with universities, more so than research enhancement per se. A univerisity's inability to protect what companies see as confidential research is seen as a major disincentive to further university-industry relationships, while most companies did not see federal or state tax incentives as encouraging collaboration. Among companies who had direct experience with state-funded technology center programs, most reacted positively to their experiences. Such collaboration was seen to stimulate related research within many participating companies, while also leading to improvements in the quality of products and production methods. While the majority of companies thought that states should continue to fund technology development programs, particularly at universities, neither universities nor government were seen as important sources of technical knowledge by many companies. A lack of information about state programs was seen among many companies that responded to the survey.     

Faculty bargaining in private colleges and universities: Beyond Yeshiva

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme court inYeshiva University v. NLRB ruled that faculty members in some private colleges and universities are managerial employees, and, thus, are not entitled to the protection provided under federal labor law. Since then, the courts and the National Labor Relations Board have heard a number of cases arising out ofYeshiva. This article first reviews the status of managerial and professional employees under the NLRA, then examines how the law has been applied in the aftermath ofYeshiva. We conclude that while a few general principles have evolved, the courts have yet to establish clear criteria for defining “managerial” as applied to university faculty. We note that theYeshiva case has resulted in a substantive decline in collective bargaining among faculty in private sector higher educational institutions, and that the criteria arising out of the decision have the potential for restricting collective bargaining coverage outside academia.     

高校校园网前端技术的研究与探索

随着网站前端技术的迅速发展,为数不少的高校校园网也逐渐进行了对其站点的改造,踏出了从Table架构到DIV+CSS架构的脚步,但是技术水平比较参差不齐。本文对现有的前端技术进行分析,结合高校自身发展情况,对这一系列问题进行一些研究与探索。     

对我国企业CRM应用的研究

随着信息技术的发展，企业间竞争方式的改变，CRM便应用而生。CRM既是一种管理思想，又是一种应用软件和技术。因此，本文将应用系统的观点重点介绍我国企业要想成功的实施CRM，既要进行CRM支持体系的建设，还要进行软件的开发和信息技术的掌握。同时本文又介绍了我国企业实施CRM过程中所遇到的问题。     

From kites to computers: Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin partnership

The traditional strength of the Pennsylvania economy has been steelmaking and other heavy manufacturing activities. During the past decade Pennsylvania has felt the impact of mature markets for steel and other capital goods, international competition and new technologies, as unemployment in the state has consistently exceeded the national average. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, state policymakers were faced with the problems of how to ease the state's reliance upon these declining industrial sectors, help existing industries within the state to modernize, and stimulate the formation of new growth industries.Recognizing Pennsylvania's history of technological innovation and its strong resource base in corporate and university research and development, state policymakers set out to create flexible public/private partnerships to encourage greater university/industry cooperation, and to focus regional economic development efforts toward innovation and modernization. In 1982, the Pennsylvania General Assembly created the Ben Franklin Partnership program, which established four regional advanced technology centers at major research universities in the state. These advanced technology centers are consortiums of universities, businesses, economic development organizations, financial institutions, and others committed to the goal of job creation through industrial modernization and technological innovation.To date, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has provided $29 million to the advanced technology centers for joint industry/university research and development projects, entrepreneurial development and education and training. This state funding was matched by $90 million from businesses, foundations, and other sources. Because of the long-term nature of such a program, the early results of the Ben Franklin Partnership are modest; however, the program has been successful in establishing relationships among universities, businesses and economic development organizations which will serve as the basis for long term growth.     

基于教师专业发展的教师团队关键绩效指标体系研究

大学教师的专业发展影响学校的核心竞争力，也影响着培养学生的整体素质。目前比较有效的专业发展是大学教师的专业团队建设。如果能把团队建设和教师专业发展有效结合，不但会促进青年教师的快速成长，也会对学校的未来规划发展起到至关重要的作用。随着团队建设如火如荼的开展，对建设的成果考核是不容忽视的课题，需要考虑在考核时纳入专业发展的绩效考核体系。文章以关键绩效指标为依据，考虑从未来教师专业发展视角来分析团队建设的优势和不足，为后续政策制定、建设规划提供支持。研究结果设计了能够促进教师专业发展的对团队评估的关键绩效考核指标。     

加强文化管理对提高高校教学质量的作用

随着我国社会经济的发展,为教育事业提供了更大的发展空间,同时也对教育事业提出了更高的要求。如何提高教学质量成为学校关注的问题。文化管理理念的出现为解决此类问题指明了方向,促进了我国高校管理水平的提高,创造了一个和谐的校园环境。文化管理体现的是一种以人为本的思想,是高校价值观的体现,可以帮助高校进行管理创新,对提高高校的教学质量有着重要的作用。     

高校院(系)有效管理机制探微

本文基于高校构建现代大学制度的时代背景,详细研究了高校院(系)"(党政)共同负责、教授治学、民主管理、依法治院(系)"模式的具体运作方式,旨在探索建立院(系)有效管理机制。     

Organizational decline,extended work life and implications for faculty planning

Following several decades of expansion that facilitated growth and development of opportunities for faculty, projections of declining enrollment of students and postponed retirement of senior faculty have created a renewed interest in human-resource planning for universities. This paper proposes a planning framework that focuses in particular on the consequences of exogenous changes for internal faculty promotions and draws attention to tradeoffs among potentially competing objectives. A goalprogramming variation is applied to a fractional flow model of organizational mobility, and is illustrated by simulation of five-year planning scenarios at a large liberal-arts college.     

大学科技园人力资源资本化分析

依托高等院校学科优势,以科技成果作价入股作为核心技术创建科技型企业,是大学科技园的发展模式。文章在对大学科技园入园企业进行调查的基础上,对大学科技园人力资源资本化的现状进行了分析,指出了大学科技园人力资源资本化过程中存在的问题,并给出了解决对策。     

论高校合并后的文化融合与创新——以湖南工业大学为例

高校合并具有多方面的积极意义。湖南工业大学三校合并后文化融合方面仍存在着一些问题,根据现有情况提出了培育核心价值观、加强制度的融合与创新、建设高素质的校园文化队伍等有效促进文化融合与创新的途径。     

Research performance evaluation of Chinese university: A non-homogeneous network DEA approach

Performance evaluation for universities or research institutions has become a hot topic in recent years. However, the previous works rarely investigate the multiple departments’ performance of a university, and especially, none of them consider the non-homogeneity among the universities’ departments. In this paper, we develop data envelopment analysis (DEA) models to evaluate the performance of general non-homogeneous decision making units (DMUs) with two-stage network structures and then apply them to a university in China. Specifically, the first stage is faculty research process, and the second stage is student research process. We first spit each DMU (i.e. department) into a combination of several mutually exclusive maximal input subgroups and output subgroups in terms of their homogeneity in both stages. Then an additive DEA model is proposed to evaluate the performance of the overall efficiency of the non-homogeneous DMUs with two-stage network structure. By analyzing the empirical results, some implications are provided to support the university to promote the research performance of each department as well as the whole university.     

A knowledge-based typology of university spin-offs in the context of regional economic development

Drawing on the literature pertaining to the role universities play in promoting technology transfer, this paper develops an insightful conceptualization of spin-off processes, and applies it to a current regional case study. The suggested typology of university spin-off/start-up firms is based on several variables, including the type of university sponsorship, university involvement in firm formation, the character of knowledge applied, and co-localization of the founders. The empirical case study is used to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach in analyzing spin-off firms, and their dynamics. The study is based on interviews conducted with university spin-offs/start-ups in the information technology (IT) sector located in the Kitchener and Guelph metropolitan areas. This region, which is home to the University of Waterloo – one of Canada’s premier science and technology universities – has experienced an impetus of spin-off processes originating from university research dating back to the 1970s.The results of our analysis expose several trends: Sponsored spin-offs are largely the result of particular university research projects, and apply specific knowledge inputs in the development of their initial core technology. Unsponsored spin-offs, which find their foundation in decentralized idea development outside of the university setting, almost entirely rely on generic broad knowledge bases for the development of innovative products and services, which have enabled the firm-formation process. Overall, it is surprising that even firms that have received some form of university support described the role the University of Waterloo had in their start-up process as marginal. The dynamic research approach applied in this study, which outlines the university’s changing role over time and the regional dynamics associated with spin-off firms, further demonstrates the potential of our typology. As such, our typology of university-related start-up/spin-off firms is designed to support studies concerned with the wider impact of universities on technology transfer and regional development.     

Gender and the commercialization of university science: academic founders of spinout companies

There is a great deal of interest in Europe and the USA on the commercialization of university science, particularly the creation of spinout companies from the science base. Despite considerable research on academic entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship in general, and the causes of under-representation of female scientists in academic institutions, there has been little research on the influence of gender on academic entrepreneurship.

The study researches female founders of UK university spinout companies using information from the Internet on company founders of spinout companies from 20 leading universities. The proportion of female founders at 12% is very low. The paper explores reasons for this low representation through follow-up postal interviews of the 21 female founders identified, and a male control sample. Under-representation of female academic staff in science research is the dominant but not the only factor to explain low entrepreneurial rates amongst female scientists.

Owing to the low number of women in senior research positions in many leading science departments, few women had the chances to lead a spinout. This is a critical factor as much impetus for commercialization was initially inspired by external interest rather than internal evaluation of a commercial opportunity. External interest tended to target senior academics, which proportionally are mostly male. A majority of the women surveyed tended to be part of entrepreneurial teams involving senior male colleagues.

As a whole both male and female science entrepreneurs displayed similar motivations to entrepreneurship, but collectively as scientists differed appreciably from non academic entrepreneurs. Women science entrepreneurs also faced some additional problems in areas such as the conflict between work and home life and networks.