Knotting the action net, or organizing between organizations

This paper presents a study of a successful organizing process, namely the knotting together of different types of action by “translating” them into one another. The connections thus established were then stabilized to form a unit that can be designated as an “action net”. This instance of organizing occurred in the course of a project in the Swedish health care sector, with a view to establishing coordination between care units in three separate organizations. Different laws regulated their tasks, their operations were financed by different principals, and the everyday work of their members was undertaken at different point in time and in different places. Despite this, the participants in the studied project were able to establish a lasting net of connections that contributed, in the eyes of the environment, to an instance of “good care”. In this paper we examine in detail the creation of an action net, and offer a tentative theory of organizing in action nets.     

Which factors are perceived as obstacles for the growth of Italian academic spin-offs?

During the last decades, academic spin-offs have received increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their ability to advance industrial application of scientific knowledge. In the past, scholars believed that these organisations were subjected to fast growth after their establishment. Only in the last decade, scholars realise that the fast-growing perspective hypothesised was an oversimplification, as the majority of high-tech academic spin-offs growth slowly or remain small in size for long time. The aim of our study is to investigate the reasons that inhibit the growth of established academic spin-offs, focusing on the Italian context. Through the implementation of the Delphi technique and of the fuzzy logic we derive new and relevant results, for scholars, spin-offs’ managers and policy-makers.     

Efficiency and Equity in School Funding: A Case Study for Kansas

This study measures cost inefficiency of Kansas public school districts and applied both mathematical programming and stochastic frontier approach. The empirical study uses two-stage data envelopment analysis model and the cost inefficiency effects model proposed by Battese and Coelli (Empirical Economics 24:325–332, 1995) and applied to a panel data. The results found mean inefficiencies from these two models are very close. The results indicate that Kansas school districts, on average, exhibit cost inefficiency in their operations, however, there is a tendency for inefficiencies to decline over time. The study does not find any strong evidence for lower efficiency due to lower expenditure per-pupil. Instead, we found inconclusive evidences where lower efficiency for certain school districts could be assigned to unfavorable environmental cost conditions.

‘The Navigator Network’: a New Zealand futurewatch case study

New Zealand's ‘Navigator Network’ is a national scanning network of scientists and policy analysts providing ‘early alert’ advice about emerging areas of science and technology. It was established by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) to enhance the government's readiness to respond to the opportunities and risks around new technologies, particularly in biotechnology and nanotechnology. The Navigator Network has been tailored to the New Zealand context, which is characterised by a small, well-connected government sector and a strong focus on agricultural biotechnology and food. The network builds on these features, and is ‘people-centric’ rather than ‘information-centric’, using dialogic approaches to generate new knowledge between diverse stakeholder groups. It also focuses on building futures capability in the government and science sectors. Representatives from government agencies are integrated into the process as scanners to facilitate uptake. It also has an adaptive development process via an action learning component.     

Level the Playing Field to Bolster the Boardroom: Sports as a Springboard for Women's Labor Force Advancement in Asia

We promote women's participation in sports as part of a solution to better integrate women into the labor force of Asian economies. Women in Asia lag other regions in terms of labor force participation and membership in corporate leadership bodies; this is particularly acute in East Asia. Involvement in sport has been found to be associated with long‐term economic benefits for women internationally, including enhanced returns to education and labor outcomes. We propose a number of sports program‐related policies for Asian countries to consider in order to better integrate women into education, society, labor, and corporate boardrooms.