To each his own: Matching different entrepreneurial models to the academic scientist's individual needs

This paper presents a comparative case study of academic group leaders, active in three different scientific fields at a leading Swiss technical university. It examines the obstacles that prevent scientists from commercializing their technologies and how they can be reduced. Traditional models of technology transfer assume that scientists prefer either to 'go it alone' and become entrepreneurs (the inventor entrepreneur model) or to let go of their technologies to people interested in their commercialization (the surrogate entrepreneur model). The results of qualitative research suggest that these two models capture the extremes of a continuum populated by a variety of intermediate situations where scientists are unwilling completely to let go of their findings, but also do not want to become full time entrepreneurs. This results in considerable commercial potential that is unexploited. The Founding Angels approach might be a solution to this problem; it is designed for academics in these intermediate situations. The study contributes to the literature on university-industry technology transfer and should be useful for practitioners and scientists interested in maximizing the synergies between academia and industry.     

Perceived incentives to transdisciplinarity in a Japanese university research center

As a method of investigating complex socially relevant phenomena, transdisciplinary research (TDR) is gaining increasing centrality as a model of knowledge production. However, it is being discouraged by a scientific reward system based on disciplinary logic. The disincentive is even stronger for junior scholars who should be developing the capabilities necessary for achieving long-term scientific excellence.Building on theories of the coordination of scientific communities and using the case of a research center of Kyoto University investigating the boundary between cell and material sciences, we aim to disentangle the interplay between institutional incentives and intrinsic motivation in the prioritization of TDR over monodisciplinary research.We find that, despite strong interest in TDR among scientists and the center's mission to promote this orientation, only a minority of scientists prioritize this approach. Choice of research strategy is associated with its perceived benefits for idea generation, publication opportunities, intellectual effort required, the costs of team coordination, and satisfaction with organizational resources. Furthermore, the propensity to prioritize TDR drops among scientists beginning their careers.Therefore, we recommend the development of evaluation schemes grounded in activity-based measures and the granting of permanent positions to scientists pursuing TDR.     

Reorganizing School Lunch for a More Just and Sustainable Food System in the US

Public school lunch programs in the United States are contested political terrains shaped by government agencies, civil society activists, and agri-food companies. The particular organization of these programs has consequences for public health, social justice, and ecological sustainability. This contribution draws on political economy, critical food studies, and feminist economics to analyze the US National School Lunch Program, one of the world's oldest and largest government-sponsored school lunch programs. It makes visible the social and environmental costs of the “heat-and-serve” economy, where widely used metrics consider only the speed and volume of service as productive work. This study demonstrates that such a narrow understanding of the labor of lunch devalues care and undercuts the potential for school food provisioning to promote ecological and feminist goals. Further, it proposes a “high road” alternative and outlines an agenda for reorganizing school food provisioning to maximize care in all its dimensions.     

Well-being effects of self-employment: A spatial inquiry

Our paper presents an empirical analysis of entrepreneurial well-being using a large-scale longitudinal household survey from the UK that tracks almost 50,000 individuals across seven waves over the period 2009–2017, as well as a number of exploratory case studies. We contribute to the existing literature by investigating how entrepreneurial well-being varies across locations along the urban-rural continuum, and across wealthy-deprived neighbourhoods. We use a Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) approach to compare the well-being outcomes of individuals who switch into self-employment from waged employment, and show that entrepreneurial well-being, in the form of job satisfaction, is significantly higher for those living in semi-urban locations, relative to those living in urban and rural locations. We argue that semi-urban locations provide an optimal combination of ease of doing business and quality of life. Our results also show that individuals in wealthy neighbourhoods who switch into self-employment experience higher job satisfaction than otherwise comparable individuals living in materially deprived neighbourhoods, although the latter experience greater levels of life satisfaction following the switch.     

成都理工大学教职工体育协会的现状研究

文章对成都理工大学6个教职工体育协会的建制、经费、场地设施、指导人员以及活动开展状况等方面进行了调查访谈,发现协会中仍然存在着协会成员固化、成员覆盖面小以及资金不足、场地匮乏等问题,并提出加大宣传力度,狠抓培训、扩大会员人数;扩展资金来源,寻求学校场地人力支持以及多层次创造活动交流平台等建议措施,以促进成都理工大学教职工体育协会的进一步发展。     

中南大学麓山南路周边校区交通优化策略研究

随着校园周边交通条件的复杂化,中南大学校园周边出现了如交通拥堵、事故频发、环境污染等一系列交通问题,亟待提出有针对性的交通优化策略改善交通条件。本论文在借鉴和总结国内外大学校园交通组织的基础上,以中南大学麓山南路周边校区为研究对象,提出具体的交通优化策略。     

School meals and pupil satisfaction. Evidence from Italian primary schools

This paper aims to analyse to what extent pupils value the characteristics of the state school foodservice and identify which variables affect the degree of pupils’ satisfaction with the quality of school meals. A representative sample of 33 state primary schools providing meals was extracted for the metropolitan city of Naples. Two questionnaires were distributed, one to the headteachers concerned and the other to 5th grade pupils (10–11 years old). Information about the catering companies was mainly sourced from the AIDA database. Pupil satisfaction was measured by two key variables: pleasantness of eating at school and food tastiness. Controlling for pupil, family, school, foodservice and catering company characteristics, the paper shows that the catering company size negatively impacts upon pupil satisfaction with the foodservice, whereas the estimated meal average production cost is positively associated with pupil satisfaction. The study could assist city boroughs in devising meal quality indicators to be taken into account in designing competitive tendering.     

关于当代大学生爱国主义的调查与思考

爱国主义是大学生德育教育的一个中要组成部分,也是现代教育不可或缺的一个重要内容,更是现代社会主义市场经济建设中引人奋发向上的动力,是中华民族复兴的源泉,是建设中国特色社会主义的必要条件,本文针对在校高职生进行了部分调查,旨在通过调查找到大学生在爱国教育上存在的一些问题,并提出一些相应的解决方法。     

全球经济危机给中国高校国际化带来的新挑战及其思考

本文从国际合作与交流的角度出发,分析了当前全球经济危机给中国高校国际化带来的新机遇和新挑战,进而从课程建设、师资队伍建设、管理队伍建设三个方面,对如何应对新挑战、抓住新机遇进行了初步的探讨。     

外资银行进入对我国银行业竞争格局的影响

本文以波特的"五力"模型为分析工具,力图分析外资银行进入对我国银行业竞争格局的影响,认为国内银行业在中国加入WTO之后面临着外资银行进入的竞争挑战。因此,国内银行业要实施创新,提高创新能力,从而提高竞争力。