Transformational Change for People and the Planet

This Open Access book deals with the pressing question of how to achieve transformational change that reconciles development with environmental sustainability. It particularly focuses on the role of evaluation in finding sustainable solutions. Environment and development are closely interlinked, as are human health and ecosystem health. The pandemic that began in 2020 demonstrated in no uncertain terms how destruction of habitats has allowed hitherto unknown pathogens spill over to humans wreaking havoc on people’s lives and livelihoods. We are already seeing the impacts of global climate change in terms of heatwaves, forest fires and increased storms. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly recognize the equal importance of the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development. In these turbulent times, when humankind faces multiple complex challenges it is essential to know that our responses are effective and that they make a positive difference. Evaluation can provide invaluable lessons to how we design policies, strategies and programs and how we allocate limited resources between competing priorities. This book brings together key thinkers and practitioners from the public and private sectors, from major multilateral organizations and from bilateral donor agencies, to present the latest knowledge and experience on how to evaluate interventions in the nexus of environment and development. The book does not promote any particular approach or methodology, but rather emphasizes the need for mixed methods to address the question at hand in the best and most suitable manner. It covers cases from a variety of fields, from climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy efficiency and renewable energy, natural resources management, biodiversity conservation and more. This book is not a conference proceedings although it has its roots in the Third International Conference on Evaluating Environment and Development organized by the GEF Independent Evaluation Office in October 2019. The conference brought together a larger number of established and upcoming evaluators, researchers and evaluation users from the Global North and South, representing a wide variety of organizations, to discuss the frontiers of environment and development evaluation. Following the conference, the editors identified and contacted the participants who made key contributions at the conference and asked them to develop their ideas and papers into book chapters according to a coherent plan

Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy: Outputs November 2012 – March 2014

Knowledge and evidence are important elements of all policy processes. While the availability of more or higher quality evidence does not guarantee better policy processes, it is difficult to imagine how development policy and outcomes can be improved without it. In addition to a myriad of development problems, the increasing recognition of diversity, complexity and context means that policy-relevant knowledge and evidence must address different scales of analysis, speak to different audiences and be accessible in a variety of formats. This brochure presents selected outputs from the first two years of an IDS programme entitled Strengthening Evidence-based Policy funded through an Accountable Grant from the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Work under this grant addresses six major policy themes: 1. Reducing Hunger and Undernutrition 2. Addressing and Mitigating Violence 3. Empowerment of Women and Girls 4. Pro-Poor Electricity Provision 5. Rising Powers in International Development 6. Sexuality, Poverty and Law In addition, there is a cross-cutting theme focusing on Foresight, Impact Assessment and Rapid Response. Work under this grant privileges the review and synthesis of existing knowledge and evidence over new primary research. The modus operandi is one of ‘co-construction’: a broad range of partners have played critical roles in the conception, generation and dissemination of these outputs. Beyond publication, IDS and its partners are actively working to integrate these outputs, and the lessons and recommendations that emerge from them, into policy processes at local, national and global scales.UK Department for International Developmen

Detection and Measurement of Sales Cannibalization in Information Technology Markets

Characteristic features of Information Technology (IT), such as its intrinsic modularity and distinctive cost structure, incentivize IT vendors to implement growth strategies based on launching variants of a basic offering. These variants are by design substitutable to some degree and may contend for the same customers instead of winning new ones from competitors or from an expansion of the market. They may thus generate intra-organizational sales diversion – i.e., sales cannibalization. The occurrence of cannibalization between two offerings must be verified (the detection problem) and quantified (the measurement problem), before the offering with cannibalistic potential is introduced into the market (ex-ante estimation) and/or afterwards (ex-post estimation). In IT markets, both detection and measurement of cannibalization are challenging. The dynamics of technological innovation featured in these markets may namely alter, hide, or confound cannibalization effects. To address these research problems, we elaborated novel methodologies for the detection and measurement of cannibalization in IT markets and applied them to four exemplary case studies. We employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, thus implementing a mixed-method multi- case research design. The first case study focuses on product cannibalization in the context of continuous product innovation. We investigated demand interrelationships among Apple handheld devices by means of econometric models with exogenous structural breaks (i.e., whose date of occurrence is given a priori). In particular, we estimated how sales of the iPod line of portable music players were affected by new-product launches within the iPod line itself and by the introduction of iPhone smartphones and iPad tablets. We could find evidence of expansion in total line revenues, driven by iPod line extensions, and inter- categorical cannibalization, due to iPhones and iPads Mini. The second empirical application tackles platform cannibalization, when a platform provider becomes complementor of an innovative third party platform thus competing with its own proprietary one. We ascertained whether the diffusion of GPS-enabled smartphones and navigation apps affected sales of portable navigation devices. Using a unit-root test with endogenous breaks (i.e., whose date of occurrence is estimated), we identified a negative shift in the sales of the two leaders in the navigation market and dated it at the third quarter of 2008, when the iOS and Android mobile ecosystems were introduced. Later launches of their own navigation apps did not significantly affect these manufacturers’ sales further. The third case study addresses channel cannibalization. We explored the channel adoption decision of organizational buyers of business software applications, in light of the rising popularity of online sales channels in consumer markets. We constructed a qualitative channel adoption model which takes into account the relevant drivers and barriers of channel adoption, their interdependences, and the buying process phases. Our findings suggest that, in the enterprise software market, online channels will not cannibalize offline ones unless some typical characteristics of enterprise software applications change. The fourth case study deals with business model cannibalization – the organizational decision to cannibalize an existent business model for a more innovative one. We examined the transition of two enterprise software vendors from on-premise to on-demand software delivery. Relying on a mixed- method research approach, built on the quantitative and qualitative methodologies from the previous case studies, we identified the transition milestones and assessed their impact on financial performances. The cannibalization between on-premise and on-demand is also the scenario for an illustrative simulation study of the cannibalization

Leveraging data for student success

People providing services to schools, teachers, and students want to know whether these services are effective. With that knowledge, a project director can expand services that work well and adjust implementation of activities that are not working as expected. When finding that an innovative strategy benefits students, a project director might want to share that information with other service providers who could build upon that strategy. Some organizations that fund programs for students will want a report demonstrating the program’s success. Determining whether a program is effective requires expertise in data collection, study design, and analysis. Not all project directors have this expertise—they tend to be primarily focused on working with schools, teachers, and students to undertake program activities. Collecting and obtaining student-level data may not be a routine part of the program. This book provides an overview of the process for evaluating a program. It is not a detailed methodological text but focuses on awareness of the process. What do program directors need to know about data and data analysis to plan an evaluation or to communicate with an evaluator? Examples focus on supporting college and career readiness programs. Readers can apply these processes to other studies that include a data collection component.Publishe