229,918 research outputs found
From "best practice" to "best fit": a framework for designing and analyzing pluralistic agricultural advisory services worldwide
"The paper develops a framework for the design and analysis of pluralistic agricultural advisory services and reviews research methods from different disciplines that can be used when applying the framework. Agricultural advisory services are defined in the paper as the entire set of organizations that support and facilitate people engaged in agricultural production to solve problems and to obtain information, skills and technologies to improve their livelihoods and well-being... To classify pluralistic agricultural advisory services, the paper distinguishes between organizations from the public, the private and the third sector that can be involved in (a) providing and (b) financing of agricultural advisory services. The framework for analyzing pluralistic agricultural advisory services presented in the paper addresses the need for analytical approaches that help policy-makers to identify those reform options that best fit country-specific frame conditions. Thus, the paper supports a shift from a âone-size-fits-allâ to a âbest fitâ approach in the reform of public services... Based on a review of the literature, the paper presents a variety of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches derived from different disciplines that can be applied when using the framework in empirical research projects. The disciplines include agricultural and institutional economics, communication theory, adult education, and public administration and management. The paper intends to inform researchers as well as practitioners, policy-makers and development partners who are interested in supporting evidence-based reform of agricultural advisory services. from Authors' AbstractAgricultural extension work, Pro-poor growth, Capacity strengthening,
The organizational design of nonprofits for people with disabilities
Utilizando información obtenida de los directivos de 105 pequeñas organizaciones sin fines de lucro españolas
que, en el año 2007, se dedicaban a la prestación de servicios a personas con discapacidad, hemos analizado
como el diseño organizativo âen concreto, los sistemas de recompensas extrĂnsecas e intrĂnsecas- influye sobre la
delegaciĂłn, la motivaciĂłn y la transferencia de conocimiento a la hora de lograr el objetivo de la organizaciĂłn
consistente en mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas que viven con una discapacidad. Los resultados
muestran que, debido a la carencia de conocimiento técnico, los directivos de estas entidades no lucrativas
(ENL) deben delegar derechos de decisiĂłn en empleados cualificados y utilizar en mayor medida recompensas
intrĂnsecas y extrĂnsecas para motivar a los empleados a que transmitan conocimiento entre ellos eficientemente.We use data obtained from managers of 105 small nonprofit organizations (NPOs) providing services to people
with disabilities in Spain in 2007 to examine how organizational designâparticularly, extrinsic and intrinsic
reward systemsâimpacts delegation, motivation, and knowledge transfer to achieve the NPOâs goal to improve
the lives of persons living with disabilities. We find that, due to lack of technical knowledge, managers of these
NPOs must delegate decision rights to qualified employees and that they successfully use a higher degree of
intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to motivate employees to transfer knowledge among themselves efficiently
Internationalisation of SMEs and firm performance: evidences from Bangladesh
One of the key objectives of this paper is to identify the impacts of internationalisation of
SMEs on firm performance. Although there have been a number of research that examined
the relationship between SME internationalisation and firm performance, research from the
context of smaller developing economies are really scant. This is against the fact that SMEs
are main vehicle for growth in those economies and extensive research on various dimensions
of SMEs including its impact on firm performance may help to better understand the
operational aspects of SMEs in those economies. Using primary data and structural equation
modelling to analyse those data, the paper has found that internationalisation of SMEs has
significant impact on both financial and non-financial performance of SMEs in Bangladesh.
More specifically, the paper has found that internationalisation impacts in two dimensions
(Financial impacts and non-financial impacts) with 8 indicators (higher sales, higher profit,
assets maximization, market expansion, competitive advantage, better reputation, better
customer service and added knowledge)
Contextual factors, knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services: An investigation in China
Copyright @ 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global
is prohibited. Reuse of this article has been approved by the publisher.In this paper, the authors explore the influences of two major contextual factorsâsupplier team membersâ cultural understanding and trust relationshipâon knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services. The authors discuss a joint investigation conducted by a cross-cultural research team in China. Cultural understanding is measured by individualism with guanxi and mianzi, two Chinese cultural concepts, and trust relationship is measured by adjusting trust, a notion reflecting the uniqueness of the Chinese people. Knowledge processes are characterized by knowledge sharing. Performance is measured by the outcomes of global sourcing, which is represented by product success and personal satisfaction. Data are collected in 13 companies in Xiâan Software Park, with 200 structured questionnaires distributed to knowledge workers. The results of quantitative data analysis indicate that cultural understanding influences trust relationship greatly, as well as knowledge sharing and performance in global sourcing of IT services. Trust relationship significantly impacts knowledge sharing, whereas trust relationship and knowledge sharing have no impact on performance. This study suggests that special aspects of the Chinese context have significant direct impacts on knowledge processes while no direct and immediate impacts on performance in global sourcing of IT services.National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for Humanity
and Social Science Research, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University in China and Brunel University's Research Development Fund
The economics of accreditation
This paper is a report on a research project on the economics of accreditation in the UK. The
main motivation and objective for the study is to have available a detailed analysis of how the
accreditation system impinges on important aspects of economic life, such as innovation and
business and economic performance. It aims to improve the general understanding of the
benefits of using accredited conformity assessment and to help businesses make informed
decisions when procuring conformity assessment and related services. It is also intended to be
helpful to government by supporting evidence-based policy making in relation to
accreditation and conformity assessmen
Indicators of university-industry knowledge transfer performance and their implications for universities: evidence from the UKâs HE-BCI survey
Focusing on the measurement of universitiesâ performance in knowledge transfer, we outline some
critical issues connected with the choice of appropriate indicators: in particular, we argue that, in order to
allow universities to correctly represent their knowledge transfer performance, indicators should include a
variety of knowledge transfer activities, reflect a variety of impacts, allow comparability between
institutions, and avoid the creation of perverse behavioural incentives. To illustrate these issues
empirically, we discuss the case of the United Kingdomâs Higher Education âBusiness and Community
Interaction (HE-BCI) survey. We show that the indicators used to measure and reward universitiesâ
engagement in knowledge transfer are not fully comprehensive, they are better suited to capture the
impact of certain types of activities than others and they are influenced by institutional strategies and
characteristics rather than simply reflecting different performances. The conclusions explore some
promising directions to address some of these problems
The Impacts of Knowledge Interaction with Manufacturing Clients on KIBS Firms Innovation Behaviour
knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), knowledge interaction, innovations systems
Innovation dynamics and the role of infrastructure
This report shows how the role of the infrastructure â standards, measurement,
accreditation, design and intellectual property â can be integrated into a quantitative
model of the innovation system and used to help explain levels and changes in
labour productivity and growth in turnover and employment. The summary focuses
on the new results from the project, set out in more detail in Sections 5 and 6. The
first two sections of the report provide contextual material on the UK innovation
system, the nature and content of the infrastructure knowledge and the institutions
that provide it.
Mixed modes of innovation, the typology of innovation practices developed and
applied here, is constituted of six mixed modes, derived from many variables taken
from the UK Innovation Survey. These are:
Investing in intangibles
Technology with IP innovating
Using codified knowledge
Wider (managerial) innovating
Market-led innovating
External process modernising.
The composition of the innovation modes, and the approach used to compute them,
is set out in more detail in Section 4. Modes can be thought of as the underlying
process of innovation, a bundle of activities undertaken jointly by firms, and whose
working out generates well known indicators such as new product innovations, R&D
spending and accessing external information, that are the partial indicators gathered
from the innovation survey itself
Learning in university technology transfer offices: transactions-focused and relations-focused approaches to commercialization of academic research
University Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) need a wide range of abilities to facilitate commercial exploitation of research outputs; however, we know relatively little about how these important abilities are developed and refined over time. We draw on practice-based studies of learning to create a novel conceptualization of learning processes and their outcomes in TTOs and show that this conceptualization of learning provides new empirical insights into how learning in TTOs shapes their commercialization practice. We investigate learning-in-practice in case studies of six UK TTOs and find two approaches to commercialization, namely transactions-focused practice and relations-focused practice. We find that both practices co-exist and co-evolve in some TTOs while other TTOs are predominantly transactions-focused. For the latter the development of a relations-focused approach is difficult, but possible if there is strategic direction and if sources of inertia are removed by TTO directors. Given that evolving practice cannot be fully explained by informal learning processes, we suggest that so far separate streams of practice-based literature on learning and strategizing should be brought together. The implications for further investigations of TTO abilities and some recommendations for policy and practice are discussed
The countryside in urbanized Flanders: towards a flexible definition for a dynamic policy
The countryside, the rural area, the open space, ⊠many definitions are used for rural Flanders. Everyone makes its own interpretation of the countryside, considering it as a place for living, working or recreating. The countryside is more than just a geographical area: it is an aggregate of physical, social, economic and cultural functions, strongly interrelated with each other. According to international and European definitions of rural areas there would be almost no rural area in Flanders. These international definitions are all developed to be used for analysis and policy within their specific context. They are not really applicable to Flanders because of the historical specificity of its spatial structure. Flanders is characterized by a giant urbanization pressure on its countryside while internationally rural depopulation is a point of interest. To date, for every single rural policy initiative â like the implementation of the European Rural Development Policy â Flanders used a specifically adapted definition, based on existing data or previously made delineations. To overcome this oversupply of definitions and delineations, the Flemish government funded a research project to obtain a clear and flexible definition of the Flemish countryside and a dynamic method to support Flemish rural policy aims. First, an analysis of the currently used definitions of the countryside in Flanders was made. It is clear that, depending on the perspective or the policy context, another definition of the countryside comes into view. The comparative study showed that, according to the used criteria, the area percentage of Flanders that is rural, varies between 9 and 93 per cent. Second, dynamic sets of criteria were developed, facilitating a flexible definition of the countryside, according to the policy aims concerned. This research part was focused on 6 policy themes, like âconstruction, maintenance and management of local (transport) infrastructuresâ and âprovision of (minimum) services (education, culture, health care, âŠ)â. For each theme a dynamic set of criteria or indicators was constructed. These indicators make it possible to show where a policy theme manifests itself and/or where policy interventions are possible or needed. In this way every set of criteria makes up a new definition of rural Flanders. This method is dynamic; new data or insights can easily be incorporated and new criteria sets can be developed if other policy aims come into view. The developed method can contribute to a more region-oriented and theme-specific rural policy and funding mechanism
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