Toward a collective intelligence recommender system for education

The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), have revolutionized the world and have moved us into the information age, however the access and handling of this large amount of information is causing valuable time losses. Teachers in Higher Education especially use the Internet as a tool to consult materials and content for the development of the subjects. The internet has very broad services, and sometimes it is difficult for users to find the contents in an easy and fast way. This problem is increasing at the time, causing that students spend a lot of time in search information rather than in synthesis, analysis and construction of new knowledge. In this context, several questions have emerged: Is it possible to design learning activities that allow us to value the information search and to encourage collective participation?. What are the conditions that an ICT tool that supports a process of information search has to have to optimize the student's time and learning? This article presents the use and application of a Recommender System (RS) designed on paradigms of Collective Intelligence (CI). The RS designed encourages the collective learning and the authentic participation of the students. The research combines the literature study with the analysis of the ICT tools that have emerged in the field of the CI and RS. Also, Design-Based Research (DBR) was used to compile and summarize collective intelligence approaches and filtering techniques reported in the literature in Higher Education as well as to incrementally improving the tool. Several are the benefits that have been evidenced as a result of the exploratory study carried out. Among them the following stand out: • It improves student motivation, as it helps you discover new content of interest in an easy way. • It saves time in the search and classification of teaching material of interest. • It fosters specialized reading, inspires competence as a means of learning. • It gives the teacher the ability to generate reports of trends and behaviors of their students, real-time assessment of the quality of learning material. The authors consider that the use of ICT tools that combine the paradigms of the CI and RS presented in this work, are a tool that improves the construction of student knowledge and motivates their collective development in cyberspace, in addition, the model of Filltering Contents used supports the design of models and strategies of collective intelligence in Higher Education.Postprint (author's final draft

The role of public policy in stimulating radical environmental impact reduction in the automotive sector: The need to focus on product-service system innovation

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 InderscienceProduct-service system (PSS) innovation is a promising approach to address sustainability challenges in the automotive industry. Starting form this assumption, this paper presents and discusses the potential contribution that policy measures can have in fostering the automotive sector in innovating on a PSS level. A set of policy instruments (general instruments and specific PSS-targeted ones) are presented and classified, underlining the effects they could produce at the company and environmental levels. In order to effectively support sustainable PSS diffusion in the automotive industry, the paper suggests the integration of general policy measures (such as internalisation of external costs, extended producer responsibility programmes and informative policies), with the PSS-targeted ones (such as Green Public Procurement focused on sustainable PSS, support of companies in acquiring information related to PSS, support of demonstrative pilot projects). In addition, the paper suggests the necessity to involve actively universities and research centres

Understanding absorptive capacities in an "innovation systems" context: consequences for economic and employment growth

This paper seeks to broaden our understanding of the concept underlying absorptive capacity at the macro–level, paying particular attention to the growth and development perspectives. We provide definitions of absorptive and technological capacity, external technology flows, productivity growth, employment creation and their interrelations. We then analyse the elements of absorptive capability, focusing on the nature of the relationship within a systems view of an economy, focusing primarily on the role of firm and non-firm actors and the institutions that connect them, both within and across borders. We also undertake to explain how the nature of absorptive capacity changes with stages of economic development, and the importance of the different aspects of absorptive capability at different stages. The relationship is not a linear one: the benefits that accrue from marginal increases in absorptive capability change over time. Finally, we provide a tentative and preliminary conceptual argument of how the different stages of absorptive capacity are related to productivity growth, economic growth and employment creation.economics of technology ;

Building an evaluative culture for effective evaluation and results management

A weak evaluative culture undermines many attempts at building an effective evaluation and results management regime. This brief outlines practical actions that an organization can take to build and support an evaluative culture, where information on performance is deliberately sought in order to learn how to better manage and deliver programmes and services. Such an organization values empirical evidence on the results it is seeking to achieve.evaluation, culture, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Subsidy and networking: The effects of direct and indirect support programs of the cluster policy

Industrial clusters have attracted considerable attention worldwide for their expected contribution to regional innovation. Recently, policymakers in various countries have developed specific cluster policies. However, there exist few empirical studies on cluster policies. In this study, we use original questionnaire data to empirically evaluate the Industrial Cluster Project (ICP) initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2001. We address two research questions on the effect of the ICP: are the project participants who exploit various support programs more successful in alliance/network formation within the cluster than others and which kind of ICP support program contributes to firm performance. In a departure from previous such projects, the ICP aims at the autonomous development of regional industries and includes both direct R&D support and indirect networking/coordination support. The focus of public support for local firms has clearly shifted toward enabling networking and coordination for those who can help themselves Thus, we pay special attention to the differences between direct R&D support and indirect networking/coordination support, which indicate the conditions necessary for the effective organization of cluster policies to improve firm performance. Our empirical evaluation is based on a recent original survey of a sample of 511 firms. We first employ the propensity score and the difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the degree of alliance/network formation before and after participating in the ICP. Thereafter, we use Heckman’s two-step procedure and the negative binomial model to examine the effects of support programs on firm performance. The estimation results suggest that cluster participants who exploit support programs (especially indirect support measures) expand the industry-university-government network after participating in the ICP. Moreover, we find that not every support program contributes to firm performance; firms should therefore select the program that is most aligned with their aims. Indirect support programs have an extensive and strong impact on output, especially innovation outcomes, whereas direct R&D support has only a weak effect.cluster policy, industrial cluster, R&D support, subsidy, networking

Knowledge Flows and R&D Co-operation: Firm-level Evidence from Germany

This paper analyzes the determinants of R&D co-operation among German manufacturing firms. Using firm level data from the Third Community Innovation Survey from Germany, we focus on the role of spillovers in explaining R&D cooperation. We also investigate firms? decisions to cooperate with research institutions or with suppliers and customers. Implementing a two-step estimation procedure, we find a positive effect of knowledge flows on the probability of R&D co-operation in most model specifications. Additionally, we show that firms with high intramural R&D budgets are more likely to cooperate with universities and research institutions than with suppliers and customers. --Spillovers,R&D Co-operation,CIS 3