Patronage, Reputation and Common Agency Contracting in the Scientific Revolution: From Keeping 'Nature's Secrets' to the Institutionalization of 'Open Science'

This essay examines the economics of patronage in the production of knowledge and its influence upon the historical formation of key elements in the ethos and organizational structure of publicly funded open science. The emergence during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries of the idea and practice of “open science" was a distinctive and vital organizational aspect of the Scientific Revolution. It represented a break from the previously dominant ethos of secrecy in the pursuit of Nature’s Secrets, to a new set of norms, incentives, and organizational structures that reinforced scientific researchers' commitments to rapid disclosure of new knowledge. The rise of “cooperative rivalries” in the revelation of new knowledge, is seen as a functional response to heightened asymmetric information problems posed for the Renaissance system of court-patronage of the arts and sciences; pre-existing informational asymmetries had been exacerbated by the claims of mathematicians and the increasing practical reliance upon new mathematical techniques in a variety of “contexts of application.” Reputational competition among Europe’s noble patrons motivated much of their efforts to attract to their courts the most prestigious natural philosophers, was no less crucial in the workings of that system than was the concern among their would-be clients to raise their peer-based reputational status. In late Renaissance Europe, the feudal legacy of fragmented political authority had resulted in relations between noble patrons and their savant-clients that resembled the situation modern economists describe as "common agency contracting in substitutes" -- competition among incompletely informed principals for the dedicated services of multiple agents. These conditions tended to result in more favorable contract terms (especially with regard to autonomy and financial support) for the agent-client members of the nascent scientific communities. This left the new scientists better positioned to retain larger information rents on their specialized knowledge, which in turn tended to encourage entry into the emerging disciplines. They also were thereby enabled collectively to develop a stronger degree of professional autonomy for their programs of inquiry within increasingly specialized and formal scientific academies which, during the latter seventeenth century, attracted the patronage of rival absolutist States in Western Europe.open science, new economics of science, economics of institutions, patronage, asymmetric information, principal-agent problems, common agency contracting, social networks, 'invisible colleges', scientific academies

Power, Techno-economics, and Transatlantic Relations in 1987-1999

This essay suggests that in 1987-1999 European elites, in their efforts of asymmetric balancing against the United States hegemony, decided to trade-off military capability for economic competitiveness. Thus, it documents a correlation between a) the reluctance of especially France and Germany during the 1990s to fully embrace and pursue the US-led RMA; and, b) the European Union's efforts since the late 1980s to challenge America's technological and economic supremacy in the aerospace sector. Two projects (Airbus and Galileo) indicate that the quest for strategic independence and the fear of reduced influence in international affairs were the driving forces behind European efforts to challenge the US commercial and technological supremacy in the aerospace sector in 1987-99. Furthermore, the article tries to identify what role the RMA played in this context (focusing in particular on Germany and France). It argues also that since the late 1980s (and especially during the 1990s), the European Commission and countries such as France and Germany perceived US policies in high-technology sectors (accentuated also by vigorous pursuit of the RMA) as limiting Europe’s abilities to advance its own agenda in international economic and security affairs

The Importance of Co-ordination in National Technology Policy: Evidence From the Galileo Public Private Partnership.

Policy makers seek to identify an institutional framework that facilitates the commercialization of publicly funded R&D. In the space industry, the formation of such a framework is complicated by certain non-economic factors, such as national security considerations and the fact that numerous sovereign nations are often included in the commercialization process. In this paper, a model is outlined, that incorporates both economic and non-economic factors. The paper then demonstrates the importance of co-ordination in national technology policy to achieve an optimal result. The benefits of co-ordination are illustrated through a case study of the design of a major European public-private partnership (PPP) in the space industry, referred to as Galileo.

The NASA Space Station program plans

The design of a permanently manned space station is discussed. The role of the space shuttle, planning guidelines, international cooperation, and commercial possibilities are among the topics discussed

The regime complex of global space governance : the international space politics of the 21st century

Post-Cold War trends in national space-capability building and the liberalization of the global space economy have expanded the concerns of states in international astropolitics from security as such to other issue areas, including safety, economic growth and social development, and sustainability. Since the beginning of the 21st Century, the constellation of international space regimes has continued to expand, while the global governing architecture has fragmented. Within a ‘regime complex’ analytical framework, this work presents two interpretive narratives of the strategic, functional and organizational aspects that explain the design and evolution of ‘the regime complex of global space security governance’ and ‘the GNSSs regime complex’. The case studies chart the dynamics of international space politics and analyze the growing structural fragmentation of the complex global scheme of space governance. An additional enabling factor such as innovation was identified as vital to reinforce the growth of regime complex in global space governance

PERSPECTIVES ON FUTURE RESEARCH IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN TRANSITION AGRICULTURE

Measuring the Progress Toward Market is proposed as the unifying theme for the next stage of transition research. The main areas included in the research agenda focus on land ownership and land markets, changes in farming structure and farm organization, agricultural labor adjustment, introduction of hard budget constraints and real bankruptcy procedures. The emergence of functioning market services should be studied in the perspective of demonopolization and competition, with special emphasis on development of service cooperatives.International Development,

Podpora kritičnemu multi-organizacijskemu sodelovanju v primeru odziva na katastrofične dogodke

The past two years have shown both the power of nature and the complexity of preparing for and responding to extreme events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes/typhoons, and floods. These events, and future catastrophic events, will require coordination and collaboration between multiple government and non government organizations across national and state borders. This collaboration will require the discipline necessary to share common processes and procedures, and the agility to improvise plans and actions as situationally required. Information technology must be used to create an eRegion, enabling the shared situational assessments and adequately supporting the collaborative, distributed decision making to produce required decisions and future action plans. The role of information technology in developing these capabilities is discussed in the context of two seismic scenarios, the US New Madrid Seismic Zone, and the Adriatic Seismic region.Zadnji dve leti smo bili priča tako môči narave kot tudi zapletenosti priprav na odziv in tudi samemu odzivu na nekatere ekstremne dogodke kot so potresi, cunamiji, orkani/tajfuni in poplave. Ti in pa bodoči katastrofalni dogodki bodo zahtevali usklajevanje in sodelovanje med mnogimi vladnimi in nevladnimi organizacijami prek nacionalnih in državnih mejá. To sodelovanje bo zahtevalo disciplino, ki je potrebna pri delitvi skupnih postopkov in procedur in pa prožnost pri improviziranju načrtov in ukrepov z ozirom na situacijo. Za vzpostavitev e-regije se mora uporabiti informacijska tehnologija, s čimer bi se omogočilo skupno ocenjevanje situacije in ustrezna podpora medsebojnemu sodelovanju in porazdelitvi pri sprejemanju odločitev, kar naj bi pripeljalo do ustreznih odločitev in bodočim akcijskim načrtom. Vloga informacijske tehnologije pri razvoju teh zmožnosti je obravnavana v kontekstu dveh potresnih scenarijev, v ameriški potresni coni New Madrid in v jadranski potresni regiji

International Competition for Satellite-Based Navigation System Services

The goal of this work is to review the current state of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) development and its potential impact on the social, economic, and political dynamics of the various states fielding the systems. The most recognizable GNSS is the US GPS. It is the only operational system functioning at the time of this writing and has become part of the global commons. GPS, by virtue of its uniqueness, is considered the \u27gold standard\u27 of satellite based positioning, navigation, and timing systems. This uniqueness has also enabled the US to fully capitalize on the sizable economic dividends gained by the US technology sector from the development and sales of GPS user equipment and services. This work argues that the emergence of three global peer competitors to GPS is going to usher in a changed international relations environment for those new players. The economic implications go beyond a simple return on investment and could represent the continued space science and technical competitiveness of these states or not. The international political ramifications of the success or failure of the particular GNSSs could have a greater impact on the current international order than has been previously considered. The European Union, Russia, and China have become inexorably locked in a contest of domestic political will to field the next generation of GNSS in order to free themselves from US GPS domination and at the same time gain economic advantage over the other in space system technologies. Concurrently, the US is endeavoring to field the next generation of GPS and maintain its dominance in the associated technologies linked to GPS

Impact of mergers and acquisitions on organizations and people

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-74).The concept of this thesis emerged from my own experience of mergers and acquisitions in which I had been involved over the past 20 years. Companies make acquisitions, mergers, or joint ventures for technology or geographical reasons, or to consolidate a market. The companies have to find a way to integrate the two organizations, and typically they face the challenges of combining different business philosophies, visions, leadership styles, and technology innovation management that have developed and manifested over an extended period of time of time. The motivation for the most companies to get involved in acquisitions is to maintain the growth rate, get access to new ideas, and processes that will provide a lasting benefit for the organization. In the thesis, I will examine the difficulties of the integration of one entity into another. Often, companies are acquired for their people's talent and expertise. The cultural and human aspects, however, are not a major consideration during the overall due-diligence process. I conclude that the extremely high failure rate of more than 50% for mergers and acquisitions is a result of the negligence of a formal cultural and human due-diligence process, and a "human capital balance sheet" needs to become a part of the process.by Ralf T. Faber.M.B.A