Innovation Indicators: for a critical reflection on their use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

It has been widely recognized that innovation is an important driver of economic growth. Many Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) have adopted innovation indicators to monitor innovation performance and to evaluate the impact of innovation policies. This paper argues that innovation indicators should be customized to the different socio-economic structures of LMICs. For this, the definition of innovation needs to be relevant to the multitude of innovation actors and processes in LMICs. LMICs also need to build competences not only in the construction of innovation indicators within their statistical systems, but also in the use of these indicators by among others policy makers. Especially as the fourth edition of the Oslo Manual (OM 2018) has broadened the scope of “innovation”, opening up policy space for LMICs to accommodate the diversity in their national systems of innovation and to develop accompanying innovation indicators.JEL Classification Codes: O38, O32, O29, P47http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/iizuka-michiko

Sustainability Standards and Stakeholder Engagement: Lessons From Carbon Markets

Stakeholders play an increasingly active role in private governance, including development of standards for measuring sustainability. Building on prior studies focused on standards and stakeholder engagement, we use an innovation management theoretical lens to compare stakeholder engagement and standards developed in two carbon markets: the Climate Action Reserve and the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism. We develop and test hypotheses regarding how different processes of stakeholder engagement in standard development affect the number, identity, and age of stakeholders involved, as well as the variation and quality of the resulting standards. In doing so, we contribute to the growing literature on stakeholder engagement in developing sustainability standards

Why tracing a locality's networked governance is worthwhile

The transition from government to governance brings about a shift in performance evaluation. The focus can no longer be on an individual entity, but must extend into considering how a collective of government and non-government institutions achieves the outcomes sought. How can this evaluation task proceed? While applying the formal methods of social network analysis (SNA) to measuring, analysing and managing networked governance may seem obvious to some, such a solution seems to have been avoided over many decades. SNA tools that non-experts can use have been released in recent past, providing opportunities in learning-by-doing among practitioners and scholars with responsibilities or interests in public sector management. The overarching aim in this paper is to promote adoption of an open-source software tool - NodeXL - as one pathway toward understanding and improving networked governance situations, and toward communicating results to others. It begins by establishing three areas of information needs held by Australia's local governments, where undertaking a pilot study could be useful. They are, local government's real positioning with other decision-makers in the networked governance that is Australian federalism; world better practice in risk governance, given the significant exposure of Australian councils to natural disaster events; and measuring change over time in governance capital, as a component in the capitals approach to measuring sustainable development. Establishing functional and spatial boundaries was a key step in design, with the choice being environment protection and natural resources management in the 350km2 catchment area of the Wonboyn Lake estuary on the far south coast of New South Wales. A Web search of documents containing the terms 'Wonboyn Lake' or 'Wonboyn River' then followed. One hundred and twenty nine documents were retrieved. Analysing their contents led to identifying over two hundred institutional actors either transmitting or receiving knowledge relevant to the locality. Some 420 communications taking place between 1967 and 2011 were identified, and tagged according to year of transmission. The decision-making level within which each institutional actor operated; and whether industry, regulator, external researcher or stakeholder were other characteristics recorded. A 421 x 2 matrix of Wonboyn data was then pasted into the NodeXL template operating on MS Excel 2007/2010. Resource materials downloaded from the Web supported the learning-by-doing element of the pilot study. Four visualisations on networked environmental governance are provided. The first shows unmodified data as a graph in random layout. Its purpose is to provide a benchmark against which some of the SNA procedures available for analysing data can be compared. Then follow three graph layouts, each designed to meet the areas of information need established at the study's beginning. Results suggest, in the author's opinion, any time invested in learning-by-doing with NodeXL will reward those wishing to understand, manage and communicate the complexity that is networked governance. Suggestions on how the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government, and practitioners in local councils, could be early adopters of this innovation by using data already available to them are offered, so that they may undertake similar pilot studies

An Annotated Bibliography of Recent Literature on Current Developments in Philanthropy

As philanthropic organizations play an increasingly important role in societies around the world, the research on philanthropy – from giving and volunteering practices to regulatory frameworks to digital innovations – has also evolved in recent decades. It is important to develop a thorough overview of the relevant scientific discourses and literature on current developments in philanthropy. This will allow researchers and practitioners to enhance the understanding of philanthropy and to improve its practice worldwide. This report provides new insights on current developments and important changes in the global philanthropic landscape, including trends in global philanthropy and its interaction with other sectors of society

Governance: public governance to social innovation?

ArticleThis paper reviews governance and public governance related to an emerging area of policy interest – social innovation. The European Commission’s White Paper on European Governance (2001) focused on openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence in public policy as characteristics of good governance. The EC has prioritised social innovation to address policy problems. Yet, the extant literature and research on social innovation is sparse. The paper questions whether it is a new mode of governance which contributes to good governance or a continuum of neoliberal reforms of the state which alters the relationship between the state, market and civil society

Community Development Evaluation Storymap and Legend

Community based organizations, funders, and intermediary organizations working in the community development field have a shared interest in building stronger organizations and stronger communities. Through evaluation these organizations can learn how their programs and activities contribute to the achievement of these goals, and how to improve their effectiveness and the well-being of their communities. Yet, evaluation is rarely seen as part of a non-judgemental organizational learning process. Instead, the term "evaluation" has often generated anxiety and confusion. The Community Development Storymap project is a response to those concerns.Illustrations found in this document were produced by Grove Consultants

Public Accountability: Performance Measurement, The Extended State, And The Search For Trust

In an Academy partnership with the Kettering Foundation, National Academy of Pubic Administration Fellows Melvin J. Dubnick and H. George Frederickson have completed a study of accountability. The study, Public Accountability: Performance Measurement, The Extended State, and the Search for Trust, is a treatment of the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary applications of accountability to public affairs. The working title of the study was Public Accountability: From Ambulance Chasing to Accident Prevention, but that title was thought to lack the dignity such an important subject deserves. Dubnick and Frederickson challenge the often assumed relationship between performance measurement and accountability. They give special attention to accountability challenges associated with the outsourcing of government work, what they call the Extended State. And, they provide examples of effective public accountability in the context of high trust public-private partnerships

Strengths And Weaknesses Of The New Public Management (NPM)- Cross-Sectional And Longitudinal Analysis

The paradigm of NPM, like its forerunners, has been trying to answer the same question for almost twenty years: how to implement policies, strategies, programs and projects, using the market-type mechanisms, so that the institutions of the state could achieve the desired results. The praises and criticism that have accompanied this paradigm along its evolution are fully justified. Indeed, the NPM has strengths and weaknesses as well, and one purpose of this paper is to identify them and to find answers to the following questions. Which components of the mechanism named NPM generate negative results? Why? What can be done? It is not easy to answer these questions, taking into consideration the multitude of factors influencing the public management, and especially the tremendous impacts of the accelerated process of globalization. The global problems of nowadays make any unilateral action of a government unconceivable, and this brings us to the concept of global public management (GPM). Nevertheless, the way forward will be the subject of another paper. The paper is structured in two main sections, as follows: The first section provides a conceptual framework, examining the multifaceted structure of the NPM and its mechanisms (the “state-of-the-art” of the “art of the state”). The second section suggests a theoretical framework on “measuring” the aggregate attribute of the NPM – the QoG – illustrated by practical cases, in a twofold perspective: longitudinal (variation in time) and cross-sectional (variation among countries).New Public Management, Global Public Management, Governance, New Institutional Economics, Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Corruption Perceptions Index, e-Government Index, Global Competitiveness Index, Human Development Index, Index of Freedom in the World, Transition Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators

Empathic social enterprise: the role of empathy and shared intentionality

Research conducted with the UKs first professional symphony orchestra cooperative provides evidence and insight into how empathy and shared intentionality impacted upon their cooperative governance. Individual semi-structured interviews, conducted with 36 of the orchestral musicians, were analysed and four themes emerged from the data, which were interpreted as: ‘empathy’, ‘shared intentionality’, ‘provide and preserve’, and ‘cooperative governance’. Findings of the research indicate that performing arts groups such as symphony orchestras can be social enterprises. The paper examines the relationship between empathy and social enterprise. Empathy is presented as a multidimensional moral and psychological concept. New concepts of ‘external’ and ‘internal’ empathy are also proposed in relation to social enterprises and their beneficiaries. Empathy and social enterprise leadership is explored and implications for business leadership education are discussed. Finally, a new model for the definition of a social enterprise based upon the intersection of high-levels of innovation and entrepreneurship and empathy and shared intentionality is presented