Indicators of university-industry knowledge transfer performance and their implications for universities: evidence from the UK’s HE-BCI survey

Focusing on the measurement of universities’ 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 Kingdom’s Higher Education –Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey. We show that the indicators used to measure and reward universities’ 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

A Comparative Analysis of Organic and Conventional Farming trough the Italian FADN

This paper presents some results from a wider research on economic and environmental sustainability of organic farming. It aims to compare organic and conventional farming in order to identify some of the main differences between those groups of farms that participated in the official Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN)-2003. The study is organized in two sections. The first part, after a brief literature review of the most recent statistical methodologies applied to identify the two similar groups of farms, presents some key economic variables (production, costs and revenues) and the most widely-used structural, economic and balance sheet indexes. The second part describes findings from a case study on the Italian fruit-growing sector. A non-parametric input-oriented frontier analysis (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA)was used to evaluate which technique makes better use of their disposable productive inputs. Findings show that organic farmers can (partially) overcome the productivity gap (with respect to conventional ones) by more efficient use of their inputs (with respect to their own frontier)

Organic and Conventional Farming: a Comparison Analysis through the Italian FADN

This paper shows some results arisen from a wider research on economic and environmental sustainability of organic farming. It focuses on organic and conventional farming comparison through an investigation of Italian FADN data. In order to identify some of the main differences between organic and conventional farms a “distance analysis” has been carried out. The study aims to highlight some of the main characteristics of those two groups of farms to better address differences (if any) in production technology, costs and revenues. Furthermore it shows the findings of a non-parametric efficiency analysis on the Italian olive-growing farms. The purpose is to estimate difference in efficiency and productivity between organic and conventional olive producers. Results reveal that looking at the average values on Invested Areas, conventional farms’ Gross Production is significantly higher than the organic ones, as the Net Margin, as the Net Product and Costs. The average values on Total Labour Force instead, shown that, even if conventional farms still have higher values than organic ones, the “distance” become shorter. That means that the two groups are quite similar and that, even if organic farms still produce a lower “economic value”, they better compensate productive factors, especially in terms of Labour Force. Regards to efficiency analysis, we found that organic olive-growing farms are more able in using their disposable resources (with reference to their own frontier), and the higher efficiency permits them to compensate the lower productivity with respect to the conventional farms

Networked by design: can policy constraints support the development of capabilities for collaborative innovation?

While there has been some recent interest in the behavioural effects of policies in support of innovation networks, this research field is still relatively new. In particular, an important but under-researched question for policy design is “what kind of networks” should be supported, if the objective of the policy is not just to fund successful innovation projects, but also to stimulate behavioural changes in the participants, such as increasing their ability to engage in collaborative innovation. By studying the case of the innovation policy programmes implemented by the regional government of Tuscany, in Italy, between 2002 and 2008, we assess whether the imposition of constraints on the design of innovation networks has enhanced the participants’ collaborative innovation capabilities, and we draw some general implications for policy

Organic and Conventional Farming: a Comparison Analysis through the Italian FADN

This paper shows some results arisen from a wider research on economic and environmental sustainability of organic farming. It focuses on organic and conventional farming comparison through an investigation of Italian FADN data. In order to identify some of the main differences between organic and conventional farms a “distance analysis” has been carried out. The study aims to highlight some of the main characteristics of those two groups of farms to better address differences (if any) in production technology, costs and revenues. Furthermore it shows the findings of a non-parametric efficiency analysis on the Italian olive-growing farms. The purpose is to estimate difference in efficiency and productivity between organic and conventional olive producers. Results reveal that looking at the average values on Invested Areas, conventional farms’ Gross Production is significantly higher than the organic ones, as the Net Margin, as the Net Product and Costs. The average values on Total Labour Force instead, shown that, even if conventional farms still have higher values than organic ones, the “distance” become shorter. That means that the two groups are quite similar and that, even if organic farms still produce a lower “economic value”, they better compensate productive factors, especially in terms of Labour Force. Regards to efficiency analysis, we found that organic olive-growing farms are more able in using their disposable resources (with reference to their own frontier), and the higher efficiency permits them to compensate the lower productivity with respect to the conventional farms.FADN Sampling Organic Farming Distance Efficiency Analysis