Gender diversity and the transformation of research excellence

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The effects of digital transformation on innovation and productivity : Firm-level evidence of South African manufacturing micro and small enterprises

This paper studies the relationships among the use of digital communication technologies, innovation performance and productivity, using an extended version of the Crepon-Duguet-Mairesse (1998) model, for a sample of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in a middle-income country, South Africa. Based on the results of an original survey carried out in 2019, we investigate these links for a sample of 711 manufacturing MSEs located in Johannesburg. We estimate the relationships sequentially, firstly estimating the relationship between digitalization and innovation, and secondly the relationship between innovation and productivity. Our results show that selected digital communication technologies including the use of social media and of a business mobile phone for surfing the internet have a positive effect on innovation, and that innovation conditional on the use of these technologies has a positive effect on labor productivity. The findings suggest that public programs aimed at fostering inclusive digitalization must consider the types of digital technologies that are most accessible and beneficial to small firms, including those operating informally.Peer reviewe

Research excellence in Africa : policies, perceptions, and performance

Abstract: Our article discusses various features of research excellence (RE) in Africa, framed within the context of African science granting councils (SCGs) and pan-African RE initiatives. Our survey, collecting responses from 106 researchers and research coordinators across Africa, highlights the diversity of opinions and preferences with regards to Africa-relevant dimensions of RE and related performance indicators. The results of the survey confirm that RE is a highly multidimensional concept. Our analysis shows how some of those dimensions can be operationalised into quantifiable indicators that may suit evidence-based policy discourses on research quality in Africa, as well as research performance assessments by African SCGs. Our indicator case study, dealing with the top 1 per cent most highly cited research publications, identifies several niches of international-level RE in the African continent while highlighting the role of scientific cooperation as a driving force. To gain a deeper understanding of RE in Africa, it is important to take into account the practical challenges faced by researchers and research funding agencies to align and reconcile socioeconomic interests with international notions of excellence and associated research performance indicators. African RE should be customised and contextualised in order to be responsive to African needs and circumstances

Giving direction to innovation policy: A transformative innovation policy approach

WORKSHOP PLANNINGInnovation - introducing new technologies. processes and ways of working into new environment

The Paradoxes of Democracy and the Rule of Law

The promise of modernization after the Second World War was that economic growth, equality, the rule of law and democracy would proceed together. In many ways, this has happened. Yet many of the promises of social progress developed after WWII have been undermined by internal tensions within the democratic project, as well as by social and economic trends. While stating the challenges that these trends have posed for democratic institutions and actors, we also look at the responses (both proposals and practices) that have emerged in order to address those challenges. In doing this, we note that the very conception of democracy as liberal democracy (based on delegation and majority voting) is under stress as neoliberalism has attacked those very intermediary institutions (parties, unions, voluntary associations) that had been at the basis of the development of the welfare state and democratic capitalism. We start by noting the growth in inequality, which means that formal democracy is shaped by uneven power resources as concentration of wealth provides advantages in the capacity to influence public decision making with mutual convertibility of economic and political resources. The spiral of inequality and corporate political power is reflected in a growing legitimacy crisis in old and new democracies. Liberalism, which promised the separation between the state and the market, has evolved into neoliberalism, , based on the domination of the corporation, exacerbated by privatization and de-regulation. This has raised private profit criteria about considerations of the broader public good and in many cases encouraged corruption. The ensuing inefficiency and lack of transparency foster institutional mistrust, with perverse effects. Challenges are also related to the fact that democracy has been mainly defined in a national mode, with the demos identified as the nation. Economic rescaling produced by global capitalism has however a produced both de-territorialization and re-territorialization, which requires a (yet unachieved) rethinking of the basis for democracy but also of welfare and its foundation in both identities and institutions. In the North and (with different characteristics) in the South of the globe, movement of capital and of people pose challenges of national pluralism and its constitutional recognition, questioning key concepts such as the definition of political community and popular sovereignty and the . relationship between human rights and citizenship. Citizenship is more appropriately considered as related not to fixed institutions but rather as ‘acts of citizenships’ requiring subjectivity and agency and more inclusive conceptions. The main actors in democratic development have been affected by these challenges. Political parties are an important element in democracy but they have become an interest in their own right. A crisis of representation has emerged from growing social detachment of political parties from social cleavages as well as of elected representatives from the citizens. This had most dramatic effects on the Left, when left-wing parties have supported neoliberal reforms. Relying on expertise for the development of progressive policies is not a solution given the non-accountable power of science as well as the increasing challenges of privatization of knowledge-making, opacity of knowledge production and persistence of fundamental class imbalances in access to knowledge. Participatory channels of access to institutions have been opened to ‘ordinary citizens’ but, within neoliberalism, they are often based on individualist conceptions and do not address fundamental issues of inequalities. While citizens often call for direct participation, existing experiments rarely empower the citizens. While the judiciary has been seen as a surrogate for democratic participation for marginalized minority groups, its capacity for rights enforcement is limited by the expansion (in particular at international level) of a lex mercatoria as well as the use of courts in order to protect economic freedom from democratic dynamics. The rule of law has also been subverted by unequal access to the law and by the influence of money while the judiciary also has its own particular interests and corporate lawyers assume a brokerage function in globalized markets. On the other hand, in the control of political dissent, the state, rather than being weakened from globalization, increases its reach and power. The ‘war on terror’ has been used to challenge the rule of law by states of emergency as well as authoritarian drifts with attempts at imposing a permanent ‘state of exception’. On the other hand, progressive social movements have addressed growing inequalities and democratic crises by developing alternative visions of democracy, stressing participation over delegation and deliberation over majoritarian decision-making. Participatory and deliberative conceptions have been prefigured as well as elaborated in recent waves of protests. The consolidation of oppositional actors, however, faces challenges in the fragmentation of the potential social bases, the need to build a new collective identity as well as to establish channels of access to power. This has resulted from, but also triggered, the reduction in citizens’ entitlements and the weakening of the social contract upon which social progress depends

Farmer innovation system and government intervention: an empirical study of straw utilisation technology development and diffusion in China

In the context of rural sustainability in the developing world, a dilemma facing government intervention is to recognise and properly use local (or indigenous, practical) knowledge. This paper sheds new light on government intervention by introducing a farmer innovation system (FIS), which is initiated by farmer innovator(s) with participation or support from government agencies and other stakeholders for technology improvement and diffusion. In relation to different understandings, attitudes and approaches to farmer innovation, we argue that different government intervention may lead to different project designs and results. The complexity of government intervention in farmer innovation can be seen from an empirical study of the development and diffusion of straw utilisation technology (SUT) in rural China. By analysing and comparing two cases - one successful and one failed - we reveal two types of government intervention, and features and conditions of project success. The major limitation is identified as leaving out other actors such as local business partners and non-government agencies. We suggest a balanced account between farmer innovator(s), government intervention and innovation platform in future research

Does quality matter for innovations in low income markets? The case of the Kenyan mobile phone sector

Growing interest in lower income groups as consumers in emerging and developing markets has led to discussion on the issue of product quality, but so far work has generally focussed on simple goods rather than technology and innovations. However with innovations, one would expect that product quality would be more crucial in order to push trust of complex products amongst inexperienced users. Thus, this paper seeks to build understanding around issues around quality of innovations; focussing on what quality declines mean for vulnerable low income groups, and the types of policy approach that can be undertaken to improve quality.Research was undertaken in the mobile phone sector in Kenya where firms have increasingly focussed on diffusion amongst low income consumers. Here it was found that quality has become an increasing contested and problematic terrain. In the short term, decline in quality is often acceptable for inexperienced low income users, but in the longer term this becomes detrimental to innovations both in terms of trust and expense amongst consumers, as well as effecting the livelihoods of informal entrepreneurs who are often part of delivery of innovations to low income groups.Policy around quality was found to be present, but was limited by two key tenets. First, where implementation actors were unclear, public standards on quality tended to collapse into private standards followed only by diligent firms. Second, standards were often applied at a firm level which missed out on issues emerging amongst downstream diffusion actors often involved in adaptations which linked to quality variability.Undertaken and focussed correctly, policy on product quality drives diffusion of innovation and supports a level playing field, which in the long term supports more inclusive innovations. A lack of focussed policy can lead to the risk of rejection of innovation and 'big bang' policy interventions that are detrimental to the trust in innovations amongst low income groups. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd