Trends and transitions in the institutional environment for public and private science

The last quarter-century bore witness to a sea change in academic involvement with commerce. Widespread university-based efforts to identify, manage, and market intellectual property (IP) have accompanied broad shifts in the relationship between academic and proprietary approaches to the dissemination and use of science and engineering research. Such transformations are indicators of institutional changes at work in the environment faced by universities. This paper draws upon a fifteen-year panel (1981–1995) of university-level data for 87 research-intensive US campuses in order to document trends and transitions in relationships among multiple indicators of academic and commercial engagement. The institutional environment for public and private science is volatile, shifting in fits and starts from a situation conducive to organizational learning through high volume patenting to a more challenging arrangement that links indiscriminate pursuit of IP with declines in both the volume and impact of academic science. The pattern and timing of these transitions may support an enduring system of stratification that offers increasing returns to first-movers while limiting the opportunities available to universities that are later entrants to the commercial realm. Unpacking the systematic effects of university research commercialization requires focused attention on the sources and trajectories of profound institutional change.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42839/1/10734_2004_Article_2916.pd

An action research on open knowledge and technology transfer

R&D has always been considered a strategic asset of companies. Traditionally, companies that have their own R&D function are better prepared to compete in the globalized economy because they are able to produce the knowledge and technology required to advance products and services. SMEs also need to become highly innovative and competitive in order to be successful. Nevertheless, their ability to have an internal R&D function that effectively meets their innovation needs is usually very weak. Open innovation provides access to a vast amount of new ideas and technologies at lower costs than closed innovation. This paper presents an action research study being carried out at University of Minho to develop a business model and technology platform for an innovation brokering service connecting ideas and technologies being developed at Universities with the specific innovation needs of SMEs. The expected contributions of the study include the empirical investigation of the effectiveness and risks of crowdsourcing innovation when applied in the socioeconomic context of a European developing country where SMEs represent 99,6% of the businesses.- (undefined

The elusiveness of white-collar and corporate crime in a globalized economy

We live in a time that is dominated by business firms operating across the globe. While globalization has created opportunities for many, it has also: increased opportunities for white?collar and corporate crime, led to the transference of social, environmental, and economic harms to jurisdictions vulnerable to this, and created serious problems for the regulation and enforcement of business behavior. This chapter discusses and illustrates these issues using three examples: the (mis)use of corporate vehicles for financial gain, transnational corporate bribery, and environmental crime in the waste industry. The chapter concludes with some of the key challenges for the future study of white?collar and corporate crime

Laços sociais e formação de arranjos organizacionais cooperativos: proposição de um modelo de análise

Os benefícios estratégicos e econômicos entram como primeira consideração na formação e gerenciamento de arranjos cooperativos (LANE; BEAMISH, 1990); no entanto pesquisas têm mostrado que fatores socioculturais exercem papel significativo no desempenho desses arranjos organizacionais (EBERS, 1997; GULATI, 1998; RING; VAN DE VEN, 1994); e que os fatores econômicos e tecnológicos, por sua vez, estão imersos em relações sociais, sendo moldados por elas (GRANOVETTER, 1985; POLANYI, 1944; UZZI, 1997). Considerando as diferentes fases do processo de formação de arranjos organizacionais cooperativos (GULATI, 1998), pode-se afirmar que os laços sociais exercem influências distintas em cada uma das fases, sendo esta variação dependente do tipo de arranjo. Este artigo constitui ensaio teórico com a proposição de um modelo de análise sobre a relação entre laços sociais e a formação de arranjos organizacionais cooperativos. A primeira parte apresenta o argumento central e as pressuposições básicas do estudo. A segunda parte compõe-se de uma revisão do conceito de arranjos organizacionais cooperativos e a influência dos aspectos sociais. A terceira parte constitui uma revisão do conceito de laços sociais. A última parte apresenta o modelo e recomendações para realização de testes empíricos