University Technology Transfer and Manufacturing Innovation: The Case of Italy

This article analyzes the influence of universities on Italian firms' probability to innovate. Using firm‐level data, we focus on institutionalized technology transfer (TT) activities in universities, namely spin‐offs, patents, and research contracts. Results show that TT activities play a significant role in the probability to innovate by Italian manufacturing firms located in the same province as the university. Nevertheless, the effect is not uniform: the contribution of university TT activities to the probability of firms' innovating is concentrated in certain territorial areas (North‐East and Center) and sectors (science based and scale intensive) and among firms that are large.     

Universities and the market for intellectual property in the life sciences

The realms of science and technology in the life sciences are converging through the commercialization of university research. Major changes in the mandate of research universities were facilitated by both federal legislation that has promoted technology transfer, and the increased reliance of business firms on university research and development (R&D). This article discusses the primary factors that are blurring the division of labor between industry and academia in the life sciences, and analyzes the consequences for universities of treating knowledge as intellectual property. Universities’ efforts to enhance the commercial value of life sciences research is causing increased politicization of government research funding, a growing winner-take-all contest between the “have” and “have-not” universities, and subtle but potentially profound changes in the culture of academic research.     

An exploration of the application of universities as artificial institutional entrepreneurs: The case of China

Universities worldwide have increasingly been encouraged to incubate and create business enterprises in order to fulfil national and regional economic development objectives via rapid research commercialization, technology transfer, and open innovation. The definitions of university-level entrepreneurship appear to be controversial in the extant literature, with special reference to government–university–industry partnerships under the overarching theoretical framework of institutional entrepreneurship. No longer do universities act only as agents for knowledge transmission and diffusion but also as business enterprises to help change formal institutional arrangements to meet evolving economic and social demands and to graft the entrepreneurial paradigm into academic culture and structures. As a transitional economy, have China's universities also acted as institutional entrepreneurs for change? In this paper, we address this research question by exploring the nature of government–university–industry links and the application of “institutional entrepreneurship” to Chinese universities. We use a case analysis of the Industry Technology Research Institute of Geo-Resources and Environment Co. Ltd. established by the China University of Geosciences to support our argument that Chinese universities are artificial institutional entrepreneurs. As a result of our analysis, we identified several success factors and constraints on universities as institutional entrepreneurs in the context of China.     

Cash at Your Fingertips: Biometric Technology for Transfers in Developing Countries*

In recent years, interest has soared in the development potential of well‐designed cash transfer programs. One particular application is the use of transfers by resource‐rich countries (as recently initiated by Iran) to distribute rents across their populations. An emerging body of research suggests that the development impact of such programs tends to be positive and that, especially when received by poor individuals or households, they can unlock constraints on economic activities, allowing a further increase in income. This paper considers the use of biometric technology to underpin transfer programs and how new technology is opening up possibilities for effective transfer programs that, up to now, have only been a theoretical option in the institutional conditions that prevail in many developing countries. Once implemented, biometric identification systems can be used to support a wide range of other development initiatives including banking, voting, health care, and general identification systems. The paper reviews some of the programs using these technologies and how it is enabling poor countries to leapfrog rich ones in the area of identity, much as the cellphone revolution did in the area of communications.     

From bureaucratic centralism to self‐regulation: The reform of higher education in Spain

Theories of self‐regulation in higher education claim that autonomous institutions are better able to fulfil their educational and scientific goals. The reforms initiated in Spain in thel970s and which finally crystallised in the Ley de Reforma Universitaria (University Reform Act) in 1983 have taken this path, granting autonomy to the universities and acknowledging that the policy network has been enlarged through the incorporation of new actors (students, junior lecturers, regional political elites), and that this is no longer the exclusive domain of the university professors. However, this article argues that the reforms have not had the expected results insofar as quality is concerned: deregulation has been introduced without establishing the conditions for the institutions to become fully responsible for their decisions, so encouraging the persistence of self‐interested and often anti‐scientific attitudes among many academics.     

INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN MICROELECTRONICS

Federal, state and local governments have encouraged university-industry cooperation in recent years through a number of different policies and programs. Industry has increasingly been looking to universities for new ideas, closer collaboration and more timely access to research results. Various levels of government have become increasingly involved in joint funding with industry in new university-industry research centers and institutes. State and local governments spend considerable effort to attract high-technology industry, using university-industry collaborative programs as one incentive. Yet despite the theoretical and policy importance of this topic, it has received little systematic research attention.
This contribution reports the results of a National Science Foundation-funded study investigating technology transfer in microelectronics between Arizona State University located in the Phoenix metropolitan area and surrounding microelectronics firms. The results describe state and local initiatives influencing such technology transfer, how the initial technology transfer contact comes about, how research goals, topics and activities are decided upon, and how resources and funding support is secured. In addition satisfaction from, benefits and costs of, as well as attitudes bout technology transfer are reported.     

University-industry research links in Japan

Some analysts have argued that research links between universities and industry in Japan must be weak because Japanese universities do not produce high quality science and because regulations restrict links. This article begins by examining the structure and funding of universities and indicators of the performance of Japanese science. The results do not lend support to the view that the universities do not produce research useful to industry. In addition, the system is evolving in directions more favorable for university research excellence. Examining the regulations governing university-industry interaction, and their observance, reveals no insuperable barriers. Thus, it is not surprising that bibliometric indicators suggest Japanese companies collaborate with Japanese academics more than with foreign institutions. R & D managers describe long-lasting relationships with academics, perhaps originating in college days, which continue with mutual benefits and obligations on both sides and provide valuable access to the wider network of the scientific community-access that money alone cannot buy. The stories of individual research collaborations establish the substantive nature of the underlying work, the importance of experimentation performed on university instrumentation, and the crucial role of personnel exchange.     

A conceptual model development of the impact of higher education service quality in guaranteeing edu‐tourists' satisfaction and behavioral intentions

This conceptual study proposed that university service quality is of significant influence in guaranteeing education tourist's (edu‐tourist) satisfaction, recommendation intention, and repurchase intention. The study considers the universities as tourism markets that attract edu‐tourists and put forward that the level of service quality provided by institutions can influence on the satisfaction of edu‐tourist and their post‐behavioral intention in an educational tourism context. This paper analyzed several previous studies and discussed service quality factors affecting edu‐tourist's satisfaction and behavioral intentions using various databases such as social sciences and psychology. The theoretical framework of the means‐end approach was used to evaluate service quality dimensions. The findings revealed the most significant factors affecting edu‐tourist's perception of service quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Overall, the campus facilities perceived to be the most prominent factor in satisfying edu‐tourists. Recommendations for future research relating the crucial determinants of service quality in influencing consumers' behavior are discussed.     

Life at a Teaching University

Many new political science faculty at teaching universities are recent PhD recipients, and are coming to these institutions from research-oriented universities. There are considerable differences between the training for graduate students received at research universities and the expectations for faculty at teaching universities. This essay reflects on the author’s first year at a teaching university and offers six themes that may assist other new faculty in the transition from life as a graduate student at a research institution to life as an assistant professor at a teaching university.     

Extending the EITC to noncustodial parents: Potential impacts and design considerations

This paper examines the noncustodial parent earned income tax credit (NCP EITC), a new type of credit recently enacted in New York and Washington, D.C., and proposed by Senator Bayh and then‐Senator Obama in 2007. The NCP EITC offers an earned income tax credit to low‐income noncustodial parents who work and pay their full child support. This paper provides background information about the policy and presents national estimates of eligibility and benefits for an NCP EITC under three alternative policy scenarios. It also discusses several key design and implementation issues. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Top Management Turnover: The Role of Governing Board Structures

The convergence of performance accountability policies, a graying bureaucracy, and shorter executive tenures highlights the timeliness of investigating executive turnover. Prior public administration research has examined pull and push factors linked to these departures, but it has yet to fully explore the influence of governing board structures and political pressures that stem from such structures. Using data on 123 public four‐year research universities in the United States from 1993 to 2012, this article finds that governing board structures play a pivotal role in predicting the departure decisions of university presidents. While the size of the board increases the risk of departure, boards overseeing multiple institutions and boards with a faculty or student representative lower the risk of departure. Additional evidence suggests that both the share of gubernatorial and legislative appointees on the board and the party division of the legislature have a direct influence on departure.     

Rituals of Reform,Policy Transfer,and the National University Corporation Reforms of Japan

In 2004, Japan restructured the state‐directed public university system to create the national university corporations (NUCs). Proponents of the reforms made explicit mention of agentification in the United Kingdom, changes to university management structures elsewhere, and reforms in the wider Japanese public sector. As such, the NUC reforms are an example of policy transfer. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, however, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has not surrendered the large degree of control it had manifested over the university system. Rather the means of control have changed from largely direct ones to largely indirect ones. Policy transfer provided a means by which MEXT could legitimate its policy stance by referring to developments elsewhere, show it was responding to pressure for reform by adopting its rhetoric and superficial forms, but use this to capture the policy agenda to its own ends.     

Ideology and the University

Ideology underpins recent transformations of British universities; it forms an unquestioned backdrop to policy‐making. The ideology at issue is a market‐based neo‐liberalism—accompanied by a doctrinaire private‐sector managerialism. Universities employing this ideology envision it as common sense. The ideology is thus not proselytised, but rather structures the vernacular of university speech. In reality it is a highly politicised ideology masquerading as a managerial reality. Its effect on universities has been profoundly destructive. The dignified public good of higher education has now become a huckstering marketised mechanism. What is so perplexing is the quiescence of universities. The ideology is so hegemonic that it appears exempt from criticism. University administrators are now quite unapologetic ideological functionaries and we need to relearn how to criticise those who manage us. Ultimately no ideology lasts, this present one will be supplanted, the question is what level of damage to civil and intellectual life will it inflict?     

论大学内部权力结构的形成机制

大学内部权力结构的研究渐渐引人关注，本文通过封中外大学权力理论谱系的分析，重新建耩了基于社会契约论和权力让渡理论的大学内部权力结构。大学内部的行政权力主要来源于学术权力、市场权力和政府权力（政党权力）的让渡，这些权力通过政治上的博弈最终形成一股合力，支配大学组织行政职权体系的构成和运行；而大学行政权力属于衍生权力，它是对这股政治合力的执行，其具体表现为行政职权。     

How Do Scientists Respond to Performance-Based Incentives? Evidence From South Korea

ABSTRACT

Although a growing number of universities worldwide have adopted performance-based incentive systems to improve their ranking and reputation, empirical evidence of the effectiveness of such incentives is limited. By analyzing data on over 1,000 scientists in a Korean university over a nine-year period, the present study suggests that performance-based incentive systems may work effectively in academia. As the university increased its financial rewards for publication quantity and quality, both the number of publications and the average impact factor of the target journal improved. However, raising the minimum publication requirements for promotion increased publication quantity but reduced publication quality. To avoid unintended responses, such as replacing publication quantity for quality, any performance-related pay structure must therefore be carefully designed to reflect multiple organizational goals.     

Determinants and Evaluation of Local Energy‐Efficiency Initiatives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This article examines variation in local‐level energy‐efficiency grants and corresponding initiatives from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) in the United States. The analysis is based upon a hurdle model of counts of energy‐efficiency grants received by 348 local governments that received these grants from 2009 to 2013, as well as 348 matched local governments that did not receive such funds. City‐level characteristics including amount of federal financial support, per capita income, signaling of preferences for sustainability policies, manufacturing, and political influences are shown to be empirically important determinants of variation in local energy‐efficiency initiatives. The evidence suggests that all else held equal, the $21.8 billion in ARRA funds expended with the intent of increasing local energy‐efficiency programs and policies successfully led to this end.     

The Effects of Green Cards on the Wages and Innovations of New PhDs

Visa policies in the United States restrict job opportunities and job mobility for U.S.‐trained PhDs who hold a temporary visa, a group that accounts for 40 percent of newly graduated PhDs in science and engineering. The Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 (CSPA) allowed Chinese students to be eligible for permanent residence in the United States. Many CSPA beneficiaries, Chinese students who became permanent residents, did not pursue postdoctoral training and instead entered the public or private sector directly. This supply shift increased the relative wage of native postdocs to non‐postdocs. Four to eight years after graduation, CSPA beneficiaries earned 9 percent more than the comparison group, were less likely to work in academia, published fewer research articles, and produced more patents.     

Sustainability Reporting by Australian Universities

There is continuing debate about the consequences of climate change and an increasing emphasis placed on the disclosure of social and environmental indicators by organisations. Universities have been traditionally known as places where intellectual inquiry and advances in knowledge are paramount. Therefore, there is an expectation that universities would place much emphasis on sustainability reporting to fulfil the needs of a range of stakeholders. The objective of this study is to investigate the nature and extent of sustainability disclosures reported by Australian universities in stand‐alone sustainability reports. The findings suggest significant differences in the nature and extent of sustainability disclosures. This study has implications for policy‐makers and university administrators and is a call to senior university leaders to take up the challenge and contribute to the global conversation with regard to sustainability reporting.     

Advocacy Coalitions in Ontario Land Use Policy Development

In 2005, the Ontario government passed the Places to Grow Act and the Greenbelt Act, both major changes in land use policy designed to preserve greenspaces and combat urban sprawl in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, Canada's largest conurbation. This article examines the actors, actor beliefs, and inter‐actor alliances in the southern Ontario land use policy subsystem from the perspective of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). Specifically, this paper undertakes an empirical examination of the ACF's Belief Homophily Hypothesis, which holds that inter‐actor alliances form on the basis of shared policy‐relevant beliefs, creating advocacy coalitions. The analysis finds strong evidence of three advocacy coalitions in the policy subsystem—an agricultural coalition, an environmentalist coalition, and a developers' coalition—as predicted by the hypothesis. However, it also finds equally strong evidence of a cross‐coalition coordination network of peak organizations, something not predicted by the Belief Homophily Hypothesis, and in need of explanation within the ACF.     

Does school accountability lead to improved student performance?

The leading school reform policy in the United States revolves around strong accountability of schools with consequences for performance. The federal government's involvement through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reinforces the prior movement of many states toward policies based on measured student achievement. Analysis of state achievement growth as measured by the National Assessment of Educational progress shows that accountability systems introduced during the 1990s had a clear positive impact on student achievement. This single policy instrument did not, however, also lead to any narrowing in the Black‐White achievement gap (though it did narrow the Hispanic‐White achievement gap). Moreover, the Black‐White gap appears to have been adversely impacted over the decade by increasing minority concentrations in the schools. An additional issue surrounding stronger accountability has been a concern about unintended outcomes related to such things as higher exclusion rates from testing, increased dropout rates, and the like. Our analysis of special education placement rates, a frequently identified area of concern, does not show any responsiveness to the introduction of accountability systems.© 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management