R&D consortia and technology transfer: Initial lessons from MCC

This paper discusses important aspects of technology transfer between MCC (the first R&D consortium to register under the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984) and company-based personnel. An evaluation of established technology-transfer models leads to a discussion of a parallel-processing approach and three important dimensions of the transfer process: mode, initiative, and continuity. Differences between R&D consortia and their member companies are categorized in terms of values and imperatives, networking, time pressure, the universalistic/particularistic nature of research activities, and different evaluation criteria. Generalized managerial implications are presented for R&D consortia.     

Orientations to the future: A comparison of adolescents in Australia and Singapore

Using an event-listing approach, this study examined the personal and societal future orientations of 15-year-old males and females in Singapore and Sydney. Three aspects were examined: content, affect, and time span. Overall, the study found that adolescents perceived their personal and societal features in separate noninterlocking planes, seeing more pleasant, proximal, personal futures, and more unpleasant, distal, societal futures, especially in relation to nuclear war and political problems. Demographic and personal construct variables influenced this general pattern of future orientation.Ph.D., social psychology, La Trobe University. Research interests: adolescence, education and social policy.Ph.D., education, Sydney University. Research interests: adolescence, psychometrics, and statistics.     

The Evolution of China’s Security Challenges and Grand Strategy

This article examines changes in China’s security perceptions since 1949 and sketches the evolution of China’s grand strategy. In tracing the evolution of China’s security perceptions and grand strategy since 1949, it identifies elements of change as well as continuity. The changes reflect dramatic developments in the PRC’s capabilities and the international circumstances it faces, both of which have shaped the grand strategic choices of China’s leaders. During most of the Cold War decades, a relatively weak China’s vulnerability to serious military threats from much more powerful adversaries led the CCP to adopt grand strategies focused on coping with a clearly defined external security challenge. After the Cold War and especially in the 21st century, an increasingly complex array of internal and external security concerns confronts China’s leaders with new challenges. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of the recently established National Security Commission and offers brief observations about its potential significance for the CCP’s leadership in their fight against the new domestic and international security challenges it faces. The novelty of China’s security challenges at home and abroad in the 21st century is a consequence of the end of the Cold War international order and perhaps more importantly, a consequence of China’s successful modernization since 1979.