The role of incentives in the deployment of technologies from cooperative R&D

Over 1,400 cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) were in place across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory system in May 1995—indicating that a broad sampling of industry endorses the objectives of the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989. The law enables DOE's contractor-operated facilities, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), to collaborate with companies, industrial consortia, universities, and even state and local governments. Positive impacts cited by industrial CRADA participants thus far include the improvement of existing products and manufacturing processes, the reduction of investment risks associated with cutting-edge research, and an increased awareness of important technical trends. However, such industrial benefits are often hard to measure; that represents a potential problem for federally funded R&D institutions, where metrics associated with tangible economic impacts are assuming greater prominence. Future political support for public/private partnerships may depend on steep growth in quantitative measures of economic value, based on the sale of patented products and services. Boosting such sales in a significant way, could, in turn, depend on the consistent application of incentive-based approaches that motivate individuals and organizations to aggressively pursue technology-based commercialization goals. In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Lockheed Martin Energy Systems manages ORNL and other DOE research and production facilities, broadly defined incentives have played a key role in facilitating the sale of licensed products and services. Cumulative sales totaled $102,000,000 in April 1995, with several innovations just beginning to enter the marketplace after years of engineering and product development. The same factors that impact technology deployment in these “stand-alone” licenses will play a key role in the deployment of inventions arising from CRADAs.     

Patterns of influence and response in abusing and nonabusing families

Behaviors of influence and response during a conflict negotiation task were examined in eight physically child abusing, substance abusing families in which the father was the primary abuser and eight demographically matched nonabusing families. Abusing fathers displayed more coercive patterns of influencing behavior and more negative patterns of response to other family members, including both mothers and children. Fewer differences were observed between mothers in the abusing and nonabusing families or in the children's behavior; however, mothers in the abusing families criticized their husbands more and abused children exhibited less agreement and more criticism toward their fathers. In support of Patterson's theory, abusing families exhibited relatively more reciprocated sequences of criticism and relatively fewer reciprocated sequences of agreement as compared to nonabusing families. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding interaction in child abusing families.     

The Effect of HAVA on Late-to-Innovate States: External Influence on Election Reform in Arizona and Illinois

As election reform diffused across the American states, therewas considerable variation in the states' willingness to innovate,their timing in doing so, and the influence of the federal HelpAmerica Vote Act (HAVA). Through the lens of the policy-diffusionliterature, this article examines the reform processes in Arizonaand Illinois, two representatives of the handful of states thatwere late in innovating, in order to test for effects of HAVAon state decision making. These "late-to-innovate" states wereunique compared with the preponderance of other states thatinnovated earlier. Typical internal variables explained whyArizona and Illinois fell into gridlock over election reforminitially, but we must turn to other (external) explanationsto understand the ultimate decisions to innovate. Also, althoughthey are similar in being late to innovate, these two statesdisplay interesting differences as well.     

Organizational Readiness for Change in Correctional and Community Substance Abuse Programs

Significant needs exist for increased and better substance abuse treatment services in our nation's prisons. The TCU Organizational Readiness for Change (ORC) survey has been widely used in community-based treatment programs and evidence is accumulating for relationships between readiness for change and implementation of new clinical practices. Results of organizational surveys of correctional counselors from 12 programs in two states are compared with samples of community-based counselors. Correctional counselors perceived strong needs for new evidence-based practices but, compared to community counselors, reported fewer resources and less favorable organizational climates. These results have important implications for successfully implementing new practices.     

The effects of the IMF on expropriation of foreign firms

This paper seeks to explain the determinants of foreign expropriation in the developing world. We argue that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) helps to reduce the likelihood of nationalization because of the direct leverage the Fund holds over borrowers, especially as expropriation is a blatant violation of international property rights. Using expropriation data from 1961 to 2006, and several different measures for the Fund, we find that countries under IMF agreements are less likely to nationalize foreign firms. We also show that the Fund’s influence is greatest when the IMF loan represents a larger share of the borrower country’s gross domestic product (GDP) as well as in countries with weaker political institutions. The takeaway is that IMF continues to influence policy choices in the developing world.     

New Labour in Power: Five Problems of Contemporary History

The history of New Labour is highly politicised, deployed either for its policy lessons (good or bad) or as a weapon in Labour's factional struggles. But, just as historians in the 1990s reassessed the premierships of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, so the distance of time and the opening of archives offers an opportunity to reappraise New Labour as history. Such work raises five methodological challenges: the lack of sufficient distance from the subject to tell whether policy innovations will remain popular and permanent; the long shadow the Iraq war casts over this whole period; the deluge of data and sources available; the continuing and controversial part that key actors, such as Tony Blair, are still playing; and the lack of expertise any one author will inevitably face in some policy areas. This article addresses each of those difficulties in turn.     

Conceptualising and combating transnational environmental crime

To date, transnational environmental crime has been poorly attended to by the transnational organised crime and transnational policing discourse. Academics have focused on individual elements of environmental crime, neglecting a broader theoretical discussion, while national and international institutions have prioritised other forms of organised crime, giving little thought to the nuanced nature of transnational environmental crime and how this should be reflected in policing and countermeasures. This paper attempts to rectify this by conceptualising transnational environmental crime and suggesting ways forward for countermeasure development. The paper will begin by looking at the problem of environmental crime, its value, scope and effects, concluding that the damaging nature of transnational environmental crime demands a greater focus on its policing. The nature of transnational environmental crime will then be discussed by reference to traditional forms of organised crime. It will be argued that, while transnational environmental crime is a form of organised crime, and has some features in common with the traditional organised crimes, such as drug smuggling and people trafficking, it is the substantial differences that should guide the approach to developing countermeasures. The development of effective countermeasures, it is concluded, requires a significant change in policy at every level.