The leadership role of the municipal chief administrative officer

Abstract: A great deal has been written about leadership, but not much of it focuses on the unique role of the municipal chief administrative officer (CAO). This article argues that the complexity of the position of municipal CAO comes about because the incumbent must lead in three different directions simultaneously: down (dealing with subordinates), out (dealing with residents' groups, media, and other governments), and up (dealing with the mayor and council). Leading in each of those directions requires a different skill set such that the effective CAO must be able to wear a variety of hats and must be able to switch those hats very quickly. The suggestion is made that we need to re-consider the ethics and values associated with the position to update our thinking about the expectations of the position.     

Issues in Implementing a Comprehensive Intervention for Public School Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Many students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are educated separately from their typically developing peers, while others are placed in inclusive classes but without supports that would help them benefit from less restrictive placements. The needs of students with ASD who are in inclusive settings are often not planned for or met appropriately, resulting in continuing problems and movement to increasingly restrictive environments or private placements. There is a critical need for school models to fill the gap in appropriate services for this population of children with ASD. These models should include those that are inclusive and academically challenging, that can be implemented by many school districts, and that are responsive to the unique combination of strengths and deficits in these students. In the current article, the authors describe the development and core components of the model, and implementation of the ASD Nest program in public schools in New York City.     

Universities and the success of entrepreneurial ventures: evidence from the small business innovation research program

There has been little direct, systematic empirical analysis of the role that universities play in enhancing the success of entrepreneurial ventures. We attempt to fill this gap by analyzing data from the US SBIR program, a ??set-aside?? program that requires key federal agencies (e.g., Department of Defense) to allocate 2.5% of their research budget to small firms that attempt to commercialize new technologies. Based on estimation of Tobit and negative binomial regressions of the determinants of commercial success, we find that start-ups with closer ties to universities achieve higher levels of performance.     

The internationalization of science and its influence on academic entrepreneurship

We examine whether scientists employed in foreign countries and foreign-educated native researchers are more “entrepreneurial” than their “domestic” counterparts. We conjecture that foreign-born and foreign-educated scientists possess broader scientific skills and social capital, which increases their likelihood that they will start their own companies. To test this hypothesis we analyze comprehensive data from researchers at the Max Planck Society in Germany. Our findings provide strong support for the conjecture that academic entrepreneurship can be stimulated by facilitating the mobility of scientists across countries.     

Local government: Plus ça change,plus c'est la même chose

Canadian Municipal Government. By Kenneth Grant Crawford. Toronto: University of Toronto Press     

Conversations with Russian mafiosi

Open interviews and unplanned conversations with criminals are an important part of ethnographic research in criminology. This paper presents an analysis of conversations with members of Russian criminal groups. An attempt is made to explore the value of these informal interviews, the danger of informal contacts with criminals, and the reliability of the information received.