Democracy and the quality of economic institutions: theory and evidence

Public Choice - We present a simple model, illustrating how democracy may improve the quality of the economic institutions. The model further suggests that institutional quality varies more across...     

Parallel business models and the innovativeness of research-based spin-off ventures

Research-Based Spin-Offs (RBSOs) are seen as a potential mechanism for technology transfer by commercializing academic research and thereby stimulate industrial innovation. RBSOs are heterogeneous, however, and in this paper we investigate how the use of different business models by RBSOs is related to their innovativeness. We use a sample of 82 young RBSOs from Norway to explore typologies of RBSOs developed in earlier studies. Our findings show that some types of business models are associated with higher innovativeness than others. The typology approach has portrayed RBSOs as if they pursue only one business model. In this paper we challenge this assumption by drawing on evolutionary theory and the idea that firms may follow several business models in parallel. Our empirical findings suggest that most RBSOs pursue several business models in parallel and that such firms are more innovative. This study extends the typology approach within the academic entrepreneurship literature by showing that some business models are associated with higher innovativeness than others and that firms pursuing several business models at the same time may be particularly important for the commercialization of academic research. These findings have important implications for research and practise.     

Intensity of innovation in public sector organizations: The role of push and pull factors

The public sector is under pressure to provide new public services with increasingly scarce resources. In response, practitioners and academics have called for more innovation in the public sector. Our understanding of sources of innovation within public sector organizations, however, is inadequate. Motivated by this gap, we develop a conceptual model of how push and pull sources enable innovation within public sector organizations. Key to our theory is that push and pull sources of innovation are enabled by innovation capabilities. Five hypotheses are tested using cross-country survey data from European public sector organizations. Empirical analysis offers strong support for the central role played by innovation capability in enabling push and pull sources of innovation within public sector organizations. This article advances knowledge of the sources of innovation in the public sector and extends theorizing on push and pull mechanisms by examining their relevance to innovation in a public sector context.     

Combating crime and citizen attitudes: A study of the corresponding reality

The effectiveness of crime deterrence projects such as increased street lighting in ghetto environments has been questioned. The present study not only examines whether increased street lighting in fact reduces crime, but also investigates the attitudes towards local government of citizens who live within that particular environment. The findings illustrate that it would be advisable for governments to address citizen attitudes before undertaking certain crime prevention projects.     

Should liberals sometimes prefer dictatorships to democracies? A closer look at the Hayek thesis

Is liberal autocracy preferable to illiberal democracy, as Friedrich Hayek forcefully argued? This article examines two main problems with this argument. First, it seems counterintuitive for autocracies to be combined with liberalism, or for democracies to exist without essential liberal freedoms. Second, it is difficult to establish sound criteria for when a particular democracy is inferior to a given dictatorship. Since there is a difference between those types of liberal freedoms that are sometimes protected in dictatorships and those that are (almost) never protected, assessing the quality of liberties brings us closer to a solution on both issues. It is argued that whether an autocracy can be genuinely liberal, and whether liberals should sometimes prefer autocracy to democracy, depends on how we rank economic freedoms compared to other freedoms.