Determining Factors of the Effectiveness of IP-based Spin-offs: Comparing the Netherlands and the US

In this paper we describe and analyse IP-based spin-offs as a relatively new phenomenon for transferring knowledge from science to industry. We argue that the effectiveness of this mechanism is subject to a complex array of institutional factors. These factors entail national, sectoral, regional and managerial institutions. Based on an indicative comparison between the Netherlands and the United States we find that is especially the combination of national and sectoral institutions that condition whether an IP-based spin-off is established in the first place, whereas regional and managerial institutions condition its subsequent chances of success. We finish by formulating some notions for public policy.     

Analysing the teachers’ use of gestures in the classroom: A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis approach

Classroom research in the past has mostly been based on the study of the language used by the teacher and students. With the availability of video recording technologies, it is now possible to collect multimodal classroom data, such as the teachers’ use of gestures, positioning, and classroom space to enact specific pedagogy. The challenge for the researchers is how to annotate and analyse such multimodal data. This paper proposes an approach for the annotation and analysis of the teachers’ use of gestures in the classroom for meaning-making. Situated within Systemic Functional Theory, the Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis approach to the formal and functional classification of teachers’ use of gestures in the classroom is introduced. The approach builds on present research and theoretical conceptions on gestures and extends the classifications with examples from a selection of instances from an authentic classroom corpus. The aim is to develop the theoretical apparatus for the annotation and analysis of the teachers’ use of gestures in the classroom.     

Global networks and global change-induced tipping points

The existence of “tipping points” in human–environmental systems at multiple scales—such as abrupt negative changes in coral reef ecosystems, “runaway” climate change, and interacting nonlinear “planetary boundaries”—is often viewed as a substantial challenge for governance due to their inherent uncertainty, potential for rapid and large system change, and possible cascading effects on human well-being. Despite an increased scholarly and policy interest in the dynamics of these perceived “tipping points,” institutional and governance scholars have yet to make progress on how to analyze in which ways state and non-state actors attempt to anticipate, respond, and prevent the transgression of “tipping points” at large scales. In this article, we use three cases of global network responses to what we denote as global change-induced “tipping points”—ocean acidification, fisheries collapse, and infectious disease outbreaks. Based on the commonalities in several research streams, we develop four working propositions: information processing and early warning, multilevel and multinetwork responses, diversity in response capacity, and the balance between efficiency and legitimacy. We conclude by proposing a simple framework for the analysis of the interplay between perceived global change-induced “tipping points,” global networks, and international institutions.