Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles) ISSN (Print) 0302-3427 - ISSN (Online) 1471-5430 Published by Oxford University Press[425 journals]
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Pages: 161 - 176 Abstract: Designing effective and inclusive governance and public communication strategies for artificial intelligence (AI) requires understanding how stakeholders reason about its use and governance. We examine underlying factors and mechanisms that drive attitudes toward the use and governance of AI across six policy-relevant applications using structural equation modeling and surveys of both US adults (N = 3,524) and technology workers enrolled in an online computer science master’s degree program (N = 425). We find that the cultural values of individualism, egalitarianism, general risk aversion, and techno-skepticism are important drivers of AI attitudes. Perceived benefit drives attitudes toward AI use but not its governance. Experts hold more nuanced views than the public and are more supportive of AI use but not its regulation. Drawing on these findings, we discuss challenges and opportunities for participatory AI governance, and we recommend that trustworthy AI governance be emphasized as strongly as trustworthy AI. PubDate: Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac056 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 177 - 193 Abstract: The literature on policy coordination between government agencies reveals little about how coordination is managed in centralized political systems. This paper, therefore, presents a dynamic and quantitative analysis of policy coordination in China based on the science and technology (S&T) policy documents issued by China’s central government agencies in the period 1978–2019. From a series of snapshots depicting inter-agency policy development in five historical stages over this timeframe, we find that (1) policy coordination has developed steadily and has mainly occurred to interpret macro strategies and put in place more detailed implementation measures. (2) Ministries under the purview of the State Council have played a leading role in policy coordination, while other types of agencies have cooperated in more supporting roles. (3) Coordination efforts have mainly focused on inclusive and national demand-oriented themes, such as high-tech industrialization, rural S&T, and social development. This research offers a panoramic view of policy coordination trajectories and mechanisms in centralized political systems. As such, it adds to the analysis methods available for quantitatively studying policy documents. PubDate: Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac058 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 194 - 205 Abstract: A striving for research excellence and the implementation of third mission activities in the form of technology transfer have become standard practices at modern higher education institutions. The recent call for universities to include social innovation in their third mission and the apparent lack of involvement of universities in this area indicate that social innovation is not yet perceived as a legitimate activity by the academic community. We examine why this is the case and disentangle the legitimation journey of social innovation in research-intensive environments. PubDate: Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac066 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 206 - 218 Abstract: Through exploring the links between policy, evaluation, and gender, using a gender-transformative lens, this article sheds light on policy and evaluation processes of gender equality programmes, such as the political nature of evaluation and power configurations, involving resistance in the change process. Two case studies of gender equality programmes are visited to explore the links between gender policy implementation in specific contexts, and power configurations and resistance as key factors in both implementation and evaluation. We benefitted from the theoretical insights of both the feminist and the theory of change approaches, which helped us to bridge the boundaries between policy, gender scholarship, and evaluation and allowed us to reflect upon systemic factors and underlying mechanisms that are either facilitating or hindering transformation. This article highlights the benefits of applying such an evaluation framework and demonstrates why factoring in power and resistance to evaluations of gender equality programmes is necessary to explain successes or failures. PubDate: Fri, 04 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac064 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 219 - 229 Abstract: Transdisciplinarity is a much-used concept in research policy to emphasize a need for new collaborations beyond scientific disciplines to solve societal challenges. However, how do scientists interpret transdisciplinarity and what do transdisciplinarity policies mean for their work' This paper focuses on researchers’ definitions of transdisciplinarity. It is based on an empirical study of a Norwegian biotechnology centre founded to stimulate a transition in biotechnology research towards transdisciplinarity. Drawing on interpretive methods, we identify three interpretations of transdisciplinarity. In our case, the science policy idea of ‘transdisciplinarity’ faded away in practice in terms of collaboration with non-academic actors, but boosted the establishment of new interdisciplinary teams. By pointing to the multiplicity of ways in which policy recipients can interpret science policy, this study contributes to scholarship analysing the relation between transdisciplinarity in policy and practice. PubDate: Tue, 08 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac055 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 230 - 242 Abstract: Innovation voucher is a market-oriented policy instrument to encourage the external resource utilization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so as to foster their innovation activities and outcomes. This study extends the extant literature on the effectiveness of innovation voucher policy by investigating whether this small innovation subsidy can promote the innovation output of SMEs in China, a typical emerging economy, and identifying policy-relevant heterogeneities. By using the samples of Chinese technology-based SMEs and a flexible conditional difference-in-differences approach, our results show that innovation vouchers generally do promote SMEs’ innovation output and exert a more salient effect on medium-sized enterprises. Furthermore, the incentive effect of innovation vouchers is stronger on the recipients in the regions where the institutional environment is more developed. This study has important implications for policy makers and SMEs. PubDate: Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac062 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 243 - 252 Abstract: Policy documents suggest that quantitative information is important in the development of climate and energy policy. This is supported by quantitative studies research into the use of numbers in governance, which tends to assume that numbers have sufficient epistemic authority to be used by policymakers because they are believed to be trustworthy since they are produced through mechanical objectivity. This paper questions such assumptions, by analysing the extent of extra-calculative work when providing numeric information to policymakers. We term such efforts numeric work and analyse the extent and content of such work based on interviewed experts who are engaged with calculating climate and energy issues in the context of policymaking in Norway. Numeric work shares features with the actor–network theory concept of translation but differs due to the dialogic interaction between calculation actors and policymakers that includes efforts to improve the transparency of calculation, which counters a complete black-boxing of calculation results. PubDate: Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac054 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 253 - 274 Abstract: A central theme in the literature has been the identification of the factors that drive the creation of entrepreneurial universities. The application of these factors and university institutional commitment become essential to overcome the institutional barriers that may exist. Moreover, some authors have warned that in some university systems, transformation becomes a challenge due to high dependence on the State. In this paper, we have examined whether the dependence of Spanish universities on the State can be interpreted as an inhibitor of the transformation process, as well as the institutional commitment of several universities to become entrepreneurial entities, in a national framework that—considering the literature—would not seem the most optimal to achieve it. We note that the State is not an inhibitor, but not all universities show the same internal commitment. When universities are committed to change, the process is accelerated by the sum of two impulses. PubDate: Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac065 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 275 - 286 Abstract: This article empirically investigates the impact of offensive patent insurance on corporate innovation based on China’s patent insurance policy. We find that offensive patent insurance promotes corporate innovation. The result is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests and is more prominent for firms located in regions with more efficiency in handling patent infringement cases, for small enterprises, for firms located in regions with better implementation of the insurance policy, and for firms with less complex technologies. In addition, we observe that offensive patent insurance promotes corporate innovation by stimulating corporate Research and Development (R&D) investment. Furthermore, we find that offensive patent insurance promotes radical innovation and incremental innovation and has an insignificant negative effect on appearance innovation, suggesting that offensive patent insurance leads enterprises to invest more resources in the development of innovations with higher market value. Our study suggests that offensive patent insurance is an important tool to promote corporate innovation. PubDate: Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac069 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 287 - 303 Abstract: In this study, the properties of coevolution were analysed and presented as a promising avenue to investigate the interaction between institutions and scientific organizations, which has implications for the development of scientific fields and public scientific policies. These properties were used to analyse the interaction between the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) and national and international institutions from 1951 to 2019. The findings reveal that if an area of knowledge is weak in a country, it can develop through different institutional actions by interested parties such as researchers. The institutional agency of IMPA researchers has functioned as an element that feeds coevolutionary dynamics. This dynamic has caused changes in the IMPA (micro-level), scientific community (meso-level), and governmental institutions and civil society (macro-level). This study’s main contribution is the cross-fertilization of coevolution with the agency approach of institutional theory. PubDate: Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac070 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 304 - 317 Abstract: Policymakers increasingly try to steer researchers to choose topics of societal concern and to conduct research in ways that reflect such concerns. One increasingly common approach is prompting researchers to integrate certain perspectives into the content of their research, but little is known about the effects of this governance modality. We analyze 1,189 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research proposals submitted to the Swedish Research Council which, starting in 2020, required all applicants to consider including the sex and/or gender perspectives in their research. We identify three overarching strategies upon which researchers rely (content-, performer-, and impact-centered) and analyze the ways in which researchers across disciplines motivate, through text, the inclusion or exclusion of these perspectives. Based on our findings, we discuss the scope of the desired effect(s) of a requirement of this kind. PubDate: Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac073 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 318 - 335 Abstract: There is little research on the content of research integrity (RI)–related guidance provided by pan-European discipline-specific learned societies, or how this guidance compares with recommendations made in the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ALLEA code). Therefore, we aimed to (1) assess the availability of RI guidance from these learned societies, (2) compare learned societies’ guidance with the ALLEA code, and (3) explore similarities and differences in guidance between learned societies of different disciplines. Using a scoping review, we identified 245 learned societies, from which we identified and conducted a content analysis of fifty-eight guideline documents, developed by forty-six of these learned societies. Less than 25 per cent of learned societies in any discipline provide guidance, and there are notable disciplinary differences. Recommendations made by learned societies, which are not reflected in the ALLEA code, relate primarily to research culture and environment. Medical and Health Sciences societies often focus on regulatory and procedural aspects of research, whereas Natural Sciences societies emphasize the importance of accurate and appropriate dissemination of results. Humanities and Social Sciences societies’ recommendations are more heterogeneous and closely related to the nature of specific subdisciplines. Our results reflect differences in epistemological approaches as well as the specific roles and responsibilities of learned societies. We recommend that learned societies develop, or endorse, appropriate RI guidance. PubDate: Thu, 08 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac067 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 336 - 349 Abstract: Research and innovation policies (IPs) across Europe, particularly in Sweden, are increasingly framed by an orientation towards societal challenges, missions, and transformative change. Innovation-funding agencies are adapting to these new approaches but struggle with a host of new questions and challenges on how to re-structure public policy interventions and develop new structures for monitoring, learning, and evaluation. In this article, we investigate how this IP paradigm shift is dealt with in the IP discourse and practice in Sweden and how an incomplete shift creates mismatches and tensions with existing structures for programme evaluation and monitoring. Despite the new paradigm, the implementation of evaluation strategies mostly follows a traditional ‘summative’ framing. The ongoing discussions in Swedish IP demonstrate that a paradigm shift towards transformative innovation cannot unfold its potential unless it is also followed by a shift in the practices of programme implementation and evaluation. PubDate: Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac071 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)
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Pages: 350 - 353 Abstract: In the USA, state governments have long focused on how they can provide an attractive operating environment for enterprises to locate and expand business operations within their respective political jurisdiction. In recent years, however, a new focus of state governments is on nurturing technology entrepreneurship creating long-term organizational success that translates into sustainable local- and state-level economic growth. To this end, there has been an expansion of ‘innovation hubs’ across the country. These innovation hubs are considered local and regional ‘laboratories’ for technology-focused, entrepreneurial businesses to gestate their new products and services within state-level political boundaries. A recently emerging phenomenon has been the development of the ‘regulatory sandbox’ concept as a further enhancement of the public policy operating environment for nurturing technology entrepreneurship, with a further conceptual extension—to the ‘universal regulatory sandbox’—now being legislatively enacted and implemented. PubDate: Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac072 Issue No:Vol. 50, No. 2 (2022)