Viewing missionary Protestantism and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as carriers of transnational institutional innovation, this article compares their successes and failures at creating self-sustaining institutions in distant societies. Missionary Protestantism and NGOs are similar in that they attempt to establish formal organizations outside kinship, lineage, and ethnic forms of solidarity. Focusing on institutions as ways to create collective capacities that organize social life, we trace the route whereby Protestant missionaries established congregational religion in Africa and identify social practices that (...) made this enterprise successful but are comparatively absent in current NGO attempts to transform organizational life. Largely ignored by sociologists interested in institutional transformation, the history of congregational religion offers valuable sociological lessons about the conditions for radical institutional innovation. Its success was rooted first, in colonial missionaries’ ability to enforce new ways of life on small exemplary communities; second, in local adaptations (African prophetic movements, Pentecostalism) that deepened and widened the social reach of congregational principles; and third in the incentives Protestantism created for propagating the congregational form. (shrink)

This study reports on action research efforts that were aimed at developing institutional arrangements beneficial for soil fertility improvement. Three stages of action research are described and analyzed. We initially began by bringing stakeholders together in a platform to engage in a collaborative design of new arrangements. However, this effort was stymied mainly because conditions conducive for learning and negotiation were lacking. We then proceeded to support experimentation with alternative arrangements initiated by individual landowners and migrant farmers. The implementation (...) of these arrangements too ran into difficulties due to intra-family dynamics and ambiguities regarding land tenure. Further investigations to find out how ambiguities could be tackled revealed that the local actors themselves had taken initiatives towards developing institutional innovations to reduce ambiguities. However, there is still considerable scope for further development of these self-organized innovations. The article ends with a reflection on inter-disciplinary action research, where it is argued that making “mistakes” is an inherent and necessary characteristic in action research that aims to address complex social issues. (shrink)

Social innovations are urgently needed as we confront complex social problems. As these social problems feature substantial interdependencies among multiple systems and actors, developing and implementing innovative solutions involve the re-negotiating of settled institutions or the building of new ones. In this introductory article, we introduce a stylized three-cycle model highlighting the institutional nature of social innovation efforts. The model conceptualizes social innovation processes as the product of agentic, relational, and situated dynamics in three interrelated cycles that (...) operate at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. The five papers included in this special issue address one or more of these cycles. We draw on these papers and the model to stimulate and offer guidance to future conversations on social innovations from an institutional theory perspective. (shrink)

At its meeting on 16 June 2005, the European Council decided to postpone its introduction of the European Constitution, originally planned to come into force on 1 November 2006. As the Treaty establishing a European Constitution could in principle only take effect if all the Member States agree, following the clear rejections in the French referendum on 29 May 2005 and the Dutch referendum on 1 June 2005 , the Member States needed a period of reflection, a search for explanations (...) and debate. The European Council did not feel that the date initially planned for a report on the ratification of the treaty was still tenable, since those countries which had not yet ratified the treaty would be unable to provide a clear reply before mid- 2007. But the process of ratification by the Member States was not abandoned. The timetable was adjusted to reflect the circumstances in the countries which had not yet ratified the treaty. This period was intended to regain the trust of the general public. (shrink)

This research delved into the analysis of the role of institutional entrepreneurship within the Colombian business context, focusing on the process of divergent change promoted by entrepreneurs. Following the theory of institutional entrepreneurship, it examined how entrepreneurs operating in non-privileged positions within highly regulated industries challenge established conventions by developing new ventures. The study was underpinned by qualitative research of a descriptive nature, implementing a design based on a review of existing literature. The results of this analysis revealed (...) that the integration of traditional entrepreneurial skills with supplementary and complementary competencies, oriented towards new institutional logics, can constitute an effective strategy for entrepreneurial development in Colombia. Consequently, it is concluded that institutional entrepreneurship exerts a significant influence on entrepreneurial change within Colombia. This finding provides valuable insights for future research and for the design of policies to promote innovation and entrepreneurial development in the country. (shrink)

Although democratic innovations are spread all over the world, there is little research on the institutional outcomes of implementing such innovations in governmental organisations. To remedy this, it is important to focus on cases where DIs have been implemented and formally connected to the policymaking process over a longer period. Reykjavik provides such a case. Drawing on observations and interviews with key stakeholders over a period of three years, this study analyses how the institutional logic of DIs influenced (...) the local government in Reykjavik. The study presents two conclusions: First, it is clear that one equilibrium has not been replaced by another. Second, there is no peaceful co-existence between the two, but instead the outcome is an organisation in ‘a state of flux’. There are several factors contributing to this outcome, but three stand out: a populist power-shift, dissatisfaction with theworking of the implemented DIs and deliberative ambiguity. In the final part of the article, the institutional outcome is discussed in relation to overall consequences for the political system. (shrink)

The institutional development can be done by any strategies, one of them are creating new innovation called as blue ocean strategy. Blue ocean strategy is theway to develops the institution without had to quarrel in the strict zone with another institution. Its different with red zone strategy determining the birth of new market space or different innovation has been owned. So, this strategy is more emphasize how the institutions have not to conquer the competition using the vis (...) á vis to the rival. The study of this article is about using Blue ocean strategy at public relation in developing the institution since the beginning the statuses change of STAIN Tulungagung to IAIN Tulungagung, 2013. This paper approaches qualitative research which is focused on the strategy of developing IAIN Tulungagung institution through the new innovation: creating of the value innovation, recruiting new students intensively established the out of box edu-fair event, branding, establishing the advance program and promoting the institution, developing the human capital. All of those new innovations are blue ocean strategy has been done by IAIN Tulungagung according to different four steps of work scheme profits such as Decrease-Delete-Create-Increase becomes Passive-Save-Create-Increase. (shrink)

In 2015, observers argued that the fourth agricultural revolution had been initiated. This article focuses on one part of this high-tech revolution: the origin, development, applications, and user value of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Institutional changes connected to the UAS innovation are analyzed, based on a Swedish case study. The methods included autoethnography. The theoretical frame was composed by four perspectives: innovation, institutions, sustainability, and ethics. UAS can help farmers cut costs and produce higher quantity with better (...) quality, and also has environmental benefits. However, this promising innovation was exposed to institutional forces and suddenly became subordinated the Act of Camera Surveillance. This study illuminates how legislative institutions can inhibit responsible innovation. The study shows that different ethical perspectives can collide with each other. (shrink)

Despite the rising interest in environmental strategies, few studies have examined how managerial cognition of such strategies influences actual innovation capability development. Taking a managerial cognition perspective, this study investigates how managers’ perceptions of institutional pressures relate to their focus on proactive environmental strategy, which in turn affects firms’ realized innovation capability. The findings from a primary survey and three secondary datasets of publicly listed companies in China reveal that managers’ perceived business and social pressures are positively (...) associated with their focus on proactive environmental strategy, which consequently fosters innovation capability development. Moreover, state ownership and government administrative control weaken the impact of managerial focus on proactive environmental strategy on innovation capability. These findings have important implications for how managerial cognition supports environmental strategy and organizational capability building under the influence of institutional pressures and government intervention. (shrink)

Steffen Ganghof’s Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism can improve existing typologies in comparative government and has great potential for discussions about democratic innovation and reform. So far, democratic innovations like deliberative mini-publics have remained mostly additive, leaving the underlying decision-making logics of representative political systems unchanged. Ganghof’s ideas can move debates about how deliberative democracy is to be institutionalized forward. Semi-parliamentary government constitutes an intriguing option to meet both demands for legislative flexibility and responsiveness to citizens’ concerns and demands for (...) stability and accountability. At the same time, I identify a limitation of the book in the fact that Ganghof’s normative theory of democracy remains thin. To appeal to citizens in constitutional reform processes, proposals for semi-parliamentary reform need to do more than reconcile conflicting visions of majority rule. They need to speak to democracy’s central promises of equal autonomy and rationality. (shrink)

Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2019, Page 41-42.

The aim of this article is to explore the effects of the Istitutional Forum, a recent governance innovation legislated in South Africa in 1997, as a mechanism that contributes toward the democratisation of university governance. Forums were established to confront the legacy of structured disadvantage and to reorient the educational experience towards greater horizontal accountability. The article provides commentary on the Forum’s impact vis-a-vis participative ethos and deliberative democracy against the backdrop of the South African government’s post-apartheid commitments. Findings (...) reveal challenges in the Forum’s make-up and implementation that are linked to its degree of influence. Ultimately, the conclusions convey perspectives on role ambiguity and conflictual power dynamics. (shrink)

Prize offered for most innovative web publication A t present, the Journal of Medical Ethics appears in duplicate: one version on the web, one version in paper. There has been little difference between these two copies. But the web and paper publishing offer different opportunities for the reader. A bound conventional paper copy of a journal offers a compact, transportable, easily readable, discrete collection of knowledge. It ….

Product differentiation has emerged as a central dynamic in contemporary agrofood systems. Departure from the mode of standardization emblematic of agrofood modernization raises questions about future technical trajectories and the ways in which learning will be sustained. This article examines two innovation trajectories: the rapid coupling of biotechnologies and information technologies to yield products differentiated by constituent components—a model based on a cognitive logic of decomposition/ recomposition—and the proliferation of product networks that mobilize distinctive, localized resources to create complete (...) identities—a model based on a cognitive logic of identity. The article analyzes the information structures—institutional mechanisms that support information exchange and learning—in each of these opposed development paradigms. We find that knowledge creation under each of the logics occurs through mechanisms not recognized within the respective paradigms. On this basis, we derive institutional hybridity as a fundamental resource in systems of innovation. (shrink)

The results of the study visit of Ukrainian researchers of higher education to Germany with the aim of researching the implementation of innovations through university partnerships with businesses and local communities are analyzed. The report is based on an analysis of the work of the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands in Bielefeld.

This paper analyzes Francis Bacon’s observations on institutions for the advancement of knowledge and technical innovation. Early references to establishments for the promotion of knowledge can be found initial in Bacon’s early works, in the 1590s. Bacon’s journey to France in the second half of the1570s played a role in shaping these early conceptions. In particular, Bacon was likely acquainted with Jaques Gohory’s Lycium philosophal and Nicholas Houel’s Maison de Charité Chrétienne. In the period following the composition of The (...) Advancement of Learning (1605), Francis Bacon focused his attention on the foundation of a college for inventors. Practical plans for the establishment of a college were discussed in the Commentarius solutus (1608). Bacon’s proposals addressed his general concerns for the production of technological innovation in Stuart society; both the college of the Commentarius and the imaginary institution of Salomon’s House in the New Atlantis (1626) can be seen as inventor’s utopias, where innovators are freed from the pressures of the world of crafts. Analogous continental project likely inspired such institutions. Again, the case of France may be relevant; around the time of Bacon’s proposals for his college, Henri IV was actively fostering collaboration among skilled inventors under royal patronage, and outside the strict control of the guild system. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to analyze the effects of innovation strategies, Total Quality Management dimensions, and internationalization strategies that Higher Education Institutions might adopt, and their effects on their organizational performance. Due to globalization and the constant changes and demands that have taken place today, HEIs are forced to seek new quality assurance instruments in higher education, to ensure greater competitiveness in the markets and their survival. To examine the association between the independent variables, namely, TQM dimensions, (...) innovation strategies, and internationalization strategies with the dependent variable, that is organizational performance of HEIs, we have chosen to use multiple linear regression analysis. A nine-predictor multiple linear regression model was proposed. The nine predictor variables are Communication, Involvement/teacher empowerment, Development/Teacher training, Continuous improvement, Leadership/Administration’s Commitment, Data analysis/Measurement of results, Focus on students, Innovation Strategies, and Internationalization strategy. We conclude that some TQM variables have a significant association with the organizational performance of HEIs, namely, Involvement/teacher empowerment, and Development/teacher training. On the other hand, also the Innovation strategies and Internationalization strategy have a significant association with the organizational performance of HEIs. This research is of enormous importance for the study of HEIs, considering their role in the development of any country and its impact on society as creators of knowledge and science. Since these institutions increasingly must deal with extremely competitive market environments, knowledge of the factors that can assist in increasing the organizational performance of HEIs is of great relevance. (shrink)

Does being green facilitate product innovation? This study examines whether green management in firms operating in China fosters radical product innovation to a greater extent than it does incremental product innovation and investigates the underlying institutional mechanisms involved in the relationship between green management and product innovation. The findings show that green management is more likely to lead to radical product innovation than to incremental product innovation. Moreover, government support as a formal (...) class='Hi'>institutional benefit more strongly mediates the effect of green management on radical product innovation than its effect on incremental product innovation; whereas social legitimacy as an informal institutional benefit more strongly mediates the effect of green management on incremental product innovation than its effect on radical product innovation. These findings provide important implications for explaining how firms employ green management to facilitate product innovation. (shrink)

This study aims to explore the promoting effect of the combination of mental health education and ideological and political education for college students on improving their comprehensive psychological quality and ideological and political theoretical level. The research adopts a combination of system analysis methods, experimental methods and clustering algorithms, and conducts course experiments through experimental methods, providing basic data. In the process of the experiment, from the perspective of educational psychology theory, the systematic analysis method is used to distinguish subject (...) and object, and functional analysis is carried out. At the same time, clustering algorithms are used to classify the mental health problems of different students. The research results indicate that in terms of subjectivity, teachers’ psychological communication ability, psychological understanding ability and psychological guidance ability have a significant positive impact on students’ psychological state. The level of ideological and political theory and psychological strain ability also have a significant positive impact on students’ psychological state. Intervention on students’ values and personality psychological issues is also effective. These findings provide an important basis and guidance for further carrying out higher education reform. Contribution: With the development of society, students need to face more and more external concepts during their growth. Students whose mental growth is not mature are likely to have certain psychological problems in this process. This research can be utilised by scholars in the field of youth ministry and religious educational studies. (shrink)

The need for innovative development of healthcare institutions is determined by the necessity to increase the efficiency of organizational processes based on the formation of new models of cooperation, which will make it possible to get access to new technologies and knowledge. The goal of the study is to determine the parameters of the impact of innovative open cooperation strategy and the strategy of innovative closed cooperation of healthcare institutions on the effectiveness of their organizational structure in the context of (...) dissemination and the use of knowledge. Simulation modeling was applied to generate the most effective organizational management structure in the context of innovative cooperation and knowledge exchange within the organizational processes “Inside-out” and “Inside-in”. It is substantiated that the strategies of innovative cooperation “Open Innovation/Closed Innovation” have a significant impact on the organizational structure of management of healthcare institutions in terms of the “degree of centralization” (Dci), “degree of mediation” (Dii), and “degree of centralization of powers” (Dpi). The values of the selected criteria range from 25,52% to 61,50% in the case of Dii, and from 34,53% to 52,63% in the case of Dci, which indicates a higher efficiency of organizational knowledge exchange processes in healthcare institutions, which adhere to the Open Innovation strategy of innovative cooperation. Therefore, there are significant differences in the effectiveness of the management’s organizational structure depending on the degree of openness of innovative cooperation of healthcare institutions. The strategy of innovative openness allows increasing the number and quality of connections in the context of knowledge exchange between the subjects (actors, agents) of the organizational structure (in a broad sense, considering internal and external levels of externality) of healthcare institutions, regardless of the distance between them and the level of similarity. (shrink)

The quality of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education in higher institutions is closely related to the degree to which the undergraduates absorb relevant innovation and entrepreneurship knowledge and their entrepreneurial motivation. Thus, an effective Evaluation of Educational Quality is essential. In particular, fault tree analysis, a common EEQ approach, has some disadvantages, such as fault data reliance and insufficient uncertainties handleability. Thereupon, this article first puts forward a theoretical model based on the deep learning method to analyze the factors (...) of IEE quality; consequently, based on the traditional FTA, fuzzy fault tree analysis is proposed to evaluate the reliability of IEE classroom teaching for college teachers and students. Finally, based on the top event of entrepreneurial teaching failure, the hyper-ellipsoid model is implemented to restrict the interval probability of basic events and describe the deviation of uncertain events. Furthermore, the model accuracy is verified by a questionnaire survey, based upon which the factors of IEE quality are analyzed. The results show that the designed QS has good reliability, validity, and fitness; the path coefficients of cooperative ability to critical thinking and innovative thinking are 0.9 and 0.66, respectively, indicating that the students’ cooperative ability plays a vital role in the classroom teaching. By calculation, the probability of “teaching failure” in entrepreneurial classroom teaching is 0.395, 3, 0.462, and 5. To sum up, the proposed method can effectively and quantitatively evaluate the quality of IEE in higher institutions, thus providing a certain basis for formulating relevant improvement strategies. The purpose is to provide important technical support for improving the IEE quality. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractCarrying out research means being innovative, which requires novelty. Novelty is an important source of scientific breakthroughs and has great technological impact. Research institutions stand to benefit from fostering innovation. Here, we outline what academic institutions can do to help their scientists become more innovative.

Volume 52, Issue 11, October 2020, Page 1120-1125.

The beginning of the twenty first century has been characterized by the expansion of economics, politics and institutional relations. Using international case studies, this book illustrates the local answer to the challenge of increasing competition. The book introduces the idea of endogenous development, identifying the theoretical roots and defining its main features. It then goes on to indicate how this concept can be used to understand economic dynamics, and to show how the concept is relevant in economic analysis and (...) policy implementation in times of globalization. This work will be of essential interest to academics and policy-makers in planning and development economics. (shrink)

Liberal democracies face the challenge of elite capture. Mounting empirical evidence indicates that a small socioeconomic elite has vastly more influence on policy outcomes than ordinary citizens. In this essay, I explore how political reformers should address this issue by harnessing insights from the realist tradition in political theory. By placing empirics front and centre, I extrapolate two normative heuristics to guide democratic innovation. First, I maintain that reformers must increase the capacity of ordinary citizens to contest elite-biased political (...) decisions—call this editorial empowerment. Second, ordinary citizens must be vested with additional law-making capacity to offset elite bias—call this authorial empowerment. While institutional innovations to advance the editorial power of ordinary citizens have been central to the realist debate on democratic innovation, authorial empowerment has not received adequate consideration. To address this shortcoming, I explore institutional mechanisms aimed at increasing the authorial capacity of ordinary citizens and assess their alignment with the broader realist vision of a new mixed regime. (shrink)

The relentless informational variability in the field of natural sciences, today's need for the training of highly competent, versatile, apologetic future specialists, as well as the low motivation of psychology students to teach natural disciplines, was established by us in the process of their questioning, require the search for new, non-standard solutions in the organization of natural science training of future psychologists in institutions of higher education. We believe that one of the effective ways to solve this problem is the (...) organization of the educational process with the natural scientific training of future psychologists in higher education institutions based on innovation and heuristic. To organize the educational process from the natural science training of future psychologists on the basis of innovation and eurestiality, there is a need to determine such ultra-innovation pedagogical technologies and teaching methods that will meet the requirements of the time, contribute to the formation of psychology students' motivation to study natural sciences and improve the quality and the effectiveness of natural science training. We have characterized pedagogical technologies, namely: coworking technology, barcamp technology, workshop technology, SMART technology, BYOD technology and such innovative methods as: lecture-visualization, video lecture, debates, round table, electronic brain assault, a laboratory experiment and a design-role-playing game, which, in our opinion, will contribute to the implementation of the educational process with the natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions based on innovation and heuristic. (shrink)

The article confronts Cornelius Castoriadis's philosophy of 'the imaginary institution of society' with issues of innovation in a knowledge society and outlines a new notion of innovation as creative organization. It will take a critical approach to innovation from a historical perspective of postwar systems theory and introduce Castoriadis's philosophy as an interesting option in this regard. It proceeds in four parts: (a) First, it debates the limits of the commonplace metaphor of diffusion and adoption in today's (...) debate on innovation. (b) Second, it will present aspects of Castoriadis's thought as an alternative, in particular his debate on imagination and the proto-institution of legein/teukhein — ordered action. (c) On this background it will treat a case from the Danish innovation industry, the firm Zentropa WorkZ's programme of 'Dramatic Innovation' as an interesting example of an innovation format addressing creativity. (d) In conclusion, it will briefly debate creative knowledge formation in a knowledge society by pondering relations between innovation and current science. (shrink)

This study takes the Chinese technology-intensive listed companies from 2009 to 2019 as the research sample to study the relationship between board faultlines and innovation strategy decisions of companies, and examines the impact of property rights background and institutional environment on the above relationship from the perspective of external governance environment of Chinese-listed companies. The results show that social-related faultlines of the board of directors have a negative influence on corporate innovation strategy decisions; cognitive-related faultlines have a (...) positive effect on corporate innovation strategy decisions. At the same time, this research proves that the property rights background and institutional environment have a regulating role in the relationship between board faultlines and innovation strategy decisions, and can play an active role in the board faultlines. (shrink)

Although few studies examine the implications of breakthrough innovations in the exporting context, we have little understanding about how contingent factors in the developing countries shape the breakthrough innovations–export performance link. Thus, this study aims at examining the impact of breakthrough innovations on the export performance of SMEs in developing countries, while studying the role of contingent factors, i.e., institutional environment specificity and enforceability. The data were collected from a sample of 410 SMEs in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested through (...) structural equation modeling in AMOS 20. The results reveal that both technology-based and market-based innovations have a positive impact on the export performance of SMEs in terms of strategic export performance and economic export performance. Second, institutional environment specificity and enforceability enhance the impact of breakthrough innovations on the export performance of SMEs. (shrink)

New products and services that tackle grand societal challenges often require changes in societal norms, values, and expectations. This research investigates the question of how innovating actors shape these informal institutions throughout the innovation process by drawing on the literature on social innovation and institutional theory. In a comparison of four case studies, we observe that all innovating actors under study engage in a diverse set of practices to challenge and shape societal norms and expectations as well (...) as user habits and routines throughout the innovation process. These activities can be clustered into unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral change processes, depending on the number of actors involved. Our findings highlight how different types of direct and indirect interactions between innovating actors and users along the innovation process shape the understanding of social innovation, and stress the central role of physical experiences and positive emotions among (future) users. Thereby, we provide for a more nuanced view of how companies that aim to bring technologies with different characteristics of innovativeness to the market shape the informal institutional environment throughout the different phases of the innovation process. (shrink)

Over the past decades, science funding shows a shift from recurrent block funding towards project funding mechanisms. However, our knowledge of how project funding arrangements influence the organizational and epistemic properties of research is limited. To study this relation, a bridge between science policy studies and science studies is necessary. Recent studies have analyzed the relation between the affordances and constraints of project grants and the epistemic properties of research. However, the potentially very different affordances and constraints of funding arrangements (...) such as awards, prizes and fellowships, have not yet been taken into account. Drawing on eight case studies of funding arrangements in high performing Dutch research groups, this study compares the institutional affordances and constraints of prizes with those of project grants and their effects on organizational and epistemic properties of research. We argue that the prize case studies diverge from project-funded research in three ways: 1) a more flexible use, and adaptation of use, of funds during the research process compared to project grants; 2) investments in the larger organization which have effects beyond the research project itself; and 3), closely related, greater deviation from epistemic and organizational standards. The increasing dominance of project funding arrangements in Western science systems is therefore argued to be problematic in light of epistemic and organizational innovation. Funding arrangements that offer funding without scholars having to submit a project-proposal remain crucial to support researchers and research groups to deviate from epistemic and organizational standards. (shrink)

Drawing from research on strategic choice, this study investigates the relationship between market turbulence and firms’ sustainable behavior, in the context of sustainability-related institutional adversity. It argues that the relationship between market turbulence and sustainability is mediated by network embeddedness, and this mediating role in turn is moderated by a firm’s innovative orientation. Data collected from a sample of Ontario restaurants inform predictions about firms’ propensity to adopt local wines in their portfolios, despite the limited market and normative support (...) that these wines receive compared with imported wines. The study shows that market turbulence enhances sustainable firm behavior, through the development of strong network relationships. Furthermore, the mediating effect of network embeddedness is particularly salient among firms that exhibit a stronger innovative orientation. These findings reveal how and when turbulent market conditions can contribute to a firm’s sustainable behaviors in the presence of limited institutional support for such behaviors. (shrink)

Drawing from research on strategic choice, this study investigates the relationship between market turbulence and firms’ sustainable behavior, in the context of sustainability-related institutional adversity. It argues that the relationship between market turbulence and sustainability is mediated by network embeddedness, and this mediating role in turn is moderated by a firm’s innovative orientation. Data collected from a sample of Ontario restaurants inform predictions about firms’ propensity to adopt local wines in their portfolios, despite the limited market and normative support (...) that these wines receive compared with imported wines. The study shows that market turbulence enhances sustainable firm behavior, through the development of strong network relationships. Furthermore, the mediating effect of network embeddedness is particularly salient among firms that exhibit a stronger innovative orientation. These findings reveal how and when turbulent market conditions can contribute to a firm’s sustainable behaviors in the presence of limited institutional support for such behaviors. (shrink)

With the increasing uncertainty in the external environment, exploratory innovation has gradually become the key path for enterprises to obtain core competitiveness and achieve sustainable growth. According to the behavioral theory of the firm, performance feedback is an essential driving factor affecting corporate innovation decisions. However, previous studies have ignored the consistency or inconsistency between historical and industry performance feedback, and its impact on exploratory innovation. Based on the data of Chinese companies listed from 2008 to 2019, (...) this paper explores the impact of consistency and inconsistency between historical and industry performance feedback on enterprises’ exploratory innovation. In the cases of consistency, this study finds that the scenario of historical performance shortfall-industry performance shortfall is more likely to promote enterprises’ exploratory innovation than the industry performance surplus-historical performance surplus; in the cases of inconsistency, compared with historical performance surplus-industry performance shortfall, the scenario of historical performance shortfall-industry performance surplus is more likely to promote enterprises’ exploratory innovation. Further research shows that regional institutional development enhances these relationships. This study enriches the driving factors of enterprises’ exploratory innovation from the perspective of multiple performance feedback, which can provide decision-making references for enterprises’ exploratory innovation strategies. (shrink)

Many researchers experiment with participatory settings to increase public engagement in research and innovation (R&I). Because of their temporary nature, it often remains unclear how such participatory experiments can contribute to structural change. This paper empirically explores options for bridging this gap. It analyzes how participants can be supported to act as institutional entrepreneurs to actively promote public engagement in R&I. To draw lessons, we analyze empirical material gathered on nineteen Social Labs which were set up to promote (...) the uptake of Responsible Research and Innovation in a European R&I funding program (Horizon 2020). Involvement of motivated participants, insight in their institutional context, and specific methods and management choices that enhance a sense of agency are identified as essential for organizing change. These findings and the resulting framework of interventions may prove valuable for further (action) research into the institutionalization of public engagement in R&I. (shrink)

Building on the co-evolutionary perspective, this study investigates the reciprocal and co-evolving relationship between political ties and green innovation in the presence of institutional and environmental changes. Using panel data for Chinese listed private firms for a sample period that runs from 2013 through 2016, our findings indicate that political ties have an overall positive impact on green innovation. Moreover, political ties and green innovation mutually reinforce each other in less developed regions or heavily polluted areas; (...) however, green innovation discourages the formation of political ties in regions with high levels of institutional development or less environmental pollution. These findings provide novel insights into the co-evolution of and co-alignment between political strategy, green innovation, institutions, and environments in emerging economies. (shrink)

Over the past decade, teaching and learning in virtual worlds has been at the forefront of many higher education institutions around the world. The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) consisting of Australian and New Zealand higher education academics was formed in 2009. These educators are investigating the role that virtual worlds play in the future of education and actively changing the direction of their own teaching practice and curricula. 47 academics reporting on 28 Australian higher education institutions present an (...) overview of how they have changed directions through the effective use of virtual worlds for diverse teaching and learning activities such as business scenarios and virtual excursions, role-play simulations, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insights into the ways in which institutions are continuing to change directions in their teaching to meet changing demands for innovative teaching, learning and research in virtual worlds. This paper highlights the ways in which the authors are using virtual worlds to create opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would be difficult or not possible to achieve through more traditional approaches. (shrink)

We argue that a reinvention of the plebeian tribunate should play a key role in addressing the challenges stemming from increasing concentrations of, and inequalities in, social, political, economic, and cultural power in liberal democracies. Addressing these challenges, which negatively affect parliamentary representation, requires a form of institutional innovation that gives voice to non-elites who are ruled but do not rule. We propose revisions of the composition and tasks of the tribunate that are tailored to these current challenges. (...) Our fully randomly selected tribunate emerges as a vehicle not only for contesting concentrated power but also for articulating lines of conflict, disruptive agenda-setting, and political experimentation. Our proposal contributes to developing realist democratic theory. We argue that the reinvented tribunate not only meets realist commitments to avoiding moralization and idealization but also demonstrates the underexploited capacity of realism to inform institutional innovation and thus contribute to substantial political analysis. (shrink)

The development of citizenship in the framework of European integration has been marked by conceptual innovations. This article concentrates on three of its elements: antidiscrimination rights, the concept of Union Citizenship, and the right to free movement. In these cases, either concepts were newly coined, or already-established concepts were newly interpreted in the context of the European Union by the European Commission or by the Council. In a second step, they were then incorporated into new EU citizenship laws and then (...) transferred into national legislation and national political and administrative practice. During the implementation phase in the member states, the innovations often led to conflicts related to the interpretation of the new concepts in political and administrative practice. The article discusses the related processes as a pattern of conceptual innovation by law making that is typical for the EU. (shrink)

The technological progress makes great contribution to the rapid economic growth of China during its past three decades of reform and opening up. An empirical analysis conducted over China’s total factor productivity certifies this conclusion but it also reveals that China’s TFP growth rate is not very high. We further explore the various stages of change of China’s total factor productivity and the causes of these changes and finally take an analytical calculation over the present flaws of China’s innovation (...) system and offer some advices. (shrink)

We focus on alternative innovation pathways for addressing agricultural sustainability challenges in Odisha, India. The first pathway that we term as industrial, is focused on breeding new seed varieties in modern laboratories and test fields, ostensibly for climate resilience. It is driven by public scientific institutions and private corporations. The second pathway that we call agroecological, is grounded in saving and sharing of diverse local varieties, largely by Indigenous (Adivasi) smallholders and their allies in civil society. Using the pathways’ (...) descriptions as bases, we present perspectives of different professional groups who appraise how effectively each pathway addresses a range of sustainability issues. While all participants appraise the agroecological pathway to be clearly better performing for addressing agricultural biodiversity and cultural uses of rice, appraisals for issues of the economy, seed accessibility, stress tolerance, and nutrition diverged from each other. An overall picture in support of one pathway did not emerge. Embracing such ambiguities and uncertainties associated with appraisals, we argue for balancing political support between diverse pathways. Greater support for structurally marginalised agroecological pathways may be crucial to meet sustainability goals. This support can include the restitution of lands and other socio-ecological resources for marginalised pathways as well as guaranteeing autonomy of Adivasi (Indigenous) communities among whom the pathways thrive. (shrink)