Adolfo Cazorla

Crossing National, Continental, and Linguistic Boundaries: Toward a Worldwide Evaluation Research Community in Journals of Evaluation

In an attempt to build a worldwide evaluation community, English evaluation journals are best positioned to promote international dialogue and increasingly provide international exchanges that deepen and enrich the evaluation field. This article analyzes the degree of internationalization achieved by these journals by looking at the extent of international authorship of the contributions they publish. Results show that—in spite of the efforts made—national, continental, and linguistic boundaries are still hindering the international exchange in the journals. Discussion is presented concerning the implications of these results and the efforts required to take greater advantage of the English journals to bridge national and regional traditions in the evaluation field.

Policy Support for the Diffusion of Innovation among SMEs: An Evaluation Study in the Spanish Region of Madrid

Innovation is increasingly supported by public authority action focused on regions and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this line, the region of Madrid launched a programme to create Technology Diffusion Centres (TDCs) in order to promote innovation culture among the SMEs of the region. This article analyses the nature of innovation activities in these firms, and the achievements of the TDCs through their work with them. Different types of TDCs are compared according to the approach they applied and the agent to which they were linked. Ten indicators were used to examine the degree of embeddedness and performance of the different TDCs among the SMEs. Results show that a sectoral approach in conjunction with links to business association is the best option for the TDCs in urban and industrial areas. However, in the peripheral or less favourable areas, such as rural ones, a territorial approach in conjunction with links to local entities is the most effective alternative.