Alexandra Waluszewski

Transformations in Research, Higher Education and the Academic Market

Transformations in Research, Higher Education and the Academic Market : The Breakdown of Scientific Thought

Co-evolution in technological development. The role of friction

The article debates the main forces driving change in the processes of technological development through resource combination. It discusses the role of resource interfaces and particular attention is given to the concept, borrowed from physics, of friction as a relational, time dependent and transforming concept. Friction is used metaphorically and its meaning is: “How an alteration force applied to one resource is transferred to resources it interacts with and how this friction can act both as a stabilizer and a de-stabilizer of existing resource interfaces”. Friction is thus analysed both as a negative and as a positive force that influences technological development processes.

The diversity of systemic innovation thinking: The theoretical underpinnings of NIS and IMP and the different assessment of an industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the different assessments of a particular industry and its ability to innovative, renew and prosper, but also to look into the underlying assumptions that are hiding behind the systemic approaches utilized in these assessments. The point of departure is an empirical puzzle: one group of studies presents a rather optimistic view of the Swedish life science industry and its ability to economize on research, policy and industrial investments. Another group of studies presents much a darker view, questioning the capacity of new companies to reach economic endurance, as well as the possibility of keeping the actually successful companies within the country. At a first sight it appears as if the two groups of studies are resting on a common theoretical ground: all seem to depart from a systemic innovation perspective that challenges the idea of an independent business landscape. Design/methodology/approach – The difference between the assessments becomes compreh...

The diversity of systemic innovation thinking

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the different assessments of a particular industry and its ability to innovative, renew and prosper, but also to look into the underlying assumptions that are hiding behind the systemic approaches utilized in these assessments. The point of departure is an empirical puzzle: one group of studies presents a rather optimistic view of the Swedish life science industry and its ability to economize on research, policy and industrial investments. Another group of studies presents much a darker view, questioning the capacity of new companies to reach economic endurance, as well as the possibility of keeping the actually successful companies within the country. At a first sight it appears as if the two groups of studies are resting on a common theoretical ground: all seem to depart from a systemic innovation perspective that challenges the idea of an independent business landscape. Design/methodology/approach – The difference between the assessments becomes compreh...

A Black Swan in the district? An IMP perspective on immigrant entrepreneurship and changes in industrial districts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the changes of the Italian textile district of Prato, considered an exemplary case of the industrial district (ID) model, using a business network perspective. The “Black Swan” metaphor is used to address the changes in the Prato textile district in order to understand whether such changes have been an unexpected and unpredictable phenomenon, or they can be explain with a different theoretical tool-box, namely, that developed by the industrial network approach. Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilizes already published studies on the changes of the textile/fashion companies located to the Prato area. Both studies that have been carried out within an ID approach and those carried out with an Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) point of departure are considered in the research. Both types of studies were utilized to identify empirical observed changes of the producer, respectively user setting that the Prato located companies was related to, in...

The role of policy in innovation: The challenging distribution of social, material and monetary benefits

Purpose Contemporary innovation policy investments rests on the assumption that the main problematic interface is the one between the non-business developing setting and a rather friction-free producer and user setting. Given a business landscape characterized by interdependencies, any innovation attempt will be faced with complex interfaces also within and among all these settings. The purpose of this paper is to shed light over this issue through the investigation of the interface between policy and a specific innovation journey. The attention is directed to the creation and distribution of social-material values; and the translation of these values into a monetary dimension. Design/methodology/approach To fulfill this aim the authors utilize an empirical study on the commercialization of university research results in the field of solar power technology, based on the ARA model as a conceptual and methodological foundation, with a focus on the establishment of resource combinations, activity links and actor bonds in the involved developing, producing and using settings. In order to pin-point the creation of social-material values and the establishment of a monetary dimension the authors used a model adapted from Hakansson and Olsen (2015). Findings From a national policy perspective, the transnational nature of innovation processes and the connectedness of resources across different, often far-away places, entail a loss of control on the social-material and monetary benefits of innovation; even more so if the policy of one country stands against that of another country. Still, not only policy but also representatives for academic research and business seem to consider the transnational aspect as an exception. Research limitations/implications Due to that the embedding in the user setting did not occur as expected; with the Swedish focal firm as main interface, but from a Chinese firm that the authors did not have access to, the main focus is on the developing and the producing setting, while the embedding in the user setting is covered through indirect information. Practical implications The role that established production structures have for the embedding of innovations into producing and using settings seems to be neglected in policy circles – although these have a strong impact on the creation of social-material value and a monetary flow. Social implications See practical implication. Originality/value The paper underlines the impact of interfaces with established production structures for the creation of social-material value and monetary flow – and for transnational dimension of the innovation journey.

Exploring the Obstacles to Implementing Economic Mechanisms to Stimulate Antibiotic Research and Development A Multi-Actor and System-Level Analysis

This Article examines the potential stakeholder-related obstacles hindering the implementation of mechanisms to re-ignite the development of novel antibiotics. Proposed economic models and incentives to drive such development include: Public Funding of Research and Development (“R&D”), Tax Incentives, Milestone Prizes, End Payments, Intellectual Property (“IP”) and Exclusivity Extensions, Pricing and Reimbursement Incentives, Product Development Partnerships (“PDPs”), and the Options Market for Antibiotics model. Drawing on personal experience and understanding of the antibiotic field, as well as stakeholder consultation and numerous expert meetings within the DRIVE-AB project and Uppsala Health Summit 2015, the Authors identify obstacles attributable to the following actors: Universities and Research Institutes, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (“SMEs”), Large Pharmaceutical Companies, Marketing Approval Regulators, Payors, Healthcare Providers, National Healthcare Authorities, Patients, and Supranational Institutions. The analysis also proposes a characterization and ranking of the difficulty associated with implementing the reviewed mechanisms. Public Funding of R&D, Pricing and Reimbursement Incentives, and PDPs are mechanisms expected to meet highly systemic barriers (i.e., obstacles across the entire antibiotic value chain), imposing greater implementation challenges in that they require convincing and involving several motivationally diverse actors in order to have much effect.

What’s “knowledge management” when resources are unknowable and deals negotiated?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management of the use of knowledge in interfaces stretching across company and organizational borders, including the negotiated monetary dimension. Design/methodology/approach – The research approach is the IMP framework on resource interaction (Hakansson and Waluszewski, 2002), and the distinction among heterogeneous economic resources and a homogeneous monetary dimension, (Hakansson and Olsen, 2015; Perna et al., 2015). A case study on use of science based knowledge in business is utilized. Findings – The management regime behind the creation of a user setting including a substantial monetary flow is can be characterized as “managing collective entities” (Hakansson, Bakken, Olsen, 2013) and it is argued that the knowledge management regime assumes away the most important process related to use of knowledge. Research limitations/implications – The paper stress the theoretical need for approaching managment in general and managing use of knowledge ...

Conclusion: On the Verge of Breakdown

The unifying theme of the contributions to this volume is a perceived transfiguration in higher education and research, which the authors and editors of this volume believe is related to markets and marketisation. The transformation of the global economy into an amorphous network transgressing national borders is the prime mover in the present reorganisation of ‘knowledge production’, which has the effect of undermining the legitimacy of the university as an essential component in the project of modernity. Whether or not the modern research university ever actually lived up to the aim of the disinterested and universal quest for knowledge for the common good without regard to partisan interests or political ambitions, this role was part and parcel of its self-understanding and its mission and as such was a cornerstone of its activities. On the one hand, the loss of that self-understanding can be seen as a loss of innocence, which we are better off without. The realisation that the university is no more unfettered than the rest of society can thus be regarded as a new realism and thus as inevitable if not beneficial. On the other hand, if the ideal of value-free (or at least value-neutral) science is disavowed in favour of the norm of science on demand, what will the consequences be? The choice seems to stand between research and teaching faculty actively arguing and fighting for the right to be non-partisan and universalist, in practice enacting the ideal of the democratic university, or we have to hope and trust that some contingent of individual scientists and teachers will continue to exercise scientific judgement and that these will constitute a large enough community to make a difference.

Increase Development and Decrease Use! Innovation Controversies Caused by Antimicrobial Resistance

In Chapter 12, Waluszewski, Baraldi and Ciabuschi examine the issue of antimicrobial resistance which is challenging public health worldwide and is bound to impose a considerable economic burden on society. Resistant pathogens are estimated to cause over 700,000 deaths annually, while at the same time, infectious diseases treatable with existing antibiotics continue to cause more than five million deaths every year among poor people in low- and middle-income regions that cannot access antibiotics. This chapter pinpoints the changes necessary to address antimicrobial resistance in terms of new product development and changed usage patterns. The chapter also discusses the theoretical and methodological requirements and the need for a context-specific analysis of the development, production and settings in which antibiotics are used.