Deborah Cox

The Appliance of Science? New public management and strategic change

Abstract Changes in the nature of science as a social practice were fundamentally organic and endogenous in nature prior to the 1970s. Since then changes in UK public science has been policy-led and the imperatives exogenous. This shift was the result of attempts to achieve strategic managed change in the sector using new public management (NPM) techniques. This paper explores the discourses that promoted the change effort and the NPM techniques and processes deployed to this end. It seeks to identify the aims and objectives of the intended strategic change and evaluates the extent to which they have been achieved. Our conclusion is that rather than a planned, strategic change process directed at improved economy, efficiency and effectiveness, what occurred was a poorly processed ideologically driven attempt to achieve political aims.

Annual Report on European SMEs 2014 / 2015 SMEs start hiring again SME PERFORMANCE REVIEW 2014/2015

This report provides an overview of the past and forecasted performance of SMEs from 2008 to 2016, and reviews in greater detail the contribution of SMEs to employment creation

The Changing Central Government of Science and Technology

This chapter examines the impact of administrative change in the 1980s and 1990s on the supply of science and technology services to British central government. Our concern is with the consequences of these changes for the operation of the supplying organisation, for its management for its customer department and for its relationship with its department. Hence, within our chosen policy domain, we explore the variety of organisational forms that have emerged during the late 1980s and 1990s. We seek to explain why they took the form that they did and we ask what effect these changes have had, in terms of the ostensible purposes of the reforms themselves.

Foresight on the future of public research metrology in Europe

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe and evaluate the use of a five‐step foresight process and the application of scenario methods to grasp the range of future alternatives that might confront researchers and research managers in European metrology research institutes. The sector is to be examined as a part of a larger study that aims to reflect on the potential future roles for the public research institutes, in several sectors (the other sectors in the study included civil space, plant science, geosurveys, and marine), towards the development of the European Research Area (ERA).Design/methodology/approach – The paper illustrates how scenario methods were used to, first, serve as a basis for policy recommendations for the field of European metrology research institutes and, second, help experts and stakeholders to network and actively discuss a shared vision of the future of the field.Findings – This case demonstrates the need for proactive strategic management which goes well beyond the instit...

Designs for life: new stakeholders and new spaces in the evolving services landscape

The extent and diversity of social and community innovations, i.e. primarily “bottom-up” innovations designed to address some of the problems generated and gaps left by contemporary capitalism (Pol and Ville, 2009), has grown remarkably in the past decade. The harnessing by community groups, social entrepreneurs and digitally or proximally connected activists of physical, intellectual, social and network resources to drive innovation that addresses needs that are not adequately met by conventional systems, has become an ever more present feature of the innovation landscape. An era of dramatic and dynamic economic change has also drawn attention to a posited polarisation in earnings, ownership of assets and access to resources. This, in turn, has stimulated debate with respect to how assets might be shared more equitably and the implications of this for corporations, governments and citizens.