Francisco Veloso

Navel Gazing: Academic Inbreeding and Scientific Productivity

The practice of having Ph.D. graduates employed by the university that trained them, commonly called “academic inbreeding,” has long been suspected to be damaging to scholarly practices and achievement. Despite this perception, existing work on academic inbreeding is scarce and mostly exploratory. Using data from Mexico, we find evidence that, first, academic inbreeding is associated with lower scholarly output. Second, the academically inbred faculty is relatively more centered on its own institution and less open to the rest of the scientific world. This navel-gazing tendency is a critical driver of its reduced scientific output when compared with noninbred faculties. Third, we reveal that academic inbreeding could be the result of an institutional practice, such that these faculty members contribute disproportionately more to teaching and outreach activities, which allows noninbred faculty members to dedicate themselves to the research endeavor. Thus, a limited presence of inbreds can benefit the research output of noninbreds and potentially the whole university, but a dominantly inbred environment will stifle productivity, even for noninbreds. Overall, our analysis suggests that administrators and policy makers in developing nations who aim to develop a thriving research environment should consider mechanisms to limit this practice.

Make–Buy Decisions in the Auto Industry: New Perspectives on the Role of the Supplier as an Innovator

Abstract Combining recent theoretical results related to the ownership structure of the firm with the notion of modular design, this paper provides a new framework to analyze the decision of the automakers of whether to develop a new component in-house or to subcontract it to a supplier. Older frameworks associated with transaction costs or principal–agent theories have often been associated with contradictory empirical evidence on make–buy development decisions. Our perspective follows some recent insights proposed by the property rights theory of the firm, whereby a decision to pass the development of the innovation from the assemblers to the suppliers exists when the supplier product shifts from being complementary to being independent of the assembler product. The hypothesis we explore is that modularization of the automobile is a strong enabler of product independence, being the key driver of increasing supplier responsibility. Our analysis is based on detailed case studies of two important innovations that were introduced in the automotive over the past decades: the Antilock Brake System (ABS) and the airbag. The paper evaluates the role of the suppliers and the assemblers in the introduction and development of the innovation, and explains how we can understand this role in light of the proposed framework.

Infrastructures, incentives, and institutions: Fostering distributed knowledge bases for the learning society

Abstract While much attention has been devoted to information and communication technologies, a more fundamental change at the start of the new millennium is the increasing importance of innovation for economic prosperity and the emergence of a learning society. The analysis in this paper shows that innovation should be understood as a broad social and economic activity: it should transcend any specific technology, even if revolutionary, and should be tied to attitudes and behaviors oriented towards the exploitation of change by adding value. We build on the idea of inclusive learning, which entails a process of shared prosperity across the globe following local specific conditions, and argue that it is crucial to understand the features of knowledge-induced growth in rich countries, as well as the challenges and opportunities for late-industrialized and less-developed countries. To achieve these objectives, we emphasize the relative importance of infrastructures and incentives , but considering the increasingly important role of institutions towards the development of social capital . This is because learning societies will increasingly rely on “distributed knowledge bases” as a systematically coherent set of knowledge maintained across an economically and/or socially integrated set of agents and institutions. This broad concept has motivated the work behind the present paper, which builds on material presented at the 5th International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), which was held in Delft, The Netherlands, in June of 2001. Under the broad designation of “critical infrastructures,” the Conference brought together a range of experts to discuss technology, policy and management in a context much influenced by the dynamics of the process of knowledge accumulation, which drives learning societies. Thus, this special issue includes a set of extended contributions to the Delft conference, and the aim of this introductory paper is to set the stage for these contributions, with an original contribution on possible views on the role critical infrastructures play to foster innovation in the learning society.

An output perspective on the teaching-research nexus: an analysis focusing on the United States higher education system

This empirical study demonstrates that teaching and research can be leveraged synergistically and contribute to research outputs. In particular, it is critical to consider the nature of the learning environment associated with the teaching effort. First, by distinguishing between graduate and undergraduate education, the authors conclude that involvement in graduate teaching can play a significant role in driving research output. Moreover, both undergraduate and graduate students can provide a valuable contribution to the productivity of faculty members if integrated in research activities where teaching and research are combined within a learning perspective.

Effects of the USA PATRIOT Act and the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness Act on select agent research in the United States

A bibliometric analysis of the Bacillus anthracis and Ebola virus archival literature was conducted to determine whether negative consequences of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” (USA PATRIOT) Act and the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness Act on US select agent research could be discerned. Indicators of the health of the field, such as number of papers published per year, number of researchers authoring papers, and influx rate of new authors, indicated an overall stimulus to the field after 2002. As measured by interorganizational coauthorships, both B. anthracis and Ebola virus research networks expanded after 2002 in terms of the number of organizations and the degree of collaboration. Coauthorship between US and non US scientists also grew for Ebola virus but contracted for the subset of B. anthracis research that did not involve possession of viable, virulent bacteria. Some non-US institutions were dropped, and collaborations with others intensified. Contrary to expectations, research did not become centralized around a few gatekeeper institutions. Two negative effects were detected. There was an increased turnover rate of authors in the select agent community that was not observed in the control organism (Klebsiella pneumoniae) research community. However, the most striking effect observed was not associated with individual authors or institutions; it was a loss of efficiency, with an approximate 2- to 5-fold increase in the cost of doing select agent research as measured by the number of research papers published per millions of US research dollars awarded.

The Impact of Virtual Technologies on Organizational Knowledge Creation: An Empirical Study

This study examines the processes of organizational knowledge creation in two highly virtualized teams, one involved in the design of a small city car and the second in the re-design of a small industrial vehicle. Using Nonakas model of organizational knowledge creation, we explore how the visualization of knowledge based processes, i.e. the intensive exploitation of ICTs in support of knowledge-based activities, has shaped new forms of knowledge creation both at individual and organizational level. In contrast with previous studies [1] that identified knowledge codification as the main contribution of ICTs, this study provides detailed micro-level evidence on the ability of virtual technologies to support the transfer and the creation of new knowledge both at explicit and tacit levels. Several implications for scholars and practitioners are presented.

Incentives, Infrastructure and Institutions: Perspectives on Industrialization and Technical Change in Late-Developing Nations

The current paper explores the role of incentives, infrastructure, and institutions in late-industrializing countries. We argue that all three dimensions are critical to understand differences in technological development and industrial trajectories across countries, because they shape government policies and firm strategies in terms of exports, subcontracting, and technology acquisition, among others. Moreover, we explain how recent insights in the theory of economic growth may be used to understand the incentive and infrastructure dimensions of development, even at a very micro level, but fall short of addressing institutions, a dimension our research has shown to be as critical. The paper analyzes these relationships through an in-depth analysis of the evolution of the auto industry in Taiwan and Mexico, characterizing the three dimensions and associated policies as well as market and technology outcomes. The key implication for research is that advancing growth theory, so that we may have a better understanding of late industrialization, requires a deeper micro research on the development patterns of these countries.

Spinoffs and the Mobility of U.S. Merchant Semiconductor Inventors

Data on inventors and assignees of patents are used to analyze the mobility of semiconductor inventors. Exploiting data on the origins of semiconductor producers with larger sales, we argue that the higher mobility of semiconductor inventors in Silicon Valley is in great part due to the entry of spinoffs there. Our empirical evidence suggests that spinoff entry promoted mobility in Silicon Valley even before the industry was clustered there. Agglomeration economies and the ban on noncompete covenants may influence spinoff entry, but spinoffs promote mobility even in the absence of those conditions. Because most of the greater inventor mobility in Silicon Valley corresponds to inventors moving from incumbents to recent entrants, the benefits that arise from greater mobility rates will be disproportionately reaped by new firms. This paper was accepted by Lee Fleming, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Virtual Design, Problem Framing, and Innovation: An Empirical Study in the Automotive Industry

This paper studies how problem framing by research and development groups, in particular the extent of problem decomposition, impacts knowledge replication processes conducted through the use of virtual simulation tools (VSTs). It presents the results of a comparative study of two research and development groups working on the design of hybrid propulsion systems. The research contributes to the literature on strategy and innovation in four ways. First, we identify three organizational and strategic factors affecting the problem framing decision. Second, we analyse the impact of problem framing on the use of VSTs and the related effect on knowledge replication processes. Third, we show the emergence of a new VST-driven knowledge replication process, i.e. functional replication. Fourth, we explain how VST-driven knowledge replication processes can attenuate the dangers related to the adoption of modular design strategies and address the replication vs. imitation dilemma.

UNDERSTANDING LOCAL CONTENT DECISIONS: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND AN APPLICATION TO THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

In industrializing regions, foreign investments often generate spillovers through regional backward links. This situation may create a gap between private and social valuations of resources, resulting in a level of local content below what would be optimal for the economy. This situation creates an opportunity for the enactment of domestic content regulations. This paper presents a model to understand how these policies condition the decisions of the economic agents and affect economic welfare. Then, it simulates the model using a case study of the automotive sector. Results suggest that, in certain conditions, this local content regulation can be welfare enhancing.