Patrick Cohendet

European diversity in science and technology

A clear understanding of the concept and consequences of diversity in science and technology is a key issue for Europe, when considering the current debate on cohesion Put forward within the Single European Act. According to Article 130B of the Single Act, all European policies, including technological policies must contribute to the achievement of a greater cohesion throughout the EC.The European market is generally presented as mainly a patchwork of national or even regional characteristics, with compartmentalized niches, and specific regulations. But does cohesion mean decreasing disparities between regions, which in such case signifies a passive policy of reallocation of resources within the EC, at the risk of generating uniformity? Or, does cohesion mean integration of all innovative and creative efforts, which implies a more complex policy of stimulation, under the condition to maintain a certain diversity?Must the governments systematically reduce diversity, or on the contrary must they enlarge diversity? How can they distinguish between negative and positive aspects of diversity? How do they operate a trade off between economies of scale and economies of diversity? To try to answer these political issues and to set up a coherent industrial policy at the EC level, a careful analysis of the sources of diversity, of the mechanisms that generate or reduce diversity, of the ways to valorize diversity are discussed in this paper

Organization of Firms, Knowing Communities and Limits of Networks in a Knowledge-Intensive Context

In recent years, applied studies have shown widespread, profound and increasing heterogeneity across firms in terms of their strategy, organization arrangement and performance. This book investigates the diversity of business firms, offering a picture of the different organizational settings they adopt in their endeavour to cope with increasing competitive pressure.

Why are Public Organisations Needed for Agronomic Research

Tension around public budgets, the recognition of the limits of intensive agricultural production (together with the saturation of markets, worsening environmental problems, etc.), and the growing importance of private R&D efforts (especially in biotechnology) have caused public agronomic research to be called into question, in many countries. In the US, debate on the excessive weight of USDA and USAID research in the federal budget is particularly lively. In the UK, the Agricultural and Food Research Council has been abolished, basic research in biology has been integrated into the BBSRC, and near-the-market research has been privatised.