Thomas Schøtt

World Science: Globalization of Institutions and Participation

Science is atypical because it is cultivated with communal participation from throughout the world. This global formation has evolved recently. It originates in the institutionalization of a cosmopolitan tradition in Europe. The cosmopolitan orientation and the perceived usefulness of the European tradition promoted its adoption and institutionalization in the non-Western civilizations. A global institutional frame, including a global science policy regime, sustains communal participation in world science. Participation is described in terms of individual, national, and global communalformations.

Relation contents in multiple networks

Abstract Distinctions among kinds of relations (friendship, advice, intimacy, and so on) are typically ad hoc in empirical research. These ad hoc distinctions among relation contents can be expected to increase the likelihood of equivocal research conclusions. We develop three ideas indicating how standard, well-known, network models of relationship form can be used to clarify relationship content. (a) We begin with an idea for recovering the semantic context in which a relation content occurs. This context is cast as a network of tendencies for contents to be confused for one another and the form of this network—dissected with network models of relation form—holds insights into the ways in which relation contents are understood in a study population. (b) The network concept of structural equivalence is used to define content domains composed of specific relation contents that are substitutable for one another in described relationships. (c) The network concept of network prominence is used to define the ambiguity of contents in described relationships. The proposed perspective is analogous to a linguistic componential analysis of relation content.

International influence in science: Beyond center and periphery☆

Abstract The global network of scientific influence has been described earlier as approximating a center and periphery constellation in which national scientific communities are stratified vertically by centrality, influence upon others in general, and centrality of a community has been explained by its creativity. By controlling for centrality, this study goes beyond the center-periphery conception and describes a network of particular influence among communities, segmented horizontally in six geopolitical regions of structurally equivalent communities. Particular influence by one community upon another is explained partly by intelligibility of the communitys publications and collegial and educational ties between the communities; ties that are shaped by political-economic affinity, cultural cooperation, geographical propinquity, and language commonality between the countries.

The Coupling between Entrepreneurship and Public Policy: Tight in Developed Countries but Loose in Developing Countries

In this paper we compare the coupling between entrepreneurship policy and entrepreneurship activity in developed and developing countries. Using new institutional arguments, we argue that developing countries will are prone to implement policies that (1) are based on experiences in developed countries which have not proven to transfer fittingly to developing economies, (2) are only partly implemented and are not internally consistent as a result of a lack of resources to do so, and (3) are more beneficial on paper than on actual activity. Following this perspective, the coupling between entrepreneurship policy and entrepreneurship activity is hypothesized to be lower for developing countries than for developed countries. Using GEM data correlating the TEA index of early-phase entrepreneurship with indicators of policies obtained from key expert informants supports this assertion.

Firms’ innovation embedded in their networks of collaboration: China compared to the world

Purpose: Innovation in a firm is performed in social contexts. Innovation is embedded in a network of relations around the firm, at micro-level, and in society, at macro-level. Innovation benefits from networking, but innovation, networking, and benefit of networking are hypothesized to differ between China and the rest of the world. Method: A fairly representative sample of 24,937 firms around the world, including 706 in China, reported on networking and innovation in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012. These data on firms in many countries are analyzed by hierarchical mixed-linear models. Findings: Networking and innovation are as extensive in China as abroad, and networking benefits innovation considerably, but the benefit in China is significantly less than in the rest of the world. Value: This study seems the first to ascertain benefit of networking for innovation in China compared to elsewhere, using representative sampling so findings generalize to China and the World.

Models of dyadic and individual components of a social relation: Applications to international trade

A relation to one actor from another is conceived to be made up of a part which is their cultivation of the relationship to one from the other in particular and hence is a dyadic component termed the “particular relation” and a part which conforms to their pursuit of relations with actors in general and therefore is determined by individual components, namely the recipients “attractiveness” as propensity to accept the relationship from others in general and the senders “expansiveness” as propensity to initiate the relationship generally. Formal modelling of a relation as a combination of its three components allows for estimation of each component, given observed relations among actors. Additive, mixed additive‐multiplicative, multiplicative, and loglinear models for decomposing a relation are considered. Earlier several models have been suggested for decomposing the trade relation between countries. Comparison of the estimates obtained under various models for particular relations in trade show that th...

Scientific productivity and international integration of small countries: Mathematics in Denmark and Israel

ConclusionI began with the hypothesis that the scientific productivity of a small country is promoted by the integration of research activities into the international scientific community. Integration occurs both individually and institutionally. The integration of individual research workers into the informal international movement of knowledge about problems, techniques and sharing in a particular branch of science, stimulates them and offers them a better chance of recognition by competent peers for their contributions to science. It thereby strengthens their incentive to exert themselves to the utmost in research. Institutional integration as the modelling of institutional arrangements in the small country on foreign academic organisation also increases productivity. In these ways, small countries can avoid being shunted to the periphery of world science.

Start-up firms’ networks for innovation and export: facilitated and constrained by entrepreneurs’ networking in private and public spheres

Research on how start-up firms utilize networks has focused on direct effects of either the personal network around the entrepreneur or the formal collaboration network around the firm. Combining those approaches, we model how a firm’s collaboration network is embedded in the personal network around the entrepreneur. With data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on 8918 start-up firms in 40 countries surveyed during 2012–2013, we examine (1) how entrepreneurs’ networking in private and public spheres is impacting firms’ collaborative networking, (2) how both the personal network and the firm network are impacting performance in forms of innovation and exporting, and (3) how embeddedness of the firm network in the private and public sphere networks around the entrepreneur is affecting innovation and export. The analyses show that the firm network as well as innovation and export are enhanced by the networking in the public sphere, but reduced by networking in the private sphere. Moreover, the benefits of firm network for innovation and export are strengthened by networking in the public sphere but weakened by networking in the private sphere. Finally, we find that innovation is a driver for export, and that this benefit is enhanced by networking in the public sphere, but decreases with networking in the private sphere. These findings refine our knowledge of the functioning of firms’ networking for innovation, especially the positive effects of networking in the public sphere and negative effects of networking in the private sphere.

Size, Diversity and Components in the Network Around an Entrepreneur: Shaped by Culture and Shaping Embeddedness of Firm Relations

The network around an entrepreneur is conceptualized as having structural properties of size, diversity and a configuration of components. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor has surveyed 61 countries with 88,562 entrepreneurs who reported networking with advisors. Cluster analysis of their relations revealed five components: a private network of advice relations with spouse, parents, other family and friends; a work-place network of boss, coworkers, starters and mentors; a professional network of accountants, lawyers, banks, investors, counselors and researchers; a market network of competitors, collaborators, suppliers and customers; and an international network of advice relations with persons abroad and persons who have come from abroad. Entrepreneurs’ networking is unfolding in a culture of traditionalism versus secular-rationalism. Traditionalism is hypothesized to reduce diversity and size of networks and specifically reduce networking in the public sphere, but to enhance networking in the private sphere. Cultural effects on networking are tested as macro-to-micro effects on networking in two-level mixed linear models with fixed effects of traditionalism and individual-level variables and random effects of country. We find that traditionalism reduces diversity and overall networking and specifically networking in the work-place, professions, market and internationally, but enhances private networking. These cultural effects are larger than effects of attributes of the entrepreneur. The personal network around the entrepreneur provides an embedding of the business relations around the entrepreneurs’ firm which are especially facilitated by the entrepreneur’s networks in the public sphere.

Soviet Science in the Scientific World System Was It Autarchic, Self-Reliant, Distinctive, Isolated, Peripheral, Central?

Autarchy, self-reliance, and distinctiveness of an intellectual tradition in a society can be expected to be promoted by isolation of the society. Until the early 1990s, geopolitical constraints made science in the Soviet Union a case of comparatively high isolation. Measures derived from the publications by Soviet scientists and their responses to questionnaires, however, show that, in considerable degrees, their selection of problems was influenced by Western literature, their solutions to selected problems relied on results from the West, and they emulated, deferred to, and valued recognition from peers in the West. Although Soviet science was a regional center within the Eastern Bloc, it was also—and is increasingly more so—a periphery attached to the Western centers of scientific influence.