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Management of Basic Research and Development: Lessons from the Australian Experience
Abstract
Management of science and related basic research and development by the state is not a new phenomenon. In this paper it is argued, on the basis of recent Australian experience, that the conventional approach which assumes that the research community is a simple system is deeply flawed. Specifically, it is argued that any pattern of government funding which assumes linear relationships between funding and scientific outputs is unlikely to be productive. Further, it is suggested that a quantitative approach to research management is counter-productive to innovation. A range of ideas is used in developing a more productive set of policies for basic research and development.
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Notes and References
We would like to thank Dr. Denise Welch (Norwegian Business School, Oslo) for helpful comments during the writing of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies.
In Sam Garrett-Jones, Tim Turpin, Joan Bellavista and Stephen Hill, Using Basic Research: Assessing Connections Between Basic Research and National Socio-Economic Objectives, Commissioned Report No. 36, National Board of Employment, Education, and Training, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1995, p. 39.
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Jurgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Beacon, Boston, 1983, p. 9.
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Ibid, p. 8.
Ibid.
Shantha Liyanage and Helen Mitchell, ‘A symbiotic model of innovation management for collaborative research’, Prometheus, 12, 2, 1994, pp. 207–24.
See: Tim Turpin, Sam Garrett-Jones, Nicole Rankin and David Aylward, Patterns of Research Activity in Australian Universities, Commissioned Report No. 47, National Board of Employment, Education, and Training, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1996.
See: Ralph Stacey, Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics, Pitman, London, 1996; and R. Stacey, ‘The science of complexity: an alternative perspective for strategic change processes’, Strategic Management Journal, 16, 1995, pp. 477–95.
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See: Anne Carter, ‘Measuring the performance of a knowledge-based economy’, in OECD Documents: Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-Based Economy, OECD, Paris, 1990; and Donald Lamberton, ‘A crisis for Australian science: the erosion of organizational capital’, Prometheus, 12, 2, 1994, pp. 262–7.
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See: Harold Collins, ‘The TEA set: tacit knowledge and scientific networks’, Social Studies, 4, 1974, pp. 165-86; Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995; and John Steen, Dallas Hanson and Peter Leisch, ‘Collaborative research and development: new insights from cyclic models of the innovation process’, International Journal of Innovation Management, 2, 1, 1998, pp. 107–21.
Fiol, op. cit.
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Fiol, op. cit.
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see: Collins, op. cit.;, and Harold Collins, ‘The seven sexes: a study in the sociology of a phenomenon, or the replication of experiments in physics’, Sociology, 9, 1975, pp. 205–24.
Lamberton, op. cit., 1994.
Steven Fuller, ‘Social epistemology and the research agenda of science studies’, in A. Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992, pp. 390–428.
Michael Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Macmillan, London, 1990.
Fuller, op. cit.
Fiol, op. cit., p. 1013.