scholarly journals Public Support Agencies for Innovation in Multilevel Governance Systems: Exploring the Existence of Signs of Complementarity and Substitution

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer González-Blanco ◽  
Mercedes Vila-Alonso ◽  
Manuel Guisado-González
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Promotion Policies ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Seventh Framework Programme ◽  
Subsidiarity Principle ◽  
Policy Analysts

The aim of this paper is to analyze the existence of indications of complementarity/substitutability between the innovation agencies operating in Spain (regional, national, European, and Seventh Framework Programme), which will allow us to determine the corresponding asymmetries in the implementation of the so-called subsidiarity principle. The data used in the study come from the Panel de Innovación Tecnológica 2015 and 2016 (Spain). The empirical analysis has been carried out by the so-called adoption approach, having previously corrected the selection biases that may be present in the sample. The results obtained indicate that there are indications of substitution between the two Spanish agencies (regional and national), while other relationships between agencies exhibit indications of complementarity. These indications of complementarity/substitutability show that the implementation of the principle of subsidiarity between the two Spanish agencies seem to work correctly, while this implementation is much more diffuse between the two Spanish agencies and the two European agencies. Therefore, these results reveal that there is an obvious asymmetry in the implementation of the principle of subsidiarity between the different agencies. These findings may be an important guide in the decision making of managers. Knowing which agencies are substitutes and which are complementary is extremely relevant information, since it allows the advance determination of which combinations of agencies should be avoided. It also provides policy makers with relevant information for the design of more efficient innovation promotion policies. Finally, this research uses a new methodology for the evaluation of the interaction that takes place between the different public agencies for the promotion of innovation, thus contributing to policy analysts and academics, who conduct such evaluations, have at their disposal a new tool for analysis.

scholarly journals Understanding Preferences for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation: A Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8594
Author(s):  
Angela Mallette ◽  
Timothy F. Smith ◽  
Carmen Elrick-Barr ◽  
Jessica Blythe ◽  
Ryan Plummer
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Place Attachment ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Coastal Adaptation ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Response Policy

Lack of public support for coastal adaptation can present significant barriers for implementation. In response, policy makers and academics are seeking strategies to build public support for coastal adaptation, which requires a deeper understanding of peoples’ preferences for coastal adaptation and what motives those preferences. Here, we conduct a systematic literature review to understand preferences for coastal adaptation options and the factors influencing these preferences. Ninety peer-reviewed publications meet the inclusion criteria. The findings revealed that hard protection options were often the most frequently preferred, likely due to a desire to maintain current shoreline, for the protection of recreational spaces and private property, and a perceived effectiveness of hard protection options. Soft protection, including nature-based approaches, accommodation, and no action were the next most preferred options. Finally, retreat options were the least preferred, often due to strong place attachment. We identify twenty-eight factors that could influence preferences, with risk perception, place attachment, and financial considerations occurring most frequently in the literature. In the conclusion, we outline the most significant research gaps identified from our analysis and discuss the implication for adaptation research and practice.

scholarly journals Dispersive evaluation and surface chemistry of advanced, multifunctional silica/lignin hybrid biomaterials

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1860-1873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Nowacka ◽  
Łukasz Klapiszewski ◽  
Małgorzata Norman ◽  
Teofil Jesionowski
Keyword(s):  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Electrochemical Sensors ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Kraft Lignin ◽  
Morphological Properties ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Hybrid Biomaterials

AbstractAdvanced silica/lignin hybrid biomaterials were obtained using hydrated or fumed silicas (Aerosil®200) and Kraft lignin as precursors, which is a cheap and biodegradable natural polymer. To extend the possible range of applications, the silicas were first modified with N-2-(aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxsysilane, and then with Kraft lignin, which had been oxidized with sodium periodate. The SiO2/lignin hybrids and precursors were characterised by means of determination of their physicochemical and dispersive-morphological properties. The effectiveness of silica binding to lignin was verified by FT-IR spectroscopy. The zeta potential value provides relevant information regarding interactions between colloid particles. Measurement of the zeta potential values enabled an indirect assessment of stability for the studied hybrid systems. Determination of zeta potential and density of surface charge also permitted the quantitative analysis of changes in surface charge, and indirectly confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method for synthesis of SiO2/lignin hybrid materials. A particularly attractive feature for practical use is their stability, especially electrokinetic stability. It is expected that silica/lignin hybrids will find a wide range of applications (polymer fillers, biosorbents, electrochemical sensors), as they combine the unique properties of silica with the specific structural features of lignin. This makes these hybrids biomaterials advanced and multifunctional.

Health inequalities: still making policy in a fog?

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN POWELL
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
What Works ◽  
Health Action ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Unrealistic Expectations

What Works in Tackling Health Inequalities? Pathways, Policies and Practice through the Lifecourse S. Asthana and J. Halliday Bristol: Policy, Press, 2006Health Action Zones: Partnerships for Health Equity M. Barnes, L. Bauld, M. Benzeval, K. Judge, M. Mackenzie, H. Sullivan Abingdon: Routledge, 2005Health Inequality: An Introduction to Theories, Concepts and Methods M. Bartley Cambridge: Polity, 2004Status Syndrome: How your Social Standing Directly Affects your Health and Life Expectancy M. Marmot London: Bloomsbury, 2004These four texts on health inequalities are all very different books written by leading commentators with different academic backgrounds. This review will concentrate on the policy perspective that may be of most interest to many readers of this journal. It is also arguably the Achilles heel of the health inequalities literature. According to policy makers, much current research on health inequalities was of little use to policy making, and public health researchers have been criticized for political naivety, for lacking understanding of how policy is made, and for having unrealistic expectations (Petticrew et al., 2004: 815–816). Similarly, Klein (2003) points to the problems of ‘making policy in a fog’. The first two texts under review focus on policy and are written by policy analysts.

scholarly journals Empirical Assessment of Good Governance in the Public Sector of Malaysia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maizatul Akmar Khalid ◽  
Md. Mahmudul Alam ◽  
Jamaliah Said
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
The Status ◽  
Questionnaire Respondent ◽  
Service Groups

To improve the trust of citizens and delivery of services, employing good governance principles in the public sector is very crucial. Despite efforts to improve service delivery, criticisms and complains toward public services remain evident. This study aims to assess the status of good governance practices in the public sector of Malaysia. Primary data were collected from the responses of 109 department heads under 24 federal ministries to a survey questionnaire. Respondent perception of good governance practices was measured using a seven-point Likert scale and analyzed by descriptive statistics and path measurement modeling. Standard diagnostic tests were also conducted to check the reliability of the data and model. Results indicated that nine factors were significant in the measurement of good governance practices. However, very few people in the public sector of Malaysia practice fraud control, which is at the lowest intensity. Among the service groups, the engineer group practiced good governance at the highest level, whereas the health service group practiced good governance at the lowest level. Therefore, still there are scopes available to improve good governance systems to become more reliable and efficient public sector in Malaysia. Findings of the study will help policy makers improve the efficiency of the public sector of Malaysia and other countries.

scholarly journals How to Make Policy-Makers Care about “Wicked Problems” such as Biodiversity Loss?—The Case of a Policy Campaign

2021 ◽  
pp. 527-553
Author(s):  
Agnes Zolyomi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
The People

AbstractPolicy-makers define our lives to a great extent, and are therefore the people everybody wants to talk to. They receive hundreds of messages in various forms day-by-day with the aim of making them decide for or against something. They are in an especially difficult situation as regards the so-called “wicked” or “diffuse” problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss (Millner and Olivier, 2015; Sharman and Mlambo, 2012; Zaccai and Adams, 2012). These problems are limitedly tackled at the policy level despite their major socio-economic and environmental implications, which is often explained by their complexity with a sense of remoteness of effects (Cardinale et al., 2012; WWF, 2018). Communicating advocacy or scientific messages of biodiversity is therefore both a challenge and an under-researched topic (Bekessy et al., 2018; Posner et al., 2016; Primmer et al., 2015; Wright et al., 2017), where both social and natural sciences and both scientists and practitioners are needed to contribute (Ainscough et al., 2019). In order to be successful in delivering messages, communication not only needs to be self-explanatory and easy to consume but novel as well. It additionally helps if the message arrives in a more extraordinary format to draw even more attention. Based on experiences drawn from a conservation and advocacy NGO’s work, this chapter will divulge various socio-economic theories about creative methods, communication, and influencing decision-makers through a campaign fighting for the preservation of key nature legislation. It will be demonstrated how different EU policy-makers, including representatives of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament, the general public, and other stakeholders, were addressed with various messages and tools (e.g., short films, social media campaigns, fact sheets, involvement of champions). In addition to other key factors such as public support, knowledge of the target audience and political context, the probable impacts and limitations of these messages will also be elaborated. The relevance to the integration and employment of better socio-economic theories into improving communication is straightforward. It is crucial to tailor-make future advocacy work of “wicked problems” such as biodiversity loss and climate change, since these are not usually backed up by major lobby forces and are, therefore, financed inadequately compared to their significance. Understanding the way in which policy-makers pick up or omit certain messages, as well as what framing, methods and channels are the most effective in delivering them to the policy-makers, is pivotal for a more sustainable future.

Supporting Policy-Makers with Social Media Analysis Tools to Get Aware of Citizens' Opinions

2014 ◽  
pp. 121-156
Author(s):  
Timo Wandhöfer ◽  
Steve Taylor ◽  
Miriam Fernandez ◽  
Beccy Allen ◽  
Harith Alani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Facebook Pages

The role of social media in politics has increased considerably. A particular challenge is how to deal with the deluge of information generated on social media: it is impractical to read lots of messages with the hope of finding useful information. In this chapter, the authors suggest an alternative approach: utilizing analysis software to extract the most relevant information of the discussions taking place. This chapter discusses the WeGov Toolbox as one concept for policy-makers to deal with the information overload on Social Media, and how it may be applied. Two complementary, in depth case studies were carried out to validate the usefulness of the analysis results of the WeGov Toolbox components' within its target audience's everyday life. Firstly, the authors used the “HeadsUp” forum, operated by the Hansard Society. Here, they were able to compare the key themes and opinions extracted automatically by the Toolbox to a control group of manually pre-analyzed data sets. In parallel, results of analyses based on four weeks' intensive monitoring on policy area-specific Facebook pages selected by German policy makers, as well as topics on Twitter globally and local, were assessed by taking into account their existing experience with content discussed and user behavior in their respective public spheres. The cases show that there are interesting applications for policy-makers to use the Toolbox in combination with online forums (blogs) and social networks, if behavioral user patterns will be considered and the framework will be refined.

Labour Observatories for Agricultural Policymaking and Sustainable Development

2014 ◽  
pp. 56-63
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Crop Varieties ◽  
The Right

Assimilation of relevant information within a labour observatory is a key to success of an observatory. Management of such relevant information and its dissemination to the right audience at the right time is also important. In this regard, a labour observatory plays a very important role for successful operationalization of agricultural policies within developing countries. Historical information regarding soil, crop varieties, agricultural practices, and skill of agricultural labourers needs to be maintained by a labour observatory. Information from the observatory has to be communicated to policy makers for making a pragmatic decision in developing countries with large agriculturally dependent populations. These decisions can impact the lives of this population and can impact the sustainable development of these countries. Initiatives related to labour observatory started more than a decade back in developed countries. It has now begun in parts of Africa, too. The chapter highlights these developments and contextualizes the association between these observatories, agricultural policymaking, and sustainable development.

A Citizen-Centric Platform to Support Networking in the Area of E-Democracy

2013 ◽  
pp. 265-297
Author(s):  
Francesco Molinari ◽  
Christopher Wills ◽  
Adamantios Koumpis ◽  
Vasiliki Moumtzi
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Know How ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Electronic Democracy ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Successful Transfer

This chapter describes experiences acquired during the research work conducted as part of the European Project Tell Me (www.tellmeproject.eu). The project envisaged to support the pan-European creation of Living Labs as new forms of cooperation between government, enterprises, citizens and academia for a successful transfer of e-Government, e-Democracy, and e-Services state-of-the art applications, solutions, know-how, and best practices. In this chapter, authors explore the potential of providing an existing system (DEMOS) allowing moderated and goal-oriented discourses between the citizens and the policy makers to become parts of open-ended ventures to allow the creation of collaborative networks for Electronic Democracy. This work also recommends that this form of support network elevates e-Democracy of a country and thus improves e-governance systems at the grass roots.

A Citizen-Centric Platform to Support Networking in the Area of E-Democracy

2011 ◽  
pp. 282-302
Author(s):  
Francesco Molinari ◽  
Christopher Wills ◽  
Adamantios Koumpis ◽  
Vasiliki Moumtzi
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Know How ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Electronic Democracy ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Successful Transfer

This chapter describes experiences acquired during the research work conducted as part of the European Project Tell Me (www.tellmeproject.eu). The project envisaged to support the pan-European creation of Living Labs as new forms of cooperation between government, enterprises, citizens and academia for a successful transfer of e-Government, e-Democracy and e-Services state-of-the art applications, solutions, know-how and best practices. In this chapter the authors explore the potential of providing an existing system (DEMOS) allowing moderated and goal-oriented discourses between citizens and policy makers to become parts of open-ended ventures on the creation of collaborative networks for Electronic Democracy. This work would also recommend that this form of support network elevates e-Democracy of a country and thus improves e-governance systems at the grass roots.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Effects of Institutional- and Ecosystem-Level Variables on University Spin-Off Performance

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402093111
Author(s):  
F. I. Vega-Gómez ◽  
F. J. Miranda González ◽  
J. Pérez-Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Sales Growth ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Business Size ◽  
Ecosystem Level ◽  
The University

Academic entrepreneurship has been one of the main research fields over the past 20 years, specifically due to the interest of policy makers in this topic. Initially, this interest focused on the creation of university spin-off (USO) firms; although given the new circumstances of the university and its context, there is a need to steer the research topic toward survival. This is because the simple creation of USOs, without their being able to survive or create value, is useless. This article focuses on one of the determining factors of the success of USOs, as measured by employment and sales growth: the influence of institutional- and ecosystem-level variables. Through a backward sequential process, our results show that the business size and the public support in the field of training and bureaucracy are the main elements that affect success.

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