The Role of Industrial Revival in Untapping the Bioeconomy’s Potential in Central and Eastern Europe

The bioeconomy occupies the centre of the Green Deal, the EU’s plan to support transformative growth following the COVID-19 episode. However, parts of the EU, such as countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) continue to lag behind in harnessing the potential held by the bioeconomy. This article argues that in CEE countries, where the primary and conventional bioeconomy sectors play a more important role, ‘early’ transition pathways such as improvements in productivity and practice- as well as commercialisation-oriented innovation (the do–use–interact model: DUI) are just as important as approaches based on (generally publicly supported) R&D, innovation adoption, and technology transfer (science–technology–innovation model: STI), typically associated with high-value bioindustrial applications. The argument is tested by conducting a survey of 352 experts in the region that gives an insight into the CEE macro-region’s assets with respect to deploying the bioeconomy’s potential and assessing the transition pathways relevant to the better performance of bioeconomy (primary, manufacturing, and other related) sectors. The results show the particular relevance of consolidating the primary and traditional sectors to support improvements in productivity based on the vertical and horizontal interaction typically associated with DUI, while the relevance of STI is mostly linked to advanced sectors, which are narrowly distributed across the region. The findings are relevant to policy given that the EU’s bioeconomy policy has thus far chiefly focused on STI support that better corresponds to the needs of countries at more advanced stages of developing the bioeconomy, but is less appropriate for the specific context and needs of CEE.

Effective Models of Reintegration for De-occupied Territories

The article aims to reveal the essence of the reintegration process of the occupied and de-occupied territories, determining the current state and characterizing the conflict in the East of Ukraine. Its components and implementation tools are analyzed, and foreign models of reintegration of the occupied and de-occupied territories are presented and evaluated; there is also determined the degree of their conformity for Ukraine. In this research, there was made an attempt to find the most effective model for the reintegration of Donbas, which would not only contribute to the demilitarization and restoration of state control in these territories, but also prevent the emergence of separatist movements, stimulate the process of returning, and integration of citizens to the social, cultural, economic and political life of their country of origin. It was stressed that the Ukrainian model for restoring the territorial integrity and reintegration of Donbas should be based on compromise and key issues that have a positive international grounding for which the government has a public support, combined with a strong national, international, and military one. There is a greater chance for working out a mutual standpoint of Ukraine and its international partners which would allow the conflict with Russia to be solved. It is noted that the problem remains since there is no consensus among citizens on the optimal way of restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine. That is why there is an urgent need to create a comprehensive strategy to restore the territorial integrity and reintegration of Donbas. It will have a necessary impact on all the parties of the conflict, and result in a publicly supported compromise. This can be achieved despite the current domestic and international peculiarities of the process; help can be expected from international experience in restoring peace as well as from the government’s approach to the process of reintegration and shaping up a unified state.

On the Distributional Outcomes of Policy-Induced Entrepreneurial Opportunities

This analysis empirically evaluates the effectiveness of entrepreneurial policies using the number and distribution of firms as outcome variables. The analysis occurs within the context of a natural experiment: the START-UP NY program. Implemented in 2014, START-UP NY created enterprise development zones adjacent to publicly supported universities (i.e., SUNY and CUNY campuses) within the state. New business start-ups operating within these zones, and within a specific set of technology and health-related industries received tax incentives that substantially lowered tax rates for a 5-10 year period. In 2016, the State of New York substantially altered its corporate tax structure; a policy initiative affecting firms, business owners, and households in the state simultaneously, and may also induce entrepreneurship. The results suggest that START-UP NY had a positive effect on the growth of New York's micro and small-sized firms operating in professional, scientific, and technical industries. START-UP NY also negatively affected micro-sized manufacturing firms, while positively affecting small manufacturing firms. The latter finding suggests that START-UP NY is effective in incubating micro-sized manufacturing firms that eventually grow into small manufacturing firms.

Toward a Global Public Repository of Community Protocols to Encourage Best Practices in Biomolecular Ocean Observing and Research

Biomolecular ocean observing and research is a rapidly evolving field that uses omics approaches to describe biodiversity at its foundational level, giving insight into the structure and function of marine ecosystems over time and space. It is an especially effective approach for investigating the marine microbiome. To mature marine microbiome research and operations within a global ocean biomolecular observing network (OBON) for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and beyond, research groups will need a system to effectively share, discover, and compare “omic” practices and protocols. While numerous informatic tools and standards exist, there is currently no global, publicly-supported platform specifically designed for sharing marine omics [or any omics] protocols across the entire value-chain from initiating a study to the publication and use of its results. Toward that goal, we propose the development of the Minimum Information for an Omic Protocol (MIOP), a community-developed guide of curated, standardized metadata tags and categories that will orient protocols in the value-chain for the facilitated, structured, and user-driven discovery of suitable protocol suites on the Ocean Best Practices System. Users can annotate their protocols with these tags, or use them as search criteria to find appropriate protocols. Implementing such a curated repository is an essential step toward establishing best practices. Sharing protocols and encouraging comparisons through this repository will be the first steps toward designing a decision tree to guide users to community endorsed best practices.

Organizational hybridity and mission drift in innovation partnerships

PurposeInnovation partnerships are a popular model for organizing publicly supported innovation projects. However, partners often have different timelines and planning horizons, understanding of purpose and concepts of value. This hybridity poses organizational challenges pertaining to trust, goal setting, learning and coordination, which may lead to “mission drift,” i.e. compromising or displacement of intended goals. Despite the risk mission drift poses, its underlying dynamics are not sufficiently understood, and the means to mitigate it are unclear. This study aims to address these questions.Design/methodology/approachThrough eight broad and one deep case study of innovation partnerships funded by Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD), the authors investigate how partnerships reconcile multiple expectations and interests within the IFD framework and how this might lead to mission drift. The authors draw upon existing theories on the organizational challenges of innovation partnerships and supplement these with new empirically based propositions on the risk of mission drift.FindingsThis study identifies a core tension between partnership complexity and the degree of formalization. Depending on how these dimensions are combined in relation to particular goals, the partnership mission is likely to become narrower or more unpredictable than intended. Thus, the authors theorize the significance of partnership composition and requisite formalization for a given innovation purpose.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the theoretical understanding of mission drift in innovation partnerships by opening the organizational black box of partnerships. The findings underscore the value of explorative case studies for specifying the contingencies of organizational design and governance mechanisms for different innovation goals.

Is a European Recovery Possible Without High-Tech Public Corporations?

Pervasive new technologies associated with information and communication technologies and software are dominated by a restricted oligopoly of US-based corporations. The challengers are no longer European firms, but rather Japanese or Chinese companies. The actions taken by the EU to fill this technology gap, including the Framework Programmes for research and technological development, are beneficial but still insufficient in terms of the resources committed. This article argues that the EU urgently needs to add another economic policy instrument to defy these incumbent firms, namely to create a few publicly supported large corporations in the areas of greater scientific and technological opportunities. This will be complementary to the already ongoing mission-oriented innovation policies. While there are the political and economic difficulties of implementing such a strategy, one recalls the pioneering venture of Airbus, established more than 50 years ago that has successfully managed to challenge the dominant US-based passenger aircraft producers despite several economic and political controversies. Could similar attempts be replicated for green technologies, healthcare services and artificial intelligence?

Enhancing the Authentication Scheme to Auditing the Cloud Storage and Security

Cloud computing has become a reality with new IT infrastructure based on several techniques such as distributed computing, virtualization, etc. Besides the many benefits that they can offer, cloud computing also comes with the difficulty of protecting data security. This paper first explores the basic concepts and analyzes the main aspects of data security about cloud computing. We then look at each problem, discussing its nature and existing solutions, if any. In particular, we will pay special attention to protecting data confidentiality/integrity/availability, data access, and monitoring, and complying with rules and obligations to ensure data security and confidentiality. With the fast advancement of organizing and portable gadgets, we are confronting a dangerous incensement of swarm sourced information. Existing frameworks as a rule depend on a confided in server to total the spatio fleeting publicly supported information and after that apply differential security component to bother the total insights previously distributing to give solid protection ensure. We propose a Modified appropriated specialist based protection saving structure, called MDADP that presents another dimension of various operators between the clients and the untrusted server.

John Stuart Mill and the liberal idea of Canada

The writer and politician John Stuart Mill played an important role in the two greatest constitutional moments of nineteenth-century Canada: he publicly supported Lord Durham’s 1838 report on Canada and he voted for the British North American Act (1867) that formed the Dominion of Canada. Mill had a part, in his own mind an important part, in Canada’s evolution from colony to self-governing dominion. I argue that his attitude to Canada was broadly consistent across these three decades and was consistent with his principled defence of liberal imperialism. But it was complicated by Mill’s relatively low opinion of the French Canadians who, he thought, lagged behind the rest of Canada in their development. That is why Mill supported Durham’s recommendation that they be assimilated into the English-speaking mainstream. I conclude that French Canada exposed the limits of Mill’s form of liberalism, which gave priority to the ‘civilising’ imperative over cultural diversity. And it remains questionable just how capacious Millian liberalism really is in accommodating cultural diversity.

CEOs as agents of change and continuity

PurposeChief executive officers (CEOs) are increasingly seen as change agents for gender equality, which means that CEOs have to lead others to achieve gender equality. Much of this leadership is going to happen through talk, which raises the question as to how CEOs talk about gender equality to act as change agents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the arguments of CEOs deploy.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on interviews with global CEOs, who have publicly supported gender equality work, the article draws on discourse analysis to understand the arguments of CEOs deploy.FindingsThe analysis shows that CEOs deploy three arguments. First, CEOs argue that women bring special skills to the workplace, which contributes to a female advantage. Second, CEOs argue that the best person for the job is hired. Third, CEOs talk about how biases and privilege permeate the workplace. The analysis shows that CEOs are often invested in essentialised views of gender while holding onto ideals of meritocracy.Originality/valueThe article suggests that how leaders talk about gender equality leads to continuity, rather than change in regard to gender equality.