Innovation models and interdisciplinarity in science, technology and innovation policy in Costa Rica

Purpose This paper aims to analyse innovation models and interdisciplinarity in science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in Costa Rica between 2015 and 2021. The core focus is to evaluate the public policy in light of the groundwork that sustains the designed and proposed actions. Design/methodology/approach The authors applied a qualitative approach to build a set of dimensions and conducted content-analysis of selected documents. The analysis encompasses all current STI public policy documents in Costa Rica, including the planning instruments of the Central Government and the National Policy on STI. Findings The main findings show that STI policy in Costa Rica is based on different innovation models, but the projects and instruments themselves show the predominance of the reductionist model. Innovation receives a residual role. In turn, interdisciplinarity is based on the concept of convergence, which limits disciplinary collaboration to the natural, physical and engineering sciences, minimising contributions from other fields of knowledge to an instrumental role in innovation processes. Practical implications The authors conclude that the interlinkage between open innovation models, the participation of diverse societal actors and the inclusion of an interdisciplinary perspective leads to inclusive and more democratic public policy, allowing more sectors and organisations to benefit from innovation processes. This would imply a greater reach and impact of the policy, conditions that translate into innovation achievements and a better return on public investment. Originality/value This paper contributes to current discussions on STI policy by studying the implications of the link among policies, innovation models and interdisciplinarity.

How Does Government Policy Improve Green Technology Innovation: An Empirical Study in China

This paper divides government policy according to policy quantity, policy effectiveness and policy executive force so that the government policy can be quantified in more detail. Green patent data is used to represent green technological innovation, and the fixed effect model and panel data analysis from 2010 to 2019 are employed. The empirical results show that government policy has a significant direct promoting effect on green technology innovation. And the positive impact of policy quantity and policy effectiveness on green technology innovation is greater than that of policy executive force. In addition, the government policy will weaken the positive effect of enterprise innovation vitality on green technology innovation. Research conclusions also show that the direct and indirect effects of government policies on green technology innovation are heterogeneous. The government still needs appropriately policies adapted to the local situation, coordinated in policy quantity, policy effectiveness, and executive force, and accelerate the establishment of market-oriented green technology innovation environment. Different regions also should find the right green technology innovation policy scheme for their own regions.

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of European Innovation—An Exploratory Approach via Multivariate Functional Data Cluster Analysis

We apply a functional data approach for mixture model-based multivariate innovation clustering to identify different regional innovation portfolios in Europe, considering patterns of specialization among innovation types. We combine patent registration data and other innovation and economic data across 225 regions, 13 years, and eight patent classes. The approach allows us to form several regional clusters according to their specific innovation types and captures spatio-temporal dynamics too subtle for most other clustering methods. Consistent with the literature on innovation systems, our analysis supports the value of regionalized clusters that can benefit from flexible policy support to strengthen regions as well as innovation in a systematic context, adding technology specificity as a new criterion to consider. The regional innovation cluster solutions for IPC classes for ‘fixed constructions’ and ‘mechanical engineering’ are highly comparable but relatively less comparable for ‘chemistry and metallurgy’. The clusters for innovations in ‘physics’ and ‘chemistry and metallurgy’ are similar; innovations in ‘electricity’ and ‘physics’ show similar temporal dynamics. For all other innovation types, the regional clustering is different. By taking regional profiles, strengths, and developments into account, options for improved efficiency of location-based regional innovation policy to promote tailored and efficient innovation-promoting programs can be derived.

SUB-NATIONAL INNOVATION POLICY: A UNIVERSAL ENTITLEMENT TO EDUCATION GRANT IN SABANG, INDONESIA

This article studies a universal entitlement to education grant in Sabang that shows policy making at subnational government level in Indonesia. The policy is designed and implemented by Sabang municipality of Aceh province to help students at primary and secondary schools who would otherwise struggle with the cost of education. Desk study and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the major and high-ranking officials from related government departments in Sabang. The results show the central - local relations has not been easy to be understood by lower tier of governments. While the distribution of authorities between central and subnational government (such as: in education development functions) has not been well defined, the Sabang Education Grant (SEG) has been evidence of how a municipality government exercise the discretion and decision-making power. The transfer of authority and responsibility under the decentralization is instrumental in supporting the SEG policy formulation. The sub-national governments at special regions were given an authority to formulate policies to ensure all students have access to educational services. To implement this policy, Sabang municipality government regulate the operational procedures to implement the processes, define the technical guideline, establish the expert and management team as well as provide the tools to support the policy implementation.

Regulatory relationship on use and environmental protection in the innovative sphere

Problem setting. The functioning of legal relations of use and environmental protection is currently regulated by a number of regulations of different legal force and direction. All this legislation is aimed at ensuring a safe environment, stopping the negative climate change caused by industry, agriculture, low energy efficiency of buildings, lack of waste management system, as well as reducing carbon sequestration by the ecosystem. The object of research is the legislation that regulates the legal relationship regarding the use and protection of the environment in the field of innovation. The subject of the study is the state of the regulatory framework and legislative regulation of legal relations regarding the use and protection of the environment in the field of innovation. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Legal relations on the use and protection of the environment in the field of innovation have repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers. In particular, A.P. Hetman considered the issues of environmental and legal component of innovative entrepreneurship, G.V. Anisimova studied issues of environmental and legal aspects of regional innovation system, V.L. Bredikhina in the field of research were issues of legal support of environmental safety in the field of implementation innovation policy. Krasnova M.V. considered the introduction of innovative dominants of sustainable development in the environmental legislation of Ukraine. In addition, the scientific literature analyzed the legal basis for the introduction of innovative technologies in agribusiness (Bakai Yu. Yu.); legal support for the introduction of ecologically oriented innovations in Ukraine (Lebedeva T.M.), ecological innovation management in the mechanism of sustainable development (Zadykhailo D.D.). However, the study that would be aimed at analyzing the legal regulation of the use of environmental protection in the field of innovation was not yet, which prompted us to choose this topic of scientific work. Target of research is to identify and make proposals to current legislation in certain areas. The scientific novelty of the study is to make proposals to consolidate amendments to current legislation and proposals for the development of separate documents to regulate the functioning of legal relations of use and environmental protection in the field of innovation. Article’s main body. The normative-legal acts are researched, the scientific specialized literature is analyzed according to the chosen theme of scientific work. The need to amend the current legislation, the importance of developing regulations aimed at applying existing and developing new mechanisms to ensure the use and protection of the environment in the innovation sphere are identified and emphasized. Conclusions and prospects for the development. After analyzing the legal support for the functioning of legal relations of use and environmental protection in the innovation sphere, we came to the conclusion that today there is an urgent need to develop and implement a special legal act that would establish a set of measures to develop innovation in the use and environmental protection. The purpose of such a document, first of all, should be the mechanism of implementation of previously adopted regulations, expanding access to environmental information of the population, including interaction between scientific and educational institutions, the introduction of modern advanced technologies. As already noted during the dissertation, the issue we are considering goes far beyond just environmental legislation, so it should also be noted that the necessary harmonization of legislation between other institutions of law – economic, civil, tax and more. In addition to the above, I would like to emphasize that the Law “On Environmental Protection, acting as the main legislative document in the field of environmental relations does not enshrine issues of innovation, environmental innovation.

Communication in the era of digitalization

Russian scientific, technical and innovation policy is aimed at R&D results mainly in the technological sphere, which have little chance of transforming into commercial products due to the incompleteness of the formation of the national innovation system. Its main drawback is the lack of attention to ensuring effective communication between all participants in innovation. The digitalization of the economy is, first of all, the digitalization of communications. The essence of this phenomenon lies in the acquisition by the communication processes and, accordingly, in giving any communication an optimal, unified and most adequate form for the current stage of scientific, technical and innovative development based on a standardset of signals (numbers). The growing communication revolution not only enhances the role of science and innovation as the main instruments of competition, but also contributes to the process of integrating country NIS into the global network structure. The observed restructuring of the global economic space is accompanied by the emergence of digital platforms that are changing the landscape of the global economy by working with big data, gaining control over the functioning of the information circuits of the global economy and ensuring the interaction of all innovative actors through effective communications.

Impact of the universities on regional development in the Slovak Republic

In contrast to the traditional view on economics, related to productivity and economic growth, we focus our attention on the development of modern technologies, services, and the knowledge economy. The fast pace of technology innovations requires higher-quality education. In this matter, the objects of the research are universities that influence the population and economic development as well as the regional development as one of the involved institutions. The paper deals with the contextual analysis of the university environment within the conditions of regions in the Slovak Republic upon the selected subindexes, such as macroeconomic performance and stability, innovation policy, institutional quality, and the quality of human resources. The differences between the regions are analyzed through the Index of the quality of regional university environment (IQRUE) that enabled to recognize these differences better. The ranking of the regions has been created according to a daily index when interpreting the results by the comparison of each region. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Spearman’s ranking correlation coefficient were used to testing the relationship between GDP and science and research expenses. The results are presented in the tables and graphs. The conducted research enabled the identification of the deficiencies of the university environment in every region of Slovakia. As a result, some universities are disadvantaged within the competition. Continuous elimination of deficiencies should not be a priority of universities only, however, the entire society should prioritize it. The state, local self-government bodies should play the leading role to create the conditions to improve the quality of the university environment and pay attention mostly to the disadvantaged regions.