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Journal Name: Prometheus, Volume 12, Number 2, December 1994
Contents
Papers
The Economic Rationale of Universities: A Reconsideration
by Peter E Earl
Abstract:
This paper is an attempt to make a contribution to current debates about the reform of higher education by using the work of Ronald Coase on the nature of the firm as a framework for considering alternative institutional structures for delivering educational services. Attention is focused particularly on rival ways for coordinating the delivery of educational services and guaranteeing standards. Extreme market-based scenarios involving freelance academics and itemized billing for specific services are contrasted with the present system involving very incomplete contracts for academic employees and package deal purchases of degrees by students. Costs and benefits of different institutional structures are examined. The role of academic professionalism in limiting opportunistic behaviour is considered in relation to policies that involve an increase in auditing of tertiary institutions.
Keywords:
Accreditation, economic coordination, education policy, franchising, professional services, transaction costs
Telematics and Regional Development: A Research Literature Review
by Lars Qvortrup
Abstract:
This research literature review reflects the historical development of research in telematics and regional development, focusing particularly on the inherent research paradigms. In an early phase (the 1960s and 1970s, research was dominated by correlation analyses based on a communication model paradigm with communication as a cause-and-effect process. However, during the 1980s a large number of micro causational analyses were performed. This then led to a nee paradigm, according to which communication is a process of interference among complex social systems. This literature review concludes that although the complexity of the relation between telecommunication and regional development must indeed be recognized,. Currently, there is a need to assist policy making by trying to classify the "myriad of factor" identified during the "complex systems paradigm" tradition into a less complicated typology, and thus to reduce the numerous policy recommendations into a manageable number of integrated strategies.
Keywords:
Telecommunications, telematics, development, literature
Pricing of Research: What Will the Market Bear?
by Ralph Young, Bob Garrett and Chris Walsh
Abstract:
It has long been the practice of many competitive funding agencies to fund research at a level below full cost, and frequently to exclude salary costs. The implicit subsidy to beneficiaries has been a matter of concern to research performers as well as to government. More recently the greater emphasis given to competitive funding, reductions in direct appropriation funding, the setting of priorities by funding agencies which may differ from a research performer's assessment of priorities and the imposition of external funding targets on research performers by government with the aim of strengthening ties with industry have changed the nature of the game. The commercialization thrust associated with these changes has given the issue of research pricing greater priority. This paper considers a number of theoretical pricing issues against this background, including the relevance of marginal cost pricing and the impact of the marginal funding policy of granting agencies. A Commonwealth view of research pricing is then offered, based on recent work undertaken by a working party of the Coordination Committee on Science and Technology. The Paper concludes with a discussion of CSIRO's recent experience with research pricing and likely future directions for research pricing policy
Keywords:
Research pricing, marginal cost pricing, marginal funding, Commonwealth, CSIRO
TV Viewers' Choice: A Tale of Three Cities
by Keith Acheson and Christopher Maule
Abstract:
A comparison of options currently available to television viewers in three cities in Australia, Canada and the U.K. identifies more extensive choice in the last tow countries. Geographic location, the availability of overflow signals, attitudes to public and private broadcasting and the rate of adoption of new delivery systems such as cable and satellite care used to explain the regulatory decisions that have led to the existing differences. Technology is expanding the range of choice and will likely leave viewers with similar options in all three markets in the near future. The article examined the use made of auctions to allocate pay television and other licences and compares it to alternative allocative mechanisms. Our discussion provides a snapshot of a rapidly changing landscape.
eywords:
Auctions, content rules, regulation, technology, public broadcasting
A Symbiotic Model of Innovation Management for Collaborative Research
by Shantha Liyanage and Helen Mitchell
Abstract:
The proliferation of research collaborations amongst industry, university and public sector research organizations encourages and increases national innovative capacity. Innovation activities in research collaborations are governed by four major determinants that are critical for the transformation of new ideas generated within research organizations into commercial products, processes or user services. These determinants include the status of knowledge, organizational management factors, linkage mechanisms and market and user opportunities. Interaction between these determinants is important for an analysis of innovation cluster formed across different national research programs. This paper discusses the relationships between major determinants of innovation using a 'symbiotic' model which is similar to Michael Porter's 'diamond' model for competitive advantages of national industries. The model is applied to emerging 'innovation clusters' supported by the Cooperative Research Centres Program in Australia and is field tested at center level for its explanatory viability. The discussion provides insights into improved management methods for innovation in collaborative research arrangements
Keywords:
Collaborative research, Cooperative Research Centres, innovation clusters, innovation management, symbiotic model.
The Impact of Tele-networking on Research
by Ron Johnston
Abstract:
It is commonplace that communication technologies are altering the face of research…Networks have become an accepted part of the practice of science. Researchers continue to clamour for network capability, and devour network capacity and services as fast as engineers can deploy them. But there is much more growth and experience to come. We are at an early stage of the learning curve. Policies that influence the rate of adoption and degree of access to telecommunication channels have profound implications for science. At one extreme, as difference scientific disciplines adopt difference channels at different rates, the likelihood of cross-disciplinary research decreases and differences in the rate of progress in those disciplines become more obvious…At the other extreme, adoption of the same telecommunication channels at the same rate promotes the sharing of knowledge, extended research groups, more information transfer, and the rapid diffusion of scientific information - but undermines disciplinary boundaries and reward structures.
Keywords:
AARNet, Internet, networking, research, tele-networks
Organizational Change in the Australian Telecommunications Industry
by Ann Hodgkinson
Abstract:
The Australian telecommunications equipment sector appears to have shown a marked improvement in international competitiveness since the mid-1980s. This paper analyses the causes of this growth in terms of responses to changes in the global - particularly the Asia-Pacific - Market and market developments in Australia. This improved competitive position has resulted in organizational change within multinational firms based in Australia, with evidence of corporate specialization, growing intra-industry trade and emerging strategic alliances which will link the local industry more closely with global developments.
Keywords:
Aisa-Pacific, globalisation, government policies, organizational change, telecommunication equipment, trade
(This journal is available online: http://www.tandf.co.uk/online.html)
Posted with permission from the publisher.
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