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Journal Name: Prometheus: Volume 22, Number 1, March 2004
Online ISSN: 0810-9028, Print ISSN: 1470-1030
Papers
The Integration of Innovation Policies: The Case of Canada1 (pp3-20)
TYLER CHAMBERLIN and JOHN DE LA MOTHE
Abstract:
Innovation is by definition a complex process, but policies geared towards stimulating innovation have tended to focus too narrowly on the production of new knowledge--on the funding and performance of research and development. Successful innovation is a matter of the identification, application and diffusion of knowledge--of creativity. It is therefore not simply a function of gross investments in science nor is it a function of the new production of knowledge. Innovation becomes more than a matter of 'science policy' and increasingly a matter to be integrated into trade, investment, monetary, industrial, labor, tax and competition policies. Yet this is extremely problematic for governments interested in creating a 'knowledge-based economy'. The integration of innovation into the core raison d'ˆtre of traditional policy is key.
Keywords: innovation, organizational learning, innovation strategy, competition, trade
The Rhetoric of a Juggernaut: AOLTimeWarner's Internet Policy Statement
(pp21-41)
JOEL H. AMERNIC and RUSSELL J. CRAIG
Abstract:
This paper addresses an issue of public policy regarding the Internet. It is motivated by the belief that the Internet is in danger of being controlled by a few megacorporations. We seek to understand the nature of such control by performing a textual analysis of the 'Internet Policy Statement' released by AOLTimeWarner in 2001. Our analysis reveals hidden assumptions, ideology and metaphor; highlights how rhetoric influences social expectations; and generally helps us make sense of the words of a mega-corporate managerial elite and how this elite views the Internet. We reveal a self-serving and persuasive public policy statement made by a corporate Juggernaut.
Keywords: rhetoric, Internet, public policy, metaphor, close reading, AOLTimeWarner
The Cost of Control: Speculation on the Impact of Management Consultants on Creativity in the BBC (pp43-70)
STUART MACDONALD
Abstract:
It is often claimed that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is no longer as creative as it once was. Management consultants and the management methods they encourage are often held to blame. While managerialism has certainly been rampant in the BBC over the last decade, it is not clear that creativity has suffered in consequence. The paper compares current concerns about the BBC with very similar concerns voiced by Tom Burns some 40 years ago. The comparison allows the tentative conclusion that management consultants and their methods are a symptom rather than a cause. What threatens creativity, and has always threatened creativity, is managerial control. Heavy reliance on management consultants seems to indicate a determination to control that is likely to be inimical to creativity. With sufficient managerial control, trust becomes superfluous and professionalism is judged in terms of loyalty to the organisation--the difference, as Tom Burns noted long ago, between working for the BBC and working in the BBC.
Keywords: management consultants, creativity, BBC, manager, management method, professionalism
Money, Markets and Microelectronics: Building the Infrastructure for the Global Finance Sector (pp71-82)
PETER MCMAHON
Abstract:
The rise of a global finance sector is one of the most salient aspects of the whole process of globalisation, and a true phenomenon of our times. Whilst various politico-economic changes were necessary to achieve this change, the simple fact is that it would have been impossible without the prior revolution in information and communications technologies (ICTs). These new technologies--such as semiconductors, computers, computer networks and communications satellites--when combined provided the necessary infrastructure for the emerging global finance system. This paper describes the way various finance markets, mostly American, grew and aggregated to form huge, global markets through the application of increasingly sophisticated and capable ICT systems. In doing so it foregrounds the essential role of sustained development in ICT capability in order to complement the analysis offered by literature written from neo-classical economics or institutionalist perspectives. The developing finance system was the product of many forces, but it was only when the appropriate technological, and particularly systemic, arrangements were in place that the finance sector could become truly global in scale.
Keywords: globalisation, post-war, finance sector, information technology
Innovation and Clustering among Information Technology Firms in Melbourne1 (pp83-98)
KAVOOS MOHANNAK
Abstract:
This paper investigates innovative activities, clustering and regional interaction of a group of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) firms in the metropolitan area of Melbourne. In order to make an evaluation of the regional innovation potential among the firms, a written questionnaire was sent to the selected firms. The focal point of the analysis lay in determining innovative activities within individual firms and degree of linkages between different firms. The results indicate that innovative relationships with customers and suppliers are stronger within the region and they tend to co-operate more on a vertical basis. However, the findings suggest that firms rely only partly on innovation partners within the region and to a considerable extent they are integrated in national and international networks.
Keywords: innovative linkages, clustering, information and communication technologies (ICT), regional innovation, Melbourne
(This journal is available online: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/08109028.html)
Posted with permission from the publisher.
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