Technology and technology policy in the postwar UK : « market failure » or « network failure » ?

Korea reached the world’s highest level in terms of national R&D investment, but analysis has been conducted mainly through qualitative methods such as literature research and Delphi techniques rather than objective analysis of technology trends in the R&D planning stage by technology sector. In the case of the defense field, in particular, few studies have been conducted on quantitative trend analysis due to security and closeness, and existing previous studies have been analyzed limited to specific technologies. Therefore, this study attempted to improve the efficiency of analysis by applying patent data containing technical information to defense technology analysis using big data analysis methods and processes for quantitative analysis of technology trends. To carry out this, after collecting patent data from the Agency for Defense Development for 20 years, major R&D fields were derived using topic modeling techniques, and based on the results, the trend of technological change over time was examined. In addition, in order to find out the interrelationship between the derived topics, the association rule mining(ARM) was performed to identify which fields are being studied together and visualize the connection network. It is expected that the technology trends and analysis methods presented through this study will be effectively used to establish R&D technology policies.

PurposeThe issue of climate change raises new requirements for the way our societies work. Even though climate policy is regarded as being crucial on the way to a low carbon society, the coordination of technology and climate policy proves difficult. The purpose of this paper is to look closer into the challenges and experiences related to the coordination between climate and technology policy in order to draw lessons for the future integration of both policy fields.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper a case study approach is applied to the policy coordination efforts in two countries: Denmark and the UK. From a theoretical point the study is informed by the literature on the dimensions of policy learning and the findings of innovation and transition studies.FindingsThe case studies provide important lessons how important flexibility and continues policy learning and its institutionalization will be on the way towards a low carbon society. However, it becomes clear that the price of this flexibility is the risk of “symbolic action”, respectively, postponing emission reduction measures.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are drawn from two countries, however it remains not fully clear in how far the instruments and approaches from countries like Denmark and the UK can be applied in a similar way in other countries.Originality/valueThe paper provides an important discussion of contradictions between climate and technology policy from the perspective of the literature in innovation studies and policy learning.

Why should governments be involved in the provision of any good whatsoever? In theory, market failures are necessary but not sufficient conditions for justifying government intervention in the production of goods and services. Even without market failures, there might be a case for government intervention on the grounds of poverty reduction or merit goods (for example, mandatory elementary education and mandatory use of seatbelts in cars and of helmets on motorbikes). In every case, contends Belli, a case for government intervention must first identify the particular market failure that prevents the private sector from producing the socially optimal quantity of the good or service. Second, it must select the intervention that will most improve welfare. Third, it must show that society will be better off as a result of government involvement - show that the benefits will outweigh the costs. It is impossible to judge a priori whether or what type of government intervention is appropriate to a particular circumstance or even to a class of situations. Such judgments are both country - and situation -specific and must be made on a case-by-case basis. To be sure, it is easier to make such judgments about market failures based on externalities, public goods, and so on, than about the market failures based on imperfect information. Market failures rooted in incomplete markets and imperfect information are pervasive: Markets are almost always incomplete, and information is always imperfect. This does not mean that there is always a case for government intervention and that further analysis is unnecessary. On the contrary, there is a keener need for analysis. The welfare consequences of the new market failures are more difficult to measure so government intervention's contribution to welfare is likely to be more difficult to assess and the case for intervention (especially the provision of goods and services) is more difficult to make. One must also keep in mind that government interventions are often poorly designed and overcostly. Poorly designed interventions may create market failures of their own. Governments concerned about low private investment in high-risk projects, for example, may guarantee them against risk but in the process create problems of moral hazard and induce investors to take no actions to mitigate such risks. And some interventions may turn out to be too costly relative to the posited benefits. In seeking to provide extension services, for example, governments may incur costs that are higher than the benefits farmers receive. This paper - product of the Operational Services Team, Operational Core Services Network - part of a larger effort in the Bank to improve economic analysis.

The objectives of this study are to identify the possibility of new, future, and complex disasters resulting from environmental changes and corresponding requirements through the analysis of technology trends and safety services for disaster prevention, and to provide the basic data for the development of safety service technologies for people's safety and security. The R&D trends related to disaster safety are technology developments related to 1) search for future and new disasters, 2) integrated management of disasters and safety technology standards, 3) national continuity of operation management for disaster prevention, 4) disaster response, relief, and recovery, and 5) safety and security of vulnerable population. A review of various international cases reveals that appropriate technology development and policy support are needed, and that the role of disaster safety control tower and disaster management institutions is important. Also, integrated safety management technologies for new and future disasters, and development of technologies for large-scale disasters are needed, as is development of technologies for protecting people, including those vulnerable to paralysis of national infrastructure facilities. Keywords: Disaster Prevention, Safety Service Technology, Control Tower, Disaster Management, New and Future Disasters

Market failure and non-market failure theories are explained and systematised to enable the theories to function as a framework for the analytical work in the book. A literature review is conducted detailing the academic movements for and against free market efficiency theory leading to the theory of market failure. This leads to a description of market and non-market failures based on the theory presented in 1971 by Charles Wolf Jr, describing relevant market and non-market failures in relation to payment services regulation in the EU. To supplement the theoretical basis and enable an application in a legal setting, a workable definition of market and non-market failures as well as regulation is presented.

The issue of climate change raises new requirements for the way our societies work, and in particular how energy is provided. The reductions necessary to reach the internationally agreed target to limit the rise in temperature to 2° C are enormous and require technological and social innovations at several levels. In order to cope with this challenge the incremental improvement of existing technologies will be necessary but probably not sufficient. Therefore radical innovations are required, since the improvement of existing technologies alone will probably not be sufficient to meet the greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions considered to be cope with the effects of climate change (UNFCCC 2009; IPPC 2007; Stern 2006). Even though climate policy is regarded as being crucial in most European countries, the coordination of technology and climate policy proves difficult. Sometimes the interaction of climate and technology policy even leads to unintended and undesirable results. In the case of Denmark for instance it has been stated, that the Kyoto process has led to a decrease in technological innovation in the energy sector (Lund 2006). Furthermore recent attempts to policy integration, e.g. the UK Low Carbon transition plan (HM Government 2009) provide interesting examples of how governments try to coordinate different policy fields. The transition plan for instance explicitly aims at the field of technology policy in the domains of offshore wind, marine energy and electric vehicles. This paper will look closer into the challenges and experiences of the coordination between climate and technology policy applying a case study approach focusing on the experiences in the two countries mentioned previously: Denmark and the UK. The aim is to draw lessons learned from coordination efforts of the past and to identify best practices from the case studies. From a theoretical point the study is informed by the literature on the dimensions of policy learning (Nilsson 2005; Jachtenfuchs and Huber 1993) and the findings of innovation and transition studies (Geels et al. 2008; Sanden and Azar 2005).

With the continuous increase of science and technology policy, how to find valuable information from the massive scientific and technological policies has becoming an urgent problem to be solved. Thus, this paper proposes a subject discovery method for large scale science and technology policy set. Based on LDA subject model for science and technology policy document subject modeling, this approach extracts time and geographical labels of science and technology policy, computes intensity of subjects under different time and geographical conditions, and obtains important subjects and analysis of theme change trend of the intensity of subjects under condition constraints. Experimental results demonstrate that this method can excavate and analyze the subjects form large scale science and technology policies quickly and effectively.

This paper discusses some of the new policy challenges raised by the trend towards the knowledge based economy. It is argued that this trend signals a further weakening of old failure arguments in guiding public action in the field of science, technology and innovation policy. Rather a Schumpeterian perspective on technical change recognizing the intrinsic differences in the nature of the accumulation process across sectors and industries appears more and more warranted. Such an approach does, however, require from policy makers to pay much greater attention to the effectiveness of their policy tools with a focus on policy and institutional learning, rather than following a set of simple normative guidelines about market failures. While such policy and institutional learning can and has to some extent already been implemented in most of Dutch technology policy and is a focal point of OECD comparative analysis (best practice, bench marking), it is much more difficult to introduce at the European level.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine British policy towards Hong Kong from the protests of 2019 through political controversies in 2020.Design/methodology/approachThe paper offers a foreign policy analysis based on a chronological account of the public interventions made by London from April 2019 to the passage of the national security law in the middle of 2020. It discusses the factors which contributed to the UK's positions and looks in more detail at an issue which relates to the British colonial legacy: the status of British National (Overseas) passport holders.FindingsThe paper argues that the UK's policy was influenced by a combination of factors: developments in Hong Kong, the implications of and perceptions about its historical position as the former colonial power, the growing influence of lobby groups in the UK and Hong Kong (especially in agenda setting), and (to a lesser extent) the UK's wider relations with China. In trying to balance these, British policy tended to be reactive rather than strategic. London generally took positions sympathetic to the protest movement and political opposition, characterised in the paper as “soft partisanship”, shifting to clear opposition to Beijing's approach when the National Security Law was announced.Social implicationsThe paper helps to understand international policy towards Hong Kong.Originality/valueThe paper offers the first account of British policy towards Hong Kong during this period and adds to the limited existing literature on the UK's Hong Kong policy over recent years. This case study sheds light on wider questions of international perceptions of developments in Hong Kong during a tumultuous period in the city's history and informs broader studies of foreign policymaking.


 This paper analyzes science and technology policy in Latino America. Making use of panel data methods, we test for successful science and technology policy, and sup­porting innovation practices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. There are three paradigms that explain science and technology policy: the market failure paradigm, the mission paradigm, and the cooperative technology paradigm. The market failu­re paradigm assumes that market mechanisms will lead to optimal rates of science production and technical change. The mission technology paradigm assumes that governments may play an important role in the programmatic mission of agencies. The cooperative technology policy paradigm assumes that markets are not always the most efficient route to innovation. The results suggest that there is room for go­vernment involvement when defining a science and technology policy that aims to support the development of innovative capabilities. We conclude that mission and/ or the cooperative technology paradigms are adequate for defining a successful scien­ce and technology policy in Latino America.

After being among the earliest countries to embark on the East Asian path, Pakistan fell away but was still among the ten fastest growing economies of the world during 1960–90. However, the seeds for the subsequent economic and technological malaise were also sown in that period. This paper provides an overview of recent theoretical and empirical work on industrial policies – more accurately labeled learning, industrial and technology (LIT) policies – and examines their implications for Pakistan. These include a selective, more sharply focused approach than the comprehensive agendas of reforms that have become common. Substantial islands of success with industrial policies have emerged in a variety of institutional and governance settings, different from those of the original East Asian developmental states. They offer valuable lessons. Raising the abysmally low level of investment in Pakistan is a requirement as well as an outcome and an instrument of industrial policies. This argues for a revival of development finance to stimulate investment as well as to direct it towards selective targets. How to mitigate the risks of this and other instruments of industrial policy to get the risk–reward ratio right is another concern of the paper. An important target of such policies should be the technological upgrading of existing industries. There is enormous scope for doing so, with international comparisons suggesting that Pakistani manufacturing does poorly – both in terms of variance in productivity between firms within an industry as well as in introducing new technologies and products. Whilst the constraints of the politics–governance–security/terrorism nexus are beyond the scope of the paper, their salience cannot be underestimated.

Technology trend analysis offers a flexible instrument to understand both opportunity and competition for emerging technologies. Semantic information is used in Science, Technology & Innovation (ST&I) records which makes the technology trend analysis more challenging. This paper proposes a semantic-based approach for technology trend analysis through emphasizing Subject-Action-Object (SAO) structure, It also applies the trend analysis approach to extract technology information and identify and predict the trend of technology development more effectively. An empirical study on Graphene is completed to demonstrate the proposed trend analysis approach.

This paper undertakes a critical analysis of the strategies for fighting social exclusion currently applied in Latin America, with regard to science and technology (S&T) policy and the local production of technologies oriented to social inclusion. It considers two of the most significant countries (Brazil and Argentina) in terms of: economic growth, increase in R&D investments, and poverty-reduction programs during the last decade. However, this scenario contrasts with the persisting inequality in income distribution, as well as with persisting structural shortcomings. After a review of the economic growth and S&T policy trends (and the unresolved problem of structural exclusion) the paper examines the inadequacy of local S&T agendas concerning population needs and the problems involved in the performance of currently available technologies for social inclusion. The paper ends with an analytical--normative section related to strategic aspects of potential solutions to development and ex/inclusion issues. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

Neglected diseases: under-funded research and inadequate health interventions: Can we change this reality?

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this paper is to define a science and technology policy network in the form of a social network, from the perspective of policy documents, and then analyze it using the social networks analysis (SNA) method. METHODOLOGY: As a case study, the science and technology policymaking network in Iran is analyzed using the suggested framework in this research. The data used in this study were collected through the content analysis of 25 policy documents and an interview with 20 Iranian science and technology policy elites, before being interpreted using the social network analysis method and software such as NetDraw and UCINet. FINDINGS: The most pivotal science and technology policymaking institutions in Iran and the interactions between them were determined from the network viewpoint. This was achieved by performing a two-dimensional core-periphery analysis, identifying the cut points and blocks, and measuring the structural power of each institution using the degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality methods. IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE: The most important practical implications of this research are: the integration of a number of policymaking institutions, the division of clear and precise work between policy institutions, the design of vertical and horizontal coordination mechanisms between institutions, the elimination of interferences of some institutions in the tasks of the others, the design of complementary mechanisms to control the role of cutting points, and paying attention to the important activities in the margins of the network. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The most important contribution of this research is to develop a framework for studying science and technology policy and then to develop a method for studying science and technology policy based on SNA. Therefore, the framework for studying science and technology policy in a cycle consists of three stages: 1- Agenda setting and prioritization (at two levels of mega policies and meta policies); 2- Design and implementation or executive policies (in three parts: demand-side policies, supply-side policies, and networking and interconnection infrastructure policies); 3- evaluation and policy learning.