Government Support Mechanisms Research Articles

The importance of farmer education in South Australia

There is a significant challenge involved with balancing food security at local and global levels whilst mitigating the environmental and social consequences of the historically productivist agri-food system. This work will address the importance of education in the South Australian agricultural sector as a tool to maximise beneficial outcomes. The results of a blended method research project, which involved farmers and governance stakeholders in South Australia, are presented as empirical evidence highlighting the positive roles that formal education, in particular university education, have in regard to increasing sustainability. It was found that higher levels of formal education contributed to farmers being more likely to prioritise the socio-environmental outcomes of their agricultural land use. There was also a dramatic reduction in farmer concerns with government support mechanisms as education levels went from secondary or less, through to vocational qualifications, and finally university degrees. Interviews with agricultural governance stakeholders emphasised the role of education in building the adaptive capacity of farmers, and the subsequent positive outcomes for the future development of the South Australian agricultural industry. These results suggest that further education provides farmers with the capacity to compete effectively in a liberalised economy.

A framework for government support mechanisms aimed at enhancing university technology transfer: the Norwegian case

This paper presents a conceptual framework for overcoming the gap between academic research and commercial application, including the mechanisms through which government support can facilitate the transfer of research-based technologies into commercial application. The efforts made by the Norwegian Government to promote commercialisation of university research are presented and analysed. Based on the Norwegian experience, we describe three mechanisms for promoting the commercialisation of university research: 1 extending academic research into development 2 extending the role of commercial actors and investors who are 'receivers' of technologies developed on the basis of academic research 3 supporting the development and engagement of intermediators. The three mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, and implemented together can result in synergies that improve the yield from efforts to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial application.

The adoption of short-rotation energy cropping as a new land use option in the New South Wales Central West

Energy cropping based around woody native plants has attracted attention as a future land use option for rural Australia, with mallee eucalypts a particular focus. Potential benefits could include income for landholders, climate change mitigation and adaptation, enhanced energy security and revegetation of degraded or vulnerable land. However, the success or otherwise of this prospective industry ultimately depends on its adoption by rural landholders. Due to the unique position of woody energy cropping at the intersection of the agriculture, plantation forestry and energy sectors, its adoption is influenced by issues arising within each of these sectors, as well as by those emerging within this overlap zone.This paper explores landholder adoption issues relating to the production of blue mallee (Eucalyptuspolybractea) for bioenergy around Condobolin in the NSW Central West. Critical factors identified for landholder adoption at Condobolin include the size and consistency of returns from energy cropping, impacts on land use flexibility and past experiences with climate variability, regulatory change and government support mechanisms.

University Spin-Offs as Technology Transfer: A Comparative Study among Norway, the United States, and Sweden

Legislation concerning intellectual-property rights is changing, prompting universities around the world to focus more and more on the commercial potential of their research. One result is academic spin-offs. Our study compares academic spin-offs in the United States and Scandinavia, specifically Norway and Sweden. We found that four key dimensions— university relations, government-support mechanisms, industry relations, and equity funding—emerged as central elements in all cases. These four dimensions thus serve as comparative backdrops. We find important differences between the three countries, most markedly between the United States and the two Scandinavian countries. The idiosyncrasies of each country are discussed. We include implications for academic researchers, universities, and government agencies.

Diverse Contexts, Strategies, and Outcomes for Comparative Technology Transfer

Diverse Contexts, Strategies, and Outcomes for Comparative Technology Transfer Donald E. Klingner Introduction Technology transfer concerns the exogenous adaptation of innovations from their place of origin to other organizations, countries, or regions. As the articles in this issue of Comparative Technology Transfer and Society illustrate, the sustainability of diffused innovations depends heavily upon local contexts, requires innovative and flexible adaptation strategies, and results in diverse outcomes. Economic pressures and increasingly global research interests prompt universities around the world to focus on the commercial potential of their faculties’ research. One result is academic spin-offs. These have varied widely in effectiveness, leading researchers to investigate why some succeed while others have not. In the first article in this issue (University Spin-Offs as Technology Transfer: A Comparative Study among Norway, the United States, and Sweden), Norwegian scholar Alf Steinar Sætre and his co-authors assess the comparative effect of universities’ efforts capitalize on faculty inventions in these three countries. They identified four key dimensions—university relations, government-support mechanisms, industry relations, and equity funding—as central elements in all cases. Interestingly, they also concur with other researchers’ (Julnes & Holzer, 2001; Landry, Lamari, & Amara, 2003) conclusion that the distinctive and varied faculty-research cultures make it difficult for university technology transfer offices to cooperate effectively and consistently with government agencies and venture capitalists. In fact, they conclude that these offices seem to impede the development of startups and spin-offs as often as they help. The authors certainly suggest that increased competencies and a greater understanding of the innovation process among those who dole out grants might diminish waste and increase the effectiveness of government-support systems designed to advance the commercial prospects of technologies originating in universities. Technology transfer has played a similarly significant yet ambiguous role in national economic development. In the second article (Political Impediments to Technological Diffusion in Northeast Brazil, 1909–1964), historian Eve Buckley uses the case study of water-management projects in northeastern Brazil to study these effects. Beginning in the 1930s, Brazilian reformers sought to replicate the success of the Tennessee Valley [End Page vii] Authority (TVA) in the United States by using similar water-management projects to reduce drought, increase agricultural productivity, and generate electric power in the large northeastern region of their country. While the TVA had achieved tremendous success at using water-management infrastructure improvements not only to achieve economic objectives, but also changes in the political and social culture of Appalachia during the 1930s (Selznick, 1966), the Brazilian projects did not replicate these results. Paradoxically, although the water projects were intended to reduce the imbalance of wealth and power, their actual effect was to increase it. Infrastructure improvements (e.g., dams, roads, and irrigation canals) increased the security of landowners, their crops and their cattle, but did not reduce the poorest inhabitants’ vulnerability to drought or to the exploitative demands of their landowning patrons. In sum, Buckley concludes that underlying political and social factors (e.g., land ownership and class structure) trumped the otherwise admirable agricultural and economic objectives of moderate reformers and strengthened the argument of more radical reformers, who had unsuccessfully pushed for land redistribution in addition to infrastructure improvements. As always, this case demonstrates how local circumstances influence the outcome of international transfer projects designed to promote economic development. Economic-development literature generally supports this conclusion. While problems in one country may seem similar to those in another, most analysts (Borins, 1998; Jones & Kettl, 2003) are well aware that solutions that are effective in one context may not succeed in another. Thus the term “smart practices” (Bardach, 2000) is preferable to the more commonly used “best practices,” because smart practices bring into view the need to adapt in order to sustain exogenous innovations. While we can learn much from comparative studies, applying what we learn must always take account of a number of variables specific to the local receiving context (Jabbra & Dwivedi, 2004). In this case, this awareness helps explain why reform has ascended in the political agendas of some nations but not others (Barzelay, 2001, 2003). Smart-practice policy making emphasizes first elucidating and then reducing the mechanisms and factors that inhibit adaptation to contingency and...

Aquacultural biotechnology in Thailand: the case of the shrimp industry

For the past decade, Thailand has been the leading exporter of shrimp and shrimp products to the world market and the income generated contributes substantially to the Thai economy. There are more than one million people employed directly or indirectly by the industry. At present, there is forceful competition due to price differences among major shrimp growing countries and due to new regulations resulting from consumer demands about product safety and environmental friendliness. In addition, various new disease threats have emerged, making management of shrimp cultivation ponds more complex. In the face of these pressures, Thailand has succeeded in maintaining its position as the leading exporter of cultivated shrimp. This paper describes the strategies that have evolved to fuel this success. Changes in the government's role, public policy and support mechanisms, particularly via the industry cluster approach, are considered to be important driving factors.

Governments and universities as the main drivers of enhanced Australian University research commercialisation capability

In building capacity in research commercialisation and science‐based entrepreneurship, Australia has adopted neither the Swedish top‐down approach depending on government initiative, nor the American bottom‐up approach depending on incentive systems related to university ownership of intellectual property and a highly competitive and entrepreneurial university environment. Instead, Australia has used a combination of government and university initiatives and support mechanisms. While significant progress has been made, there is some measure of disagreement about how Australia's performance compares with that of other industrialised countries, and certainly in many cases income generation for commercialisation to date is less than anticipated. While both Commonwealth and state governments have well‐funded programmes to support innovation and commercialisation, there is reason for concern about the multiplicity of programmes and departments involved, about overall policy coherence, and whether business firms rather than universities are the main beneficiaries. University efforts generally have been assisted by their ownership of intellectual property and pressures towards increased entrepreneurial activities. But, with declining Commonwealth operating grants, many universities find difficulty in funding strong research commercialisation capacity without substantial cash flow from licensing or spinout companies.