Knowledge Production Capacity Research Articles

Beyond voice: An onto-epistemological analysis of maternal transition inquiry

The maternal transition is a key concept for studying first-time motherhood. Whilst qualitative research in this space has contributed much to understanding the psychological and sociocultural shifts in this transition, a broad adoption of conventional humanistic qualitative methodologies has produced linear and rather homogenous knowledges. In this article, we interrogate the onto-epistemological repercussions of such inquiry and cut into this work by plugging into feminist/new materialisms and critical posthumanism. We trace the trail of qualitative maternal transition literature by examining methodologies and methods to think through the limits and potentialities of their knowledge-production capacity. We read across the research practices of 56 maternal transition articles spanning the past 5 decades. We found most reside within a liberal humanist framework, which inevitably positions mothers as rational, agentic, disembodied, and responsible actors. We explore what is in-between, missing, or could be in future becoming-mother research assemblages. Through thinking with feminist/new materialist and critical posthuman theories as inquiry pathways, we open up the maternal transition as a constantly evolving and fluctuating process of becoming-mother. Findings underscore the importance of diversifying theory and methodologies in studying first-time motherhood and paying greater attention to the relations between human and non-human agencies.

The impact of customer assisted knowledge production capacity on customer capital in a knowledge-based center

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of customer-assisted knowledge production capacity on customer capital. Research methodology: The statistical population of the study consisted of 70 managers, researchers and experts of a scientific center and the statistical sample was counted and estimated 70 persons. The research instrument of the researcher-made questionnaire consists of six dimensions: ability to identify customer needs, create and manage a customer information system, customer loyalty, market share, customer service capability and target customer identification. The validity of the questionnaire was estimated 0.94%. Results: The results show that the impact of customer knowledge production capacity on all dimensions of customer capital is significant. Also, most influential among customer capital factors is customer service capability. Finally, by confirming the research hypotheses, suggestions were made based on the results of the research to improve the client's capital of the statistical society. Limitation: This research only described Knowledge Based Center. Contribution: Organizations realized that relying on existing knowledge alone was not enough to compete in a competitive environment, and went beyond the boundaries of their organization to acquire knowledge. Organizations considered customers as a very useful and knowledgeable resource, and activities should be done to interact with customers in leading organizations. Keywords: Customer assisted knowledge production capacity, Customer capital, Intellectual capital, Knowledge management

Invention and Open Innovation Processes, and Linkages: A Conceptual Framework

A conceptual model has been developed to present comprehensively the processes and linkages of invention and open innovation for those knowledge workers who want to transform idea of a new product or service into a reality. The progression of idea conceptualization, realization and marketing is further divided into two phases; first is invention and second is open innovation. These phases are integrated into a complex framework representing a comprehensive flowchart which provides a snapshot of gradual transition of invention processes into open innovation processes. The conceptual model rests on existing literature that methodologically connects access to finance, funding constraints, cognitive and social dimensions, skills, mental model, conceptual knowledge and knowledge production capacity of the scientists (i.e., knowledge worker), scope and pioneering of the invention, technological infrastructure, collaboration with private firms and universities and utilization of digital technologies. The invention, as well as open innovation activities, are discussed with respect to World Intellectual Property Organization and Global Innovation Index country rankings and the number of patents filed and granted to the world including Pakistan. The framework is a rigorous but rewarding process for a knowledge worker who designs and develops a new product, process, procedure, mechanism and methodology to serve humanity and the marketplace.

Does international student mobility foster scientific collaboration? Evidence from a network analysis

ABSTRACT The knowledge production capacity of a country depends not only on its internal innovation factors, but also on its ‘social capital’ in the global network. International student mobility networks have become an important component of social capital that affects a country’s knowledge production capacity. This study combines the social network analysis method and econometrics method to visualise and quantitatively evaluate international student mobility and scientific collaboration networks. Using a study period of 2001–2015 and data taken primarily from UNESCO (with the exception of China), we find that international student mobility and scientific collaboration have a high degree of spatial matching. Further, the national positions in scientific collaboration networks have a positive and significant correlation with their positions in international student mobility networks, leading to greater knowledge production and collaborative output.

A review of the process of knowledge transfer and use of evidence in reproductive and child health in Ghana

BackgroundThe paper carries out a situational analysis to examine the production, dissemination and utilisation of reproductive and child health-related evidence to inform policy formulation in Ghana’s health sector.MethodsThe study used Wald’s model of knowledge production, transfer and utilisation as a conceptual model to collect relevant data via interviews and administration of questionnaire to a network of persons who either previously or currently hold policy-relevant positions in Ghana’s health sector. Additional data was also gathered through a scoping review of the knowledge transfer and research utilisation literature, existing reproductive and child health policies, protocols and guidelines and information available on the websites of relevant institutions in Ghana’s health sector.ResultsThe findings of the study suggest that the health sector in Ghana has major strengths (strong knowledge production capacity, a positive environment for the promotion of evidence-informed policy) and opportunities (access to major donors who have the resources to fund good quality research and access to both local and international networks for collaborative research). What remains a challenge, however, is the absence of a robust institutional-wide mechanism for collating research needs and communicating these to researchers, communicating research findings in forms that are friendlier to policy-makers and the inability to incorporate funding for research into the budget of the health sector.ConclusionThe study concludes, admonishing the Ministry of Health and its agencies to leverage on the existing strengths and opportunities to address the identified challenges.

Brief Discussion of Cultivation and Advancement of Soft Power in Disciplinary and Specialty Construction of China Universities

The soft power of disciplines/specialties means that the discipline/specialty organizations are characterized by the non-materialized and functioning ability in a flexible manner. It is basically recognized that the soft power is composed of discipline/specialty culture and organizational institutions. The factors-driven module of discipline/specialty construction in China in the last several decades unilaterally paid close attention to the discipline/specialty hard power indexes and ignored the cultivation of discipline/specialty soft power, thus not resulting in the radical advancement of knowledge production capacity of discipline/specialty organizations. To build first-class disciplines/specialties is to emphatically hoist discipline/specialty organizational level and foster discipline/specialty soft power to offer the inside motivation for the comprehensive reform of disciplines/specialties.

Territorial embeddedness of natural resource management: A perspective through the implementation of Industrial Ecology

We address the territorial embeddedness of resource management: the way in which resource management is shaped by the territorial context in which it occurs, as well as the way in which resource management contributes to shape new territories. We demonstrate that Industrial Ecology (IE), as a specific resource management approach, can be used to gain new perspectives on territorial patterns emerging with resource optimization. First, we lay down a theoretical framework that should underlie the use of territory as a concept, building bridges between geography and IE. Then, drawing upon this theoretical framework, we develop a methodological structure that can lead to and manifest the process of territorial construction at work in IE. We test the knowledge production capacity of this theoretical and methodological approach to territory in IE by applying it to a specific case study in the Aix-Marseille Provence metropolitan area (France). This paper thus enhances knowledge about the territorialization process at work in IE, by identifying different IE territories within the same geographic area and positioning local stakeholders, understood as local inhabitants, with respect to territorial interfaces. Finally, we discuss how IE, as a specific resource management approach, questions the different aspects of the connection between people and geographical places in a natural management context.

Knowledge aid as instrument of regulation: World Bank's non-lending higher education support for Ethiopia

In the context of low-income countries, the role of donors in public policymaking is of great importance. Donors use a combination of lending and non-lending instruments as pathways of influence to shape policy directions in aid-recipient countries. This paper reports some findings from a doctoral study on the role of the World Bank in the recent higher education (HE) policy reform process in Ethiopia. It focuses on the nature and impact of non-lending assistance by the Bank to the Ethiopian HE subsystem. Based on an interpretive policy analysis of sector reviews and advisory activities of the Bank, and selected national HE policy documents, the following findings are highlighted. First, as a ‘knowledge institution’, the World Bank produces, systematises and disseminates knowledge through policy advice, policy reports, analytical sector reviews, and thematic conferences and workshops. Second, knowledge aid from the Bank not only has a profound discursive effect on shaping Ethiopian HE policy reform priorities in accordance with its neoliberal educational agenda but also undermines the knowledge production capacity of the nation. The paper also argues that, for an effective education policy support, the Bank needs to shift its modality of engagement from knowledge aid to research capacity building.

Review of research publications on educational leadership and management in Asia: a comparative analysis of three regions

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which calls over the past 15 years for increased empirical research on educational leadership and management in Asia have yielded increased knowledge production. The study analyses trends in research about and/or from Asia published in eight core educational leadership journals between 2000 and 2011. We provide an overall picture of the volume and impact of knowledge production in the region, as well as insights into change in the rate of knowledge production from the region over time. The study employs a comparative lens, specifically analysing differences in knowledge production capacity and impact across West, South and East Asia. These comparative analyses extend further to understanding variations in the contributions of different societies and universities across Asia. Although the research identified a disappointing level of overall publication in the region, interesting patterns were revealed with respect to the distribution of publications both across and within the three regions of Asia. Taken together the results suggest that progress in developing an ‘Asian knowledge base’ in this field remains stunted, and that regional capacity to produce empirical knowledge continues to be limited to selected societies and universities.

Forthcoming Issues

We address the territorial embeddedness of resource management: the way in which resource management is shaped by the territorial context in which it occurs, as well as the way in which resource management contributes to shape new territories. We demonstrate that Industrial Ecology (IE), as a specific resource management approach, can be used to gain new perspectives on territorial patterns emerging with resource optimization. First, we lay down a theoretical framework that should underlie the use of territory as a concept, building bridges between geography and IE. Then, drawing upon this theoretical framework, we develop a methodological structure that can lead to and manifest the process of territorial construction at work in IE. We test the knowledge production capacity of this theoretical and methodological approach to territory in IE by applying it to a specific case study in the Aix-Marseille Provence metropolitan area (France). This paper thus enhances knowledge about the territorialization process at work in IE, by identifying different IE territories within the same geographic area and positioning local stakeholders, understood as local inhabitants, with respect to territorial interfaces. Finally, we discuss how IE, as a specific resource management approach, questions the different aspects of the connection between people and geographical places in a natural management context.

A hospitalização e o adoecimento pela perspectiva de crianças e jovens portadores de fibrose cística e osteogênese imperfeita

The present article intends to discuss the results of a study completed in a hospital located in the municipal district of Rio de Janeiro, considered most prominent for child, adolescent and woman's health. We analyzed the meanings of hospitalization and chronic illness in childhood and adolescence through the perspective of children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis and osteogenesis imperfecta during their hospitalizations in order to explore their experience and communicative possibilities as knowledgeable informants. Hence, we privileged the observation and the construction of their productions through games, using drawings and/or story-telling as a relevant approach to childhood and adolescence contents. The data collected signify the acquisition and knowledge production capacity of children and adolescents concerning their illness processes.

University Strategic Planning in Cameroon

This article argues that the global, regional, and local realities can complement rather than contradict each other in the process of strategic planning for universities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using the case of the University of Buea in Cameroon, it attempts to use the global trends of polarisation in knowledge production capacity as an input or tool for identifying strategic choice in the process of strategic planning in institutions. The national policy background is used to highlight the context and inherent role of the central government in the process of institutional strategic planning.