Inquiry

The following interview with Dr. Les Roberts, Director of Health Policy at The International Rescue Committee (IRC), was conducted in May 2002. Previously, Dr. Roberts worked for WHO during the Rwandan Civil War of 1994 and at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, both in the Refugee Health Unit and at the National Center for Environmental Health.     

Who Reads Catholic Newspapers? Exploring Readership in a Changing Industry

Newspapers published by Roman Catholic dioceses represent a large and unexplored part of the religious publishing industry. This study attempts to shed light on the challenges these publications face by examining the readership of a diocesan newspaper in a large Catholic diocese in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Based on a comprehensive survey of 24,278 Roman Catholic households from 27 parishes throughout the diocese, this study finds a large gap in readership and engagement between older and younger readers, raising important strategic and pastoral questions for the newspaper in the years to come.     

What innovation managers really do: a multiple-case investigation into the informal role profiles of innovation managers

Over the last fifteen years companies tended to formalise their innovation management activities and to establish formal jobs like the innovation officer, the network manager or the innovation manager. Knowledge of the informal role profiles of these formal roles is still rare. HR and R&D Managers do not know which informal role profile might suit them best, thus having difficulties to assign the best candidates for jobs in innovation management. Researchers cannot help to resolve the problem. Our research answers the question what innovation managers really do, by analysing their tasks, skills and traits, theoretically based on informal role theories. Furthermore, we will analyse how these characteristics change with company size. To provide answers to our research questions we choose a multiple-case study approach. We found, among others, that innovation managers fulfil the role of the relationship and process promotor or a combination of both with the champion, but we also found, that the innovation manager’s roles profile becomes fuzzier with shrinking company size. Our results have practical implications for top management and also HR and R&D managers, enabling them to better select and steer employees in innovation management. Researchers will be able to build on our results because we offer a comprehensive understanding of the informal role profiles of innovation managers based on informal role theories.     

Congenial public, contrary press, and biased estimates of the climate of opinion

This field experiment focused on perceived public opinion about the use of primates in laboratory research. We used this contentious issue to examine the simultaneous effects of three hypothetical ideas-the hostile media perception, the persuasive press inference, and the projection bias-on partisan perceptions of public opinion. Our data supported the projection hypothesis but also confirmed that partisans on each side of the issue judged news articles to be biased in a disagreeable direction relative to judgments of those on the other side. The perception of relatively disagreeable media bias, in turn, influenced perceptions of public opinion. Results supported the hypothesis that people make inferences about the climate of opinion based on their reading of the news, especially the perceived slant of that news.     

Invariant structures of prognosis curves in Forrester's World Dynamics

This paper deals with some results of various simulations with Forrester's World Dynamics. These simulations concern the temporal and quantitative fixing of limits in relation to initial values and deal with the effects of specific table functions in this model. In addition, they also treat the behavior of the curves in approaching the limits.     

TEACHING TOOLS: COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN ECONOMICS

Cooperative learning is a structured, systematic instructional technique in which students work together in small groups toward a common goal. We demonstrate the effectiveness of cooperative learning with an illustrative example for teaching the labor supply curve. Recommendations for introducing the technique, forming groups, the instructor's role during group work, grading and extensions of cooperative learning to other topics are discussed.     

Venturing Jointly: Vienna's Innovation Economy

Vienna's role as Austria's largest innovative city-region depends upon many factors, of which a vibrant regional innovation system driven by joint research ventures is a key component. Between 1994 and 2002, various research groups located in the Vienna region participated in 7,334 research projects funded by the EU during the 4th and 5th Framework Programs. Organizations from this region were more likely than elsewhere in Austria to assume scientific leadership positions as project coordinators. The region specialized heavily in research concerning environment, information and communication technology, bio-technology, traffic, and general research topics. The region's most active organizations were concentrated in the city itself: universities, research organizations, small firms, and large firms were represented in a ratio of approximately 4:2:1:1. Among firms that participated, the largest ones dominated during the course of this period, although research participation by firms continually shifted more to small- and medium-sized enterprises. In terms of Austria, most research is concentrated in the about 30 most active postal-code zones, which in turn are dominated by the Vienna region. Over the full period, there is no evidence that Austrian research projects concentrated further and some types of research decentralized slightly. At the same time, the research participation of small- and medium-sized enterprises became more centralized within the Vienna region. The singular importance of stimulating further and more effective research in the Vienna region and its innovation system is obvious and these findings may be helpful in establishing policies that support key organizations, improve research infrastructure, and further stimulate the city's knowledge-generating system to ensure long-term innovation possibilities.