Instituto de Gestión de la Innovación y del Conocimiento

A considerable body of work highlights the relevance of collaborative research, contract research, consulting and informal relationships for university–industry knowledge transfer. We present a systematic review of research on academic scientists’ involvement in these activities to which we refer as ‘academic engagement’. Apart from extracting findings that are generalisable across studies, we ask how academic engagement differs from commercialisation, defined as intellectual property creation and academic entrepreneurship. We identify the individual, organisational and institutional antecedents and consequences of academic engagement, and then compare these findings with the antecedents and consequences of commercialisation. Apart from being more widely practiced, academic engagement is distinct from commercialisation in that it is closely aligned with traditional academic research activities, and pursued by academics to access resources supporting their research agendas. We conclude by identifying future research needs, opportunities for methodological improvement and policy interventions.

The biological properties of dietary polyphenols are greatly dependent on their bioavailability that, in turn, is largely influenced by their degree of polymerization. The gut microbiota play a key role in modulating the production, bioavailability and, thus, the biological activities of phenolic metabolites, particularly after the intake of food containing high-molecular-weight polyphenols. In addition, evidence is emerging on the activity of dietary polyphenols on the modulation of the colonic microbial population composition or activity. However, although the great range of health-promoting activities of dietary polyphenols has been widely investigated, their effect on the modulation of the gut ecology and the two-way relationship "polyphenols ↔ microbiota" are still poorly understood. Only a few studies have examined the impact of dietary polyphenols on the human gut microbiota, and most were focused on single polyphenol molecules and selected bacterial populations. This review focuses on the reciprocal interactions between the gut microbiota and polyphenols, the mechanisms of action and the consequences of these interactions on human health.

Research collaborations between universities and industry (U-I) are considered to be one important channel of potential localized knowledge spillovers (LKS). These collaborations favour both intended and unintended flows of knowledge and facilitate learning processes between partners from different organizations. Despite the copious literature on LKS, still little is known about the factors driving the formation of U-I research collaborations and, in particular, about the role that geographical proximity plays in the establishment of such relationships. Using collaborative research grants between universities and business firms awarded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in this article we disentangle some of the conditions under which different kinds of proximity contribute to the formation of U-I research collaborations, focussing in particular on clustering and technological complementarity among the firms participating in such partnerships.

This study evaluated the possible prebiotic effect of a moderate intake of red wine polyphenols on the modulation of the gut microbiota composition and the improvement in the risk factors for the metabolic syndrome in obese patients. Ten metabolic syndrome patients and ten healthy subjects were included in a randomized, crossover, controlled intervention study. After a washout period, the subjects consumed red wine and de-alcoholized red wine over a 30 day period for each. The dominant bacterial composition did not differ significantly between the study groups after the two red wine intake periods. In the metabolic syndrome patients, red wine polyphenols significantly increased the number of fecal bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus (intestinal barrier protectors) and butyrate-producing bacteria (Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia) at the expense of less desirable groups of bacteria such as LPS producers (Escherichia coli and Enterobacter cloacae). The changes in gut microbiota in these patients could be responsible for the improvement in the metabolic syndrome markers. Modulation of the gut microbiota by using red wine could be an effective strategy for managing metabolic diseases associated with obesity.

Abstract Participative processes and citizens’ empowerment are considered crucial aspects of social innovation ( SI ), involving collaborative activities between the private, public, and third sectors. This article discusses the principal trends in the literature on the concept of SI , its aims and differential characteristics related to the identification of people's needs, citizen participation processes, and improved quality of life. We present an exploratory case study of SI focusing on the gap between elderly people's needs and the generation of business opportunities, using a living lab ( LL ) methodology for collaborative placed‐based innovation. Our results suggest that LL s are a useful instrument to detect community needs and improve local development and support and integrate technological and social innovations in policies and local governance processes.

I explore the sample size in qualitative research that is required to reach theoretical saturation. I conceptualize a population as consisting of sub-populations that contain different types of information sources that hold a number of codes. Theoretical saturation is reached after all the codes in the population have been observed once in the sample. I delineate three different scenarios to sample information sources: "random chance," which is based on probability sampling, "minimal information," which yields at least one new code per sampling step, and "maximum information," which yields the largest number of new codes per sampling step. Next, I use simulations to assess the minimum sample size for each scenario for systematically varying hypothetical populations. I show that theoretical saturation is more dependent on the mean probability of observing codes than on the number of codes in a population. Moreover, the minimal and maximal information scenarios are significantly more efficient than random chance, but yield fewer repetitions per code to validate the findings. I formulate guidelines for purposive sampling and recommend that researchers follow a minimum information scenario.

Per a adaptar-se a les necessitats de la societat actual, les institucions d'educació superior s'han de flexibilitzar i han de desenvolupar vies d'integració de les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació en els processos de formació. Paral·lelament, cal aplicar una nova concepció dels alumnes-usuaris, com també canvis de rol en els professors i canvis administratius amb relació als sistemes de comunicació i al disseny i la distribució de l'ensenyament. Tot això implica, al seu torn, canvis en els cà nons d'ensenyament-aprenentatge vers un model més flexible. Per a entendre aquests processos de canvi i els seus efectes, i també les possibilitats que els canvis i els avenços tecnològics comporten per als sistemes d'ensenyament-aprenentatge, convé que ens situem en el marc dels processos d'innovació.

This paper provides new evidence on the workplace skills most relevant in the transition toward environmentally sustainable economies. Using a novel data-driven methodology, we identify two main sets of green skills, namely, engineering skills for the design and production of technology, and managerial skills for implementing and monitoring environmental organizational practices. Exploiting exogenous geographical variation in regulatory stringency, we also evaluate the effect of environmental regulation on the demand of green skills for a panel of US metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas over the period 2006–14. The main finding is that while these changes in environmental regulation have no impact on overall employment, they create significant, if modest, gaps in the demand for some green skills, especially those related to technical and engineering work tasks.

This article proposes a new model for analyzing the determinants of absorptive capacity in companies. We suggest that absorptive capacity is determined not only by research and development activities, but also by a set of internal factors, which we group into three basic categories: organizational knowledge, formalization, and social integration mechanisms. In addition, we suggest that these factors may influence all components of the firm's absorptive capacity, and that the influence can be positive or negative depending on the applicability of the knowledge being absorbed. This paper thus advances the understanding of absorptive capacity by exploring a largely ignored aspect in the literature: the role of knowledge attributes. We show how the model can be operationalized and empirically tested and provide preliminary evidence supporting most of the propositions in the analytical model.

The purpose of the present paper is to disentangle the mechanisms that connect climate change-induced disasters, inequality and vulnerability by accounting for both directions of causality. We do so by means of a simultaneous equations approach on a panel of 149 countries from 1992 to 2018. The empirical analysis reveals that countries with higher levels of income inequality suffer greater damages when hit by a natural disaster. At the same time, inequality is found to increase the number of people affected by disasters. Our analysis discloses the existence of a vicious cycle that keeps some countries stuck in a disasters-inequality trap.

Little is known about how social entrepreneurs try to induce enactment of their cause, especially when this cause is difficult to embrace. Through a longitudinal study, we analyze how anti-plastic pollution social entrepreneurs use multimodal (visual and verbal) interactions to influence their targets and promote their cause. Our findings reveal that these social entrepreneurs use what we call “emotion-symbolic work,” which involves using visuals and words to elicit negative emotions through moral shock, and then transforming those emotions into emotional energy for enactment. The emotional transformation process entails connecting target actors to a cause, a collective identity, and the social entrepreneurs themselves. Our exploration of emotion-symbolic work offers new ways of seeing by emphasizing the use of multimodal interactions to affect emotions in efforts to influence target actors to enact a cause.

Zabala-Iturriagagoitia J. M., Voigt P., Gutiérrez-Gracia A. and Jiménez-Sáez F. (2007) Regional innovation systems: how to assess performance, Regional Studies 41, 661–672. This paper applies a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology to the evaluation of regional innovation system performance based on information provided by the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) for 2002 and 2003. Those European regions ranked in the EIS as showing better performance in high-technology areas are ranked somewhat differently according to DEA. The results of the present study show that the higher the technological level of a region, the greater is the need for system coordination. Where this is lacking there is a loss of performance efficiency compared with other similar regions. Policy-making in relation to Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) has in the past depended on systemic analysis. Here, a methodology is proposed that combines quantitative and qualitative analyses to enrich the knowledge base for future policy decision-making. Zabala-Iturriagagoitia J. M., Voigt P., Gutiérrez-Gracia A. et Jiménez-Sáez F. (2007) Les systèmes d'innovation régionaux: comment évaluer la performance, Regional Studies 41, 661–672. A partir des données pour 2002 et 2003 fournies par le European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), cet article applique la méthodologie de la Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) à l'évaluation de la performance des systèmes d'innovation régionaux. Il en résulte que le classement des régions d'Europe dont le rang selon l'EIS laisse voir une meilleure performance dans les secteurs à la pointe de la technologie, s'avère différente selon la DEA. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que plus une région est à la pointe de la technologie, plus les systèmes devraient être coordonnés. A défaut de cette coordination, la performance manque d'efficacité par rapport à d'autres régions similaires. Dans le passé, la mise au point de la politique pour ce qui est des Regional Innovation Systems (RIS – des systèmes d'innovation régionaux) dépendait de l'analyse du système. On propose ici une méthodologie qui associe des analyses à la fois quantitatives et qualitatives afin d'enrichir la base de connaissance quant à la future prise de décision. Systèmes d'innovation régionaux (RIS); Efficacité; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Zabala-ITURRAGAGOITIA J. M., Voigt P., Gutiérrez-Gracia A. und Jiménez-Sáez F. (2007) Regionale Innovationssysteme: Methoden zur Bewertung der Leistung, Regional Studies 41, 661–672. In diesem Beitrag wird die Methodologie der Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) anhand der Informationen des Europäischen Innovationsanzeigers (EIS) für 2002 und 2003 zur Bewertung der Leistung von regionalen Innovationssystemen eingesetzt. Wir fanden heraus, dass die europäischen Regionen, die im EIS für Bereiche der Hochtechnologie als leistungsfähiger eingestuft wurden, in der DEA etwas anders abschneiden. Aus den Ergebnissen unserer Studie geht hervor, dass bei einem höheren technologischen Niveau einer Region auch der Bedarf an Systemkoordination wächst. Wenn diese Koordination fehlt, geht im Vergleich zu anderen, ähnlichen Regionen Leistungseffizienz verloren. Politische Entscheidungen im Zusammenhang mit regionalen Innovationssystemen hingen bisher von Systemanalysen ab. Hier schlagen wir eine Methodologie vor, in der quantitative mit qualitativen Analysen kombiniert werden, um den Wissensschatz für künftige politische Entscheidungen zu bereichern. Regionale Innovationssysteme; Effizienz; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Zabala-Iturriagagoitia J. M., Voigt P., Gutiérrez-Gracia A. y Jiménez-Sáez F. (2007) Sistemas regionales de innovación: Cómo evaluar el desempeño, Regional Studies 41, 661–672. En este ensayo aplicamos la metodología del análisis envolvente de datos (AED) para evaluar el desempeño de los sistemas regional de innovación basándonos en información proporcionada por los indicadores de la innovación europea, conocido como European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) para el 2002 y el 2003. Observamos que las regiones europeas que según el EIS muestran un mejor desempeño en áreas de alta tecnología, se clasifican de modo diferente en el AED. Los resultados de nuestro estudio indican que cuanto mayor es el nivel tecnológico de una región, más necesario es coordinar los sistemas. Cuando esta coordinación no existe ocurre una pérdida de la eficiencia en el rendimiento comparado con otras regiones similares. Antes la elaboración de políticas con relación a los Sistemas Regional de Innovación (RIS) dependía de análisis sistemáticos. Aquí proponemos una metodología que combina análisis cuantitativos y cualitativos para enriquecer la base de conocimiento que sirva para tomar decisiones políticas en el futuro. Sistemas Regional de Innovación (RIS); Eficiencia; Análisis envolvente de datos (AED)

The concept of social innovation has become pervasive among practitioners and academics, though its definition remains elusive. This paper seeks to address this by suggesting a distinction between structural social innovation, which refers to wide social change in scale and scope, targeted versions of social innovation, which can be either radical or complementary to current socio-economic institutions, and instrumental social innovation, when it is used to rebrand previous agendas in a way that is more appealing to stakeholders. These four types of social innovation are discussed referring to practical examples in the literature. We then explore ways in which the concept could be further developed by engaging with the concepts of socio-technical transitions and the foundational economy.

Impact is increasingly important for science policy-makers. Science policy studies have reacted this heightened urgency by studying these policy-interventions meaning that policy has developed more quickly than theory. This has led to the prevalence of a ‘common sense’ impact definition: research’s societal impact are direct economic effects, such as income generated by licenses, patents, and spin-out companies. These indicators are recognized as weak proxies for research’s societal benefits, and in response, science policy has undertaken a huge descriptive effort to more precisely define impact. Social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines have been highly active in this because economic metrics are very poor measures of their societal impact. One interesting theoretical development describing diversity was Spaapen and Van Drooge’s ‘productive interactions’ concept. In this article, we seek to realize the potential that Spaapen and Van Drooge’s productive interactions concept offers, but which we argue has been lost through its operationaliation as a process of ‘counting interactions’. We address the need to pay attention not only to productive interactions, but to the changes they mediate. Therefore, we ask the following research question: how can we develop a typology that captures the diversity of the mechanisms by which SSH research leads to societal impact? Drawing on a comparative analysis of 60 examples of SSH impact, we develop a typology of SSH pathways to societal impact. Considering that the absence of societal impact of research is not necessarily a sign of uselessness of research in impact assessment, we address the importance of paying attention also to the conditions supporting impact processes.

The literature on socio-technical transitions pays increasing attention to the role of incumbent firms during transitions. These firms have been found to variably further, delay, or to ignore transitions towards a more sustainable society. Yet, it remains unclear which factors cause incumbents to display different modes of behavior during transitions, and which factors affect the transition’s impact on an incumbent’s survival. We engage this issue by reviewing five prominent organization theories. We first discuss how the transitions literature conceptualizes incumbent behavior and relate the open questions to major debates in the organizational literature. We systematically summarize each organization theory’s assumptions and expectations about incumbent behavior, and derive typical modes of behavior. Lastly, we discuss how an incumbent’s characteristics influence its behavior and survival. Overall, our review provides stable footing for researchers seeking to conscientiously judge which theories are most appropriate to understand incumbent behavior in the transition process at hand.

In this discussion paper, we outline and reflect on some of the key challenges that influence the development and uptake of more inclusive and responsible forms of research and innovation. Taking these challenges together, we invoke Collingridge's famous dilemma of social control of technology to introduce a complementary dilemma that of "societal alignment" in the governance of science, technology and innovation. Considerations of social alignment are scattered and overlooked among some communities in the field of science, technology and innovation policy. By starting to unpack this dilemma, we outline an agenda for further consideration of social alignment in the study of responsible research and innovation.

Blood sample preparation before LC-MS metabolomic fingerprinting is one of the most challenging and error-prone parts of the analytical procedure. Besides proteins, phospholipids contained in blood fluids are known to cause matrix effects and ion suppression phenomena, thus masking biological variation. Nevertheless, the commonly used sample preparation techniques do not consider their removal prior to analysis. Pooled plasma and serum samples were used as biological material, partly as raw samples and partly spiked with distinct concentrations of a metabolite mix (1-5 μg/mL). Prior to LC-ESI-qToF-MS-driven metabolomic analysis, samples were subjected to different preparation methods consisting of three extractions with organic solvents (acetonitrile, methanol, and methanol/ethanol), a membrane-based solvent-free technique, and a hybrid method combining solvent extraction and SPE-mediated removal of phospholipids. The comparative analysis among sample preparation procedures was based on the capacity to detect endogenous compounds in raw samples, differentiate raw versus spiked samples, and reveal real-life metabolomic changes, following a dietary intervention. Method speed, minimum sample handling, compatibility to automation, and applicability to large-scale metabolomic studies were also considered. The combination of solvent deproteinization and the selective removal of phospholipids was revealed to be the most suitable method, in terms of improvement of nonlipid metabolite coverage, extraction reproducibility, quickness, and compatibility with automation, the minimization of matrix effects being among the most probable causes for the good extraction performance associated with the removal of phospholipid species. The main advantage of conventional solvent extraction procedures was the metabolite information coverage for lipid low-molecular-weight species, and extraction with acetonitrile was generally the second choice for sample preparation. Ultrafiltration was the least effective method for plasma and serum preparation; thus, its use without a previous solvent extraction step of the samples should be discarded. According to the presented data, there is no apparent reason to believe that sacrificing information on lipid compounds is too high of a price to pay in order to gain more information on nonlipid LMW metabolites.

This paper focuses on the role of human capital in reducing the barriers to firms' engagement in innovation activities. The paper distinguishes between firms facing barriers that stop them from engaging in any innovation activity, and firms that face impediments in the course of their innovation activity. We investigate whether human capital has a particularly strong impact in relation to lowering barriers among the former group of firms, since a strong skill base is likely to compensate for lack of experience in innovation-related activities or the complementary assets needed for innovation. We draw on four waves of the Spanish Innovation Survey and examine the impact of human capital on three types of obstacles to innovation: cost, knowledge and market barriers. We find that human capital has a significant impact on reducing the barriers to innovation represented by knowledge shortages and market uncertainties.

Enthusiasm for using Twitter as a source of data in the social sciences extends to measuring the impact of research with Twitter data being a key component in the new altmetrics approach. In this paper, we examine tweets containing links to research articles in the field of dentistry to assess the extent to which tweeting about scientific papers signifies engagement with, attention to, or consumption of scientific literature. The main goal is to better comprehend the role Twitter plays in scholarly communication and the potential value of tweet counts as traces of broader engagement with scientific literature. In particular, the pattern of tweeting to the top ten most tweeted scientific dental articles and of tweeting by accounts is examined. The ideal that tweeting about scholarly articles represents curating and informing about state-of-the-art appears not to be realized in practice. We see much presumably human tweeting almost entirely mechanical and devoid of original thought, no evidence of conversation, tweets generated by monomania, duplicate tweeting from many accounts under centralized professional management and tweets generated by bots. Some accounts exemplify the ideal, but they represent less than 10% of tweets. Therefore, any conclusions drawn from twitter data is swamped by the mechanical nature of the bulk of tweeting behavior. In light of these results, we discuss the compatibility of Twitter with the research enterprise as well as some of the financial incentives behind these patterns.

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms (Big Pharma) during the period 1995–2009. The empirical findings present an industry in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. Finally, while publications by Big Pharma in emerging economies sharply increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on external research. These empirical insights support the view that Big Pharma are increasingly becoming ‘network integrators’ rather than the prime locus of drug discovery.