Showing papers by "Alexandra Waluszewski published in 2011"

“Betting on Science or Muddling Through the Network” : Two Universities and one Innovation Commission

Abstract: Since the mid 1990s the OECD, the EU and many national innovation policies have pointed to universities as the most important direct providers of solutions to use as sources of innovations for growth and societal welfare. Also, through their respective governments, universities are exposed to rather detailed requirements on how to fulfil the increased direct utilisation of research results. This paper takes a closer look at how two internationally recognised universities from the same country, namely Sweden, addressed the innovation commission. A case study investigates how the Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University interpreted and implemented the Swedish government’s commission on an increased utilisation of publicly funded research for innovation. The main finding is that both universities’ ways of fulfilling this commission are more directed towards ‘betting’ on potential innovations than on ‘muddling through’ the context of innovation.

CO-EVOLUTION IN TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT The role of friction

Abstract: The article debates the main forces driving change in the processes of technological development through resource combination. It discusses the role of resource interfaces and particular attention is given to the concept, borrowed from physics, of friction as a relational, time dependent and transforming concept. Friction is used metaphorically and its meaning is: “How an alteration force applied to one resource is transferred to resources it interacts with and how this friction can act both as a stabilizer and a de-stabilizer of existing resource interfaces”. Friction is thus analysed both as a negative and as a positive force that influences technological development processes.