The new institutionalism in the context of Kosovo's transition:regulatory institutions in contested states

This article explores the new institutionalist literature in political economy in the context of Kosovo's contested statehood, focusing on institutional arbitrage and legitimacy. This article considers both the consequences of institutions for actors' behaviour and the norms that shape this, as well as the factors determining the legitimacy of institutions. In doing so, it combines the new institutionalist theory with documentary and interview material collected during research on energy regulation in one contested state, Kosovo. Rather than singling out one particular variety of "new institutionalism", the article attempts to blend insights from historical (or "political"), rational choice, and sociological institutionalism. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Informational institutions in the agrifood sector:meta-information and meta-governance of environmental sustainability

In the agrifood sector, the explosive increase in information about environmental sustainability, often in uncoordinated information systems, has created a new form of ignorance ('meta-ignorance') that diminishes the effectiveness of information on decision-makers. Flows of information are governed by informal and formal social arrangements that we can collectively call Informational Institutions. In this paper, we have reviewed the recent literature on such institutions. From the perspectives of information theory and new institutional economics, current informational institutions are increasing the information entropy of communications concerning environmental sustainability and stakeholders' transaction costs of using relevant information. In our view this reduces the effectiveness of informational governance. Future research on informational governance should explicitly address these aspects.

Manoeuvring towards research decline:the RAE and the decline of Britain's international research standing

Purpose: This research paper aims to examine the global trends in publishing in the leading marketing journals between 1964 and 2008, focusing on how public policy intervention in the assessment and funding of academic research has influenced Britain's relative productivity in the world's leading marketing journals. Design/methodology/approach: The method was an audit of contributions to the leading journals based on the authors' affiliation, country of origin and country in which they obtained their doctoral training. Findings: The results show that the proportion of leading marketing publications by authors affiliated to British universities have held steady at about 2 per cent, while the productivity of several other countries has accelerated past Britain. However, to retain that share, Britain has increasingly depended upon importing people whose PhD is not British. This contrasts with some other European countries that are now more productive than Britain, but mainly recruit locals with local PhDs. The pattern of decline in the UK is related to the impact of Britain's research assessment exercise and the continuation of relatively weak social science research training. Research limitations/implications: The analysis is limited by only looking at one academic discipline and only the top few academic journals in the field. Practical implications: The findings have implications at several levels. At a national policy level it questions the value of the research assessment exercises that appear to have presided over a decline in research productivity. For institutions, it questions the value in investing in developing local talent when success has come to those who buy talent internationally. Perhaps, the major implication arises from Britain's academic productivity declining while neighbouring countries have grown in international excellence. Originality/value: At a time when the continuation of expensive university research assessments is being questioned the research findings add value to the current debate in showing how that very process has accompanied academic decline. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Role of the educator in social software initiatives in Further and Higher Education:a conceptualisation and research agenda

Higher and further education institutions are increasingly using social software tools to support teaching and learning. A growing body of research investigates the diversity of tools and their range of contributions. However, little research has focused on investigating the role of the educator in the context of a social software initiative, even though the educator is critical for the introduction and successful use of social software in a course environment. Hence, we argue that research on social software should place greater emphasis on the educators, as their roles and activities (such as selecting the tools, developing the tasks and facilitating the student interactions on these tools) are instrumental to most aspects of a social software initiative. To this end, we have developed an agenda for future research on the role of the educator. Drawing on role theory, both as the basis for a systematic conceptualization of the educator role and as a guiding framework, we have developed a series of concrete research questions that address core issues associated with the educator roles in a social software context and provide recommendations for further investigations. By developing a research agenda we hope to stimulate research that creates a better understanding of the educator’s situation and develops guidelines to help educators carry out their social software initiatives. Considering the significant role an educator plays in the initiation and conduct of a social software initiative, our research agenda ultimately seeks to contribute to the adoption and efficient use of social software in the educational domain.

The relative advantage of marketing over technological capabilities in influencing new product performance:the moderating role of country institutions

Marketing and technological capabilities are major drivers of new product performance. Prior research has suggested that marketing capabilities outperform technological capabilities. This study shows that the relative advantage of marketing over technological capabilities for new product performance depends on the institutional context in a country. Meta-analytic data of 341 effect sizes of the relationship between capabilities and new product performance taken from 50 articles with 57 independent samples and collected in 17 different countries reveal new contingencies to the capabilities framework. Although in general, marketing capabilities have a stronger influence than technological capabilities on new product performance, this effect is moderated by institutional context factors. The relative advantage decreases and even reverses with increasing growth rates; it further decreases with increasingly stronger rules of law in a country; and it increases in societies that put emphasis on self-expression values over survival values. These findings contribute to research on the utility of different capabilities, inform the institution-based view of firms in international marketing, and provide implications for international marketing managers.

Financial innovation and engineering in Islamic financial institutions

Drawing from work found in the financial innovation literature, the main objective of this research is to explore the effect of religious orientation towards financial innovation and engineering in Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs). The research also examines what constitutes this religious orientation and how it is enacted in the innovation process. Religious orientation towards financial innovation is conceptualised and defined, as a system, in this research study. In order to achieve this objective, the study employs multiple theoretical perspectives to develop its theoretical framework. It combines innovation orientation theory with the theory on boundary objects to explore the role of religion in the financial innovation processes in IFIs. Religious orientation

Towards a 21st-century roadmap for biomedical research and drug discovery: consensus report and recommendations

Decades of costly failures in translating drug candidates from preclinical disease models to human therapeutic use warrant reconsideration of the priority placed on animal models in biomedical research. Following an international workshop attended by experts from academia, government institutions, research funding bodies, and the corporate and nongovernmental organisation (NGO) sectors, in this consensus report, we analyse, as case studies, five disease areas with major unmet needs for new treatments. In view of the scientifically driven transition towards a human pathway-based paradigm in toxicology, a similar paradigm shift appears to be justified in biomedical research. There is a pressing need for an approach that strategically implements advanced, human biology-based models and tools to understand disease pathways at multiple biological scales. We present recommendations to help achieve this.