Browsing by Subject "R&D"
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(2023)Developed economies face increasing pressures of to produce innovations that improve their competitiveness and resilience in a globalized economy. The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission as funding instruments for innovation have therefore gained significance in the increasing of its geopolitical power through competitiveness and resilience. While the Framework Programmes as a policy have been researched widely, the roles of its funded projects, that is consortia, as actors within the larger political context of research and development have been researched little. This research aims to contribute to the understanding on the ways in which researchers, commercial entities and third sector actors as part of research consortia influence the development of Framework Programmes from the bottom-up perspective. Through a political sociology approach, the role of consortia formation, social networks and role characteristics within consortia are used as concepts to their extent of explaining the ways in which non-state actors use Europeanization processes such as Framework Programmes to advance their interests and visions. The data was collected through in-depth semistructured interviews of ten Horizon 2020 consortium participants and two R&D experts and a reflexive thematic analysis method was applied. Consortium initiators were found to have a high relevance in their ability to interpret the call for proposal and thus determine the outputs that contribute to the overall impact of the Framework Programme, presenting a circularity in the Europeanization of R&D. By choosing to exercise their gate-keeping or agenda-setting power, the consortium core participants steer their interpretation of the call for proposal towards their desired direction. The social networks were mainly found to function as pools of contacts and as insurance against the uncertainties that come with the acting in an international setting but could also provide insider knowledge that advanced their social position and competencies of the consortium core, strengthening the ability to influence the Europeanization from bottom-up. The results indicate that the consortium formation, social networks and role characteristics can explain some of the impact that actors exert on the ouput of the Framework Programmes from the bottom-up, but more research needs to be done to measure their impact
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What’s next for Finland? : a broad inquiry into strengths and weaknesses of the economy of Finland (2020)Finnish economy performed remarkably well for decades after the war. Finland achieved an enviable standard of living with a combination of free-market capitalism and extensive welfare state. The long period of growth, which was temporarily disrupted by the 1990s depression, culminated in the spectacular rise of Nokia that pushed the entire country forward. Eventually the period of growth ended in global financial crisis of 2007-2008. While Finland’s neighbors were able to bounce back in few years, it took a decade for Finland to recover, and the effects of the prolonged recovery are felt yet today. This dissertation focusses on identifying the underlying reasons to Finland’s poor performance in recent years. The research question in this dissertation is broad: to identify significant trends and phenomena that cross sector boundaries and cannot be described by a single model and a narrow approach. The approach is to systematically review well established theories, sector by sector, and then present cross-country evidence to shed light on Finland’s economy. A lot of emphasize is on Schumpeterian endogenous growth theory, which explains why firms invest in research and development. Schumpeterian theory is tested with a panel data regression, using sector-level Product Market Competition data and data on triadic patent presentations. Data used in this dissertation is collected from public sources, including Statistics Finland, Eurostat, OECD, UN, ILO, WIPO and The World Bank. A Statistically significant and positive relationship between PMC and rate of innovation was found to exist using Finnish data for 2013 and 2017. As PMC has declined in key industries in Finland, it means that firms’ incentives to innovate have decreased. This coincides with austerity measures that have impacted public sector R&D spending. These factors, among with others, have contributed to Total Factor Productivity decline, which is worrisome. Other notable findings include Finland’s post-crisis growth in private demand, that substantially contributed to Finland’s recovery. However, much of that growth comes from spending on housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, that is related to steep increase in electricity transmission tariffs. In other words, increased spending reduced welfare. As overall conclusion, Finland needs a more strategic approach to economic policy. Finland would benefit from focusing on policies that spur innovation and generate growth, namely, stronger focus on market economy and R&D. Deregulation, supporting the market economy, and lowering the obstacles that stand in the way of immigration of skilled workers, are examples of those policies.
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