Wie kann man in digitale Kulturen intervenieren? Wie eingreifen in soziale, politische und ökonomische Kontexte und wie technologische Bedingungen und Infrastrukturen verändern? Diese Fragen kreisen über den sich in Herangehensweise und inhaltlicher Schwerpunktsetzung stark unterscheidenden Beiträgen des 2017 erschienenen SammelbandesInterventions in Digital Cultures, herausgegeben von Howard Caygill, Martina Leeker und Tobias Schulze. Der Titel verrät, welche zwei zentralen Begriffe hier abgetastet und befragt werden: Intervention und digitale Kultur. Beide dienen den Leser*innen als Orientierungshilfe, sich in der Perspektivenvielfalt der Beiträge nicht zu verlieren. Die Einleitung gibt eine vage Vorstellung davon, wie die Herausgeber*innen Intervention und digitale Kultur zusammendenken. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass Interventionen auf der einen Seite den Infrastrukturen digitaler Kulturen unterliegen, diese aber auf der anderen Seite zugleich mitkonstituieren. Bei der Herausarbeitung dieses wechselwirkenden Moments der gegenseitigen Beeinflussung setzt das Buch an. Beide – digitale Infrastruktur und Intervention – werden mit der hier als Schlüsselbegriff verstandenen 'resilience' gedacht, die zum einen die technologischen Angebote selbst zu Agent*innen macht und damit die Performativität beider, der Infrastrukturen sowie der Interventionen, nochmals betont. Zum anderen wird die selbstreferenzielle Komponente hervorgehoben, da weder die infrastrukturellen Angebote noch die auf den Plan gerufenen Interventionen als lösungsorientiert verstanden werden. Vielmehr konstituieren sie ein System von Adaptionen und verweisen auf weitere Aktivitäten. Die wechselseitige Bedingtheit führt wiederum zum Paradox, dass Interventionen in die infrastrukturelle Umgebung digitaler Kulturen eingebunden sind. Folglich ist jeder Eingriff in diese Strukturen immer auch eine Bestätigung dieser, ein "feeding, unwillingly, the whole-earth-data-network" (S. 15). Das Buch hat nun den Anspruch zu überprüfen, in welcher Weise widerständige Praktiken dann überhaupt noch möglich sind. Auf methodischer Ebene ermöglicht dieses Fragen, Interventionen genealogisch einzubetten und die Konzepte und Diskurse dahinter neu zu denken. Schlüsselbegriffe wie 'resilience' unterliegen hierbei sinnigerweise keiner eindeutigen Definition, sondern sind bewusst offengelassen, um allen in den Band eingebetteten Zugängen Raum zu geben. Entsprechend fragen die Autor*innen bzw. Interviewten dann auch aus ganz unterschiedlichen Perspektiven danach, wie Interventionen als Störfaktor eines Systems fungieren, wann sie jedoch in ebenjenes System eingespeist und damit "ad absurdum" (S. 88) geführt werden. Nicht alle Beitragenden beziehen sich explizit auf digitale Kulturen; eine Historisierung zieht sich als Schlüsselkomponente durch viele Herangehensweisen. Zugrunde liegt dabei das Verständnis von Interventionen als "activities that engage in social and political contexts […] hoping to interrupt critical situations and ultimately change social, economic, or technological conditions" (S. 11). Dennoch geben die Herausgeber*innen keine klare Definition, sondern sehen den Band als ein "experiment in fostering thinking in ambivalences" (S. 139), was allein aufgrund der vielfältigen Zusammenstellung der Beiträge durchaus gelingt. Der erste Beitrag, ein Interview mit Fred Turner, stellt sogleich in einem historischen Vergleich das angeblich Neue in 'New Media' auf den Kopf. Turners These bezieht sich weniger auf eine technische, mehr auf eine gesellschaftskonstituierende Ebene, indem er Attribute wie egalitär, kollaborativ oder basisdemokratisch nicht allein dem digitalen Zeitalter zuschreibt, sondern Ideen eines gleichberechtigten Mediengebrauchs bereits in der us-amerikanischen Kurator*innenszene der 1940er-Jahre als Gegenentwurf zu "one-to-many media" wie das Radio oder die Zeitung (S. 23) sieht. Auch das problematische Demokratieverständnis hinter dieser 'unsichtbaren' Kuration ("some people know what is good for mankind better than others", S. 26) sieht Turner bereits dort begründet. Entsprechend warnt er davor, Interventionen mit künstlerischen Mitteln bereitwillig und unhinterfragt als kollaborativ zu verstehen, ohne ihre politisch relevante Geschichte mitzudenken. In der Frage, wie sich diese historiografische Betrachtungsweise auf aktuelle künstlerische Interventionen in digitalen Kulturen übertragen lässt, wird dieser Freiheitsanspruch von Turner wieder aufgegriffen. Denn die Imagination der 1940er- und 1950er-Jahre "as free in that world" findet sich in zahlreichen Versprechen sogenannter Sozialer Netzwerke wieder. Doch analog dazu müsse auch jetzt wieder der Gedanke an freie, bedingungslose Entscheidungen kritisch hinterfragt werden, denn: "I am free, but I am free in terms that are constantly being negotiated and set for me invisibly by managers, who work for states and companies" (S. 38). Turners Lösungsvorschläge sind insbesondere hinsichtlich des darauffolgenden Beitrags von Mitherausgeber Howard Caygill brisant. Denn während hier eine konstitutionelle Einmischung auf staatlicher Ebene denkbar wird, um die Macht des Oligopols digitaler Unternehmen zurückzudrängen, zeichnet Caygill die historische Entwicklung digitaler Netzwerke aus militärstrategischer Sicht nach. Bezugnehmend auf Carl von Clausewitz' posthum veröffentlichtes Werk Vom Kriege fokussiert Caygill seine Betrachtungen auf die Fragestellung nach der Bedeutung von strategischer Intervention ("strategic intervention", S. 47). Die von ihm beschriebene Ausgangslage ist die Forderung seitens staatlicher Mächte nach dem alleinigen Vorrecht auf Geheimhaltung und Informationsbeschaffung (insbesondere über digitale Medien, hier "the Internet"), was zwingend den Verzicht dieses Anspruchs seitens der Zivilgesellschaft nach sich zieht (vgl. S. 47). Zwar leugnet Caygill die schon frühe Entwicklung eines non-hierarchischen, dezentralisierten Netzwerkes nicht, doch betont er die Bestrebungen um Verschlüsselung und geheime Datenverfolgung sowie Informationsübertragung, die einer egalitären Nutzung von vornherein widersprach und das Internet als "an arcanum or space of secrecy [Herv. i. O.] " (S. 54) kennzeichnet. Alexander R. Galloway untersucht im Gespräch mit Martina Leeker die ambivalente Rolle der algorithmischen Bestimmung, die digitale Infrastrukturen offen und verschlossen zugleich erscheinen lässt. Die Frage bezüglich Interventionen richtet sich folglich nach den Möglichkeitsbedingungen widerständiger Praktiken innerhalb dieses ambivalenten Zustands (vgl. S. 62). Konträr zu Caygill sieht Galloway im Digitalen durchaus einen Raum für politischen Widerstand und spricht sich für "electronic civil disobedience" aus, dem durchaus nicht ganz unproblematischen Leitsatz folgend: "The Power isn't in the streets anymore" (S. 63). Konkrete Lösungen sind für Galloway sogenannte 'ad hoc networks', die außerhalb kommerzieller oder staatlicher Vermittlerpositionen funktionieren (S. 68). Widerständige Praktiken sind dabei als langfristige Projekte angelegt. Ein Gedankengang ist dabei besonders interessant: Obwohl digitale Kommunikation bereits auf Kürze und Schnelllebigkeit beruht, fordert Galloway diese weiter zu verkürzen und damit ein "network without data" zu konzipieren (S. 67), da lokal ohne weitere Vernetzung und Datenabgriff ausschließlich von Gerät zu Gerät kommuniziert werden könnte. Bezüglich der vieldiskutierten Algorithmen hinter digitalen Kulturen betont Galloway den Umstand, dass diese auf bestimmten Weltanschauungen basieren. Um ihre uniforme Darstellung zu durchbrechen, schlägt er vor, eben andere Perspektiven einzuschreiben, wie z. B. eine feministische und eilt damit Wendy Hui Kyong Chuns Betrachtungen voraus. Im Vordergrund stehen auch in ihrem Beitrag die technologischen Bedingungen von Intervention in digitalen Kulturen. Chun spricht sich allerdings dafür aus, Interventionen auf allen Ebenen zu suchen: "from hardware, protocols, software, and user interactions to how these are embedded in various economic and social systems and imaginaries" (S. 76). Damit ist sie die Erste des Bandes, die die Bedingungen digitaler Kulturen sowie das mögliche Eingreifen in diese multiperspektivisch betrachtet. Nicht neu, aber dennoch innovativ ist, technologische Infrastrukturen als Gewohnheiten ("habits") zu betrachten, denn dies eröffnet die Möglichkeit algorithmische Medien mit dem Prinzip der Homophilie zu denken. Homophilie nämlich ist es, was nach Chun die technologischen Strukturen und in weiterer Folge auch das Nutzer*innenverhalten beeinflusst und kennzeichnet. Eine Um- und Neugestaltung dieser Infrastrukturen könne nur über interdisziplinäre Zusammenschlüsse funktionieren, die der Gefahr entgegenlaufen, selbst Teil des Systems zu werden, in das eingegriffen werden soll (vgl. S. 83). Ulrike Bergermann wiederum bezieht sich in ihrem Artikel auf analoge Interventionen im Politischen, die sie als Eingreifen in eine laufende Sache, ein Stoppen, Innehalten, also als Blockade und Störfaktor versteht, der sich Fluidität und gleichbleibender Bewegung widersetzt. Ihr Beispiel betrifft das sogenannte 'human mic', eine Kulturtechnik ("social technologies", S. 88 und 95) des Protestes aus den 1970er-Jahren, die in der Protestbewegung Occupy Wall Street (OWS) im Herbst 2011 wieder aufgegriffen wurde. Bergermann versteht die Nutzung des human mic als neue politische Ästhetik eines Netzwerks von "human/technologies/imaginary" (S. 91). Bezugnehmend auf Nancys Konzept des Mitseins ("being-with"), stellt sie die Frage, welche Kollektivitäts- und Vereinzelungsstrategien darin hervortreten. Wenn Sein nur als Mitsein gedacht werden kann, steht die human mic-Bewegung vor der Herausforderung, ihre Behauptung "We are the 99 %" (S. 96) zu verteidigen: Formierungen wie die Gruppe POCupy legen offen, dass "[n]ot everybody had equal access to the human mic" (S. 98), was hier insbesondere für people of color zutrifft, die in der OWS-Bewegung größtenteils keine oder nur wenig Repräsentation finden. In dieser Weise muss nach Bergermann Nancy neu gedacht werden: "Interventions need mi-lieus insofar as re-thinking any space has to take into account how to connect in an unhierarchical manner, how this would be barred through supposedly antecedent structures, and how to approach the task of de-learning to put oneself first in line of perceiving and reasoning" (S. 100f.). Mit Steve Kurtz findet man wohl die techno-pessimistischste Perspektive des Bandes: Veränderungen hin zu weniger staats- oder ökonomiebedingter Überwachung hält er heutzutage für utopisch. Ähnlich wie Galloway vertritt Kurtz die Meinung, dass eine digitale Kommunikation ohne Metadaten – aus technischer Sicht – durchaus im Bereich des Möglichen und Umsetzbaren liegt, allerdings an den demokratiefeindlichen Strukturen des Kapitalismus scheitert. Eine systemimmanente Zäsur würde eine "reconstruction of the digital infrastructure" (S. 119) erfordern, die jedoch längst nicht mehr durchsetzungsfähig sei. Kat Jungnickel nutzt im abschließenden Beitrag des Bandes für ihre historiografische Arbeitsweise eine Anlehnung an die ANT, um über Interventionen zu sprechen. Ihr Fallbeispiel umreißt das Aufkommen des Fahrradfahrens im viktorianischen England und dessen Bedeutung für weibliche Mobilität, die durch die Bekleidung entweder ermöglicht oder eben verhindert wurde. Den Fokus auf "socio-technical systems and practices" richtend, die so weit in den Alltag integriert sind, dass sie selten bewusst wahrgenommen werden, eröffnet Jungnickel zumindest methodologisch neue Sichtweisen auf Interventionen in Bezug auf Körperlichkeit und Technologie, denn "the more mundane and trivialized something is, the more important its role probably is in daily life" (S. 126), entfernt sich jedoch von den titelgebenden digitalen Kulturen vollends. Die Stärke des Buches ergib sich sicherlich aus ihrer inter- und transdisziplinären Zusammenstellung: Theoretiker*innen der Philosophie, Politischen Theorie, Medienwissenschaft und Soziologie stehen im Austausch mit Aktivist*innen, woraus eine Methodenvielfalt entsteht, die wiederum die Ambivalenz von Interventionen veranschaulicht. Dieses Zusammenspiel bewusst nutzend, führen die Herausgeber*innen denn auch kein geringeres Ziel an, als die Konzeption eines "critical and practical guide for future interventions" (S. 17). Was diesen Band schlussendlich besonders interessant macht, sind also weniger die einzelnen Beiträge, die bereits aufgrund ihrer Kürze oft an der Oberfläche verbleiben. Doch der gegenseitige Bezug der Beitragenden aufeinander, ohne in einen tatsächlichen Austausch zu treten, stellt sich bei genauerer Betrachtung als enorme Bereicherung für interdisziplinäre Forschung im Bereich der Medienkultur- und Politikwissenschaft heraus. Während auf der einen Seite mehr staatliche Kontrolle des digitalen Kommunikationsbereichs (Turner) als Ausweg des ökonomisch bedingten Trackings betrachtet wird, wird dieser Gedanke im nächsten Beitrag (Caygill) aus historiografischer Perspektive hinsichtlich der Militarisierung digitaler Infrastrukturen, die Geheimhaltung, Verschlüsselung und Überwachung der Zivilgesellschaft impliziert, kritisch hinterfragt. Exitstrategien wie die bewusste Verweigerung digitaler Vernetzung (Galloway) finden ihren Gegenpol in der Herausarbeitung von Interferenzen zwischen unterschiedlichen Realitätsebenen, die digitale Kulturen eben nicht in einen virtuellen Raum abgrenzten, sondern Konsequenzen der digitalen Infrastrukturen auch auf den nicht-digitalen Bereich übertragen sehen (Caygill, Chun, Kurtz). Konzepte wie die des Habituellen und der Homophilie (Chun) werfen Fragen zu Kulturtechniken der politischen Intervention wie die des 'human microphone' auf, das als basisdemokratisches Mittel der Verschmelzung des Einzelnen und der Vielen gefeiert wird, aber zugleich als Repräsentation und Verbreitung nur einer Stimme/Meinung dient und damit durchaus ausschließend wirkt (Bergermann). In dieser Weise treten die Beiträge in einen imaginierten Diskurs (denn keiner der Beiträge bezieht sich tatsächlich und namentlich auf andere Artikel oder Interviews) und werfen mehr Fragen auf als sie Antworten geben können. Damit werden vielfältige Perspektiven und Denkweisen eröffnet, die eine hohe Anschlussfähigkeit mit sich bringen und die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Komplexität des Gegenstandes lenken. Denn so inflationär der Begriff der Interventionen auch gebraucht wird, zeigt dieser Band dennoch auf, wie notwendig und erkenntnisreich eine weitere Beschäftigung mit diesem hinsichtlich digitaler Kulturen ist. Die reflexive Methode muss als großer Mehrwert betrachtet werden, da sie in ihrer rhizomatischen Denkweise produktive Leerstellen und Denkanstöße bietet, statt dem Imago allgemeingültiger Theorien zu verfallen. Demnach wird der Anspruch "thinking in ambivalences" (S. 139) der Herausgeber*innen durchaus erfüllt.
Translating Resilience: A Framework to Enhance Communication and Implementation / Patricia H. Longstaff, Syracuse University, Thomas G. Kowslowski, University of Frieburg, and Will Geoghegan, Syracuse University -- Characteristics of Complex Socio-Technical Systems and Guidelines for their Management: The Role of Resilience / Tarcisio Abreu Saurin, Angela Weber Righi, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and Éder Henriqson, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul -- The Stress-Strain Model of Resilience Operationalizes the Four Cornerstones of Resilience Engineering / David D. Woods, The Ohio State University, Yong Jie Chan, Defense Science & Technology Agency, and John Wreathall, The WreathWood Group -- Turning Variability into Emergent Safety: the Resilience Matrix for Providing Strong Responses to Weak Signals / Fabrizio Bracco, Tommaso Francesco Piccinno, University of Genova, and Giorgio Dorigatti, Ormes Consulting srl -- Regulating Interactions across Multiple Centres of Control: An Airline Operations Control Perspective / Kenneth E. Igbo, Peter G. Higgins, Swinburne University of Technology, Simon Dunstall, CSIRO Mathematics Informatics & Statistics, and Peter J. Bruce, Swinburne University of Technology -- Episodic Adaptations and Trade-offs: Examples From the Victorian Construction Industry. / Manikam Pillay and David Borys, University of Ballarat -- To Rule, or not to Rule is not the question (for organizing change towards resilience in an integrated world) / Tor Olav Grøtan, SINTEF and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) -- Structure, Agency, and Resilience / Garth S. Hunte, University of British Columbia, Robert L. Wears, University of Florida and Imperial College London, and Christiane C Schubert, Vanderbilt University -- Levels of Resilience: Moving from Resilience to Resilience Engineering / Robert L. Wears, University of Florida and Imperial College London, and J.Bradley Morrison, Brandeis University -- Under Dangerous Conditions- SAFETY Construction and Safety-Related Work On Board of Merchant Vessels / Gesa Praetorius and Monica Lundh, Chalmers University of Technology -- Assessing Behaviour towards Organizational Resilience in Aviation. / Michaela Heese, Austro Control GmbH, Wolfgang Kallus, and Christa Kolodej, University of Graz -- Are trade-offs experienced and if yes, how? Studying organizational resilience through operators' dilemmas / Dimitris Nathanael, Vassilis Tsagkas and Nicolas Marmaras, National Technical University of Athens -- Resilience engineering in healthcare: Moving from epistemology to theory and Practice / Janet Anderson, King's College London, A. Ross, and P. Jaye, St. Thomas's Hospital -- Resilience Approach for Medical Residents / Robert Bezemer and Ellen Bos, TNO -- Precepts of Resilience Engineering as Guidelines for Learning Lessons from the Fukushima-Daiichi Accident / Masaharu Kitamura, Research Institute for Technology Management Strategy and Tohoku University -- Inter-organisational safety culture challenges in nuclear power design / Luigi Macchi, E. Pietikäinen, P. Savioja, M. Liinasuo, M. Wahlström, and T. Reiman, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland -- The Resilience Analysis Matrix (RAM): Visualizing functional dependencies in complex socio-technical systems. / Jonas Lundberg and Rogier Woltjer, Linköping University -- A Method for Visualizing Trade-offs in En-route Air Traffic Control Tasks / Daisuke Karikawa, Hisae Aoyama, Electronic Navigation Research Institute, Makoto Takahashi, Tohoku University, Kazuo Furuta, The University of Tokyo, Akira Ishibashi, Safety Management Laboratory, and Masaharu Kitamura, Research Institute for Technology Management Strategy -- Considering Trade-offs when Assessing Resilience / Eric Rigaud and ChristopheMartin, MINES ParisTech CRC -- Performance variability: Black and white or shades of grey? / Miranda Cornelissen, Monash University, Paul M. Salmon, University of the Sunshine Coast, Roderick McClure, Monash University, and Neville A. Stanton, University of Southampton -- How the Simplification of Work Can Degrade Safety: A Gas Company Case Study / Hortense Blazsin, Franck Guarnieri, and Christophe Martin, MINES ParisTech -- Analysis of the human role in the resilience of air traffic management. / Sybert H. Stroeve, Bas A. van Doorn, and Mariken H.C. Everdij, National Aerospace Laboratory NLR -- The relevance of resources for resilience at different organizational levels within the military deployment cycle / Wim Kamphuis and Roos Delahaij, TNO -- Sociotechnical Systems Issues in Worker Safety: Implications for Managing System Tradeoffs / Lawrence J. Hettinger, Marvin J. Dainoff, Michelle M. Robertson and Yueng-Hsiang Huang, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety -- Identifying Imbalances in a Portfolio of Safety Metrics: The Q4-Balance Framework for Economy-Safety Tradeoffs / David D. Woods, The Ohio State University, Ivonne Herrera, SINTEF, Matthieu Branlat, 361 Interactive LLC, and Rogier Woltjer, Swedish Defence Research Agency -- Planning Measuring Resilience Potential and Early Warnings (SCALES) / Ivonne A. Herrera, A. Vennesland, SINTEF, A. Pasquini and S. Silvagni, Deep Blue SrL -- Understanding Resilience in Flight Operations: "Find the story behind flight safety reports and learn from successes." / Arthur Dijkstra, ADMC -- Sending up a FLARE: Enhancing resilience in industrial maintenance through the timely mobilization of remote experts / Elizabeth Lay, Calpine Corporation, and Matthieu Branlat, 361 Interactive LLC -- Training of Resilience Skills for Safer Railways: Developing a New Training Program on the Basis of Lessons from Tsunami Disaster / Shigeru Haga, Rikkyo University, Osamu Onodera, Tomoko Yamakawa, Akio Oishi, Yuichi Takeda, Ken Kusukami, East Japan Railway Company, and Toshiko Kikkawa, Keio University -- Reducing the Potential for Cascade: Recognizing and Mitigating Situations that Threaten Business Viability / Katherine E. Walker, David S. Deary, and David D. Woods, The Ohio State University -- Balancing efficiency and safety in maritime traffic management when approaching a port / Fulko van Westrenen, Umantec -- Developing Resilience Signals for the Dutch Railway System / Willy Siegel, University of Twente, and Jan Maarten Schraagen, TNO/ University of Twente -- Trade-offs in the planning of rail engineering work / Pedro Ferreira, CIGEST, ISG-Business School, John Wilson, Brendan Ryan, Sarah Sharples, University of Nottingham, and Theresa Clark, High Speed 2 -- Resilience in ATM operations: Incorporating Robustness and Resilience in Safety Assessment / Rogier Woltjer, Jonas Haraldsson, Swedish Defence Research Agency, Ella Pinska-Chauvin, EUROCONTROL, Tom Laursen, IFATCA & NAVIAIR, and Billy Josefsson, NORACON/LFV -- "Staying ahead of the aircraft" and Managing Surprise in Modern Airliners / Amy Rankin, Rogier Woltjer, Linköping University, Joris Field, National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, and David Woods, The Ohio State University -- UAS in (Inter)national Airspace: Resilience as a Lever in the Debate Proceedings of the Fifth Resilience Engineering Symposium / Gwendolyn C.H. Bakx, Netherlands Defence Academy, and James M. Nyce, Ball State University -- Trade-Offs as Symptoms of Mismatches Between Sociotechnical Systems: A Case Study involving Commercial Aviation and Air Traffic Control / David Moriarty, Zeroharm Solutions Ltd, and Steve Jarvis, Jarvis Bagshaw Ltd and Cranfield University -- To certify, to investigate or to engineer, that is the question / John Stoop, Kindunos -- Cognitive Demands of Staying in Control on Highly Automated Aircraft When Faced with Surprise / Shawn Pruchnicki and David Woods, The Ohio State University -- Applying Robustness Analysis of Dynamic Models to the Problem of Systems Resilience / Hei Chan, and Katsumi Inoue, Transdiciplinary Research Integration Center -- Assessing Rio de Janeiro Municipality's Natural Disaster Prevention Program against the UN's Hyogo Protocol / Armando M. de Souza, Paulo Victor R. Carvalho, Gilbert J. Huber, and José Orlando Gomes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro -- Organisational Factors for Enhancing Train Drivers' Proactive Behaviours to Maintain the Normal Operation of Railway Services / Hidenori Fujino, Tomoko Horishita, and Tomoyuki Sonda, Safety Research Institute West Japan Railway Company, and Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, Kyushu University -- A Fuzzy Model to Assess Resilience for Safety Management / Cláudio H. S. Grecco, Cidade Universitária, Mario C. R. Vidal, and Carlos A. N. Cosenza, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Isaac J. A. L. dos Santos and Paulo V. R. Carvalho, Cidade Universitária -- Customer Satisfaction Plays an Important Role: A Model to Improve Resiliency of ICT Service Maintainers / Chihiro Takayama, Momoko Nakatani, and Takehiko Ohno, NTT Service Laboratories, and Akinori Komatsubara, Waseda University -- Actions Contributed to Disaster Level Reduction of the Fukushima Accident / Makoto Takahashi, Tohoku University, and Masaharu Kitamura, Research Institute for Technology Management Strategy -- The Management and Evaluation of Change / Nick McDonald, Trinity College Dublin. Ireland
This article describes the Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate (SSPC) program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), the first undergraduate certificate at the University, which was established in 2007. The SSPC caters to the professional needs of both traditional, degree-seeking students and non-traditional local professionals. The SSPC coexists with the long-established major and minor programs in Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. The goal of the SSPC is to fulfill the needs of its dynamic, millennial students and of the increasingly diversified community. ; To cite the digital version, add its Reference URL (found by following the link in the header above the digital file). ; SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 62 The Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate (SSPC) Program: Meeting the Professional Needs of Students and Community Lourdes Sánchez-López University of Alabama at Birmingham Abstract: This article describes the Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate (SSPC) program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), the first undergraduate certificate at the University, which was established in 2007. The SSPC caters to the professional needs of both traditional, degree-seeking students and non-traditional local professionals. The SSPC coexists with the long-established major and minor programs in Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. The goal of the SSPC is to fulfill the needs of its dynamic, millennial students and of the increasingly diversified community. Keywords: Business Spanish, certificate programs, languages for specific purposes (LSP), medical Spanish, Spanish for occupational purposes, Spanish for specific purposes (SSP), translation and interpretation, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Introduction Society is changing rapidly and drastically. In a world that is no longer round but flat (Friedman, 2005), students prepare for a globalized job market that is open to anyone in the world. This means that the jobs that once were available to only a few, now are available to millions. And, often times, the decisive factor for an employer is the multilinguistic and multicultural qualifications of applicants. Recent studies and their data suggest a pressing need to revise foreign language curricula in the United States to better meet the needs of students and society ("Foreign Languages and Higher Education," 2007; "Report to the Teagle Foundation," 2009). Many university programs in the US are responding to these needs by adapting existing language programs or developing new ones (Doyle, 2010; Jorge, 2010; Sánchez-López, 2010). Two decades ago Grosse and Voght (1990) reported the results of the first extensive survey conducted in 1988 in the US regarding the status of languages for specific purposes (LSP) nationally. Linking their study to a report from the President's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies (1980), Grosse and Voght reported that LSP courses had gained a place in the higher education curriculum since the 1980s in the US. Their study suggested a decline of foreign language skills in the US and a need of language courses specific for the professions, and their survey results indicated that over 60% of language departments offered some type of LSP courses. However, these data also suggested that LSP still had a minor role in the foreign language curriculum overall. In a recent survey study by Long and Uscinski (2012) and following the model of Grosse and Voght, the authors report that the current "presence of LSP courses in colleges and universities across the United States has remained about the same over the past 30 years." (p. 175). There is no significant difference in the number of institutions that offer LSP courses. However, Long and Uscinkscy's timely study sheds new light on the type of LSP programs (e.g., majors, minors, certificates or graduate programs) that are offered SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 63 nationally. The results of their study suggest that 27% of the respondents offer some type of LSP program, most of them at 4-year universities. The authors conclude that LSP has steadily and quietly settled in as another curricular option, beside literature, cultural studies, and linguistics, in institutions where students demand it, thus providing the students who are motivated to enter these fields with valuable applied skills in both language and cultural understanding. We predict a continued steady presence of LSP in university curricula for years to come. (Long & Uscinski, p. 188) Two decades ago Grosse and Voght (1990) optimistically predicted growth of LSP in the US that, according to Long and Uscinkscy (2012), has not materialized yet. However, according to both of these studies, the status of LSP in the US is strong and has become slowly more visible with time, with dozens of new LSP programs that cater to new societal needs (for a list of some of these programs see Sánchez-López, 2010). One of these new programs is the Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate (SSPC) program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), which was established in 2007 and was the first undergraduate certificate at the University. The SSPC caters to the professional needs of both traditional, degree-seeking students and non-traditional local professionals. The SSPC coexists with the long-established major and minor programs in Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (DFLL), and it attempts to fulfill the needs of its dynamic, millennial students and of the increasingly complex community. Background The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a medium-sized (about 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students) public university in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham is a metropolitan city with a rapidly growing Hispanic population over the last three decades. Just recently, the state's Hispanic population grew from 1.7% in 2000 to almost 4% in 2010, a nearly 145% increase (US Census Bureau, 2010). Because of this, hospitals, clinics, police and fire departments, government offices and local businesses have seen the increasing need to be able to communicate with Hispanic patients, customers and clients in Spanish. However, this rapid and steady growth has recently and abruptly come to a halt due to a newly passed state immigration law. In June 2011, the state of Alabama Government passed the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, commonly known as H.B. 56 (State of Alabama, 2011). This is one of the strictest immigration laws in the country, which has led to a general state of fear among undocumented individuals. It has already impacted demographics of the state with a significant decrease on the growth of Hispanics in the state, including children (Center for American Progress, 2011; Novak, 2012; Southern Poverty Law Center, 2011). UAB was established in 1945 originally as the Medical Center of Alabama. The academic side of campus was later established in 1969, branching off from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. For decades both the medical and the academic sides functioned as two almost independent units, with very little interaction between them. Today, although most faculty, students and staff still refer to the west or the east side of campus SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 64 (or the medical and the academic side of campus), institutional efforts attempt to portray both sides of the University as one unit, with a synergetic relationship, interdependent, with everyone on board moving in the same direction. Health-care and diversity are two of the best-known and most marketed landmarks of the University. The UAB vision is: "A world-renowned research university and medical center—a first choice for education and healthcare" (UAB Vision, 2012). In addition, The Princeton Review has ranked UAB as the 5th most diverse campus nationally in 2011 (The Princeton Review, 2013). Many undergraduate students choose UAB because they would like to pursue a career in a health-related field. Pre-medicine is a popular track among UAB undergraduate students with an annual average of 44% of entering students who declare a pre-medicine track (UAB Office of Planning and Analysis, 2012). The UAB Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (DFLL) was established in the late 1960s as most languages departments were at the time, with a focus on language, literature and culture. UAB had a language requirement for the core curriculum up to the late 1990s, when it was eliminated. Since then, there is no language requirement at UAB. In the early 2000s, the DFLL combined their two majors in Spanish and French into a major in Foreign Languages (with Spanish and French tracks), largely due to a state requirement for viability. In addition, the DFLL also offers minors in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. A large percentage of students in the major are double majors in Spanish or French and another disciple (biology, chemistry, criminal justice, international studies, pre-medicine, pre-nursing coupled with Spanish are some of the most common double majors). With an eye toward the long-term needs of the department in 2001 the UAB, DFLL hired me as the first applied linguist for a dual purpose. I was charged with developing linguistics courses at all levels and with developing and teaching certain Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) courses, such as medical, business, professional Spanish and translation and interpretation. All of these courses (linguistics and SSP) were never intended to replace the existing literature and culture courses, but rather, to expand the repertoire of offerings to cater to a larger pool of students and professional interests. The SSP courses were well received and offered on demand with regularity. After a few years, additional instructors were asked to teach these courses as well, becoming specialists in the different areas, such as business, health and translation and interpretation. However, the vast majority of students enrolled in the SSP courses were regular UAB students (either majors or minors, or students who took one or two of these courses as electives). The Department received frequent inquiries from individuals in the community and local businesses wishing to learn occupational Spanish, but, unfortunately, the University admission system did not make it easy for them to enroll as non-degree seeking students. Faculty also received almost daily requests from the medical side of campus, from other hospitals and clinics, from government agencies, from court services, and from different local businesses asking for translation and interpretation assistance. Faculty and/or students would help depending on the situation. As these challenges increased over the years, the DFLL decided to explore other options to better meet the needs of the community and the local professionals; and at the same time to reward the regular students who were successfully completing many or all of the SSP courses, but were not receiving any particular degree or recognition in SSP. At such point, offering a certificate program SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 65 in SSP was an interesting and promising idea, which materialized in the fall semester 2007. A Journey to the Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate: Program Design: Approval and Description Due to the success and high demand of the SSP courses offered in the UAB DFLL and to the increasing requests for assistance with translation and interpretation to cater to the Hispanic community, in 2005 I was asked by my chairperson, Sheri Spaine Long, who sought to respond to societal trends, to investigate models of certificate programs worldwide and to explore if a certificate program in SSP would meet the specific needs of the DFLL, the UAB undergraduate population and those of the community. Over the course of several months, I investigated models of certificate programs and other types of languages for specific purposes programs nationally and internationally. Based on a careful assessment of the information gathered, the chairperson and I decided that a certificate program was an optimal option for UAB and for the Birmingham community. Then, the second and most detailed stage of the process started: the design of the program and the development of a program proposal. I was asked to design a program that utilized the resources of the DFLL and the courses that were already offered, at least at the outset. I met with a variety of institutional constituents (Office of Admissions, Office of Undergraduate Affairs, and Office of Undergraduate Policies and Procedures) at different stages during the design of the program proposal. These constituents gave me valuable advice on how to craft the program and what the prerequisites should be. Over the course of the following year, the SSPC proposal was approved at each stage by the DFLL, the School of Arts and Humanities Curriculum and Educational Policies Committee, the University Office of Undergraduate Policies and Procedures, and, finally, by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System in May 2007. The SSPC was the first undergraduate certificate at UAB, and it was first implemented in the Fall 2007. It was lauded as a model program to meet societal needs and consolidate and expand language enrollment. The SSPC program was designed for traditional as well as non-traditional students. The main objective of this program was, and still is, not only to fulfill UAB students' academic needs for their future, but also to create connections with local professionals. Because of the steady growth of the Hispanic population in the nation, with almost 17% percent of the population (US Census Bureau, 2012), each day more and more pro-fessionals, such as teachers, medical care professionals, business people, law enforcement officers and others, have the need to communicate with the Hispanic community. The courses are content, vocabulary and culture-based. Students learn the vocabulary, language and cultural background that they use in their professional field through extensive practice in the classroom and also out of class through service-learning opportunities. Publication and promotion of a new program is paramount for its success. An easy to navigate and informative website is critical for the SSPC (http://www.uab.edu/languages/ssp). The website houses the necessary documents that offer information to prospective students and local professionals, and a detailed description of the application process can also be found there. Once the website and all SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 66 documentation (e.g., program application form, student manual, checklist, and flier) were created, the program was ready for promotion and student recruitment. Promotion and recruitment efforts included regular information sessions (2–3 per semester) open to all students and the general public; briefings at academic advisors general meetings; presentations at specific business, health and international studies classes; and announcements in local newspapers, magazines and UAB's website and newspapers. The SSPC program requires completion of a minimum of six classes (18 credits) in SSP, of which at least 12 credits must be at the advanced level. Students may choose classes within the professional track of their interest (e.g., health care, business or translation and interpretation), but they are required to take a phonetics and phonology course and a foreign language service-learning course for the completion of the SSPC requirements. The foreign language service-learning course must be taken towards the end of the program to ensure that students have the desired occupational language skills to function well working with a community partner.1 Students must receive an A or B grade in all courses and maintain a minimum of 2.8 GPA in Spanish to maintain a "good standing" status. They can retake courses for a higher grade if necessary. The final program requirement is to pass an oral interview at the level of intermediate-mid or above, according to the ACTFL speaking guidelines.2 There is a program application process that is open all year. Regular UAB students must submit an electronic application. Local professionals must first be admitted as non-degree seeking students at UAB before they can apply for the SSPC.3 The SSPC program director reviews applications and sends acceptance or rejection letters. Then, she communicates with the UAB Director of Academic Records who updates the students' records and transcripts. SSPC candidates are asked to meet with the SSPC advisor at least once a year for an advising session, although many students choose to meet more frequently. Outcomes, Program Assessment and Outgrowth The SSPC has become a popular program in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. In its five years of existence, the program has enrolled 86 students, of which 27 have already successfully graduated from the program. The program offers three tracks: health care, business, translation and interpretation. Each track offers two courses, one at the intermediate and one at the advanced levels. Not surprisingly, due to the specific context at UAB and in the Birmingham area, the most popular and highest enrolled courses have usually been the Spanish for health professional classes, which are offered every semester (three times a year). The rest of the classes are offered once or twice a year, depending on demand and instructor availability. Because some of these courses are not offered every semester, it is very important that SSPC candidates meet regularly with the SSPC advisor to ensure that they graduate in a timely manner. One of the main and most visible successes of the SSPC are the collaborations that have been established with other units on campus, such as the Schools of Business, Dentistry, Health Professions, Nursing and Medicine. The advanced Spanish for Health Professionals course is offered cross-listed with the School of Nursing courses, creating a unique and enriching learning environment for all students, who share the same classroom. The SSPC faculty design and teach courses for students in the Schools of SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 67 Dentistry and Medicine with regularity. Recently, a former Spanish major from the DFLL and a current medicine student, partnered with the DFLL and the SSPC to organize a short Spanish course for medical students. The course was designed and taught by an SSPC faculty and offered during the winter break between sessions in the School of Medicine (Davidson & Long, 2012). Furthermore, weekly Spanish conversation tables are offered by SSPC faculty, which are open to any student on campus with an interest in health related professions. In addition, the Graduate Student Associations of the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry have separately organized weekly Spanish conversation tables led by SSPC faculty and students. All of these efforts clearly indicate the high level of interest to learn Spanish from the part of the students in health-related professions, who are doing whatever they can to include some level of medical Spanish study in their busy academic schedules. Another success of the SSPC is the quality of student research, which is linked to the professional interest of the student within a local context. Two illustrative examples, from the inception of the program to the most recent are "Legalese and Spanish: The Hispanic Immigrant Experience with the Legal System in Birmingham, Alabama" (Hall, 2007) and "H.B. 56 and Its Impact in the State of Alabama" (Novak, 2012). In the former, SSPC and Spanish Honor's student Brittlyn Hall conducted a survey study among law firms in Birmingham to investigate the level of legal support offered to the Hispanic population and the specific Spanish needs of these firms. In the most recent, SSPC graduate and current MBA student in the School of Business investigated the economic impact of the new State immigration law known as H.B. 56 mentioned earlier (Novak, 2012). Both studies linked the students' professional interest to their community. The studies taught them not only valuable information about their professions and future careers, but also gave them firsthand experience about how their professions interact with their community and the synergistic relationships that are born from such interactions. An integral part of the long-term success of a new program is periodic program evaluations to assist in implementing necessary modifications. At the end of the program students are asked to complete an SSPC Exit Survey, in which they provide useful feedback about the program. This is mainly a demographic and a student satisfaction survey (see survey in the Appendix) used to get to know our students, their needs and their expectations better and to make adjustments as necessary. One important modification that has already been implemented in light of the students' feedback is an additional course on translation and interpretation at the intermediate level (the original certificate only offered advanced translation and interpretation). This new course was necessary as a stepping-stone to the advanced course, which was regarded as too challenging by many students. Another important addition to the program occurred in 2010. The SSPC and the Department of Art and Art History partnered to have a student competition to design a logo for the SSPC. As a class requirement, all students in an advanced graphic design class were asked to design a logo. This was a unique and incredible experience for students, since not only was this their first real assignment, but they also were competing for the first time for a real client. There were 27 entries. Graphic design students met with the SSPC Director and explained their logo, motivations and meanings. After that, the SSPC Director asked all faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures to vote on their first three choices. The logo with the most votes was selected as the SSPC official logo (see logo at http://www.uab.edu/languages/ssp).4 SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 68 In an effort to strengthen the business Spanish track of the SSPC, in 2010, the interim chairperson of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures John K. Moore and the SSPC Director met with administrators in the School of Business to discuss ways in which to collaborate. After several meetings, it was clear that there was a need and an interest for Spanish (and Chinese) in the business world. However, the business curriculum at UAB is rather inflexible due to their accreditation limitations. Because business students at UAB are unable to incorporate the SSPC program into their regular curriculum, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures offered to design a new and shorter 12-credit program catered to business majors: a new minor in Spanish for Business. The new minor employs courses already existing in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures: Spanish for the Professions, Business Spanish and any other two intermediate or advance Spanish courses. The proposal was approved by the University in April 2011 and was first implemented in the fall of 2012 (for an overview of the program, visit: http://www.uab.edu/languages/images/pdfs/news/Minor_Spanish_for_Business.pdf). As this new program is in its first year, it is still premature to make an accurate evaluation. However, due to the overall success of the SSPC and to the growing globalized economies and markets, we predict a successful prospect for this new program. We look forward to report related findings in the near future. Conclusions and Future Directions As the results of surveys by Grosse and Voght (1990) and recently by Long and Uscinski (2012) have demonstrated, LSP courses and programs in the United States are no longer peripheral within the educational curriculum in higher education. They have become highly demanded by a dynamic student population that is in charge of their own learning and wish to be well prepared for an extremely competitive future in a globalized world. This article has described the recently established Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham within a local context. This program caters to traditional and non-traditional students who share educational goals and classroom experiences. Because it is a highly practical and applicable program in real life, and because it is available to all students and local professionals, the SSPC has become one of the fastest growing programs at UAB with almost 30 graduates in its short existence. Most importantly, the program has created strong and synergistic connections and collaborations with local companies (e.g., hospitals, clinics, charity organizations, banks, libraries, law firms, government offices, schools and early learning centers) through the foreign language service-learning course required for the SSPC. In addition, the SSPC has established collaborations with other units on campus, such as the Schools of Business, Dentistry, Health-Professions, Nursing and Medicine. Furthermore, SSPC students produce high quality research linking their professional interest to their communities and exploring its synergetic relationships. SSPC graduates move on to a variety of professional fields in health, business and translation and interpretation services, or to graduate programs in related fields in which their knowledge of occupational Spanish is (or will be) useful and beneficial to them, their companies and their community. SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 69 One significant outgrowth of the SSPC is the new minor for Business Spanish established in fall 2012 utilizing SSPC resources. This new program seals collaborative efforts between the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the School of Business and aims to cater primarily to Business students, but is also open to any student with an interest in pursuing an international career. As mentioned earlier, an integral part of a successful program is periodic program assessment. The SSPC Exit Survey taken by graduating students gives the SSPC director and faculty regular opportunities to reflect upon the progress of the program, and thus, to make revisions where necessary. In addition to this informal form of student satisfaction evaluation, it is important to conduct some type of performance assessment to investigate the impact that the SSPC classes have on students' Spanish performance. This performance program assessment has been projected to take place within the next academic year and we look forward to new findings. Acknowledgments I would like to sincerely thank former UAB DFLL chairperson Sheri Spaine Long for her full and constant support in the creation, development and implementation of the SSPC and for her always brilliant ideas, as well as for her input on earlier drafts of this paper; to former UAB DFLL Interim chairperson John K. Moore for his full support in the continuation of the SSPC and his critical role in the conceptualization and establishment of the new minor for Business Spanish; to SSPC faculty María Jesús Centeno, Krista Chambless, Brock Cochran, Belita Faki and Malinda O'Leary for their extraordinary work teaching the SSPC courses—the program would not be the same without these remarkable instructors; to all SSPC students who are our source of inspiration every day; and finally, I am grateful to the reviewers of earlier drafts of this paper for their accurate feedback. Notes 1For a detailed description and a sample syllabus of the Foreign Language Service-Learning course required for the SSPC, see Sánchez-López (2013; forthcoming). 2American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages proficiency guidelines can be found at http://www.actfl.org/files/public/Guidelinesspeak.pdf. 3Non-degree seeking students must have a minimum of 12 credit hours of successful college level work (grade C or above in all courses), with the following distribution (minimum): at least 6 credit hours in Area 1 (English Composition), at least 3 credit hours in Area 2 (Arts and Humanities), and at least 3 credit hours in Area 4 (Social Sciences). 4The artist of the SSPC logo is UAB's graphic design student Alan Heiman. The faculty member of the graphic design class that participated in this project is Professor Douglas B. Barrett. References American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines (1999). Retrieved from http://www.actfl.org/files/public/Guidelinesspeak.pdf SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 70 Center for American Progress (2011). Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/ Davidson, L., & Long, S. S. (2012). Medical Spanish for US medical students: A pilot case study. Dimension, 1–13. Retrieved from http://scolt.webnode.com/ Doyle, M. S. (2010). A responsive, integrative Spanish curriculum at UNC Charlotte. Hispania, 93(1), 80–84. Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world. (2007) MLA ad hoc committee on foreign languages. Profession published by the Modern Language Association, 2007 (May). Retrieved from http://www.mla.org/flreport Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the 21st century. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Grosse, C., & Voght, G. (1990). Foreign language for business and the professions at US colleges and universities. The Modern Language Journal, 74, 36–47. Hall, B. (2007). Legalese and Spanish: The Hispanic immigrant experience with the legal system in Birmingham, Alabama. Unpublished paper. Jorge, E. (2010). Where's the community? Hispania, 93(1), 135–138. Long, M., & Uscinski, I. (2012). Evolution of languages for specific purposes programs in the United States: 1990–2011 [Special Issue]. The Modern Language Journal, 96, 173–189. Novak, J. (2012). H.B. 56 and its impact in the state of Alabama. Unpublished paper. President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies (1980). Strength through wisdom: A critique of US capability. The Modern Language Journal, 64, 9–57. Report to the Teagle Foundation on the Undergraduate Major in Language and Literature. (2009). MLA ad hoc committee on foreign languages. Profession published by the Modern Language Association, 2009 (February). Retrieved from http://www.mla.org/pdf/2008_mla_whitepaper.pdf Sánchez-López, L. (2010). El español para fines específicos: La proliferación de programas creados para satisfacer las necesidades del siglo XXI. Hispania, 93(1), 85–89. Sánchez-López, L. (Forthcoming 2013). Service learning course design for Languages for Specific Purposes programs [Special Issue]. Hispania, 96(2). Southern Poverty Law Center (2011). Retrieved from http://www.splcenter.org/ State of Alabama (2011). Retrieved from http://www.ago.state.al.us/Page-Immigration The Princeton Review (2013). Retrieved from http://www.princetonreview.com/TheUniversityofAlabamaatBirmingham UAB Minor in Business Spanish. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.uab.edu/languages/images/pdfs/news/Minor_Spanish_for_Business.pdf UAB Office of Planning and Analysis. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.uab.edu/opa/ UAB Spanish for Specific Purposes program. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.uab.edu/languages/ssp United States Census Bureau. (2010). Retrieved from http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/ United Stated Census Bureau. (2012). Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html UAB Vision. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.uab.edu/home/about University of Alabama at Birmingham (2013). Retrieved from http://www.uab.edu/ SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 71 APPENDIX The University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate (SSPC) Exit Survey Note: This survey is anonymous. Please, be as honest as possible when completing it. Thank you for providing us with valuable information to get to know our students and to improve our SSPC program. I. Personal Information (circle one) 1. Gender: Male Female 2. Age: 18–20 20–23 24–26 27–30 More than 31 3. Regular UAB Student Non-regular UAB student (local professional) 4. Work: Full-time job Part-time job Unemployed 5. Work place: ______________________________; Position: __________________ 5. Race: African American Caucasian Hispanic Indian Asian Other 6. Major/s: ____________________________ Minor/s: ________________ 7. Previous Higher Education Degrees: _____________________________________ 8. Your first language/s is/are:____________________________________________ SSPC related 1. How long did it take you to complete the SSPC program? ____________________ 2. In which of the three tracks did you specialize (health, business, translation & interpretation)?: ________________________________________________________ 3. Please explain why you pursued the SSPC: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Did the SSPC fulfill your expectations? Yes No Please explain why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CERTIFICATE (SSPC) PROGRAM Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013) 72 5. Did the SSPC classes fulfill your expectations in general? Yes No Please explain why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What did you like the most about the program? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. What did you like the least about the program? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Please give us your suggestions on how to improve the SSPC program: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. How will the SSPC impact your current or future career? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Would you recommend the SSPC to your friends or colleagues? Yes No 11. Finally, do you give your permission to use the information that you provided above anonymously for statistical and research purposes? Yes No Note: If you have further comments, please use the back of this form. GRACIAS.
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It has been a very exciting year for social protection! In 2019, my weekly social protection links newsletter reviewed 1042 materials in 43 editions. So here is a personal selection of papers articulated around 10 major themes. Enjoy!
1. Economic and other long-term effects
Daidone et al have a great article summarizing and explaining the economic effects of cash transfers in 7 African countries. Egger et al add another precious data point on the multiplier effects of cash transfers (I counted 12 such points for the moment): in Kenya, every $ injected generates $2.6 in the local economy.
Blattman et al show that after 5 years, a one-off cash grants in Ethiopia has fading effects. Similarly, in Malawi Baird et al estimate that the impact on reduced fertility of an unconditional cash transfers on adolescent girls rapidly vanished.
In Mexico, after 20 years of operations cash transfers ex-beneficiaries showed higher ownership of durable assets (Aguilar et al); 49.2% of them experienced upward mobility (Yaschine et al); they grew 2.8-4.1cm taller and have 5.3-5.7 more years of schooling than their parents (Gutierrez et al), with enrollment in secondary school increasing by 5-10 percentage points over grades 7-12 (Behrman et al). A 10-country review by Millan et al found that the evidence is strong on school completion, more mixed on learning, and limited on employment. Another paper by Millan et al estimate that 13 years after its inception, transfers in Honduras increased secondary education completion by 50%, but also rose the chance of migration by 3-7 percentage points.
2. Health, nutrition and education
Klein et al show that cash transfer participants in Buenos Aires showed higher success rates against tuberculosis (TB); yet Rudgard et al estimate that making transfers "TB-sensitive" would require an additional budget between $165M and $298M per country. Choko et al showed that in Malawi cash plus HIV self-test kits increased HIV anti-retroviral therapy compared to other solutions. Palermo et al find that in Ghana, combining cash and health measures increased enrolment in health insurance in the treatment group from an average of 37.4% to 46.6%.
In Ecuador, Moncayo et al show that a 1% increase in the coverage of cash transfers decreases mortality from malnutrition by about 3%. In Nigeria, Okeke and Abubakar estimate that cash reduced mortality of children in utero by at least 20%. Celhay et al found that cash increased the survival rates of birth cohorts exposed to the program by up to 14.7%. and Dow et al find that in the US, a 10% increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit or in the minimum wage reduces suicides between 3.6 and 5.5%.
In Ghana, Gelli et al found that the national school meals program improved stunting among children of 5-8 years (effect size: 0.12 standard deviations). Neufeld et al on the history of nutrition evidence on cash transfers in Mexico. And a paper by Evans and Yuan shows that girl-targeted versus general interventions in education seem to deliver similar gains, including featuring cash transfers both at the top and bottom among the most effective interventions.
3. Gender
Peterman et al summarize the impacts of safety nets on gender in Africa: safety nets perform well in reducing physical violence as well as improving psychological well-being, dietary diversity and savings. But changes in labor force participation are minimal. In terms of toolkits, FAO produced great guidelines on gender-sensitive cash transfers and public works.
A review of evidence on social assistance and intimate partner violence (IPV) by Hidrobo and Roy shows reductions in physical violence between 25-41% in Bangladesh, Ecuador, and Mali. Another brief by Heise summarizes results from 22 studies across 13 countries.
4. Crime
Tuttle shows that banning convicted drug felons from SNAP food stamps in the United States makes them more likely to return to jail. Sviatschi estimates that in Peru, cash transfers reduced drug production. And in Brazil, Machado et al find that Bolsa reduced homicide rate and hospitalizations due to violence by 8-25%.
5. Crises
Barca and Beazley estimate that it takes between 2 weeks to 14 months to scale up social protection in response to natural disasters. Bruck et al show that a new generation of 7 high-quality evaluations sheds light on social protection in fragile and displacement settings. Cherrier et al produced an excellent compendium on humanitarian-social protection linkages, while Seyfert et examine the trade-offs of integrating refugees into national safety nets.
6. Universality and targeting
A new book by Gentilini et al offers a framework to navigate the analytics, evidence and practices on universal basic income (UBI), while Banerjee et al discuss how UBI may address barriers like lack of credit, insurance or psychological factors among low-income people. Jolliffe et al show that SNAP, the American "floor for the poorest", has been sinking over the past 30 years.
ILO and UNICEF have an overview note on "universal" child grants present in 21 countries, while Kidd and Athias offer a critique of proxy means testing. In Indonesia, Tohari et al estimates that the poverty-based unified database of beneficiaries improved the chance of participating in 3 core programs by 117%, while Bah et al estimate that if all households were included in such database undercoverage would be reduced by one-third. Bonus: Ndiaye et al trace the evolution of the national social registry in Senegal.
7. Insurance and labor markets
Packard et al examines how social protection could be adapted to the changing nature of work, while Jorgensen and Siegel unveil social risk management 2.0. Guven shows that in Africa only 10.6% of Africa's working-age population contributes to pension schemes. The ILO has a fascinating "living document" laying out a number of options disaggregated by occupation.
A review of minimum wages in high-income countries by Dube finds "… muted effect of minimum wages on employment, while significantly increasing the earnings of low paid workers". However, a new compilation of evidence on minimum wage in low and middle-income countries by Neumark and Corella finds that "… when minimum wages are binding and enforced, and when they apply to vulnerable workers, the disemployment effects are most apparent".
8. Tech and financial inclusion
Gelb and Mukherjee take stock of lessons from India's biometric ID (Aadhaar) in providing inclusive services; Masino and Nino-Zarazua show that transitioning to electronic cash payments in Mexico increased households' access to formal financial services. In South Africa, however, Torkelson documents abuses in using cash transfers as loan collateral by a financial company delivering cash itself.
9. Political economy
Hickey et al have an amazing open-access book on the political economy of cash transfers in Africa. Mosec and Mo found that in Pakistan those receiving BISP cash transfers increased support for their political leaders and institutions, while in typhoon-hit Fiji Rios et al show that people receiving cash transfers are up to 20% more likely to be very satisfied with the government than non-recipients. In Brazil and Turkey, Zucco et al show that conditional transfers are only marginally more popular than similar unconditional transfers. Ciminelli et al find that reforms generating large short-term adverse distributional effects are associated with electoral costs for politicians. In Mexico, Cantu documents that cash-vouchers to be used in local supermarkets were provided in exchange for electoral support.
10. Cash plus and cash versus….
In Bihar, Khemani et al asked whether people prefer cash or other services: only 13% chose cash instead of spending on public health and nutrition; in contrast, if cash came in lieu of improving roads, preference for cash rose to 35% (see counter views). In Mozambique, De Walque and Valente compare the effects of a conditional cash transfer program with the sole provision of information to parents on school attendance: information provision is as large as 75% of the effect of the CCT.
Two papers – one on Ghana by Banerjee et al and another on Uganda by Sedlmayr et al – points to the power of combining cash transfers with assets and complementary measures (as opposed to individual components). Also, Carneiro et al evaluate an integrated cash program for 3,600 mothers in Northern Nigeria: after 2-4 years, the program reduced stunting by 8%. Bonus: Bedoya et al show that a package of transfers and assets in Afghanistan increased consumption by 30% and poverty fell from 82 to 62%.
In: Decision analysis: a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, Band 9, Heft 3, S. 293-295
ISSN: 1545-8504
Arthur Carvalho (" Sharing Rewards Among Strangers Based on Peer Evaluations ") is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include crowdsourcing, forecasting, information markets, proper scoring rules, consensus, fair division, game theory, mechanism design, electronic commerce, and decision analysis. Email: a3carval@cs.uwaterloo.ca . Luis C. Dias (" A Note on a Group Preference Axiomatization with Cardinal Utility ") obtained a degree in informatics engineering from the School of Science and Technology at the University of Coimbra in 1992 and a Ph.D. in management/systems sciences in organizations from the University of Coimbra in 2001. He is currently an assistant professor with tenure at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra (FEUC), which he joined in 1992. He has been teaching courses on decision analysis, operations research, informatics, and related areas. Since 2007, his tasks have involved coordinating the Masters in Management at FEUC and being a member of the Coordination and Management Board of the Energy for Sustainability initiative of the University of Coimbra, with responsibilities for the coordination of the Masters in Energy for Sustainability and the Ph.D. in Sustainable Energy Systems (MIT Portugal Program). He is also a researcher of the INESC Coimbra R&D Institute, where he was part of the board of directors from 2001 to 2007. He has been appointed to the editorial board of the recently created EURO Journal on Decision Processes. His research interests include multicriteria decision analysis, performance assessment, group decision and negotiation support, decision support systems, and applications in the areas of energy and environment. Email: lmcdias@fe.uc.pt . Seth D. Guikema (" Resource Allocation for Homeland Defense: Dealing with the Team Effect ") is an assistant professor in the Systems Analysis, Economics, and Policy Group of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), with joint appointments in civil engineering and earth and planetary sciences at JHU. He is also a professor II (adjunct) in the Department of Industrial Economics, Risk Management, and Planning at the University of Stavanger in Norway; a senior decision analyst with Innovative Decisions, Inc.; and a member of the core faculty in the JHU Systems Institute. His research focuses on risk analysis, statistical learning theory, and multiperson decision problems, particularly for natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and infrastructure systems. He is an associate editor for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Infrastructure Systems and is a member of the editorial boards of Risk Analysis, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, and Journal of Performability Engineering. He received his B.S. (Cornell University), M.S. (Stanford University), and M.E. (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) in civil and environmental engineering, and his Ph.D. (Stanford University) in engineering risk and decision analysis. Prior to JHU, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University and an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. He received the Chauncey Starr Distinguished Young Risk Analyst Award from the Society for Risk Analysis in 2010 and currently serves on the councils of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society and the Society for Risk Analysis. Email: sguikema@jhu.edu . Jeffrey M. Keisler (" Communicating Analytic Results: A Tutorial for Decision Consultants ") is an associate professor in the Management Science and Information Systems Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. One of his main research interests is finding ways to make decision analysis more effective in practice, and he recently coedited the book Portfolio Decision Analysis. He received his Ph.D. in decision sciences from Harvard University and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He is a Fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals. Prior to becoming a professor, he worked as a management consultant at Strategic Decisions Group and as a decision analyst with Argonne National Laboratory and General Motors. He currently serves as president-elect of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. Email: jeff.keisler@umb.edu . L. Robin Keller (" From the Editors: Copulas, Group Preferences, Multilevel Defenders, Sharing Rewards, and Communicating Analytics ") is a professor of operations and decision technologies in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. in management science and her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served as a program director for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research is on decision analysis and risk analysis for business and policy decisions and has been funded by NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research interests cover multiple attribute decision making, riskiness, fairness, probability judgments, ambiguity of probabilities or outcomes, risk analysis (for terrorism, environmental, health, and safety risks), time preferences, problem structuring, cross-cultural decisions, and medical decision making. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Decision Analysis, published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She is a Fellow of INFORMS and has held numerous roles in INFORMS, including board member and chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. She is a recipient of the George F. Kimball Medal from INFORMS. She has served as the decision analyst on three National Academy of Sciences committees. She has been appointed to the editorial board of the new EURO Journal on Decision Processes. Email: lrkeller@uci.edu . Dorota Kurowicka (" Conditionalization of Copula-Based Models ") studied mathematics at the University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland, and specialized in numerical methods. She performed her Ph.D. research at the Gdynia Maritime Academy and the Delft University of Technology. She received her Ph.D. from Delft University in 2000. Since then, she has been employed at Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics, first as an assistant professor and from 2006 on as an associate professor. Her current research is carried out in the area of uncertainty and risk analysis. Email: d.kurowicka@tudelft.nl . Kate Larson (" Sharing Rewards Among Strangers Based on Peer Evaluations ") is an associate professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. She is interested in issues that arise in settings where self-interested agents interact and works with ideas that lie in the intersection of artificial intelligence, game theory, and microeconomics. In particular, she is interested in understanding how computational limitations influence strategic behavior in multiagent systems, as well as developing approaches to overcome such computational issues. Email: klarson@cs.uwaterloo.ca . Patrick S. Noonan (" Communicating Analytic Results: A Tutorial for Decision Consultants ") is an associate professor in the practice of decision and information analysis at Emory University, where he also serves as associate dean of Management Practice. His coursework and writing spans decision modeling, applications of game theory and strategic decision making, and structured problem solving. He received his Ph.D. in decision sciences from Harvard University. Previously he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and as cofounder and director of Planning Technologies Group. He also holds an M.B.A. and B.S. in engineering and applied science from Yale University. He is the author of Decision and Information Analysis, a textbook on analytics (published by McGraw-Hill). Email: patrick.noonan@bus.emory.edu . Andrew Samuel (" Resource Allocation for Homeland Defense: Dealing with the Team Effect ") is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the Sellinger School of Business, Loyola University Maryland. His research focuses on contract theory, game theory, and the economics of incentives. He is especially interested in applying these topics to study the economics of corruption and bribery and has published several articles on the incentives for corruption within organizations. He received a B.A. in economics from Calvin College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Boston College. Email: asamuel@loyola.edu . Paula Sarabando (" A Note on a Group Preference Axiomatization with Cardinal Utility ") received her B.S. degree in mathematics and M.Sc. degree in information management from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. In early 2011, she finished her Ph.D. in management science applied to decisions at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra, with a thesis on multiattribute decision analysis with ordinal information. She is currently a lecturer at the Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Gestão de Viseu (Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Portugal) and a researcher at the INESC Coimbra R&D Institute. Her interests include decision analysis, namely, evaluation with multiple criteria, evaluation with multiple actors (group decision and negotiation), and working with qualitative and ordinal information. Email: psarabando@mat.estv.ipv.pt .
The findings from the study suggest that international pressure for more effective Right to Information (RTI) implementation only goes so far. The development of RTI laws with the encouragement, assistance, or insistence of the international community was a prominent theme throughout the case studies, particularly for EU countries during their accession process. But implementation is a less straightforward task, with many interlocking, moving parts, and international support comes in ad hoc fashion as the process unfolds. A strong implication from these findings is that a national coordinating strategy may be valuable for implementation. This kind of strategy document should take the interdependence of the drivers of effectiveness into account when drafting policies and rules for practice, and can serve as a guiding document when deciding on foreign funding priorities.
Does a man who knits demonstrate courage? The question refers to the meanings attributed to knitting, which has traditionally been perceived as a female occupation performed in private space. In this article, referring to the past and the analysis of contemporary craft practice, I describe the process of deconstruction in this area. I am particularly interested in men knitting in public. The aim of my considerations is to analyze the difference between the meaning of what is male and female in knitting, and between hegemonic practice and subversive acts of deconstruction. ; Czy mężczyzna, który robi na drutach, wykazuje się dziś odwagą? Tak sformułowane pytanie odsyła do znaczeń przypisywanych dzierganiu, tradycyjnie postrzeganemu jako zajęcie kobiece, wykonywane w przestrzeni prywatnej. W ramach prezentowanego artykułu, odwołując się do przeszłości oraz w oparciu o analizę współczesnych praktyk rękodzielniczych, opisuję proces dekonstrukcji dokonujący się w tym obszarze. Szczególną uwagę poświęcam analizie aktywności mężczyzn, którzy robią na drutach publicznie, naruszając tym samym stabilność znaczeń rozpiętych pomiędzy tym, co męskie i niemęskie, pomiędzy praktyką hegemoniczną i subwersywnymi aktami jej kwestionowania. ; e.kepa@uwb.edu.pl ; Instytut Studiów Kulturowych, Uniwersytet w Białymstoku ; Anderson Eric (2015), Teoria męskości inkluzywnej, transl. Piotr Sobolczyk, "Teksty Drugie", no. 2, pp. 431–444. ; Anderson Eric, McGuire Rhidian (2010), Inclusive Masculinity Theory and the Gendered Politics of Men's Rugby, "Journal of Gender Studies", vol. 19, issue 3, pp. 249–261. ; Arcimowicz Krzysztof (2015), Współczesny ideał męskiego ciała – wybrane aspekty problematyki, "Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. 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In: Decision analysis: a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, Band 7, Heft 4, S. 404-410
ISSN: 1545-8504
Ali Abbas (" From the Editors… ") is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He received an M.S. in electrical engineering (1998), an M.S. in engineering economic systems and operations research (2001), a Ph.D. in management science and engineering (2003), and a Ph.D. (minor) in electrical engineering, all from Stanford University. He worked as a lecturer in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford and worked in Schlumberger Oilfield Services from 1991 to 1997, where he held several international positions in wireline logging, operations management, and international training. He has also worked on several consulting projects for mergers and acquisitions in California, and cotaught several executive seminars on decision analysis at Strategic Decisions Group in Menlo Park, California. His research interests include utility theory, decision making with incomplete information and preferences, dynamic programming, and information theory. Dr. Abbas is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He is also an associate editor for Decision Analysis and Operations Research and coeditor of the DA column in education for Decision Analysis Today. Address: Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 117 Transportation Building, MC-238, 104 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801; e-mail: aliabbas@uiuc.edu . Matthew D. Bailey (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is an assistant professor of business analytics and operations in the School of Management at Bucknell University, and he is an adjunct research investigator with Geisinger Health System. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. His primary research interest is in sequential decision making under uncertainty with applications to health-care operations and medical decision making. He is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Address: School of Management, Bucknell University, 308 Taylor Hall, Lewisburg, PA 17837; e-mail: matt.bailey@bucknell.edu . Anthony M. Barrett (" Cost Effectiveness of On-Site Chlorine Generation for Chlorine Truck Attack Prevention ") is a risk analyst at ABS Consulting in Arlington, Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and he also was a postdoctoral research associate at the Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California. His research interests include risk analysis, risk management, and public policies in a wide variety of areas, including terrorism, hazardous materials, energy and the environment, and natural hazards. Address: ABS Consulting, 1525 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 625, Arlington, VA 22209; e-mail: abarrett@absconsulting.com . Manel Baucells (" From the Editors… ") is a full professor at the Department of Economics and Business of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. He was an associate professor and head of the Managerial Decision Sciences Department at IESE Business School. He earned his Ph.D. in management from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). His research and consulting activities cover multiple areas of decision making including group decisions, consumer decisions, uncertainty, complexity, and psychology. He acts as associate editor for the top journals Management Science, Operations Research, and Decision Analysis. He has received various prizes and grants for his research. In 2001, he won the student paper competition of the Decision Analysis Society. He is the only IESE professor having won both the Excellence Research Award and the Excellence Teaching Award. He has been visiting professor at Duke University, UCLA, London Business School, and Erasmus University. Address: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; e-mail: manel.baucells@upf.edu . J. Eric Bickel (" Scoring Rules and Decision Analysis Education ") is an assistant professor in both the Operations Research/Industrial Engineering Group (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Professor Bickel is a fellow in both the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and the Center for Petroleum Asset Risk Management. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University and a B.S. in mechanical engineering with a minor in economics from New Mexico State University. His research interests include the theory and practice of decision analysis and its application in the energy and climate-change arenas. His research has addressed the modeling of probabilistic dependence, value of information, scoring rules, calibration, risk preference, education, decision making in sports, and climate engineering as a response to climate change. Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin, Professor Bickel was an assistant professor at Texas A&M University and a senior engagement manager for Strategic Decisions Group. He has consulted around the world in a range of industries, including oil and gas, electricity generation/transmission/delivery, energy trading and marketing, commodity and specialty chemicals, life sciences, financial services, and metals and mining. Address: Graduate Program in Operations Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C2200, Austin, TX 78712-0292; e-mail: ebickel@mail.utexas.edu . Vicki M. Bier (" From the Editors… ") holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she has directed the Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis (formerly the Center for Human Performance in Complex Systems) since 1995. She has more than 20 years of experience in risk analysis for the nuclear power, chemical, petrochemical, and aerospace industries. Before returning to academia, she spent seven years as a consultant at Pickard, Lowe and Garrick, Inc. While there, her clients included the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy, and a number of nuclear utilities, and she prepared testimony for Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearings on the safety of the Indian Point nuclear power plants. Dr. Bier's current research focuses on applications of risk analysis and related methods to problems of security and critical infrastructure protection, under support from the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Bier received the Women's Achievement Award from the American Nuclear Society in 1993, and was elected a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis in 1996, from which she received the Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007. She has written a number of papers and book chapters related to uncertainty analysis and decision making under uncertainty, and is the author of two scholarly review articles on risk communication. She served as the engineering editor for Risk Analysis from 1997 through 2001, and has served as a councilor of both the Society for Risk Analysis and the Decision Analysis Society, for which she is currently vice president and president elect. Dr. Bier has also served as a member of both the Radiation Advisory Committee and the Homeland Security Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board. Address: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706; e-mail: bier@engr.wisc.edu . Samuel E. Bodily (" Darden's Luckiest Student: Lessons from a High-Stakes Risk Experiment ") is the John Tyler Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and has published textbooks and more than 40 articles in journals ranging from Harvard Business Review to Management Science. His publications relate to decision and risk analysis, forecasting, strategy modeling, revenue management, and eStrategy. He has edited special issues of Interfaces on decision and risk analysis and strategy modeling and analysis. Professor Bodily has published well over 100 cases, including a couple of the 10 best-selling cases at Darden. He received the Distinguished Casewriter Wachovia Award from Darden in 2005 and three other best case or research Wachovia awards. He is faculty leader for an executive program on Strategic Thinking and Action. He is the course head of, and teaches in, a highly valued first-year MBA course in decision analysis, has a successful second-year elective on Management Decision Models, and has taught eStrategy and Strategy. He is a past winner of the Decision Sciences International Instructional Award and has served as chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. He has taught numerous executive education programs for Darden and private companies, has consulted widely for business and government entities, and has served as an expert witness. Professor Bodily was on the faculties of MIT Sloan School of Management and Boston University and has been a visiting professor at INSEAD Singapore, Stanford University, and the University of Washington. He has a Ph.D. degree and an S.M. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in physics from Brigham Young University. Address: Darden School of Business, 100 Darden Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22903; e-mail: bodilys@virginia.edu . David Budescu (" From the Editors… ") is the Anne Anastasi Professor of Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology at Fordham University. He held positions at the University of Illinois and the University of Haifa, and visiting positions at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Gotheborg, the Kellog School at Northwestern University, the Hebrew University, and the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion). His research is in the areas of human judgment, individual and group decision making under uncertainty and with incomplete and vague information, and statistics for the behavioral and social sciences. He is or was on the editorial boards of Applied Psychological Measurement; Decision Analysis; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making; Journal of Mathematical Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (2000–2003); Multivariate Behavioral Research; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (1992–2002); and Psychological Methods (1996–2000). He is past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (2000–2001), fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and an elected member of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychologists. Address: Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, NY 10458; e-mail: budescu@fordham.edu . John C. Butler (" From the Editors… ") is a clinical associate professor of finance and the academic director of the Energy Management and Innovation Center in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, and the secretary/treasurer of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. Butler received his Ph.D. in management science and information systems from the University of Texas in 1998. His research interests involve the use of decision science models to support decision making, with a particular emphasis on decision and risk analysis models with multiple performance criteria. Butler has consulted with a number of organizations regarding the application of decision analysis tools to a variety of practical problems. Most of his consulting projects involve use of Visual Basic for Applications and Excel to implement complex decision science models in a user-friendly format. Address: Center for Energy Management and Innovation, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1178; e-mail: john.butler2@mccombs.utexas.edu . Philippe Delquié (" From the Editors… ") is an associate professor of decision sciences at the George Washington University and holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Delquié's teaching and research are in decision, risk, and multicriteria analysis. His work focuses on the interplay of behavioral and normative theories of choice, with the aim of improving managerial decision making and risk taking. His research addresses issues in preference assessment, value of information, nonexpected utility models of choice under risk, and risk measures. Prior to joining the George Washington University, he held academic appointments at INSEAD, the University of Texas at Austin, and École Normale Supérieure, France, and visiting appointments at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Address: Department of Decision Sciences, George Washington University, Funger Hall, Suite 415, Washington, DC 20052; e-mail: delquie@gwu.edu . Zeynep Erkin (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her M.S. and B.S. degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and Middle East Technical University, Turkey, in 2008 and 2006, respectively. Her research interests include maintenance optimization and medical decision making. Address: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3600 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: zee2@pitt.edu . Peter I. Frazier (" Paradoxes in Learning and the Marginal Value of Information ") is an assistant professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University. He received a Ph.D. in operations research and financial engineering from Princeton University in 2009. His research interest is in the optimal acquisition of information, with applications in simulation, medicine, operations management, neuroscience, and information retrieval. He teaches courses in simulation and statistics. Address: School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; e-mail: pf98@cornell.edu . L. Robin Keller (" From the Editors… ") is a professor of operations and decision technologies in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. in management science and her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served as a program director for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research is on decision analysis and risk analysis for business and policy decisions and has been funded by NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research interests cover multiple-attribute decision making, riskiness, fairness, probability judgments, ambiguity of probabilities or outcomes, risk analysis (for terrorism, environmental, health, and safety risks), time preferences, problem structuring, cross-cultural decisions, and medical decision making. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Decision Analysis, published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She is a Fellow of INFORMS and has held numerous roles in INFORMS, including board member and chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. She is a recipient of the George F. Kimball Medal from INFORMS. She has served as the decision analyst on three National Academy of Sciences committees. Address: The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3125; e-mail: lrkeller@uci.edu . Lisa M. Maillart (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is an associate professor in the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, she served on the faculty of the Department of Operations in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She received her M.S. and B.S. in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech, and her Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. Her primary research interest is in sequential decision making under uncertainty, with applications in medical decision making and maintenance optimization. She is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Society of Medical Decision Making (SMDM), and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Address: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3600 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: maillart@pitt.edu . Jason R. W. Merrick (" From the Editors… ") is an associate professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has a D.Sc. in operations research from the George Washington University. He teaches courses in decision analysis, risk analysis, and simulation. His research is primarily in the area of decision analysis and Bayesian statistics. He has worked on projects ranging from assessing maritime oil transportation and ferry system safety, the environmental health of watersheds, and optimal replacement policies for rail tracks and machine tools, and he has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the United States Coast Guard, the American Bureau of Shipping, British Petroleum, and Booz Allen Hamilton, among others. He has also performed training for Infineon Technologies, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Capital One Services. He is an associate editor for Decision Analysis and Operations Research. He is the information officer for the Decision Analysis Society. Address: Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284; e-mail: jrmerric@vcu.edu . Phillip E. Pfeifer (" Darden's Luckiest Student: Lessons from a High-Stakes Risk Experiment ") is the Richard S. Reynolds Professor of Business at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, where he teaches courses in decision analysis and direct marketing. A graduate of Lehigh University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, his teaching has won student awards and has been recognized in Business Week's Guide to the Best Business Schools. He is an active researcher in the areas of decision making and direct marketing, and he currently serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Interactive Marketing, which named him their best reviewer of 2008. In 2004 he was recognized as the Darden School's faculty leader in terms of external case sales, and in 2006 he coauthored a managerial book, Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master, published by Wharton School Publishing, which was named best marketing book of the year by Strategy + Business. Address: Darden School of Business; 100 Darden Boulevard; Charlottesville, VA 22903; e-mail: pfeiferp@virginia.edu . Warren B. Powell (" Paradoxes in Learning and the Marginal Value of Information ") is a professor in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1981. He is the director of CASTLE Laboratory (Princeton University), which specializes in the development of stochastic optimization models and algorithms with applications in transportation and logistics, energy, health, and finance. The author or coauthor of more than 160 refereed publications, he is an INFORMS Fellow, and the author of Approximate Dynamic Programming: Solving the Curses of Dimensionality, published by John Wiley and Sons. His primary research interests are in approximate dynamic programming for high-dimensional applications and optimal learning (the efficient collection of information), and their application in energy systems analysis and transportation. He is a recipient of the Wagner prize and has twice been a finalist in the Edelman competition. He has also served in a variety of editorial and administrative positions for INFORMS, including INFORMS Board of Directors, area editor for Operations Research, president of the Transportation Science Section, and numerous prize and administrative committees. Address: Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; e-mail: powell@princeton.edu . Mark S. Roberts (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach "), M.D., M.P.P., is professor and chair of health policy and management, and he holds secondary appointments in medicine, industrial engineering, and clinical and translational science. A practicing general internist, he has conducted research in decision analysis and the mathematical modeling of disease for more than 25 years, and he has expertise in cost effectiveness analysis, mathematical optimization and simulation, and the measurement and inclusion of patient preferences into decision problems. He has used decision analysis to examine clinical, costs, policy and allocation questions in liver transplantation, vaccination strategies, operative interventions, and the use of many medications. His recent research has concentrated in the use of mathematical methods from operations research and management science, including Markov decision processes, discrete-event simulation, and integer programming, to problems in health care. Address: Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, 130 De Soto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: robertsm@upmc.edu . Ahti Salo (" From the Editors… ") is a professor of systems analysis at the Systems Analysis Laboratory of Aalto University. His research interests include topics in portfolio decision analysis, multicriteria decision making, risk management, efficiency analysis, and technology foresight. He is currently president of the Finnish Operations Research Society (FORS) and represents Europe and the Middle East in the INFORMS International Activities Committee. Professor Salo has been responsible for the methodological design and implementation of numerous high-impact decision and policy processes, including FinnSight 2015, the national foresight exercise of the Academy of Finland and the National Funding Agency for Technology and Innovations (Tekes). Address: Aalto University, Systems Analysis Laboratory, P.O. Box 11100, 00076 Aalto, Finland; e-mail: ahti.salo@tkk.fi . Andrew J. Schaefer (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is an associate professor of industrial engineering and Wellington C. Carl Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. He has courtesy appointments in bioengineering, medicine, and clinical and translational science. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech in 2000. His research interests include the application of stochastic optimization methods to health-care problems, as well as stochastic optimization techniques, in particular, stochastic integer programming. He is interested in patient-oriented decision making in contexts such as end-stage liver disease, HIV/AIDS, sepsis, and diabetes. He also models health-care systems, including operating rooms and intensive-care units. He is an associate editor for INFORMS Journal on Computing and IIE Transactions. Address: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3600 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: Schaefer@pitt.edu . George Wu (" From the Editors… ") has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since September 1997. His degrees include A.B. (applied mathematics, 1985), S.M. (applied mathematics, 1987), and Ph.D. (decision sciences, 1991), all from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Professor Wu was on the faculty at Harvard Business School. Wu worked as a decision analyst at Procter & Gamble prior to starting graduate school. His research interests include descriptive and prescriptive aspects of decision making, in particular, decision making involving risk, cognitive biases in bargaining and negotiation, and managerial and organizational decision making. Professor Wu is a coordinating editor for Theory and Decision, an advisory editor for Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, on the editorial boards of Decision Analysis and Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, and a former department editor of Management Science. Address: Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637; e-mail: wu@chicagobooth.edu .
This paper analyzes a set of environmental conditions that influence the development of Technology Based Enterprises (TBCs) in innovation-based and efficiency-based economies. The existing literature on this phenomenon is reviewed and data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is used. Exploratory factorial analysis is handled out with the application of the Varimax Orthogonal Rotation method. The study concludes that some of the factors identified are influential in certain economic environments for the consolidation of EBT's, particularly in innovative economies. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, technological base, efficient, innovative. URL:http://revistas.uta.edu.ec/erevista/index.php/bcoyu/article/view/883 DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.31164/bcoyu.24.2020.883 References: Acs, Z. J., Audretsch, D. B., & Lehmann, E. E. (2013). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 41(4), 757-774. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-013-9505-9 Alarcón, M. A., & Díaz, C. del C. (2016). La empresa de base tecnológica y su contribución a la economía mexicana en el periodo 2004-2009. Contaduría y Administración, 61(1), 106-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cya.2015.09.004 An, H. J., & Ahn, S. J. (2016). Emerging technologies—beyond the chasm: Assessing technological forecasting and its implication for innovation management in Korea. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 102, 132-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2015.06.015 Aportela, I. (2015). La información como recurso estratégico en las empresas de base tecnológica. Revista General de Información y Documentación, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_RGID.2015.v25.n2.51238 Barrientos, E., Quiroz, L., & López, W. (2017). Factores influyentes para el emprendimiento en tecnologías de la información y comunicación para economías de Latinoamérica vs economías de Europa y Norte América. Gestión de la innovación para la competitividad, 1-17. Bertoni, F., Martt, J., & Reverte, C. (2017). The Impact of Government-Supported Participative Loans on Employment Growth in Entrepreneurial Ventures. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3088072 Binsawad, M., Sohaib, O., & Hawryszkiewycz, I. (2019). Factors impacting techology business incubator Performance. International Journal of Innovation Management, 23(01), 1950007. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1363919619500075 Borini, F., Ribeiro, F., & Miranda, M. (2017). The internationalisation of new technology-based firms from emerging markets. 23-41. Brüne, N., & Lutz, E. (2019). The effect of entrepreneurship education in schools on entrepreneurial outcomes: A systematic review. Management Review Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-019-00168-3 Brunet, I., & Alarcón, A. (2004). Teorías sobre la figura del emprendedor. Papers. Revista de Sociologia, 73, 81. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/papers/v73n0.1108 College, B., & Park, B. (2017). Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report. 155. Colovic, A., & Lamotte, O. (2015). Technological Environment and Technology Entrepreneurship: A Cross-Country Analysis: Technological Environment and Technology Entrepreneurship. Creativity and Innovation Management, 24(4), 617-628. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12133 Cooper, S. (2006). Exploring the pre-entrepreneurial careers of high-technology entrepreneurs. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 16(5), 341. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJCEELL.2006.010957 Costantini, V., & Crespi, F. (2015). European enlargement policy, technological capabilities and sectoral export dynamics. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 40(1), 25-69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-013-9307-x Cunningham, J. A., Lehmann, E. E., Menter, M., & Seitz, N. (2019). The impact of university focused technology transfer policies on regional innovation and entrepreneurship. The Journal of Technology Transfer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-019-09733-0 De los Ríos, S., Rodríguez, I., & Sáenz, R. (2015). Emprendedores y capital riesgo en España: El caso de Fond-ICO Global. Revista Icade. Revista de las Facultades de Derecho y Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, 0(94), 31. https://doi.org/10.14422/icade.i94.y2015.002 Díaz, E., Souto, J., & Tejeiro, M. (2013). Nuevas empresas de base tecnológica. Netbiblo, S. L. https://www.madrimasd.org/uploads/informacionidi/biblioteca/publicacion/doc/Nebts3.pdf Etemad, H. (2016). Special Thematic Issue on: International Interactions and Activities of University-Based Technology Entrepreneurship. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 14(3), 277-284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-016-0189-5 García, A. M., García, M. G., & Olivares, A. (2018). Entrepreneurs' Resources, Technology Strategy, and New Technology-Based Firms' Performance. Journal of Small Business Management. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12411 Guercio, M., Martinez, L., & Vigier, H. (2017). Las limitaciones al financiamiento bancario de las Pymes de alta tecnología. Estudios Gerenciales, 33(142), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.estger.2017.02.001 Gutiérrez Olvera, S. (2018). Emprendimiento en las empresas familiares / Entrepreneurship in family businesses. RICEA Revista Iberoamericana de Contaduría, Economía y Administración, 4(7), 163. https://doi.org/10.23913/ricea.v4i7.119 Harbi, S. E., & Anderson, A. R. (2010). Institutions and the shaping of different forms of entrepreneurship. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 39(3), 436-444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2010.02.011 Hernández, I., Álvarez, R., Blanco, C., & Carvajal, A. (2014). El ascenso de la "mano invisible": Análisis para el surgimiento de un mercado formal de financiación para empresas de base tecnológica (ebt) en Colombia. FACE: Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, 13(1), 5–32. Huang, Y., Audretsch, D. B., & Hewitt, M. (2013). Chinese technology transfer policy: The case of the national independent innovation demonstration zone of East Lake. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 38(6), 828-835. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-012-9292-5 harbiKirwan, P., Sijde, P., & Groen, A. (2006). Assessing the needs of new technology based firms (NTBFs): An investigation among spin-off companies from six European Universities. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 2(2), 173-187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-006-8683-1 Kuratko, D. F., & Menter, M. (2017). The Role of Public Policy in Fostering Technology-Based Nascent Entrepreneurship. En J. A. Cunningham & C. O'Kane (Eds.), Technology-Based Nascent Entrepreneurship (pp. 19-52). Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59594-2_2 Larsen, M., Vigier, H. P., Guercio, M. B., & Briozzo, A. E. (2014). Financiamiento mediante obligaciones negociables. El problema de ser PyME. Visión de futuro, 18(2). http://visiondefuturo.fce.unam.edu.ar/index.php/visiondefuturo/article/viewFile/26/18 Lasso, S., Mainardes, E., & Motoki, F. (2017). Why do entrepreneurs open tech startups? A comparative study between Brazilian and foreign enterprises. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-017-0445-8 Lecluyse, L., Knockaert, M., & Spithoven, A. (2018). The contribution of science parks: A literature review and future research agenda. The Journal of Technology Transfer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-018-09712-x Lima, R. (2016). Economic Growth and Human Capital in the Post-Knowledge Era: A Focus on Positive Externalities and Spillover Effects of Knowledge in Italy and the Emergency of the Less Developed Areas. Journal of Industrial Integration and Management, 01(03), 1650010. https://doi.org/10.1142/S242486221650010X Lloret, S., Ferreres, A., Hernández, A., & Tomás, I. (2014). El análisis factorial exploratorio de los ítems: Una guía práctica, revisada y actualizada. Anales de Psicología, 30(3), 1151-1169. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.3.199361 Löfsten, H. (2016). Business and innovation resources: Determinants for the survival of new technology-based firms. Management Decision, 54(1), 88-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2015-0139 Maculan, A.-M., Hernández, C. N. J., & Domínguez, O. F. C. (2015). Aprendizaje en el proceso de incubación de empresas de base tecnológica. Económicas CUC, 36(1), 9-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.17981/econcuc.36.1.2015.21 Malhotra, N. K. (2008). Investigación de mercados. Pearson Educación. McAdam, M., & Marlow, S. (2011). Sense and sensibility: The role of business incubator client advisors in assisting high-technology entrepreneurs to make sense of investment readiness status. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 23(7-8), 449-468. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985620903406749 Mian, S., Lamine, W., & Fayolle, A. (2016). Technology Business Incubation: An overview of the state of knowledge. Technovation, 50-51, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2016.02.005 Ramaciotti, L., Muscio, A., & Rizzo, U. (2017). The impact of hard and soft policy measures on new technology-based firms. Regional Studies, 51(4), 629-642. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2016.1255319 Ramírez, M., & Fernández, M. (2018). Unravelling the effects of Science Parks on the innovation performance of NTBFs. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 43(2), 482-505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-017-9559-y Sempere, F., & Hervás, J. L. (2014). Innovación tecnológica y no tecnológica: Efectos complementarios en la performance empresarial. Economía Industrial, 2014, 71-76. https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/51948 Shane, S. (2012). Reflections on the 2010 AMD Decade Award: Delivering on the Promise of Entrepreneurship As a Field of Research. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 10-20. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2011.0078 Torrecilla, J. A., Skotnicka, A. G., & Tous, D. (2017a). Dimensiones que afectan a los emprendedores tecnológicos: El auge de las nuevas empresas de base tecnológica. 1-10. http://www.revistaespacios.com/a18v39n11/a18v39n11p16.pdf Vereinte Nationen (Ed.). (2018). Frontier technologies for sustainable development. United Nations. Vicens, L., & Grullon, S. (2011). Innovación y emprendimiento. Un modelo basado en el desarrollo del emprendedor. Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, 1-31. https://publications.iadb.org/es/publicacion/15039/innovacion-y-emprendimiento-un-modelo-basado-en-el-desarrollo-del-emprendedor Xiao, L., & North, D. (2017). The graduation performance of technology business incubators in China's three tier cities: The role of incubator funding, technical support, and entrepreneurial mentoring. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 42(3), 615-634. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9493-4 Zapata, G., López, S. F., Vivel, M., Neira, I., & Rodeiro, D. (2014). 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Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 5(2011-7), 1. https://doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2011-7 ; El presente trabajo analiza un conjunto de condiciones del entorno que influyen en el desarrollo de Emprendimientos de Base Tecnológica (EBT) en economías basadas en innovación y en economías basadas en eficiencia. Se realiza una revisión de la literatura existente respecto a este fenómeno y se utilizan los datos del Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Se lleva a cabo análisis factorial exploratorio con la aplicación del método de Rotación Ortogonal Varimax. El estudio concluye que algunos de los factores identificados resultan influyentes en determinados entornos económicos para la consolidación de los EBT's, particularmente en las economías innovadoras. Palabras clave: Emprendimiento, base tecnológica, eficientes, innovadoras. URL:http://revistas.uta.edu.ec/erevista/index.php/bcoyu/article/view/883 DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.31164/bcoyu.24.2020.883 Referencias: Acs, Z. J., Audretsch, D. B., & Lehmann, E. E. (2013). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 41(4), 757-774. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-013-9505-9 Alarcón, M. A., & Díaz, C. del C. (2016). La empresa de base tecnológica y su contribución a la economía mexicana en el periodo 2004-2009. Contaduría y Administración, 61(1), 106-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cya.2015.09.004 An, H. J., & Ahn, S. J. (2016). Emerging technologies—beyond the chasm: Assessing technological forecasting and its implication for innovation management in Korea. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 102, 132-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2015.06.015 Aportela, I. (2015). La información como recurso estratégico en las empresas de base tecnológica. 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Over the last few years the Standard Cost Model (SCM) has become the regulatory reform tool of choice in European Union (EU) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for identifying and reducing regulatory compliance costs. SCM provides a relatively simple methodology to measure and communicate businesses' paperwork obligations arising from compliance with governments' regulations. More recently the SCM has also been adapted and applied in a number of developing countries, including Kenya, Zambia, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, and Rwanda. It is still too early days to conclude much on the SCM model's general applicability in developing countries. However as part of a broader reform package the SCM has proven capable of strengthening momentum by providing new insights into regulatory obligations, by quantifying the costs and time associated with information obligations both at aggregate and at a rule-specific level. It has hence proven useful both as a tool to target specific interventions and to monitor the impact of reform. This document provides a number of lessons from the first few years of using SCM in regulatory reforms, with a focus on business licensing, in developing countries. These lessons are not intended to provide a final account on how SCM is to be carried out in developing countries. Along with its dissemination across the globe, SCM has experienced a constant development. This document aims to point out a number of important issues that have been observed and tested during the initial measurements in World Bank client countries to prevent future practitioners from the need to re-invent the wheel.
While economic theory considers technological progress to be a key factor for sustained long-term economic growth and job creation, technology absorption is particularly an important driver for 'catch-up growth.' This study seeks to identify channels of technology transfer and absorption for Southern African enterprises, constraints to greater technology absorption, and discuss policy options open to governments and the private sector in light of relevant international experience. It has been done based on sector and enterprise case studies carried in four countries: South Africa, Mauritius, L
Desde que a comienzos del siglo XXI se fijó en Lisboa el plan estratégico de la Unión Europea (Lisboa, 2000), tendente a conseguir que esta zona sea la más competitiva en la conocida Sociedad del Conocimiento (SC) (Bell, 1973; Drucker, 1969, 1994; Faure et al., 1972; Stehr, 1994; UNESCO, 2005), uno de los términos que más interés está despertando es el de Gobierno Electrónico (e-Gobierno). Este concepto se encuentra en constante estado de evolución y se ha convertido en una expresión que abarca multitud de actividades e intentos de innovación y modernización en el campo de la gestión pública (Wimmer, 2002). Layne and Lee, (2001) afirman que un objetivo importante del e-Gobierno es la prestación de servicios e información más rápidos y más baratos para los ciudadanos, socios comerciales, empleados, otros organismos y agencias gubernamentales. Estos autores también propusieron una evolución del gobierno electrónico de cuatro etapas: (1) la catalogación; (2) la transacción; (3) la integración vertical y (4) la integración horizontal. Los representantes elegidos por el pueblo deben aprovechar el uso de las TIC para acercarse a la sociedad, fomentar la participación democrática, contribuir a una buena administración y mejorar la efectividad, la eficacia y la eficiencia de las Administraciones Públicas. En abril de 2010, Moreno-Jiménez propuso la aproximación EF3 (EF3-approach) a la hora de abordar el comportamiento de los sistemas, la cual contempla las siguientes ideas: a) la efectividad, asociada a la planificación estratégica o comportamiento a largo plazo y a la detección de los criterios relevantes para la resolución de un problema (hacer lo correcto); b) la eficacia asociada a la planificación táctica o comportamiento a medio plazo y a la consecución de las metas marcadas para los objetivos fijados y c) la eficiencia asociada a la planificación operativa o comportamiento a corto plazo y a la consecución de las metas con la mejor asignación de recursos posibles (hacerlo correctamente). En síntesis, lo que se postula es lograr un nuevo tipo de gestión de lo público empleando convenientemente el uso de las TIC y que, además de garantizar la eficacia (satisfacer las necesidades de los ciudadanos), y la eficiencia (optimizar los recursos) del sistema, los modelos de intervención democrática se centren en su efectividad. Aprovechando el continuo desarrollo de la tecnología, también es necesaria una profunda reflexión sobre la orientación que debe tener la democracia en el futuro y las posibilidades que ofrece la red. En los últimos años, la consideración del ser humano en un contexto holístico y sistémico y la utilización de la búsqueda del conocimiento como criterio esencial que guíe el comportamiento de los individuos y de los sistemas, han llevado a la búsqueda de alternativas democráticas que recojan estas ideas (Moreno-Jiménez, 2006). Para construir ese futuro es preciso la mejora de las democracias actuales o habilitar nuevos modelos democráticos que, aprovechando el potencial de la Sociedad del Conocimiento, puedan dar respuesta a los nuevos retos y necesidades que en ella se plantean. En este sentido, la e-Cognocracia (Moreno-Jiménez 2003, 2004, 2006; Moreno-Jiménez y Polasek, 2003, 2004, 2005), es un nuevo modelo de democracia que combinando la democracia representativa y la directa permite: i) la co-creación en las diferentes etapas de la metodología científica utilizada en la resolución de los problemas planteados en el ámbito de las decisiones públicas referidas al gobierno de la sociedad, ii) la co-decisión entre ciudadanos y representantes a la hora de seleccionar la mejor opción, y iii) la cognición a través de la formación continuada de la ciudadanía mediante la democratización del conocimiento derivado de la resolución científica del problema . Este nuevo sistema democrático utiliza la decisión multicriterio como soporte metodológico, la red como soporte de comunicaciones y el sistema democrático como elemento catalizador del aprendizaje. Además, pretende potenciar la participación y el control de los ciudadanos en las decisiones públicas, así como mejorar la transparencia de los procedimientos seguidos. Las decisiones siguen siendo tomadas por la mayoría de la ciudadanía, pero a diferencia de lo que ocurre en la democracia representativa, la e-Cognocracia, además de no excluir ninguna idea del proceso de resolución, potencia la creatividad e innovación de los ciudadanos (Moreno-Jiménez, 2003). Durante la última década, la inclusión de los ciudadanos en la toma de decisiones políticas a través de la participación electrónica (e-Participación) ha recibido mucha atención. Macintosh (2004) definió este concepto como el uso de las TIC para ampliar y profundizar la participación política de los ciudadanos, para que puedan conectarse entre sí y con sus representantes electos. Con el uso de las TIC en la participación ciudadana se ha empezado a ver un cambio en la misma. Es un cambio de cultura y de hábitos cotidianos, un cambio en la manera de relacionarse y de observar el mundo que les rodea. En el marco de esta tesis, la e-Participación puede aplicarse, en general, a los dos ámbitos contemplados en la Administración Pública (Moreno-Jiménez, 2009): (i) provisión de servicios (e-Administración) y (ii) participación política en los procesos democráticos (e-Gobernanza). No obstante, tradicionalmente, la e-Participación se ha venido asociando exclusivamente al último ámbito de los dos considerados: la participación política o e-Gobernanza en su sentido más amplio (participación en la toma de decisiones públicas relativas al gobierno de la sociedad). Con esta interpretación de la e-Participación, la e-Cognocracia puede considerarse como un nuevo modelo de participación, y por lo tanto incluida en la misma, pues uno de sus objetivos es una toma de decisiones pública colaborativa. Cada vez se habilitan más espacios donde los ciudadanos pueden participar en la definición, gestión y desarrollo de la agenda institucional. Este hecho ha provocado que la participación ciudadana se esté convirtiendo en uno de los grandes desafíos a los que se enfrentan los gobiernos del XXI. Es por ello, por lo que las Administraciones deben, necesariamente, incrementar el nivel de información disponible, y al hacerlo ponen a disposición de la ciudadanía más herramientas para el segui¬miento, el control y la evaluación de las políticas públicas. La participación ha de tener una traslación en términos prácticos, de manera que los ciudadanos puedan constatar su incidencia y sus resultados. De esta manera, es conveniente desarrollar procedimientos de evaluación conjunta y participada, para poder medir el alcance y el impacto de una experiencia de e-Participación. La evaluación no sólo permite visualizar los resultados de una iniciativa y el grado de cumplimiento de los objetivos propuestos sino que expresa una voluntad de rigor, transparencia, análisis y mejora continuada que refuerza la consis¬tencia y credibilidad de las experiencias participativas. Con la evaluación se pretende realizar un análisis lo más riguroso posible acerca de las distintas etapas y resultados alcanzados por las experiencias de e-Participación, de tal forma que se pueda determinar, entre otros aspectos, la efectividad, la eficacia, la eficiencia (EF3-approach) así como el impacto económico, social y ambiental de las acciones. Aunque la importancia de la evaluación de una iniciativa de e-Participación es reconocida por el gobierno y el mundo académico, las evaluaciones rigurosas de e-participación son difíciles de encontrar (Macintosh and White, 2008). La evaluación ex-post de un experiencia de e-Participación nos permite analizar el impacto que ha tenido ésta, así como el análisis de la utilización práctica de los instrumentos de participación. Además, nos sirve para conocer qué modificaciones podrían ser necesarias a efectos de poder mejorar, desde el punto de vista de la efectividad, eficacia y eficiencia, las actividades futuras. Además, estas iniciativas participativas, llevan asociado un coste económico, que en la mayoría de los casos está financiado con fondos públicos, por lo que sería conveniente la valoración de las mismas, con el fin de ser, ante todo, transparente y consecuente con los objetivos estratégicos perseguidos, ya que éstos, deberían ser verificables y demostrables económica y socialmente. De esta manera, se presenta la necesidad de cuantificar, monetariamente, tanto los aspectos económicos, sociales y ambientales, como el valor añadido generado de la aplicación práctica de este tipo de iniciativas de e-Participación (Pérez Espés et al., 2012). Para poder dar una respuesta apropiada a los nuevos retos y necesidades que en el ámbito de las decisiones públicas relativas al gobierno de la sociedad, plantea la Sociedad del Conocimiento, se propone el desarrollo de esta tesis Doctoral: Efectividad de la e-Cognocracia. Una aproximación económica-social. El principal objetivo de esta tesis es establecer un marco general que permita la evaluación, en términos de efectividad, eficacia y eficiencia, de una experiencia de e-Participación basada en la e-Cognocracia. Así mismo, se extenderá para la evaluación de cualquier experencia de e-Participación. Además de valorar, en términos monetarios, los aspectos económicos, sociales y ambientales, de la implementación y el desarrollo de una experiencia de e-Participación basada en la e-Cognocracia. Esta valoración permitirá, disponer de información ecónomica y social relativa al verdadero valor añadido que aportan estas iniciativas a la sociedad en general. A continuación, en los dos apartados siguientes, se detallan la metodología aplicada para abordar los objetivos propuestos y la estructura seguida en el desarrollo de esta tesis. Metodología: Para la elaboración de esta tesis se va a emplear una metodología mixta, a través de los desarrollos teóricos basados en los resultados obtenidos de nuestro caso de estudio: la experiencia real llevada a cabo en Cadrete (Zaragoza, España). A continuación, se presenta el caso de estudio y las técnicas aplicadas. Caso de estudio: Para la consecución y el logro de los objetivos propuestos, se utiliza como caso de estudio: la experiencia de e-Participación (basada en la e-Cognocracia) para el diseño de políticas públicas llevadas a cabo en Cadrete. Esta iniciativa fue realizada a lo largo del 2010 dentro del proyecto investigador multidisciplinar ¿Gobierno Electrónico, e-Participación y Democratización del Conocimiento¿ que, bajo la dirección del profesor Moreno-Jiménez fue ejecutado por un grupo de 41 personas, entre las que se encuentra la autora de esta tesis. Este municipio forma parte, junto al Gobierno de Aragón y el Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, del conjunto de instituciones que habitualmente colaboran en la línea investigadora del Grupo Decisión Multicriterio Zaragoza. La justificación de la elección de esta experiencia de e-Participación como caso de estudio, se centra, fundamentalmente, en que es la única experiencia completa de aplicación de la e-Cognocracia (tema principal de la tesis) y que fue elaborada por el GDMZ por lo que disponemos de los datos de la misma. Técnicas aplicadas: i) Modelos de Ecuaciones Estructurales (MES): Se crea un marco téorico basado en la EF3-approach para la evaluación de la e-Cognocracia. Este marco llamado teórico EF3-marco (theoretical EF3-framework) es evaluado a través de una encuesta implementada en la experiencia real llevada a cabo en Cadrete usando MES. Debido al número limitado de respuestas, no fue posible validar el marco teórico propuesto (Moreno-Jiménez, Pérez Espés and Rivera, 2013) para la evaluación conjunta de todos los aspectos definidos en el theoretical EF3-framework. Sin embargo, esto nos ha permitido aprovechar las ideas extraídas para extender el marco para evaluar cualquier experiencia de e-Participación no sólo la e-Cognocracia. ii) Grupo de expertos: La extension del theoretical EF3-Framework ha sido evaluada por un grupo de expertos internacionales a través de un cuestionario. EF³-framework es el nombre del marco validado por los expertos. iii) Técnicas de Decisión Multicriterio El EF³-framework se aplica a nuestro caso de estudio (la experiencia de Caderete). Para valorar esta iniciativa se utiliza la técnica de decisión multicriterio denominada Proceso Analítico Jerárquico (AHP). iv) Aproximación económico-social (SROI- Social Return on Investment ) Se realiza una aproximación social-económica a través de la metodología del SROI, la cual nos permite cuantificar, monetariamente, los aspectos económicos, sociales y ambientales, de la implementación y desarrollo de una iniciativa de e-Participación basada en la e-Cognocracia. Así como, disponer de información económica y social relativa al valor añadido que aportan estas experiencias. Estructura y conclusiones Esta tesis doctoral está dividida en dos partes. La primera se compone de dos capítulos donde se analiza el marco teórico para el estudio del gobierno de la sociedad y los modelos de democracia. El primer capítulo analiza el impacto que han tenido las TIC en el gobierno de la sociedad y en la gestión pública, así como el desarrollo que está teniendo la aparición del concepto del e-Gobierno en la Administración Pública y el alcance en la sociedad. Mientras que el segundo capítulo se centra en los diferentes modelos de democracia existentes hasta la fecha, haciendo más hincapié y explicando de manera detallada el nuevo modelo de democracia propuesto por José Mª Moreno en el año 2003 bajo el nombre de e-Cognocracia. La segunda parte está formada por dos capítulos empíricos. En el tercer capítulo, se estudia la relación entre e-Participación y e-Cognocracia y se presenta un marco (EF3-framework) para la evaluación, en términos de efectividad, eficacia y eficiencia, de cualquier experiencia de e¬-Participación. La iniciativa de Cadrete es evaluada y valorada siguiendo el marco EF3 propuesto en dicho capítulo. Y en el cuarto y último capítulo se valora, monetariamente, la implementación y el desarrollo de la experiencia de Cadrete. Esta valoración nos permite, a través de la comparación de los beneficios económicos y sociales con la inversión realizada, tener una visión global sobre el verdadero valor añadido que aportan las iniciativas de e-Participación a la sociedad. Referencias Bell, D. (1973). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. N.Y. Basic Books. Drucker, P. F. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity. Guidelines to our Changing Society. New York: Harper & Row. Drucker, P. F. (1994). The age of social transformation. The Atlantic Monthly, 273(11) (Boston, http://www.theatlantic.com/election/connection/ecbig/soctrans.htm). Faure, E., Herrera, F., Kaddoura, A., Lopes, H., Petrowsky, A., Rahnema, M., et al. (1972). Learning To Be. The World of Education Today and Tomorrow. Paris/London: UNESCO/Harrap. Layne, K. and Lee, J. (2001). Developing fully functional E-government: A four stage model, Government Information Quarterly, 18 (2) 122-137. Lisboa (2000). http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/lis1_es.htm Macintosh, A. (2004). Characterizing E-Participation in Policy-Making, In the Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-37), January 5 ¿ 8, Big Island, Hawaii. Macintosh, A. and Whyte, A. (2008). Towards an Evaluation Framework for eParticipation. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 2(1), 16-30. Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. (2003). Los Métodos Estadísticos en el Nuevo Método Científico. In Casas, J.M. y Pulido, A.: Información económica y técnicas de análisis en el siglo XXI. INE, 331-348. Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. (2004). E-cognocracia y Representación Democrática del Inmigrante. XVIII Anales de Economía Aplicada. León (CD). ISBN: 84-609-4715-7. Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. (2006). E-Cognocracia: Nueva Sociedad, Nueva Democracia. Estudios de Economía Aplicada 24(1-2), 559¿581. Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. (2009). Participación Ciudadana Electrónica en el Diseño de Políticas Públicas Locales. Universidad de Zaragoza (http://aragonparticipa.aragon.es/dmdocuments/Resumen%20e-cognocracia.pdf). Moreno-Jiménez, J.M., Pérez-Espés, C. and Rivera, P. (2013). Notes on an EF3-evaluation of e-Cognocracy. Proceedings 5th World Summit on the Knowledge Society 2012, Roma (Italia), June 2012. Moreno-Jiménez, J. M. and Polasek, W. (2003). E-democracy and Knowledge. A Multicriteria Framework for the New Democratic Era, Journal Multicriteria Decision Analysis, 12, 163-176. Moreno-Jiménez, J. M. and Polasek, W. (2004). E-cognocracy: combining e-democracy with knowledge networks. En Padget, J.; Neira, R. y Díaz de León, J.L. (Eds.) Research on Computing Science 8, 165-175. Méjico. Moreno-Jiménez, J. M. and Polasek, W. (2005). E-cognocracy and the participation of immigrants in egovernance. En Böhlen y otros (eds.): TED Conference on e-government 2005. Electronic democracy:The challenge ahead. University Rudolf Trauner-Verlag, Schriftenreihe Informatik, 13, 18-26. Pérez-Espés, C., Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. and Altuzarra, A. (2012). Algunas notas sobre la valoración económica de los procesos de participación ciudadana. Aplicación a la e-Cognocracia. Anales de Economía Aplicada 2012 ISBN: 978-84-15581-10-9. Stehr, N. (1994). Knowledge Societies: The Transformation of Labour, Property and Knowledge in Contemporary Society. London: Sage. UNESCO (2005). Towards Knowledge Societies. UNESCO World Report (available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141843.pdf) Wimmer, M. A. (2002). A European perspective towards online one-stop government: the eGOV project, in Electronic Commerce research and Applications, 1(1) 92-103.
This article considers the challenges faced by digital evidence specialists when collaborating with other specialists and agencies in other jurisdictions when investigating cyber crime. The opportunities, operational environment and modus operandi of a cyber criminal are considered, with a view to developing the skills and procedural support that investigators might usefully consider in order to respond more effectively to the investigation of cyber crimes across State boundaries.
Background NOVA did this evaluation of the National Pollen Forecast Service on commission from the Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association (NAAF) and the Norwegian Directorate of Health from August 2017 thru May 2018. Several studies indicate that allergies and hypersensitivity have become more widespread (Meld. St. 19, (2014- 2015) - Report to the Storting (white paper) on public health). Asthma is the most dramatic and most frequently mentioned of all illnesses due to allergic reactions. In the year 2000, it was the most frequent cause of hospitalization of Norwegian children (Carlsen 2001). In a cross-sectional study among children, aged 7-14 in a Northern Norwegian region in 2008, the incidence of self-reported asthma was 18 percent (Meld. St. 19, 2014-2015). According to the whitepaper on Public Health, several studies show that the lifetime incidence of hay fever (rhinitt) is about 25 percent among school aged children and 30 percent among youth in puberty (Meld. St.19, 2014-2015). Although the National Pollen Forecast Service in Norway started about 1975, it had still not been evaluated. The Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association (NAAF) has continuously operated the service. It is of importance for people of all ages that the National Pollen Forecast Service is optimal. Allergic reactions to pollen from Alder, Hazelnut, Salix, Birch, Grass, and Common mugwart and some other plants and substances (e.g. dust) affect all age groups and, are overall a significant public health problem. If untreated such allergies can cause absence from kindergarten, school and workplaces, worsen other illnesses, and trigger asthma. For many of those with severe pollen allergies, reduced participation in school and work life activities will also cause reduced learning, ability to work and work-satisfaction. Topics in this report The main topics in this report are: The current Pollen Forecast Service and its usefulness for different groups of users. Collection and analysis of pollen, usefulness in other areas Expertise in Norway, Sweden and Denmark Suggestions for future developments in the collection and use of pollen data. Design and Methods The assignment was carried out using several types of evaluation and research methods. One method has been a literature study, the second implementation of an online survey among users of the pollen alert and the third method has been interviews with health professionals and other experts. Main findings A review of former studies is described in chapter 3, they are in the list of references at the end of this report. Several articles describe newer measurement methods, number of pollen traps in regional areas or large cities and, studies of user-feedback about their ailments during the pollen season. One article illustrates the difficulties the British healthcare system has handling pollen allergies, especially among the youth population. The literature review also refers to several articles regarding the efforts to get a better understanding of the effects of the daily pollen alerts for different groups of users, within and outside Europe. Some studies also include more automatized and semi-automatic ways of measuring pollen (especially in Germany and some other European countries). In Europe, there has been a lot of research and trials of different systems for pollen-notification and user assessments of various types of apps. Parts of this literature can be of substantial importance when planning the future of Norwegian pollen alerts and may possibly also be useful in the development of Scandinavian pollen forecast services. Both the literature that discusses user experiences and the literature on modern automated methods may be of interest in this regard. The online survey (in Chapter 4) invited a random sample of 5000 subscribers to the Norwegian Pollen Forecast Service's mailing list to participate in the survey, which had both open-ended questions and questions with fixed reply categories. We received 570 responses. Although this is a low response rate, that does not permit decisive conclusions, the responses especially from the open-ended questions gave useful information. Two out of three respondents were women. All age groups 18 and older were among the respondents and in general, they had a high level of education. Many respondents were long time users of the service, almost a fourth had used the services for more than a decade. Essentially the users are pleased with the Pollen Forecast Service. They use it often; many use it once or more a week during the pollen season. In response to the question: if the pollen Forecast Service he /she used had helped in regards to reducing their ailments, almost 45 per cent answered yes. About 40 percent answered somewhat, and a relatively small share, 12 percent answered no. The users had many and useful suggestions for further development and improvements of the service. One important input is that they wish there were more pollen traps/metering stations. Relatively many say that the alert does not always match what they experience in their home areas. This may be due to both the fact that there are not enough metering stations in our long country with climatic variations, and that many are not aware of the delays in analysis of samples from the pollen traps (due to delayed mail service). The main findings from the interviews are discussed in chapter 5. There were 24 semi-structured half-hour interviews with healthcare personnel and other experts. Sixteen interviews were with healthcare personnel, five were with Norwegian experts, two with foreign experts, and one informant was a user of the services. The main impression from the interviews is that the healthcare professionals, the Norwegian experts and the individual user are very pleased with the Norwegian pollen alert service. The Norwegian experts gave information about the Norwegian forecast service during the interview. The Norwegian pollen alert system has been run by the NAAF since it started in 1975, although there has been an increase in the number of traps and types of pollen they report. Today the Norwegian pollen forecasts are based on information from 12 traps located in 12 different regions that they send alerts for. Samples from the whole country are analyzed at a laboratory at NTNU (a university in central Norway) and the pollen researchers there prepare the forecast for the coming days. Thereafter, they produce daily statistics for each trap. In 2006, the Norwegian Directorate of Health began to contribute financially to the pollen alert service. In 2013, the Pollen Forecast Service was included in the National Budget, but the annual allotted amount in has remained the same from 2013 -2017. Norway uses the same type of traps that are used in other European countries. Since the same type of pollen traps are used in European countries and the pollen samples are analyzed in comparable ways, cross national studies on the importance of pollen forecasts for allergy sufferers can be conducted. Informants, among both experts and the health professionals, have suggestions for service improvements. An increase from the 12 pollen traps used today is desirable, since Norway is a vast country with meteorological and topological challenges. Some believe that if patients had better knowledge about the pollen alerts and used them more actively, some could be spared the additional suffering they go through because they do not use the alerts systematically enough. Several also acknowledge the importance of communication between doctors / nurses and patients and that it could be improved regarding pollen forecasts. The Danish pollen forecast system resembles the Norwegian; a national asthma and allergy association runs the service and they receive financial support from public health authorities. The association also has a webpage that publishes the pollen forecast amongst other topics. Denmark has two pollen traps, one in Copenhagen and one in Jutland. The trap in Jutland is partially automized, it has a motorized microscope that is monitored remotely. There is no need to mail the samples to Copenhagen to analyze them. Samples from both traps are collected and analyzed the same day and are made public simultaneously. The Danes also would like more pollen traps, preferably five; one in each of Denmark's five regions. The Swedish service is organized in a different way than the Norwegian service. The Swedish asthma and allergy association does not run the Swedish service, even though it is partially government funded. The Swedish pollen alert system is managed by a laboratory at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, which is a government agency. There are 20 pollen traps in Sweden and collection of data from them is divided between three laboratories. The traps and the laboratories are funded in various manners by different levels of public authorities (national, regional and municipal). There is a website that has the forecasts from all of the Swedish pollen traps, gives information about an app, the three laboratories that monitor the pollen traps and how funding is organized. The Swedish asthma and allergy association has a policy document with suggestions on how to develop and secure future Swedish pollen alerts. Among their suggestions is an increase in the number of Swedish pollen traps to 25. Implications and recommendations Although Norway has had pollen forecasts since 1975, the service has never been through an external evaluation before. A significant majority of the service users, health care professionals and other experts we have been in touch with, are pleased with the current pollen alert service in Norway. However, they also state that there are ways to improve the services. There is a clear desire to increase the number of pollen traps. Norway has 12 pollen traps, and the number has been the same for several years. In Sweden, which this project was to include briefly, there are currently 20 pollen traps. The Swedish asthma and allergy association's policy memorandum from 2017, states that they want to increase the number of traps to 25. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 argue that there currently are not enough pollen traps in Norway. The reasons why there should be an increase of 5-6 pollen traps in Norway are explained. According to the experts we interviewed 18 pollen traps would require three research positions. My recommendation is to continue analyzing the samples at one laboratory, as it is done now. The analysis is done at the biology department of a university (NTNU), where they have two experienced researchers doing the job. Since NAAF has so much experience in running the service, and has accumulated a lot of user experience, it seems appropriate that the organization should continue to be the responsible body in this field. The Norwegian, Swedish and Danish pollen researchers expect that monitoring the pollen traps will be automized within a foreseeable future, as mentioned they have already started in Denmark. Based on the views presented in chapters 4 and 5 in this report, we recommend that Norway should have 20-25 pollen traps, at the latest within a 4-5-year period. An expert group should perhaps examine the need for additional pollen traps in the coming years. Continuing current research on automization of pollen traps and using satellite-data of vegetation is deemed important. Projects of that type should be continued. Another important issue assessed in this evaluation is the itemization of the Pollen Forecast Service in the national budget. Keeping the allocation of funds for the Pollen Forecast Service in the national budget has advantages; it would ensure the continuation of this important service targeting a major health problem. The results in this report also show that the NAAF are pleased that the forecast service is in the national budget. However, they are less satisfied with the lack of price adjustments since the Pollen Forecast Service was included in the National Budget in 2013. Thus, in terms of real value, there has been a reduction in the funding. We have made some comparisons with Sweden where public support of the services is divided in various ways and in addition, they have contributions from volunteers and private funders. Our assessment is that the Swedish organization of the service is less predictable and manageable than what is considered desirable for the Norwegian Pollen Forecast Service. Informants, both in the online-survey and interviews wanted quicker alerts from the sampling. As it is now, the samples are often more than a day old by the time they reach the laboratory at NTNU for analysis. This is because the analysis of samples from the 12 Norwegian pollen traps is done manually. In Denmark, the results are made public without this delay, because they have automated traps. Other European countries have tested a similar system. The experts we interviewed assumed within a few years there will be more electronic treatment of samples. Norway has more pollen traps than Denmark, and should test such methods and gain experience with acquiring results quicker. Several informants are requesting forecasts with a longer time span than the current two-day forecast. Since weather forecasts span several days, they believe it should be possible for pollen forecasts as well. Bearing in mind that it is advisable for allergy sufferers to start taking their medication about a week before expected exposure, subscribers of email- alerts and health personnel want forecasts that cover a longer period. There is, as shown in the report, a bit of research about pollen alert systems and circumstances that influence pollen alerts. Assessment of available research and suggesting areas in need of more research were to be part of the evaluation. Based on information from our informants and the review of existing international research, there are indications are that one pollen trap is insufficient in populated cities to capture another likely problem with variaÂtions in pollen within cities in addition to high air pollution. An area for further research is pollen in larger city environments (larger cities in a Scandinavian context). It is of importance to public health to acquire more knowledge about the development of pollen and pollution (pollution can enhance the allergic reactions to pollen for people with allergies) in areas with large populations. There is some uncertainty and probably some disagreement among health personnel regarding at what age children and youth are capable of using pollen alerts (e.g. the pollen app) and administering their own medication. It is important to gain more knowledge about whether children and youth use the pollen alerts and if they get the alerts. It may also be worth finding out if the use of, and usefulness of pollen alerts varies with other characteristics such as education, social background and immigrant background. Research that can show how climate change influences future pollen dispersion in the Scandinavian countries is also important. In this regard, research regarding the prevalence and dispersion of ragweed pollen in Scandinavia should be monitored and if necessary initiated. As of today, one assumes that the plant does not survive Norwegian winters, but the plant is found in both Denmark and southern Sweden. In Germany, Hungary, France and Switzerland pollen from ragweed is a major cause of allergy suffering and the experts we interviewed believe that a warmer climate will allow the plant to spread northward to a greater extent in the years to come. ; Pollenvarslingstjenesten ble etablert her i landet rundt 1975. Dette er første gang tjenesten blir evaluert. Målet med evalueringen er å få vite mer om hvilken nytteverdi varslingstjenesten har i dag, og om mulighetene framover for best mulig å forebygge utvikling og forverring av pollenallergier og astma. NOVA foretok en litteraturstudie av relevant forskning i flere land, en nettundersøkelse blant 570 brukere av pollenvarslingen i Norge og intervjuet helsepersonell og eksperter. Mange er fornøyd med dagens pollenvarslingstjeneste. Men evalueringen viser behov for flere pollenfeller, raskere innsamling av data, samt mer forskning, blant annet knyttet opp mot klimaendringene. Evalueringsundersøkelsen er utført som et oppdrag for Norges Astma- og Allergiforbund (NAAF) og Helsedirektoratet.
