Journal of the National Research University Higher School of Economics

The new issue of the Foresight and STI Governance journal (2018 vol. 12, No. 2) focuses on various innovation promotion tools applied in the public and corporate sectors.

All countries’ R&D expenditures are growing, even as government budgets are shrinking. Accordingly, cooperation and networking are beginning to play a key role as a basis of the emerging new, complex innovation and research promotion mechanisms. Ricardo Seidl da Fonseca and Alex Pinheiro-Veloso in the paper “The Practice and Future of Financing Science, Technology, and Innovation” analyse such tools applied in the UK and Brazil, along with the current and prospective STI investment  trends.

Igor Gurkov, Evgeniy Morgunov, Zokirzhon Saidov, and Aleksandr Arshavskiy studied the current state and the changing status of global corporations’ local divisions. Their paper “Perspectives of Manufacturing Subsidiaries of Foreign Companies in Russia: Frontier, Faubourg or Sticks?” concludes that in a situation of insufficiently high profit margins combined with significant profits, Russian subsidiaries of foreign corporations are sliding towards marginal status which threatens their long-term competitiveness. The authors suggest a number of solutions which would help such firms to avoid less favourable scenarios.

A specialised model was applied for years to study consumers’ attitude towards various innovations, and identify incentives which would encourage them to accept innovative products and services. Duc Toan Le, Huu Phu Nguyen, Van Nhan Ho, Thi Phi Yen Ho, Quang Tam Nguyen, and Nguyen Ngoc Anh Le applied a modified version of this model to assess Vietnamese banks’ and their clients’ readiness to move on to internet banking. Their paper “Technology Acceptance and Future of Internet Banking in Vietnam” analyses factors hindering adoption of such practices, and suggests various steps to promote demand for internet banking services.

The paper “Beyond Education: The Role of Research Universities in Innovation Ecosystems” assesses universities’ contribution to promoting regional-level innovation activities. Paola Rucker Schaeffer, Bruno Fischer, and Sergio Queiroz conclude that though large universities typically make the core of innovation systems, effects of their activities are mostly felt on the local level. At the same time universities can quite efficiently deal with various long-term objectives.

A new tool for integrating innovation, education, and research activities is presented in the publication “Open Innovation Platforms as a Knowledge Triangle Policy Tool – Evidence from Finland”. Using the Finnish Tampere Region as an example, Mika Raunio, Nadja Nordling, and Mika Kautonen examine the role platforms play in implementing joint innovation projects in the scope of the “smart city” model. They conclude that platform models is a key mechanism for coordinating relevant processes, allowing to create a radically different environment for interaction of research, education, and innovation.

The paper by Timofei Nestik “The Psychological Aspects of Corporate Foresight” highlights organisational and psychological barriers hindering corporate Foresight studies. The author presents an original detailed analysis of cognitive and socio-psychological effects which tend to bias long-term forecasting. The paper offers a number of recommendations for organisers of Foresight projects to minimise the effects of such factors, and maps areas for future research in the Foresight psychology field.

You can buy the latest issue of the Foresight and STI Governance journal in Moscow at the HSE’s own shop BookVyshka (20 Myasnitskaya St.), or subscribe to the paper edition. The electronic version is freely available at the journal’s website, online libraries e-Library and Cyberleninka, and through mobile applications available at AppStore and GooglePlay.