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Designing Science Indicators that relate to Output and have Impact. Scott Tiffin Director, Research & International Affairs School of Business, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile scott.tiffin@uai.cl. Problems with Science Indicators in Latin America.
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Designing Science Indicators that relate to Output and have Impact Scott Tiffin Director, Research & International Affairs School of Business, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile scott.tiffin@uai.cl
Problems with Science Indicators in Latin America • General public and industry are not interested in this topic, so there is very limited and erratic support to creating and diffusing them. • Until this changes, there will be very few consistent, complete, accurate, detailed and useful data and indicators in the region. • There are only limited signs of this changing
Solution • Design simple science indicators focussing explicitly on outputs of competitive interest to political and commercial stakeholders
Measure Cities • Research, innovation and knowledge-based employment occur almost exclusively in cities, and the the clusters based in cities • Cities in LA are starting to compete against each other • It is possible that some cities can be attracted to this area as a new vision more fully than states
2. Use ISI and US Patents • Standardized data exist for all cities of the region over many years, measuring high quality scientific and technological activities in all domains, at the city level • Recently measured 50 cities over 17 years, using Web resources, for as an introductory exercise, for possible publication in Scientometrics,
> 1,000/year > 100/year and < 1,000/year < 100/year Where Research is Found # ISI publications
> 100 > 25 and < 100 < 25 Where Innovation is Found Total # US patents 1986-2002
Correlations and Testing Florida’s Hypothesis High-tech clustering is more likely in cities with diversity, tolerance and creative arts. Key proxy measures are concentration of artists and homosexuals R2 hard science only = .679 R2 all research = .670 Removing major outliers increases R2 & puts results slightly in favour of Florida
3. Create Rankings • Ranking indices create regional marketplace and stimulate competition • All ranking schemes are seriously flawed approximations, but the data behind them can be strong and support serious analysis • Institutions invest significant free time to input their data to well known ranking systems and even compete to pay for entry into them
4. Measure Entrepreneurship • Stakeholders are only interested in output measures that relate to jobs, enterprise creation and competitive advantage • Entrepreneurship is a hot topic across LA
Babson’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor • Started in 1999 • Annual • Has grown to 41 countries • Self-financing • Entry cost is about 35$K US • Results are headline news in major national newsmedia and commented on by presidential offices
The Task Ahead • There is no urban data source for entrepreneurship comparable to ISI and US Patents • I am promoting a proposal to build an Observatory for Urban Innovation and Entrepreneurship to generate and diffuse such information, and to gather research funding