Coping with austerity: innovation via collaboration or retreat to the known?

Diamond, John; Vangen, Siv

doi:10.1080/09540962.2016.1249231

Cited by 23 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…This is an improvement in R of 0.14 compared to the correlation with density of all workers. We find this result reasonable as there is substantial literature regarding the relationship between innovation and collaboration [34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. This literature asserts that the number of innovations produced increases with collaborations between groups of individuals up to a point of diminishing returns.…”

Section: Rates Of Patent Production and Msa Workforce Socialnesssupporting

confidence: 81%

Innovations and Economic Output Scale with Social Interactions in the Workforce

2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 fundamentally changed the way we interact with and engage in commerce. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders leave businesses and cities wondering how future economic activity moves forward. The reduction in face-to-face interactions creates an impetus to understand how social interactivity influences economic efficiency and rates of innovation. Here, we create a measure of the degree to which a workforce engages in social interactions, analyzing its relationships to economic innovation and efficiency. We do this by decomposing U.S. occupations into individual work activities, determining which of those activities are associated with face-to-face interactions. We then re-aggregate the labor forces of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) into a metric of urban social interactiveness. Using a novel measure of urbanized area, we then calculate each MSA’s density of social work activities. We find that our metric of urban socialness is positively correlated with a city’s per worker patent production. Furthermore, we use our set of social work activities to reaggregate the workforces of U.S. industries into a metric of industry social interactivness, finding that this measure scales superlinearly with an industry’s per worker GDP. Together, the results suggest that social interaction among workers is an important driver of both a city’s rate of invention and an industry’s economic efficiency. Finally, we briefly highlight analogies between cities and stars and discuss their potential to guide further research, vis-à-vis the density of social interactions “igniting” a city or industry.

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Section: Rates Of Patent Production and Msa Workforce Socialnesssupporting

confidence: 81%

Innovations and Economic Output Scale with Social Interactions in the Workforce

2021

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“…This results in frustration and a lack of stability and uncertainty for those in receipt of care and support and for employers and volunteers themselves. Some commentators have argued that sustained social care budget cuts under austerity policy will result in innovations in the sector (Diamond & Vangen, 2017). However, we found that largely this was not the case and where innovation was occurring it needed more fertile ground.…”

Section: Pressures Of Time and Resource Are Creating Unstable Landscapes Of Care And Supportmentioning

confidence: 61%

Debilitating landscapes of care and support: envisaging alternative futures

Macpherson

Hall

Power

et al. 2021

Social & Cultural Geography

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This paper explores the impact of policy changes and budget cuts on services and support faced by people with learning disabilities. Drawing upon collaborative research in England and Scotland and interviews with commissioners and support organisations, we show how landscapes of care and support are unstable and fragmented. We identify how pressures of time, resource and precaritisation in the workforce are creating 'debilitating landscapes of care' that further erode the capacities of both the people that work in the sector and people with learning disabilities. Some challenges that people with learning disabilities face in this context include finding appropriate local support, narrowing access as a result of reductions in benefit entitlements and identifying quality providers amid a complex array of private and charitable provision. Capacity to cope with these challenges is contingent on access to quality advocacy, supportive family, friendships, productive occupational learning environments and peer support, but these are not always available. The impact of COVID-19 has only served to intensify some of the issues we identify and the urgent need for a response. Our analysis is inspired by Berlant's (2007) conception of 'slow-death' and Puar's (2017) associated conceptualisation of 'debility'.

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“…196-198. d K. Brown, 2004;McHugh, O'Brien, & Ramondt, 2001;Wynen, Verhoest, Ongaro, & Van Thiel, 2014. e Raudia, Randma-Liiv, Douglas, & Savi, 2015Qian & Xu, 1998. f Cai & Treisman, 2006;Diamond & Vangen, 2017;Qian & Xu, 1998. g Borins, 2001sL.…”

Section: Centralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, it is not proven that fiscal decentralization necessarily leads to greater innovation. In times of crisis or simply by default, there is some evidence of a retreat towards traditional bureaucratic forms with the re-emergence of such barriers to innovation as red tape, strict financial regulation, the re-creation of hierarchies, and failure to share information (Christensen, Lie, & Laegreid, 2007;Diamond & Vangen, 2017;Sørensen & Torfing, 2012, p. 6).…”

Section: Centralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context and innovation in traditional bureaucracies: A Hong Kong study

Scott

2020

Public Admin & Development

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Traditional bureaucracies, defined in Weberian terms, are almost invariably seen as antithetical to innovation. Yet, although the academic literature presents an array of formidable structural barriers to the emergence and implementation of new ideas, innovation does occur in traditional bureaucracies. How can the structural impediments be overcome? What are the processes that enable innovation to take place?Based on a longitudinal study of the Hong Kong government's innovation policies and practices, it is argued that political context is a critical variable explaining how, even in rigid traditional bureaucracies, barriers may be avoided or temporarily suspended. Two contrasting case studies are used to illustrate, first, the importance of political commitment in gaining acceptance for new ideas and, second, the failure of agencies dedicated to innovation to achieve their objectives. It is postulated that circumventing structural barriers or working through political channels to reduce their impact may be a more constructive strategy than creating dedicated agencies to develop innovative measures. The study is grounded in a literature review, documentary evidence from the Hong Kong government's innovative agencies, and interviews with senior staff from those agencies.

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Coping with austerity: innovation via collaboration or retreat to the known?

Cited by 23 publications

References 20 publications

Innovations and Economic Output Scale with Social Interactions in the Workforce

Innovations and Economic Output Scale with Social Interactions in the Workforce

Debilitating landscapes of care and support: envisaging alternative futures

Context and innovation in traditional bureaucracies: A Hong Kong study

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