With the advent of the internet age, the way in which global society interacts with technology has changed dramatically. The instantaneous availability of information and connectivity, signal the rise of a knowledge economy. This is a system in which the most valuable resource, to nations and private enterprise, is knowledge. This thesis argues that value is created through knowledge flows, which result in innovation and technological advancement. This technological advancement is the primary determinant of a nation’s global competitive advantage in a globalized knowledge economy. This thesis then posits that these innovations are fostered by institutional, social, cultural, economic, and governmental factors within a nation. These factors make up a nations’ National Innovation System (NIS). Using case studies of the US, China, India, and the EU, this paper then attempts to deconstruct, compare, and contrast the innovation strategies of each country and what implications they might have for the future. Lastly, an analysis of potential trends attempts to forecast the global innovative landscape in the near future.

In an attempt to transition from its oil-based economy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking further steps towards building a knowledge-based economy. Saudi universities play a pivotal role toward the country’s attempts to achieve the desired sustainable economic growth. And because knowledge production is dependent on the human capital embedded in faculty members working at theses universities, the recommendations of the Saudi National Science and Technology Policy stressed the importance of enhancing research skills of faculty members and researchers at public universities using different means and initiatives. However, a little is known about the impact of the implemented initiatives to promote research on the actual research outcomes of faculty members working at these universities. This study examined the impact of research promoting practices, and faculty personal characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, academic rank, citizenship, and origin of PhD degree) on the levels of faculty research productivity at four Saudi Arabian public universities: King Saud University (KSU), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), King Khalid University (KKU), and King Faisal University (KFU). All PhD holder faculty members working at these universities were included in the sample of the study. A self-administrate web-based survey questionnaire was used to collect data for this study. Out of 7072 distributed questionnaires, 389 answered questionnaires were used for the data analysis. Multiple regression results revealed that the following research-promoting practices have positive and significant relationships with faculty research productivity: supportive collegial environment, the high perception of the academic editing and translating services, the positive perception of the research funding process, the rate of participation in collaboration programs, and conference attendance. Faculty’s perception of the role of research centers and research financial incentives revealed reverse relationships with certain types of faculty research productivity. Among the personal characteristics of faculty members, full professors were found to have the highest levels of research productivity. Citizenship (tenure status), and origin of PhD degree were found to have positive relationships with certain types of faculty research productivity. Male faculty were found to have more publications in refereed journals compared to female faculty. Also, older faculty were found to have more publications in refereed journals compared to junior faculty.

This paper seeks to break down how a large scale Electronic Health Records system could improve quality of care and reduce monetary waste in the healthcare system. The paper further explores issues regarding regulations to data exchange and data interoperability. Due to the massive size of healthcare data, the exponential increase in the speed of data generation through innovative technologies, and the complexity of healthcare data types, the widespread of a large-scale EHR system has hit barriers. Much of the data available is unstructured or contained within a singular healthcare provider’s systems. To fully utilize all the data available, methods for making data interoperable and regulations for data exchange to protect and support patients must be made. Through angles addressing data exchange and interoperability, we seek to break down the constraints and issues that EHR systems still face and gain an understanding of the regulatory landscape.

This project sought to explore the narratives and rhetorical themes that permeate the anti-vaccination movement. Mass media has portrayed vaccine refusal groups as stupid, as conspiracy theorists, and as radically selfish. However, the data I analyzed from vaccine refusal nonprofits and advocacy groups supports that although these themes may appear to be radical, in reality, each is congruent with already present societal frameworks, particularly neoliberal social discourse and a preoccupation with the individualistic and self-determined health care rather than utilitarian or collective action.

為了面對日益激烈的科技競爭，台灣多年來致力於高科技產業培育和技術能力的提升，期望提升我國全面競爭力，以面對21世紀的挑戰。在面對來自國際科技產業的競爭與國際市場日趨自由化的壓力，台灣希望在世界的科技舞台扮演舉足輕重的地位，則需要提升科技競爭力，而提升科技競爭力則有賴於完整結合了產業發展、國家資源、以及國家發展目標的高科技政策。 本研究首先以國家競爭力的觀點切入，研讀並分析主要的國際競爭力指標，並藉由競爭力指標歸納出科技先進國家的發展趨勢，以及台灣應加強的部分。並搜集科技先進國家的科技政策、目前政經情形，以及社會人文狀況，經過研讀後整理出構成高科技標竿政策之因素。並且，以新竹科學園區的六大類高科技產業為對象，進行問卷調查工作，以驗證本研究所提出之因素是否為產業界所接受，以及是否有其他意見。 研究結果顯示，在本研究所提出的31項因素中，多半皆獲得新竹科學園區經理人的認同，僅有少部分因素在不同產業或不同規模公司間，產生些微的差異。因此，本研究所提出之構成高科技標竿政策的因素，可以做為政策制定時之參考。在最後一章中，列出本研究之建議，希望對國內高科技標竿政策的制定以及科技發展有所助益。 / Taiwan had devoted to fostering the high-tech industry and promoting the technology ability to face the increasingly competition of science and technology in the coming of 21 century. To confront the competition from the international high-tech industry and the pressure of the liberalization of market, Taiwan needs to improve the competitiveness of science and technology if she wants to play an important role on the worldwide science and technology stage. Besides, Taiwan needs to integrate the development of industry, national resource, and the national goals of science and technology policy. This research uses the concept of national competitiveness first, and studies the main international competitiveness indicators. We want to derive the development trends of those advanced countries, and realize what parts we need to improve. Second, we collect the science and technology policy, the political and economical status of those countries we selected. And we sum up the benchmark factors of the high-tech industry policy. Third, we conduct a survey to verify the acceptability of the high-tech industry benchmark policy. The research results reveal that almost the benchmark principles and factors we sum up are accepted by the industry leaders.

本研究之目的在探討台灣生技產業科技政策推動過程中所引發之爭議：臨床試驗(clinical trials)產業化，並以台灣地區自1960年代末期至2010年臨床試驗發展的制度變遷為研究標的，尤其是其中之生技產業政策推動及臨床試驗制度變遷，以說明該爭議如何發生及為何發生。 為發展台灣生物技術產業，行政院於2005年起推動生醫科技島(biomedical technology island)計畫，將原先為生物技術產業發展基礎設施的臨床試驗作為政策推動的主體，引發臨床試驗產業化的爭議。一般認為，此爭議是來自於促進產業發展與維護國民健康之間的利益衝突。 本研究經由制度變遷(institutional change)的觀點，探索台灣地區臨床試驗發展的歷程，認為上述臨床試驗產業化的爭議不只是產業推動與國民健康間的衝突，而是與台灣地區自1960年代末期至2010年生技產業政策推動與臨床試驗制度變遷有關。 台灣地區推動生物技術的科技政策始於1982年行政院修訂「科學技術發展方案(science technology development program」，明訂生物技術為八大重點科技之一，而後有1995年的行政院「加強生物技術產業推動方案(biotechnology industry promotion program」，2005年的行政院「生醫科技島計畫」等科技政策，本研究發現不同時期的科技政策賦予臨床試驗不同的意義，而不同時期臨床試驗的發展，其不同時期的行動者【產、官、學、研、醫】-- 包含政策決策者與政策參與者 -- 在臨床試驗制度變遷的過程中產生行動的差異；而在不同時期臨床試驗的發展階段，不同的官方行動者 -- 治理機構（governance agency）【衛生署、國科會、經濟部、科技顧問組等】，對於臨床試驗議題有不同程度的涉入。 台灣地區臨床試驗的發展在生技產業政策的型塑下，由原先之學術研究，階段性轉向協助產業發展。2005年行政院生醫科技島計畫，將臨床試驗作為政策推動的主體，擴大醫界參與生物技術產業發展，而醫界主要以醫療服務為主的制度邏輯（institutional logics）與科技政策形塑下產業發展的制度邏輯不一致（contradictions），因而引發臨床試驗產業化的爭議。 本研究發現對於科技政策的意涵為：在制訂與推動科技政策的過程中，唯有同時瞭解產業發展的歷史脈絡，才能避免產生非預期的結果（例如爭議）。本研究除探討生技產業政策推動過程中臨床試驗的制度變遷與變遷過程中所衍生的爭議，並將探討未來可能的研究方向。 / The study is intended to explore a controversy derived from the Taiwan biotechnology industry promotion by government policies, industrialization of clinical trials. The study targets the institutional change of the clinical trials and the policies for biotechnology industry promotion in Taiwan from the late 1960’s through 2010 to explain why and how the controversy was incurred. In order to develop the Taiwan biotechnology industry, the Executive Yuan implemented a Biomedical Technology Island program beginning 2005 to focus on clinical trials -- supposedly the infrastructure of biotechnology technology development -- but resulted in the controversy about the initiative of industrialization of clinical trials. It is reputedly because there is a conflict of interest between industry development promotion and how to maintain national healthcare. From the perspective of institutional change, the study explores the evolution of clinical trials in Taiwan, holding that the aforementioned controversy is not only a conflict of interest between industry development promotion and how to maintain national healthcare but also a consequence of the institutional change of the clinical trials and biotechnology promotion by government policies from the late 1960’s through 2010. The biotechnology industry promotion in Taiwan began with the Executive Yuan’s revision of its Science Technology Development program in 1982, designating the biotechnology as one of the eight strategic industries. The Executive Yuan followed through with a Biotechnology Industry Promotion program in 1995 and the Biomedical Technology Island program in 2005. The study finds that science and technology policies in different periods of time endowed clinical trials with different meanings while discrepant actions on clinical trials were taken by both policy makers and policy executors including the industry, government organizations, academia, research institutes and the medical community in different periods of time. The study also finds that different governance agencies, such as the Department of Health, Ministry of Economic Affairs, National Science Council as well as Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan, had different levels of involvement with the development of clinical trials in different periods of time. Molded by the government’s biotechnology policies, clinical trials in Taiwan have evolved from the nature of academic research to assistance to industry development. The Biomedical Technology Island program beginning 2005 focuses on clinical trials and strengthens the medical community’s participation in biotechnology development, but the institutional logics of the medical community is primarily about medical service and its contradictions with the institutional logics of biotechnology industry development have resulted in the controversy about industrialization of clinical trials. A science and technology policy implication identified by the study is that unexpected outcomes, such as the controversy dealt with herein, can only be avoided by understanding the historical context of an industry when the government develops and promotes the relevant policies for the industry. Moreover, the study will explore possible research directions in the future.

Intellectual property, particularly patents, plays a major role in innovation and discovery in biotechnology. Likewise, since the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1981, patents have become an increasingly important factor in U.S. university-driven basic research, especially in the life sciences where patented technologies have transformed agriculture. Specifically, this paper looks at the potential impacts of these trends on university driven research, the university researcher, the pharmaceutical industry, and the farm sector with an emphasis on recent and pending court cases and legislation. This paper examines policy and adoptions issues in biotechnology and biomedicine in depth and touches on important developments in the tech sectors as a back drop for pending legislation and recent court rulings. How policy is adopted, implemented and interpreted have profound impacts on food production, medical ethics, ecology, U.S. and international farm and innovation sectors and the competiveness of the U.S. in the global economy

A new method for making software is stealthily gaining ground in the computer industry, offering a promise of better, cheaper software and the empowerment of the user. The open source movement could revolutionize the software industry...if it succeeds. Open source means software that you are allowed to copy, modify, and give to friends. Source code , the lists of instructions which tell computers how to run, is readily available, allowing you to look inside the workings of a program and change it to suit your needs. A group of programmers, companies, users, and activists have gathered in support of this empowering technology, seeking to persuade businesses and users that open source is the way to go. However, open source faces stiff challenges. The economic basis for the software industry is to charge users by the copy when they buy software. Copying and modification are illegal. The industry and its customers are so mired in this worldview that the idea of giving out a program's "recipe," along with a license to change or copy it at will, seems preposterous. Powerful players in the software industry, such as Microsoft, see open source as a threat to their bottom line, and have devoted their energies to discrediting and marginalizing the movement. Beginning from the assumption that cheap, reliable software that empowers the user is a good thing, this thesis looks at the claims made by advocates about the benefits of open source. I explore how the advocates make their case to the business world, the public, and government. I also look at ways in which the government could help bring about an open source revolution, using the policy tools of procurement, research funding, standards enforcement, and antitrust law. I conclude that programmers and public interest lobbyists must join forces to carry this revolution forward, and that the time for action is now, while Microsoft is on trial.

This thesis proposes and estimates a model of university scientists interactions with the private sector; in this model students are conceptualized as an important enabler of such interactions. The results of the study show that university scientists student-related behaviors such as grant support of students and research collaboration with students, and student-related attitudes such as mentoring orientation positively affect the probability that scientists will enter interactions with industry as well as the intensity of such interactions. Behaviors such as teaching and advising of students are not related to interactions with industry. This study is motivated by the increased emphasis on closer relationships between universities and industry as a means to facilitate the commercial application of university research. Today, numerous policies and programs attempt to achieve such goals. As a result, university scientists are called on to perform many tasks which on the surface seem misaligned. There is substantial study of conflict between the teaching and research missions of universities, and a growing body of study on conflict related to university based commercial and technology transfer related activities. Fewer, there are studies suggesting that these activities are not so misaligned after all. This study falls into the latter category as it posits a complementary relationship between university scientists student related activities and their work related interactions with industry, research and otherwise. Speculations regarding the importance of students in university industry relations and indirect evidence are scattered through the relevant literature, but little or no systematic empirical tests of their importance exist. This study uses data from a national survey of university researchers to discern the centrality of students to university-industry interactions. Theoretically, students are conceptualized as a dimension of university scientists respective research capacities that enable cross-sectoral processes of accumulative advantage and thereby help to enable their interactions with industry. As a component of scientists scientific and technical human capital, students help university scientists to identify and act upon on research opportunities originating in the private sector. Moreover, students increase the appeal of university scientists to industry agents seeking research partners in academe. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.

This study looks at the National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF), a modified version of the consensus conference, which took place in March, 2008 in six cities across the U.S. to understand how inclusive these methods of public participation are in practice. The research focused on two of these sites. Inclusion of participants was defined in terms of presence, voice and being heard. Transcripts of the audio-visual recordings of the proceedings were the main data of analysis. By focusing on the talk within these deliberative forums, the study looked at how the rules of engagement and status (ascribed and achieved) differences between participants can affect inclusion. The analysis did not reveal any substantial effects of ascribed characteristics on deliberation. Facilitation and the presence of expertise among the participants were found to influence inclusion and equality among participants. These findings suggest that organizers and facilitators of deliberative exercises have to be reflexive of their role as well as aware of the group dynamics. The results also address the larger questions within science and technology policy like the role of expertise and the public in decision making, the institutional design of participatory exercises, and their relation to the political culture and the policy process.