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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Kenneth G. Huang; Fiona E. Murray |
| Abstract: | We re-conceptualize the role of science policy makers, envisioning and illustrating their move from being simple investors in scientific projects to entrepreneurs who create the conditions for entrepreneurial experiments and initiate them. We argue that reframing science policy around the notion of conducting entrepreneurial experiments – experiments that increase the diversity of technical, organizational and institutional arrangements in which scientific research is conducted – can provide policy makers with a wider repertoire of effective interventions. To illustrate the power of this approach, we analyze the Human Genome Project (HGP) as a set of successful, entrepreneurial experiments in organizational and institutional innovation. While not designed as such, the HGP was an experiment in funding a science project across a variety of organizational settings, including seven public and one private (Celera) research centers. We assess the major characteristics and differences between these organizational choices, using a mix of qualitative and econometric analyses to examine their impact on scientific progress. The planning and direction of the Human Genome Project show that policy makers can use the levers of entrepreneurial experimentation to transform scientific progress, much as entrepreneurs have transformed economic progress. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial Experiments; Science Policy; Human Genome Project |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-22&r=ppm |
| By: | Prabir De; Muthi Samudram; Sanjeev Moholkar |
| Abstract: | This study examines a range of crossborder infrastructure development issues related to the Asian countries. Despite active pursuit of private investment in infrastructure by most developing countries in Asia and a growing number of success stories, the pace of such investment remains slow. Participation by the private sector in infrastructure development has been mixed. While there has been moderate progress in national infrastructure development by the private sector, progress is rather limited in the case of development of crossborder infrastructure in Asia. [ADBI Working Paper 245] |
| Keywords: | infrastructure, Asian countries, infrastructure development, private sector, crossborder |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2939&r=ppm |
| By: | Ajay Agrawal (University of Toronto); Christian Catalini (University of Toronto); Avi Goldfarb (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We examine the geography of early stage entrepreneurial finance in the context of an internet marketplace for funding new musical artist-entrepreneurs. A large body of research documents that investors in early-stage projects are disproportionately co-located with the entrepreneur. Theory predicts this will be particularly true of artist-entrepreneurs with preliminary-stage projects, difficult-to-contract-for effort, difficult-to-observe creativity, negligible tangible assets, and limited reputations. At the same time, however, observers of the spatial effects of the internet and related technologies report that many economic activities have become much less geographically dependent. At an aggregate level, the internet marketplace we examine does indeed demonstrate a spatial transformation of the entrepreneurial finance process: the average distance between investors and artist-entrepreneurs is 4,831 km. However, geography still matters; investors are disproportionately likely to be local and, conditional on investing, local investors invest more. This apparent role for proximity is strongest before entrepreneurs visibly accumulate capital. Within a single round of financing, local investors are more likely to engage earlier in the funding cycle. However, this difference in the timing of investment is almost entirely explained by a particular type of investor, whom we characterize as ``family, friends, and fans." We conjecture that these individuals, who are disproportionately co-located with the entrepreneur, have offline information about the entrepreneur and therefore derive less new information from observing the aggregate financing raised. We speculate that the path-dependent role of this offline network in conveying information to the online community limits the ``flat world'' potential of these communication technologies. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial nance, crowd-funding, internet, family and friends, local bias, social networks |
| JEL: | R12 Z1 L17 G21 G24 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1008&r=ppm |
| By: | International Rivers Network IRN |
| Abstract: | This report studies the ongoing resettlement for the middle route of the South-North Water Transfer Project at Danjiangkou in Hubei Province, China. The Water Transfer Project is China’s biggest water project since the completion of the Three Gorges Dam. The relocation of 330,000 people from the area around the Danjiangkou reservoir is the country’s biggest ongoing resettlement project. |
| Keywords: | south, north, china, water transfer, gorges dam, reservoir, resettlement, project, relocation, policies, project, chinese, researcher, ecological, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2929&r=ppm |