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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Margaret Hargreaves; Russell Cole; Brandon Coffee-Borden; Diane Paulsell; Kimberly Boller |
| Abstract: | This article outlines a mixed methods approach to systems change evaluation and offers a case study of how this approach has been used to evaluate the development of system infrastructure supporting the implementation, spread, and sustainability of evidence-based home visiting projects. The approach combined systems concepts (boundaries, relationships, perspectives, ecological levels, and dynamics) and qualitative methods (project site visits, telephone interviews, reviews of project documents, and logic models) with quantitative methods (a web-based partner survey to measure the projects' system properties and contextual dynamics) to assess how these system factors were associated with the projects' infrastructure development. |
| Keywords: | Systems Theory, Mixed Methods, Intervention Research, Evaluation Case Study, Home Visiting |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7769&r=ppm |
| By: | Martijn Brons (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Panos Christidis (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The Marco Polo programme of the European Commission aims to shift or avoid freight transport off the roads to other more environmentally friendly transport modes. The programme is implemented through yearly calls for proposals. The proposals received to each call are selected for financial support inter alia on the basis of their merits in terms of environmental and social benefits. The evaluation of each proposal's merits in terms of environmental and social benefits is based on the external costs for each transport mode. On the Commission’s request the Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) modified and updated the methodology underlying the calculation of external costs and the software application that automates the estimation of the impact on external costs for specific projects. The work was based on a combination of data and model results that allow the estimation of transport volumes, fleet mixes, levels of utilisation and resulting externalities with up-to-date methodologies for the economic valuation of these externalities. The new external cost methodology and calculator covers road, rail, inland waterways and short sea shipping. External cost coefficients are provided for environmental impacts (air quality, noise, climate change) and socio-economic impacts (accidents, congestion). The methodology permits the estimation of external cost coefficients for specific mode subcategories based on fuel technology, cruising speed, vehicle size, and cargo type. The present methodological note describes the methodology and calculator used to evaluate proposals submitted for the 2013 Marco Polo call for projects |
| Keywords: | freight transport, external costs of transport, sustainable transport, transport technology |
| JEL: | F18 Q51 Q53 Q54 Q55 Q56 R41 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc81002&r=ppm |
| By: | Simon Forge (SCF Associates Ltd); Colin Blackman (Camford Associates); Itzhak Goldberg (CASE (Center for Social and Economic Research)); Federico Biagi (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The objective of the study is to document the existence of innovation gaps between the EU and its main competitors in specific ICT sub-sectors – namely web services, industrial robotics and display technologies –and to explore the role of government policies in Europe’s future needs for innovation in information and communication technologies (ICT) through a comparison with the USA and Asian countries. Our analysis shows that rather than there being a simple innovation gap with the EU lagging behind the USA, a more nuanced picture emerges in which firms in different countries have strengths in different sub-sectors and in different parts of the value chain. A key lesson from the analysis of the three subsectors is the critical importance of higher education, particularly elite university research, and of local networks as generated by clusters. Governments can also encourage innovation through appropriate intellectual property and competition laws and, more generally, through the development of a business environment conducive to innovation. Finally, Governments can have a very important role through the funding of early-stage innovation |
| Keywords: | ICT, Innovation policy, Industrial policy |
| JEL: | L5 L6 L8 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc81448&r=ppm |
| By: | Roseth, Benjamin; Srivastava, Vivek |
| Abstract: | Two related propositions have been central in the recent debates on public sector reforms. The first of these is that the appropriate measure of institutional strength is the ability of public sector management systems to deliver ("functionality") rather than the institutional"form"or what these institutions look like. This is a central idea in the World Bank's Public Sector Management (PSM) Approach 2011-2020. Second, and consistent with this, is the recognition that the process of engagement matters in the sense that how problems, solutions, and reform approaches are identified matters at least as much as what the solution is. This suggests that development institutions should focus on bringing a broad range of stakeholders together and facilitate a process of collective problem and solution identification. Recent contributions to the literature describe a"Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation"approach as a means of putting this idea into practice. While both of these propositions have considerable intellectual and intuitive appeal, they are based on an inductive logic and neither is currently backed with a large body of robust evidence. This paper contributes to this literature by documenting the experience of a civil service reform project -- the World Bank-financed Sierra Leone Pay and Performance Project -- the objective of which is to improve the performance of the civil service in Sierra Leone by targeting a narrowly defined set of critical reforms. The paper concludes that intensive, client-led engagement together with use of a results-based lending instrument provide a promising way forward on a difficult reform agenda. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Government Diagnostic Capacity Building,E-Business,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2013–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6458&r=ppm |
| By: | Peter Nunnenkamp; Maximiliano Sosa Andrés |
| Abstract: | Using count data on Indian joint ventures (JVs) and wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS), we present an empirical analysis of FDI-related ownership choices and their relation with host country characteristics and indicators of transaction costs. Our Negative Binomial regression models offer only weak support for the bargaining perspective, according to which JVs should be more likely if the host countries were particularly attractive in terms of market access or resource endowments. Geographical and cultural distance has ambiguous effects on the choice between JVs and WOS. The composition of FDI projects tends to shift toward WOS where investment risks are contained by bilateral treaties and better control of corruption |
| Keywords: | outward FDI; ownership choices; transaction costs; host country characteristics; India |
| JEL: | F21 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1841&r=ppm |
| By: | Grothe, Anja; Marke, Nico |
| Abstract: | Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) ist ein aktuelles und sehr handlungsrelevantes Thema. Eine Hauptzielgruppe des Forschungsfelds nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens sind inzwischen klein- und mittelständische Unternehmen. Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften ist notwendig für die KMU, um in Bezug auf Material- und Ressourceneffizienz, Innovation und Übernahme von gesellschaftlicher Verantwortung im Kerngeschäft zukunftsfähig zu sein. Öffentlichkeitswirksam treten mit dem Thema Nachhaltigkeit bislang vermehrt die großen und vornehmlich die am Kapitalmarkt aktiven Unternehmen in Erscheinung. Künftig werden zunehmend die mittelständischen Unternehmen zu ihren Nachhaltigkeitsaktivitäten gefragt werden, da sie meist in der Lieferkette der global agierenden Markenartikler eingebunden sind und dadurch steigendem Druck ausgeliefert sein werden, Nachhaltigkeitsthemen zu berücksichtigen. Nur zwischen der Notwendigkeit von Nachhaltigkeit und deren praktischer Umsetzung klafft noch eine große Lücke. Wie kann nun über den Wissenstransfer zwischen Hochschulen in Deutschland und Unternehmen das nachhaltige Wirtschaften in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen gestärkt werden? In dem vorliegenden Working Paper wird dieser Frage am Beispiel des an der Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht (HWR) in Berlin von 2009 - 2011 durchgeführten Transferprojekts Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften in Berliner Betrieben (NBB) nachgegangen. Das Ziel des Projekts war es, insbesondere Berliner Betriebe dahingehend zu unterstützen, Nachhaltigkeitsprojekte so durchzuführen, dass die daraus resultierenden Erkenntnisse dauerhaft in die Unternehmensprozesse eingebunden werden. -- Sustainable business in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is a highly relevant issue today where action is needed. By now, SME have become a main target group of the research field sustainable business. Sustainable business is highly relevant for SME in order to become fit for the future in their core business with regards to material and resource efficiency, innovation as well as corporate social responsibility. Up to now, predominantly large firms mainly listed on the stock market have managed to become publically visible in the matter of sustainability. In the future, SME will get increasingly asked for their sustainability activities, since they are mostly tied into the supply chain of globally active brands and hence subject to rising pressure to consider issues of sustainability. However, there remains a large gap between what is necessary and the implementation of it. How can the knowledge transfer between universities in Germany and enterprises enhance sustainable business in SME, specifically when there are thus far only few projects designed to transfer management knowledge between universities and SME and to actively promote innovative and sustainable development in firms? The following working paper pursues this question in the case of the knowledge transfer project entitled Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften in Berliner Betrieben (NBB) (English: Sustainable Business in Berlin)which was conducted at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht - HWR) in Berlin from 2009 - 2011. It was designed to support Berlin companies in successfully carrying out sustainability projects and incorporating these results into company workflows over the long run. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imbwps:66&r=ppm |