Search results

Research managers and administrators (RMAs) should not be forgotten as part of the professional workforce populating today’s research ecosystems of universities or research institutes, with interactions and contributions that matter (Poli, 2018a). Unfortunately, since they are still often regarded as employees who are neither senior management nor researchers, their role still suffers vagueness and ambiguity (Allen-Collinson, 2009). Consequently, RMAs are still unrecognised and unacknowledged, and often misunderstood as support staff or bureaucrats (Rhoades, 2010). This country-specific case study of Cyprus introduces the readers to the Cypriot research ecosystem, so as to contextualise the landscape within which the Cypriot RMAs operate professionally. After briefly discussing the evolution of the RMA profession in Cyprus and glimpsing at what might be the current Cypriot RMA community, the chapter elaborates on RMA demographics derived from the ‘RMA in Cyprus Questionnaire’, which was formulated based on the RAAAP-3 survey. At its closure, the chapter proposes the establishment of the ‘CyARMA – Cyprus Association of Research Managers and Administrators’, as the body to advocate the standardisation, professionalisation and, more importantly, the recognition of the RMA profession in Cyprus.

In this chapter, we investigate race discrimination and race equality policies in the workplace at two interrelated levels of analysis in Cyprus. At the macro-national level, the effectiveness and implications of the present legal system is evaluated, and the chapter discusses whether it brought about the desirable results of safeguarding a fairer and efficient legal system, eliminating any kind of discrimination at the European Union (EU) level. At the meso-organizational level, the chapter refers to the results of research presenting a number of organizational policies and practices that safeguard or hinder the inclusion of migrants at the workplace.

Much of the scholarly works on open innovation have significantly highlighted the application of the model in high-tech industries in the developed world. However, how the phenomenon applies in low-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries is still marginal and lacks substantive research. This study aims to draw on the network theory of innovation to examine the open innovation orientations of low-tech SMEs in an emerging market context, particularly Ghana.

The research design used was a qualitative–quantitative approach: the qualitative phase of the study, involving 31 low-tech SMEs, used a multiple case approach through semi-structured interviews and analyzed the interview responses using NVivo statistical tool; the quantitative phase, including 706 low-tech SMEs, also used a survey questionnaire approach and descriptively analyzed data collected using SPSS statistical tool.

Results disclose that the low-tech SMEs’ employment of the open innovation model are preponderantly driven by commercialization purposes, knowledge acquisition motives, financial motives and strategic motives, whereas their open innovation approaches include inbound strategies (collaboration with suppliers, co-creation/customer immersion), outbound strategies (IP licensing out) and coupled strategies (strategic alliances, contract manufacturing, and joint ventures). Moreover, the findings show that the SMEs’ preferred open innovation partners include suppliers, customers, private universities and non-industry, in that order. Finally, results show that the low-tech SMEs’ open innovation advantages include market gains, strategic gains, knowledge gains, operational gains, financial gains and network gains, whereas their open innovation challenges colossally were collaboration barriers and organizational barriers.

These findings purvey valuable perceptiveness for managers, academicians and policymakers alike; they highlight the importance of open innovation to low-tech SMEs, proven strategies, challenges involved and the mechanisms for effective and efficient adoption of the open innovation model.

The value of this study reclines in the extension of open innovation research from high-tech industries in the advanced world to low-tech SMEs in emerging economies. Results of the study enrich the knowledge and understanding of how the theoretical model of open innovation is adopted and implemented by the low-tech SME sector in emerging economies.