The bulk of medical care system management in the United States does not ground decisions in use of available, high quality evidence. The previous chapters in this book demonstrate both that there sometimes is a rich scientific foundation in health care organization, delivery, and financing that could, if applied, lead to better outcomes, and that sometimes there is little or no evidence on effectiveness of interventions. However, we also observed that the bulk of health care management in the United States does not ground decisions in evidence, using it if available and taking uncertainty into account if not – instead “magical thinking” is often used to make choices.1 Ironically, management holds evidence in high esteem for decision-making by clinicians. In this chapter, we explore why management holds itself to a lower standard regarding its organizational, staffing, and planning choices, seeing experience, intuition, and opinions as good-enough evidence for decisions. We explore what needs to happen for this to change.

The evolution of ecosystem science and systems ecology as legitimate branches of science has occurred since the late 1960s. They have flourished because of their essential contributions to understanding and management of natural resources and the environment. Scientific knowledge about the structure and functioning of ecosystems, the services ecosystems provide to people, and the roles people play therein, have become commonplace. Scientists know what challenges face Earth’s environments and they know many of the solutions available to resolve them. But scientific knowledge alone is insufficient to implement change. Knowledge transfer to people who manage our lands, waters, and other natural resources is essential and they must become engaged in implementing solutions to major natural resource and environmental challenges. Adoption of new concepts and technologies is critical. Overcoming the barriers to adoption of best management practices is critically needed. Many of the barriers are created by adherence to dogmatic cultural norms and ideologies by landowners, managers, and policy makers. Behavioral, organizational, learning, and marketing professionals study behavioral change. The systems ecology paradigm must incorporate behavioral, organizational, learning, and marketing professionals as partners in implementing concepts of adoption cycles and community-based social marketing to solve wicked problems.

This chapter analyzes the public research system and policies implemented in South Africa to promote innovation and economic development. In addition to public research organizations and state-owned enterprises, the government research and innovation infrastructure is supplemented with private sector research, regulatory bodies, industry associations, and the South African Patent Office in South Africa. The chapter describes South African policies that have been introduced to support the supply of public research, consisting of the outputs of public research organizations, policies to support the innovative capabilities of firms, and policies to support linkages and knowledge transfer between public research and firms. Four case studies based on desk research and interviews show that the main channels for knowledge transfer in South Africa are informal methods and research agreements. The chapter concludes that a number of factors have limited the flow of knowledge from public research to businesses in South Africa and action is required to improve the demand for university research and increase the domestic capability to absorb and learn how to use technologies associated with new investment and modernization.

This chapter looks at successful knowledge transfer of products or processes from public research organizations to private sector firms for commercialization. Through six national case studies (Germany, the Republic of Korea, and the UK for high-income countries, and Brazil, China, and South Africa for middle-income countries), contextual conditions that influence success are discussed. Over time, the conceptual model behind policies to support knowledge transfer has shifted from a mode 1 linear pipeline model to a mode 3 model. In the linear model, basic research conducted by universities is followed by applied research, either by public research organizations or firms. In a mode 3 model, multiple actors – such as different types of public research organization, knowledge intermediaries such as knowledge transfer offices, and private businesses – are involved in an innovation system; there is a reverse knowledge flow whereby firms provide public research scientists with information on their needs, which influences the research projects of public research scientists. Best practice includes policy support for research and development and other innovation-related activities and incentives for firms to work closely with public sector researchers for problem solving and commercialization.

This chapter analyzes the structures and processes in place for knowledge transfer from publicly financed research in Germany. The chapter discusses the common channels of knowledge transfer from universities and public research institutes in Germany and the policies implemented to enhance the transfer. The chapter also discusses changes in the German knowledge transfer system and their impact, such as the abolition of professor’s privilege, the introduction of patent valorization agencies, and other major funding schemes. The chapter reviews scholarly literature relating to knowledge transfer in Germany and research findings from interviews with selected university knowledge transfer offices and policymakers. The chapter also presents results from a survey sent to all knowledge transfer offices at German universities. It concludes that while efforts have been made to foster systematic knowledge transfer from science to industry in the past decade in Germany, universities and public research institutes need to deepen the understanding of intellectual property and business-relevant research and applications within their institutes and to further improve knowledge transfer between their researchers and industry.

Commercialization of public research to support economic growth involves the transfer of knowledge produced by public research organizations to private sector businesses or government agencies. This chapter describes the diverse range of national and institutional policies and practices implemented across countries to encourage knowledge transfer between public research organizations and firms. The chapter largely focuses on the IP licensing model, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages, and discusses how the costs of IP-mediated knowledge transfer can be minimized. It outlines the main reasons for collecting knowledge transfer metrics for licensing – for benchmarking, for identifying factors that support or hinder knowledge transfer, and for informing policy. The chapter also identifies the most commonly used methods for collecting knowledge transfer metrics, and discusses basic metrics that all countries should collect on the IP licensing model, plus supplementary metrics of relevance to specific policy issues.

This chapter analyzes the progress that Chinese universities and public research institutes have made in the fields of research and education as well as the factors that hinder the growth of knowledge transfer from universities and public research institutes to firms in China. The chapter describes how the role of universities and public research institutes in China has evolved in recent decades with the transition to a market economy. It reviews the laws and policies governing knowledge transfer activities in China. It examines the various channels of knowledge transfer that universities and public research institutes in China use to transfer technology such as making new knowledge publicly available at no cost and through cooperative arrangements, including contract research and collaboration, licensing, and establishing spinoff enterprises. The chapter concludes that while Chinese universities and public research institutes have been dramatically transformed in order to meet government policy goals of producing cutting-edge scientific and technological developments to support economic and social advancement since the 1980s, there are challenges in the areas of limited licensing opportunities for leading technologies, lack of long-term financial support, ambiguous corporate governance and regulations, and underdeveloped intermediary agencies resulting in high transaction costs that remain to be addressed.

Foreign knowledge and technology enhance the technological capability of local firms. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are key channels through which foreign knowledge flows and is transferred. This chapter reviews different types of foreign knowledge sources and the factors that ensure success in the adaption of foreign know-how to the local context. The results show that formal firms tend to have higher local technological capability are more likely to adopt and adapt foreign knowledge and technologies. Interaction with foreign firms through imports and collaboration are important sources of knowledge. The managerial localisation strategies in Chinese firms is also identified in our case study to offer an essential learning potential for local firms.

In order for an employee to help the organization achieve strategic success through his or her performance, he/she must work at optimal levels towards very clear and specific objectives. In other words, the organization must design and implement a performance management system (PMS) that empowers employees and allows them to work at optimal levels. However, a review of the related research shows but when it comes to expatriates, most organisations do not develop dedicated PMSs – instead, it seems that most organizations evaluate and manage expatriates on an ad-hoc basis, often leading to dissatisfaction with the outcomes and conduct of the PMS, and subsequent dip in performance levels and quality. In this chapter, we briefly trace the history of PMSs, with particular emphasis to PMSs related to expatriates, and discuss some recent PMS models. We further discuss additional contextual variables that should be incorporated into effective PMSs, and conclude by offering guidelines for designing an effective PMS for expatriates.