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Principals, agents and research programmes

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  • Elizabeth Shove

Abstract

Research programmes appear to represent one of the more powerful instruments through which research funders (principals) steer and shape what researchers (agents) do. The fact that agents navigate between different sources and styles of programme funding and that they use programmes to their own ends is readily accommodated within principal-agent theory with the help of concepts such as shirking and defection. Taking a different route, I use three examples of research programming (by the UK, the European Union and the European Science Foundation) to argue that principal-agent theory cannot capture the cumulative and collective consequences of the relationships it seeks to describe. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Shove, 2003. "Principals, agents and research programmes," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(5), pages 371-381, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:scippl:v:30:y:2003:i:5:p:371-381
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.3152/147154303781780308
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    Cited by:

    1. Bianca Potì & Emanuela Reale, 2007. "Government R&D funding: new approaches in the allocation policies for public and private beneficiaries," CERIS Working Paper 200709, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    2. de Jong, Stefan P.L. & Wardenaar, Tjerk & Horlings, Edwin, 2016. "Exploring the promises of transdisciplinary research: A quantitative study of two climate research programmes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1397-1409.
    3. Lepori, Benedetto, 2011. "Coordination modes in public funding systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 355-367, April.
    4. Seolmin Yang & So Young Kim, 2023. "Knowledge-integrated research is more disruptive when supported by homogeneous funding sources: a case of US federally funded research in biomedical and life sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(6), pages 3257-3282, June.
    5. Bruce Currie-Alder & Rigas Arvanitis & Sari Hanafi, 2018. "Research in Arabic-speaking countries: Funding competitions, international collaboration, and career incentives," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 74-82.

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