IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/epplan/v34y2011i1p13-20.html

Federally sponsored multidisciplinary research centers: Learning, evaluation, and vicious circles

Author

Listed:
  • Youtie, Jan
  • Corley, Elizabeth A.

Abstract

Despite the increasing investment in multi-year federally funded science and technology centers in universities, there are few studies of how these centers engage in learning and change based on information submitted from various agents in the oversight and evaluation process. One challenge is how to manage and respond to this evaluative information, especially when it is conflicting. Although the center can learn and adapt in response to this information, it can also become subject to a vicious circle of continuous restructuring and production of documentation to address various and potentially inconsistent recommendations. In this paper we illustrate the effects of such a dynamic based on our experiences as external evaluators of the $25 million NSF-funded Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center. The case study presents an analysis of annual reports and strategic planning documents along with other sources of evidence to illustrate the evolution of center organizational approaches in response to evaluations by external review panels, center evaluators, program managers, and other external stakeholders. We conclude with suggestions for how evaluators may help centers ease the cost of learning and reduce the likelihood of a vicious circle.

Suggested Citation

  • Youtie, Jan & Corley, Elizabeth A., 2011. "Federally sponsored multidisciplinary research centers: Learning, evaluation, and vicious circles," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 13-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:34:y:2011:i:1:p:13-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149-7189(10)00047-9
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Finholt, 2003. "Collaboratories as a new form of scientific organization," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 5-25.
    2. George P. Huber, 1991. "Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 88-115, February.
    3. Corley, Elizabeth A., 2007. "A use-and-transformation model for evaluating public R&D: Illustrations from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) research," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 21-35, February.
    4. Ash Amin & Patrick Cohendet, 2000. "Organisational Learning and Governance Through Embedded Practices," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 93-116, March.
    5. Noriko Hara & Paul Solomon & Seung‐Lye Kim & Diane H. Sonnenwald, 2003. "An emerging view of scientific collaboration: Scientists' perspectives on collaboration and factors that impact collaboration," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(10), pages 952-965, August.
    6. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Corley, Elizabeth A. & Boardman, P. Craig & Bozeman, Barry, 2006. "Design and the management of multi-institutional research collaborations: Theoretical implications from two case studies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 975-993, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sobelson, Robyn K. & Young, Andrea C., 2013. "Evaluation of a federally funded workforce development program: The Centers for Public Health Preparedness," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 50-57.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:osf:socarx:4qwzh_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Samina Karim, 2009. "Business Unit Reorganization and Innovation in New Product Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1237-1254, July.
    3. Sharma, Amalesh & Borah, Sourav Bikash & Moses, Aditya C., 2021. "Responses to COVID-19: The role of governance, healthcare infrastructure, and learning from past pandemics," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 597-607.
    4. Andrea Lionzo & Francesca Rossignoli, 2013. "Knowledge integration in family SMEs: an extension of the 4I model," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(3), pages 583-608, August.
    5. Hart E. Posen & John S. Chen, 2013. "An Advantage of Newness: Vicarious Learning Despite Limited Absorptive Capacity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(6), pages 1701-1716, December.
    6. Dahlin, Kristina & Chuang, You-Ta & Roulet, Thomas J, 2018. "Opportunity, Motivation, and Ability to Learn from Failures and Errors: Review, Synthesis, and Ways to Move Forward," SocArXiv 4qwzh, Center for Open Science.
    7. Cimenler, Oguz & Reeves, Kingsley A. & Skvoretz, John, 2015. "An evaluation of collaborative research in a college of engineering," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 577-590.
    8. Roelofsen, Anneloes & Boon, Wouter P.C. & Kloet, Roy R. & Broerse, Jacqueline E.W., 2011. "Stakeholder interaction within research consortia on emerging technologies: Learning how and what?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 341-354, April.
    9. Melissa A. Schilling & Patricia Vidal & Robert E. Ployhart & Alexandre Marangoni, 2003. "Learning by Doing Something Else: Variation, Relatedness, and the Learning Curve," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(1), pages 39-56, January.
    10. Park, Jeong-Yang & Harris, Simon, 2014. "Microfoundations for learning within international joint ventures," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 490-503.
    11. Agulles, Remei & Prats, Mª Julia, 2011. "Learning in practice: What organizational and management literature can contribute to professional and occupational development," IESE Research Papers D/938, IESE Business School.
    12. Michael C. J. Mayer & Christian Stadler & Julia Hautz, 2015. "The relationship between product and international diversification: The role of experience," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(10), pages 1458-1468, October.
    13. Jeffrey Cummings, 2003. "Knowledge Sharing : A Review of the Literature," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 19060, April.
    14. Chin-Chang Tsai & Elizabeth A. Corley & Barry Bozeman, 2016. "Collaboration experiences across scientific disciplines and cohorts," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(2), pages 505-529, August.
    15. Hajdeja Iglič & Patrick Doreian & Luka Kronegger & Anuška Ferligoj, 2017. "With whom do researchers collaborate and why?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 153-174, July.
    16. Ming Gu & Edison Tse, 2010. "Building innovative organizations in China: The “execution+” organization," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 25-53, March.
    17. Xiaoyu Yu & Yi. Chen & Bang Nguyen, 2014. "Knowledge Management, Learning Behavior from Failure and New Product Development in New Technology Ventures," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 405-423, May.
    18. Faria, Andre L., 2008. "Mergers and the market for organization capital," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 71-100, January.
    19. Frank Nagle, 2018. "Learning by Contributing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Contribution to Crowdsourced Public Goods," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 569-587, August.
    20. Hiroaki Sasaki, 2021. "Non‐renewable resources and the possibility of sustainable economic development in an economy with positive or negative population growth," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 704-720, October.
    21. Valter Giacinto & Andrea Sechi & Alessandro Tosoni, 2023. "The performance of Italian Industrial districts in and out of the 2008–2012 crisis," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(4), pages 815-848, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:34:y:2011:i:1:p:13-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/evalprogplan .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.