Innovation in Science and Technology Management
Liu Yangxi,Ren Yuxin,Yang Chen
Organized scientific research serves as an important form that facilitates technological institutionalization within universities and systematically caters to the national strategic needs for scientific and technological innovation. As such, it constitutes a multifaceted and significant systematic undertaking that involves various entities, including government, market, and academia. Multiple institutional logics, namely those of the state, market, and academia, shape its development. Currently, academic research on organized research can be categorized into three strands. The first comprises case studies, which center on remarkable instances of domestic universities transforming their research paradigms and reforming their systems and mechanisms for organized research. The second consists of theoretical research, which concentrates on knowledge production models, organizational models, response mechanisms, and problem-solving in the context of organized research. The third involves comparative research, which largely focuses on case studies of major developed countries, international research institutions, or world-class universities, with an emphasis on extracting best practices. While existing studies have provided profound analysis of key areas and exemplary cases of organized research through diverse lenses, an integrated perspective that holistically examines the heterogeneous actors, institutional mechanisms, research paradigms, and organizational models remains lacking. Therefore, this study introduces the theory of symbiosis into the practice of organized research, furnishing a theoretical framework to systematically conceptualize the diverse actors and their mechanisms of action, while unlocking the practical pathway for organized research. Through examining the value implications and practical trajectories of organized research across multiple dimensions including symbiotic units, modalities, interfaces, and environments, identifying prevailing risk factors, and proposing countermeasures and recommendations, this study aims to furnish novel perspectives on reinforcing organized scientific inquiry.#br#The concept of symbiosis was originally proposed in biology by German scientist Anton de Bary to describe mutually beneficial relationships between different organisms. Subsequently, this notion rapidly diffused into the humanities and social sciences, gradually being applied in disciplines such as economics, political science, sociology, and education thereby forming a new methodology and system of values. Through continuous development and refinement by scholars including Famintsim and Protoaxis, symbiotic theory now underscores the associations of co-survival, co-evolution, or mutual inhibition among different species and genera. In a symbiotic environment, symbiotic units can form ecological relationships through particular symbiotic modalities and interfaces. Within the symbiotic system, the symbiotic unit constitutes the primary entity; the symbiotic mode refers to the cooperative formulations between the units; the symbiotic interface serves as the regulatory mechanism; and the symbiotic environment represents the exogenous factors impacting the system. The interplay between these four components facilitates the formation and functioning of the symbiotic system.#br#Guided by symbiotic theory, this study identifies four categories of risks in organized research. First, government, enterprises, universities, and research institutions diverge in their goal orientation for knowledge production and transformation, as well as in the organizational characteristics of knowledge generation. Second, from an organizational standpoint, continuous and integrated symbiotic models of organized research have yet to become widespread. Likewise, from a behavioral angle, the mutually beneficial symbiotic patterns of organized research require further optimization. Third, regarding incentive mechanisms, several problems exist, including insufficient focus on incentive targets, limited diversity in incentive methods and subjects, and inadequate coordination of incentive measures. Concurrently, issues persist involving insufficient mission-oriented national incentives, a weak sense of gain among frontline scientific and technological personnel and teams, and insufficient guarantees for the growth environment of young researchers. With respect to the regulatory mechanisms, excessive concentration of power and prolonged regulatory chains prevail. Regarding evaluation mechanisms, deficiencies include a lack of long-term assessment, redundant and repetitive evaluation activities across multiple levels, limited evaluation tools and methodologies, and imperfections in peer review systems. Fourth, at the policy environment level, targeted supporting policies and implementation methods are lacking. In the market environment, obstructed cooperation among government, industry, academia, and research institutes exists alongside low conversion rates of scientific and technological achievements. At the cultural environment level, disciplinary insularity can engender information blocking, repetitive projects, and weakened creativity. In response, it is imperative to innovate diversified research organization models combining centralized and free exploratory efforts, promote the formation of continuous, integrated, and mutually beneficial symbiotic patterns, improve incentive, regulatory and evaluation mechanisms, and foster favorable policy, market, and cultural environments.#br#