Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) in the public sector are intermediaries between the state and academic research. Principal-agent theory has been used to illuminate the relations between RFOs and state institutions. This paper explores the extension of principal-agent concepts to the study...

Four science policy issues are discussed — intervention, interaction, interdisciplinarity, and international co-operation — in relation to how they affect the processes of making science policy, and have been shaped by them. The principal-agent model introduces to science policy the...

This postscript is a reflection on the wider implications of this discussion of interactive social science. What lessons have been learned about new knowledge, legitimacy, theory, relevance, power and evaluation? What new questions have arisen? Re-invigorated by debate about interactive...

The papers in this special issue examine the content and practice of interactive social science and its developing institutional context. Although the contemporary environment of academic research and funding is relevant, the papers engage with themes which have preoccupied social scientists for...

The study of transformation and change is one of the most important areas of social science research. This paper synthesizes and critically reviews the emerging traditions in the study of change dynamics. Three mainstream theories of evolution are introduced to explain change: the Darwinian...

Recent comments on the national competitive model based on links between organizational skills and value added have recognized that individual firm performance can be significantly moderated by either or both marketing expertise and differentiating skills within the organization with an emphasis...

Strategic management is well developed in its understanding of both strategic thinking and the strategic decision-making process. But the precise role of behaviours within strategy-making teams and the influence of these behavioural patterns is less well understood. This paper is based on...