Editorial

Citation

Ordonez de Pablos, P. (2021), "Editorial", Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTPM-03-2021-156

Editorial on science and technology

Introduction

The Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management publishes academic articles in the field of policy and management of innovation, R&D, science and technology around the world. In the last years, new topics of interest have been added to the journal, like climate change, digital and circular economy, green issues, smart cities and sustainability in line with leading research and innovation investment programs, like Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.

The journal explores key research questions like how science and technology can contribute to boost competitiveness of countries and regions, to a greener planet and towards more sustainable futures for people. Companies and economies must benefit from world-class research and cutting-edge innovation, increase transnational collaborations in science and technology, reinforce their leadership and entrepreneurship positions and benefit from strategic digital and enabling technologies in different sectors, like digital health (Chui et al., 2017; European Commission, 2021; Miremadi and Baharloo, 2020; Radicic, 2020; Ullah et al., 2020).

Contents of the issue

The first issue of 2021 is formed by eight outstanding papers that cover strategic topics from environmental issues and business collaboration to green issues and digital strategies.

The paper titled “Factors Affecting the Performance of the Traditional Fisheries Fishing Effort in the Regency of Kubu Raya, West Borneo” contributes to the understanding of the “factors that affect the performance of traditional fishing business at Kubu Raya Regency of West Borneo Province. Based on the results of the analysis of SEM, it is revealed that the direct influence of the six dependent variables the environment of the individual fisherman, regulatory and government policy, environmental economics, a social-cultural environment, managerial capacity and the sustainability of the business aspects of ecological management affect directly toward traditional capture fisheries business performance, only empowerment that is not directly influential on performance of traditional capture fisheries business”.

The paper titled “Could China Meet its Emission Reduction Goal by CO2-EOR” states that “enhancing Oil Recovery through Carbon dioxide injection (CO2-EOR) is a commercially available practice to increase oil production from depleted fields while sequestering a substantial fraction of the injected CO2 in the formation. Thus, CO2-EOR promises to maximize recovery of finite liquid hydrocarbon resources while acting as a sink for greenhouse gas emissions. This process requires proper integration between points of CO2 supply and points of CO2 demand, in this case depleted oil fields. This paper discusses opportunities for pairing the CO2 points of supply from stationary activities such as power plants, steel and cement production, coal to liquid plants, and refineries, with oil reservoirs in China that may benefit from CO2-EOR. CO2 supply sources were reviewed for the mentioned industries and potential oil fields were reviewed and screened. The process of matching sources and sinks was based on an optimization model that identified sites with the highest added value (CO2 storage and additional oil recovery), economic viability (least cost of transportation and capture), and least energy intensiveness (parasitic load). Results identified areas where project clusters can be implemented where the average distance between points of supply and demand are within a 500 KM radius and the average field size is economically feasible. Moreover, this paper demonstrates the case of potential annual CO2 storage equivalents to 1 Gtone, representing an almost 10% reduction in Chinese annual emission, and annual additional oil equivalents to 1348 mmbbl due to CO2-EOR”.

The paper titled “Some antecedent factors that shape SMEs adoption of Social Media Marketing applications: a hybrid approach” observes that “although several researchers have made significant efforts to examine the adoption of social media marketing technology in Nigeria, many have focused on large organizations and have constantly extrapolated the findings obtained in western world as if SMEs have the same structure, managerial capabilities, generally operate in the same way and operate in the environment. This has hindered the development of an integrated framework aimed at unravelling the key factors shaping the adoption of social media marketing applications in SMEs in Nigeria. The paper, therefore, explores the critical factors influencing the adoption of social media marketing technology in SME”.

The paper titled “Development of an integrated framework regarding inter-firm collaborative business strategies” “develops an integrated perspective framework regarding inter-firm collaborative business strategies (IFCBS). The purpose of this study is to attain a holistic comprehension regarding IFCBS. This work contributed to theory by conceptualizing an integrated perspective framework. The integrated framework regarding inter-firm collaborative strategy was developed based upon the six conceptual elemental questions proposed and discussed in the papers. These were drawn from extant literature developed from the theoretical aspects regarding various aspects of participation between collaborating firms. It was also based upon the dominant and dormant roles played by the partnering firms as well as the objectives of the partnership. The six conceptual elemental questions were as follows: “Why to cooperate?”; “When to cooperate?”; “Which partners to collaborate with?”; “Where to cooperate?”; “How to cooperate?”; and “What are the benefits of collaboration?””.

The paper titled “The effect of knowledge management processes on organizational innovation through intellectual capital development in Iranian industrial organizations” aims to “investigate the relationship among knowledge management (KM), intellectual capital and organizational innovation. The present literature in these three areas of study, the effect of KM on organizational innovation through the development of intellectual capital has been rarely studied so far. Therefore, in this research, the authors tried to examine the effect of KM processes on organizational innovation through the development of intellectual capital in Iranian industrial organizations. The data of this research has been gathered and aggregated through the distribution of a closed questionnaire in a sample of 384 people selected from the statistical population consisting 4,589 managers and senior managers of the Iranian industrial organizations. Data were then analyzed using SPSS”.

The paper titled “Formulation of control strategy on the environmental impact potential as a result of the development of palm oil plantation” focuses on “strategies for controlling potential environmental impacts as a result of developing oil palm plantations. Research sites in the first year have been carried out in potential areas for the development of oil palm plantations, both through plasma through Badan Usaha Milik Negara (stateowned enterprises) and Badan Usaha Milik Swasta (private-owned companies) and self-help by the community. The research locations were carried out in the Riau mainland areas, including Kampar, Rokan Hulu and Kuantan Singingi regencies. In contrast, the Riau coastal areas were Pelalawan, Siak, Bengkalis, Indragiri Hilir, Indragiri Hulu and Rokan Hilir. The two research areas have different productivity caused by differences in soil fertility. The method used for data collection is the rapid rural appraisal method, which is a participatory approach to obtain data/information and general evaluation in the field in a relatively short time. The virtue of this research is to find an institutional arrangement strategy for oil palm agriculture to spur growth through the development of the downstream palm oil industry. The strategy is intended to create economic added value so that efforts to accelerate community economic development can be increased”.

The paper titled “Green campus paradigms for sustainability attainment in higher education institutions-A comparative study” investigates “the current Green practices implemented in Malaysia higher education institutions towards sustainability attainment by developing a multi-disciplinary comprehensive policy framework to further extend the collaboration among sustainability practitioners in providing integrated data on Green indicators linked to economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability in higher education institutions. This study provides insights towards infusing Green campus paradigms from technological perspective to facilitate the exchange of information between sustainability practitioners in order to produce innovative solutions for addressing sustainability challenges”.

Finally, the paper titled “Innovation policy in the agri-food Sector: Evidence from undeveloped Mexican regions” shows “evidence individually obtained from each case that allows us to identify the differences and similarities between them with a scope on a qualitative level, which may facilitate future research that can reveal the quantitative effects of innovation policies. According to the normative analysis, we concluded that both Michoacan but especially Guerrero, are regions that have weak and poorly articulated institutions in their innovation policy, with few incentives and scarcely defined property rights tending to increase uncertainty among the actors participating in the agri-food sector. Although the economic dynamics of both regions are mostly associated with that sector, therefore, the low development and lack of competitiveness are a direct consequence of a minimum priority of innovation policy”.

Coming issues

In coming issues the journal will publish collections of papers addressing major issues for boosting competitiveness of companies and regions, to tackle with the health emergency due to covid-19 and to explore the role of information technologies in different economic sectors like agriculture and health.