Mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of

Mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of innovations of R&D in Bangladesh: triple helix perspective Md. Dulal Hossain, Junghoon Moon, Hyoung Goo Kang, Sung Chul Lee & Young Chan Choe Scientometrics An International Journal for all Quantitative Aspects of the Science of Science, Communication in Science and Science Policy ISSN 0138-9130 Volume 90 Number 1 Scientometrics (2012) 90:57-83 DOI 10.1007/s11192-011-0507-6

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Author's personal copy Scientometrics (2012) 90:57–83 DOI 10.1007/s11192-011-0507-6

Mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of innovations of R&D in Bangladesh: triple helix perspective Md. Dulal Hossain • Junghoon Moon • Hyoung Goo Kang Sung Chul Lee • Young Chan Choe

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Received: 29 August 2011 / Published online: 25 September 2011 Ó Akade´miai Kiado´, Budapest, Hungary 2011

Abstract Triple helix (TH) collaborations involving university, industry and government provide a networked infrastructure for shaping the dynamic fluxes of knowledge base of innovations locally and these fluxes remain emergent within the domains. This study maps these emergence dynamics of the knowledge base of innovations of Research & Development (R&D) by exploring the longitudinal trend of systemness within the networked research relations in Bangladesh on the TH model. The bibliometric data of publications collected from the Science Citation Index (SCI), the social sciences and the arts and humanities for analysis of science indicators and the patent data collected from the US Patent Office to analyze the patent success ratio as a measure of innovation within TH domains. The findings show that the network dynamics have varied considerably according to the R&D policies of the government. The collaboration patterns of co-authorship relations in the SCI publications prominently increased, with some variation, from 1996 to 2006. Nevertheless, inter-institutional collaboration negatively influenced by the national science and technology (S&T) research policies in the last 5 years due to their evaluation criteria. Finally, the findings reveal that the R&D system of Bangladesh is still undergoing M. D. Hossain J. Moon S. C. Lee Program in Regional Information, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1 Sillim-dong, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea e-mail: [email protected] J. Moon e-mail: [email protected] S. C. Lee e-mail: [email protected] H. G. Kang (&) Department of Finance, Hanyang University School of Business, 17 Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea e-mail: [email protected] Y. C. Choe Research Institute for Agriculture & Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-599, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea e-mail: [email protected]

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Author's personal copy 58

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a process of institutionalizing S&T and has failed to boost its research capacity for building the knowledge base of innovations by neglecting the network effects of TH dynamics. Keywords Triple helix Research & development Bangladesh government University Industry Innovations

Introduction Knowledge is the most important good in the knowledge-based economy (KBE) and is generally accepted among scientists and policy-makers as a prerequisite for innovations which constitutes the most important economic output (Chatziparadeisis 2003). These innovations take place both within firms and across the interfaces among institutional agents like universities, industries, and government agencies (Leydesdorff and Fritsch 2006). Therefore, the competitive advantages in KBE can no longer be attributed to a single node in the network and these knowledge infrastructure of an economy can be viewed in terms of the networked relations among universities, industries, and governmental agencies (Leydesdorff 2001). The collaborations among these networks generate value towards building the knowledge base of innovation systems through knowledge production, and its interaction that should be measured (Chatziparadeisis 2003) to map these network effects. These knowledge base of innovation systems fluctuate based on these network’s fluxes integration, on the heterogeneous fluxes such as economic exchange relations, novelty production, and organizational control by providing opportunities for synergy (Leydesdorff and Fritsch 2006). Therefore, the synergy between the industrial structures and academic conducts can be reflected crucial for the strength of an innovation system (Fritsch 2004). Lundvall (1988) generalized the concept of national innovation systems as a coordination system based on interactions between users and producers i.e. interaction between universities and industries with government intervention (Lundvall 1998). Research & Development (R&D) plays a key role to build the knowledge base of innovation systems through the interactions of university–industry–government (UIG) relations. Numerous studies have analyzed a production of new knowledge of R&D using R&D expenses as a measure of inputs and the articles published in reviews used by Science Citation Index (SCI) (Chatziparadeisis 2003) or the number of patents as the relevant output measure (Hall et al. 1986). The bilateral and trilateral interactions among the UIG relations can be studied by the Triple helix (TH) model of UIG relations in an innovation system (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000). The TH of UIG relations has hitherto been developed mainly as a neo-institutional model (Etzkowitz et al. 2000; Powell and DiMaggio 1991) to capture the relations among the different functions (organized knowledge production, diffusion, and control) operating in and on these networks for studying the network arrangements among UIG. Hence, the mutual information among uncertainties in three dimensions allows us to study the extent to which networks of relations among the three domains have industrialized into a synergetic configuration (Park and Leydesdorff 2010). According to Carlsson (2006), this methodology can also be used for the analysis of innovation systems such as sectoral, technological, and regional innovation systems other than nationally defined ones (Carlsson 2006). Therefore, the TH indicators of UIG relations allow empirical investigation of whether and to what extent various possible systems are integrated and/or differentiated within the domains. It also allows to examine the effectiveness of individual actors in science work together across institutional boundaries and the consequential status

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Author's personal copy Innovations of R&D in Bangladesh

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of the interaction-based knowledge infrastructure (Park and Leydesdorff 2010). Extensive literature has shown that the TH model of UIG is capable of capturing both the dynamics and new developments in the form of mutual information exchanges within the helices (Etzkowitz and Brisolla 1999; Leydesdorff 2003; Leydesdorff and Fritsch 2006; Leydesdorff et al. 2006; Park et al. 2005; Shapiro 2007). The Bangladesh government is aware of the need to reinforce the national system of innovations. With the advent of Bangladesh independence in 1971, foundations were laid for the development of modern scientific and technological enterprise in the country. In fact, the overall science and technology (S&T) activities are organized under two categories of institutions-one is R&D institutions directly funded by the government. The other category is organized by the technical universities in engineering, agriculture and by the science departments of the country’s general universities. Recently, the Bangladesh government has taken strong initiatives towards digital Bangladesh by building its knowledge base of innovations directing national R&D activities in the Vision-2021 (Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh, 2010–2021). Frequently made statements indicate awareness of the importance of S&T policies in national development which goes back to the formation of The National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) headed by Hon’ble President in 1975. NCST was reorganized several times, in 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2004 and 2009. One of the main objectives of NCST is to evaluate and co-ordinate R&D programs adopted by different research organizations among government, university and industry. Consequently, Bangladesh government’s National Science and Technology Policy (NSTP) policies are responsible for shaping and continuously reconstructing the system. The government launched Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) from S&T division of Ministry of Education to emphasis in building S&T based innovations as well as in response of structural problems. The government further restructured the MOST as the Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology (MoSICT) in 2003 emphasizing on building knowledge based innovations. MOSICT coordinates S&T activities with the vision of supporting attainment of overall socio-economic development of the country through R&D, its extension and successful utilization of S&T. Numerous studies have explored the TH models of advanced economies, particularly in western countries, but only a few have investigated Asian countries or developing countries in terms of co-authorships relations in the international literature (Leydesdorff and Sun 2009; Park et al. 2005; Shapiro 2007). In this aspect, we argue that TH model may also be appropriate for measuring knowledge base of innovations emerged from R&D only in developing countries since publications are the key evaluation criteria in the governmental R&D policy for both the developing and developed countries. We examine Bangladesh’s R&D research portfolio from this TH perspective in recognition of the sustained and remarkable growth of the research output in its developing economies in terms of the share of publications and citations in the SCI database (Leydesdorff and Zhou 2005). We follow the design of the Leydesdorff and Sun (2009) study by operationalizing relationships in terms of co-authorships in the formal SCI, social sciences (SSCI) and arts and humanities (A&HCI) literature in this study. Recently, they found a long-term erosion of university–industry co-authorship despite a series of government programs directed at their stimulation in a study of university–industry co-authorship relations in Japan (Leydesdorff and Sun 2009). Co-authorship relations have widely been used and validated as a proxy for the dynamics of these relationships (Wagner 2008). In recent decades both universities and industries have developed not only nationally, but also internationally. Subsequent governments have undertaken a variety of interventions in order to strengthen the knowledge base of innovations in terms of university–industry relations as well to

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stimulate the development of different sectors. More recently, these inspiration programs have been extended to the SSCI and the humanities as well. The research questions addressed in this paper are associated with the relationship between government policies and the development of networked systems of relations among the TH partners from a longitudinal perspective. Particularly, how often do researchers working in different institutions in Bangladesh collaborate with each other? What pattern do their co-authorship relations reveal? Is this pattern a result of social (e.g., institutional), economic or political factors? To what extent and how have government policies affected these patterns? Finally, some specific characteristics of national research system of Bangladesh has further discussed based on these findings.

Theoretical framework and literature review The foundation of our theoretical framework is built on the TH model. According to TH network analysts’ argument, UIG interactions embody the core of knowledge-based innovation with circulation among and within the three domains. As a result, bilateral and trilateral relations among TH domains can encourage ideas and policies across institutional boundaries (Park and Leydesdorff 2010). Dzisah and Etzkowitz (2009) emphasized on the TH of UIG joint projects which makes possible to stimulate the knowledge-based strategy and speed the rate of socioeconomic development by enhancing the free flow of people, ideas and innovations in the national S&T capacity of R&D systems (Dzisah and Etzkowitz 2009). TH network approach of knowledge base of innovations can be used for identifying the structures in social systems based on the relations among the systems components rather than the attributes of individual cases (Wasserman and Faust 1994). In general, this approach can be used to describe the structures of the knowledge-based innovation systems in the national economies. Etzkowitz and Leydesdoref (1997) suggested networked knowledge infrastructure be considered in terms of a TH of UIG relations (Etzkowitz and Leydesdoref 1997). TH models have explored mainly in the advanced economies (Leydesdorff and Sun 2009; Park et al. 2005; Shapiro 2007). Nevertheless, the following reasons have made a reservation of TH models to be explored in the developing economics as well. With the progress in S&T, the new and emerging technologies have raised hopes in developing countries because, most of them are scale neutral, the hurdle imposed by ‘‘economies of scale’’ can be succeeded in smaller economies (Mahmud 2006). The aim of the scientific research of national R&D system is the generation of new scientific knowledge and the correction and integration of previous knowledge and in this R&D field, TH structure is responsible as a set of collaborative relations among UIG entities in terms of research practices such as authorship, citation (Park and Leydesdorff 2010). The scientific research for building a knowledge base of innovation systems boomed recently through the massive and systematic engagement of academia and enterprises in R&D activities. Bangladesh is not exceptions to this practice. Currently, Bangladesh spends 0.62% of GDP on R&D, which is higher than some lower middle income (LMI) countries or even comparable with upper middle income (UMI) countries (source: Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh, 2010–2021). In Bangladesh, innovation activities based on new scientific knowledge generated by universities and public research institutions particularly have impacted remarkably on the national development, particularly in the agricultural and information and communication technologies (ICT) industries (Mahmud 2006). Furthermore, TH model may also be appropriate for measuring knowledge base of innovations emerged

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from only R&D in developing countries like Bangladesh since publications are the key evaluation criteria in the governmental R&D policy for both the developing and developed countries. Mahbuba and Rousseau (2010) analyzed scientific research collaborations in Bangladesh and also provided a comparison between India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (BIPS) using Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus data during the period of 1973–2007 (Mahbuba and Rousseau 2010). They found that India’s number of WoS publications is about 30 times larger than Pakistan’s, which in turn is almost double that of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka’s number of publications is about 60% of Bangladesh. In terms of publications share in the WoS and the evolution of this share over the time, Bangladesh’ share increased from 0.014 to 0.042%. However, few centers dominate research and collaborations activities in Bangladesh and the figures are more traditional than that of the BIPS countries (Mahbuba and Rousseau 2010). In Bangladesh, according to the Executive Opinion Survey, World Economic Forum, 2009, the position of university industry collaboration in R&D is 124 (score = 2.45) among 132 countries. There has been the absence of adequate linkages between the industry and R&D organizations as well as the TH relations of UIG is also weak (Krishna 2006) in Bangladesh. A review of the recent literature (since 2000) provided only a few examples of studies on the development of UIG relations in Bangladesh. These studies suggest that the task of building local S&T capabilities has to be borne by the endogenous leadership of policy maker through the exercise of determined political will for technological self-reliance. Therefore, they should develop programs to facilitate the cooperation among UIG for sustainable national research system (Mahmud 2006). Public and private sector industries in Bangladesh shows shortcomings in both planning and implementation stages, which affect technology transfer processes between them (Haque and Islam 1997). Transfer of technology in various industrial sub sectors of Bangladesh hinder because of poor capabilities to absorb imported technology as well. However, except operation and maintenance, there is a dominance of foreign S&T capability in public sector industries and in the private sector these activities get much less importance (Mahmud 2006). In some cases even this is limited by market constraints as well. Particularly, private sectors or NGO play little attention to generate new scientific knowledge because of their limited R&D activities in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, private sector entrepreneurs are not aware of the benefit or the cost of assessment of market and organization of production according to market demand, and as such reluctant to invest in this activity (Mahmud 2006). According to a recent article by Trotter et al. (2008), social capital, such as communication, trust, and conflict, plays an important role in the health of collaborative partnerships among university research centers, private-sector firms, and other strategic institutions (Trotter et al. 2008). In this regard, there is no single integrated study providing detailed information about the differentiation and integration among the three UIG institutions in Bangladesh. Patents can serve as a perfect proxy for innovative activity or innovation as argued in the widespread literature on innovation and technology policy (Mcaleer and Slottje 2005). Furthermore, numerous studies have analyzed a research production function using R&D expenses as a measure of inputs and the number of patents as the relevant output measure (Hall et al. 1986). In this study, for patent analysis, we used the patent success ratio (PSR) as a simple measure of innovation (PSR; the ratio of successful patent applications to the total patent applications) to the real GDP growth based on Mcaleer and Slottje (2005) to grasp the innovation activities of R&D. They introduced this method through arguing that PSR is a more accurate measure of how innovative activity has changed over time within

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University Science

Government

Industry

SCI/SCI-extended, SSCI, and A&HCI Patent data bases

Innovation

Fig. 1 Institutional and functional differentiation in the knowledge based age (adapted from Leydesdorff and Scharnhorst (2003))

the network. They also justified their new PSR measure of innovation through a sensitivity analysis using annual US data for the period 1915–2001. Lastly, in spite of the increasing importance of S&T for attainment of overall socioeconomic development, the R&D portfolios of Bangladesh have not yet been analyzed in terms of their TH dynamics. Therefore, we target these areas to offer a comprehensive TH analysis in terms of long-term data collection and detailed classification. Finally, we map the knowledge base of innovation systems in this study based on the Fig. 1.

TH development and Bangladesh This study aims to identify the knowledge base patterns of UIG relations in national research system of Bangladesh. According to UNESCO Science Report 2010, Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) of Bangladesh is 138 out of 146 countries. In terms of the number of papers in the SCI-listed journals, Bangladesh occupied the 3rd position in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) only behind of India and Pakistan in 2008 (source: Thomson Reuters (Scientific) Inc. WoS (SCI Extended). In Bangladesh, 170 R&D organizations (including the science departments of various universities, government institutes and government-run routine testing laboratories, medical-research-cum-hospital centers and scientific support service institutions) are engaged in R&D activities (Table 1) and out of 170 organizations, more than 74 are core R&D organizations (Annual report 2009–2010, BANSDOC). The major research activities leading to viable outputs for industrial technology development are concentrated in the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR). The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) has been a pioneer in research with the vision of promoting of nuclear science and technology for peaceful uses of atomic energy to achieve self-reliance for overall socio-economic Table 1 Breakup of the 170 organizations made into seven broader groups as follows

Source Annual report 2009–2010, BANSDOC

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Category

Number of organizations

Computer science and mathematics

25

Earth and environmental science

32

Agriculture, botany and food science

34

Medical science

12

Life science

20

Engineering and technology

29

Physics and chemistry

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development. Agriculture research activities are coordinated by an umbrella organization, the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) which plans, funds and coordinates research activities of its component organizations. Bangladesh has an advanced R&D infrastructure in medical and health research in the form of an International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research (ICDDR). ICDDR, B is internationally funded and its contribution towards mitigating the scourge of Cholera is well known. Although R&D activities in universities are limited and most research work relates to student research work, but faculty members also undertake various research projects. These research activities of universities are normally funded by the University Grant Commission (UGC). However, universities get research projects from MoSICT who coordinates R&D activities nationwide through inviting research proposals for educational and research institutions, and provides research grant from its allocation. A well-organized, sufficiently funded and well-equipped research organizational network is an important prerequisite for effective functioning of the R&D set-up in any country. Many researchers noted that the absence of an organized and well-planned research management system act as a serious limitation affecting most such R&D organizations (Islam 2001). In Bangladesh, except in agriculture, research efforts are uncoordinated, fragmented and generally unrelated to the long-term development objectives and needs of the country. However, there has also been lack of coordination and synchronization between S&T planning and national development goals between R&D institutions and industries heading to limited transfer of research results to the potential users in industries and other potential users. Consequently, the research findings or newly developed technologies did not reach beyond the premises of the research organizations. As a result, the local industries continued to remain satisfied with the know-how of imported technologies and did not take any serious initiative to gear up their won R&D activities. For a long time, absence of comprehensive research programme planning has been a critical problem even in pioneering research organizations like BCSIR and BAEC, with research projects being nominated and carried out on the basis of judgment, choice and specialization of the individual researchers (Momtaz 2004). Therefore, this study focuses to investigate the longitudinal changes in collaborative research activities among Bangladeshi universities, governmental institutions, and commercial R&D organizations based on interactions with institutional and policy settings.

Brief history of governmental R&D policies We briefly introduce the historical development of R&D system of Bangladesh broken down into 10 years periods from 1971 to the 2010 in this section. Within the R&D systems, UIG relations are considered as a knowledge infrastructure where these three institutional actors interact as relatively independent entities. However, the coordinating role of government in both developing and developed societies is the key to improving the conditions for active collaboration among these institutional domains (Dzisah and Etzkowitz 2009). In fact, with the advent of Bangladesh independence in 1971, foundations were laid for the development of modern scientific and technological enterprise in the country. Further, in Vision-2021 (Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh, 2010–2021), the Bangladesh government has taken strong initiatives to direct national R&D activities. Eventually, the reactions of universities, public institutes, and industries are expected to vary with different government policies with the evolving stages of the R&D systems in

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Bangladesh. Some of the unique characteristics of R&D programs of Bangladesh government are summarized in Table 2. Bangladesh became an independent country in 16 December, 1971, following a 9-month civil war which began after the Pakistani military waged a genocidal war against the Bengali population of what was then East Pakistan. After this War of Liberation, Bangladesh found itself in a dire economic situation with ruined infrastructure and with a number of R&D institutions whose only assets at that time were their buildings and manpower with a modest inventory of scientific equipment, many inoperative, which could be put to use only after substantial financial input. In the period of 1971–1980, with the whole support from government, new R&D institutions and technical universities were created and equipped their laboratories emphasizing joint research programs among public organizations, industries and universities. Nevertheless, R&D intensities of Bangladeshi universities and industries were quite small compared with global standards. This advocated the need for the policy framework to encourage R&D activity geared toward building up of in-house capabilities for knowledge base of innovations for competing in an increasingly globalized and knowledge-based world economy. Keeping these considerations on board, the NCST was created in 1975 under the chairmanship of Hon’ble President with the objectives to develop S&T, its extension and successful application. NCST is the main apex body for S&T at the highest level for policy-making on S&T in the country. NCST offers scholarships to students and research scientists and provides funding for a small number of research projects. There is an Executive Committee of the National Council for Science and Technology (ECNCST) headed by the Minister of MoSICT. MoSICT acts as the secretariat for the NCST and is responsible for all matters connected with the growth and promotion of S&T with the effective management of R&D activities carried out by various R&D institutions under it. Table 2 R&D programs characteristics according to government policies Period

R&D programs characteristics related to the TH indicators

1971–1980

Laid foundations for the development of modern scientific and technological enterprise in the country. NCST was created to develop S&T, its extension and successful application in 1975 under the chairmanship of Hon’ble President. Emphasized on the joint research programs among public organizations, industries and universities through creating new R&D institutions and technical universities. BCSIR and BARC were established in 1973 to coordinate research activities and viable outputs for industrial technology development.

1981–1990

NCST was reorganized several times, in 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2004 and 2009. One of the main objectives of NCST is to evaluate and co-ordinate R&D programs adopted by different research organizations among government, university and industry.

1991–2000

Research grant project of MoSICT for the scholars of universities, industries and public organizations. Fund raise of UGC to increase the research capacity of universities. Bangabandhu fellowship program for higher education (MS, PhD) introduced in 1999 to increase the human research capacity of universities and government organizations.

2001–2010

Reintroduced Bangabandhu fellowship program for higher education (MS, PhD) in 2011. Restructuring of government-sponsored research institutes; e.g., the establishment of National Institute of Biotechnology (NIB). Updated NSTP in 2009 and finalized the NSTP 2011 focusing on R&D programs.

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Overall S&T activities are organized under two categories of institutions. One is represented by the institutions that are directly funded by the government and specifically created for R&D activities and, as such, are referred to as R&D institutions. The other category is organized by the technical universities in engineering, agriculture and by the science departments of the country’s general universities. The R&D institutions carry out scientific research directly related to the nation’s socio-economic goals. In the universities, both basic and applied research is carried out in addition to the teaching of S&T for creating skilled personnel in different scientific professions. In the period of 1981–1990, NCST was reorganized several times, in 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2004 and 2009. The first attempt was made towards formulation of a state policy for S&T in 1980. It was a broad-based document that stresses the ‘improvement of standard of scientific knowledge at all levels from the school to the university’. To this effect, it advocates orientation of school curriculum, measures to ensure qualified teachers, physical facilities, equipment, books, journals, teaching aides, together with the establishment of an Open University for expansion of science education. However, due to overambitious organizational constraints the draft could not sail through. Another draft NSTP document was circulated in January 1985 by the S&T Division of Ministry of Education (presently the MoSICT). The draft was subsequently approved by the NCST in the beginning of 1986. The NSTP (Government of Bangladesh 1986), while deliberating on the constraints which impeded economic growth of the country mentioned, inter alia. Nevertheless, the aims and strategies of a national S&T policy as outlined in 1986 served as a guiding post 2005. This document was relevant with regard to its basic objectives of promoting S&T and creating the basic infrastructure for R&D activities. As a result, the Bangladesh Institute of Technology (BIT) was created at Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi out of an Engineering College, through a government ordinance in 1986. These BITs were converted into a public University of Engineering & Technology such as Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET) and Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET) including Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology (DUET) in 2003. In the period of 1991–2000, The NSTP recognized that priority should be given to the integration of scientific and technological considerations within the overall development strategies of the country in the context of the changed global circumstances and country’s entrance in free market economy. As a matter of fact, some aspects of the S&T policy in the 1990s are being re-examined for possible revision. As a result, NSTP outlines various clauses for encouragement and incentives for development and commercialization of indigenous technologies and assimilation of foreign technologies. The S&T policy of the country cuts across many policy areas and development sectors. Among the important domains of current S&T policies is the area of ICT and government accorded top priority to this area since the mid-1990s. In the period of 2001–2010, the incentives for development and commercialization of indigenous science and technologies were not explicit in nature. There was a need to incorporate clearly defined incentives and procedures to claim the incentives, for example, no procedure has been laid down to ensure transfer of research to the TH sectors. Therefore, government finalized NSTP in 2011 with recognition of the fact that the formulation of a comprehensive and coherent national S&T policy, designed to contribute to the achievement of the country’s development objectives which is necessary for the effective application of S&T for development. The mission of this policy set to create adequate infrastructure of R&D in S&T areas of national need and encourage private sectors to set up R&D centers for quality products. The policy is designed to fulfill the

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following R&D objectives as stated ‘‘to provide guidelines for institutional arrangements or rearrangements in the R&D structure including capacity building education and training and ‘‘to provide necessary autonomy and freedom of functioning for all academic and R&D institutions so that an ambience for truly creative work is encouraged.’’ Particularly, the policy is designed to fulfill the vision of digital Bangladesh through the integration of R&D activities. In addition, the policy pursues to forge linkages between government institutions and industry, between industry and universities, and among firms and strengthening of the existing infrastructure and creation of newer institutions as important links in the innovation chain. S&T authority, NCST now headed by the prime minister considers R&D expenditure as an index of a country’s orientation to S&T. Bangladesh’s R&D expenditure in 2005 compares favorably with some of the LMI or even UMI countries. For example, India & China spend on R&D 0.85 and 1.44% of GDP, respectively. Bangladesh currently spends 0.62% of GDP on R&D, which is higher than some LMI countries. However, better performance in this regard must be attempted for the knowledge base of innovations. As a result, the government has given priority to university, public and industry sectors for more scientific and technological development. Increased annual budget in R&D sectors exhibited governments steps such as MoSICT have the especial allocation for research grant of $135,410 USD as well as the handsome allocation in other ministries and divisions respectively for the scholars of universities, industries and public organizations (source: Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh, 2010–2021).

National R&D budget trends Table 3 shows the R&D expenditure as percentage of GDP over the years. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP is low except in 2009–2010 and previously there was no intensive effort to increase the same, although the S&T Policy long ago envisaged increasing the R&D expenditure to 1% of GDP. In summary, the subsequent R&D programs of Bangladesh can be characterized as follows. First, time to time policy formulation shows that government involvement is continuous in restructuring the national research system by allocating funding for building new R&D infrastructures and modifying evaluation indicators. Second, there are considerable changes have seen in the main role of the universities as various R&D programs have been implemented by Bangladesh government since the early 1996 through the revitalization of university research. Still, the academic sector may have constrained TH Table 3 R&D expenditure of Bangladesh (1994–99, 2004–05 and 2009–10)

Year

R&D expenditure as % of S&T expenditure

S&T expenditure as % of GDP

R&D expenditure as % of GDP

Source BANSDOC and (Islam 2001)

1994–1995

5.93

0.24

0.01

1995–1996

7.84

0.19

0.01

* Vision-2021 (Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh, 2010–2021, General Economics Division, Planning Commission, Government of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh, June 2010)

1996–1997

7.85

0.18

0.01

1997–1998

8.54

0.24

0.02

1998–99

8.54

0.24

0.02

2004–05

9.00

0.30

0.027

2009–10*

–

–

0.62

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developments at the national system level by generating more differentiation that can be managed in collaborations among the three TH actors. In this study, we expect that the academic, private, and public sectors are more likely not to be sufficiently integrated at the network level to produce a R&D communication system within Bangladesh. Our study outcomes confirm this hypothesis.

Methods and materials We collected data of all papers with at least one Bangladeshi address in the SCI, SSCI, and A&HCI from the WoS provided by the ISI of Thomson-Reuters. All Bangladesh addresses were carefully attributed to the three UIG institutions. Some unidentified institutions are classified under an ‘others’ category because these data cannot be classified into the three UIG categories. Finally, we did not use ‘other’ category data in our analysis. We used entropy statistics for the data analysis. The uncertainty contained in the distribution (H) P is defined with considering the variation as a relative frequency or probability distribution ( i Pi) (C.E. Shannon 1948; C.E. Shannon and Weaver 1949) as follows: X Pi log2 ðPi Þ ð1Þ Hi ¼ i

Equivalently, for a two-dimensional distribution Hij is: XX Pi jlog2 ðPi jÞ Hi j ¼ i

ð2Þ

j

This uncertainty is the sum of the uncertainty in the two dimensions diminished with their mutual information. That is, the two variations overlap (in Fig. 2) in their co-variation and condition each other in the remaining variations. Mutual information can be written in information theory using the T of transmission between two distributions as follows: Hi j ¼ Hi þ Hj Ti j

ð3Þ

Ti j ¼ Hi þ Hj Hi j

ð4Þ

The observations of TH configurations can be organized in a three-dimensional array using the format visualized in Fig. 3 to understand the operationalization and measurement of the

Fig. 2 A TH configuration with negative and positive overlap among the three subsystems (adapted from Park and Leydesdorff (2010))

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Fig. 3 Three-dimensions of measurement in a TH configuration and their combinations (adapted from Leydesdorff (2003))

Industry I

UI

IG UIG U G

UG

University

Government

network relations in details. Different variables can also be measured in more than one of the three institutional dimensions which leads to a co-variation or mutual information between the dimensions. If the two distributions are completely independent (i.e., the co-variation is zero), then Tij is zero but otherwise necessarily positive (Theil 1972) (p. 59f.). According to Abramson (1963, p. 129) derivation (Abramson 1963), the mutual information in three dimensions using ‘‘u’’ for university, ‘‘i’’ for industry, and ‘‘g’’ for government—can be defined analogously as follows: Tuig ¼ Hu þ Hi þ Hg Hui Hug Hig þ Huig

ð5Þ

Depending on the relative sizes of the contributing terms, the resulting indicator can be negative or positive (or zero) where the negative value indicating the reduction of the uncertainty dominant at the network level. According to McGill (McGill 1954), this possible reduction of uncertainty is ‘‘configurational information’’ which cannot be indorsed to one of the contributors and hence provide systemic network effects. The mutual information in UIG dimensions permits us to measure the balance between the dynamics of integration and differentiation at the systems level based on the relative frequencies of relations among the partially overlapping sets (Fig. 2). Therefore, in the TH analysis, inputs are the numbers of papers with only university authors, only industry authors, only government authors, only authors who are either from university or industry, and so on. Finally, the mutual information among the three TH agencies (Tuig) calculated by the free ‘th’ software downloaded from (http://www.leydesdorff.net/software.htm).

Descriptive statistic of data We begin our work in 1971, the year of Bangladesh’s independence. During the period from 1971 to 2011 a total of 14,093 papers with at least one Bangladeshi address were published in SCI, SSCI and A&HCI in the ISI databases (Access on 21 June, 2011). During the mentioned period, the highest number of papers is in SCI (12,980), in SSCI (1720) and

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SCI, SSCI and A&HCI

Fig. 4 Bangladeshi papers in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI by publication years (2011 data up to June 18 was 459 and then projected for the whole year based on the yearly publication trends)

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Number of Bangladeshi papers in the

Innovations of R&D in Bangladesh

the lowest in A&HCI (65). Yearly publication of Bangladeshi papers in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI shows increasing trends and there was a sharp increase from the year of 1996 as shown in Fig. 4. The published papers categories contain more than 80% articles and other document types including book review, discussion, editorial materials etc. Research publication in medical science including tropical medicine, nutrition and dietetics, pharmacology and pharmacy have the highest share (41.15%), and computer science and mathematics have the lowest share (3.86%) among others as shown in Table 4. Almost 72% of research articles by Bangladeshi scientists came from just eleven institutions and is dominated by two institutes (Fig. 5): Dhaka University (DU) (19%) and ICDDR, B (16%). The list of the institutes are in descending order as: DU, ICDDR, B, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Jahangirnagar University (JU), BAEC, Shah Jalal University of Science & Technology (SUST), Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (MSMMU), Bangladesh council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), and Chittagong University (CU). Analysis of the research output of these universities reveals priority areas to be predominantly in the realms of medical science, agriculture and engineering. In regard to funding agency, during 1971–2011, a total of 12,731 records (90.34%) do not contain data in the field of funding agency. However, the rest of the articles are funded Table 4 Research publications categorized by subject area Subject categorya Computer science and mathematics (including information technology) Earth and environmental science

% of total papers 3.86 7.40

Agriculture, botany and food science

12.87

Medical science(tropical medicine, nutrition and dietetics, pharmacology and pharmacy, and public, environmental and occupational health)

41.15

Life science

5.36

Engineering and technology

11.21

Physics and chemistry

21.19 (Phy. = 10.40, Chem. = 10.79).

a

Subject area categorized based on the annual report 2009–2010 of BANSDOC

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Number of Bangladeshi papers in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI

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Fig. 5 Bangladeshi papers in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI by institutions

Number of Bangladeshi papers in SCI, SSCI and A&HCI

as follows: Bangladesh government 112 out of 159 articles, Bangladeshi industry only 2 out of 7 articles, Bangladeshi university 127 out of 285 articles, and Bangladeshi foundation 27 out of 193 articles. Among them, articles founded by foreign university are the highest in numbers. In Bangladesh, university addresses are involved in a high percentage of the published papers like in most countries including SAARC and OECD countries. This percentage decreased by four percent from 73.5 to 69.5% during the 1990s, but thereafter it increased continuously to 80% in 2008. Up to 2006, domestic university (UB) and foreign university (UBUF) collaborative papers were negligible (1%), however they have dramatically increased since 2007 and maintain steady climb to date as domestic university scholars become much more involved in collaborations (Fig. 6). This trend is also true for collaborations among UBIF, UBGF. The shares of both internationally co-authored papers and papers co-authored between university research and research in public-sector laboratories increased. Nevertheless, the percentage of articles with exclusively an industrial address remained always bottom line during the study period. This is not compensated by university-industry relations because this percentage also decreased during the study period. The lines sketched into Figs. 8, 11, 250 UBUF 200

UBIF UBGF

150

UBUFIF UBUFGF

100

UBIFGF 50

UBUFIFGF

0

1971

1976

1981

1986

1991

1996

2001

2006

2011

Fig. 6 Bangladeshi papers in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI by domestic university with collaboration with foreign university (UBUF), foreign industry (UBUF), foreign government (UBGF), foreign university– industry (UBUFIF), foreign university–government (UBUFGF), foreign industry–government (UBIFGF) and foreign university–industry–government (UBUFIFGF) (2011 data up to June 18 2011)

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14, 15 and 17 are drawn in order to assist the reader with the interpretation. They are based on linear regression in the case of straight lines and on exponential fit in the case of bending curves. The percentage of papers with addresses in all three sectors (UIG) has increased from 1.04% in 1983 to 8.33% in 2007 but again decreased to zero in 2010. The number of papers with all three sectors involved an international co-authorship was 8 (6.50%) in 2010 compared to zero such co-authorships in 1971. In summary, these descriptive statistics indicate decreasing triple-helix relationships in the Bangladeshi publication system between 1980 and 2006 because of a decline in university–industry relations in terms of co-authored publications. Nevertheless, the number of papers incorporating both industrial and government addresses has remained low both with and without university participation.

Patent data We used the database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which provides us with a nationally organized database (Leydesdorff 2003). It can be used as a window on international developments of patents because it integrates patent applications from around the world at the level of the American market (Granstrand 1999). Measurement of mutual information in bilateral and trilateral TH relations in terms of patent does not look feasible because of small number of granted patents in Bangladesh. For example, during the period 1971–2010, there were only 15 granted patents out of 39 patents applications, and from 1971 to 1998, there were only two patents hence did not use this period data for analysis as shown in Table 5. Instead, we use PSR to the real GDP growth (Mcaleer and Slottje 2005) to the relationship and conclude the synergic effect of TH collaborations during 1999–2010. PSR represent the ratio of successful patent applications to total patent applications using yearly data from the USPTO. The yearly data on Bangladesh’s real GDP have been collected from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank (2009) and Bangladesh country report, BTI 2010 (Bertelsmann Stiftung BTI 2010). Table 6 provides the summary statistics of patent activity variables, 1999–2010. Figure 7 presents the time series plots of PSR and the real GDP growth rate and it is clear that the PSR has the highest standard deviation (SD) relative to its mean, whereas real GDP growth rate has the lowest SD relative to mean. The PSR exhibits significantly greater volatility, ranging between a low of around zero to a high of around one. Growth in real Table 5 Number of granted patents of Bangladesh during the period 1971–2011 Year

University

Industry

Government

UI

UG

1991 1 1

2000 2001

1

2003 2004 2005

UIG

Total number of patents 1

1997 1999

IG

1

1

2

1

2 1

1

5 2

1

1 1

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Table 6 Summary statistics of patent activity variables, 1999–2010 Statistics

Total patents applications

Successful patent applications

Patent success ratio (PSR)

Real GDP growth rate (1971–2010)

Mean

2.92

1.08

0.35

SD

1.51

1.51

0.42

0.66

Skewness

0.74

1.75

0.68

-0.79

Kurtosis

0.26

3.51

-1.35

-0.01

5.75

Fig. 7 PSR and growth in real Bangladesh GDP for 1999–2010

Bangladesh GDP does not appear to have a clear trend, but the volatility has declined consistently over time and there is no significant relationship is shown between PSR and real GDP growth rate.

Results TH indicators: all sectors (SCI, SSCI, and A&HCI) The collaboration patterns measured in terms of co-authorship relations based on all sectors and bilateral and trilateral relations between TH domains within the economy during 1971–2011 are shown in Fig. 8. The total number of Bangladeshi publications has grown hurriedly since 1986. The collaboration patterns have also increased during from 1990 to 2006 and the inter-institutional collaboration has decreased as a percentage of the total collaboration in the early 21st century. These results reveal a major trend in harmony with the influence of the government R&D programs in shaping the expansion and contraction of collaborations between universities, industries, and public research centers during the last four decades. For example, the number of university-authored publications

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Fig. 8 Number of papers by Bangladeshi authors in all sectors and bilateral and trilateral relations between TH sectors within the economy

Fig. 9 Mutual information measured in bilateral relations between the TH sectors in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI publications in Bangladesh

has increased sharply largely due to the introduction of various research grants by the government. The partnerships between university–industry are very low because of government’s focus in UI collaborations is inadequate. On the other hand, university–government collaborations have been progressing more rapidly than UI because of government’s focus on publishing scientific articles. Figure 9 provides the Bangladeshi national system of publications in terms of mutual information in bilateral relations between the TH sectors as a measure of co-authorship relations. Among the bilateral relations, U-G research collaboration (Tug) has been strongest showing its highest value of 1.945 mbits in 1975, foundations period for the development of modern S&T and just after creation of NCST. While Tug values decreased 1984, the UI collaborations began to blossom in this year. However, Tug values started gradually decreasing during the period 1994–2006. The decrease of UG relations may have

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been caused because of increased number of private university establishment without any research facilities. The transmission value in UI co-authorship relations increased to Tui = 1.08 mbits in 1983. During the period of 1972–1994, mutual information between university and industries (Tui) has been stagnant and scientific cooperation between the government and industrial publication systems (Tig) remained more active than between university and industry (Tui). Note that the gap between (Tug) and (Tui) has decreased since 1994 and all bilateral relations have decreased during 1995–2010. However, this decreasing patterns for Tig and Tui showing more active than Tug. TH indicator (Tuig) as operationalized above can also be negative due to a synergetic effect of TH relations, whereas the mutual information in the bilateral relations by definition is positive. Figure 10 provides the longitudinal trend expressed of using 2-year moving averages that shows an interesting path among the three institutional domains. First, there was a reduction of uncertainty among university, government, and industrial research actors in the Bangladeshi publication system from 1978 to 2005. For example, configurationally information values of Tuig during the period of 1991–2000 ranged from -43.49 mbits in 1996 to a minimum of -95.84 mbits in 1998. Consequently, an intensive and synergistic collaboration among the UIG institutions is indicated in the late 1990s (Fig. 10). Second, the mutual information among the three TH agencies (Tuig) is relatively steady during the 1990s and early 2005, nonetheless begins to decrease during the last 5 years. TH dynamics of UIG relations has varied considerably and this variation generally accords with changes in Bangladesh government research policies as explained in an earlier section. Third, the contribution of academic knowledge to the Bangladeshi economy has surprisingly declined since 2006 using this indicator. While the TH networks of Bangladeshi research institutions were becoming more consistent (as shown by the 2-year moving averages) in terms of the co-authorship relations in ISI-listed journal publications, a critical

Fig. 10 Mutual information measured in trilateral TH relations in the SCI, SSCI and A&HCI publications in Bangladesh

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break occurred around 2007. This can be attributed to the caretaker government ruling period, from 2007 to 2008, whose job was to conduct a fair election only although they performed many reformation of the country’s rule. On the other hand, academic researchers collaborate across institutional borders because of institutional-regulatory frameworks. The institutional incentives in terms of funding grants and faculty promotion tend to give credit to single-authored publications more than collaborative publications. In fact, in the evaluations process, the contribution of individual researchers in multi-authored papers is often divided by the total number of authors (‘‘fractional counting’’). Therefore, this practice may further discourage interactions among the three institutional domains of the TH dynamics. Finally, in addition to the fact that the Bangladesh government policy tends to focus on individual research output as well as on the numbers of publications which may have an adverse effect on UIG joint research. Prof. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal of SUST, Bangladesh urges fund inclusion in national R&D budget for university to produce at least 1000 PhD per year for expediting research output (Iqbal 2011). Furthermore, the UGC and MoSICT research does not have any standard evaluation method to evaluate the research output by the university, government or industry sectors. As a result, innovative R&D capabilities in Bangladeshi academic and public sectors seem to become weak in terms of scientific performance (e.g., SCI publications), and also low in commercialization capabilities. As Bangladeshi academic and government institutions generate low economic and commercial value of research output which may discourage business researchers from collaborating with their academic partners within Bangladesh (Leydesdorff and Sun 2009). Nevertheless, this does not necessary mean that industry researchers are far less keen in co-inventing commercial products with their academic colleagues in Bangladesh. TH indicators: the sciences Number of papers in the SCI publications and bilateral and trilateral relations between TH sectors within the economy during 1971–2011 are shown in Fig. 11. The total number of

Fig. 11 Number of papers by Bangladeshi authors in the SCI and bilateral and trilateral relations between TH sectors within the economy

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mbits of information

76

Tui Tug Tig

Fig. 12 Mutual information measured in bilateral relations between the TH sectors in the SCI publications in Bangladesh

Fig. 13 Mutual information measured in trilateral TH relations in the SCI publications in Bangladesh

SCI publications has also grown hurriedly since 1986. However, the collaboration patterns in SCI noticeably increased, with some variation, from 1990 to 2006 and the inter-institutional collaboration has decreased as a percentage of the total collaboration in the early 21st century due to government research policies as explained above. Figure 12 provides the SCI publications in terms of mutual information in bilateral relations between the TH sectors. The graph shows that Tug has been strongest showing its highest value of 1.948 mbits in 1975. However Tug has gradually decreased during the period 1994–2006. Figure 13 provides the longitudinal trend in SCI publication expressed of using 2-year moving averages. This graph shows that there were an intensive and synergistic collaboration among the UIG institutions in the late 1990s. TH indicators: the SSCI and the humanities In this section, we examined mutual information among the UIG institutions using the same indicator of UIG relations in the SSCI and the A&HCI. Number of papers in the SSCI

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Fig. 14 Number of papers by Bangladeshi authors in the SSCI and bilateral and trilateral relations between TH sectors within the economy

Fig. 15 Publication rates of Bangladeshi papers and synergy effects among TH sectors on the basis of coauthorship relations in the SSCI

publications and bilateral and trilateral relations between TH sectors within the economy during 1971–2011 showing the increasing trend from 1996 are shown in Fig. 14. We observe a decrease in the network dynamics of SSCI research during the most recent decade. Mutual information in co-authorship relations among the three institutional partners of the TH in the SSCI is displayed in Fig. 15. Although there is a delay in terms of the longitudinal pattern in the SSCI, the overall pattern of the TH dynamics is more or less similar to the SCI-based indicators. Bangladeshi national co-authorship relationships became more dynamic among universities, industry and government between the

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Fig. 16 Mutual information measured in bilateral relations between the TH sectors in the SSCI publications in Bangladesh

mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. This is displayed in Fig. 15 as decreasing uncertainty at the systems level. Nevertheless, there has been less uncertainty reduction as expressed by Tuig values in more recent times. The research portfolio in the SSCI has been productive since in terms of number of published papers as shown in Fig. 15. Note that there are also differences between the two datasets; for example, the exponential fit for the output measured in the SSCI from 1996 to 2010 is larger than 0.72, whereas a linear fit for SCI based data during the same period exceeds 0.75. This indicates that the SSCI are still catching up with the natural sciences in terms of turning national (and non-ISI) output into output that is valued in institutional evaluations. Figure 16 displays the results of the analysis of bilateral relations between TH sectors for the SSCI in terms of mutual information measured in mbits of information. Remarkably, UG and UI collaborations display different results from 2001 to 2005; Tug values were in decline, but Tui values went up during this period. UGC fund has been increased for universities research and introduction Bangabandhu Fellowship program for higher education (MS, PhD) in 1999 could be expected to affect mutual information between university and industrial research outputs adversely. One of its reasons may be because of university researchers funded by UGC are evaluated on their publication performance rather than on their contributions to transfer information or their social impact. Figure 17 displays the disappointing result for TH dynamics in the humanities. As a result, TH indicator did not work for the A&HCI data. There are only 65 articles in total. There are very few industrial publications in this database and it consists of almost exclusively of academic publications. A&HCI publications were written by scholars with university addresses amplified speedily from 1994 to 2000. Collaborative arrangements in the humanities often produce book-style policy reports; nevertheless articles are rarely published in international journals.

Discussion and conclusions In this knowledge based society, nations differ in terms of their research portfolios and their economic structures. In KBS, both research fields and industrial structures are

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Fig. 17 Publication patterns in and between TH sectors using the A&HCI

internationally organized raising a number of control problems at the national level. Particularly government intervention in developing country like Bangladesh can no longer be expected to steer these developments. Nevertheless, governments are under pressure to develop systematic incentives to focus on the institutional level. The incentivized systems, nevertheless, have a degree of freedom in the international dimension and may show resilience regarding government intervention. Bangladesh R&D innovation system can be considered as undergoing process of institutionalizing S&T through the complex construct of integrating and differentiating mechanisms. Within each of the TH model helices, differentiation is enforced on the basis of specific subsystems such as academics, industries, and government. In particular, academics desire to publish, industries target financial gain from collaboration, and government policy-makers represent the public interest. Bangladesh governments have focused on enlightening university–industry relations with the purpose of reinforcing the innovation system of Bangladesh. Nevertheless, the priorities in these programs also have changed due to several reasons. Islam (2001) articulated inter alia regarding the policy statement as follows: ‘‘The limitation of resources, shortage of skilled scientists, technologists and technicians, inadequate research facilities and skill development programmes, lack of coordination among scientific organizations, outmoded science curricula, dependence on foreign technology, brain-drain and mass exodus of trained manpower and poor social recognition of the role of S&T in national development, all of these factors have conspired to keep the country backward’’ (Islam 2001, p. 136). First, during the period of 1971–1980, government laid foundations for the development of modern scientific and technological enterprise in the country through the creation of NCST in 1975. This led to build several new R&D institutions and technical universities equipped with modern laboratories and to start a relative increase of university–government co-authorship relations. In fact, as a result of NCST creation, university academics could only gain legitimacy and secure funding by aligning themselves with this policy goal. Nevertheless, according to our findings, R&D intensities of Bangladeshi universities and industries were quite small compared with global standards. The formation of first NSTP in the beginning of 1986 witnessed of promoting S&T and further expediting the creation of basic infrastructure for R&D activities and the rise of university–industry collaborations in strategic sectors of the Bangladeshi economy.

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Consequently, the synergetic effects of bilateral and trilateral UIG relations on one another showed gradual increasing trend during this period. Mahbuba and Rousseau (2010) made a similar conclusion in a recent study about Bangladesh. During 1990s, the tables were turned to an increased level and showed moderate collaboration. The government recognized that priority should be given to the integration of scientific and technological considerations within the overall development strategies of the country in the context of the changed global circumstances and country’s entrance in free market economy. During this period, NSTP outlined various clauses for encouragement and incentives for development and commercialization of indigenous technologies and assimilation of foreign technologies. Among the important domains of S&T policies was the area of ICT and government accorded top priority to this area since the mid-1990s which brought universities to be internationalized. A similar result concluded by Leydesdorff and Sun (2009) from a study in Japan arguing that university–industry relations tend to become more internationally than nationally oriented. The inclusion of these trends in the policy documents of Bangladesh differentiated among the three sectors of the research system such as academia was stimulated to develop according to international criteria of publications and citations, industry was no longer tied to the national knowledge base, and the project-based system in public sector research was incentivized to channel research results into commercially viable foreign technologies and innovations. Our results revealed that the integration in TH relations became less central not only to policy making, but also to the dynamics of knowledge base of innovations itself due to the differentiation. Sun and Negishi (2010) offered a similar conclusion in their resent study about Japan. Also the synergy in TH relations has wrinkled since 2007. The government roles have decreased at the institutional level as interventionist agent providing integration at the national level. In fact, in the policy documents often there are no specific targets set, no monitoring and control measures existence as well as not enough consideration given to the development of marketable products from these endeavors. Therefore, the net result is fragmentation of research activity with little returns accruing from the effort. In academia, this policy complemented an ongoing trend to focus on international publishing, and universities reacted by adapting their hiring and promotion policies to these core incentives. The other reason behind the weak relations amongst TH sectors is partly due to lack of government science institutions effort and partly because of lack of serious innovation efforts on the part of the enterprises themselves to absorb and adapt technologies through a dynamic transfer mechanism. Some motivated academia also reacts to international standards, scores of publications and citations in internationally defined databases. The other reasons for weak R&D-industry linkage are the inadequate national technology infrastructure and a poor research base in the private sector (Krishna 2006). We found that almost 72% of research articles by Bangladeshi scientists came from just eleven institutions and one of the mostly dominating institute was the ICDDR,B (16%) indicating highest numbers and collaborations in health sector. Mahbuba and Rousseau (2010) made the similar conclusion in their study about Bangladesh. Also, in regard to funding agency of the collaborated articles, government funding was inadequate to boost the collaborations amongst TH sectors. In view of this, NCST could advise the government on selected areas of R&D and then assign these areas of R&D to the specific agencies best equipped to carry them to a successful completion and ensure their high performance. The NCST could also evolve a mechanism for establishing linkages of R&D in horizontally amongst themselves and vertically with the private manufacturing/industrial sector, and ministries dealing with R&D activities. Regarding funding, ECNCST could serve to secure funds and allocate them to the various R&D institutions in the light of expediting

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collaborations among the TH domains for the national development. Although current R&D expenditure on an annual budget showed an increase in percentage (0.62%), it still is not adequate as committed (1% of GDP) and as compared to advanced countries spending (2–3% of GDP). Measurement of mutual information in bilateral and trilateral TH relations with the patent data was not sufficient for analysis. However, our alternative analysis of PSR to real GDP growth rate did not show a clear correlation between them. Also during the analysis period, growth in real Bangladesh GDP did not appear to have a clear trend, but the volatility declined consistently over time with no significant relationship being shown between PSR and real GDP growth rate. Although extensive literature suggests that the expansion of the patent system is moderated by the institutional framework such as TH domains and correlated with GDP growth, developing countries like Bangladesh may have other triggering factors such as indigenous innovations, civil society, and NGOs contributions. Bangladesh requires exclusive initiatives and policy statements for building a national knowledge base of innovations in regard to patents innovations. While these issues are beyond the scope of the present analysis because of data limitations, they are clearly creative areas for further research. Mutual collaborations of bilateral and trilateral TH relations in SSCI and humanities always lag behind the natural and life sciences. These disciplines are inherently more concerned with cultural and social contexts on which they imitate and thus contribute analytically, intellectually, and critically. Furthermore, incentives at the institutional level were inadequate, as they were not equally distributed among natural and life sciences, SSCI, and humanities. Therefore, pay and allowances for the R&D personnel in all facets of sectors should be determined according to the performance and competence of individuals and these personnel should be offered a special higher scale of pay and allowances set by the government policy. In conclusion, the implications of this study reside in mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of innovations of R&D in Bangladesh inscribed in science, technology, and innovation networks using the TH indicators. Despite the increasing amount of scientific and technological outputs in terms of the dynamics of knowledge base innovations, Bangladesh’s R&D system is still undergoing a process of institutionalizing S&T and has yet to catch up with the global trends. However, government policies so far have influenced the R&D system to an extent which we did not expect given the continuities and resiliencies prevailing in all systems. A similar conclusion made by Park et al. (2005) in a Korean case. Nevertheless, an unintentional effect of these policies has been the destruction of national co-authorship relations spanning institutional boundaries. On the other hand, the systems to be incentivized have been internationalized and globalized as well. Bangladesh has been left behind at the national level of integration of its knowledge base of innovation systems. Our result revealed that government R&D policy discourages the collaborations amongst the three institutional domains of the TH dynamics by putting emphasis on monitoring, evaluating the publication performance, funding allocations, grants, faculty recruitment, promotion, and tenure instead of inter-collaborations. Therefore, a concrete policy initiative has to be taken to strengthen domestic capability to undertake R&D for building national knowledge base of innovations. There should be greater collaboration amongst government institutions, universities and industry clusters to improve knowledge production, its diffusion and increase its commercial applicability. In addition, the government in partnership with industry can undertake programs to promote R&D awareness and appreciation. In this vein, we recommend that country’s national R&D research policy should be based less on strict quantitative performance measures and

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more on a balanced approach between bibliometric indices and the informed judgment of peers with expertise and academic maturity. This reformulation of research evaluation policies can stimulate inter-organizational R&D cooperation and increase collaborative UIG publications in international journals. A similar finding of Hwang et al. (2004) argued that government research institutes and universities should enhance their organizational flexibility by cooperating more with their industrial R&D partners (Hwang et al. 2004). Finally, we do believe that the inclusion of these network effects of TH dynamics of UIG collaborations in science, technology, and industry in the R&D policy documents will improve the national knowledge base of innovations which ultimately will ensure sustainable national development. Acknowledgment This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-2011-N).

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Mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of

Mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of

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