Prometheus

vLex
Publisher:
Pluto Journals
Publication date:
2023-03-02
ISBN:
1470-1030

Description:

Prometheus publishes critical papers, those that express – and justify – opinions on innovation issues. We are particularly attracted to papers that challenge prevailing views. We encourage debate. Prometheus aims to publish papers that are not so technical or specialised that they cannot be appreciated by a wide readership that includes academics, practitioners, and policymakers.

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • William Kingston, How Capitalism Destroyed Itself: Technology Displaced by Financial Innovation
  • Christoph Bartneck, Tony Belpaeme, Friederike Eyssel, Takayuki Kanda, Merel Keijsers and Selma Sabanovic, Human–Robot Interaction: An Introduction
  • Metaphor and theory: a case study of astronomy

    Metaphors enable the understanding of one thing in terms of another. Although central to reasoning and theorizing, there is limited understanding about their role in theory development. This paper presents a process of metaphorical reasoning that addresses the question of how metaphors support theory development. The process is applied to the case of astronomy, which helps explain why metaphors create reality and why their reality-creating side cannot be separated from their creative side. The paradoxical nature of metaphors means that metaphorical reasoning is an open-ended process. The paper also shows that emergence – a fundamental property of metaphors – explains their paradoxical nature. This same property makes metaphor a compressed interpretation of the world, characterized by the discarding of information. Finally, it is argued that metaphors are abstract intermediaries between senses and experiences. Given that metaphors are central to reasoning and theorizing, it is not surprising that these findings are consonant with what we know about theory (creative, reality-creating, sparse, abstract and open-ended). What is surprising, though, is that the discarding of information seems to be essential for the building of theory. The paper concludes by exploring what this entails for our understanding of theory.

  • How research institutions can make the best of scandals – once they become unavoidable

    We posit that, once scandals become unavoidable, they can be considered for transformation into opportunities for research institutions, scientific communities and science regulators to implement in-depth changes and policies they would otherwise oppose. Research institutions and scientific communities can take advantage of scandals by participating proactively in constructing their consequences. We develop four mechanisms by which scandals can be used to bring positive change in research institutions and scientific communities. These are nullifying the high-status protection of almost untouchable researchers, ‘resetting’ the system that was conducive to scandals, changing the reference point upon which the entity is judged to emphasize progress and offering a learning opportunity to involved parties.

  • Prometheus
  • Alex Nicholls and Rafael Ziegler (eds) Creating Economic Space for Social Innovation
  • Simeon J. Yates and Ronald E. Rice (eds) Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society
  • Michael J. Boyle, The Drone Age: How Drone Technology Will Change War and Peace
  • Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, We have Always Been Cyborgs
  • The paradox of open innovation in Slovenian firms

    Innovation and open innovation are expected to strengthen firm performance. The learning process and inbound activities are particularly important for catch-up countries and firms. The empirical evidence, though, is incomplete and provides inconclusive results. This paper studies the role of open innovation activities in a sample of Slovenian firms. Using a combination of survey data and official registry financial statements data, we investigate the differences in the role of open innovation across firms with different productivity. The results show that open innovation is more important in less productive firms. This is consistent with the theoretical ideas that stress the role of learning, capacity building and knowledge transfer. However, these firms also invest less in open innovation activities, which is a paradox in itself, introducing an important challenge for managers as well as questions for future research.

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