Introduction Climate change threatens many species and ecosystems. It also challenges managers of protected areas to adapt traditional approaches for setting conservation goals, and the philosophical and policy framework they use to guide management decisions (Cole and Yung 2010). A growing literature discusses methods for structuring management decisions in the face of climate-related uncertai...

BACKGROUND Research findings are increasingly being recognized as an important input in the formation of health policy. There is concern that research findings are not being utilized by health policy-makers to the extent that they could be. The factors influencing the utilization of various types of research by health policy-makers are beginning to emerge in the literature, however there is sti...

There is strong evidence that a key determinant of the ecological state of the world’s oceans is the decision-making of fishers and policy-makers. There is a large empirical literature on the complex reality of human decision-making, but a comparative lack of work bringing detailed cognitive facts to models of aggregate behavior of this kind. We show how a psychologically realistic description ...

BACKGROUND Collaboration among researchers (clinician, non-clinician) and decision makers (managers, policy-makers, clinicians), referred to as integrated knowledge translation (IKT), enhances the relevance and use of research, leading to improved decision-making, policies, practice, and health care outcomes. However IKT is not widely practiced due to numerous challenges. This research explored...

The history of antitrust policy in the US as it relates to technological innovation exhibits major swings every few decades between favoring concentration and favoring deconcentration. This paper sketches for each period the contending ideas that frame antitrust-technology policy debates, the salience of these ideas in the larger antitrust policy process, the institutions for agenda-setting and...

BACKGROUND There is limited research on the use of evidence to inform policy-making in the Pacific. This study aims to identify and describe factors that facilitate or limit the use of evidence in food-related policy-making in the Health and Agriculture Ministries in Fiji. METHODS Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with selected policy-makers in two government ministries t...

The healthcare context is characterized with new developments, technologies, ideas and expectations that are continually reshaping the frontline of care delivery. Mannion and Exworthy identify two key factors driving this complexity, ‘standardization’ and ‘customization,’ and their apparent resulting paradox to be negotiated by healthcare professionals, managers and policy makers. However, whil...

With increased market integration, the current world financial markets have become more closely correlated and interdependent over time. Understanding the information linkages and correlations between markets are important for policy makers and fund managers in their financial decisions in relation to investment and risk management. The existence of low correlation among returns from different ...

Policy capacity focuses on the managerial and organizational abilities to inform policy decisions with sound research and analysis, and facilitate policy implementation with operational efficiency. It stems from a view of the policy process that is rational and positivistic, in which optimal policy choices can be identified, selected, and implemented with objectivity. By itself, however, policy...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important part in all economies but particularly in developing economies. Non-survivalist or growth SMEs will drive economic growth and international competitiveness whilst survivalist SMEs play an important role to alleviate poverty and provide a source of income. Although resources are particularly scarce for survivalist SMEs growth SMEs also ...