Study On The Mechanism Of Research Environment Affectingthe Performance Of Basic Research

As the nature of the science and the origin of technology, basic research is recognized as the strategic investment of the future in a country. From the linear model of Vannevar Bush to nonlinear model proposed by Rosenberg, Stokes, and others, the cognition of basic researches is diversity. In general, basic research strategies in every country all focus on the performance of basic research and the formulation of research environment for innovation. To build an innovative country, the research environment has become one of critical problems during the improvement of indigenous innovative capabilities in China. Thus it is necessary to conduct a research on the influence of environment on the basic research performance and knowledge creation. This dissertation, research on the impact ofresearch environment on performance of basic research, comprehensive understanding of performance output mode of basic research, and the performance mechanism of scientific research and environmental factors on innovation performance, will provide comments on decision making to the government and other basic research management departments in order to optimize scientific research environment.Combining theoretical and practical research methods, this dissertation mainly employs research methods, such as archival analyses, questionnaire survey, factor analysis, and structural equation model. Takingresearch environment, knowledge creation and the performance of basic research as three core concepts, and the knowledge creation as the mediate variable, the dissertation systematically analyzes the influence of the research environment onthe performance of basic research.On the basis of archival analyses, this dissertationfirstly interpretsbasic research management policies in developed countries and compares those with ours. Then, this research takes key project leaders and team members whose teams were awarded the natural science award (the first or second prize) after2000as targets to conduct half formulated interviews and questionnaire surveys.Research data were used to analyze the influence mechanism that how research environment influences the performance of basic research.Main research findings are concluded as follows:1. With the formation of the new "social contract of science" during the development of basic research, the basic research need to consider how to adapt to the trend of national resource allocation in which market plays a decisive role in resource allocation, and its performance. Every country emphasizes the knowledge creation and usage of basic research and the support of practice-targeted basic research, moving from the free exploration of scientists. Under this new condition, the performance evaluation of basic research must be from publication of research findings to the intellectual property patent application of findings, and the commercialization and industrialization of patents.2. The research environment is not only the aspect of infrastructural environment, but also the physical environment, the institutional environment, cultural environment, and the cooperative environment. All aspects of research environment have distinguish roles in the development of basic research, including, the assurance of basic research from the physical environment, the cultivation of basic research from the institutional environment, the guidance of basic research from the cultural environment, and the integration of information and knowledge during the research process because of the cooperative environment.3. Knowledge creation plays the intermediary role in the influence of research environment on the basic performance. The research illustrates that the physical environment and cooperative environment have the positive relationship with the knowledge creation. Although the impact of institutional environment and cultural environment on the basic research performance has not been certified, the fitting chart reveals that there is a negative influence of institutional and cultural environment on the knowledge creation. It is necessary to put efforts on these two aspects of research environment. The negative effect of knowledge creation and basic research performance indicates that problems in the methods and cost to assess knowledge, the coordination with external organizations, and the sharing and transformation of knowledge are faced during the process of knowledge creation of innovative teams, which hinder the basic research performance of research teams in our country.The pros and cons of scientific research environment is critical to maintain the consistently, stably and healthily development of basic research.The research of scientific environment’s influence on basic research performance has great theoretical value and practical guiding significance on the knowledge creation of research teams and the basic research management. The main theoretical contributions of this dissertation are in following three aspects.(1) The dissertation puts forward a new interpretation of how basic research realizes the internal "excellence" as well as external "impact".(2) The research makes a systematic analysis of the concepts and international trends of research environment, process of knowledge creation, and the basic research performance.(3) The research reveals the relationship among research environment, process of knowledge creation, and the basic research performance.