Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Economy and Management Transformation (Volume I)
Assessing the propensity for interdisciplinary development of the doctoral scientific fields in the academic research Case study: The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies
CRISTINA LINCARU VASILICA CIUCĂ LUISE MLADEN DRAGA ATANASIU National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection Povernei no.6 8, Bucharest ROMANIA [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract: In this paper we intend to evaluate the probability of development of interdisciplinary field of science as a result of finalized doctoral thesis. We assume that every finalized doctorate thesis can be described by a vector with three dimensions. First dimension is given by the position in the doctoral scientific field taxonomy (at national level), the second is set by the position in the advanced high education program taxonomy (ISCED 6 7) and the third dimension reflects the place occupied in an international scientific taxonomy. The relative positioning to the frontier of the new in the taxonomy’s coordinates offer the opportunity to evaluate the distributions of the probability density for chosen dimensions by application of the Generalized EM and k Means Cluster Analysis.
Key-Words: interdisciplinary research, interdisciplinary field, doctoral process, academic research, doctorate academic program
1 Introduction cognitive difference between them, according with a Scientific literature revealed that interdisciplinary specific taxonomy or classification. research has won a greater significance over the last Under an accelerate rhythm of change the new years. Professional attention to interdisciplinary research requirements arrives not only as a normative pursuit but emerged in the 1970s and flourished into the 1980s, then also as an objective manifestation of new problems. Next paled. Now, it appears to be on an ascending trend again. to the increasing demand of identification and J.T. Klein [1] attests that "the roots of the concepts lie in formulation of those new very complex challenges is a number of ideas that resonate through modern shaped also the increasing demand of finding and discourse the ideas of a unified science, general building of new solutions. On this background, to knowledge, synthesis and the integration of knowledge". nominate the issue and possible to “give it a new name”, She noted that there are many interdisciplinary varieties to put the “diagnostic” – to locate this new problem in among which we can find “interdisciplinary field of relation with the existing paradigm/theory, to allocate study”. Chubin et al [2] argue that interdisciplinary instruments and methods and finally to develop a research should not be conceptualized with “discipline” solution becomes a priority to better describe the as the basic “indivisible” unit. Darden and Maull [3] structure of the Science in its entire spectrum. This suggest that a definition of interdisciplinary research spectrum is a universal alphabet that could join together should not refer to disciplines, but to research fields. the universe of scientific research as an activity, the We have started from the idea that “an universe of education and the universe of business. interdisciplinary field is a field of study that crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions have 2 Doctoral process – working hypothesis emerged” [4]. In our approach an interdisciplinary The importance of the doctorate is sustained by the scientific field represents a transition stage of a new emergence of the knowledge economy and its disciplinary field - of a new science. In this perspective competitive demands. The knowledge globalization an interdisciplinary scientific field represent a dynamic requires a high level of transparency in the doctoral transformation of a merging disciplinary fields, distinct process development. one against other, regardless the “distance” or the The doctoral process is organized by an authorized institution (in our case ASE Bucuresti). The entrance of
ISSN: 1792-5983 369 ISBN: 978-960-474-240-0 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Economy and Management Transformation (Volume I) the Phd student in the doctoral process is unique 3 Method allocated to a unique doctorate scientific field in In view to assess the propensity for interdisciplinary accordance with the national regulation. The process has development of the doctoral scientific fields we have two stages. The first one is theoretic (synthesized by the identified clusters using the following three variables: advanced high education program ISCED 6 7 (ASE): codddASE - the code of doctorate scientific specialized disciplines names) and the second is a field assigned by the institution that organize the research oriented one described by a scientific program doctorate (ASE) [7] corresponding to first dimension (possible to be classified with an (NABS 2007 code). In (table 1): our approach we consider the research program as a Table 1 black box. The Phd student could merge and integrate The code of doctorate scientific fiels assigned by the disciplinary fields to create a new, interdisciplinary one. institution that organize the doctorat (ASE) in conformity In this paper we intend to evaluate the probability of codddase with the national regulation development of interdisciplinary field of science as a 1 Business Administration result of finalized doctoral thesis. We assume that every 2 Cybernetics and Economic Statistics finalized doctorate thesis can be described by a vector 3 Accounting 4 Economics with three dimensions. First dimension is given by the 5 International Economic Relations position in the doctoral scientific field taxonomy (at 6 Finances national level), the second is set by the position in the 7 Economic Informatics advanced high education program taxonomy (ISCED 6 8 Management 7) and the third dimension reflects the place occupied in 9 Marketing an international scientific taxonomy. 10 Law The relative positioning to the frontier of the new in - cod_cod_ASE – the code of the advanced high the taxonomy’s coordinates offer the opportunity to education program ISCED 6 7 (ASE): specialized evaluate the distributions of the probability density for disciplines names (the second semester of the 2009 2010 chosen dimensions by application of the Generalized EM academic year), corresponding to the second dimension and k Means Cluster Analysis. We have used the module (table 2): from STATISTICA 8.0. to automatically determine the Table 2 "best" number of clusters from the data [5], using v fold codddase cod_cod_ASE Advanced high education programme ASE: cross validation techniques. specialized disciplines names (2009-2010 universitary year) Our working hypothesis are: 1 1 Business strategies in services a. the professor that coordinates the doctorate have 1 2 Quality management and excellence in business an highly expertise in the field in which coordinate the doctoral program; 1 3 Business intelligence systems b. the thesis should be allocated into a specific 1 4 Organization and knowledge dynamics in international taxonomy, with a unique identity by business 2 5 Applied mathematics in economics the author himself; 2 6 Multidimensional analysis of data c. our analysis is focused on the scientific field 2 7 Games theory perspective ignoring the varieties of organizing 2 8 Surveys and polls schemes (with /without bourse, with/without 3 9 Epistemological approaches in accounting and presence, with/without taxes); concepts and practices in auditing d. the previous minimum ISCED 5 (with the First 3 10 Conceptual difficulties and credibility of Stage of Tertiary Education finalized [6]) accounting 3 11 Management of the financial accounting specialization of the doctoral program information beneficiary is ignored. Here is possible to 3 12 Accounting theory and specific practices develop the same discussion regarding the regarding financial reporting differences in the background of the educational 4 13 Qualitative modeling and structuring the research program field of science in relation with the topics doctorate scientific field. 4 14 Comparative analysis of the economic systems and models The model could use classifications/taxonomies 4 15 Regional and rural sustainable development like: at international level UNESCO nomenclature, 4 16 Dynamics of the economics principles and OECD’s FOS 2007 etc.; at European level: CERIF, economic policies CRIS Data Model, Frascati, Cambera and Oslo manuals, NABS 2007; at national level: CIP 2000 USA, ASRC 2008 Australia, JACS – United Kingdom etc.
ISSN: 1792-5983 370 ISBN: 978-960-474-240-0 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Economy and Management Transformation (Volume I)
5 17 International investments The "code" of doctorate scientific field assigned by the institution that organise the doctorate (ASE-Ro) by 5 18 International trade and financial markets Faculty that hoste the doctoral studies through ISCED 6-7 level educational programmes 14 5 19 Risk management in international business
5 20 European integration economics 12 International Economic Relations Marketing 5 21 International economics Management Finances 6 22 Insurances economics 10 Economics Law 6 23 Risk and performance on the stock market Accounting Cybernetics and economic statistics 6 24 Corporate finances 8 6 25 Public finances and public options 6 26 Monetary economics 6 7 27 Digital economics 7 28 Data basis 4 7 29 Multimedia technologies
7 30 Internet and access technologies to the data 2010 semester first the during doctorate of degrees awarded of o Number 2 8 31 Modern approaches in trade management of firms 0 8 32 Organization management Marketing Marketing 8 33 Quality processes management Management General Economy General Comert / Commerce / Comert
8 34 Strategic management and managerial Informatics Economic Informatica Economica / Economica Informatica Cibernetica, Statistica si Statistica Cibernetica, Cybernetics, Statistics and Statistics Cybernetics, food and Environment and food Informatics Administration Administration Informatics Gestiune / Accounting and Accounting / Gestiune Contabilitate si Informatica de Informatica si Contabilitate Banks and Value Bourses Value and Banks
simulations a si Agroalimentara Economie International Economic Relations Economic International Mediului / The Economy of Agro - Agro of Economy The / Mediului Relatii Economice Internationale / Internationale Economice Relatii Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse si Banci Asigurari, Finante, de Valori / Finances, Assurances, Finances, / Valori de 8 35 Preparing, assessing and auditing of the Faculty name that hostes the doctoral programmes ISCED 6-7 economic projects 8 36 Strategies and policies in human resources We consider that the taxonomy realized into the management 9 37 Integrated marketing communications measurement scale reflects: 9 38 Relationship marketing a. the contiguity of the scientific fields without 9 39 Advanced marketing models and methods overlap (Fig. 1); 9 40 Marketing activity planning 10 41 International trade law b. the code number reflects the hierarchical 10 42 Competition law structure of the classification system, in some 10 43 Trade law measure the difference between scientific fields 10 44 Labour law – in our analysis that is used to model this difference into a distance (mainly in UNESCO UNESCO_teza – the code of UNESCO Nomenclature), see Fig. 2. nomenclature for fields of science and technology (the Fig.2 4 digit) [8], see table 3. Scientific fields scales overview Table 3
Selection from UNESCO nomenclature 2009-2010 universitary year - first semester 2010 53 Economic Sciences 50 5301 Domestic fiscal policy and public finance The code of doctorate scientific field Advanced high education programme ASE 5302 Econometrics assigned by the institution that organise the ISCED 6 7: specialised disciplines doctorate distribution by doctorate scientific field 5303 Economic accounting 45 5304 Economic activity 40 5305 Economic systems Fundamental doctoral 5306 Economics of technological change domains 35 5307 Economic theory 5308 General economics 30 5309 Industrial organization and public policy 5310 International economics ASE 25 5311 Organization and management of enterprises (see 3310)
5312 Sectorial economics 20 5399 Other economic specialities
54 Geography 15 5401 Economic geography
56 Juridical Science and Law 10 5601 Canon law
5602 General theory and method 5 5603 International law
5604 Legal organization 0 5605 National law and legislation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5699 Other juridical specialities 59 Political Science “An academic discipline, or field of study, is a 5901 International relations branch of knowledge which is taught and researched at 6306 Occupational sociology the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part) and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies Fig.1
ISSN: 1792-5983 371 ISBN: 978-960-474-240-0 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Economy and Management Transformation (Volume I)
and academic departments or faculties to which their variables) doesn’t permit to observe the number of real practitioners belong.” [9] clusters/structures in the data we apply the k Means “Fields of study usually have several sub disciplines algorithm, with the maximizing the initial distances or branches, and the distinguishing lines between these (normalized Euclidean distances) between clusters as a are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.” [10] result of the selection procedure in view to differentiate We emphasis the opportunities offered by the the clusters. The image of maximizing the normalized taxonomies approaches [11] with: mean across clusters (for all variables) when there are the allocation to a specific class indicates some different from each other as possible is visible in the common characteristics (possible to be quantified in figure 3. a controlled manner); Fig.3 the possibility to use the evolutionary economic Graph of means for continuous variables Number of clusters: 4 theory approach based on the parents/sons k-Means relationship. The advantages oft these evolutionary 1,0 relationships is that every subject is allocated in a 0,9 unique “taxa” is member of a unique “taxon”, in a 0,8 taxon family tree type, with one or more parents and 0,7 obvious with an unique identity given by the unique 0,6 universe created under the chosen classification 0,5 system; 0,4 Normalizedmeans there are some limits or discussion issues like: 0,3
what should be the limits [min; max] of 0,2
the accepted similarities/dissimilarities 0,1 Cluster 1 Cluster 2 between taxa and taxons level or 0,0 Cluster 3 codddASE UNESCO_teza cod_cod_ASE between parents and sons; Cluster 4 what should be better system Variables classification for the identified problem; “The observation are assigned to clusters by the” the statistical convergence process probability of cluster membership based on one or more request an “common” agreed probability distribution” [13] (here the probabilities classification system that should cover distribution for the three continuous variables presented the entire universe of the issue; before) and not by maximizing the differences in means the discussion regarding the procedure for continuous variables (as it happens in the base to enter into the chosen classification clustering techniques). “The goal of the clustering (the allocation procedure)…etc: algorithm is to maximize the overall probability or the flexibility of the classification likelihood of the data, given the (final) clusters solution” system from the perspective of the [14]. The final best number of clusters from the current openness to accept new members in “ data is the result of the application of “v fold cross real time” and also the capacity to be validation scheme/algorithm”. connected with others classifications Among the various options k means clustering systems (centered on the same problem method in the Generalized EM & k-Means Cluster or on different problems). Analysis module there is the normalized Euclidean [15] We try to detect groups of doctorate scientific fields distances between observations and cluster centers. The with distinct similarities regarding the probability normalizing transformation remove the differences in the density by the continuous variables (codddASE, ranges (scaling) for variables, accordingly the fact that cod_cod_ASE, UNESCO_teza scaled by the scales the normalize quantities ranges from 0 to 1, regardless with the same name) distribution for each identified the primary range scale. group, through the tool Generalized EM and k-Means The Statistica 8.0 program computes probabilities for Cluster Analysis module of STATISTICA 8.0” [12]. The each observation to belong to each of the clusters based expected distributions for every variable (included in the on the chosen distribution (the normal distribution by different clusters represent a measure of the default). interdisciplinary propensity of the doctorate scientific field by groups. Generalized EM and k-Means Cluster Analysis module is an “Analyses of data method” for large datasets, using a “Data mining” tool for unsupervised learning and pattern recognition. Because the dataset (3 Fig.4
ISSN: 1792-5983 372 ISBN: 978-960-474-240-0 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Economy and Management Transformation (Volume I)
Graph of distributions for variable: cod_cod_ASE the clusters differentiated by the variance of the Number of clusters: 4 scientific fields (described by the tree mentioned Cluster 1 ~ normal(x;5,500000;0,921954) Cluster 2 ~ normal(x;10,900000;1,374773) variables), see table 4: Cluster 3 ~ normal(x;17,681818;3,740277) Cluster 4 ~ normal(x;36,210526;3,860446) Table 4 0,5 Between df Within df F p value codddASE 2466,01 3 40,0 79 1624,9 0,00 UNESCO_teza 2351110878,09 3 284839,7 79 217359,4 0,00 0,4 cod_cod_ASE 40140,26 3 926,1 79 1141,4 0,00
Cluster Cluster Cluster 3 Cluster 4 Overall 0,3 1 2 Minimum 5,000 9,000 14,000 31,000 5,000 Maximum 8,000 13,000 25,000 43,000 43,000 0,2 Mean 5,500 10,900 17,682 36,211 19,639 Standard
Probabilitydensity 0,972 1,449 3,784 3,966 110,673 deviation
0,1
Cluster 1 Cluster 2 0,0 Under the mentioned limits, there are visible some Cluster 3 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Cluster 4 interpretation. The doctorate scientific field with the x ( cod_cod_ASE ) highest propensity to develop through interdisciplinary Fig.5 new scientific field is Law, followed by Marketing and Graph of distributions for variable: UNESCO_teza on the third place with management. The doctorate Number of clusters: 4 scientific field with the highest degree of specialization Cluster 1 ~ normal(x;5305,000000;0,000000) Cluster 2 ~ normal(x;5302,900000;0,300000) is the Cybernetics and economic Statistics followed by Cluster 3 ~ normal(x;5309,500000;14,548508) accounting and in a small range by economics. Cluster 4 ~ normal(x;5370,894737;120,421582) Table 5 Hierarchy by distance to centroid_CGA_kE / cluster
The code of doctorate scientific field assigned by the institution that organise the doctorate CGA_K_euclidian-cat (ASE) Cybernetics and economic statistics cluster1 minim variance of scientific field Accounting cluster2 Economics cluster2 Economics cluster3 International Economic Relations cluster3 Finances cluster3 Management cluster4 Marketing cluster4 Law cluster4 maxim variance of scientific fields Probability density (max 0,03) Cluster 1 Cluster 2 0 Cluster 3 4900 5000 5100 5200 5300 5400 5500 5600 5700 5800 5900 Cluster 4 x ( UNESCO_teza ) 4 Conclusion In view to improve the research quality in a more Fig.6 globalised environment is requested to define and Graph of distributions for variable: codddASE describe in a international specialized taxonomy the Number of clusters: 4 Cluster 1 ~ normal(x;2,000000;0,000000) processes/activities, results (papers/dissertation Cluster 2 ~ normal(x;3,100000;0,300000) Cluster 3 ~ normal(x;4,613636;0,775063) presentations), research projects, educational ISCED 6 7
Cluster 4 ~ normal(x;8,578947;0,815365) programs that make a contribution to the scientific 1,6 doctorate process development finalized with a doctoral 1,4 thesis, a presented public dissertation respectively with a
1,2 doctoral title awarded.
1,0 The advantage of this costly process is that in
consequence of positioning in an international 0,8 coordinates is possible to improve the description and 0,6 Probability density Probability better understanding some essential processes that 0,4 influence the quality of academic research/doctoral 0,2 Cluster 1 scientific research, processes like: Cluster 2 0,0 Cluster 3 • allowing the entrance of the doctoral scientific 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 Cluster 4 research (doctoral dissertation/paper) into the x ( codddASE ) international knowledge fluxes ( the possibility The measure of the interdisciplinary propensity of the to evaluate and compare every thesis in a global doctorate scientific field by groups, as a synthesis of the environment); three figures before (fig.4 6) is presented in the below • increasing the academic/doctoral scientific table, where the doctorate scientific field is allocated into research activity and its results visibility;
ISSN: 1792-5983 373 ISBN: 978-960-474-240-0 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Economy and Management Transformation (Volume I)
• actively contributing to the new knowledge international specialised taxonomy the thesaurus developments; processes/activities, results (papers/dissertation • becoming available, accessible (easy to be presentations). The advantage of this costly process cited) and connected to the main scientometrics is that of a positioning in an international coordinates systems; – allowing the entrance into the knowledge fluxes, • relatively positioning against the frontier of the increasing the visibility, becoming available, “new” defined by the international system of accessible (easy to be cited) , relatively positioning reference; against the frontier of the “new” defined by the • the huge importance of this allocation sustains system. The huge importance of this allocation the fact that the author thesis should allocate this sustains the fact that the author thesis should allocate code under the validation its supervisors. this code under the validation its supervisors. [9]
ISSN: 1792-5983 374 ISBN: 978-960-474-240-0