Benedetto Lepori
Biographic Data
| ID | 369642 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benedetto Lepori |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benedetto |
| FAMILY NAME | Lepori |
| SIGNATURE | LEPORI B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Università della Svizzera italiana |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4178-4687 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Opinion paper
Words connecting communities
It has been suggested that polysemy in scientific language allows communities to engage in a common research program. However, polysemy might conflict with rules that require words to have a precise meaning. We conceptualize polysemy as a set of relationships between word senses and contexts of usage and we suggest that, to sustain interdisciplinarity, a word should display stable patterns of activation of senses in contexts. Accordingly it shoul…
The use of ChatGPT to find similar institutions for institutional benchmarking
In evaluative bibliometrics and higher education studies, one is frequently confronted with the task of comparing institutions with similar institutions. In this Letter to the Editor, a simple approach is discussed which applies ChatGPT. Although the approach seems to produce promising results (tested with an example at the level of research institute and of a university), it is necessary to investigate it systematically based on a sample includi…
The European Universities initiative
Using a dataset of higher education institutional alliances within the framework of the European University initiative (EUi), we test empirically whether the policy-defined goal of a relative balance between excellence and inclusiveness within the scheme has been achieved. Specifically, we provide a descriptive and analytical account of the diversity of the higher education institutions (HEIs) participating in the EUi, the composition of—as well …
Designing policies that could work
The goal of this paper is to contribute toward bridging the gap between policy design and implementation by focusing on domains, such as education, healthcare and community services, where policy implementation is largely left to the autonomous decision of public service providers, which are strategic actors themselves. More specifically, we suggest that two characteristics of policy design spaces in which policies are designed, i.e., the level o…
The Swiss Approach to Societal Impact is Good, but Might Become Even Better
In my comment to Michael Ochsner's essay on societal impact of research, I argue that Michael is right to point to the complexity of societal impact and to the pitfalls of overly simple measurement frameworks as the one introduced in the UK's Research Assessment Framework. I also convey with him that the lack of such framework does not mean that societal impact is not an important dimension of Swiss research policy. However, I observe that there …
Measuring university size
This paper compares two measures of the organizational size of higher education institutions (HEIs) widely used in the literature: the number of academic personnel (AP) measured according to definitions from international education statistics, and the scientific talent pool (STP) (i.e., the number of unique authors affiliated with the HEI as derived from the Scopus database). Based on their definitions and operationalizations, we derive expectati…
Managing ideational complexity in public policies
This article examines how ideational complexity, i.e. the lasting presence of alternative policy frames in a policy domain, can be managed without leading to overt conflicts. By leveraging insights from the organisational literature, we suggest that, in most cases, alternative frames are kept apart within distinct policy instruments, while hybrid instruments are established only when required by the nature of the problem. We provide illustrative …
The heterogeneity of European Higher Education Institutions
Classifications are a basic tool for research, which allow summarizing the diversity of objects in a number of categories that fits the cognitive abilities of the human mind. Their relevance for higher education is emphasized by the differentiation of institutional profiles. Yet, unlike in the US, there is currently no classification of European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper fills this gap by developing a classification of Euro…
Institutional barriers to participation in EU framework programs
The aim of this study was to examine how institutional barriers arising from policy decisions influence the level of participation of third-party countries in European Framework Programs (EU-FPs). To achieve this, we contrasted the effect of EU funding restrictions following Switzerland’s 2014 reclassification as a “third country” in Horizon 2020, and the political uncertainties resulting from the 2016 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom (UK). We c…
Using ontologies to map between research data and policymakers’ presumptions
Understanding knowledge co-creation in key emerging areas of European research is critical for policy makers wishing to analyze impact and make strategic decisions. However, purely data-driven methods for characterising policy topics have limitations relating to the broad nature of such topics and the differences in language and topic structure between the political language and scientific and technological outputs. In this paper, we discuss the …
Wiego
WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing) is a global research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. The members of this network are individual researchers, individual development practitioners, and organizations of informal workers, which total more than 175 affiliates in 85 countries. Social researchers involved in the network conducted qualitative …
Evolution of a field
In this paper, we present the evolution of Swiss Media and Communication Studies over the last decade by summarizing the main results from a project funded by the Swiss University Conference (2008–2017). We give an overall picture of the growth in the field (in terms of student numbers, resources and activities), look at diversity in terms of topics (two clusters are identified and presented with respect to various indicators), present changes at…
A review of literature on evaluating the scientific, social and political impact of social sciences and humanities research
Recently, the need to contribute to the evaluation of the scientific, social, and political impact of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research has become a demand of policy makers and society. The international scientific community has made significant advances that have transformed the impact of evaluation landscape. This article reviews the existing scientific knowledge on evaluation tools and techniques that are applied to assess the scie…
Les dynamiques institutionnelles et les choix des responsables de projets du Campus Virtuel Suisse
Dans cet article, nous examinons le développement des projets du Campus Virtuel Suisse et leur interaction avec le contexte institutionnel. Nous montrons que le CVS et les hautes écoles ont des conceptions différentes concernant le concept et les modalités d’introduction de l’eLearning. Dans ce contexte, les projets sont amenés à se détacher partiellement du modèle proposé au début par le CVS et à développer des solutions originales, adaptées à c…
Dimensions of diversity
In this study we empirically map the field of media and communication studies (MCS) by focusing on relationships between cognitive dimensions (such as research topics and approaches) on the one hand and material dimensions (such as funding and institutionalization) on the other. Our analysis, which focuses on the field of MCS in Switzerland, identifies two clusters of research institutions representing distinct strands of research in the field. R…
Convergence and differentiation processes in Swiss higher education
The aim of this article is to contribute to the scholarly debate on differentiation processes in higher education, particularly in binary systems. The article builds on recent developments in institutional theory and organizational ecology regarding the nature of organizational forms, as well as on the mechanisms through which these forms impact on characteristics of individual higher education institutions, and highlight the role of isomorphic p…
The Socio-Political Construction of a European Census of Higher Education Institutions
S&T indicators as a tool for formative evaluation of research programs
The aim of this article is to review the potential of Science and Technology (S&T) Indicators for the evaluation of research programs. We suggest that indicators are a useful complement to other evaluation methodologies (surveys, case studies, panels) for summative evaluations, where the focus is on measuring program results and the degree of achievement of program objectives. However, we argue that indicators have a much broader potential to sup…
The Research Mission of Universities of Applied Sciences and the Future Configuration of Higher Education Systems in Europe
Patterns of Subject Mix in Higher Education Institutions
Reshaping the Swiss Higher Education System
Options et tendances dans le financement des universités en Europe
Options and Trends in the Funding of European Universities T he analysis contained in this article is based on empirical data for about 100 universities in eight European countries. The findings show that it is erroneous to speak of state withdrawal, widespread recourse to the private sector funding as a primary source (with the partial exception of the United Kingdom), or of an overall decrease in available resources. However, a trend can be not…
Patterns of Diversity in the Swiss Higher Education System
Although the role of universities in the knowledge society is increasingly significant, there remains a severe lack of systematic quantitative evidence at the micro-level, with virtually all policy discussion based on country level statistics or case studies. This book redresses the balance by examining original data from universities in six European countries – Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK
The Research Mission of Universities of Applied Sciences and the Future Configuration of Higher Education Systems in Europe
Designing policies that could work
The goal of this paper is to contribute toward bridging the gap between policy design and implementation by focusing on domains, such as education, healthcare and community services, where policy implementation is largely left to the autonomous decision of public service providers, which are strategic actors themselves. More specifically, we suggest that two characteristics of policy design spaces in which policies are designed, i.e., the level o…
Convergence and differentiation processes in Swiss higher education
The aim of this article is to contribute to the scholarly debate on differentiation processes in higher education, particularly in binary systems. The article builds on recent developments in institutional theory and organizational ecology regarding the nature of organizational forms, as well as on the mechanisms through which these forms impact on characteristics of individual higher education institutions, and highlight the role of isomorphic p…
Wiego
WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing) is a global research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. The members of this network are individual researchers, individual development practitioners, and organizations of informal workers, which total more than 175 affiliates in 85 countries. Social researchers involved in the network conducted qualitative …
Dimensions of diversity
In this study we empirically map the field of media and communication studies (MCS) by focusing on relationships between cognitive dimensions (such as research topics and approaches) on the one hand and material dimensions (such as funding and institutionalization) on the other. Our analysis, which focuses on the field of MCS in Switzerland, identifies two clusters of research institutions representing distinct strands of research in the field. R…
S&T indicators as a tool for formative evaluation of research programs
The aim of this article is to review the potential of Science and Technology (S&T) Indicators for the evaluation of research programs. We suggest that indicators are a useful complement to other evaluation methodologies (surveys, case studies, panels) for summative evaluations, where the focus is on measuring program results and the degree of achievement of program objectives. However, we argue that indicators have a much broader potential to sup…
Evolution of a field
In this paper, we present the evolution of Swiss Media and Communication Studies over the last decade by summarizing the main results from a project funded by the Swiss University Conference (2008–2017). We give an overall picture of the growth in the field (in terms of student numbers, resources and activities), look at diversity in terms of topics (two clusters are identified and presented with respect to various indicators), present changes at…
The Socio-Political Construction of a European Census of Higher Education Institutions
Reshaping the Swiss Higher Education System
Options et tendances dans le financement des universités en Europe
Options and Trends in the Funding of European Universities T he analysis contained in this article is based on empirical data for about 100 universities in eight European countries. The findings show that it is erroneous to speak of state withdrawal, widespread recourse to the private sector funding as a primary source (with the partial exception of the United Kingdom), or of an overall decrease in available resources. However, a trend can be not…
Patterns of Diversity in the Swiss Higher Education System
Although the role of universities in the knowledge society is increasingly significant, there remains a severe lack of systematic quantitative evidence at the micro-level, with virtually all policy discussion based on country level statistics or case studies. This book redresses the balance by examining original data from universities in six European countries – Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK
Options et tendances dans le financement des universités en Europe
Options and Trends in the Funding of European Universities T he analysis contained in this article is based on empirical data for about 100 universities in eight European countries. The findings show that it is erroneous to speak of state withdrawal, widespread recourse to the private sector funding as a primary source (with the partial exception of the United Kingdom), or of an overall decrease in available resources. However, a trend can be not…
The Research Mission of Universities of Applied Sciences and the Future Configuration of Higher Education Systems in Europe
Patterns of Subject Mix in Higher Education Institutions
Reshaping the Swiss Higher Education System
S&T indicators as a tool for formative evaluation of research programs
The aim of this article is to review the potential of Science and Technology (S&T) Indicators for the evaluation of research programs. We suggest that indicators are a useful complement to other evaluation methodologies (surveys, case studies, panels) for summative evaluations, where the focus is on measuring program results and the degree of achievement of program objectives. However, we argue that indicators have a much broader potential to sup…
The Socio-Political Construction of a European Census of Higher Education Institutions
Convergence and differentiation processes in Swiss higher education
The aim of this article is to contribute to the scholarly debate on differentiation processes in higher education, particularly in binary systems. The article builds on recent developments in institutional theory and organizational ecology regarding the nature of organizational forms, as well as on the mechanisms through which these forms impact on characteristics of individual higher education institutions, and highlight the role of isomorphic p…
Dimensions of diversity
In this study we empirically map the field of media and communication studies (MCS) by focusing on relationships between cognitive dimensions (such as research topics and approaches) on the one hand and material dimensions (such as funding and institutionalization) on the other. Our analysis, which focuses on the field of MCS in Switzerland, identifies two clusters of research institutions representing distinct strands of research in the field. R…
A review of literature on evaluating the scientific, social and political impact of social sciences and humanities research
Recently, the need to contribute to the evaluation of the scientific, social, and political impact of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research has become a demand of policy makers and society. The international scientific community has made significant advances that have transformed the impact of evaluation landscape. This article reviews the existing scientific knowledge on evaluation tools and techniques that are applied to assess the scie…
Les dynamiques institutionnelles et les choix des responsables de projets du Campus Virtuel Suisse
Dans cet article, nous examinons le développement des projets du Campus Virtuel Suisse et leur interaction avec le contexte institutionnel. Nous montrons que le CVS et les hautes écoles ont des conceptions différentes concernant le concept et les modalités d’introduction de l’eLearning. Dans ce contexte, les projets sont amenés à se détacher partiellement du modèle proposé au début par le CVS et à développer des solutions originales, adaptées à c…
Evolution of a field
In this paper, we present the evolution of Swiss Media and Communication Studies over the last decade by summarizing the main results from a project funded by the Swiss University Conference (2008–2017). We give an overall picture of the growth in the field (in terms of student numbers, resources and activities), look at diversity in terms of topics (two clusters are identified and presented with respect to various indicators), present changes at…
Using ontologies to map between research data and policymakers’ presumptions
Understanding knowledge co-creation in key emerging areas of European research is critical for policy makers wishing to analyze impact and make strategic decisions. However, purely data-driven methods for characterising policy topics have limitations relating to the broad nature of such topics and the differences in language and topic structure between the political language and scientific and technological outputs. In this paper, we discuss the …
Wiego
WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing) is a global research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. The members of this network are individual researchers, individual development practitioners, and organizations of informal workers, which total more than 175 affiliates in 85 countries. Social researchers involved in the network conducted qualitative …
Institutional barriers to participation in EU framework programs
The aim of this study was to examine how institutional barriers arising from policy decisions influence the level of participation of third-party countries in European Framework Programs (EU-FPs). To achieve this, we contrasted the effect of EU funding restrictions following Switzerland’s 2014 reclassification as a “third country” in Horizon 2020, and the political uncertainties resulting from the 2016 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom (UK). We c…
The heterogeneity of European Higher Education Institutions
Classifications are a basic tool for research, which allow summarizing the diversity of objects in a number of categories that fits the cognitive abilities of the human mind. Their relevance for higher education is emphasized by the differentiation of institutional profiles. Yet, unlike in the US, there is currently no classification of European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper fills this gap by developing a classification of Euro…
Measuring university size
This paper compares two measures of the organizational size of higher education institutions (HEIs) widely used in the literature: the number of academic personnel (AP) measured according to definitions from international education statistics, and the scientific talent pool (STP) (i.e., the number of unique authors affiliated with the HEI as derived from the Scopus database). Based on their definitions and operationalizations, we derive expectati…
Managing ideational complexity in public policies
This article examines how ideational complexity, i.e. the lasting presence of alternative policy frames in a policy domain, can be managed without leading to overt conflicts. By leveraging insights from the organisational literature, we suggest that, in most cases, alternative frames are kept apart within distinct policy instruments, while hybrid instruments are established only when required by the nature of the problem. We provide illustrative …
The use of ChatGPT to find similar institutions for institutional benchmarking
In evaluative bibliometrics and higher education studies, one is frequently confronted with the task of comparing institutions with similar institutions. In this Letter to the Editor, a simple approach is discussed which applies ChatGPT. Although the approach seems to produce promising results (tested with an example at the level of research institute and of a university), it is necessary to investigate it systematically based on a sample includi…
The European Universities initiative
Using a dataset of higher education institutional alliances within the framework of the European University initiative (EUi), we test empirically whether the policy-defined goal of a relative balance between excellence and inclusiveness within the scheme has been achieved. Specifically, we provide a descriptive and analytical account of the diversity of the higher education institutions (HEIs) participating in the EUi, the composition of—as well …
Designing policies that could work
The goal of this paper is to contribute toward bridging the gap between policy design and implementation by focusing on domains, such as education, healthcare and community services, where policy implementation is largely left to the autonomous decision of public service providers, which are strategic actors themselves. More specifically, we suggest that two characteristics of policy design spaces in which policies are designed, i.e., the level o…
The Swiss Approach to Societal Impact is Good, but Might Become Even Better
In my comment to Michael Ochsner's essay on societal impact of research, I argue that Michael is right to point to the complexity of societal impact and to the pitfalls of overly simple measurement frameworks as the one introduced in the UK's Research Assessment Framework. I also convey with him that the lack of such framework does not mean that societal impact is not an important dimension of Swiss research policy. However, I observe that there …
Words connecting communities
It has been suggested that polysemy in scientific language allows communities to engage in a common research program. However, polysemy might conflict with rules that require words to have a precise meaning. We conceptualize polysemy as a set of relationships between word senses and contexts of usage and we suggest that, to sustain interdisciplinarity, a word should display stable patterns of activation of senses in contexts. Accordingly it shoul…
Opinion paper
Political science (20 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Economics (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Higher Education Governance and Development (11 works) · Higher education (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Business (7 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Politics (6 works)