The UK and Italian research assessment exercises face to face

• Published in: Research policy Vol. 42; no. 9; pp. 1657 - 1666
• Main Authors: Rebora, Gianfranco, Turri, Matteo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.11.2013; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Consciousness; Control systems; Control theory; Effectiveness; International comparisons; Italy; Management theory; Neoinstitutionalism; Organizational behaviour; Public management; R&D; RAE; Reactivity; REF; Research & development; Research assessment; United Kingdom; VQR; Western Europe; United Kingdom > UK; Italy; REF; Research assessment; Reactivity; VQR; RAE
• ISSN: 0048-7333; 1873-7625
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2013.06.009

•Methodological similarities in British and Italian research assessment exercises.•British assessment exercises are historically linked to new public management.•British assessment exercises influenced by organisational control theory, especially in the transition from RAE to REF.•Italian assessment exercises are weakly linked to NPM and mostly affected by neo-institutional sociology.•Italian assessment exercises underestimate reactivity to evaluation by researchers and institutions. In the UK the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is being replaced by the Research Excellence Framework (REF); similarly, in Italy the former Research Evaluation Exercise (VTR 2001–2003) has been revised and extended and a new cycle of assessment was activated in Autumn 2011 (VQR 2004–2010). The analysis of the development and the consequences of both British and Italian assessment exercises is carried out on the basis of three theoretical frameworks – new public management (NPM), neo-institutional sociology (NIS), and organisational control theory (OCT). This last framework is crucial because the control systems have an effective sense-making capacity and it also exposes a different awareness about control systems in the British and Italian experiences.