Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST)

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Browsing Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) by Subject "Agricultural research -- South Africa"

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    Understanding the societal impact of research through productive interactions and realist theory-based evaluation: Select cases of agricultural research in South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Esterhuyse, Harrie Willie; Boshoff, Nelius; Mouton, Johann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study explored the concept of societal impact of research (SoIR) in four agricultural research projects in South Africa, as well as in a survey of the two commodity companies that funded those projects. Three objectives guided the study: (1) to investigate the SoIR by focussing on the productive interactions and effects as identified through the SIAMPI approach; (2) to use the logic of realist evaluation to assign value to productive interactions by using them to build theories of change, impact pathways and indirectly context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations; and (3) to view the productive interactions and effects through the lens of research impact literacy. The study relied on four conceptual underpinnings, namely the SIAMPI approach, realist evaluation, theories of change and impact literacy. The SIAMPI approach uses productive interactions to understand the effecting of research impact. Realist evaluation is concerned with understanding social programmes through CMO configurations. Theories of change are instruments that visualise the logic of how a programme builds impact. Lastly impact literacy looks at how impact works through the combination of ‘what’ is being aimed for (final impact), ‘how’ it is to be achieved, and ‘who’ will be engaging in activities to achieve ‘what’. The research followed an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, comprising three phases. In the first phase, four agricultural research projects, funded by the two commodity companies, were selected as case studies. As part of the case study execution, semi-structured interviews were conducted with case study participants. Project-specific documents were also collected and analysed. From these productive interactions were identified. The second phase involved the development of a theory of change for each of the four case studies, built from the productive interactions. From the theories of change, research impact pathways were identified. Follow-up semi-structured interviews with the primary investigators were used to validate the accuracy of the theories of change and to explore the impact pathways further. The third phase of the research made use of the theories of change, coupled with the concept of impact literacy, to explore the understanding of SoIR among research funders. A survey was used to assess research funders’ views on SoIR. The findings were used to develop a Classification framework for research impact and to show the viability of building CMO configurations from the data produced through SIAMPI. It was found that productive interactions can be used to develop coherent visualisations of research processes through theories of change. This showed that it is possible to make use of SIAMPI as a method within realist evaluation, though it is not recommended due to the myriad of possible different productive interactions that would need to be tested. Arguably most importantly the research showed that CMO configurations applicable to research can be constructed based on information gathered through the SIAMPI method. Productive interactions can be used to build an understanding of the context in which research impact is effected (along with the outcomes and impacts) allowing for the development of CMO configurations. Finally, the research produced the Classification framework for research impact. It provides a novel way of ‘defining’ research impact. The research recommends that, based on the value of productive interactions demonstrated in the dissertation, funders of research should consider including instruments in research reporting that are able to capture research interactions.