The 2012 and 2015 national surface transportation legislation: MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century), and FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) have formalized a performance-based paradigm for decision making. Performance-based research implementation management involves a formalized research implementation process to transform research results into standard operating procedures, services and products within an agency to help it better achieve strategic goals. This study develops an evidence-based tool and database to support research implementation at the Georgia Department of Transportation.
To accomplish this objective, the study reviewed conceptual frameworks in: (1) implementation science (IS); (2) intellectual capital and non-financial public agency performance (ICNPAP), and (3) portfolio capital asset management (PCAM) to understand enablers and obstacles for effective research implementation. The IS, ICNPAP and PCAM literature all point to the importance of a carefully thought out research implementation system consisting of human capital (staff), internal capital (organizational structure and resources), external capital (researchers and other external stakeholders) and technological capital (appropriate tool(s) and data) to support agency initiatives and drive organizational performance. A capital assets framework for organizational performance was synthesized from this literature. The literature on transportation and non-transportation research implementation was reviewed through the lens of this framework and a set of best and effective practices extracted.
This study highlights the importance of the following practices for performance-based research implementation: (1) Adopting a performance-based definition of research implementation, linking implementation to organizational performance through agency strategic goals and objectives; (2) Developing and establishing a clear and formal research implementation process as part of agency business procedures, clearly articulating the roles of the researcher(s) and agency staff and ensuring that any implementation that is the primary responsibility of the researcher is placed under contract; (3) Allocating the resources (staff, funding) necessary to support research implementation; (4) Adopting a simple, clear and defensible approach to estimate research value; (5) Adopting an appropriate tool and data to support the research implementation process; and (6) Developing appropriate internal and external communication channels to augment research implementation.
The agency’s research implementation process was mapped and major process steps, stakeholders and associated responsibilities were identified. Based on the conceptual framework and effective practices, areas for potential process enhancements were identified and recommendations developed for an enhanced research implementation process. These recommendations were presented to agency officials for feedback. Finally, a contextually-tailored research implementation tool was specified and developed based on the refined research implementation process; feedback obtained from agency officials, the existing resources within the agency, and effective practices in other state DOTs.
Agencies interested in the systematic improvement of their research implementation capabilities may consider adopting such practices tailored to their particular contexts to support performance-based research implementation.
Research Team:
Principal Investigator: Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy;
Co-PI: Russell Clark
Graduate Researchers: Stephanie Amoaning-Yankson, Akansha Gupta, Janille Smith-Colin
Keywords: Performance-based, research implementation management, intangible asset management
Publication:
Amekudzi-Kennedy, A., Amoaning-Yankson, S., Smith-Colin, J., Clark, R. and B. Bui. Performance-Based Research Implementation Management. Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Conference of the Transportation Research Board. Transportation Research Board, Washington. D.C.