Utilization

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Research on science communication provides sophisticated conceptualizations on the multidimensional nature of utilization. According to Carol Weiss, there are many meanings of research utilization. Michael Quinn Patton further noted utilization as the core of an evaluation research. From an epistemic perspective, a number of related terms, such as usability, usefulness, and credibility, are employed to examine the effectiveness of utilization or knowledge use. Effectiveness focuses on the outcome of use relative to a user's goals or expectations, usability refers to the potential or probability for research information to be used, and usefulness reflects the potential of knowledge to produce an outcome that could be subsequently evaluated as (in) effective in terms of users' goals or expectations. Because usefulness is relative to specific tasks or objectives, there is a temporal dimension in that knowledge can lose its usefulness over time. In addition, credibility reflects the perceived quality or value of research knowledge. Among the dynamics of use, usability is affected by credibility and usefulness because actual knowledge use is determined not only by its perceived quality but also by its potential or likelihood to produce effective utilization results.

Discussions on utilization are built on, and/or related to, a number of theories about knowledge production and dissemination, including the two-community theory, the systems theory, bipolar and/or tripolar models in the context of social interactions, knowledge-driven theory, and problem-solving theory. These conceptualizations contribute to the theoretical underpinnings of utilization research in relation to varied use outcomes, the variety of stakeholders involved in knowledge use, and the complication in the process of utilizing case study knowledge.

Methodologically speaking, research on utilization has experienced a shift from positivist's measurement to constructivist's engagement. Very often, the former is characterized by quantitative [Page 957]approaches to measuring the various dimensions of knowledge use. These undertakings have resulted in the development of utilization scales or indexes in different fields or subject areas. The latter, being a broad paradigmatic perspective, usually encompasses approaches to utilization as emancipation, empowerment, and/or socially constructed understanding through strategies such as collaborative research programs, participatory or action research, knowledge networks, communities of practice, organizational learning, utilization-focused evaluation, and ethnographies of knowledge mobilization or exchange.

Application

Issues surrounding the utilization of research are particularly germane to the case study method. In fact, the association of case study with research on diffusion of innovation, utilization of evaluation, and leveraging or mobilization of knowledge has been strong in the scholarly discourse. Because of its vantage as a study of the particulars, case study inquiries often look into the nature, backgrounds, and physical and geographical settings, as well as the sociocultural contexts, of a phenomenon under scrutiny. As Réjean Landry, Nabil Amara, and Moktar Lamari note in their study on the use of social science research in Canada, this strategy is depicted as one of the major approaches to utilization research.

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