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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of research and innovation futures, sketch the landscape of recent findings in this field with a focus on new ways of doing and organizing knowledge creation and position the contributions to this special issue within that landscape.

This paper includes a review of literature on the embedding of research and innovation in society, outlines the main domains of current drivers of change and summarises the contributions to the special issue.

Recent controversies about the future of research and innovation draw on a long-standing trajectory of debate about the role of science, technology and innovation in society, and the balance between autonomy in striving for scientific excellence on the one hand and the quest for social and economic relevance on the other. Six major domains of current and expected future changes in research and innovation are identified, and serve as the backdrop for positioning the more specific contributions to this special issue.

The main value of this contribution is to provide a condensed and original look at emerging directions of change in research and innovation practices and their organisational and institutional embedding in society.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss possible future pathways of the Finnish science, technology and innovation (STI) system. The paper sketches three speculative pathways for the Finnish STI system.

Theoretical considerations behind the pathways are based on analyses of the determinants and behaviour of small open economies, their innovation systems and governance. The empirical background of the paper is in the current trends of the Finnish economy and STI system. The analysis of pathways is based on three dimensions: institutionalized policy environment and economy, domestic interest groups and policy and STI institutions and funding. Changes in these dimensions are analysed by paying special attention to two variables: the position of the nation state and the general economic development.

The first future pathway outlined is based on an optimistic view by setting Finland on the basis of past success factors as an European and global STI hotspot. The second pathway is based on the assumption that the Finnish STI system will be increasingly subordinated to international structures and decision-making. The third one is geared around the assumption that the Finnish STI system will be dominated by industries.

While Finland has been seen as a European showpiece of innovation since the early 2000s, currently the country’s national economy and STI system are undergoing a critical period. The paper sheds light on this transformation and its potential future outcomes and attempts to raise debate on the options policy makers may face in the increasingly complex global environment in small countries.

The paper introduces potential future avenues for the Finnish STI system and provides a contribution to the debate of the future of small countries’ STI systems and innovation policies by emphasising the limited space of the STI policy choices and how the development paths and space for policy making evolve from the interaction of socio-economic factors between domestic and wider international context.

For those who plan research funds and assess the research performance from the funds, it is necessary to overcome the limitations of the conventional classification of evaluated papers published by the research funds. Besides, they need to promote the objective, fair clustering of papers, and analysis of research performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find the optimum clustering algorithm using the MATLAB tools by comparing the performances of and the hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithms using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and the conventional K-means clustering method.

The clustering analysis experiment for each of the three fields of study – health and medicine, physics, and chemistry – used the following three algorithms: “K-means+Simulated annealing (SA)+Adjustment of parameters+PSO” (KASA-PSO clustering), “K-means+SA+PSO” clustering, “K-means+PSO” clustering.

The clustering analyses of all the three fields showed that KASA-PSO is the best method for the minimization of fitness value. Furthermore, this study administered the surveys intended for the “performance measurement of decision-making process” with 13 members of the research fund organization to compare the group clustering by the clustering analysis method of KASA-PSO algorithm and the group clustering by research funds. The results statistically demonstrated that the group clustering by the clustering analysis method of KASA-PSO algorithm was better than the group clustering by research funds.

This study examined the impact of bibliometric indicators on research impact of papers. The results showed that research period, the number of authors, and the number of participating researchers had positive effects on the impact factor (IF) of the papers; the IF that indicates the qualitative level of papers had a positive effect on the primary times cited; and the primary times cited had a positive effect on the secondary times cited. Furthermore, this study clearly showed the decision quality perceived by those who are working for the research fund organization.

There are still too few studies that assess the research project evaluation mechanisms and its effectiveness perceived by the research fund managers. To fill the research void like this, this study aims to propose PSO and successfully proves validity of the proposed approach.

This study aims to investigate the Malaysian Mah Meri Indigenous tourism entrepreneur’s personality, experience, sense of community traits and current challenges in community-based tourism (CBT)-related businesses.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from 10 Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs. Data were analysed using the NVivo 11 software.

The qualitative content analysis found three broad themes. Firstly, the authors found that the Mah Meri community possesses unique self-efficacy personality characteristics, significantly predicting their unsustainable entrepreneurial behaviours. Secondly, they are willing to share their values, beliefs and interests in their business offerings, which reflect their sense of community. Even with considerable entrepreneurial experience through learning from local wisdom and upskilling efforts by the government, the authors found that the community limitation mainly concerns the lack of early education, uninventive entrepreneurship practices and financial assistance.

This study provides an improved understanding of the Indigenous business environment for policymakers and Indigenous entrepreneurs. We found entrepreneurial personality, experience, sense of community determine and structure their CBT entrepreneurial activities.

This study provides a new perspective on Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs’ personalities, experiences, sense of community traits and challenges. The study also suggests encouraging sustainable Indigenous entrepreneurship practices for economic development, self-determination and community sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to describe some risks and risk-taking when launching and running business in Russia during the socio-economic transformation. The risks are related to informal economy.

The research material consists of 11 thematic interviews of families, who launched and ran a business during the turn of the millennium and follow-up interviews. The interviews were extracted from a larger material of 100 interviews and 40 follow-ups focusing on household coping in Russian socio-economic transformation.

The paper focusses on risky shuttle trade as well as crime-related risks of business, as poignant illustrations of problems of entrepreneurship linked with informal economy. The risks are seen as social facts, objective or constructed, in some cases pointing out also how people speak about them. The testimonial stories of business show an individual or family focus on the risks, without major concern for legitimacy of action, albeit a need for distinction toward other corresponding risk-takers.

The findings illustrate important aspects of informal economy in Russia, but they cannot be generalized. It would be most useful to carry out qualitative studies of small business to assess perception and construction of risks and coping with them, capturing the views of entrepreneurs themselves.

There is rather little micro-level information concerning the risks or uncertainty when launching and running business in the Russian Federation. Qualitative data enable deeper understanding of sensitive issues. The paper wants to introduce the concept of risk into the social research of informal economy.