Testing Whether Adaptation to Use Increases Degrees of Instrumental Knowledge Utilization from Evaluation Reports

Abstract

Instrumental knowledge utilization is the process whereby knowledge influences political decision making. Such processes are complex and, consequently, hard to measure. Nevertheless, knowing what determines degrees of knowledge utilization is a prerequisite for fostering more evidence-based policy making. Numerous factors that contribute to, and co-determine, knowledge utilization are beyond the reach of researchers, but among the factors that researchers can influence, one variable has been presented as being crucial: the degree to which researchers adapt their research to meet the demands of intended knowledge users. In other words, making their research comprehensible, operational, realistic in terms of interventions and implications, and appealing to users. Drawing on the conceptual work of Landry, Amara, and Lamari, this paper develops a new, and more direct, measurement of adaptation. This measurement is subsequently applied in an analysis employing the Degrees of Knowledge Utilization (DoKU) scale and, thus, extending Knudsen’s five-year meta-evaluation related to the Danish pesticide area. Surprisingly, the statistical tests show that degrees of adaptation have no significant influence on degrees of knowledge utilization.