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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2007‒01‒23
eight papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Ajay Agrawal; Devesh Kapur; John McHale |
| Abstract: | We examine how the spatial and social proximity of inventors affects knowledge flows, focusing especially on how the two forms of proximity interact. We develop a knowledge flow production function (KFPF) as a flexible tool for modeling access to knowledge and show that the optimal spatial concentration of socially proximate inventors in a city or nation depends on whether spatial and social proximity are complements or substitutes in facilitating knowledge flows. We employ patent citation data, using same-MSA and co-ethnicity as proxies for spatial and social proximity, respectively, to estimate the key KFPF parameters. Although co-location and co-ethnicity both predict knowledge flows, the marginal benefit of co-location is significantly less for co-ethnic inventors. These results imply that dispersion of socially proximate individuals is optimal from the perspectives of the city and the economy. In contrast, for socially proximate individuals themselves, spatial concentration is preferred - and the only stable equilibrium. |
| JEL: | O33 R12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12823&r=knm |
| By: | Acs, Zoltan (George Mason University, School of Public Policy); Audrestch, David (Indiana University, School of Environmental and Public Affairs); Braunerhjelm, Pontus (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Carlsson, Bo (Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Contemporary theories of entrepreneurship generally focus on the recognition of opportunities and the decision to exploit them. While the prevailing view in the entrepreneurship literature is that opportunities are exogenous, the most prevalent theory of economic growth suggests that opportunities are endogenous. This paper bridges the gap between the entrepreneurship and economic growth literatures by developing a knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Knowledge created endogenously results in knowledge spillovers that give rise to opportunities to be identified and exploited by entrepreneurs. |
| Keywords: | Opportunity; knowledge; entrepreneurship; knowledge filter |
| JEL: | J24 M13 O31 R10 |
| Date: | 2007–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0077&r=knm |
| By: | Paolo Giorgio GARELLA; Emanuele BACCHIEGA |
| Abstract: | We study firms' incentives to transfer knowledge about production technology to a rival in a Cournot duopoly. In a setting where two technologies are available, a technology is characterized by its associated cost function and no single technology is strictly superior to the other. A firm has superior information if it knows both techniques and the other only one. Cost efficiency may be "reversed" after the voluntary disclosure, so that the rival's costs are improved at the equilibrium level of output. Adding R&D investments to the picture, we find that a firm can decide to invest just for the purpose of acquiring knowledge that will be transferred and not used. Furthermore, for the same point in the parameters space, the acquisition of full knowledge may occur or not as a function of the initial distribution of information |
| Keywords: | Oligopoly, Information disclosure, R&D Joint Ventures, R&D Consortia, Returns to scale |
| JEL: | L13 O30 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mil:wpdepa:2007-01&r=knm |
| By: | Luis Garicano; Thomas N. Hubbard |
| Abstract: | Hierarchies allow individuals to leverage their knowledge through others' time. This mechanism increases productivity and amplifies the impact of skill heterogeneity on earnings inequality. To quantify this effect, we analyze the earnings and organization of U.S. lawyers and use the equilibrium model of knowledge hierarchies in Garicano and Rossi-Hansberg (2006) to assess how much lawyers' productivity and the distribution of earnings across lawyers reflects lawyers' ability to organize problem-solving hierarchically. We analyze earnings, organizational, and assignment patterns and show that they are generally consistent with the main predictions of the model. We then use these data to estimate the model. Our estimates imply that hierarchical production leads to at least a 30% increase in production in this industry, relative to a situation where lawyers within the same office do not "vertically specialize." We further find that it amplifies earnings inequality, increasing the ratio between the 95th and 50th percentiles from 3.7 to 4.8. We conclude that the impact of hierarchy on productivity and earnings distributions in this industry is substantial but not dramatic, reflecting the fact that the problems lawyers face are diverse and that the solutions tend to be customized. |
| JEL: | D24 J24 J31 J44 L23 L84 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12815&r=knm |
| By: | Mario A. Maggioni (DISEIS and Catholic University of Milan); Mario Nosvelli (CERIS-CNR); T. Erika Uberti (DISEIS and Catholic University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | In the last fifteen years, income differences among European Member States have been strongly narrowing while the process has been matched with a widening of the inter-regional variance within single countries. Traditionally, regional economic disparities in Europe have been ascribed to peripherality and/or to a high level of dependence on declining sectors. Nowadays regional disparities can be no longer defined only in terms of statistical differences in the values of standard macroeconomic indicators, but also according to innovative capacities and knowledge endowment. This paper provides an original framework for the interpretation of the existing relationships between innovation process and research activity in Europe and the structural and geographical features shaping the European scientific and technological map. In order to do so, we focus on two knowledge-based relational phenomena: participation in the same research networks (funded by the EU Fifth Framework Programme) and EPO co-patent applications. Using two complementary econometric techniques we try to assess those factors that determine patenting activity, distinguishing structural features, geographical and relational spillovers. Through these variables we measure the intrinsic relational structure of knowledge flows which directly connects people, institutions and, indirectly, regions, across European countries in order to test whether hierarchical relationships based on a-spatial networks between geographically distant excellence centres prevail over diffusive patterns based on spatial contiguity. |
| Keywords: | Spatial Distribution, Networks, European Analysis |
| JEL: | O31 R12 C21 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2006.153&r=knm |
| By: | Dixit Mukund R.; Girja Sharan |
| Abstract: | Systems for harvesting dew for human consumption are new to India. This paper provides insights from the tracking of the innovation journey of dewrain harvest systems from incidental observation to commercialization. It traces the key phases in the innovation journey and documents the activities and outcomes in each phase. Based on the analysis it identifies a class of innovations called ‘leveraged innovations’. These innovations leverage on the early innovating experience of the innovator, the knowledge base of the stakeholders and the available infrastructure. Data for the paper was collected from the narrative of the innovator and the documents prepared by the innovator and his team. The paper has been divided into three sections. The phases in the innovation journey are presented in the first section. Key themes in leveraged innovation are identified based on the insights from phases, and their link with the literature on innovations management are discussed in the second section. The third section provides concluding remarks and suggests ways forward for mapping the innovation journeys of individual innovators and developing the themes further. The overall view is that the development of the dewrain harvest system was facilitated by the background of the innovator, the observation of spin offs, the larger externally linked definition of the problem, linkage with the local community that shared the need for solving similar problems, association with local laboratory and network of scientists, and independent learning to augment the received knowledge facilitated the leveraging process for a successful journey. |
| Date: | 2007–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2007-01-04&r=knm |
| By: | Martin Fukac |
| Abstract: | We analyze the economic dynamics in a basic New Keynesian model adjusted for imperfect, heterogeneous knowledge and adaptive learning. The policy, represented by a forward-looking Taylor rule, is driven by the central bankŽs own internal forecasts, whereas the core economic dynamics are driven by private agentsŽ expectations. We study the implications of disagreement between those two. We find that if there is expectations heterogeneity, monetary policy should be less active in its actions in order to be short-run stability improving, and to affect positively the speed of convergence towards the first best equilibrium in the long run. This is in contrast to the homogeneous incomplete knowledge literature, which predicts the opposite. We also find that the homogeneous expectations economy is easier to operate in for monetary policy, and that policy can be more effective than in the heterogeneous expectations economy. From the perspective of incomplete, heterogeneous knowledge and adaptive learning methodology, we can thus see the importance of good communication policy and monetary policy credibility. |
| Keywords: | . Imperfect and heterogeneous knowledge, adaptive learning, monetary policy. |
| JEL: | E52 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2006/5&r=knm |
| By: | Antonia R. Gurrieri (University of Bari); Luca Petruzzellis (University of Bari) |
| Abstract: | This study is concerned with the factors that influence the cooperation among cluster-based firms. Theorists have consistently demonstrated the role and importance of economic externalities, such as knowledge spillovers, within industrial clusters. Less attention has been paid to the investigation of social based externalities, though it has been suggested that these may also accrue from geographical agglomeration. This study explores the development of cooperation between firms operating in a single industry sector and in close proximity. The results suggest that social networking has a greater influence than geographic proximity in facilitating inter-firm co-operation. A semi-structured questionnaire has been developed and the answers were analysed with a stepwise regression model. |
| Keywords: | Networks, Inter-Firm Cooperation, SMEs |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2006.134&r=knm |