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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2007‒04‒21
fourteen papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Coll Serrano, Vicente; Cuñat Giménez, Rubén |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to existing knowledge related to the worker cooperative (CTA) creation process by studying the factors that influence the process using an inductive-deductive method: the Grounded Theory. For this reason, a total of 37 in-depth interviews have been carried out with the founding members of worker cooperatives set up within the period of 2001-2002, all of which are located in the Valencian Community (Spain). As a consequence of the application of the methodology, we have identified a total of 29 codes or factors that influence the behaviour of the founding members in each of the stages involved in the process of the creation of CTA. |
| Keywords: | Firm creation process; worker cooperative; recently created worker cooperative; Grounded Theory; qualitative analysis |
| JEL: | M10 P13 J54 M13 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2667&r=knm |
| By: | Gerald Braun (Hanseatic Institute of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (HIE-RO) at Rostock University, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The new quality of international competition changes the function of universities dramatically. They have to ? in addition to their traditional role as sources of ideas, knowledge and intellectual capital ? become agents of innovations, i.e. entrepreneurial universities, enhance regional development and international competitiveness. The transformation of university produced knowledge into market-oriented innovations depends on the quality of academic entrepreneurship. The article analyses two competing approaches to promote academic entrepreneurship: The 'knowledge container' and the 'entrepreneurial learning' approach ? and their foundations in neoclassical and evolutionary growth theory. The obstacles to introduce entrepreneurial learning as an educational innovation are being analysed (non-innovative university culture/history/attitudes, bureaucratic over-regulation, defence of vested rights). The article finally discusses some conditions for successful academic entrepreneurship (corporate university entrepreneurs, change agents, inter-university competition, entrepreneurial universities as learning organisations) |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial university, academic entrepreneurship, container knowledge accumulation, entrepreneurial learning, educational innovations |
| JEL: | E1 E3 F2 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:150&r=knm |
| By: | Martín López, Sonia |
| Abstract: | The demographic change that is lived worldwide, and of particular form in Europe, as consequence of the aging of the population because of the increase of the life expectancy and the drastic reduction of the rates of fertility, has made jump the alarms because of the need to get a suitable management that does not put in danger the financial viability of the social protection systems. The members states have to make the necessary reforms that they lead to the modernization of their social protection systems guaranteeing both suitable and viable pensions and a sanitary assistance and an assistance of long duration of quality, accessible and lasting. To achieve these aims there is a widespread agreement to foment employment policies that stimulate the active aging and the prolongation of the professional life to stop the premature exit of the labour market of the 45-year-old major workers. Among the measurements to adopt for the maintenance of the workers in the companies there are the adjustment of the contents of the working places, the use of the internal knowledge and the permanent training of the workers. In the cases in which already there has been produced the expulsion of the labour market, the participation companies will can represent an exit of the situation of unemployment. But in order that the unemployed ones of major age decide to tackle their own managerial initiative they need formation, advice and helps. |
| Keywords: | Aging population; systems social protection; adjustment of the contents of the working places; workers of major age; cooperative societies; employee-owned companies |
| JEL: | P13 J54 E24 H55 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2666&r=knm |
| By: | Christoph Diensberg (Economics and Business Education, University of Rostock Hanseatic Institute for Entrepreneurship and Regional Development HIE-RO) |
| Abstract: | This article illustrates the case of the international network project BEPART (Baltic Entrepreneurship Partners) with its activities in entrepreneurship promotion. It starts with some basic thoughts on the understanding of entrepreneurship. The article then turns to European and regional development issues in the Baltic Sea Region by trying to show how the project work responds to related challenges. The next step describes the project goals and structure. Ten propositions on regional entrepreneurship promotion are presented as they represent a set of shared basic assumptions inside the network. They are also intended to be a tool for inducing more far reaching improvements in the field. Knowledge exchange and its effects are another issue that is highlighted. The article touches the topic of evaluation and learning within the project, and finally turns to innovations in entrepreneurship education and its foundations |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship promotion, entrepreneurship education, Baltic Sea Region, regional development |
| JEL: | A2 D8 L2 R5 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:149&r=knm |
| By: | Rao, Balkrishna |
| Abstract: | Globalization has benefited the economies of member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) by helping their businesses stay profitable through cost-effective outsourcing of mostly garden-variety tasks and some knowledge-based activities. With time, the latter will account for the lion’s share of work outsourced and emerging export houses will also tend to cater more to their own domestic markets because of their expanding infrastructure and growing manpower possessing advanced skills. This will result in a leveled playing field coaxing developed countries to adopt widespread innovations to maintain their high perch in the economic pecking order. Such large-scale creativity can be managed better if it could be gauged with an appropriate measure. This work propounds a new economic measure called the Gross Domestic Innovation (GDI) to quantify innovations in OECD countries. It will supplement universal measures such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), productivity and numbers concerning employment. Apart from the methodology for its estimation, the impact of GDI on the various facets of a vibrant economy is discussed and inter alia, the role of GDI in fighting inflation and alleviating the negative influences of globalization is stressed. Also, a tentative analysis on the economies of U.S., Japan, Germany and China is presented to illustrate the concept. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; GDI; GDP; OECD; Globalization; Patents |
| JEL: | O38 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2781&r=knm |
| By: | Dean Karlan; Martin Valdivia |
| Abstract: | Can one teach basic entrepreneurship skills, or are they fixed personal characteristics? Most academic and development policy discussions about microentrepreneurs focus on their access to credit, and assume their human capital to be fixed. The self-employed poor rarely have any formal training in business skills. However, a growing number of microfinance organizations are attempting to build the human capital of micro-entrepreneurs in order to improve the livelihood of their clients and help further their mission of poverty alleviation. Using a randomized control trial, we measure the marginal impact of adding business training to a Peruvian group lending program for female microentrepreneurs. Treatment groups received thirty to sixty minute entrepreneurship training sessions during their normal weekly or monthly banking meeting over a period of one to two years. Control groups remained as they were before, meeting at the same frequency but solely for making loan and savings payments. We find that the treatment led to improved business knowledge, practices and revenues. The program also improved repayment and client retention rates for the microfinance institution. Larger effects found for those that expressed less interest in training in a baseline survey. This has important implications for implementing similar market-based interventions with a goal of recovering costs. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, microentrepreneur, business skills, business training, credit |
| JEL: | M13 M0 M40 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:107&r=knm |
| By: | Made Torokoff (University of Tartu, Pärnu College) |
| Abstract: | One third of Estonian schools have been teaching business in one form or another since 1992, mostly using a Junior Achievement programme. Estonian universities have not had programmes for teachers of business or economics in comprehensive schools until now. How can we implement business teaching in the general education system on a larger scale and how can we promote enterprising behaviour? Research into business teaching is currently at an initial stage in Estonia. In order to establish the steps which must be taken for implementing programmes for business teaching, it is essential to identify our current situation. What are the general attitudes towards business in general? What do business people expect from schools? The author of the paper conducted surveys in both schools and companies in 2003-2005. This paper focuses on the issues of competitiveness and enterprises covered in the surveys. Using the data from the surveys, the paper aims to analyse the attitudes and views of teachers, students and parents towards studies in the general education system, and towards competitiveness in the labour market and enterprises. The teachers’ view is that their students are competitive on the labour market as long as their level of academic knowledge is good. Most students do not see business as a career option. However, the parents’ responses allow us to draw the conclusion that their interest in and need for knowledge in economics has risen sharply. The paper points out that even while there is no systematic training of business teachers, enterprising behaviour and mindset, and students’ leadership skills can be shaped in regular classes by all teachers at a pre-school level (kindergartens), along with primary, basic and secondary education |
| Keywords: | Estonian school, entrepreneurship education, enterprising behaviour, leader |
| JEL: | A2 I21 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:153&r=knm |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Wang, Ping |
| Abstract: | The long-term trends of urbanization suggest: not only have more cities formed, but the leading metropolises have grown larger, with a number of peripheral subcenters developing over time. Conventional models of urban growth are limited, in that commuting cost and congestion eventually result in decreasing returns in a monocentric city as population becomes very large. We construct a general-equilibrium model with dynamic interactions between spatial agglomeration and urban development, driven by location-dependent knowledge spillovers. Our contribution allows endogenous development of subcenters to capture benefits from knowledge spillovers and offset diminishing returns from urban congestion, thus permitting more sustained city growth. |
| Keywords: | Core-Periphery Urban Structure; Agglomerative Production Activity; Endogenous Formation of Cities |
| JEL: | R12 D51 C78 |
| Date: | 2007–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2770&r=knm |
| By: | Satoshi Yamazaki; Budy P. Resosudarmo |
| Abstract: | The Farmer Field School (FFS) is an intensive training program providing farmers with science based knowledge and practices, including integrated pest management (IPM). Recently there has been intensive debate as to whether or not this kind of training has any significant impact. Most case studies argue that the impact, in terms of a farmer’s ability to reduce the use or pesticides while increasing yields, is significant. However, studies conducted by Feder et al., using a household panel data set for Indonesia, could not confirm that this is the case. This paper utilizes Feder et al.’s data set and applies a modified model specification and a spatial econometric technique to re-evaluate whether or not the FFS induces better performances among farmers enrolled in the program and also among their neighbors, who are expected to receive some spillover knowledge from the FFS alumna. |
| Keywords: | agricultural economics, spatial econometrics, economic development |
| JEL: | Q12 C59 O13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2007-03&r=knm |
| By: | Per Blenker (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus); Poul Dreisler (Department of Management, School of Business, University of Aarhus); John Kjeldsen (Department of Marketing and Statistics, School of Business, University of Aarhus) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship has been declared the most significant driver in the future development of societal welfare. Businesses, organisations and the individual person should be motivated for – and develop competence in – perceiving new opportunities through reflective action and hence participate in the creation of change and growth in society. This capacity and inclination for change and innovation is thus conceived as an important human trait, which has come to be known as “enterprising behaviour” in international research. In which ways do these demands challenge the universities and its role in regional and societal context? Interaction between universities, business sector and political system through the so-called “triple-helix-model” is said to be the basis for growth and innovation. Does it mean that knowledge creation and exchange should be based on the concept of the entrepreneurial university? Related to that, what are then the internal challenges for the entire education culture and for the role of the teacher / researcher? It is some of the questions the paper tries to answer or at least give some deeper insight to |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial university, triple-helix, enterprising behaviour, entrepreneurial culture, role of teacher / researcher |
| JEL: | A2 D8 I21 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:151&r=knm |
| By: | Smeets, Valérie (Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business); Warzynski, Frederic (Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we test implications from various theories of hierarchies in organizations, in particular the assignment model (Rosen, 1982), the incentives model (Rosen, 1986), the supervision model (Qian, 1994) and the knowledge- <p> based hierarchy model (Garicano, 2000; Garicano and Rossi-Hansberg, 2006). <p> We use a unique dataset providing personnel records from a large European <p> firm in an high tech manufacturing industry from January 1997 to May 2004. <p> An unusually rare feature of this dataset is that relationships within the hierarchy are reported and we can therefore identify the chain of command. <p> Some of our results are in line with the Garicano and Rossi-Hansberg (2006) <p> model of hierarchies when communication costs are decreasing: we observe <p> an increase in the span, an increase in wage inequality between job levels, and <p> the introduction of a new hierarchical level. However, we also find evidence <p> of learning and reallocation of talent within and across job levels, a finding <p> that can not be explained by a static model of knowledge based hierarchy <p> but rather by dynamic models of careers in organizations (e.g. Gibbons and <p> Waldman, 1999). We then propose a new model of hierarchies where individuals accumulate general and managerial human capital on the job, and firms <p> learn gradually about individuals' managerial ability and allocate managers <p> to span according to their expected effective ability. This theory explains our <p> empirical findings and provides a richer theory of careers in hierarchie |
| Keywords: | hierarchy; span of control; wage determination; promotions; careers |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:aareco:2006_010&r=knm |
| By: | Irena Grosfeld |
| Abstract: | The initial view of the advantages of ownership concentration in joint stock companies was determined by the concern about the opportunistic managerial behavior. The growing importance of knowledge and human capital in the operation of firms shifts the focus of concern: excessive ownership concentration may stifle managerial initiative. This may be particularly true, and the results obtained in this paper support this hypothesis, in firms with high share of knowledge related activities. I explore the determinants of ownership concentration and the relationship between ownership structure and firm value in the context of a transition economy, i.e. an economy undergoing important changes in its legal and regulatory framework, in macroeconomic policy and most of all, in its property rights allocation. I focus on all non-financial companies traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since its inception in 1991 and up to 2003. We can observe that ownership of companies becomes more dispersed with the number of years of listing. The results reported in this paper suggest that firm adjust their ownership structure to firm specific characteristics and that firms belonging to the sector of high technology tend to have lower ownership concentration. However, the positive impact of ownership concentration on firm value detected in OLS regressions becomes even stronger when we control for the endogeneity of ownership. |
| Keywords: | Ownership structure, corporate governance, firm behaviour, uncertainty, knowledge economy |
| JEL: | D21 G32 P2 P34 |
| Date: | 2006–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2006-834&r=knm |
| By: | Kevin H. O'Rourke; Ahmed S. Rahman; Alan M. Taylor |
| Abstract: | Technological change was unskilled-labor-biased during the early Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but is skill-biased today. This fact is not embedded in extant unified growth models. We develop a model of the transition to sustained economic growth which can endogenously account for both these facts, by allowing the factor bias of technological innovations to reflect the profitmaximising decisions of innovators. Endowments dictated that the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution be unskilled-labor biased. The transition to skill-biased technological change was due to a growth in “Baconian knowledge” and international trade. Simulations show that the model does a good job of tracking reality, at least until the mass education reforms of the late nineteenth century. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth, Demography, Trade |
| Date: | 2007–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp219&r=knm |
| By: | Jane Hall (CHERE, University of Technology, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | The topic of this paper is whether it is possible, given the current state of knowledge and technology, to design the appropriate market structure for managed competition. The next section reviews market failure in the private health insurance market. The subsequent two sections describe the principles of managed competition and its development and application in other countries. Then, the paper outlines recent developments in private health insurance policy in Australia, and proposals to apply managed competition in this country. The required design of the managed competition market place is described, and four major issues, risk adjustment, budget holding, consumer behaviour, and insurer behaviour, are identified. The final sections of the paper review the evidence on these four issues to determine if managed competition can be implemented, given current knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Health Insurance, Managed competition, Australia |
| JEL: | I11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:her:chedps:53&r=knm |