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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2008‒01‒05
twenty papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Lars Bo Jeppesen; Keld Laursen |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a model of knowledge sharing of lead users located in a public and unrestricted community of users. While existing literature on knowledge sharing focuses on allocation and collaboration processes inside or among companies we extend this to the community level. We then focus on how key agents — lead users — facilitate knowledge sharing in this setting and the features that moderate such sharing. Our results show that lead users are central to search and integration of knowledge from different external sources of relevance to their communities. Inside the community lead users are active in both “giving and taking” knowledge. Further, as users build up experience they tend to give more knowledge, thus suggesting a dynamic pattern of knowledge sharing in which increases in experience make way for important knowledge diffusion processes in the community. |
| Keywords: | Lead users; knowledge sharing; innovation; on-line community |
| JEL: | D83 O31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-24&r=knm |
| By: | El-Sharkawy, Omneya Khairy |
| Abstract: | Tourist Guides, like all employees within the travel (Tourism) industry must be aware of the needs of travelers (Tourists) and adjust their service and products accordingly, to accomplish this goal TGs are expected to process knowledge of guiding. This paper measures the degree of the influence of the area of study and the level of knowledge on experienced TGs through a study conducted on 200 of 6846 the working population of TGs in 2005, licensed to work in the field by the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt. The study used a self-administered questionnaire that revealed important results showing defects in the areas of study and shortage in the knowledge background of the TGs to a certain extend. The conclusion of the study will propose a guiding scheme to develop a certain standard of education and knowledge needed by TGs in Egypt in their drive towards professional recognition, in order to be able to perform effectively in an increasingly competitive field. |
| Keywords: | tour guides (TG); area of study; knowledge background; Egypt |
| JEL: | M0 L83 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6369&r=knm |
| By: | Maarten van Rooij (De Nederlandsche Bank); Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College); Rob Alessie (Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | Individuals are increasingly put in charge of their financial security after retirement. Moreover, the supply of complex financial products has increased considerably over the years. However, we still have little or no information about whether individuals have the financial knowledge and skills to navigate this new financial environment. To better understand financial literacy and its relation to financial decision-making, we have devised two special modules for the DNB Household Survey. We have designed questions to measure numeracy and basic knowledge related to the working of inflation and interest rates, as well as questions to measure more advanced financial knowledge related to financial market instruments (stocks, bonds, and mutual funds). We evaluate the importance of financial literacy by studying its relation to the stock market: Are more financially knowledgeable individuals more likely to hold stocks? To assess the direction of causality, we make use of questions measuring financial knowledge before investing in the stock market. We find that, while the understanding of basic economic concepts related to inflation and interest rate compounding is far from perfect, it outperforms the limited knowledge of stocks and bonds, the concept of risk diversification, and the working of financial markets. We also find that the measurement of financial literacy is very sensitive to the wording of survey questions. This provides additional evidence for limited financial knowledge. Finally, we report evidence of an independent effect of financial literacy on stock market participation: Those who have low financial literacy are significantly less likely to invest in stocks. |
| Keywords: | Portfolio choice; Knowledge of Economics and Finance, Financial Sophistication |
| JEL: | D91 G11 D80 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:66&r=knm |
| By: | Andrea Morrison; Carlo Pietrobelli; Roberta Rabellotti (SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a critical review of the Global Value Chain literature in light of the “Technological Capabilities” approach to innovation in LDCs. Participation in GVC is beneficial for firms in LDCs, which are bound to source technology internationally. However, the issues of learning and technological efforts at the firm-level remain largely uncovered by the GVC literature. We propose a shift in the empirical and theoretical agenda, arguing that research should integrate the analysis of the endogenous process of technological capability development, of the specific firm-level efforts and of the mechanisms allowing knowledge to flow within and between different global value chains into the GVC literature. |
| Keywords: | global value chains, technological capabilities, learning, innovation, LDCs |
| JEL: | F23 L22 O31 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upo:upopwp:117&r=knm |
| By: | Jin, Songqing; Deininger, Klaus |
| Abstract: | The importance of land rental for overall economic development has long been recognized in theory, yet empirical evidence on the productivity and equity impacts of such markets and the extent to which they realize their potential has been scant. Representative data from China ' s nine most important agricultural provinces illustrate the impact of rental markets on households ' economic strategies and welfare, and the productivity of land use at the plot level. Although there are positive impacts in each of these dimensions, transaction costs constrain participation by many producers, thus preventing rental markets from attaining their full potential. The paper identifies factors that increase transaction costs and provides a rough estimate of the productivity and equity impacts of removing them. |
| Keywords: | Banks & Banking Reform,Political Economy,Economic Theory & Research,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4454&r=knm |
| By: | Camilla Lenzi |
| Abstract: | In recent years, increasing attention and resources have been devoted to the analysis of workers’ mobility and the collection of new and extensive datasets in order to monitor and appraise this phenomenon. Most of the studies make use of information about inventors extracted from patent data. In fact, patent data collects detailed information on inventors, their geographical location and the applicants of their patents. This paper instead makes use of unique data on inventors’ curriculum vitae collected through a survey addressed to a group of Italian inventors in the pharmaceutical field and compares this information to those extracted from patent data. Results seem to challenge the traditional interpretation of mobility phenomena based on patent data and suggest that patent and survey data might capture different aspects of inventors’ career path. In particular, results indicate that survey data describes the whole set of inventors’ employers and the knowledge flows across them. Conversely, patent data portrays a different set that is the one composed of those actors directly involved in inventive processes and participating to the production of patented knowledge. More interestingly, they overlap only partially and do not necessarily coincide. |
| Keywords: | Patent; Mobility; Inventor |
| JEL: | J60 O30 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-22&r=knm |
| By: | Luis Garicano; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of information and communication technology on growth through its impact on organization and innovation. Agents accumulate knowledge through two activities: innovation (discovering new technologies) and exploitation (learning how to use the current technology). Exploitation requires the development of organizations to coordinate the work of experts, which takes time. The costs and benefits of such organizations depend on the cost of communicating and acquiring information. We find that while advances in information technology that lower information acquisition costs always increase growth, improvements in communication technology may lead to lower growth and even to stagnation, as the payoff to exploiting innovations through organizations increases relative to the payoff of new radical innovations. |
| JEL: | D23 E32 L23 O31 O40 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13705&r=knm |
| By: | Caroline Hussler (RECITS - Universite de Technologie de Belfort Montbeliard; BETA - Univeriste Louis Pasteur); Andre Lorentz (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Evolutionary Economics Group, Jena); Patrick Ronde (GRAICO - Universite de Haute Alsace) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a theoretical model of spatial duopoly, where the location, on the one hand, and the absorptive capacity of ï¬rms as function of their internal R+D investment, on the other hand, endogenously determine the maximum level of knowledge spillovers ï¬rms might absorb. Our goal is to test whether this new modelling of spillovers affects the traditional outcomes in terms of ï¬rms location choices . We solve a three-stage game, where ï¬rms choose their geographical location, prior to their level of internal R+D expenditures, and ï¬nally compete in prices. We found that, at the optimum, ï¬rms choose the same level of internal R+D and set the same price, independently of their location. Moreover, ï¬rms locate symmetrically and tends to agglomerate in the center of the market as the transportation costs increase, knowledge spillovers being in that case maximum. |
| Keywords: | Spatial Agglomeration, Endogenous Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, Non-Cooperative Game |
| JEL: | O33 R12 L13 |
| Date: | 2007–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2007-102&r=knm |
| By: | Michel, Julie |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to participate in the discussion of the effects of outward FDI in R&D on the home country. The main possible threat for home economies is the relocation of R&D activities to foreign regions and, as a result, the loss of technological capacity. This study contributes to this issue by analysing the role played by the home country in the development of the multinational enterprises’ innovative activities. Three different elements will be evaluated: the extent of R&D activities operated outside the home country; the compared value of foreign and home R&D activities; and the role of the home country as a source of knowledge. These elements are investigated through an analysis of patents and patent citations of 71 Swiss MNEs issued between 1978 and 2006. |
| Keywords: | R&D; Home countries; Innovation; MNEs |
| JEL: | F23 O32 O31 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6400&r=knm |
| By: | Nagarajan, Hari K.; Jin, Songqing; Deininger, Klaus |
| Abstract: | Recognition of the importance of institutions that provide security of property rights and relatively equal access to economic resources to a broad cross-section of society has renewed interest in the potential of asset redistribution, including land reforms. Empirical analysis of the impact of such policies is, however, scant and often contradictory. This paper uses panel household data from India, together with state-level variation in the implementation of land reform, to address some of the deficiencies of earlier studies. The results suggest that land reform had a significant and positive impact on income growth and accumulation of human and physical capital. The paper draws policy implications, especially from the fact that the observed impact of land reform see ms to have declined over time. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Political Economy,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems,Municipal Housing and Land,Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4448&r=knm |
| By: | Mikhail Anufriev; Pietro Dindo |
| Abstract: | We study the co-evolution of asset prices and agents' wealth in a financial market populated by an arbitrary number of heterogeneous, boundedly rational investors. We model assets' demand to be proportional to agents' wealth, so that wealth dynamics can be used as a selection device. For a general class of investment behaviors, we are able to characterize the long run market outcome, i.e.~the steady-state equilibrium values of asset return, and agents' survival. Our investigation illustrates that market forces pose certain limits on the outcome of agents' interactions even within the ``wilderness of bounded rationality''. As an application we show that our analysis provides a rigorous explanation for the results of the simulation model introduced in Levy, Levy, and Solomon (1994). |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous agents, Asset pricing model, Bounded rationality, CRRA framework, Levy-Levy-Solomon model, Evolutionary Finance. |
| Date: | 2007–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2007/27&r=knm |
| By: | Sara C. Santos Cruz (CETE, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Aurora A.C. Teixeira (INESC Porto; CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | In the contemporary globalising knowledge-based economies, local clusters have become crucial elements of regional development, assuming a significant role in both academic and political fields. Although there is an intuitive awareness about the raising importance of the theoretical debate on clusters, there is a substantial lack of empirical support of its precise magnitude and evolution. Moreover, the majority of literature surveys on clusters are exclusively qualitative-based. Aiming at filling this gap, the main purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative survey of the cluster literature, using bibliometric techniques based on articles. Based on a throughout analysis of all abstracts of articles on clusters published in journals indexed on the Econlit and EBSCO databases, covering the period 1962-2007, our research show that besides their importance in academic fields, the role of clusters has also been widely acknowledged in political spheres. In parallel with the increasing interest in the ‘local’, there has been, as well, an emergent body of literature on global networks and clusters. Moreover, on the basis of the recent boom on clusters literature stands the emergent themes of ‘local networks and social approaches’ and ‘knowledge-based theories’. Literature associated to ‘regional and national innovation systems’ and to ‘institutional approaches’ (local enrooted cultures, governance and customs) has been object of a particular dynamism since the 1990s. Despite the evidence of a clear positive correlation between journals ‘quality’ and formal related research, the evolution of the literature on clusters continues to be mostly appreciative led. |
| Keywords: | Clusters, Industrial Clusters, Industrial Location; Bibliometrics |
| JEL: | L22 R3 R10 R12 C89 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:257&r=knm |
| By: | Alessandro STERLACCHINI (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Management ed Organizzazione Aziendale); Francesco SCHETTINO (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of a survey on a regional sample of Italian inventors who, over the period 1991-2005, have submitted patent applications to the European Patent Office. The inventors' features and patenting activities are mainly examined according to the size of the firms they are working in. Compared to those coming from medium-large companies, `small inventors' (encompassing employees or owners of small firms and independent inventors) have a lower educational level, ascribe less importance to codified sources of knowledge and are less productive in terms of patent applications. However, by using forward citations and other indicators, it emerges that there is no difference in the average quality of patented inventions of the two groups. Nevertheless, one third of small inventors evaluates negatively its patenting experience, while it is true for only a tiny fraction of larger patentees. On the basis of further interviews, we find that the inventors' assessments are particularly influenced by their different capabilities to enforce intellectual property rights. |
| Keywords: | European patents, Firm size, Intellectual property rights, Inventors, Patent quality |
| JEL: | L20 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:308&r=knm |
| By: | Axel Lindner |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses in a simple global games framework welfare effects of different communication strategies of a central bank: it can either publish no more than its overall assessment of the economy or be more transparent, giving detailed reasons for this assessment. The latter strategy is shown to be superior because it enables agents to use private information and to be less dependent on common knowledge. This result holds true even if the strategies of agents are strategic complements, for which case it has been argued that too much transparency might induce agents to neglect their private knowledge. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:16-07&r=knm |
| By: | Almas Heshmati (University of Kurdistan Hawler, HIEPR and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This study is a review of the recent trends in development economics research. The focus is on the development in the recent decades as a result of increased globalization of knowledge, technologies and economies. In particular I look at the development in a number area where similar trends are observed. The areas studied include globalization, in-sourcing and outsourcing activities, the increased flow of direct foreign investment and its heterogeneous regional distribution, the increased public investment in information and communication technologies as infrastructure for development, the importance of commercialization and transfer of technologies, and increased income inequality and concentration of severe poverty in certain regions. In addition I briefly elaborate on the role of education, research, and training to enhance development capability and capacity, the increased strategic importance of natural resources and the increased interregional trade flow. I also investigate the development in the Federal Region of Kurdistan since its gained self-governance in 1991 as a case study by referring to the above developments. |
| Keywords: | development economics, information and communication technology, foreign direct investment, globalization, outsourcing, technology, capability, energy, trade flows, inequality and poverty, technology transfer |
| JEL: | D83 F10 F21 I30 L24 O10 O47 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3208&r=knm |
| By: | Maarten van Rooij; Arjen Siegmann; Peter Vlaar |
| Abstract: | Market valuation is becoming more and more popular, both in accounting and regulation, as well as in academic circles. For pension funds and their participants, the knowledge that market-valued pension liabilities can indeed be transferred to a third party, if necessary, is a great virtue. Using a simulation model, this paper demonstrates the implicit costs and benefits of using market valuation for a typical Dutch pension fund, which offers a guaranteed average pay nominal pension with conditional indexation. The impact turns out to be fairly small, if fixed discount rates are still used for conditional rights. However, if market valuation is used for both unconditional and conditional rights, contribution volatility increases significantly. A remedy is to increase the duration of assets considerably. It is not clear, though, whether this option is available for large pension funds given the limited supply of long-term bonds. |
| Keywords: | defined benefit pension funds; fair value versus actuarial discounting; Monte Carlo simulation; asset and liability management; pension liabilities; conditional indexation |
| JEL: | G23 C15 C59 J18 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:159&r=knm |
| By: | Kazuhiro Takino (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we consider a derivative pricing model for the stochastic volatility model under an incomplete information. The incomplete information in our works, supposes that the true value of the drift for the stock price process is a random variable, investors only have an information of its distribution. This is more practical financial market than the situation with knowledge of the drift. There are many studies about the dynamic portfolio optimization problem under the incomplete information. In that situation, the corresponding problem becomes a easy to treat by Separating Principle and Bayesian updating formula. We apply these arguments to the utility indifference price approach, and present pricing method taken into account the incomplete information. On the other hand, Sircar and Zariphopoulou (2005) gives bounds and asymptotic approximations for the indifference prices in the stochastic volatility model. In them works, bounds include the drift parameter for the underlying price process. However, in practice, it is able to observe the drift parameter by estimation only. Therefore, it is meaningful to extended to the incomplete information. We derive bounds for the indifference prices using estimated drift, and the relationship between the buyerfs indifference price and the sellerfs one. |
| Keywords: | Incomplete market, Incomplete information, Utility indifference price, Bayesian updating formula, Super/sub solution for PDEs. |
| JEL: | G11 G13 G14 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0746&r=knm |
| By: | Kristoffer Nimark (Reserve Bank of Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces private information into the dynamic pricing decision of firms in an otherwise standard new Keynesian model by adding an idiosyncratic component to firms’ marginal costs. The model can then replicate two stylised facts about price changes: aggregate inflation responds gradually and with inertia to shocks, while at the same time price changes of individual goods can be quite large. The inertial behaviour of inflation is driven by privately informed firms strategically ‘herding’ on the public information contained in the observations of lagged aggregate variables. The model also matches the average duration between price changes found in the data and it nests the standard new Keynesian Phillips curve as a special case. To solve the model, the paper derives an algorithm for solving a class of dynamic models with higher-order expectations. |
| Keywords: | higher-order expectations; idiosyncratic marginal cost; price dynamics; new Keynesian Phillips curve |
| JEL: | E30 F41 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2007-12&r=knm |
| By: | Erlingsson, Gissur Ó. (The Ratio Institute) |
| Abstract: | Since individuals demanding formations of new parties face a collective action problem, I inquire why people form new parties, and why this political strategy became increasingly popular between 1973 and 2002 in Swedish municipalities. Case-studies indicate that ‘strong emotions’ – i.e. anger, frustration and indignation – mobilize rational actors to start up new parties. However, ‘strong emotions’ only explain why individuals form parties in the first place, not why party formation has become a popular strategy. Hence, I hypothesize that entrepreneurs forming parties at t inspire potential entrepreneurs in neighbouring municipalities at t + 1. Since previous attempts to explain the increasing number of new parties in Sweden have failed, I maintain that the support the hypothesis gains adds important knowledge to this field. |
| Keywords: | Party entrepreneurs; new parties; emotional arousal; rational imitation; local politics; Sweden |
| JEL: | D01 D71 D72 H41 |
| Date: | 2008–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0115&r=knm |
| By: | Arnousse Beaulière (GED, Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | Le présent papier se propose d’étudier la relation entre la pauvreté et la fécondité en Haïti. Les données sont issues de l’Enquête Démographique et de Santé (EDS) d'Haïti de 2000. L’approche de la pauvreté utilisée est une forme d’opérationnalisation du concept de fonctionnements ou capabilités élémentaires de Sen (1999) – pauvreté non monétaire. La fécondité est définie en termes de parité – nombre moyen d’enfants qu’a eu une femme pendant les cinq années précédant l’enquête. Les principales conclusions de cette recherche se résument ainsi : d’une part, comme dans le cas des pays africains, l’impact de la pauvreté sur les comportements de fécondité des femmes, en Haïti, n’est pas connu à l’avance contrairement aux idées reçues. C’est ainsi que, d’autre part, la relation « pauvreté-fécondité » indique que l’effet de la pauvreté diminue lorsque l’on contrôle, notamment, par des variables comme la région de résidence du ménage. Ceci peut s’expliquer par le fait que la localisation géographique du ménage peut se révéler un puissant facteur de pauvreté non monétaire. Dans cette optique, il est probable que l’influence de la région de résidence atténue partiellement l’impact de la pauvreté sur la fécondité. Enfin, s’inscrivant dans un contexte particulier de profondes mutations économiques, sociales et politiques, cette recherche mérite d’être approfondie pour voir, entre autres, dans quelle mesure celles-ci peuvent affecter le processus de transition démographique qui est encore balbutiant en Haïti. Ce, en vue d’enrichir le débat sur les relations entre la pauvreté et la fécondité, et d’aider, par ailleurs, les décideurs à mieux concevoir les politiques publiques en matière de santé de la reproduction. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relation between poverty and fertility starting from the data of Demographic Health Survey (DHS) of Haiti of 2000. The concept of poverty is apprehended according to an approach relating to the concept of functionings or basic capabilities of Sen (1999) - non monetary poverty. The definition of fertility retained is the parity - an average number children whom a woman had preceding during the five years the survey. The principal conclusions of this study are the following. First, as in the case of many African countries, unlike the commonplace, the "poverty-fertility" relation is complex. Second, hence, we have to take the impact of other factors such as the residence place of the household into account in the analysis. The latter could be a very important factor of non monetary poverty, and hence influence the “poverty-fertility” relation by reducing the impact of poverty on the fertility. Third, this research needs to be continued in order to improve one’s knowledge of the “poverty-fertility” relations and, then, to help the authorities to better conceive the public policies in reproductive health.(Full text in french) |
| JEL: | J13 I31 I32 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mon:ceddtr:141&r=knm |