|
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
|
Issue of 2008‒01‒19
twelve papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Uwe Cantner (Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena); Kristin Joel (Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena); Tobias Schmidt (Deutsche Bundesbank, Economic Research Centre) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate factors that influence a firm's decision to implement knowledge management practices. Our focus is on knowledge management practices implemented to increase collaboration between actors within a firm on innovation activities. Using information on over 1,500 innovative German firms from the Mannheim Innovationpanel of 2003, we find that an innovation strategy targeted at consumers and continuous R+D activities is positively related to KM usage. In addition, more general firm characteristics like size and the industry of a firm do influence the decision to use knowledge management as well. |
| Keywords: | knowledge management, innovation, Mannheim Innovation Panel |
| JEL: | D23 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2008–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-002&r=knm |
| By: | U. Witt; C. Zellner |
| Abstract: | New knowledge with potential commercial value is created, replicated, and transferred in a distributed manner. The highly systemic nature of knowledge production and the need for any knowledge to be individually acquired and expressed in order to produce an effect, jointly constrain the dynamics of knowledge commercialization. This paper analyzes the nature of these constraints from an individualistic perspective, focusing particularly on the often neglected entrepreneurial aspects of the knowledge transfer. It explains how the constraints are overcome by organizational adaptations inside firms so that a sustained knowledge transfer into the commercial sphere of the innovation system can be secured. |
| Keywords: | Length 18 pages |
| JEL: | D23 D83 J24 M13 M51 O31 O40 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2007-19&r=knm |
| By: | Wennberg, Karl (Dept. of Business Administration, Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of knowledge in the evolution of new financial services ventures in Sweden between 1990 and 2002. Drawing upon economic theories of human capital and spin-out entrepreneurship, we investigate if knowledge from prior employment in the financial and technological industries facilitates the survival of new entrepreneurial firms. Based on a database tracking the evolution of 1,077 financial services ventures, we find that firms with more extensive knowledge from the financial services and high-tech sectors have higher chances of survival than firms with more narrow knowledge bases. Our findings offer contributions to the emerging literature on spin-out entrepreneurship and to research on entrepreneurship in services. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Spin-out; spin-off; Knowledge; Financial services; Survival analysis |
| Date: | 2008–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastba:2008_001&r=knm |
| By: | Rajneesh Narula (Department of Economics, University of Reading Business School); Grazia D. Santangelo (Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, Università degli Studi di Catania) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows empirically that in an intra-industry oligopolistic scenario the location of a firm’s innovative activities plays an important role in determining its partner selection in R&D alliances. Such a role is mainly attributed to a strategic use of R&D alliances as a means to limit knowledge flows and protect competences, rather than to promote knowledge flows. By drawing on a novel dataset matching alliances and patent data for the European ICT industry, the econometric analysis shows that partners’ prior co-location (at both national and sub-national regional level), previous ties and technological overlap matter in the choice of partner, while common nationality has a negative impact on alliance formation. |
| Keywords: | Alliances, R&D location, strategy, co-location, knowledge flows |
| JEL: | D23 F23 O18 O32 R3 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:wpaper:em-dp2007-43&r=knm |
| By: | Mika Maliranta; Pierre Mohnen; Petri Rouvinen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : An employer-employee panel is used to study whether the movement of workers across firms is a channel of unintended diffusion of R&D-generated knowledge. Somewhat surprisingly, hiring workers from others’ R&D labs to one’s own does not seem to be a significant spillover channel. Hiring workers previously in R&D to one’s non-R&D activities, however, boosts both productivity and profitability. This is interpreted as evidence that these workers transmit knowledge that can be readily copied and implemented without much additional R&D effort. |
| Keywords: | labor mobility, R&D spillovers, profitability, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | D62 J24 J62 L25 O31 |
| Date: | 2008–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1116&r=knm |
| By: | Christoph Grimpe (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim); Ulrich Kaiser (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Determining the research and development (R&D) boundaries of the firm as the choice between internal, collaborative and external technology acquisition has since long been a major challenge for firms to secure a continuous stream of innovative products or processes. While research on R&D cooperation or strategic alliances is abundant, little is known about the outsourcing of R&D activities to contract research organizations and its implications for innovation performance. This paper investigates the driving forces of external technology sourcing through contract research based on arguments from transaction cost theory and the resource-based view of the firm. Using a large and comprehensive data set of innovating firms from Germany our findings suggest that technological uncertainty, contractual experience and openness to external knowledge sources motivate the choice for engaging in contract research activities. Moreover, we show that internal and external R&D sourcing are complements: the marginal contribution of internal (external) R&D is the larger the more firms spend on external (internal) R&D. |
| Keywords: | contract research, innovation; transaction cost theory; firm capabilities |
| JEL: | O32 C24 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuieci:2008-01&r=knm |
| By: | Czellar, Sandor; Luna, David |
| Abstract: | In this paper, three experiments investigate the role of expertise as a moderator of the relationship between implicit and explicit measures of attitudes |
| Keywords: | object knowledge and expertise; attitude measurement; implicit measures of attitudes; Implicit Association Test |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2007–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:0877&r=knm |
| By: | Toepoel, V.; Das, J.W.M.; Soest, A.H.O. van (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Panel conditioning arises if respondents are influenced by participation in previous surveys, such that their answers differ significantly from the answers of individuals who are interviewed for the first time. Having two panels?a trained one and a completely fresh one?created a unique opportunity for analysing panel conditioning effects. To determine which type of question is sensitive to panel conditioning, 981 trained respondents and 2809 fresh respondents answered nine questions with different question types. The results in this paper show that panel conditioning only arise in knowledge questions. Questions on attitudes, actual behaviour, or facts were not sensitive to panel conditioning. Panel conditioning in knowledge questions was restricted to less-known subjects (more difficult questions), suggesting a relation between panel conditioning and cognition. |
| Keywords: | panel conditioning;re-interviewing;measurement error;panel surveys |
| JEL: | C42 C81 C93 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:20084&r=knm |
| By: | Guido Cozzi; Silvia Galli |
| Abstract: | Brilliant ideas are key to economic growth. They often emerge from scienti c discoveries with no immediate commercial value so rewards may not be aligned to e¤ort. Should basic research be publicly or privately funded? And, to foster innovation and growth, what kinds of discovery should be protected? Post 1980, the US intellectual property institutions facilitated the patentability of basic research. The European and other patenting regimes are slowly changing in the same direction, also encouraged by TRIPs. Did the US choose the better path? We build a Schumpeterian model to re-assess this important turning point. |
| Keywords: | R&D and Growth, Sequential Innovation, Research Tools, Patent Laws, Kremer Mechanism |
| JEL: | O31 O34 O41 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2008_01&r=knm |
| By: | Harabi, Najib |
| Abstract: | Knowledge has always been at the heart of economic growth and development. It is disseminated chiefly through the different stages of education, R&D, the mass media and the translation industry. In Arab countries there has been a widespread impression that there is a low level of translation activities, which in turn has led to a low output of the translation industry in those countries. This research project addresses this issue; its overall objectives are (1) to describe the economic performance of the Arabic book translation industry in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Syria; (2) to understand empirically the economic performance of that industry, the focus here being on qualitatively analyzing the major determinants (positive and negative factors) affecting the growth process of that industry; and (3) to provide policy makers and business leaders in the Arab region with theoretically sound and evidence-based advice on the issues analyzed in the project. To provide an empirical base for answering those questions, both published data and fresh new data have been used. For the latter purpose, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted in the year 2005 among 190 experts, covering firm representatives and experts in industry and government. The Porter (Diamond) model has been used as a theoretical background. The empirical results were incorporated in five national case studies. In addition, a synthesis of the results of the national reports gives a comparative account of the performance of the Arabic book translation industry in the five Arab countries |
| Keywords: | Book industry; Arabic book; Arab countries; Egypt; Morocco; Lebanon; Syria; Saudi-Arabia; translation; Arabic translation |
| JEL: | L89 Z11 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6707&r=knm |
| By: | Zhang, Lijuan; Rozelle, Scott; Huang, Jikun; Dinar, Ariel; Mendelsohn, Robert; Wang, Jinxia |
| Abstract: | Several studies addressing the supply and demand for food in China suggest that the nation can largely meet its needs in the coming decades. However, these studies do not consider the effects of climate change. This paper examines whether near future expected changes in climate are likely to alter this picture. The authors analyze the effect of temperature and precipitation on net crop revenues using a cross section consisting of both rainfed and irrigated farms. Based on survey data from 8,405 households across 28 provinces, the results of th e Ricardian analysis demonstrate that global warming is likely to be harmful to China but the impacts are likely to be very different in each region. The mid latitude region of China may benefit from warming but the southern and northern regions are likely to be damaged by warming. More precipitation is beneficial to Chinese farmers except in the wet southeast. Irrigated and rainfed farmers have similar responses to precipitation but not to temperature. Warmer temperatures may benefit irrigated farms but they are likely to harm rainfed farms. Finally, seasonal effects vary and are offsetting. Although we were able to measure the direct effect of precipitation and temperature, we could not capture the effects of change in water flow which will be very important in China. Can China continue feeding itself if climate changes? Based on the empirical results, the likely gains realized by some farmers will nearly offset the losses that will occur to other farmers in China. If future climate scenarios lead to significant reductions in water, there may be large damages not addressed in this study. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change,Crops & Crop Management Systems,Global Environment Facility,Common Property Resource Development,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4470&r=knm |
| By: | MacLaren, Donald; Lloyd, Peter; Anderson, Kym |
| Abstract: | Australia ' s lackluster economic growth performance in the first four decades following W orld War II was in part due to an anti-trade, anti-primary sector bias in government assistance policies. This paper provides new annual estimates of the extent of those biases since 1946 and their gradual phase-out during the past two decades. In doing so it reveals that the timing of the sector assistance cuts was such as sometimes to improve but sometimes to worsen the distortions to incentives faced by farmers. The changes increased the variation of assistance rates within agriculture during the 1950s and 1960s, reducing the welfare contribution of those programs in that period. Although the assistance pattern within agriculture appears not to have been strongly biased against exporters, its reform has coincided with a substantial increase in the export orientation of many farm industries. The overall pattern for Australia is contrasted with that revealed by comparable new estimates for other high-income countries. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory & Research,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems,Emerging Markets,Banks & Banking Reform,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4471&r=knm |