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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2008‒03‒08
nine papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano (University of Turin); Pierpaolo Patrucco (University of Turin); Quatraro Francesco (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper articulates the hypothesis that there is an optimal size of knowledge pools. Too little a density of innovation activities reduces the accessibility of external knowledge. Too large a density enhances congestion and reduces appropriability. Firms can benefit from actual increasing returns stemming from the indivisibility, replicability and non-exhaustibility of knowledge only when the size of innovation networks is comprised between the two extremes. The empirical evidence confirms that the output elasticity of knowledge, included in a typical Griliches production function, is itself a quadratic function of the size of innovation networks. Knowledge externalities do trigger increasing returns that are external to each firm, only within a well defined interval. Knowledge externalities are a property of the system into which firms are embedded. As such they are endogenous to the system and likely to exhibit specific properties related to the changing characteristics of the system itself. The quality of knowledge governance mechanisms in place plays a key role in assessing the actual size of the net positive effects of knowledge externalities. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:200801&r=knm |
| By: | Grimpe, Christoph; Kaiser, Ulrich |
| 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: | C24 O32 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7013&r=knm |
| By: | Brian, HILL |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes, firstly, a versatile model of awareness and awareness change, and secondly, logics for awareness and awareness change developed using this model. |
| Keywords: | Awareness; knowledge; logic of awareness; awareness change; belief revision. |
| JEL: | D70 D80 D82 |
| Date: | 2007–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:0881&r=knm |
| By: | Otto, Anne (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Fornahl, Dirk |
| Abstract: | "This paper explores how different levels of regional concentration and specialisation affect the long-term growth of young firms. The sample consists of knowledge-intensive and non-knowledge-intensive western German manufacturing firms which were set-up in 1992 and managed to survive 11 years. The paper examines the joint effect of regional, industrial and firm-specific determinants. The analysis of the concentration and specialisation factors takes into account the industrial and technological dimensions and the regional level of human capital. With regard to the concentration measures being located in an industrial or technological agglomeration slightly reduces the growth rates of start-ups. The same negative, but stronger, effect can be observed for competition measures. Furthermore, our results suggest that startups exhibit higher growth rates the higher specialised the region is in which they are located." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | R11 L25 R12 O30 |
| Date: | 2008–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200813&r=knm |
| By: | Larson, Donald F.; Butzer, Rita; Mundlak, Yair |
| Abstract: | The paper presents empirical analysis of a panel of countries to estimate an agricultural production function using a measure of capital in agriculture absent from most studies. The authors employ a heterogeneous technology framework where implemented technology is chosen jointly with inputs to interpret information obtained in the empirical analysis of panel data. The paper discuss es the scope for replacing country and time effects by observed variables and the limitations of instrumental variables. The empirical results differ from those reported in the literature for cross-country studies, largely in augmenting the role of capital, in combination with productivity gains, as a driver of agricultural growth. The results indicate that total factor productivity increased at an average rate of 3.2 percent, accounting for 59 percent of overall growth. Most of the remaining gains stem from large inflows of fixed capital into agriculture. The results also suggest possible constraints to fertilizer use. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory & Research,Labor Policies,Economic Growth,E-Business,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4536&r=knm |
| By: | Müller, Sune Dueholm (Department of Business Studies, Aarhus School of Business); Mathiassen, Lars (Georgia State University); Balshøj, Hans Henrik (Systematic Software Engineering) |
| Abstract: | Many software organizations have engaged in Software Process Improvement (SPI) and experienced the challenges related to managing such complex organizational change efforts. As a result, there is an increasing body of research investigating change management in SPI. To provide an overview of what we know and don’t know about SPI as organizational change, this paper addresses the following question: What are the dominant perspectives on SPI as organizational change in the literature and how is this knowledge presented and published? All journals on the AIS ranking list were screened to identify relevant articles and Gareth Morgan’s organizational metaphors (1996) were used to analyze this literature considering the following dimensions of each article: organizational perspective (metaphor), knowledge orientation (normative versus descriptive), theoretical emphasis (high versus low), main audience (practitioner versus academic), geographical origin (Scandinavia, the Americas, Europe, or the Asia-Pacific), and publication level (high versus low ranked journal). The review demonstrates that the literature on SPI as organizational change is firmly grounded in both theory and practice, and Scandinavia and the Americas are the main contributors to this research. The distribution of articles across Morgan’s metaphors is uneven and reveals knowledge gaps that present new avenues for research. The current literature offers important insights into organizational change in SPI from machine, organism, and brain perspectives. Practitioners may use these articles as a guide to SPI insights relevant to their improvement initiatives. In contrast, the impact of culture, dominance, psychic prison, flux and transformation, and politics in SPI have only received scant attention. We argue that these perspectives offer important insights into the challenges involved in managing change in SPI. Researchers are therefore advised to engage in new SPI research based on one or more of these perspectives. Overall, the paper provides a roadmap to help identify insights and specific articles related to SPI as organizational change. |
| Keywords: | Software Process Improvement; Organizational Change; Organizational Metaphors; Images of Organization; Literature Review |
| Date: | 2008–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:aarbin:2008-002&r=knm |
| By: | Cainelli, Giulio; Lupi, Claudio |
| Abstract: | The effect of spatial agglomeration (localisation and urbanisation economies) on employment growth is explored over a balanced panel of 23,374 Italian firms, using a flexible Bayesian model. Contrary to previous research, the agglomeration economies measures are calculated using direct measures of physical distances between pairs of firms, rather than with respect to pre-specified geographical units. We find that localisation effects are positive but decreasing with distance, while the variety effects are negative for distances within 10 kilometers and become positive for distances in a range of 10–30 kilometers. Our results suggest that the use of geographic units such as standard metropolitan units, LLS, administrative regions or provinces can be misleading. |
| Keywords: | Proximity, agglomeration, knowledge spillover, employment. |
| JEL: | R11 O47 |
| Date: | 2008–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mol:ecsdps:esdp08042&r=knm |
| By: | Corvellec, Hervé (Gothenburg Research Institute); Boholm, Åsa (Centrum för forskning om offentlig sektor (CEFOS), University of Gothenburg.) |
| Abstract: | Risk is a key topic in the communication between developers of infrastructure projects, permit-granting authorities, and civil society. The nature of risk communication is contested among academics, however. Whereas some scholars conceive of risk communication as a matter of effectively communicating expert knowledge on factual matters to the public, others emphasize the role of symbolic construction and rhetoric. This article analyses how wind farm developers rhetorically construct risks in relation to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a proposed project. In Sweden, an EIA is a legally mandatory step in the application for an environmental permit. Our analysis is inspired by the New Rhetoric, the theory of argumentation developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1958). It deals with the EIA for the Kriegers Flak project, the largest wind farm project granted an environmental permit in Scandinavia to date. We suggest that the authors of the EIA adopt a dual risk communication strategy; in the EIA they associate numerous risks to the project by identifying and cataloguing them; however, these risks are immediately disconnected from the project by being described as acceptable, manageable, negligible, or nonexistent. Although we draw from a single case study, we suggest that this paradoxical risk/no-risk dualism is characteristic of risk communication in EIAs, and we discuss some implications of such rhetoric of communication. |
| Keywords: | Risk communication; Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA); New Rhetoric; Environmental Planning; Wind power |
| Date: | 2008–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:gungri:2008_001&r=knm |
| By: | Jolie Mae Martin (Harvard Business School); John Leonard Beshears (Harvard Business School); Katherine Lyford Milkman (Harvard Business School); Max H. Bazerman (Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit); Lisa Sutherland (Dartmouth Medical School, Department of Pediatrics) |
| Abstract: | Background Research over the last several decades indicates the failure of existing nutritional labels to substantially improve the healthiness of consumers' food and beverage choices. The difficulty for policy-makers is to encapsulate a wide body of scientific knowledge in a labeling scheme that is comprehensible to the average shopper. Here, we describe our method of developing a nutrition metric to fill this void. Methods We asked leading nutrition experts to rate the healthiness of 205 sample foods and beverages, and after verifying the similarity of their responses, we generated a model that calculates the expected average healthiness rating that experts would give to any other product based on its nutrient content. Results The form of the model is a linear regression that places weights on 12 nutritional components (total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron) to predict the average healthiness rating that experts would give to any food or beverage. We provide sample predictions for other items in our database. Conclusions Major benefits of the model include its basis in expert judgment, its straightforward application, the flexibility of transforming its output ratings to any linear scale, and its ease of interpretation. This metric serves the purpose of distilling expert knowledge into a form usable by consumers so that they are empowered to make healthier decisions. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:08-082&r=knm |