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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2008‒04‒15
seventeen papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Kaiserfeld, Thomas (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the formation of intermediary organizations of knowledge transfer in Sweden during the Cold War will be described and analysed. Here, intermediary organizations of knowledge transfer are defined as organizations aiming to transfer knowledge between knowledge producers and potential knowledge users (knowledge intermediaries for short). In theory, such organizations supply a platform for interaction between economic and academic life with problem-solving potential as well as development capability for the former and research opportunities for the latter. |
| Keywords: | knowledge intermediaries; policy convergence; innovation systems; system evolution |
| JEL: | N00 O25 O30 |
| Date: | 2008–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0121&r=knm |
| By: | ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to explain product development performance through the link between knowledge management and knowledge integration. When product development teams integrate knowledge about two external entities -customers and suppliers, they acquire a better understanding of the market and of each other´s needs and capabilities, which enables them to operate and innovate better than their competitors. In this context, our theoretical framework focuses on the social enablers usually associated to knowledge management, and combine them with knowledge integration as to determine product development performance. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp08-13&r=knm |
| By: | ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the clarification of the connections between knowledge management and dynamic capabilities in the context of product development to see how they explain product development competences. Building on the knowledge management and dynamic capabilities literatures, the paper argues that the social side of knowledge management has a role to play as enabler of dynamic capabilities in the context of product development. Further, dynamic capabilities shape product development competences. Empirical evidence is provided by performing survey research with data collected from 80 product development projects developed in Spain. |
| Keywords: | Capabilities , Knowledge management, Organizational knowledge |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp08-14&r=knm |
| By: | ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | Focusing on product development, this study extends the understanding of the environment-strategy framework and investigates the relative effect of two classical environmental variables, dynamism and complexity, on the knowledge strategy. Adopting a knowledge-based view, and assuming that the strategy´s locus is knowledge creation -exploration- and knowledge application -exploitation-, the study suggests that the development of a knowledge strategy is a managerial strategic choice that is related to the environment. The results of a survey on product development managers indicate that product development efforts operating in highly dynamic environments mostly pursue exploratory strategies. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp08-15&r=knm |
| By: | Mario Cimoli; Annalisa Primi |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to frame the IP for development debate into a more extensive discussion on appropriability, within the perspective of policies shaping scientific, technological and production capabilities in the light of development theory. Through the lenses of the paradigm based theory of innovation, the authors first recognize that technological asymmetries and gaps between firms and countries appear more as sticky features than as transitory stages of (automatic) adjustment processes, thus reassessing the appropriability ad disclosure function of patents. Then, the paper presents a taxonomy of contemporary markets for knowledge, flagging the existence of what we call derivative markets for knowledge. Patents become to a certain extent liquid because they loose the weight and the density of the technological component and they can easily circulate in the market without having necessarily to be entangled in any final artifact. Just as in derivative financial markets, the value of patents is a function of expectations regarding their uncertain potential future value. The paper concludes sketching the implications for development focusing on two major issues: i) how reassessing the role of IP through an evolutionary perspective affects behavioral microfoundations of innovative conducts and ii) how asymmetries in technological and production capacities between countries mould patenting behavior and participation and exclusion in the contemporary markets for knowledge. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property rights, patents, appropriability, markets for knowledge, developing countries |
| Date: | 2008–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2008/06&r=knm |
| By: | Dowrick, Steve (Australian National University); Tani, Massimiliano (Macquarie University, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of international business trips on the stock of knowledge available to an economy. It develops a theoretical model to analyse the possible effects, and presents an empirical application using productivity data for a panel of twelve Australian industries during 1991/2-2005/6. Business trips emerge as a significant source of productivity growth. As the knowledge transferred through business visits is non-rival, both countries of origin and destination can gain from the human capital of travellers. As a result, even countries traditionally disadvantaged by geography, size, or level of economic development have the opportunity to access the latest technology and information to stimulate growth. |
| Keywords: | international labour movements, face-to-face meetings, business trips, growth, productivity |
| JEL: | F2 J6 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3417&r=knm |
| By: | Rui Leite (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal); Óscar Afonso (CEMPRE and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | In the dominant literature, the technological-knowledge bias that drives wage inequality is determined by the market-size channel. We develop an endogenous growth model with two technologies in which: a specific quality of labour, low or high-skilled, is combined with a specific set of quality-adjusted intermediate goods; the market-size channel is practically removed; adoption costs and learning-by-doing are linked with labour endowments. By solving transitional dynamics numerically, we show that changes in the supply of labour affect learning-by-doing and technology-adoption costs, which, in turn, influence the technological-knowledge bias and thus wage inequality. The proposed mechanisms can accommodate facts not explained by the previous literature. |
| Keywords: | Learning-by-doing; Adoption costs; Technological-knowledge bias; Wage inequality; Numerical simulations |
| JEL: | C61 J31 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:272&r=knm |
| By: | Robin P. Cubitt (School of Economics, University of Nottingham); Robert Sugden (School of Economics, University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | This paper makes three related contributions to noncooperative game theory: (i) a solution concept (the “ICEU solution”), which is generated by an iterative procedure that constructs trinary partitions of strategy sets and deals with problems arising from weak dominance; (ii) a class of models of players’ reasoning, inspired by David Lewis’s work on common knowledge, which can together represent common knowledge of rationality for any consistent conception of individual practical rationality; and, using these ingredients, (iii) a diagnosis of paradoxes associated with the concept of common knowledge of rationality, as represented in Bayesian models of games. |
| JEL: | C72 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdx:dpaper:2008-01&r=knm |
| By: | Alka obadić (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb); Sanja Porić |
| Abstract: | At the end of the 20th century, knowledge production has been radically transformed. As knew knowledge economies and US were becoming an increasing threat for EU, the Lisbon Strategy was set to treat the economic problems that EU is facing. This article discusses and evaluates the potential of the Lisbon Agenda and presents the ways how growth in GDP per capita and employability could be increased by synchronized education and employment policies. It is widely believed that jobs are becoming more and more demanding of skills and as a result workers need to upgrade their skills or risk loosing out in the competition for jobs in the new economy. The research confirms that the reason why many of these unemployed workers might be considered "unemployable in a modern economy" is their comparatively low level of education. Employment rates rise with educational attainment and higher educated individuals also face a more stable labour market than lower educated individuals. The research concludes that in situation of stable higher unemployment rates and higher demand for specific labour skills it is obvious that the coordination between employment and education policies is needed. To ensure employability, policies for promoting education and lifelong learning have to be adjusted to changes in the economy and society. |
| Keywords: | Lisbon Agenda, employment policy, education policy, lifelong learning, EU |
| JEL: | I2 J21 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:0802&r=knm |
| By: | Michael Peneder (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the major finance-related causes of private under-investment in innovation and the consequent alternative choices for public policy. The focus is on incentive-based arguments that address the problem of limited appropriability of new knowledge, and on the lacking access to external sources of finance caused by imperfections in the capital market. Drawing a policy mind map, which aims to enhance the mutual awareness and coordination of policy makers at the crossroads of technology and corporate finance, the paper is organised along the following chain of thought: (causes and rationales, aims and targets, critical constraints, and the main finance-related instruments of innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | technological change, corporate finance, innovation policy, fiscal incentives, venture capital |
| Date: | 2008–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:313&r=knm |
| By: | Joze P. Damijan; Crt Kostevc; Matija Rojec |
| Abstract: | The paper examines implications of endogenous growth theory on the relationship between firm productivity, innovation as well as productivity growth by combining information on firm-level innovation (CIS) with accounting data for a large sample of Slovenian firms in the period 1996-2002. We employ several different estimation methods in order to control for the endogeneity of innovation (Crépon-Duguet- Mairesse - CDM - approach) and idiosyncratic firm characteristics (matching and average treatment effects). We find a significant and robust link between productivity levels and firm propensity to innovate, while the results on the link between innovation activity and productivity growth are not robust to different econometric approaches. OLS estimates seem to provide some empirical support to the thesis of positive impact of innovation on productivity growth. More detailed empirical tests, however, reveal that these results are mainly driven by the exceptional performance of a specific group of services firms located in the fourth quintile with respect to size, productivity and R&D propensity measure. Estimates based on the matching techniques do not reveal any significant positive effects of innovation on productivity growth, regardless of the sectors, firm size and type of innovation. |
| Keywords: | Research and development, innovation, knowledge spillovers, productivity growth |
| JEL: | D24 F14 F21 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:20308&r=knm |
| By: | Daniel F. Heuermann (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | The paper sheds light on the impact of spatial agglomeration of human capital on individual wages in Western Germany. Using panel data it shows that regional wage differentials are to a large extent attributable to localized human capital externalities arising from the regional share of highly qualified workers. Employing the regional number of public schools and of students as instrumental variables the paper shows that human capital externalities are underestimated in ordinary panel regressions for wages of highly qualified and non-highly qualified workers alike due to supply shifts of highly qualified workers. An analysis by sector reveals that human capital externalities are more pronounced in manufacturing than in the service sector. We find indication that highly qualified workers benefit from intra-industry knowledge spillovers, while non-highly qualified workers profit from pecuniary externalities between industries. Our findings are stable among a variety of indicators of regional human capital and robust to the inclusion of other sources of increasing returns, as well as wage curve, price level, and amenity effects. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital Externalities, Agglomeration, Urban Wage Premium |
| JEL: | D62 D83 J24 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:200801&r=knm |
| By: | Broström, Anders (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The systems of innovation approach has helped advocating a view on innovation as dependent on the interaction over time between different actors and brought the role of institutions to the center of interest. However, the approach has remained a general framework rather than evolved into an analytical tool for the study of the dynamics of innovation activities. In this discussion paper, we introduce the concept of innovation system services, defined as the set of factors that have a significant potential influence on the opportunities of a certain groups of actors to perform a certain type of activities efficiently. We suggest that the relevant innovation system for the actors-activities nexus at hand can be defined as this set of system services. We examine this analytical framework in a case study on R&D investments of multinational enterprises in Sweden. In this context, innovation system services are defined as the set of external factors that the case study suggests to have significant impact on the decisions of MNEs to invest in R&D in Sweden. The focus on services allows us to analyse the influence of an innovation system on the long-term development of R&D in Sweden in a structured and coherent manner and to identify critical dynamics. |
| Keywords: | innovation systems; R&D collaboration; multinational enterprises; innovation in services |
| JEL: | D29 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2008–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0124&r=knm |
| By: | Tiffany Hutcheson (School of Finance and Economics, University of Technology, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | In most subjects that students complete as part of a Business or Commerce degree they are typically assessed by way of submitting a written essay and sitting for an exam. A student should be able to show in their written essay that they understand topics covered in the subject and have gained knowledge whilst writing the essay. Unfortunately, lecturers have found that the standard of a large number of written essays submitted by both undergraduate and postgraduate students can be fairly poor and display varying degrees of plagiarism. When marking an essay it is often difficult to know whether a student actually understands what they have written in their essay. This occurs in essays written by local students as well as essays written by overseas students whose first language is not English. Students are often informed in their subject guides and lectures about the University assistance provided on essay writing and plagiarism; however it appears that they do not necessarily take up this assistance. This paper evaluates the impact in a business postgraduate subject of replacing the written essay component of assessment with a shorter written essay and requiring students do an oral presentation of their answer to the class. The students are provided with resources on assignment writing that provide assistance with essay writing and referencing as well as preparation and giving of an oral presentation. A quantitative analysis is undertaken to see whether the use of the assignment writing resources by students had an impact on their assignment mark and also if had an impact on the level of plagiarism found in the written assignments. |
| Keywords: | plagiarism; written essay; oral presentation |
| JEL: | A20 A23 |
| Date: | 2008–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uts:wpaper:152&r=knm |
| By: | Frank Neffke; Martin Svensson Henning; Ron Boschma; Karl-Johan Lundquist; Lars-Olof Olander |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the changing roles of agglomeration externalities during different stages of the industry life cycle are investigated. A central argument is that agglomeration externalities vary with mode of competition, innovation intensity, and characteristics of learning opportunities in industries. Following the Industry Life Cycle perspective, we distinguish between young and mature industries, and investigate how these benefit from MAR, Jacobs’ and Urbanization externalities. The empirical analysis builds on a Swedish plant level dataset that covers the period of 1974-2004.The outcomes of panel data regression models show that the benefits industries derive from their local environment are strongly associated with their stage in the industry life cycle. Whereas MAR externalities increase with the maturity of industries, Jacobs’ externalities decline when industries are more mature. This is in line with the hypothesis that young industries operate in an environment dominated by rapid product innovation and low levels of standardization. Hence, it pays off when knowledge can be sourced locally from many different sources, but there is still little scope for specialization benefits. Mature industries, in contrast, are associated with lower innovation intensities and a focus on cost saving process innovations. Therefore, there are major benefits to be derived from specialization, whereas knowledge spillovers from different industries are less relevant. The distinction between the product competition in young industries and price competition in mature industries is reflected in our finding that high regional factor costs are detrimental to mature industries, but not to young industries. This can also be related to the finding that high quality living environments, attractive for highly paid employees, are important to young industries. Overall, the outcomes stress that industrial life cycles have to be taken into account in the analysis of agglomeration externalities. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration externalities, industry life cycle, urbanization, Sweden |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0808&r=knm |
| By: | Bart van Ark (The Conference Board and University of Groningen); Charles R. Hulten (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | An earlier version of this paper was presented at a seminar on "Measurement of capital: beyond the traditional measures" at Conference of European Statisticians, 12 June 2007, Geneva; and at a conference on “Productivity and Innovation” organized by Statistics Sweden, October 24–25 2007, Grand Hotel, Saltsjöbaden. We are grateful to the participants for in these seminars for their comments. We also express our gratitude to our coauthors in the original projects underlying this paper, notably Marcel Timmer and Mary O’Mahony as concerning the EU KLEMS work, and Carol Corrado and Dan Sichel concerning the intangibles analysis for the United States. Any errors in this paper are of course entirely ours. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnf:wpaper:0702&r=knm |
| By: | Afeikhena Jerome |
| Abstract: | Despite an impressive level of privatization activity across Africa and the upsurge in research on the operating performance of privatized firms in both developed and developing economies, our empirical knowledge of the privatization programme in Africa is limited. This study appraises the post-privatization performance of some privatized enterprises in Nigeria. The specific indicators examined are profitability, productive efficiency, employment, capital investment, output, prices and taxes. The study measures the change in any given indicator of performance by comparing its average value five years before and five years after privatization. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is also deployed to assess changes in the level of technical efficiency in the selected enterprises. The results, albeit mixed, show significant increases in these indicators. Privatization is also associated with increase in technical efficiency in the affected enterprises. Reduction of politically motivated resource allocation has unquestionably been the principal benefit of privatization in Nigeria. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aer:rpaper:rp_175&r=knm |