|
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
|
Issue of 2009‒07‒28
five papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Rego, Conceição; Caleiro, António |
| Abstract: | Many studies, provided by diverse authors and institutions, demonstrate that, at a territorial level, development is directly related to the level of education and R&D. Territories with higher development levels are, generally, those that have a higher level of education and R&D. The relationship between the acquisition of knowledge and institutional education is therefore decisive. In this area, the role of universities is fundamental. The retention of university graduates is one of the main ways that the cities and the regions can adopt to retain those endowed with higher propensity to innovation, enterprise spirit and management capacity. Given that higher education institutions, in general, and universities, in particular, are obviously crucial in the process of knowledge increase, it becomes important to analyse how can these institutions act as ways of spatial diffusion of knowledge given that their graduates may migrate to other regions of the country (or for another country). The alleged increased probability of this migration to occur when the university is located in a small or medium sized town makes that analysis also interesting from the viewpoint of the development role that this kind of cities can perform, not only in the adjacent rural areas, but also across all the urban areas of the territory. The focus of our work consists in this analysis, which complements a theoretical approach with an empirical part based upon the results that can be observed for the influence of one university located in a small/medium sized town (the University of Évora) in the spatial diffusion of knowledge through its graduates. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; Small towns; Spatial diffusion of knowledge; Universities |
| JEL: | O15 I23 J24 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16241&r=knm |
| By: | Bronwyn H. Hall (Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley); Francesca Lotti (Bank of Italy); Jacques Mairesse (CREST (ENSAE, Paris)) |
| Abstract: | Innovation in SMEs exhibits some peculiar features that most traditional indicators of innovation activity do not capture. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a structural model of innovation which incorporates information on innovation success from firm surveys along with the usual R&D expenditures and productivity measures. We then apply the model to data on Italian SMEs from the “Survey on Manufacturing Firms” conducted by Mediocredito-Capitalia covering the period 1995-2003. The model is estimated in steps, following the logic of firms’ decisions and outcomes. We find that international competition fosters R&D intensity, especially for high-tech firms. Firm size, R&D intensity, along with investment in equipment enhances the likelihood of having both process and product innovation. Both these kinds of innovation have a positive impact on firm’s productivity, especially process innovation. Among SMEs, larger and older firms seem to be less productive. |
| Keywords: | R&D, innovation, productivity, SMEs, Italy |
| JEL: | L60 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_718_09&r=knm |
| By: | Márquez-Ramos, Laura; Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the relationship between technological innovation and international trade. In particular, the effect of technological achievement on exports is studied. In order to measure technological innovation, the technological achievement index (TAI) is used, thus providing a summary of a society’s technological achievements and allowing countries to be classified into four groups according to their level of technological innovation: Leaders, Potential Leaders, Dynamic Adopters and Marginalised. The effect of technological variables on sectoral exports is analysed using a gravity model of trade. The existence of a possible non-linear relationship is also investigated, since the effect of improved technological innovation on trade could vary according to the technological achievement in countries. Results show the expected positive effect of technological innovation on export performance and the existence of non-linearities is confirmed. A “U-shaped” relationship is found between exports and creation of technology and between exports and diffusion of old innovations, whereas an inverted–“U-shaped” relationship is found between exports and diffusion of recent innovations and between exports and human skills. |
| Keywords: | Technological innovation, sectoral exports, gravity model, panel data, non-linearities |
| JEL: | F10 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:7588&r=knm |
| By: | Franz Dietrich; Christian List |
| Date: | 2009–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levarc:814577000000000297&r=knm |
| By: | Herciu, Mihaela; Ogrean, Claudia; Belascu , Lucian |
| Abstract: | The idea that the value of the firm is given by its financial capital and its intellectual capital is generally accepted. But, what is changing nowadays is the importance/weight that each one of these two components claims to have regarding the value of the firm – based on the dynamics of the changes and the intensity of the competition within an industry, on one hand, and on the measure of connection/networking to the knowledge-based economy of the given industry, on the other hand. So, we are the witnesses of: (1) a repositioning into the dynamics of the financial capital – intellectual capital binomial relationship regarding the value creation process of a firm and (2) the need to reformulate the sustainable value creation strategies by firm management. But no value creation strategy is complete until it is transposed into the firm’s managerial processes, in models and indicators, and proofs itself viable in time. By this paper we would like to emphasize the changes and the tendencies which are taking place into the content and structure of the market value of the firm, and to propose a guideline framework of an integrative model of analysis. |
| Keywords: | caotal financier; capital intellectuel;valeur de marche; societe basee sur la connaissance |
| JEL: | L25 D80 D00 |
| Date: | 2009–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16305&r=knm |