|
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
|
Issue of 2010‒10‒23
four papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Ugur, Mehmet; Guner, Umit |
| Abstract: | In March 2000, the Lisbon Summit set the European Union the goal of becoming ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world’ by 2010. This paper aims to ascertain the extent to which various indicators of innovation in EU15 have improved and whether such improvement has been driven by higher levels of competition in EU15 economies. To this end, we provide a descriptive account of the competition and innovation indicators from 1980-2008. Then, we discuss the relationship between market structure (level of competition) and innovation; and estimate the impact of the former on the latter. We report that aggregate innovation measures for EU15 have been increasing over the 1980-2008 period and there does not seem to be a significant change in the trend during the Lisbon decade (200-2008). Furthermore, increasing levels of innovation have been associated with increasing economic rents – i.e., with further departures from the perfect-competition baseline. Fixed-effect panel-data regression results point out a positive and statistically significant relationship between economic rents and various measures of innovations. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; competition; European Union; Lisbon Agenda |
| JEL: | O38 O31 D43 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25705&r=knm |
| By: | Gustavo Crespi; Pluvia Zuniga |
| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of technological innovation and its impact on firm labor productivity across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys. In line with the literature, in all countries firms that invest in knowledge are more able to introduce new technological advances, and those that innovate have greater labor productivity than those that do not. Yet firm-level determinants of innovation investment are much more heterogeneous than in OECD countries. Cooperation, foreign ownership, and exporting increase the propensity to invest in innovation activities and encourage innovation investment in only half of the countries studied. Scientific and market sources of information have little or no impact on firm innovation efforts, which illustrates the weak linkages that characterize national innovation systems in those countries. The results in terms of productivity, however, highlight the importance of innovation in enabling firms to improve economic performance and catch up. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Productivity, Developing countries, Latin America, Innovation surveys |
| JEL: | O12 O14 O31 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4690&r=knm |
| By: | YASHIRO Naomitsu; HIRANO Daisuke |
| Abstract: | The essence of learning-from-exporting can be thought of as a process in which exporters absorb international knowledge spillovers and feed it back to their innovation efforts. Learning-from-exporting is often difficult to observe because it is conditional on at least two efforts: information gathering from foreign markets and zealous R&D. We exploit unique survey data to explicitly analyze the contribution of these activities to exporters' innovation. We find that gathering information from foreign markets significantly raises exporters' probability of succeeding in technology upgrades or new product developments, along with their R&D activities. While learning about the latest foreign technology and competitor products is at the core of such knowledge acquisition, international marketing activities, such as gathering feedback from foreign customers or information on the taste and needs of foreign customers, is also associated with a significant contribution. The importance of foreign knowledge acquisition is also confirmed for exporters that do not serve high-income markets or those that supply intermediate goods. Although it is likely that the acquisition of foreign knowledge contributes to exporters' innovation strategies, such as where to allocate R&D resources, it does not seem to raise the marginal effectiveness of R&D. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:10053&r=knm |
| By: | Evers, Hans-Dieter; Nordin, Ramli; Nienkemper, Pamela |
| Abstract: | Knowledge clusters are central places within an epistemic landscape, i.e. in a wider structure of knowledge production and dissemination. They have the organisational capability to drive innovations and create new industries. Examples of such organisations in knowledge clusters are universities and colleges, research institutions, think tanks, government research agencies and knowledge-intensive firms with their respective knowledge workers. The following paper will look at Malaysia and its path towards a Knowledge-based economy. We first describe the development strategy of the Malaysian government which has emphasized cluster formation as one of its prime targets. We then provide evidence of the current state of knowledge cluster formation in Peninsular Malaysia and try to answer the following questions. If the formation of a knowledge cluster (especially in the ICT and multimedia industry) has been the government policy, what has been the result? Has Malaysia developed an epistemic landscape of knowledge clusters? Has the main knowledge cluster really materialised in and around Cyberjaya in the MSC Malaysia? Data collected from websites, directories, government publications and expert interviews have enabled us to construct the epistemic landscape of Peninsular Malaysia. Several knowledge clusters of a high density of knowledge producing institutions and their knowledge workers have been identified and described. The analysis of the knowledge output, measured in terms of scientific publications, patents and trademarks show that existing knowledge clusters have, indeed, been productive as predicted by cluster theory. On the other hand government designed development corridors do not always coincide with the distribution of knowledge assets. The analysis of our data pertaining to Cyberjaya, the MSC Malaysia and the “corridors” needs to be developed further to produce more robust results. |
| Keywords: | Malaysia; Cyberjaya; knowledge and development; knowledge-based economy (KBE); knowledge clusters; knowledge corridors; epistemic landscape; development strategy |
| JEL: | H41 O16 L52 C81 D8 R11 D85 |
| Date: | 2010–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25845&r=knm |