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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2011‒06‒11
nine papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Fassio Claudio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes a novel approach to appreciating the role of external knowledge in the innovative process based upon the notion of knowledge generation function. In so doing this paper impinges upon the rich literature on spillovers and yet introduces a sharp discontinuity that highlights the role of external knowledge as a necessary and costly input into the generation of new technological knowledge. It attempts to identify the contribution of external knowledge directly to the generation of technological innovations and to explore the matching between kinds of technological innovations that are introduced according to its sources. This approach enables to avoid the systematic confusion between the effects of external knowledge upon knowledge exploitation and its effects on knowledge generation and is able to assess more directly and specifically the role of horizontal and vertical flows of external knowledge on both the rate and the direction of introduction of new technologies. The results of the empirical investigations confirm that external knowledge is a crucial input into the generation of new technological knowledge and in the eventual exploitation to introduce technological innovations. Moreover it shows that external knowledge generated by upstream suppliers and flowing vertically, embodied in capital goods, within interindustrial filieres, plays a strong and positive role on the introduction of process innovations, while external knowledge that flows horizontally from competitors has stronger effects on the introduction of product innovations |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201101&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli cristiano (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Building upon both the Schumpeterian and the Marshallian legacies, this paper elaborates a model of localized technological change cum pecuniary knowledge externalities to provide a systemic explanation for total factor productivity. The generation of technological knowledge consists in the recombination of existing bits of heterogeneous technological knowledge that are necessarily possessed by a myriad of agents. As such much technological knowledge used in the generation of further knowledge is external to each agent. Nevertheless external knowledge is an essential input into the recombinant generation of new technological knowledge. In this context knowledge governance mechanisms play a key role in the identification, recollection and provision of the specific item of technological knowledge, external to each agent, at each point in time. Consequently, effective knowledge governance mechanisms engender pecuniary knowledge externalities. The latter explain the levels and the growth of total factor productivity when existing units of external knowledge can be bundled and used –again- at costs that are below reproduction ones. |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201104&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Scellato Giuseppe (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of social interactions as drivers of economic dynamics represents a growing field of the economics of complexity. Social interactions are a specific form of interdependence whereby the changes in the behavior of other agents affect utility functions for households and production functions for producers. In this paper, we apply the general concept of social interactions to the area of the economics of innovation and we articulate the view that knowledge interactions play a central role in the generation of new technological knowledge so that innovation becomes the emergent property of a system, rather then the product of individual actions. In particular, we articulate and test the hypothesis that different layers of knowledge interactions play a crucial role in determining the rate of technological change that each firm is able to introduce. The paper presents an empirical analysis of firm level total factor productivity (TFP) for a sample of 7020 Italian manufacturing companies observed during the years 1996-2005 that is able identify the distinctive role of regional, inter-industrial and localized intra-industrial knowledge interactions as distinctive and significant determinants, together with internal research and innovation efforts, of changes in firm level TFP |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201102&r=knm |
| By: | Antonelli Cristiano; Crespi Francesco (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Public policy plays a key role in supporting R&D activities and a variety of policy tools have been applied to contrast the undersupply of technological knowledge including the provision of subsidies to private firms performing R&D activities. A large literature has identified the sources of ‘government failures’ in discretionary procedures in problems related to asymmetric information and the operation of interest groups. This paper explores the causes and effects of persistence in the discretionary allocation of public subsidies to R&D activities performed by private firms and elaborates a crucial distinction between vicious Matthew-effects and virtuous Matthew-effects. The latter identifies the role of dynamics increasing returns based upon accumulation of competence stemming from learning, learning to learn and knowledge cumulability. On the contrary vicious Matthew-effects lead to substitution of private funds with public ones and represent an additional source of ‘government failure’ which has not been specifically addressed by previous literature. The empirical analysis based upon Transition Probability Matrices, Probit regression and Propensity Score Matching tested the relevance of these arguments on a sample of about 750 Italian firms in the years 1998-2003. Our results show that the persistence in the discretionary allocation of public subsidies is relevant and that virtuous Matthew-effects prevail when a ‘picking the winner strategy’ is adopted by granting authorities. We conclude that while the decision to rely on discretionary incentives based on beauty context selection procedures may imply relevant costs, their benefits can be increased by pursuing a ‘picking the winner strategy |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201103&r=knm |
| By: | Manuel Mira Godinho (UECE and ISEG/UTL); Rui Cartaxo (ISEG/UTL) |
| Abstract: | The paper assesses the performance of the technology licensing offices (TLO) and technology transfer offices (TTO) which have been active in Portuguese higher education institutions. Data stemming from a survey of these entities was analyzed in successive steps through factor analysis, cluster analysis and estimation of a model using the Partial-Least Squares methodology. It is shown that the institutional nature of each of the surveyed organizations implies different behaviours and outcomes. Further it has also became clear that the type of resources and activities in the surveyed organizations determine both their “primary outcome” (patent applications and technology transfer processes) and their “final outcome” (technology licensing contracts and technology-based spin-offs). The results of this paper might be particularly relevant for other similar economies as Portugal where high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries have not been dominant. |
| Keywords: | technology transfer; university-industry relationships; university patenting; university spin-offs |
| JEL: | O32 O34 I23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2011/6/doc2011-11&r=knm |
| By: | Mukherjee, Vivekananda (Department of Economics, Jadavpur University); Ramani, Shyama V. (UNU-MERIT, and Ecole Polytechnique Paris) |
| Abstract: | The present paper examines how an innovating firm decides between two forms of voluntary agreements (VA) in a context, where a non-governmental organization (NGO) rather than a regulator watches over citizens' interests. The innovation generates profit and consumer surplus as well as environmental damage. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the innovation process is considered in terms of a redistribution of profit towards community development, with or without additional abatement efforts via a VA. Bargaining between firm and NGO yields the amount allocated to community development. The model demonstrates that the firm's choice of VA hinges on the tradeoffs between appropriating the full innovation profit and paying a higher lump sum towards community development or sacrificing some of the innovation profit by lowering innovation effort, but gaining in terms of paying a lesser amount towards community development. CSR with abatement is unlikely in the case of radical innovations. There is also a clear divergence of interests between the firm, the NGO and the State for some parameter configurations, which are duly identified. |
| Keywords: | Corporate social responsibility, voluntary agreements, community development, donations, innovation |
| JEL: | M14 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2011016&r=knm |
| By: | Aurora A. C. Teixeira (CEF.UP, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto; INESC Porto, OBEGEF); Margarida Catarino (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | Despite the large number of publications related to business cooperation in R&D and the wide perception of the importance of intermediary institutions in the R&D cooperation process, empirical studies on its role are scarce, scattered and fragmented. Moreover, the academic work developed in this area is basically of a theoretical nature, whereas the international perspective of R&D cooperation is seldom approached. Departing from a unique database that includes 473 R&D cooperation projects developed within the 6th Framework Programme, involving firms and intermediaries from all European Union countries, this paper gauges the determinants of the importance attached to Intermediaries, through a direct survey to the organizations involved. Based on an estimation of the multivariate model, this study demonstrates that the importance given to Intermediaries depends more on project features than on the characteristics of the participating organizations. In particular, the nationality of participating organizations and the promoter emerged with a strong explanatory power: ceteris paribus, projects with at least one participant from the United Kingdom tend to assign greater importance to intermediaries in international R&D cooperation. Unambiguously, results evidence that the innovating capacity of an organization emerges (both positively and significantly) associated with a greater importance attached to Intermediaries. |
| Keywords: | R&D Cooperation; Intermediaries; International projects; Europe |
| JEL: | O32 O52 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:0038&r=knm |
| By: | Alessandra Colombelli; Naciba Haned; Christian Le Bas |
| Abstract: | In the paper we wish to examine if the firms that innovate know a higher growth than the firm that do not. We use diverse waves of CIS for the French industries over the period 1992- 2004 and carry out different models and new econometric methods (quantile regression). Our main findings are that innovative firms produce more growth than non innovative firms. The estimates show that the results are robust to the different types of models that we have implemented. Process innovators are more productive in terms of growth than product innovators when OLS and Random effects models are used. The reverse is true for Fix effect model and quantile regression. In the three growth equations estimated by GMM the coefficients related to innovation product are always higher. Our study does not give definitive results with respect to the magnitude of the effects of the type of innovation on firm growth. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, process and product, firm growth, CIS |
| JEL: | L20 L60 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:icr:wpicer:07-2011&r=knm |
| By: | Maria Angelica Arbelaez; Monica Parra Torrado |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to establish a formal relationship between innovation and productivity using Colombian firm-level data. It is found that the production of goods and services new to the firm and to the domestic market enhances firms` sales per worker, and innovation that results in introducing new goods and services to the international market boosts both sales and Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Innovation in processes likewise improves firms` productivity and sales. Finally, innovation in marketing and management increases sales per worker and enhances TFP when investment is made in Research and Development. The paper also studies the factors behind firms` decision to invest in innovation, the intensity of such investment and the returns to investment in innovation. |
| JEL: | C21 C31 C34 C35 L60 O31 O32 O14 O47 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4717&r=knm |