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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2012‒02‒20
nine papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | LE BAS Christian; MOTHE Caroline; NGUYEN Thi Thuc Uyen |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we will review the literature on technological innovation persistence and provide a general theoretical framework to analyze the main determinants of this innovative behavior. Moreover, no previous empirical study has taken into account organizational innovation practices as possible determinants of innovation persistence. We will therefore include them, as previous studies have shown the interaction effects between the two types of innovation, and produce empirical results on technical innovation persistence. A multinomial probit model was used to estimate the likelihood of belonging to each of the three longitudinal innovation profiles. Results confirm the differentiated impact of determinants on process and technological innovation persistence, and the effect of R&D intensity, R&D cooperation and competition intensity. As hypothesized, we also found that organizational innovation is a determinant factor for innovation persistence and, more generally speaking, for technological innovation, in particular organizational practices such as knowledge management and external partnerships. |
| Keywords: | Persistence; Innovation; Technological innovation; Organizational innovation; R&D |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2011-54&r=knm |
| By: | Umberto Garfagnini; Bruno Strulovici |
| Abstract: | We study social learning and innovation in an overlapping generations model, emphasizing the trade-off between marginal innovation (combining existing technologies) and radical innovation (breaking new ground). We characterize both short-term and long-term dynamics of innovation, and the intergenerational accumulation of knowledge. Innovation cycles emerge endogenously, but the number of cycles is finite almost surely, and radical innovation terminates infinite time. We identify a negative relationship between past successes and the magnitude of radical innovation, combining insights from the multi-armed bandit literature with a spatial representation of innovation. Past successes reduce the incremental value of experimentation, and result in less ambitious innovation. In our framework, patents promote radical innovation through two channels: by increasing the expected benefit of radical innovation and by increasing the cost of marginal innovation. Our analysis suggests that sustaining radical innovation in the long-run requires external intervention. |
| Date: | 2012–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nwu:cmsems:1546&r=knm |
| By: | Fabiano COMPAGNUCCI (IUAV - Venezia); Augusto CUSINATO (IUAV - Venezia) |
| Abstract: | The spatial implications of fordist and district-based patterns of development have had a profound effect on the debate about the role of the city. While the city is reputed to be the crucial provider of fixed social capital within the fordist model, its role seems more nuanced, if not disputable, when the district model prevails. This disregard for the city is probably due to (a) the fact that the revival of the debate on marshallian industrial districts (IDs) has placed strong emphasis on the agglomeration economies internal to the districts themselves, when not emphasising the burden of urban diseconomies; and (b) the countryside roots of most district pioneers. The quarrel was further fuelled with the advent of ICTs, and the feasibility of displacing productive phases at a global level. The paper argues that this is only the early part of the history. The advent of ICTs has had not only functional consequences but also an important impact on the internal organisation of firms and industry and on economic geography as a whole. It has also made knowledge and innovation the crucial drivers of the competitiveness of firms and local economic systems. The notion of knowledge has profoundly changed too, and the main change consists in the shift that is occurring within the industry itself from the ontological to the hermeneutical approach. According to this view, the main hypothesis is that the city is a crucial socio-spatial device for knowledge generation. The paper investigates this issue on both the theoretical and the empirical level by introducing a new analytical category - "Knowledge-creating services (KCS)". With reference to the Italian case, the outcomes corroborate the above hypothesis and open an original perspective on the relationships between the city and IDs in the knowledge age: the city is shown to be not only the gateway for functionally connecting IDs with the global market but also a true Knowledge-creating District. Within this new situation, a reassessment is needed of the relationships between IDs and the city, due to the misalignment that is likely to occur between competences in "producing" manufactured goods and knowledge. |
| Keywords: | city, industrial districts, knowledge economy |
| JEL: | O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:365&r=knm |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi (London School of Economics); Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (IMDEA Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses recent developments in the literature on local and regional innovative performance in order to show how an 'integrated' conceptual framework based on the cross-fertilisation of different theories can serve as a foundation for the comparative analysis of territorial innovation dynamics in both developed and developing countries. The paper outlines a conceptual framework to explain the differences between innovation systems and their geography by drawing on elements of endogenous growth, new economic geography and regional innovation systems. This framework forms the basis of the subsequent analysis of the differences in innovative capacity between the European Union, the Unites States – as the leader system to be challenged – and China and India as emerging competitors for international technological leadership. The systematic analysis of a large body of empirical literature shows important differences between the spatial patterning of 'emerging' (China and India) and 'mature' (EU and US) innovation systems. |
| Keywords: | innovation systems; geography; endogenous growth; new economic geography; Europe; United States; China; India |
| Date: | 2012–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2012-02&r=knm |
| By: | Schimke, Antje; Teichert, Nina; Ott, Ingrid |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the contribution of local knowledge endowment to employment growth in nanotechnology firms. We exploit a unique data set focusing on firms operating in fields that apply nanotechnology. Our findings suggest that regions that offer knowledge can stimulate employment growth in smaller and younger firms. By contrast, being embedded into specialised regions might be counterproductive, especially for firms belonging to a particularly knowledge intensive sector and older firms. -- |
| Keywords: | employment growth,local knowledge endowment,general purpose technology,specialisation,nanotechnology,spillover |
| JEL: | D83 L25 O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitwps:38&r=knm |
| By: | Ugo Rizzo |
| Abstract: | The phenomenon of academic spin-offs (ASOs) has been widely studied in recent times. Scholars have mainly concentrated on identifying the factors that favours the phenomenon and the incentive alignments of the parties involved in the process. These works tend to remain static in nature by solely investigating the ex ante determinants of the process, that is the elements that favoured a context to be more profitable than others, usually in terms of the number of ASOs generated. More recently scholars have also acknowledged that ASOs are heterogeneous firms and have started investigating the development process of such firms. It has been highlighted that ASOs need to overcome certain defined stage of growth in order to become established firms in the market. Our work continues this line of investigation and aims to gives evidence that the paths of ASO development are heterogeneous themselves. We investigate the flows of knowledge taking place within and across the firm in a dynamic manner, at various stage of the development process of the firm: we study the governance of knowledge in a sub-population of ASOs and give evidence of the variety of possible ways the firm can develop. |
| Keywords: | governance of knowledge; academic spin-off; theory of the firm; technology development |
| JEL: | D21 D23 D83 L23 L26 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:201203&r=knm |
| By: | Daria Ciriaci (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this study is to provide an analysis of the importance of design – defined as the procedures, choice of elements and technical preparation to implement a new product – and R&D investments as drivers of European firms’ innovation performance. In doing so, it partly compensates for the lack of empirical evidence in the literature by using non-anonymised data from the third wave of the European CIS, and estimating a system of simultaneous equations to tackle the endogeneity inherent in these investment choices and the externalities associated with them. The choice to use this time period rather than more recent is data-driven as this wave contains better information on design expenditures. Unlike the majority of CIS-based studies, the main variables of interest are continuous ones. In addition, although pure aesthetic changes are not included in the CIS definition of innovative design expenditures, the impact of this important dimension of product innovativeness is properly accounted for. The robustness of results confirms the crucial role of design investment for innovation success in 23 European countries for both the manufacturing and service sectors and its role as a complement to technological R&D and as a driver for user-centred incremental (new-to-the-firm) and radical (new-to-the-market) innovations. In particular it found an increase of 1% expenditure increases innovation sales by between 0.34% and 0.49%, while the same increase in R&D investment increases innovation sales by between 0.64% and 0.86%. Interestingly, while investing in design shows no statistically different innovation output returns for small, medium-sized and large enterprises, this is not the case for R&D expenditures. The policy conclusions are clear: design is a less costly alternative to R&D for many SMEs and a policy of supporting design should be considered, as this might be a more cost-efficient support strategy. |
| Keywords: | Intangibles, design, R&D investment, CIS, CDM model |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201108&r=knm |
| By: | Benjamin Coriat |
| Abstract: | Drawing on the works of Ostrom, the paper seeks to establish the bases on which the "traditional" commons (TC) and the "knowledge" commons (KC) can be compared and differentiated. Three criteria are proposed: the nature of the goods or systems of resources, the property regimes and the modes of governance. On this basis, the two large families of commons (traditional/informational) are distinguished as follows: - Nature of the goods. While TC are composed of tangible and rival goods, KC are composed of non-rival goods; - Property regimes. The essential difference (between TC and KC) lies in the fact that in TC, the basic right given the to "authorized users" is designed to guarantee the long-term reproduction of the resource, whereas in KC, beside the right to withdraw resources from the CPR, another and complementary right is defined ; namely a right of addition. In KC, the authorized users are allowed and encouraged to contribute new information or knowledge to the pool. It is often for this very reason that the pool has been created. - Mode of governance. Whereas TC are oriented towards the reproduction of the shared resources, KC are oriented towards their continual enrichment (databases, open source software, wikis, etc.). Finally, if TC are above all organizations aiming at the orderly exploitation and long-term conservation of resources, many KCs and the most prominent one (FLOSS, wikis, ..) are conceived primarily as tools for the growth and enrichment of the pool of resources through cooperative procedures aiming at promoting modes of production of innovation based on information sharing. |
| Keywords: | IPRs, Property regimes, Commons, Public Domain, Public goods |
| Date: | 2011–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2011/16&r=knm |
| By: | Pedro Valadas Monteiro (Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries for Algarve region and Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, University of Algarve); Teresa de Noronha (Faculty of Economics and Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, University of Algarve); Paulo Neto (Economics Department and Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, University of Évora) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the current paper is to provide a critical state-of-the-art review of current research on clusters and its correlation to innovation dynamics in small and medium-sized regions. In particular, we focus on the systematization of the main concepts and theoretical insights that are tributary to the cluster overview in terms of its relevance for the sustainability of the innovation processes, knowledge production and diffusion, which take place inside small and medium-sized regions. The present working paper takes into account the initial studies on English industrial districts (in the nineteenth century), passing through the Italian industrial districts (in the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century), until the modern theories of business clusters and innovation systems. These frameworks constitute the basis of an approach to endogenous development, which gives a central role to the interaction between economic actors, the society and the institutions and to the identification, mobilization and combination of potential resources within a particular geographical area. |
| Keywords: | Cluster; Innovation; Endogenous development; Territory. |
| JEL: | E23 D23 R12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2011_24&r=knm |