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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2012‒10‒27
eight papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Li, QC; Tether, BS; Mina, A |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imp:wpaper:9793&r=knm |
| By: | André van Stel; Lorraine Uhlaner; Haibo Zhou; Valerie Duplat |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on certain drivers of SME sales growth related to knowledge and innovation. Building on the dynamic capabilities literature, we test whether two organizational capabilities (external sourcing and employee involvement in renewal activities) predict sales growth, and if so, whether such effects are mediated by process and/or product innovation. Based on survey data from a panel study of Dutch SMEs, and controlling for several firm characteristics (firm size, sector, age and family business), we conclude that external sourcing has direct effects on both product and process innovation, with an indirect effect (mediated by process innovation) on sales growth. In line with our hypothesis development, we also find that employee involvement, while positively affecting process innovation, has a negative effect on sales growth. Firm size moderates the effects of two of the variables (external sourcing and product innovation) on sales growth, with more positive effects found for the smallest firms, results supporting the nimbleness (versus resource-based) view. |
| Date: | 2012–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h201211&r=knm |
| By: | Xulia González; Daniel Miles-Touya; Consuelo Pazó |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effects of R&D and on-the-job training on innovation performance in a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. The role of formal R&D activities has been intensively investigated, but little reserch has been carried out on the role of human capital, as measured by firm-sponsored worker training, and even less has addressed the interaction between both activities. We analyze the complementarity between the effects of R&D and training on firm innovation success while distinguishing between large and small firms. Our findings suggest that R&D is a key factor in explaining firm innovation performance and that worker training investment also has a significant effect albeit one of less magnitude. The results confirm a complementary relationship: on-the-job training reinforces the effect of R&D on innovation performance. |
| Keywords: | R&D, Worker Training, Innovation, Probit |
| JEL: | L22 L11 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vig:wpaper:1203&r=knm |
| By: | Abiodun Egbetokun (Graduate College "Economics of Innovative Change", Friedrich Schiller University Jena); Ivan Savin (Graduate College "Economics of Innovative Change", Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | Cooperation can benefit and hurt firms at the same time. An important question then is: when is it better to cooperate. And how can an appropriate partner be selected? In this paper we present a model of inter-firm cooperation driven by cognitive distance, appropriability conditions and external knowledge. Absorptive capacity of firms develops as an outcome of the interaction between absorptive R&D and cognitive distance from voluntary and involuntary knowledge spillovers. Thus, we offer a revision of the original model by Cohen and Levinthal (1989) accounting for recent empirical findings and explicitly modeling absorptive capacity within the framework of interactive learning. We apply that to the analysis of firms' cooperation and R&D investment preferences. While the focus of this paper is limited to a static scenario, where the cognitive distance between cooperating firms is fixed and given exogenously, in Savin and Egbetokun (2012) we address the dynamic approach and provide more extensive simulation results. |
| Keywords: | inter-firm cooperation, absorptive capacity, cognitive distance, innovation, knowledge spillovers |
| JEL: | C63 D83 L14 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-056&r=knm |
| By: | Dominique Foray; Julio Raffo |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses business-driven innovation in education by looking at education-related patents. It first draws a picture of the challenges for innovation in the formal education sector, which suffers from a poor knowledge ecology: science is hardly linked to core teaching and administrative practices. It then turns to a common indicator of innovation: patents. In the case of education, patents typically cover educational tools. An analysis of education-related patents over the past 20 years shows a clear rise in the production of highly innovative educational technologies by businesses, typically building on advances in information and communication technology. While this increase in educational innovations may present new opportunities for the formal education sector, the emerging tool industry currently targets the nonformal education rather than the formal education system. We shortly discuss why business entrepreneurs may be less interested in the market of formal education.<BR>Cet article porte sur l’innovation entrepreneuriale dans le secteur de l’éducation, à partir d’une analyse des dépôts de brevets dans le secteur éducatif. Premièrement, il propose un tableau des défis de l’innovation dans le secteur de l’éducation formelle, dont l’écologie du savoir est faible : la science y est peu liée avec le coeur des pratiques pédagogiques et administratives. L’étude porte ensuite sur un indicateur courant de l’innovation : les brevets. Dans le cas de l’éducation, les brevets couvrent généralement des « outils » éducatifs. L’analyse des brevets éducatifs durant les vingt dernières années montre une claire croissance de la production de technologies éducatives hautement innovantes par des entreprises privées, qui s’appuient souvent sur les progrès des technologies d’information et de communication. Bien que cette croissance des innovations éducatives puisse donner de nouvelles opportunités au secteur formel de l’éducation, l’industrie émergente d’outils éducatifs cible actuellement les secteurs informels d’éducation. Nous discutons brièvement les raisons pour lesquelles les entrepreneurs privés semblent moins intéressés par le secteur de l’éducation formelle. |
| Date: | 2012–10–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:84-en&r=knm |
| By: | Alessandro Caiani; Antoine Godin; Stefano Lucarelli |
| Abstract: | Schumpeter, a century ago, argued that boom-and-bust cycles are intrinsically related to the functioning of a capitalistic economy. These cycles, inherent to the rise of innovation, are an unavoidable consequence of the way in which markets evolve and assimilate successive technological revolutions. Furthermore, Schumpeter's analysis stressed the fundamental role played by finance in fostering innovation, in defining bank credit as the "monetary complement" of innovation. Nevertheless, we feel that the connection between innovation and firm financing has seldom been examined from a theoretical standpoint, not only by economists in general, but even within the Neo-Schumpeterian research line. Our paper aims at analyzing both the long-term structural change process triggered by innovation and the related financial dynamics inside the coherent framework provided by the stock-flow consistent (SFC) approach. The model presents a multisectoral economy composed of consumption and capital goods industries, a banking sector, and two household sectors: capitalists and wage earners. The SFC approach helps us to track the flows of funds resulting from the rise of innovators in the system. The dynamics of prices, employment, and wealth distribution among the different sectors and social groups is analyzed. Above all, the essential role of finance in fostering innovation and its interaction with the real economy is underlined. |
| Keywords: | Schumpeter; Innovation; Stock-flow Consistent Models; Monetary Circuit |
| JEL: | E11 E32 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_733&r=knm |
| By: | Satu Reijonen (Department of Organization - Copenhagen Business School); Rebecca Pinheiro-Croisel (CGS - Centre de Gestion Scientifique - Mines ParisTech) |
| Abstract: | Despite a growing interest, sustainable energy innovations encounter difficulties in attaining market success. This paper investigates the role of contracts, a hitherto understudied innovation influent, in generating more conducive conditions for sustainable energy innovations in building projects. With the help of two case studies we identify three dynamics evoked by specific types of building contracts with sustainability focus: the dynamics of thinking beyond the habitual, the dynamics of reverse calculation, and the dynamics of countability. These dynamics change the prevailing level of ambition of the project and the ways in which the benefits and costs are calculated and thereby create a strong entanglement of the sustainable energy innovation and the design project. Furthermore, the dynamics lead to favouring of uptake of existing innovations rather than generating completely novel solutions. The article concludes with a discussion about the possibilities of policy intervention for innovation supportive dynamics in construction projects. |
| Keywords: | innovation; sustainable energy; processuality; geothermal heating; bio-climatic design |
| Date: | 2012–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00743386&r=knm |
| By: | Christopher Spencer (School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, UK); Paul Temple (School of Economics, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the contribution of voluntary consensus based standards, as developed through the British Standards Institution (BSI), to collective learning and productivity growth in Britain. It discusses the pivotal contribution of professional engineers to the establishment of a committee based national standards setting body that developed an important model of consensus standardisation. This model was imitated into new areas at home and overseas. We argue that by 1931 the catalogue of BSI standards represented a considerable stock of codifed knowledge whose growth reflected that of underlying aggregate technological advance. This claim is validated by its successful incorporation into an econometric model that suggests that this mode of standardisation has made a significant contribution to productivity growth in Britain. |
| Keywords: | standards, technological change, productivity |
| JEL: | O11 O33 O47 L52 C22 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2012_10&r=knm |