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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2012‒12‒10
seven papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Lorena M. D'Agostino; Grazia D. Santangelo |
| Abstract: | R&D offshoring has increasingly involved emerging countries as host locations and promoted a greater fragmentation of R&D activities across borders. As a result, a subtle international division of labor in knowledge production has yielded a fine-slicing of R&D activities with the highest valueadded activities located in the most advanced countries and the lowest value-added activities in emerging countries. However, no study, to our knowledge, has investigated whether finely sliced foreign R&D activities complement each other in terms of greater knowledge production at home. Drawing on a rich dataset, we estimate a regional knowledge production function and apply a direct complementarity test. Our results suggest that the global fragmentation of R&D activities produces synergic effects on the knowledge production of the home investing OECD regions when R&D activities are optimally rather than randomly located. |
| Keywords: | R&D fine-slicing; R&D optimal location; home region knowledge production; emerging countries |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:12-06&r=knm |
| By: | Martin Falk |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the determinants of bilateral Greenfield FDI projects and flows in knowledge intensive business services from OECD/BRIC countries to the EU countries for the period 2003-2010. Greenfield FDI projects are distinguished by type of activity: (i) business services, (ii) design, development and testing activities, (iii) headquarters activities and (iv) R&D services. Another aim of this study is to provide new empirical evidence on the patterns of Greenfield investments in knowledge intensive business services over time, source country and destination country. For Austria, the number of Greenfield investments in headquarter functions remains stable over time whereas Greenfield investments in R&D and related activities declined during the sample period. The same holds true for the number of jobs generated through greenfield investments. The results using panel count data models show that wage costs, tertiary education, corporate taxes, having a common border and sharing a common language all play a significant role in determining bilateral Greenfield FDI projects in knowledge intensive services. However, the impact of corporate taxation and labour costs differs widely across the functions and does not play a role in Greenfield investments in R&D and development, design and testing services. |
| Keywords: | Greenfield foreign direct investment, knowledge intensive business services, headquarter functions, R&D activities, gravity equation, panel data, FDI determinants |
| JEL: | F23 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsr:ecbook:2010:i:iv-002&r=knm |
| By: | Simplice A, Asongu |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to assess how financial sector competition plays out in the development of knowledge economy (KE). It contributes at the same time to the macroeconomic literature on measuring financial development and response to the growing field of KE by means of informal sector promotion, micro finance and mobile banking. It suggests a practicable way to disentangle the effects of various financial sectors on different components of KE. The variables identified under the World Bank’s four knowledge economy index (KEI) are employed. Three hypotheses based on seven propositions are tested. Results show: (1) the informal financial sector, a previously missing component in the definition of the financial system by the IMF significantly affects KE dimensions; (2) disentangling different components of the existing measurement of the financial system improves dynamics in the KE-finance nexus and; (3) introduction of measures of sector importance provides relevant new insights into how financial sector competition affects KE. |
| Keywords: | Financial development; Knowledge Economy |
| JEL: | P00 O10 O34 P48 G21 |
| Date: | 2012–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43009&r=knm |
| By: | López-Estornell,Manuel; Barberá-Tomás,David; García-Reche,Andrés; Mas-Verdú,Francisco |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the evolution of regional innovation policy in Emilia-Romagna, and Valencia, regions with similar economic features that implemented similar innovation policies in the 1970s and 1980s. We investigate whether their similarities have led to similar targets, policy tools and governance developments. We show that innovation policy in both regions suffered from the effects of privatization, budget constraints and changes to manufacturing during the 1990s and highlight the consequences. Although Emilia-Romagna experienced deeper change to its innovation policy, privatizations and/or the replacement of public funds promoted commercial approaches and induced market failures in both regions. The worst effects of these policies were the implementation of less risky innovation projects, the shift towards extra-regional projects and markets, and the favouring of large firms. |
| Keywords: | innovation policy, industrial district |
| Date: | 2012–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201210&r=knm |
| By: | Marco Marini (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Maria Luisa Petit (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Roberta Sestini (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza") |
| Abstract: | We present a model of endogenous formation of R&D agreements among firms in which also the timing of R&D investments is made endogenous. The purpose is to bridge two usually separate streams of literature, the endogenous formation of R&D alliances and the endogenous timing literature. This allows to consider the formation of R&D agreements over time. It is shown that, when both R&D spillovers and investment costs are sufficiently low, firms may find difficult to maintain a stable agreement due to the strong incentive to invest noncooperatively as leaders. In such a case, the stability of an R&D agreement requires that the joint investment occurs at the initial stage, thus avoiding any delay. When instead spillovers are sufficiently high, cooperation in R&D constitutes a profitable option, although firms also possess an incentive to sequence their investment over time. Finally, when spillovers are asymmetric and the knowledge mainly leaks from the leader to the follower, to invest as follower becomes extremely profitable, making R&D alliances hard to sustain unless firms strategically delay their joint investment in R&D. |
| Keywords: | R&D Investment; Spillovers; Endogenous Timing; R&D Alliances; Endogenous Research Cartels |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:report:2012-07&r=knm |
| By: | Alberto Marzucchi (Catholic University of Milan); Davide Antonioli (University of Ferrara); Sandro Montresor (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to show how policy makers can stimulate firms' cooperation with research organisations in innovation. We argue that the administration of an R&D subsidy can be effective. Furthermore, this should be more so for extra-regional than intra-regional cooperation. The firms' propensity to extend cooperation across the region is assumed to increase with the amount of support. However, the support must overcome a threshold, for firms to cover the fixed costs of distant interactions. These research hypotheses are tested with respect to a sample of firms in a region of Italy. Propensity score matching is applied to identify the impact of the subsidy receipt. A generalised propensity score technique is employed to investigate the effect of an increasing amount of support. All the hypotheses are not rejected. Firms' cooperation is policy sensitive, but the size of the support is crucial for its effects. |
| Keywords: | Industry-Research Cooperation, Regional Innovation Systems, Behavioural Additionality |
| JEL: | O32 O38 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201204&r=knm |
| By: | Joerg Freiling (University of Bremen - Faculty of Business Studies and Economics & ZenTra); Mareike K. Schmidt (University of Bremen - Faculty of Business Studies and Economics) |
| Abstract: | The globalization process stimulates more and more start-ups entering international markets at their earliest convenience. Supported by modern IT and logistics systems, this option is available for many ventures that become more and more independent from their country of origin. For transnational companies, as heterarchical networks without typical internal hub structures and a high degree of responsiveness, this holds particularly true. This is the reason why this paper focuses the 'born transnational' type of international entrepreneurship. The question arises how international ventures achieve international competitiveness. This paper argues that the pace and the alignment of processes of external and internal learning are of utmost importance. Knowledge generation, absorption, integration, and company-wide transfer play a pivotal role in this regard. Insofar, the research question of the paper is: What are the factors that accelerate organizational learning of 'born transnationals'? Based on competence-based theory and a particular model of organizational learning, the paper presents research propositions on the learning process of Ôborn transnationals'. |
| Keywords: | Transnational company, Born Transnational, Globalization, Start-ups, competence based theory of the firm, organizational learning |
| JEL: | D23 D29 D74 K12 K40 L22 M52 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:07&r=knm |