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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2013‒01‒12
twelve papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Zamulin, Andrej L. |
| Abstract: | The transition to a knowledge economy is changing the nature of organizations and staff working for them. Focused on the creation, preservation and reproduction of knowledge companies increasingly rely on knowledge workers. Qualitative changes in the internal environment of organizations and information society development are not accompanied by a clear understanding of what leadership styles are best for the new situation. This paper analyzes the capabilities of traditional leadership approaches and outlines the direction of formation of the new types of leadership in the 21st century. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sps:wpaper:537&r=knm |
| By: | De Spiegelaere, Stan; Van Gyes , Guy; Van Hootegem, Geert |
| Abstract: | The EU is striving for an ‘Innovative Union’. Various case studies already hinted that the involvement of various types of employees is crucial for the organisational innovativeness. Using data from a large scale Belgian employee level survey in five industries, this article focuses on the question how ‘mainstream’ innovation is in Belgian firms and how this coincides with forms of workplace learning. Innovation mainstreaming here refers to the inclusion of various occupational groups in the innovation process. Findings suggest that innovation in most sectors, is an ‘elite driven’ process with only a limited involvement of lower level employees. Moreover, genuine employee-driven innovations are a rarity. Nevertheless, the research also finds that workplace learning (job training and in-work learning opportunities) are potentially strong levers for employee innovation for all types of employees. Specifically providing in-work learning opportunities to technical workers could make innovation more mainstream in Europe. |
| Keywords: | Employee Driven Innovation; Innovation Mainstreaming; Innovative Work Behaviour; Workplace Learning |
| JEL: | D23 D83 D8 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43406&r=knm |
| By: | Zavyalova, E. K.; Kosheleva, S. V. |
| Abstract: | The paper presents the results of a comparative study of human resource management peculiarities in two groups of knowledge-intensive firms: those working in IT field and in advertising/ PR field. 100 Russian medium size enterprises were the object of research. The questionnaire made on the basis of the European quality standard "Investors in People" was the research tool. The differences in HR practices aimed at personnel development and relevant to various human resource strategies have been proven to a statistically-valid degree. IT companies tend to realize the high performance strategy, whereas advertising and PR companies prefer the high involvement strategy. |
| Keywords: | knowledge-intensive firms, HR strategies, HRD technologies, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sps:wpaper:544&r=knm |
| By: | Simplice A, Asongu |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the relevance of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the knowledge economy (KE)-finance nexus using the four variables identified under the World Bank’s knowledge economy index (KEI) and seven financial intermediary dynamics of depth, efficiency, activity and size. Three main findings are established: (1) education increases financial dynamics of depth and size; (2) economic incentives by means of credit facilities (trade openness) mitigate financial dynamics of efficiency and activity (financial dynamics of depth and size) and; (3) ICT and FDI both improve financial depth and decrease financial size (with FDI having an additional edge of improving financial activity). As a policy implication, the enforcement of IPRs is not a general and sufficient condition for positive KE-finance nexuses. Hence, blanket upholding of IPRs to achieve such positive linkages may not be successful unless policy is contingent on the prevailing ‘KE specific component’ trends and dynamics of financial development. |
| Keywords: | Financial development; Knowledge economy; Intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | O38 O10 O34 K42 P48 |
| Date: | 2013–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43541&r=knm |
| By: | Leonid Kogan; Dimitris Papanikolaou; Noah Stoffman |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of innovation on asset prices in a tractable, general equilibrium framework with heterogeneous households and firms. Innovation has a heterogenous impact on households and firms. Technological improvements embodied in new capital benefit workers, while displacing existing firms and their shareholders. This displacement process is uneven: newer generations of shareholders benefit at the expense of existing cohorts; and firms well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities benefit at the expense of firms unable to do so. Under standard preference parameters, the risk premium associated with innovation is negative. Our model delivers several stylized facts about asset returns, consumption and labor income. We derive and test new predictions of our framework using a direct measure of innovation. The model's predictions are supported by the data. |
| JEL: | E20 E32 G10 G12 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18671&r=knm |
| By: | Zavyalova, E. K.; Kosheleva, S. V. |
| Abstract: | This paper is devoted to the issue of the role of human capital in developing national competitiveness of BRIC countries. The authors analyze the basic concepts (human capital, human potential, national competitiveness). The article puts forward a hypothesis about the interrelation between the peculiarities of human capital and national competitiveness. Relying on the widely accepted indices and using regression analysis as a tool, the authors prove the rightfulness of this hypothesis. Supplementary analysis of the dynamics of Knowledge-Based Economy Index within the period of time under study (1990 - 2009) allowed to draw a conclusion up-on the difference in the efficiency of using the human potential in the BRIC countries: despite the fact that Russia and Brazil dominate in terms of the level of human potential development and in particular concerning the level of education, they lag behind China and India which use human potential and knowledge most efficiently. |
| Keywords: | human capital, human potential, national competitiveness, BRIC countries, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sps:wpaper:543&r=knm |
| By: | Annamaria Lusardi; Pierre-Carl Michaud; Olivia S. Mitchell |
| Abstract: | While financial knowledge is strongly positively related to household wealth, there is also considerable cross-sectional variation in both financial knowledge and net asset levels. To explore these patterns, we develop a calibrated stochastic life cycle model featuring endogenous financial knowledge accumulation. The model generates substantial wealth inequality, over and above that of standard life cycle models; this is because higher earners typically have more hump-shaped labor income profiles and lower retirement benefits which, when interacted with precautionary saving motives, boost their need for private wealth accumulation and thus financial knowledge. Our simulations show that endogenous financial knowledge accumulation has the potential to account for a large proportion of wealth inequality. The fraction of the population which is rationally financially “ignorant” depends on the generosity of the retirement system and the level of means-tested benefits. Educational efforts to enhance financial savvy early in the life cycle so as to produce one percentage point excess return per year would be valued highly by people in all educational groups. |
| JEL: | D01 D1 D31 D83 D91 E21 G11 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18669&r=knm |
| By: | Kuhn, Michael; Prettner, Klaus |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of a labor-intensive health care sector within an R&D-driven growth model with overlapping generations. Health care increases longevity and labor participation/productivity. We examine under which conditions expanding health care enhances growth and welfare. Even if the provision of health care diverts labor from productive activities, it may still fuel R&D and economic growth if the additional wealth that comes with expanding longevity translates into a more capital/machine- intensive final goods production and, thereby, raises the return to developing new machines. We establish mild conditions under which an expansion of health care beyond the growth-maximizing level is Pareto-improving. -- |
| Keywords: | endogenous growth,mortality,(Blanchard) overlapping generations,health care,research and development,sectoral composition |
| JEL: | I15 I18 O11 O41 O43 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuweco:032012&r=knm |
| By: | Schmitz, Patrick W. |
| Abstract: | An inventor can invest research effort to come up with an innovation. Once an innovation is made, a contract is negotiated and unobservable effort must be exerted to develop a product. In the absence of liability constraints, the inventor's investment incentives are increasing in his bargaining power. Yet, given limited liability, overinvestments may occur and the inventor's investment incentives may be decreasing in his bargaining power. |
| Keywords: | hold-up problem; incomplete contracts; research and development; limited liability |
| JEL: | D86 L23 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43407&r=knm |
| By: | Van Leeuwen, Bas; van Leeuwen-Li, Jieli; Foldvari, Peter |
| Abstract: | In recent decades there has been increasing attention for Chinese economic development. There has been a big debate though if its growth is caused by capital accumulation (perspiration factors) or driven by Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth (inspiration factors). The difference between both stances is quite substantial since, if the perspiration theory is correct, one expects the growth of the Chinese economy to slow down over time as the capital accumulation grows increasingly less efficient. However, so far this question is difficult to analyse for China since we lack information on one of the factors of production, human capital. To analyse this question, in this paper we develop a new dataset on human capital for the provinces of China between 1922 and 2010. Using our new dataset, together with physical capital and per capita GDP, allows us to do a TFP analysis for sub periods. We find a continuously negative TFP growth suggesting that reduction in productivity was a structural feature of the Chinese economy. If true, this was to lend support to the perspiration theory and would suggest a slowdown of the Chinese economy in the future. However, standard growth accounting allocates both technical efficiency of the factors of production and the general technical development to TFP. Subtracting technical efficiency from TFP growth, we find that general technological development turns increasingly positive in the 1990s and 2000s. This suggests that, whereas until the reform period China was largely driven by capital accumulation, afterwards general technical development got an increasingly prominent place giving hope for continued economic development in the future. |
| Keywords: | education; human capital; China; history; growth; inequality; regional development |
| JEL: | H7 P3 N15 H52 O4 |
| Date: | 2011–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43582&r=knm |
| By: | Prettner, Klaus |
| Abstract: | We introduce publicly funded education into R&D based economic growth theory. Our framework allows us to i) explicitly describe a realistic process of human capital accumulation within these types of growth models, ii) reconcile semi-endogenous growth theory with the empirical evidence on the relationship between economic development and population growth, iii) revise the policy invariance result of semi-endogenous growth frameworks. In particular, we show that the model supports a negative (positive) association between economic growth and population growth if the education sector is well (badly) developed and that changes of public investments into education crucially affect the long-run balanced growth path. -- |
| JEL: | J24 O11 O41 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:65414&r=knm |
| By: | Goldbach, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Policy makers are interested in fostering economic growth and employment. Therefore, it is important to know how to boost innovation in an effective way. This paper investigates whether entrepreneurs with technical education are more innovative in high-tech industries than economists. The main contribution to the literature is in using the type of education as main explanatory variable for innovation. To analyze this question, the KfW/ZEW Start-Up Panel between 2005 and 2007 is used. Two independent OLS regressions are conducted for entrepreneurs with university degree and practical education. The results suggest that education matters for individuals with a university degree in high-tech industries but not for people with practical education. Having an economics degree is correlated with higher innovativeness. Therefore, for the underlying sample we do not find a nerd effect . -- |
| JEL: | A20 L26 I21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:62307&r=knm |