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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2013‒02‒03
ten papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Martin Wörter (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Pierre Mohnen (Maastricht University); Boris Lokshin (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | There is growing evidence that firms increasingly adopt open innovation practices. In this paper we investigate the impact of two such external knowledge acquisition strategies, ‘buy’ and ‘cooperate’, on firm’s product innovation performance. Taking a direct (productivity) approach, we test for complementarity effects in the simultaneous use of the two strategies, and in the intensity of their use. Our results based on large panels of Dutch and Swiss innovating firms, suggest that while both ‘buy’ and ‘cooperate’ have a positive effect on innovation, there is little statistical evidence that using them simultaneously leads to higher innovation performance. Results from the Dutch sample provide some indication, that there are positive economies of scope in doing external and cooperative R&D simultaneously conditional on doing internal R&D. |
| Keywords: | Open innovation, R&D collaboration, make, buy strategies |
| JEL: | O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:12-325&r=knm |
| By: | Chiara Franco (Catholic University of Milan); Alberto Marzucchi (Catholic University of Milan); Sandro Montresor (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at extending the analysis of the firm’s absorptive capacity (AC) by taking stock of its manifold nature. Innovation cooperation is recognised as one of its antecedents, along with R&D, but with different possible outcomes, depending on the kind of partner. Human capital is claimed to be as important as other organisational mechanisms for the AC impact on innovation. The empirical application, carried out on about 10,500 firms located in 3 EU countries (i.e. Germany, Italy and Spain), confirms the role of these factors. Interacting with research organisations, for example, increases the firm’s AC providing it occurs within the national boundaries. The transformation of AC into actual innovation is favoured by the human capital of the firm, while it is actually hampered by socialisation mechanisms of an organisational nature. |
| Keywords: | Absorptive capacity – Innovation cooperation – Human capital |
| JEL: | O33 O32 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201205&r=knm |
| By: | Canet, Emilie |
| Abstract: | Au sein de la littérature sur l’innovation, certains auteurs se sont intéressés à une forme particulière : l’innovation managériale. Nous nous centrons sur une période critique de la vie des innovations managériales entre invention et diffusion. Il s’agit de comprendre les processus en œuvre entre le moment où l’innovation est inventée au sein d’une organisation et celui où elle est considérée comme validée et établie dans un périmètre académique et professionnel plus large. En nous appuyant sur une étude de cas et une démarche d’observation participante, nous proposons une analyse exploratoire de cette période qui permet de mettre en évidence ses caractéristiques sur différents aspects : l’évolution de l’innovation tant dans son contenu que sur sa rhétorique, la dynamique d’évolution et le régime de conception. |
| Abstract: | Management innovation is a specific genre within the literature on innovation. We will focus on a critical phase on managerial innovations lifecycle, sprawling between invention and diffusion. We aim at understanding the processes at work between the moment an innovation is invented within an organization and the moment it is considered established and validated by numerous organizations. Relying on a case study and a participative observation approach, we will put forward an exploratory analysis of this phase allowing to highlight its characteristics in various lights: evolution of content and rhetoric, evolution dynamics and design system. |
| Keywords: | diffusion of innovations; discourse; design; establishment; management innovation; diffusion des innovations; discours; conception; consultants; établissement; innovation managériale; |
| JEL: | O33 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/10879&r=knm |
| By: | Tiwari, Rajnish; Herstatt, Cornelius |
| Abstract: | Recent years have seen the emergence of low-cost innovations targeted at economically weaker sections of the society, seeking to align business with social welfare. In many instances, results on the ground have been, however, rather sobering as firms have generally (probably justifiably) worried that 'good quality, low price' products may cannibalize into their regular business. At the same time those very customers that were intended to benefit from the new approach have tended to shy away fearing low quality and social stigma of using cheap products. Using multiple case studies of successful affordability-driven innovations ('frugal innovations') from India we investigate how firms can effectively reduce market and technology uncertainty of product innovations targeted at price-sensitive customers. The key criteria to success seem to lie in reducing the overall cost of ownership and enhancing customer perception of quality and image. The case studies reveal that affordability-driven innovations are especially successful when firms seek recourse to open global innovation networks (OGINs) for collaborative development in all phases of the innovation value chain. -- |
| Keywords: | frugal innovations,bottom of the pyramid,lead markets,open innovation,global innovation,India,open global innovation networks,innovation systems |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:72&r=knm |
| By: | Grim-Yefsah, Malika |
| Abstract: | Le travail de recherche de cette thèse traite de la problématique de transfert de connaissances lors du processus de transition d’un projet informatique externalisé dans un EPST. En particulier, Comment transférer les connaissances, constituées des expériences-succès ou échecs passés, routines, assimilées et cumulées pendant la durée d’un projet externalisé par les membres d’une équipe sortante vers une nouvelle équipe entrante d’une manière efficiente ? Nous nous focalisons sur ce processus de transition en raison de son importance pour le succès de l’externalisation informatique, de sa complexité, de sa richesse théorique et le manque d’études dans ce domaine. Nous avons choisi d’approcher cette problématique par le biais de la gestion des connaissances. Dans un premier volet de cette thèse, nous nous sommes appuyées sur le paradigme Goal-Question-Metric proposant une démarche de définition de la qualité pour progresser de notre besoin opérationnel jusqu’à la définition des métriques d’évaluation de la robustesse utilisant des informations issues de l’analyse de réseaux informels sous-jacents aux activités effectuées dans le processus métier. Ces métriques permettent d’évaluer une partie de la qualité d’un processus métier en tenant compte de la connaissance tacite des acteurs du processus de transition. Dans un second volet de cette recherche, nous avons développés une méthode, en nous appuyant sur l’approche de capitalisation sur les connaissances et des mécanismes théoriques de transfert de connaissances, et un outil informatique pour mettre en œuvre ce processus de transfert de connaissances. |
| Abstract: | The research of this thesis deals with the issue of knowledge transfer during the transition process of an IT project outsourced in EPST. In particular, How to transfer knowledge, experience and routines related to outsourced activities from outgoing team to a new incoming team? We focus on the transition due to its significance for outsourcing success, its complexity and theoretical richness, and its limited current understanding. We chose to approach this problem through knowledge management. In the first part of this thesis, based on the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm, we propose an approach for the definition of quality metrics covering the given operational requirements. The metrics we define take tacit knowledge into account, using information from the structural analysis of an informal network. In a second phase of this research, we developed a method, relying on capitalization on knowledge and theoretical mechanisms of knowledge transfer, and a tool to implement this process of knowledge transfer. |
| Keywords: | Robustesse; Métrique d’évaluation de la qualité; |
| JEL: | M1 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/10861&r=knm |
| By: | LOPES BENTO Cindy; HOTTENROTT Hanna |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the effectiveness of targeted public support for R&D investment. In particular, we test whether the specific policy design aiming at incentivizing (international)collaboration and R&D in small and medium-sized firms achieves the desired objectives on input as well as output additionality. Our results show that the targeted R&D subsidies accelerate R&D spending in the private sector, and especially so in the targeted groups. Further, we differentiate between privately financed R&D and subsidy-induced R&D investment to evaluate their respective effects on innovation performance. The results confirm that the induced R&D is productive as it translates into marketable product innovations. While both types of R&D investments trigger significant output effects, we find that the effect of subsidy-induced R&D investment is higher for firms that collaborate internationally as well as for SMEs. |
| Keywords: | Innovation Policy; Subsidies; R&D; Trestment effect; SMEs; International Collaboration; Innovation Performance |
| JEL: | C14 C30 G23 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-36&r=knm |
| By: | Margaret Stevens |
| Abstract: | Vocational training systems differ markedly between countries. A model of firm-based human capital investment predicts equilibria characterised by particular patterns of training and job-to-job mobility, consistent with observed cross-country differences. Incentives to invest in human capital are determined jointly with labour turnover and the intensity of competition between employers for skilled workers, and the dependence of labour market conditions on human capital leads to strategic complementarity between training decisions. Depending on the extent of market frictions and match heterogeneity, we may expect to see either equilibria characterised by general training, steep wage profiles and high mobility; or equilibria in which both general and specific investment may occur, but turnover is low and wage profiles are relatively flat. Multiple equilibria are possible, in which case high turnover equilibria generate higher welfare. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, labor turnover, specific training, general training, search, matching |
| JEL: | J24 J63 |
| Date: | 2012–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:629&r=knm |
| By: | d'Artis Kancs (JRC-IPTS); Boriss Siliverstovs (ETH Zurich - KOF Swiss Economic Institute) |
| Abstract: | The present paper studies the relationship between R&D investment and firm productivity growth by explicitly accounting for non-linearities in the R&D-productivity relationship and inter-sectoral firm heterogeneity. In order to address these issues, we employ a two step estimation approach, and match two firm-level panel data sets for the OECD countries, which allows us to relax both the linearity and homogeneity assumptions of the canonical Griliches (1979) knowledge capital model. Our results suggest that: (i) R&D investment increases firm productivity with an average elasticity of 0.15; (ii) the impact of R&D investment on firm productivity is differential at different levels of R&D intensity – the productivity elasticity ranges from -0.02 for low levels of R&D intensity to 0.33 for high levels of R&D intensity; (iii) the relationship between R&D expenditures and productivity growth is non-linear, and only after a certain critical mass of R&D is reached, the productivity growth is significantly positive; (iv) there are important intersectoral differences with respect to R&D investment and firm productivity – high-tech sectors’ firms not only invest more in R&D, but also achieve more in terms of productivity gains connected with research activities. |
| Keywords: | R&D investment, firm productivity, generalised propensity score |
| JEL: | C14 C21 D24 F23 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201206&r=knm |
| By: | Josheski, Dushko; Magdinceva-Sopova , Marija |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the issue of R&D investment and the market value of the firm. This idea dating back from Arrow paper, later developed by Paul Romer but in the area of economic growth. Zvi Griliches (1979), first introduced the production function, which later would be used in a vast literature from this area (Market value of the firms and R&D investment). In the theoretical section of this paper we are describing Tobin’s original model, and Abel’s (1984) model, this models relates Tobin’s quotient with intangible assets of the company. In the empirical part we develop cross-section time series model (Feasible Generalized Least Squares Model), for a panel of countries in Europe including UK and Turkey, in total of 11 panels. Later we test that model by estimating the marginal effects of R&D investment with Tobin’s q on a small economy such as R. Macedonia. The results exert positive and statistically significant relationship between market value of the firms and R&D investment. |
| Keywords: | Tobin’s q; R&D; knowledge absorption |
| JEL: | D46 E22 D92 |
| Date: | 2013–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44094&r=knm |
| By: | Tietze, Frank; Pieper, Thorsten; Herstatt, Cornelius |
| Abstract: | Prior research on user innovation has concentrated on markets in which products (e.g., mountain bikes, kitesurfing equipment, tools, etc.) are typically purchased by those users who modify them. However, in numerous markets, this is not the case, for example, those in which equipment is rented. Moreover, firms increasingly servitize, selling functionality instead of products. Thus, product ownership is being transferred to users less and less. Instead of purchasing products, users increasingly rent or lease equipment. Consequently, our research investigates the impact of product ownership on user innovation behavior. We question whether absent ownership is an innovation barrier, negatively impacting users' propensity to innovate. This should be particularly relevant to firms that collaborate with users, scouting for their ideas. This study was conducted in the German rowing community. In contrast with previously studied sports markets, equipment ownership in rowing often remains with sport clubs and not with individual users. Following a pre-study, we distributed a survey to the members of 410 clubs enlisted in the German Rowing Federation's roster. Our approach yielded 743 responses. We present results from multivariate ordinal and logistic regressions for two dependent variables (idea generation and realized ideas), differentiating between three ownership types (private, non-private with dedicated use, and non-private with shared use). Our results reveal that private ownership has significant positive effects on user innovation behavior. Users, who own their equipment develop significantly more innovative ideas and have a significantly higher probability to realize ideas than users who use equipment that is owned by a third party. We find that private ownership positively moderates use experience's impact on the development and realization of ideas. The results imply that manufacturers should be aware of the effect that ownership could have, particularly when offering services or in situations where ownership rights are not transferred to users (e.g., leasing models). We discuss measures to remedy the negative impact of absent ownership, such as equipment sponsorships complemented by specific use contracts, experiment labs, and insurances. -- |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:73&r=knm |