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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2014‒02‒15
fifteen papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Gault F.; Kuusisto J.; Niemi M. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Statistics Finland added questions to the Finnish Community Innovation Survey CIS for 2010 on the importance of user innovation. For firms engaged in innovation activity during the three year period, 2008-2010, 30 per cent reported that user modified products were of high or medium importance to them. For user developed products the figure was 13 per cent. These firms, compared with those that did not rank user innovation as highly, had a higher propensity to produce new to the market product innovations and they were more active in producing product innovations by themselves, by collaborating with others, by adapting and adopting products from other firms, and by using products from other firms. The results for user modified and user developed products were found to be consistent with responses to a standard CIS question on whether the product innovation of the firm was done by adapting products developed by others, but the results were not sufficient to say that responses to this question were a consequence, principally, of user innovation. The wider implications of the findings are discussed along with the need for confirmation of the findings in other countries. Both Portugal and Switzerland have incorporated the Finnish CIS 2010 questions into their CIS 2012 and have added additional questions which may show that existing CIS data provide information on the presence of user innovation. |
| Keywords: | Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes; |
| JEL: | D22 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014003&r=knm |
| By: | Mafini Dosso |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the transitional phase of the French innovation system focusing on the activities that influence the development and diffusion of innovations. It shows that the current system combined persistent elements of the traditional mission-oriented model with new systemic institutional structures, thus lengthening the transition towards a new model of innovation. Indeed the introduction of a bulk of reforms in a very short time, the lack of a clear long run agenda, the institutional inconsistencies have blurred the research and innovation policy trajectory and may affect the performances of France's innovation system in the coming years. |
| Keywords: | French innovation policies and system, activities, restructuring |
| Date: | 2014–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2014/05&r=knm |
| By: | Ajay Agrawal (University of Toronto and NBER.) |
| Abstract: | I summarize key findings from the literature on how distance, relationships, and ethnic ties influence knowledge flows and describe a model that relates emigration and the diaspora to knowledge flows. I then recap a key study that reports evidence of a link from the diaspora and knowledge flows to home country manufacturing productivity. Next, I summarize the ways in which intellectual property protection may influence knowledge flow patterns through incentives (market for ideas) and disincentives (anticommons). Finally, I speculate on how diaspora knowledge flows and intellectual property may alleviate developing country low-productivity equilibria (“poverty traps”) caused by an underinvestment in specialized human capital. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:15&r=knm |
| By: | Christian Le Bas; Julien Pénin |
| Abstract: | The standard view of patents emphasizes their dynamic efficiency. It considers that, by providing firms with incentives to invest in R&D and to disclose their knowledge, patents encourage innovation and increase social welfare in the long run. Yet, a growing body of literature opposes this view and asks for patent reform or even for the abolition of the patent system. In this work, which reviews the most recent literature on patents, we show that patents can have a negative impact on the dynamics of innovation. This is not due to some intrinsic properties of the patent system but to some of its recent evolutions which mean that, nowadays, too many patents are granted and that patent information is bad. The combination of those two elements explains most of the problems induced by modern patent systems such as hold-up (patent trolls), anti-commons (royalty stacking), and high transaction costs in markets for technology. We conclude by showing that realistic reforms can solve those problems and ensure that the patent system becomes again an instrument of dynamic efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Incentives, Patent, innovation policy, hold-up, trolls, anti-commons, markets for technology. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2014-02&r=knm |
| By: | Balsmeier, Benjamin; Czarnitzki, Dirk |
| Abstract: | This study examines how industry-specific managerial experience affects firms' innovation performance in the context of different institutional environments. Based on firm-level data from 27 Central and Eastern European countries we identify a robust positive relationship between industry-specific experience of the top-manager and the decision to innovate as well as the share of new product-related sales. These effects are particularly pronounced for small firms operating outside the European Union or, more generally, in institutionally less developed countries. The results suggest that managerial experience affects firm innovations largely indirectly, for example, by reducing uncertainty about future returns on innovations or by providing knowledge about how to cope with institutional shortfalls potentially hampering the commercial success of new products. -- |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance,Innovation,Managerial Experience |
| JEL: | G38 L25 O32 P26 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14011&r=knm |
| By: | Capasso M.; Treibich T.G.; Verspagen H.H.G. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the medium-term effect of RD expenditure on firm employment growth. Four cross-sectional waves of an innovation survey conducted in the Netherlands have been used to evaluate the effect on firm growth in the five years following the investment. Panel data fixed effect techniques, also allowing for selection bias corrections, indicate a positive influence of RD on growth. Limited dependent variable models have been used throughout the whole analysis to consider explicitly the cases of firms exiting the market in the analysed medium term. |
| Keywords: | Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance: General; Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior: General; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; |
| JEL: | L20 L10 O32 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014001&r=knm |
| By: | Georg Zachmann; Amma Serwaah; Michele Peruzzi |
| Abstract: | See also blog post 'Does Europe need a renewables target?' Low-carbon energy technologies are pivotal for decarbonising our economies up to 2050 while ensuring secure and affordable energy. Consequently, innovation that reduces the cost of low-carbon energy would play an important role in reducing transition costs. We assess the two most prominent innovation policy instruments (i) public research, development and demonstration (RD&D) subsidies and (ii) public deployment policies. Our results indicate that both deployment and RD&D coincide with increasing knowledge generation and the improved competitiveness of renewable energy technologies. We find that both support schemes together have a greater effect that they would individually, that RD&D support is unsurprisingly more effective in driving patents and that timing matters. Current wind deployment based on past wind RD&D spending coincides best with wind patenting. If we look into competitiveness we find a similar picture, with the greatest effect coming from deployment. Finally, we find significant cross-border effects, especially for winddeployment. Increased deployment in one country coincides with increased patenting in nearby countries. Based on our findings we argue that both deployment and RD&D support are needed to create innovation in renewable energy technologies. However, we worry that current support is unbalanced. Public spending on deployment has been two orders of magnitude larger (in 2010 about â?¬48 billion in the five largest EU countries in 2010) than spending on RD&D support (about â?¬315 million). Consequently, basing the policy mix more on empirical evidence could increase the efficiency of innovation policy targeted towards renewable energy technologies |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:wpaper:811&r=knm |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Rexhäuser, Sascha; Veugelers, Reinhilde |
| Abstract: | This study investigates productivity effects to firms introducing new environmental technologies. The literature on within-firm organisational change and productivity suggests that firms can get higher productivity effects from adopting new technologies if complementary organisational changes are adopted simultaneously. Such complementarity effects may be of critical importance for the case of adoption of greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement technologies. The adoption of these technologies is often induced by public authorities to limit social costs of climate change, whereas the private returns are much less obvious. We find empirical support for complementarity between green technology adoption and organisational change for a sample of firms located in Germany. The adoption of CO2 reducing and sustainable technologies innovations is associated with lower productivity. The simultaneous implementation of organisational innovations, however, increases the returns to the adoption of green technologies. -- |
| Keywords: | technical change,environmental innovation,organisational change,productivity |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12043r&r=knm |
| By: | Stefano Breschi (CRIOS – Università Bocconi, Milan); Francesco Lissoni (GREThA – Université Montesquieu, Bordeaux IV and CRIOS – Università Bocconi, Milan); Gianluca Tarasconi (CRIOS – Università Bocconi, Milan) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the existing literature on migration and innovation, with special emphasis on empirical studies based on patent and inventor data. Other sources of micro-data are examined, too, for comparative purposes. A pilot database, based on patent filings at the European Patent Office is presented. It contains information on individual inventors, including their country of residence and of origin. Preliminary evidence suggests that immigrant inventors contribute to innovation not only in the US, but also in selected European countries, where they often rank among the most productive individuals. Data on returnee inventors to selected countries of origin suggest the phenomenon to be of limited scale, and highly subject to errors of measurement. |
| Keywords: | immigration, innovation, inventor data, patent data |
| JEL: | F22 O15 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:17&r=knm |
| By: | Tanja Sinozic; Tanja Sinozic; Tanja Sinozic; Franz Tödtling; Franz Tödtling; Franz Tödtling |
| Abstract: | This paper explores cluster change using the case example of New Media in Vienna. It addresses the question of how cluster elements (such as firms and institutions) interact to shape and transform the thematic and spatial boundaries of clusters as they shift along their developmental stages. Clusters go through different phases underpinned by technical change, renewing and destroying previous cluster specialisations. Creativity is a key feature in modern economies underlying competitiveness in a range of sectors which cluster in urban areas. Sectors such as software and computer services, advertising and market research, printing and reproduction of recorded media, motion pictures, creative arts and entertainment are supported by regional conditions that enable creative processes in local interacting firms, and the translation of ideas into innovative products and services. These perspectives are used to explore the New Media cluster in Vienna based on 25 semi-structured interviews with firms specialising in New Media technology areas. When analysed using a life cycle perspective of clusters, the findings in this paper suggest that cluster thematic boundaries are shaped by change in technological variety via complex processes such as inter-disciplinary problem-solving in projects, re-activation of latent local and global networks, and firm capabilities to respond to rapidly changing client needs in devices, communication and design. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2014_01&r=knm |
| By: | Joy Buchanan (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University); Bart Wilson (Economic Science Institute, Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a laboratory experiment to explore whether the protection of intellectual property (IP) incentivizes people to create non-rivalrous knowledge goods, foregoing the production of other rivalrous goods. In the contrasting treatment with no IP protection, participants are free to resell and remake non-rivalrous knowledge goods originally created by others. We find that creators reap substantial profits when IP is protected and that rampant pirating is common when there is no IP protection, but IP protection in and of itself is neither necessary nor sufficient for generating wealth from the discovery of knowledge goods. Rather, individual entrepreneurship is the key. Length: 36 |
| Keywords: | intellectual property, experimental economics |
| JEL: | C92 D89 K39 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gms:wpaper:1044&r=knm |
| By: | René Bohnsack (University of Amsterdam Business School - University of Amsterdam Business School); Jonatan Pinkse (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Ans Kolk (Amsterdam Business School - University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Sustainable technologies challenge prevailing business practices, especially in industries that depend heavily on the use of fossil fuels. Firms are therefore in need of business models that transform the specific characteristics of sustainable technologies into new ways to create economic value and overcome the barriers that stand in the way of their market penetration. A key issue is the respective impact of incumbent and entrepreneurial firms' path-dependent behaviour on the development of such new business models. Embedded in the literature on business models, this paper explores how incumbent and entrepreneurial firms' path dependencies have affected the evolution of business models for electric vehicles. Based on a qualitative analysis of electric vehicle projects of key industry players over a five-year period (2006-2010), the paper identifies four business model archetypes and traces their evolution over time. Findings suggest that incumbent and entrepreneurial firms approach business model innovation in distinctive ways. Business model evolution shows a series of incremental changes that introduce service-based components, which were initially developed by entrepreneurial firms, to the product. Over time there seems to be some convergence in the business models of incumbents and entrepreneurs in the direction of delivering economy multi-purpose vehicles. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable technology; business models, evolution; path dependencies; electric vehicles |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00936886&r=knm |
| By: | Maman Setiawan (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Padjadjaran); Rina Indiastuti (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Padjadjaran); Peggie Destevanie (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Padjadjaran) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of information technology in its contribution toward the competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises. The data used in the analysis is based on a survey of micro, small and medium enterprises in Cimahi District, West Java Province, Indonesia. Variables to measure the degree of adoption of information technology, competitiveness, and other control latent variables are constructed by Factor Analysis using various relevant indicators. Path Analysis is also undertaken to investigate the effect of the adoption of information technology on competitiveness. It found that there is a lack of use of information technologies among the micro, small and medium enterprises surveyed. The information technologies are used for some purposes such as administration, marketing, production, and other activities related to the business. We also found the adoption of information technology has a positive contribution to competitiveness. |
| Keywords: | competitiveness; micro, small and medium enterprises; information technology; path analysis; factor analysis |
| JEL: | O0 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201401&r=knm |
| By: | Bertschek, Irene; Niebel, Thomas |
| Abstract: | Mobile internet access allows for flexibility with respect to working time and working place. We analyse whether employees' use of mobile internet access improves firms' labour productivity. Our data set comprises 2460 German firms and refers to the year 2010, when mobile internet started its diffusion process to firms on a large scale. The econometric analysis shows that firms' labour productivity significantly increases with the share of employees with mobile internet access. However, an instrumental variable approach reveals that mobile internet use does not cause higher labour productivity. -- |
| Keywords: | Mobile Internet,Labour Productivity,Firm-Level Data |
| JEL: | D22 L20 O33 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13118&r=knm |
| By: | Fernald, John G. (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco); Jones, Charles I. (Stanford Graduate School of Business; NBER) |
| Abstract: | Modern growth theory suggests that more than 3/4 of growth since 1950 reflects rising educational attainment and research intensity. As these transition dynamics fade, U.S. economic growth is likely to slow at some point. However, the rise of China, India, and other emerging economies may allow another few decades of rapid growth in world researchers. Finally, and more speculatively, the shape of the idea production function introduces a fundamental uncertainty into the future of growth. For example, the possibility that artificial intelligence will allow machines to replace workers to some extent could lead to higher growth in the future. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2014-02&r=knm |