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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2015‒03‒05
ten papers chosen by Laura Ştefănescu Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Strambach , Simone (Department of Geography, Philipps-University of Marburg) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the paper is to contribute both conceptually and empirically to a deeper understanding of the territorial shaping of knowledge combination and its development dynamics underpinning innovation. The importance of combining and integrating knowledge bases from different sources, geographical scales and heterogeneous actors is increasingly recognized in innovation studies. Yet, the question of what limits or enables knowledge combinations in innovation processes and what generates relatedness among unrelated knowledge bases in time and space is not fully answered. Conceptually the paper suggests a more specific focus on microfoundations and temporality by taking into account the economics of organization in more detail. This appears a particularly promising approach, as the causal relations and mechanisms across and between aggregated levels such as firms, sectors, regions, or nations are not well understood. Empirically the paper explores the micro-dynamics of knowledge combination and its territorial shaping from a transnational perspective. German-Chinese innovation projects in sustainable construction are investigated by using the methodology of innovation biography. This method allows following the time-space path of innovation. It enables capturing knowledge interactions and their unfolding in multi-scalar and cross-sectoral ways. The results underline a very dynamic geography of organization and barriers for knowledge integration at the micro-level rooted in organizational and institutional path dependencies. The investigation in the interplay between more permanent and temporary organizational forms and its geography holds a large potential for further research to provide new insights into the spatiality of combining knowledge bases in innovation processes. |
| Keywords: | knowledge dynamics; transnational innovation; microfoundations; economics of organization; innovation biography |
| JEL: | D83 L14 L20 L84 O31 |
| Date: | 2015–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_010&r=knm |
| By: | Dessi, Roberta; Yin, Nina |
| Abstract: | This paper explores a new role for venture capitalists, as knowledge intermediaries. A venture capital investor can communicate valuable knowledge to an entrepreneur, facilitating innovation. The venture capitalist can also communicate the entrepreneur's innovative knowledge to other portfolio companies. We study the costs and benefits of these two forms of knowledge transfer, and their implications for investment, innovation, and product market competition. The model also sheds light on the choice between venture capital and other forms of finance, and the determinants of the decision to seek patent protection for innovations. Our analysis provides a rationale for the use of contingencies (specifically, patent approval) in VC contracts documented by Kaplan and Stromberg (2003), and for recent evidence on patterns of syndication among venture capitalists. |
| Keywords: | venture capital, knowledge intermediaries, contracts, innovation, competition, patents. |
| JEL: | D82 D86 G24 L22 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:29009&r=knm |
| By: | Feser, Daniel; Proeger, Till |
| Abstract: | Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) constitute a major source of innovative knowledge for small- and medium-sized enterprises. In regional innovation systems, KIBS play a crucial role in distributing innovations and improving the region´s overall innovative capacities. While the specific properties and effects on client firms and sectors have been comprehensively discussed, the internal perspective of client firms, i.e. the processes and problems in selecting, using, evaluating and recommending KIBS, has been neglected to date. Using a qualitative approach, we describe the internal mechanisms and problems of SMEs cooperating with various KIBS and discuss the implications for regional innovation systems from a policy-making perspective. We find that all stages of cooperation of SMEs and KIBS are characterized by strong information asymmetries, distrust and uncertainty about the effects of using external know-how, which yields the interpretation that SMEs perceive KIBS as credence goods. While informal networks are used to reduce information barriers, they regularly prove counterproductive by disseminating worst-case examples. Regional policy aiming at developing instruments for fostering innovative cooperation could thus strengthen formal networks that primarily create trust between KIBS and SMEs to systematically reduce mutual suspicions and information asymmetries. |
| Keywords: | credence goods,knowledge-intensive business services,regional innovation system,small- and medium enterprises |
| JEL: | D21 D40 H25 H40 L23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:232&r=knm |
| By: | Goodridge, PR |
| Date: | 2015–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imp:wpaper:19156&r=knm |
| By: | Asheim , Bjørn (UiS Business School/Centre for Innovation Research, University of Stavanger & CIRCLE, Lund University); Grillitsch , Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Smart specialisation as a strategic approach for an innovation-driven regional development policy is extremely important in the European policy context and a precondition for accessing significant amounts of funding. In this paper, we pursue two aims: First, we clarify what smart specialisation means and introduce theoretical perspectives strengthening this policy approach. We will discuss the role of different modes of innovation and knowledge bases for different types of new path development. Second, we aim at identifying the sources for new path development within the smart specialisation framework for a peripheral manufacturing region. We present the key findings from a case study of Møre and Romsdal, in the western parts of Norway, which has been successful economically despite low scores on the typical innovation indicators. The case study was conducted in autumn 2014 and combines an in-depth analysis of relevant policy documents and 17 semi-structured interviews. Thereby, we illustrate to what extent a smart specialisation policy can add value in Norway. As Norway is not part of the EU, it is not compulsory for Norwegian counties to design smart specialisation strategies. |
| Keywords: | Smart specialisation; new path development; periphery; innovation; regional development |
| JEL: | P48 R10 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_011&r=knm |
| By: | Bruno Merlevede; Victoria Purice (-) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of foreign direct investment on the productivity of local firms. We decompose traditional country-wide spillover measures in different components according to both distance between foreign and domestic firms and timesince- foreign-entry. We find larger and faster spillover effects for local suppliers of foreign firms at shorter distance, driven mainly by recent foreign entrants. Irrespective of distance, foreign firms of medium maturity generate backward spillover effects that fade away with longer presence. A positive effect on local competitors is not significantly affected by distance and requires the presence of mature foreign firms. |
| Keywords: | FDI, Spillovers, Dynamics, Timing, Regions, Distance |
| JEL: | F2 D24 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:14/896&r=knm |
| By: | Sato, JinShimomura, Yasutami; Ping, Wang |
| Abstract: | The objective is to cast new light on the possible contribution of ‘emerging donors,’ highlighting their ‘knowledge creation’ based on the experience of receiving aid. The process of knowledge creation is examined through a model composed of three hypotheses. A knowledge is created through the interaction between ‘local knowledge’ and ‘foreign (donor’s) knowledge.’ A new knowledge also evolves through the interaction between explicit and tacit knowledge. The created knowledge plays a vital role in the aid giving of emerging donors. Contrary to the mainstream idea of technical cooperation as a ‘one-way transfer’ of the best practices, the above model emphasizes the ‘two-way interaction’ between donors and recipients. To check how the proposed model can explain the reality of emerging donors’ activities, three in-depth case studies are presented. First, China nurtured their pragmatic model of economic cooperation through the interaction between its own idea of ‘Da Jingmao’ and Japan’s idea of ‘Trinity Development Cooperation’, which the Chinese policy-makers found effective based on the evaluation of Japan’s aid. Nowadays, China extensively applies the created knowledge to the engagement with other developing countries, in particular Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, Thailand achieved the gigantic Eastern Seaboard Development Plan (ESDP) based on their tacit knowledge of ‘checks and balances a la Thai’ and Japanese explicit knowledge of coastal industrial complex construction. The evolution of the local/tacit knowledge was triggered by the strained donor-recipient relationship with the World Bank who criticized the largescale investment. Today, the Thai leaders are keen to assist Myanmar in utilizing the experience of the ESDP. Third, the chains of knowledge creation are identified bylinking Japan’s learning of the model of the TVA (the Tennessee Valley Authority), their application to the Aichi Canal under the World Bank loan, Japan’s assistance to the Brantas River Basin Development Plan in the central Java, and the evolution of the Indonesian concept of ‘One River, One Plan, One Management’, which was adopted as the basic philosophy of an Asian regional institute of water resources management. Throughout the link, a basic element is shared: the pursuit of ‘integration.’ The results of testing the plausibility of the hypothetical model show that the four East Asian aid recipients created new knowledge of their own through the interaction with the donors; the next step is to test the cases of other regions. The emerging donors could contribute to the global development agenda by utilizing their newly created knowledge. |
| Keywords: | knowledge creation , interaction , local knowledge , tacit knowledge , emerging donor |
| Date: | 2015–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:88&r=knm |
| By: | Evrin, Alperen |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I examine the effects of implementing tighter Intellectual Property Rights in a model of International Trade. In my model, firms in different countries have the choice of committing their resources to introducing new products (product innovation) or to imitating and improving upon current products (process innovation). I analyze the impact of stronger patents on innovation decisions, overall welfare and the distribution of welfare among countries. I show that, depending on parameter values, firms in developed countries (North) may altogether specialize in product innovation or may attain incomplete specialization in the sense that some innovate and some imitate. Welfare analysis will depend on the degree of specialization. In the case of incomplete specialization, tighter IPRs increase the incentives for product innovation in the North but, at the same time, increase the imitation done in the South. This finding is contrary to the conventional argument that states the reverse for imitation rates. In the case of complete specialization, stronger patents do not affect the rate of product innovation but reduce the rate of imitation, and welfare is nonmonotonic in IPRs. Finally, I examine the case of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and predict that stronger patents will increase the FDI while lowering the wages worldwide. |
| Keywords: | Patent Policies, Foreign Direct Investment |
| JEL: | F43 O31 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2013–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62392&r=knm |
| By: | Casey, Katherine E. (Stanford University); Glennerster, Rachel (?); Bidwell, Kelly (?) |
| Abstract: | This project explores whether giving voters information about candidates and policy facilitates more informed voting and greater electoral accountability. In the information poor environment of Sierra Leone, we use a set of randomized experiments to estimate the impacts of structured debates between Parliamentary candidates on voter knowledge and behavior. We find evidence for strong positive impacts on general political knowledge, knowledge of candidate qualifications and policy stances; improved alignment between the policy preferences of voters and their selected candidate; greater voter openness to candidates from all parties; and increased vote shares for the candidate who performed the best during the debates. We further document an endogenous response by candidates, who increased their campaign effort in communities where videotapes of the debates were screened in public gatherings. A complementary series of treatment arms administered at the individual level unpacks the different types of information delivered by the debates, and finds evidence that voters respond to both candidate charisma and "hard facts" about policy stances and professional qualification. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:3066&r=knm |
| By: | Mohan Pyari Maharjan (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Tomoki Sekiguchi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the human resource (HR) practices of Japanese companies operating in India. We studied 10 Japanese companies based on 17 interviews. The paper elaborates five major HR practices and explains why Japanese companies have established a specific set of HR practices in India. It then provides the details on how these HR practices have been originated, adjusted and integrated. The findings suggest less-focused training and developmental programs, and identical performance appraisal systems across all companies. Similar socio-cultural characteristics such as seniority-concerned and teamwork-orientation have facilitated the adoption of Japanese way of management in India. |
| Keywords: | Japanese subsidiaries; human resource management; India; transfer of management practices; local adaptation |
| JEL: | M10 M12 M16 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1502&r=knm |