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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2016‒01‒29
five papers chosen by Laura Ştefănescu Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Bagger, Jesper; Maliranta, Mika; Määttänen, Niku; Pajarinen, Mika |
| Abstract: | Abstract Workers have different abilities in research, development and innovation (R&D&I) activities. Firms have different “prospects for innovation”. Innovation is facilitated by matching innovators, i.e. workers that are specialized in R&D&I to firms with good prospects for innovation. Aggregate productivity growth requires that firms with the best prospects for innovation are quickly matched to innovators. The mobility of innovators is also important for positive knowledge spillovers to materialize. We use Finnish and Danish linked employer-employee data to study labour mobility, focusing on innovators. For Finland, Denmark is an interesting benchmark country because its labour market is generally considered very flexible. We find that overall labour mobility is significantly lower in Finland than in Denmark. However, relative to other occupation groups, innovators are actually more mobile in Finland than in Denmark. In Finland, innovators tend to cluster in firms that are among the most productive in their industry. |
| Keywords: | Research and development, innovation, occupational choice, labour mobility, innovator mobility, resource allocation |
| JEL: | J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2016–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:48&r=knm |
| By: | Lee, Darren |
| Abstract: | This research investigated the locus of innovation through a time-frame of ten years for a fast growing, privately-owned New Zealand information technology professional service consultancy firm. Emergent patterns related to the firm’s innovations were analysed along with the classic consultancy conundrum - the management of tension between future-focused innovations or present-day profits. An in-depth single case study approach was employed where the units of analysis were each innovation of the firm. Semi-structured interviews of 23 current employees involved in innovation activities across all levels of the organisation were conducted. This led to the discovery that less innovation occurred at the inception of the firm where the priority was to sustain the business in the short term. As the firm matured, the rate of innovations increased. The locus of innovation shifted from Top-down to Bottom-up as the firm grew. Further analysis showed that Top-down innovations had a higher likelihood of resource allocation and scaling at the firm. The consultancy conundrum is a constant tension that will continue to exist for the firm. The firm employs a number of “semi-structures” both formal and informal in nature to manage that tension. The findings of this research present a case for an inverse pattern of innovation for privately-owned professional service firms – where innovation occurs at the later stages of the firm’s growth life-cycle. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Consultancy, New Zealand, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwmba:4933&r=knm |
| By: | Mikhail A. Gershman (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Galina A. Kitova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, evaluation and impact assessments (IA) of research and innovation (R&I) policies have become of interest both to researchers and policy makers. The latter use the results of such assessments when developing new regulations and monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of policies already in place. The practice and methodology of policy evaluation and IA are characterised by the diversity of approaches used and the existence of a number of unresolved methodological problems. At the same time, efforts are being made to define conceptual frameworks for policy evaluation and IA, categorise relevant studies and cases, and draft recommendations. This paper looks at public policies and programmes aimed at stimulating R&I in Russian universities. For this purpose, 299 universities were surveyed in 2013-2014 to reveal their demand for the relevant policies in 2006-2012 and the effects they had. Based on survey results we assess the impact of the policies on universities and suggest recommendations regarding the improvement of state regulations and further conduction of similar assessments. |
| Keywords: | university; research and innovation; policy; evaluation; impact assessment; Russia. |
| JEL: | O38 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:57sti2016&r=knm |
| By: | Krzysztof Leja (Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland) |
| Abstract: | The prevailing view held at contemporary Polish universities is that their main goal is to achieve effects measured by indicators, which applies to each element of their mission: education, research and the third mission, whereas the means to accomplish this goal consists of increasing the requirements and motivating by the “carrot and stick” approach. That approach discounts the importance of building a positive relationship between members of the staff and undertaking activities intended to create a situation where hedonistic joy of work will dominate in universities. This in turn will promote integration of the academic environment and induce employees to strive for mastery to find pleasure and satisfaction rather than to achieve specific effects of their activity, which eventually will lead to better efficiency. The main goal of the paper is to demonstrate that contemporary universities may be improved by synthesis of strategic antinomies, i.e. seeking the possibility of combining opposite approaches to solving problems concerning university organization and management. The motivation method used at universities to date turns out to be ineffective; therefore, following the positive thinking idea formulated by Martin Seligman, the author of the study proposes to apply synthesis of strategic antinomies (paradoxes) observed in universities and use the results to counteract the noticeable trauma of academic communities and replace it with positive thinking, consisting of the aspiration to discover and understand phenomena, the sense of belonging to the academic environment and building positive relationships with that environment. Such an approach is in agreement with the “philosophy” proposing to replace the dictatorial “tyranny of the OR” (either ‘a’ or ‘b’”, but not both at the same time with the genius of the AND (both ‘a’ and ‘b’), applied by visionary organizations, such as universities should strive to become. |
| Keywords: | strategic paradoxes; university organization and management; resistance to changes; positive management |
| JEL: | I23 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdk:wpaper:30&r=knm |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (South Asia Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (South Asia Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) |
| Abstract: | The ICT for Development Forum is an annual activity focused on knowledge sharing in the area of information and communication technology (ICT). This report, based on the forum held from 28 February to 1 March 2013 at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), attempts to gauge the impact of ICT on today’s learning paradigms. What are the impacts of ICT developments on today’s students and teachers? How is distance education changing the way education is being delivered? How is ADB helping developing members take advantage of ICT for education? How are massively open online courses and other disruptive learning paradigms affecting education? These are some of the questions tackled by experts from different countries and from ADB, and this report is the result of that discussion. |
| Keywords: | ict, education, students, development operations, online courses, teachers, distance education, learning paradigms, curriculum design, quality education, access to education, open learning, mooc, leapfrogging, e-learning, knowledge sharing |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt157438&r=knm |