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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2020‒05‒11
six papers chosen by Laura Ştefănescu Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Satoshi Mizobata (titute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh (National Economics University); Pham Quoc Trung (Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge transfer effectiveness is considered one of the most important factors for ensuring the success of any enterprise, especially for multinational enterprises which have foreign employees. However, in the case of Japan, the effectiveness of knowledge transfer between Japanese managers and foreign employees is not high. This limited effectiveness is understood as linked to the cultural distance between Japanese managers and foreign employees. The main goal of this study is to explore the impact of organizational culture on knowledge transfer in Japanese enterprises. This research project examines a range of organizational cultural factors, including cultural background, communication ability, perceived cultural distance, learning style, and cultural openness. Quantitative survey research was conducted with 365 respondents, who are Vietnamese labourers working in Japan. Analysis showed that two factors had a positive impact on the effectiveness of knowledge transfer: cultural openness; and managers’ communication ability. The study draws on these results to make recommend improvements in the knowledge transfer process between Japanese managers and Vietnamese employees. |
| Keywords: | organizational culture, knowledge transfer, cultural openness, communication ability, Japan. |
| JEL: | L14 M14 M16 M54 O32 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:1030&r=all |
| By: | Soete, Luc (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Verspagen, Bart (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Ziesemer, Thomas (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | Despite the fact that Research and Development (R&D) activities are carried out in most countries in public research institutes such as universities and public research organisations, there have been few studies that attempted to estimate the economic impact of such public investment in R&D. In this paper we analyse the relations between total factor productivity (TFP) and R&D as well as GDP for a set of 17 OECD countries using a vector-error-correction model (VECM). We find that for the period 1975-2014, investment in public R&D has had a clearly positive effect on TFP growth in the majority of countries analysed. In simulations allowing for a permanent positive shock on public R&D, we observe a strong dynamic complementarity between the public and private (domestic) stocks of R&D for a number of countries. In countries where this complementarity is strong, the TFP effect of extra public R&D investments is also strong. We also show that the share of foreign funding of R&D performed in the business sector combined with a high business R&D intensity, tends to be low in countries with high complementarity between private and public R&D. On the other hand, the share of basic R&D in business R&D combined with a higher public R&D intensity, tends to be higher in countries with strong complementarity. |
| Keywords: | R&D policy, public R&D investment, economic effects of R&D, vector-error-correction model |
| JEL: | O38 O30 H40 |
| Date: | 2020–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2020014&r=all |
| By: | Maurizio Iacopetta (SKEMA Business School and OFCE Sciences Po); Raoul Minetti (Michigan State University); Pierluigi Murro (LUISS University) |
| Abstract: | New firms are often based on ideas that the founders developed while working for incumbent firms. We study the macroeconomic effects of spinoffs through a growth model of product variety expansion, driven by firm entry, and product innovation. Spinoffs stem from conflicts of interest between incumbent firms' shareholders and employees. The analysis suggests that incumbents invest more in product innovation when knowledge protection is stronger. An inverted-U shape relationship emerges, however, between the intensity of spinoff activities and the strength of the rule of law. A calibration experiment indicates that, with a good rule of law, loosening knowledge protection by 5\% reduces product innovation by one fifth in the short run and one seventh in the long run, but boosts the spinoff rate by one tenth and one sixth in the short and long run, respectively. Nevertheless, per capita income growth drops and welfare deteriorates. The trade-offs are broadly consistent with evidence from Italian firm. |
| Keywords: | Corporate governance, Endogenous growth, Spinoffs |
| JEL: | E44 O40 G30 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lui:casmef:2002&r=all |
| By: | Rückert, Désirée; Veugelers, Reinhilde; Weiss, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Using a new survey on digitalisation activities of firms in the EU and the US, we identify digitalisation profiles based on the current use of digital technologies and future investment plans in digitalisation. Our analysis confirms the trend toward digital polarisation and a growing digital divide in the corporate landscape with, on one side, many firms that are not digitally active, and on the other side, a substantial number of digitally active firms forging ahead. Old small firms, with less than 50 employees and more than 10 years old, are significantly more likely to be persistently digitally non-active. We show that these persistently non-digital firms are less likely to be innovative, increase employment or command higher mark-ups. These trends are likely to exacerbate the digital divide across firms in the EU and the US. |
| Keywords: | digital technology,investment,firm performance |
| JEL: | D22 E22 L25 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:eibwps:202007&r=all |
| By: | Williams, Andy E |
| Abstract: | The lockdown of economic activity in many countries as a measure to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to high levels of unemployment and other indicators of a potentially upcoming economic crisis. As a gauge of the seriousness of these concerns some have suggested that current levels of some of these indicators have not been seen in the US since the time of the great depression. This paper explores how General Collective Intelligence, a recent innovation in group decision-making systems, might reliably generate the economic growth needed to avert such a crisis where not reliably achievable otherwise. Current group decision-making systems, whether choosing a human decision-maker, consensus voting on decisions, or automated decision-systems such as conventional collective intelligence, have been suggested to lack the capacity to maximize more than a very few group outcomes simultaneously due to specific limitations. Since impact on collective well-being is determined by impact on an open (unbounded) set of outcomes, this implies lack of the capacity to maximize the necessary range of impacts on well-being for groups if that range is too broad. If so, the breadth of impact required to achieve sustainable “green” economic development while simultaneously solving hunger, solving the environmental degradation that consensus has linked to climate change, as well as providing maximal access to healthcare, education, and other resources, may not be reliably possible with current decision systems. General Collective Intelligence or GCI replicates the adaptive problem solving mechanisms by which nature has demonstrated the ability to optimally respond to an unlimited set of problems, and by which nature has demonstrated the ability to potentially increase sustainability per unit of resources by orders of magnitude so that life is reliably self-sustaining. This paper explores why GCI can potentially be used to reliably drive self-sustaining economic growth to revive economies in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and why GCI has the potential to reliably drive a transformation to sustainable green economies while doing so. |
| Date: | 2020–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:arw7c&r=all |
| By: | Girum Abebe (EDRI, Ethiopia); Margaret McMillan (Tufts; NBER; IFPRI); Michel Serafinelli (University of Essex; IZA; CReAM; Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | We use a plant level survey to identify interactions between domestic plants and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector. One third of Ethiopian plants are linked to FDI through labor sharing, supply chains and competition. Technology upgrading most commonly occurs as a result of competition in output markets and observation and imitation of FDI in the same line of business. Other benefits include enhanced managerial practices and knowledge about exporting. Spillovers from FDI are identified by comparing changes in total factor productivity (TFP) among domestic plants in districts where a large greenfield foreign plant produces and districts where FDI in the same industry and around the same time was licensed but not yet operational. Over the four years starting with the year of the FDI opening, the TFP of domestic plants is 11 percent higher in treated districts, employment in domestic plants increases and more domestic plants open. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, productivity, localized knowledge spillovers, plant-to-plant labor mobility |
| JEL: | F21 R10 D24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:20-14&r=all |