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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2006‒12‒16
nine papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Rachel Levy; Paul Muller |
| Abstract: | Although acknowledged as central in the economic literature, the issue of intra academic collaboration has been, insofar, relatively overlooked. This paper fills this gap by stressing the importance of communities in academic research. By analysing the publication behavior of researchers from a large European scientific university, we argue that in certain cases, the community level constitutes a relevant level for analysing the collaborative nature of scientific investigation. Indeed, the reality of research collaborations doesn’t always fit the institutional division of academic work provided by laboratories. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Science, Knowledge Intensive Communities, Academic Collaborations, Social Network Analysis. |
| JEL: | L31 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-15&r=knm |
| By: | Jinyoung Kim; Sangjoon John Lee; Gerald Marschke |
| Abstract: | We describe the construction of a panel data set from the U.S. patent data that contains measures of inventors' life-cycle R&D productivity--patents and patent citations. We match the data set to information on the U.S. pharmaceutical and semiconductor firms for whom they work. In this paper we use these data to examine the role of research personnel as a pathway for the diffusion of ideas from foreign countries to U.S. innovators. In particular, we find in recent years an increase in the extent that U.S. innovating firms collaborate with or employ researchers with foreign experience. This increase appears to work primarily through an increase in U.S. firms' employment of foreign-residing researchers; the fraction of research-active U.S. residents with foreign research experience appears to be falling, suggesting that U.S. pharmaceutical and semiconductor firms are increasingly locating operations in foreign countries to employ such researchers, as opposed to such researchers immigrating to the U.S. to work. In addition, we investigate which U.S. firms conducting R&D build upon innovations originating abroad. We find that employing or collaborating with researchers who have research experience abroad seems to facilitate the use of output of non-U.S. R&D. We also find that in the semiconductor industry smaller and older firms, and in the pharmaceutical industry, younger firms are more likely to access foreign R&D output. |
| JEL: | J62 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12692&r=knm |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Patrick Llerena; Mauro Sylos Labin |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses, first, the properties of scientific and technological knowledge and the institutions supporting its generation and its economic applications. The evidence continues to support the broad interpretation which we call the ”Stanford-Yale-Sussex” synthesis. Second, such patterns bear important implications with respect to the so-called ”European Paradox”, i.e. the conjecture that EU countries play a leading global role in terms of top-level scientific output, but lag behind in the ability of converting this strength into wealth-generating innovations. Some descriptive evidence shows that, contrary to the ”paradox” conjecture, European weaknesses reside both in its system of scientific research and in a relatively weak industry. The final part of the work suggests a few normative implications: much less emphasis should be put on various types of ”networking” and much more on policy measures aimed to both strengthen ”frontier” research and strengthen European corporate actors. |
| Keywords: | Open Science, European Paradox, Science and Technology Policy. |
| JEL: | D80 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2005-11&r=knm |
| By: | Christophe CARRINCAZEAUX (E3I-IFReDE-GRES); Frédéric GASCHET (IERSO-IFReDE-GRES) |
| Abstract: | The main goal of this paper is to shed some light on European regional diversity in terms of knowledge accumulation and socio-economic performances. Dynamic links between knowledge, innovation and performance are complex to address because they take place in different contexts, involving heterogeneous agents interacting through different institutions. Studies on national systems of innovation (Edquist, 1997) stressed the role of the institutional context in these dynamics and identify various configurations associated with these national systems. This conceptual framework, used at the regional level, leads to the identification of regional systems of innovation (Cooke, 2001) and thus underlines the limits of a regional scoreboard only based on high-tech indicators as it is usually proposed. This paper constitutes a first attempt to propose a more exhaustive effort in characterizing the diversity of \"regional knowledge an innovation systems \" within Europe. The study is performed through data analysis using the conceptual framework of \"social systems of innovation and production\" (SSIP) proposed by Amable, Barré and Boyer (1997). A Social System of Innovation and Production can be defined as a coherent combination of different components referring to Science-technology-industry (STI) configurations articulated with financial system, labour relations, education and training and economic performances. This framework can be adapted at the regional level by identifying specific arrangements of each part of the system even if the concept of system is questionable at this level. The analysis is performed combining data from three sources (Eurostat, the Cambridge Econometrics database and OST (Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques)) over a sample of NUTS-II european regions and using multivariate data analysis (principal component analysis, hierarchical anova). Putting together the SSIP and local economic performances allows defining different regional configurations in order to identify regional trajectories and patterns of articulation between knowledge dynamics and performance. Our hypothesis is that regional growth in not a problem of best practice but of coherent knowledge combination: institutional differences may lead similar (or different) STI structures to different (respectively same) performances. |
| Keywords: | NARegional Innovation systems, Knowledge economy, Institutional diversity, European regions, Regional economic performances |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2006-29&r=knm |
| By: | Gerben van der Panne; Cees van Beers |
| Abstract: | The literature is inconclusive as to whether Marshallian specialization or Jacobian diversification externalities favour regional innovativeness. The specialization argument poses that regional specialization towards a particular industry improves innovativeness in that industry. Regional specialization allows for knowledge to spill over among similar firms. By contrast, the diversification thesis asserts that knowledge spills over between firms in different industries, causing diversified production structures to be more innovative. Building on an original database, we address this controversy for the Netherlands. We thereby advance on the literature by providing a two-level approach, at the region’s and the firm’s level. At the regional level, we compare specialized with diversified regions on numbers of accommodated innovators. At the firm level, we establish causalities between externalities and degree of innovativeness. The results suggest Marshallian externalities: specialized regions accommodate increased numbers of innovating firms and, consistently, incumbent firms’ innovativeness increase with regional specialization. Once the product has been launched, innovators in diversified Jacobian regions prove more successful in commercial terms than innovators in specialized Marshallian regions. |
| Keywords: | Industrial clusters; innovation; knowledge externalities |
| JEL: | O18 O31 R10 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-23&r=knm |
| By: | Maria Savona; André Lorentz |
| Abstract: | The paper provides fresh empirical evidence on the relative role of changes in final and intermediate demand as affecting the changes in the sectoral structure of advanced economies. These latter have led, over the last three decades, to the massive growth of service sectors. The paper draws upon the recently released OECD Input- Output (I-O) tables. The empirical analysis is based on an I-O Structural Decomposition Analysis carried out on 13 manufacturing and service sectors, from the end of 1960s to the end of 1990s. Although heterogeneous sectoral patterns emerge, we find that the structural changes leading to the growth of services, particularly KIBS (Knowledge Intensive Business Services), are mainly (domestic) demand-led, whereas the role of foreign trade remains marginal even in the last decade. We infer that, even in the case of the most technologically advanced service sectors, (domestic) demand constraints affect the degree of exploitation of technological opportunities and the patterns of growth. |
| Keywords: | Structural change, Growth of Services, Input–Output. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-01&r=knm |
| By: | Chia-Lin CHANG; Stéphane ROBIN |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of R&D and technology imports on firm performance in Taiwan’s manufacturing industry. Using a panel of 27,754 firms observed from 1992 to 1995, we estimate Translog production functions in twenty 2-digit industries. We implement four estimations procedures: fixed-effect regression, random-effect GLS, Hausman-Taylor estimator, and Stochastic Frontier Estimation. Our most reliable estimates, obtained with fixed effect and Hausman-Taylor models, show that knowledge inputs have a significant impact on firm sales in a small number of industries, and suggest that R&D and technology imports are more likely to be complements rather than substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing Industries; Newly Industrialized Countries; Technology Imports. |
| JEL: | L25 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-33&r=knm |
| By: | Lucia Piscitello; Larissa Pabbiosi |
| Abstract: | The paper addresses reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) from foreign subsidiary to parent company. Specifically, it aims at investigating to what extent the effectiveness of such a transfer is influenced by: (i) the organizational mechanisms employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) the subsidiary’s role, its autonomy, and its relationships with the local context. The empirical analysis considers 162 transfers of best practices possessed by foreign subsidiaries and transferred back to their Italian parent companies. Results confirm that the impact of RKT on the parent company’s innovativeness is greater when: (i) person-based mechanisms are employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) subsidiaries are competence-creating; and (iii) knowledge developed by subsidiaries benefits from local external linkages. |
| Keywords: | External linkages; organizational mechanisms; parent company’s innovativeness; reverse knowledge transfer; subsidiary’s characteristics |
| JEL: | F23 O30 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-22&r=knm |
| By: | Alex Coad (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I], LEM - Laboratory of Economics and Management - [Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies]); Rekha Rao (LEM - Laboratory of Economics and Management - [Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies]) |
| Abstract: | How do financial markets respond to firms' efforts at innovation ? To answer this question, we measure innovation by creating a synthetic indicator based on a firm's recent history of R&D expenditure and patent applications. We focus on four 2-digit «complex technology» manufacturing sectors that have been hand-picked according to their high propensities to innovate. Whilst standard regression techniques find a positive relationship between innovation and growth, quantile regression analysis adds a new dimension to the literature. We identify those «superstar» firms with the highest stock market valuations and show that these firms owe a lot of their success to their previous efforts at innovation. However, there are also other firms whose attempts to innovate are virtually ignored by financial markets. Our results emphasize the fundamental uncertainty of R&D. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, market value, quantile regression, patents, Tobin's q. |
| Date: | 2006–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00119062_v1&r=knm |