|
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
|
Issue of 2008‒06‒13
twelve papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Heinz Hollenstein (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the paper is, firstly, to identify a number of strategies Swiss firms pursue by performing foreign R&D, expecting that firms, in many instances, are driven by a combination of several motives ("mixed strategies"). Secondly, we ask whether foreign and domestic R&D are substitutes or complements. Thirdly, we draw some policy conclusions based on results for direct and indirect home-country effects of foreign R&D. By applying cluster analysis, we identified four specific patterns of motives of foreign R&D. In a second step, we investigated whether these clusters effectively may be interpreted as specific types of R&D strategies. To this end, the clusters were characterised in terms of a large number of variables, which, according to the OLI paradigm of FDI, determine foreign R&D. We found that the patterns of the four clusters systematically differ with respect to these theory-related variables. Some clusters represent, in terms of motives, broad-based mixed strategies, whereas others are strongly focused. It turns out that foreign R&D strategies that primarily aim at exploiting capabilities of the domestic headquarters dominate, whereas cost-reducing strategies are of very minor importance. In case of the other two strategies knowledge sourcing is a constituent element, in the first one, knowledge sourcing is at the core, in the second case it is an important element in the frame of a broad-based strategy. The relative importance of the four strategies implies that, on balance, foreign and domestic R&D are complements. Notwithstanding this positive result, it is sensible to take policy actions supporting the economy to capitalise even more on outward FDI in R&D. Policy basically should aim at securing the attractiveness of Switzerland as a location for R&D-intensive headquarters of firms performing foreign R&D, and at enhancing knowledge spill-overs from headquarter companies to other domestic firms. The five categories of measures we recommend are part of a framework-oriented policy design rather than of a more interventionist concept. |
| Keywords: | Internationalisation of R&D Motives of foreign R&D Foreign R&D strategies Knowledge spillovers Home-country effects of outward FDI in R&D |
| Date: | 2008–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:315&r=knm |
| By: | Karl Aiginger (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the toughness of competition on the macroeconomic performance of countries. The relation between competition and innovation has been investigated intensely in industrial economics. It started with Schumpeter's hypotheses that monopoly profits were necessary for innovation, leading then to U-curve relationships where innovation was the highest for medium-range of competition, but lower for very tough competition as well as for a very lax competitive regime. Empirical studies on the growth differences between countries increasingly stress – apart from the usual suspects like investment, R&D, human capital – the role of institutions. They include indicators on regulation, government size, corruption and rule of law, but usually not the degree of competition. Conventional growth theory did not model the impact of competition, but assumed perfect competition. In New Growth Theory, economic growth depends on purposeful and maximising innovation activities, where market structure plays an important role. But this did not result in the inclusion of competition variables into empirical growth equations. We have attempted to bridge this gap a bit by relating 13 indicators on the toughness of competition to macroeconomic performance. We then added these competition indicators to an equation relating macro performance to the standard explanatory variables for economic growth (like investment and R&D). The results indicate that competition plus innovation is a good recipe at the macro level, too, probably with similar tensions and non-linearity as at the company level. |
| Keywords: | Competition Macroeconomic Performance Innovation |
| Date: | 2008–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:318&r=knm |
| By: | Philippe Askenazy; Christophe Cahny; Delphine Irac |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a model in the spirit of Aghion and al. (2005) that relates the magnitude of the impact of competition on R&D to the cost of innovation. The effect of competition on R&D is an inverted U-shape. However, the shape is flatter and competition policy is therefore less relevant for innovation when innovations are relatively costly. Intuitively, if innovations are costly for a firm, competitive shocks have to be significant to alter its innovation decisions. Empirical investigations using a unique panel dataset from the Banque de France show that an inverted U-shaped relationship can be clearly evidenced for the largest firms, but the curve becomes flatter when the relative cost of R&D increases. For large costs, the relationship even vanishes. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-32&r=knm |
| By: | Blecker, Thorsten; Abdelkafi, Nizar; Raasch, Christina |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the principles of open source software development to a non-industry-specific level by introducing the Open Source Innovation (OSI) model. OSI exhibits main differences to other related models and concepts such as the private-collective model, commons-based peer production, R&D networks and is therefore an innovation model in its own right. In order for OSI projects to be successful, numerous factors need to be fulfilled. We make the distinction between four categories of factors: economic, technical, legal, and social. In each category, we differentiate between enabling and sustaining factors. The enabling factors must be met at the beginning of the project, whereas the sustaining factors must be satisfied as the project progresses. |
| Keywords: | OSI; open source innovation; R&D |
| JEL: | O32 L17 O3 O31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8964&r=knm |
| By: | Freeman, Alan |
| Abstract: | bstract This unpublished paper was submitted to the May 22-23 conference on IPR at Birkbeck College, London. It analyses the distinct economic roles of culture, creation, and innovation in the Creative Industries by assessing the fitness for purpose of their statistical definitions. On this basis it proposes a method for studying the relation between creative labour and innovation. Lax usage has made the term ‘Creative Industries’ a synonym for three distinct things: creativity, culture and intellectual alienability. I use the term Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS). My aim is to distinguish Creative Labour, of which the sector is a specialist user, from Cultural Outputs, which the sector produces. These are found combined in the CCS in an advanced form, but they also exist separately outside it. In order to understand their wider economic impact – in particular, their relation to innovation and Intellectual Property – it is necessary to distinguish them. I begin from the empirical reality of the Creative Industries as currently defined which, I argue, establishes it as an ‘industrial sector’, in the economically meaningful sense that it is a specialised branch of the division of labour. Its definition, however, has yet to be aligned with this reality. This sector’s specialism is that it employs creative labour to produce cultural products. Its emergence is the outcome of two processes: a separation of mechanical from creative labour, which we inherit from the age of machines, and a revolution in service sector productivity, arising from the age of the internet. Creative labour is a general economic resource, employed both inside and outside the CCS. The CCS is the starting point of an adequate definition, because in it, creative labour is found in its most advanced and specialised form, and because in it, this kind of labour has applied to maximum effect the new service technologies which have emerged with the internet age. However, in order properly to assess its wider impact, creative labour has to be defined independent of the assumption that it only produces cultural products. This paper proposes such a definition. It outlines, on the basis of this definition, how the economic contribution of creative labour to service sector growth might be assessed. |
| Keywords: | cultural economics; creative industries; innovation; internet |
| JEL: | Z1 O3 J2 |
| Date: | 2008–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9007&r=knm |
| By: | Schoenmakers, Wilfred (Hasselt University); Duysters, Geert (UNU-MERIT); Vanhaverbeke, Wim (Hasselt University) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the special characteristics of radical inventions. It tries to identify those variables that differentiate radical inventions from non-radical inventions. Since radical inventions are very important for the economy as a whole and for the individual firm performances, understanding what makes radical inventions differ from non-radical inventions is very important. For our research we made use of the EPO (European Patent Office) database on patents. We used the number of forward patent citations per patent to identify radical from non-radical inventions. For our analysis we used the backward patent citations per patent. In order to test if the two groups we are considering are truly different and to see on what factors they differ we made use of discriminant function analysis. Some of our main conclusions are that radical inventions are to a higher degree based on existing knowledge than non-radical inventions. Also the combination of emergent and mature knowledge is more important for radical inventions. A further result that follows from our analysis is that radical inventions are induced by the recombination over more knowledge domains as compared to non-radical inventions. Our research hints also on the importance of alliances and an open innovation system for the development of radical inventions. |
| Keywords: | radical inventions, patents, organizational learning, alliances |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O32 O33 O34 D83 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008036&r=knm |
| By: | Ramon Marimon; Vincenzo Quadrini |
| Abstract: | We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model with two-sided limited commitment to study how barriers to competition, such as restrictions to business start-up, affect the incentive to accumulate human capital. We show that a lack of contract enforceability amplifies the effect of barriers to competition on human capital accumulation. High barriers reduce the incentive to accumulate human capital by lowering the outside value of ‘skilled workers’, while low barriers can result in over-accumulation of human capital. This over-accumulation can be socially optimal if there are positive knowledge spillovers. A calibration exercise shows that this mechanism can account for significant cross-country income inequality. |
| Keywords: | Limited commitment, limited enforcement, human capital accumulation, income inequality, innovation, barriers to competition. |
| JEL: | D99 E20 J24 O15 O34 O43 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2008/21&r=knm |
| By: | Los, Bart (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, and University of Groningen); Verspagen, Bart (UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate technological change with regard to CO2 emissions by passenger cars, using a Free Disposal Hull methodology to estimate technological frontiers. We have a sample of cars available in the UK market in the period 2000 – 2007. Our results show that the rates of technological change (frontier movement) and diffusion (distance to frontier at the car brand level) differ substantial between segments of the car market. We conclude that successful policies should be aimed at diffusion of best-practice technology, and take account of the different potential for further progress between different segments of the market (e.g., diesel and gasoline engines, and small vs. large engines). |
| Keywords: | CO2 emissions by cars, technological change, diffusion of innovations |
| JEL: | Q55 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008037&r=knm |
| By: | Moniz, António; Paulos, Margarida Ramires |
| Abstract: | Portugal had only very few foresight exercises on the automobile sector, and the most recent one was a survey held in a project on work organisation systems in the automobile industry, its recent historical paths and the special strategies of location of companies (the WorTiS project). This involved several teams with different disciplinary backgrounds and from two Portuguese universities. The provisional main results of the first round of a Delphi survey held in Portugal on the automotive sector were already published, but a further analysis was not yet done. This foresight survey was done under the WorTiS project, developed in 2004 by IET – Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation (at FCT-UNL), and financed by the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology. Some of this experience on foresight analysis is also been transferred to other projects, namely the WORKS project on work organisation restructuring in the knowledge society that received the support from EC and still is running. The majority of experts considered having an average of less knowledge in almost all the scenario topics presented. This means that information on the automotive industry is not spread enough among academics or experts in related fields (regional scientists, innovation economists, engineers, sociologists). Some have a good knowledge but in very specialised fields. Others have expertise on foresight, or macroeconomics, or management sciences, but feel insecure on issues related with futures of automobile sector. Nevertheless, we considered specially the topics where the experts considered themselves to have some knowledge. There were no “irrelevant” topics considered as such by the expert panel. There are also no topics that are not considered a need for co-operation. The lack of technological infrastructures was not considered as a hindered factor for the accomplishment of any scenario. The experts’ panel considered no other international competence besides US, Japan or Germany in these topics. Special focus will be made in this paper on the topic 2. Public policy and automobile industries, and more specifically on the technological and/or research policies issues, where one can specify the automobile’s role in transport policies with further implications like environment, safety, energy, mobility. |
| Keywords: | automotive industry; scenario; economical co-operation; technology; Delphi survey |
| JEL: | L62 C42 A14 J11 O14 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9022&r=knm |
| By: | Srholec, Martin (TIK, and CAS, Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters) |
| Abstract: | Innovation is a multilevel phenomenon. Not only characteristics of firms but also environment within which firms operate matter. Although this has been for long recognized in the literature, a quantitative test that explicitly concerns the hypothesis that framework conditions affect innovativeness of firms remains lacking. Using a large sample of firms from many developing countries, we estimate a multilevel model of innovation that integrates explanatory factors at different levels of the analysis. Apart from various firm’s characteristics, national economic, technological and institutional conditions directly predict the likelihood of firms to innovate. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Technological Capability, Multilevel Modeling, Institutions, Developing Countries |
| JEL: | C30 E11 O30 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008040&r=knm |
| By: | Md. Abid Hossain Khan, Ahmed Taneem Muzaffar and Abdul Kader Nazmul (Independent University, Bangladesh; East West University, Bangladesh; American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)) |
| Abstract: | The use of internet technology for corporate reporting is currently a well-established practice in many countries that have developed securities market. Investors find corporate web sites as a convenient way of collecting financial information of companies. Corporations also find the internet to be the most prompt and economical means of information dissemination. The practice of corporate reporting on the internet is relatively new in Bangladesh. However, the fast development of securities market in Bangladesh has caused expansion of this practice day by day. The paper investigates the emerging issues of online corporate financial reporting in the global context. It then makes an attempt to provide an appraisal of the current practice of corporate financial reporting on the internet by Bangladeshi companies and tries to provide recommendations in the light of global developments. The research reveals that although many of the issues relating to online financial reporting have been addressed by different standard setters worldwide, they have been overlooked in Bangladesh and some of these issues need particular attention for continued development and further guidance in this area. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiu:abewps:71&r=knm |
| By: | Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich |
| Abstract: | This note makes general statements about standard models of the diffusion of innovations. Its premise is a familiar idea that innovations are socially-learned changes that spread like wildfires across diverse populations. However, the rate at which innovations spread is subject to the forces of exhibition and inhibition. Exhibitors promote the spread of innovations; inhibitors subjugate them. Hence, where the forces of subjugation are stronger than the forces of promotion, it is the slow spread, rather than the lack, of innovations which undermines the competitiveness of nations, and consequently frustrates economic performance. This suggests a need for a simple and more realistic model. Since the analytical components (basic equations and statistical inference) of the needed model are readily available, this note attempts a synthesis. Unfortunately in its current version the note is incomplete, and therefore makes only a tentative concluding remark. Even so, there is enough insight to warrant comment. |
| JEL: | M3 Z00 D8 O31 |
| Date: | 2008–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8993&r=knm |