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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2010‒11‒13
four papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Luis Garicano; Yanhui Wu |
| Abstract: | We bridge a gap between organizational economics and strategy research by developing a task-basedapproach to analyze organizational knowledge, process and structure, and deriving testableimplications for the relation between production and organizational structure. We argue thatorganization emerges to integrate disperse knowledge and to coordinate talent in production and isdesigned to complement the limitations of human ability. The complexity of the tasks undertakendetermines the optimal level of knowledge acquisition and talent. The relations between tasks,namely, complementarities or substitutabilities and synergies, determine the allocation of knowledgeamong members of the organization. Communication shapes the relation between individual talent,and governs the organizational process and structure that integrates disperse knowledge to performtasks more efficiently. Organization structure can also be deliberately designed ex ante to correct biasof individual judgement, the extent to which is dependent on the attributes of tasks. Organizationprocess and the routinized organizational structure are the core of organizational capital, whichgenerates rent and sustains organizational growth. This task-based approach enriches the existingbody of organization studies, in particular the knowledge-based theory of the firm and the dynamiccapabilities theory. |
| Keywords: | task-based approach, complementarities, tacit knowledge, codifiable knowledge, code,vertical communication, horizontal communication, organizational architecture, decision bias |
| JEL: | D2 D8 L2 M5 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1013&r=knm |
| By: | Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a theory for the gradual evolution of knowledge diffusion and growth over the very long run. A feedback mechanism between capital accumulation and the ease of knowledge diffusion explains a long epoch of (quasi-) stasis and an epoch of high growth linked by a gradual economic take-off. It is shown how the feedback mechanism can explain the Great Divergence, the failure of less developed countries to attract capital from abroad, and a productivity slowdown in fully developed countries. An extension towards a two-region world economy shows robustness of the gradual take-off and other interesting interaction between forerunners and followers of the Industrial Revolution. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Revolution; Endogenous Growth; Knowledge Diffusion; Productivity Slowdown; Convergence; Divergence |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O40 E22 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-459&r=knm |
| By: | Katarina Juselius (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper is an empirically based discussion of interactions between speculative behavior in the currency markets and aggregate fluctuations in the real economy. It builds on the recent theory of Imperfect Knowledge Economics in Frydman and Goldberg (2007) and combines this with the Structural Slumps theory in Phelps (1994). The paper argues that this is likely to imcrease our understanding of the long recurrent spells of high unemployment that continue to mar our economies. |
| Keywords: | financial markets; speculation; long swings; imperfect knowledge; CVAR |
| JEL: | E24 F31 F41 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1031&r=knm |
| By: | Geir H. Bjertnæs, Tom-Reiel Heggedal and Karl Jacobsen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | We analyze how knowledge spillovers influence the optimal timing of R&D policy. Using numerical simulations we find that optimal subsidies to R&D may be rising over time even when the returns to knowledge is decreasing. The optimal time profile of the subsidies is determined by the elasticity of scale in the R&D production function, which again depends on both the returns to knowledge and the returns to labor. |
| Keywords: | Innovation policy; R&D; Technological spillovers |
| JEL: | O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:635&r=knm |