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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2018‒08‒20
five papers chosen by Laura Ştefănescu Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Asongu, Simplice; Tchamyou, Vanessa |
| Abstract: | This article compares African countries to South Korea in terms of knowledge economy (KE). Emphasis is laid on human capital, knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion, institutions and economic incentives. The analytical approach consists of providing knowledge economy catch-up strategies that can be understood within the context of country-specific gaps between the frontier country in KE and laggard African countries. The empirical evidence is based on sigma convergence with data for the period 1996-2010. Overall, a KE diagnosis is provided by assessing KE gaps (between South Korea and specific-African countries) and suggesting compelling catch-up strategies with which to reduce identified gaps. Contemporary and non-contemporary policies from South Korea and more contemporary policies based on challenges of globalisation are discussed. The policy relevance of this inquiry aligns with the scholarly perspective that catch-up between South Korea and more advanced economies was accelerated by the former adapting to and assimilating relatively obsolete technological know-how from more developed nations. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge economy; Benchmarks; Policy syndromes; Catch-up; Africa |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O38 O55 O57 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:87871&r=knm |
| By: | Stigendal, Mikael; Novy, Andreas |
| Abstract: | This article explores the implications of founding transdisciplinary collaborations of knowledge production in critical realism. We call such equal partnerships of researchers and practitioners knowledge alliances. Using the distinction between the referents that we refer to (what our research is about) and our references (our research about that), we show that practitioners can contribute to the process of knowledge production by providing access to referents and producing references but also by achieving relevance. Researchers and practitioners bring different types of knowledge. To become excellent, knowledge production should be organized in ways, which engage these different types in a constructive interplay. We call this approach potential-oriented, which we put in contrast to the empiricism of evidence-based research and policy-making. Our deliberate choice of the term potential-oriented reflects the shifts in philosophy suggested by critical realism, but also a sensitivity for how practitioners communicate and express themselves. |
| Keywords: | knowledge alliance; critical realism; transdisciplinarity; social cohesion; urban development |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus009:6433&r=knm |
| By: | Lee G. Branstetter; Britta M. Glennon; J. Bradford Jensen |
| Abstract: | Since the 1990s, R&D has become less geographically concentrated, and has seen especially fast growth in emerging markets. One of the distinguishing features of the R&D globalization phenomenon is its concentration within the software/IT domain; the increase in foreign R&D has been largely concentrated within software and IT-intensive multinationals, and new R&D destinations are also more software and IT-intensive multinationals than traditional R&D destinations. In this paper we document three important phenomena: (1) the globalization of R&D, (2) the growing importance of software and IT to firm innovation, and (3) the rise of new R&D hubs. We argue that the shortage in software/IT-related human capital resulting from the large IT- and software-biased shift in innovation drove US MNCs abroad, and particularly drove them abroad to “new hubs” with large quantities of STEM workers who possessed IT and software skills. Our findings support the view that the globalization of US multinational R&D has reinforced the technological leadership of US-based firms in the information technology domain and that multinationals’ ability to access a global talent base could support a high rate of innovation even in the presence of the rising (human) resource cost of frontier R&D. |
| JEL: | F23 O32 O57 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24707&r=knm |
| By: | Henry Laverde; Juan C. Correa; Klaus Jaffe |
| Abstract: | The accumulation of knowledge required to produce economic value is a process that often relates to nations economic growth. Such a relationship, however, is misleading when the proxy of such accumulation is the average years of education. In this paper, we show that the predictive power of this proxy started to dwindle in 1990 when nations schooling began to homogenized. We propose a metric of human capital that is less sensitive than average years of education and remains as a significant predictor of economic growth when tested with both cross-section data and panel data. We argue that future research on economic growth will discard educational variables based on quantity as predictor given the thresholds that these variables are reaching. |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1807.07051&r=knm |
| By: | Galina Besstremyannaya (Centre for Economic and Financial Research at New Economic School); Richard Dasher (Stanford University); Sergei Golovan (New Economic School) |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a growth model with acquisition of endogenous innovations. The model builds on the microeconomic evidence about acquisitions in the technology economy: acquirers are innovative firms, which regard acquisitions as a complementary strategy to their R&D investment. Targets are small firms and leaders on the markets for their products. Acquirers are capable of implementing a higher quality improvement of the products of the targets. The model includes the government, which collects corporate profit tax and redistributes it to provide subsidies for innovations and acquisitions. We quantify the model using the 2000-2016 financial data for Japanese firms, matched with their patents. The estimates prove the model's predictions about a positive effect of acquisitions on growth. The impact of acquisitions on the R&D intensity is related to the type of complementarity between innovation and acquisition strategies. The effect of subsidies towards the acquisitions is linked to the parameters of the cost function and reflects the association between the costs of acquisitions and R&D. |
| Keywords: | innovation, endogenous growth, acquisition, social planner, patents |
| JEL: | O11 O38 O40 O53 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0247&r=knm |