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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2012‒04‒23
six papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Alessandra Colombelli (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR6227 - Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Jackie Krafft (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR6227 - Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Francesco Quatraro (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR6227 - Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the effects of the properties of firms' knowledge base on the survival likelihood of firms. Drawing upon the analysis of the patterns of co-occurrence of technological classes in patent applications, we derive the coherence, variety and cognitive distance indexes, accounting respectively for technological complementarity, differentiation and (dis)similarity in the firms' patent portfolios. The results of our analysis are in line with the previous literature, showing that innovation enhances the survival likelihood of firms. In addition, we show that the search strategies at work in the development of firms' knowledge base matter in reducing the likelihood of a failure event. Knowledge coherence and variety appear to be positively related to firms' survival, while cognitive distance exerts a negative effect. We conclude that firms able to exploit the accumulated technological competences have more chances to be successful in competing durably in the market arena, and derive some policy implications concerning the role of public intervention in the orientation of search efforts in local contexts. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge coherence; variety; cognitive distance; firms' survival |
| Date: | 2012–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00686007&r=knm |
| By: | Carlo Carraro (University of Venice, Fondazione Enrico Mattei, CEPR, CESifo and CMCC); Enrica De Cian (Fondazione Enrico Mattei and CMCC); Massimo Tavoni (Fondazione Enrico Mattei and CMCC) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the interplay between human capital and innovation in the presence of climate and educational policies. Using recent empirical estimates, human capital and general purpose R&D are introduced in an integrated assessment model that has been extensively applied to study climate change mitigation. Our results suggest that climate policy stimulates general purpose as well as clean energy R&D but reduces the incentive to invest in human capital formation. Human capital increases the productivity of labour and the complementarity between labour and energy drives its pollution-using effect (direct effect). When human capital is an essential input in the production of generic and energy dedicated knowledge, the crowding out induced by climate policy is mitigated, thought not completely offset (indirect effect). The pollution-using implications of the direct effect prevail over the indirect contribution of human capital to the creation of new and cleaner knowledge. A policy mix that combines educational as well as climate objectives offsets the human capital crowding-out with a moderate, short-term consumption loss. Human capital is complement to all forms of innovation and an educational policy stimulates both energy and general purpose innovation. This result has important policy implications considering the growing concern that effective climate policy is conditional on solid economic development and therefore it needs to be supplemented by other policy targets. |
| Keywords: | Climate Policy, Innovation, Human capital |
| JEL: | O33 O41 Q43 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.18&r=knm |
| By: | Chung, Yessica C.Y. |
| Abstract: | Using an enterprise-level dataset collected from 234 workshops located in the furniture cluster of the city of Arusha, Tanzania, this paper investigates the mechanisms of technical knowledge exchange that take place in clusters. A knowledge exchange link is defined as any two clustering entrepreneurs who perform similar manufacturing techniques in the production process. The results show that the strength of the ethnic networks of producers has positive effects on acquisition of manufacturing techniques, particularly in skills such as wood-joining, which are mainly influenced by a producer’s own skills rather than production facilities. Using dyadic data analysis, this paper further finds that two producers from the same ethnic minority are more likely to exhibit the same manufacturing techniques compared with two producers from the same ethnic majority. These findings suggest that ethnic networks facilitate knowledge exchange in an industrial cluster, but that this positive externality of the ethnic network effect only takes place in small-sized ethnic groups, and only to the extent that sophisticated facilities are not essential in the knowledge learning processes. |
| Keywords: | ethnic networks , knowledge learning , industrial cluster , Africa |
| Date: | 2012–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:37&r=knm |
| By: | Hagedoorn, John (UNU-MERIT/MGSoG, and Department of Organization & Strategy, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University); Ridder, Ann-Kristin (Department of Organization & Strategy, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | Our exploratory empirical study, based on a series of in-depth interviews and a survey of firms, searches for answers on a number of questions that deal with the role of formal contracts and intellectual property rights in the context of open innovation. We find that firms active in open innovation have a strong preference for the governance of their open innovation relationships through formal contracts. These contracts are relevant from both a control and a process monitoring perspective. Also, despite the open nature of open innovation, firms still see intellectual property rights as highly relevant to the protection of their innovative capabilities. In a first attempt to explain this preference for intellectual property rights by open innovation firms, we find the degree of openness of firms, their legalistic attitude, and the competitive dynamics of their product market environment to be related to this preference. |
| Keywords: | open innovation, contracts, intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | K11 K12 L24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2012025&r=knm |
| By: | Joan Crespo; Raphael Suire; Jérôme Vicente |
| Abstract: | The paper develops an evolutionary framework of regional resilience with a primary focus on the structural properties of local knowledge networks. After a presentation of the network-based rationales of growth and structuring of clusters, we analyze under which structural conditions a regional cluster can mix short run competitiveness without compromising long run resilience capabilities. We show that degree distribution (the level of hierarchy) and degree correlation (the level of structural homophily) of regional knowledge networks are suited properties for studying how clusters succeed in combining technological lock-in and regional lock-out. We propose a simple model of cluster structuring in order to highlight these properties, and discuss the results on a policy-oriented analysis. We conclude showing that policies for regional resilience fit better with ex ante regional diagnosis and targeted interventions on particular missing links, rather than ex post myopic applications of policies based on an unconditional increase of network relational density. |
| Keywords: | resilience, clusters, degree distribution, assortativity, regional policy |
| JEL: | B52 D85 O33 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1204&r=knm |
| By: | Pierre-André Mangolte (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Paris XIII - Paris Nord - CNRS : UMR7234) |
| Abstract: | Dans cette deuxième partie de l'étude "Patent Wars", et dans une approche toujours comparative, sont analysées les conséquences pour l'activité industrielle et le changement technique des différentes guerres des patents. Dans les trois industries émergentes du cinéma, de l'automobile et de l'aviation, cohabitent alors deux types de modèles économiques, les modèles proprement industriels, accompagnés ou non par des titres, et les modèles plus spécifiquement construits sur la détention et l'exploitation de patents. Ces deux types de modèles économiques sont clairement contradictoires. L'importance accordée aux patents et aux droits des inventeurs et propriétaires de patents aux Etats-Unis explique en effet très largement les évolutions et performances globales, c'est-à-dire la suprématie mondiale du cinéma français sur le cinéma américain jusqu'en 1914, un phénomène étonnant à bien des égards, mais aussi le retard, en dépit de l'invention majeure et de l'avance des frères Wright, et même si d'autres éléments interviennent ici, de l'industrie américaine de la construction des avions; l'automobile représentant alors une sorte de contre-exemple, explicable par le déroulement particulier de l'affaire du brevet Selden. L'étude, détaillée et comparative, montre précisément dans chacune des industries, en quoi et dans quelle mesure les différents "patents wars" ont freiné le développement des activités industrielles et même l'innovation. |
| Keywords: | guerre des brevets; industrie émergente; innovation; Edison; frères Wright; Selden; Henry Ford |
| Date: | 2012–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cepnwp:hal-00682563&r=knm |