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External Knowledge (external + knowledge)
Selected AbstractsRelated Variety, Trade Linkages, and Regional Growth in ItalyECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2009Ron Boschma abstract This article presents estimates of the impact of regional variety and trade linkages on regional economic growth by means of export and import data by Italian province (NUTS 3) and sector (three-digit) for the period 1995,2003. Our results show strong evidence that related variety contributes to regional economic growth. Thus, Italian regions that are well endowed with sectors that are complementary in terms of competences (i.e., that show related variety) perform better. The article also assesses the effects of the breadth and relatedness of international trade linkages on regional growth, since they may bring new and related variety to a region. Our analysis demonstrates that regional growth is not affected by simply being well connected to the outside world or having a high variety of knowledge flowing into the region. Rather, we found evidence of related extraregional knowledge sparking intersectoral learning across regions. When the cognitive proximity between the extraregional knowledge and the knowledge base of a region is neither too small nor too large, real learning opportunities are present, and the external knowledge contributes to growth in regional employment. [source] A connectionist production system which can perform both modus ponens and modus tollens simultaneouslyEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 1 2000Minoru AsogawaArticle first published online: 16 DEC 200 Modus ponens is used in forward inference and backward inference, where the truth of the conclusion is inferred from the truth of the premise. In modus tollens, the falseness of the premise is inferred from the falseness of the conclusion. Although modus ponens is used in general connectionist production systems, modus tollens is rarely used, except in Quinlan's proposed INFERNO system and in the system proposed by Thornber. A connectionist production system called ConnPS that can perform both modus ponens and modus tollens simultaneously is described. Compared to the INFERNO system, one of the advantages of ConnPS is its supervised learning ability. The rules and examples given as external knowledge are often erroneous and incomplete. In ConnPS, these rules can be refined by using the supervised learning. Both positive and negative examples are presented to ConnPS, onto which the external rules and observations are mapped. Moreover, ConnPS's implementations of implications, conjunctions, disjunctions and negation are intuitively consistent with Boolean logic. [source] Networking and innovation: a systematic review of the evidenceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3-4 2004Luke Pittaway Recent work on competitiveness has emphasized the importance of business networking for innovativeness. Until recently, insights into the dynamics of this relationship have been fragmented. This paper presents a systematic review of research linking the networking behaviour of firms with their innovative capacity. We find that the principal benefits of networking as identified in the literature include: risk sharing; obtaining access to new markets and technologies; speeding products to market; pooling complementary skills; safeguarding property rights when complete or contingent contracts are not possible; and acting as a key vehicle for obtaining access to external knowledge. The evidence also illustrates that those firms which do not co-operate and which do not formally or informally exchange knowledge limit their knowledge base long term and ultimately reduce their ability to enter into exchange relationships. At an institutional level, national systems of innovation play an important role in the diffusion of innovations in terms of the way in which they shape networking activity. The paper provides evidence suggesting that network relationships with suppliers, customers and intermediaries such as professional and trade associations are important factors affecting innovation performance and productivity. Where networks fail, it is due to inter-firm conflict, displacement, lack of scale, external disruption and lack of infrastructure. The review identifies several gaps in the literature that need to be filled. For instance, there is a need for further exploration of the relationship between networking and different forms of innovation, such as process and organisational innovation. Similarly, we need better understanding of network dynamics and network configurations, as well as the role of third parties such as professional and trade associations. Our study highlights the need for interdisciplinary research in these areas. [source] A Capability-Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive CapacityJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 8 2009Ulrich Lichtenthaler abstract We merge research into knowledge management, absorptive capacity, and dynamic capabilities to arrive at an integrative perspective, which considers knowledge exploration, retention, and exploitation inside and outside a firm's boundaries. By complementing the concept of absorptive capacity, we advance towards a capability-based framework for open innovation processes. We identify the following six ,knowledge capacities' as a firm's critical capabilities of managing internal and external knowledge in open innovation processes: inventive, absorptive, transformative, connective, innovative, and desorptive capacity. ,Knowledge management capacity' is a dynamic capability, which reconfigures and realigns the knowledge capacities. It refers to a firm's ability to successfully manage its knowledge base over time. The concept may be regarded as a framework for open innovation, as a complement to absorptive capacity, and as a move towards understanding dynamic capabilities for managing knowledge. On this basis, it contributes to explaining interfirm heterogeneity in knowledge and alliance strategies, organizational boundaries, and innovation performance. [source] Knowledge Combination and Knowledge Creation in a Foreign-Market NetworkJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009Daniel Tolstoy This article rests on the idea that knowledge is dispersed among different individuals and entities. For international entrepreneurial firms to create new knowledge, they need to find ways to combine these dispersed bits of knowledge. Because of the notion that resource constraints make international entrepreneurial firms dependent on external knowledge, it is assumed that a portion of knowledge combination takes place in networks. The purpose of this article was to investigate the prospective impact network knowledge and knowledge combinations have on entrepreneurial firms' knowledge creation. Three hypotheses are developed and tested in a structural equation model, using linear structural relations (LISREL, Scientific Software International, Inc.). [source] SUPPLIER INNOVATIVENESS AND THE ROLE OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN ENHANCING MANUFACTURER CAPABILITIESJOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008ARASH AZADEGAN Manufacturers increasingly rely on innovation from their suppliers to improve the cost, quality, and timeliness of their products. Manufacturing capabilities are enhanced by supplier innovativeness directly, because of the embedded nature of the supplied component, and indirectly, as the manufacturer learns from its suppliers. We use organizational learning theory to develop a conceptual model of learning factors that act as contingencies and magnify the effect of supplier innovativeness. First, we argue that a manufacturer's absorptive capacity, its ability to learn and use external knowledge, positively moderates the impact of supplier innovativeness on the manufacturer's performance. Second, we examine how different combinations of manufacturer,supplier learning styles lead to relatively more or less interorganizational learning, contingent upon whether the outsourcing is design versus manufacturing oriented. Our model can help managers consider knowledge transfer as part of their supplier selection criteria. [source] Knowledge management for corporate entrepreneurship and growth: a case studyKNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 1 2008Fátima Guadamillas This study presents a case of corporate entrepreneurship analyzed from a Knowledge-based perspective as an extension of the Resource-based View (RBV) of the firm. This approach proposes that the development of knowledge can underpin the growth of the firm through corporate entrepreneurship. Following this perspective, we analyze the way an established firm uses resources and capabilities, especially its accumulated knowledge, as a foundation on which to develop a growth strategy through diversification to related businesses in the fields of electronics and Information Technology (IT). Moreover, we identify some of the most important factors contributing to the success of this strategy, such as the internal development and integration of relevant technological knowledge, human resources (HR) policies, organizational flexibility, knowledge management tools based on IT, and purchase of companies and cooperation agreements for the acquisition of external knowledge. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Opening up the innovation process: the role of technology aggressivenessR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2009Ulrich Lichtenthaler Besides acquiring external knowledge, many firms have begun to actively commercialize technology, for example, by means of out-licensing. This increase in inward and outward technology transactions reflects the new paradigm of open innovation. Most prior research into open innovation is limited to theoretical considerations and case studies, whereas other lines of research have focused either on external technology acquisition or exploitation. In an integrative view, we consider inward and outward technology transactions as the main directions of open innovation. Moreover, technology aggressiveness, which constitutes an important dimension of technology strategy, is identified as a major determinant of open innovation. Data from a survey of 154 industrial firms are used to test three hypotheses relating technology aggressiveness, external technology acquisition, and external technology exploitation. In addition, clusters of firms with homogeneous strategies regarding technology aggressiveness and open innovation are identified. [source] The Relative Importance of Interfirm Relationships and Knowledge Transfer for New Product Development Success,THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Mette Praest Knudsen The relationship and network literature has primarily focused on particular partner types, for example, buyer,supplier relationships or competitor interaction. This article explores the nature and relative importance of different types of interfirm relationships for new product development (NPD) success. The underlying premise of the study is that not only the type of interfirm relationships but also the combination of relationships are important for NPD performance. The interaction with a specific type of partner is expected to influence innovative performance by means of appropriate knowledge transfer. Varying needs for external knowledge, and thus types of relationships, are observed depending on the particular stages in the NPD process, the character of the knowledge base of the firm, and the industrial conditions. The absorption of external knowledge is discussed using the degree of redundancy in knowledge, which is defined as the degree of overlap in the knowledge base of the sender and the recipient of knowledge. Hence, the degree of redundancy has direct implications for the ease and, hence, use of knowledge shared with an external partner. The article is based on data from the Know for Innovation survey on innovative activities among European firms, which was carried out in 2000 in seven European countries covering five industries. The article explores the extent of use of external relationships in collaborative product development and finds that customers are involved more frequently in joint development efforts. Second, the industry association of the most important relationship is studied, and the results show that firms tend to partner with firms from their own industry. The danger in this approach is that firms from their own industry tend to contribute similar knowledge, which ultimately may endanger the creation of new knowledge and therefore more radical product developments. The analyses combine the finding that relationships with customers are used most frequently at both early and late stages of the product development process, with a second and more contradictory finding that at the same time customer relationships have a negative impact on innovative success. Moreover, the combination of customers, with both universities and competitors, has a significant negative effect on innovative performance. The potential causes of this apparent paradox can be narrowed down to two: (1) the average customer may be unable to articulate needs for advanced technology-based products; and (2) the average customer may be unable to conceptualize ideas beyond the realm of his or her own experience. Based on this evidence the article cautions product development managers to think explicitly about what certain customers can contribute with and, more importantly, to match this contribution directly with their own sense of what direction product development should go in the future. Finally, the role of complementary as well as supplementary knowledge is investigated for innovative success finding that sharing of supplementary knowledge with external partners in NPD leads to a positive effect on innovative performance. The article is concluded by a discussion of the implication of this finding for building knowledge within the firm and for selecting external partners for NPD. [source] Who is My Partner and How Do We Dance?BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2010Patenting Speed in US Biotechnology, Technological Collaboration In settings where patents and intellectual property provide a strong regime of appropriability, the race to be the first firm to patent a product or a process is a central feature of competition. In this context, we hypothesize that cooperative arrangements that only gain access to external knowledge contribute less to heterogeneity between firms and have a much weaker influence on patenting than alliances that transfer highly firm-specific knowledge, residing in individual and social relationships. We also hypothesize that cooperations between private firms and public organizations accelerate the rate of patenting to a higher degree than cooperations among private firms. We develop and test these ideas on the population of 839 US biotechnology firms between 1973 and 2003. We discuss the importance of our findings on the debate about the value of knowledge access versus knowledge transfer in strategic alliances. [source] Capability building through adversarial relationships: a replication and extension of Clarke and Roome (1999)BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 5 2003Pursey P. M. A. R. Heugens Cooperative interorganizational relationships are seen by many as indispensable vehicles for accessing external knowledge and accumulating capabilities. Surprisingly, the question of whether companies can also build capabilities through adversarial relationships has received little attention. This paper reports a study of the learning,action network of a major Anglo-Dutch food and personal care company. The firm's present relationships with consumer representatives and environmental activists are strongly adversarial, due to the recent introduction of genetically modified ingredients. The study shows that companies can still build capabilities in a hostile environment, but that adversity influences capability building processes as well as capability content. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | |||||||||||||