Organisational ‘know-where’ and ‘know-when’: re-framing configurations and distributions of knowledge in organisations

This paper explores varying configurations of knowledge in organisations. A multi-dimensional framework of distinctive forms of knowledge is used to highlight different patterns of organisational knowledge, demonstrating their heterogeneity and variability – over time, in terms of depth of expertise, and their distribution within and between organisations. Common knowledge that is shared across an organisation accounts for only a small proportion of organisational knowledge, indicating that strategies to exploit this resource for competitive advantage will be constrained unless mechanisms are developed that enable access to and transfer of knowledge that is not yet shared or common.     

Impacts of internal R&D on firms’ performance and energy consumption: Evidence from Ethiopian firms

In recent decades, with the rapid development of the knowledge economy and science, countries have embraced technical innovation and have gradually increased investment in research and development (R&D). A vast literature indicates that the relationship between R&D and firm performance is highly complex. The evidence suggests that R&D positively influences firm performance, yet findings on the process by which this happens are mixed. Rigorous analyses are required on how R&D investments affect energy consumption. This study explores the impact of R&D investment on the performance and energy consumption of 476 firms in Ethiopia by employing a combination of fixed-effect, propensity score matching, and endogenous treatment effect estimation methods. The empirical results reveal that investment in R&D positively influences both innovation and long-term financial performance but negatively impacts short-term financial performance and energy consumption. The results also show that the impacts of R&D activities vary significantly across different categories of firms, confirming that heterogeneity may be an issue among the firms considered. The results also indicate that the availability of credit is a more important moderating factor in the relationship between R&D investment and firm performance than the legal system is. These results have important implications for firms with growing R&D operations, especially those in developing countries such as Ethiopia. Ethiopian firms should invest more in R&D activities, such as in fundamental and applied research, to improve performance and enhance competitiveness.     

Effects of catch-up and incumbent firms’ SEP strategic manoeuvres

This paper investigates the effects of standard-essential patents (SEPs) to identify strategic differences between firms in advanced countries and those in latecomer countries. By comparing the SEP data-sets of incumbent and catch-up groups of the top 10 SEP firms, this paper has discovered the following four main findings. First, SEP strategic manoeuvres work as an effective way of expanding the sphere of catch-up firms’ influence. Particularly after passing a certain threshold, catch-up firms’ technological influence increases in an exponential manner. Second, for incumbent firms, SEP strategic manoeuvres serve as a catalyst to deepen the development of self-reliant trajectories embodied in the history and future of standards. Third, catch-up firms have specialised in short cycle technologies for self-reinforcing capability. Fourth, the effects of SEP strategic manoeuvres and international protection size on the likelihood of SEP litigation are greater for catch-up firms than for incumbent firms. These findings highlight the dual role of standards-setting organisations (SSOs) for catch-up firms (i.e., knowledge-learning and knowledge-diffusion spaces). For incumbent firms, these findings stress the importance of establishing reinforcing mechanisms to align long-standing self-reliant knowledge paths with the direction of anticipatory standardisation. This discovery provides strategic insights within the context of post catch-up strategy.     

Mapping firms’ locations in technological space: A topological analysis of patent statistics

Where do firms innovate? Mapping their locations and directions in technological space is challenging due to its high dimensionality. We propose a new method to characterize firms’ inventive activities via topological data analysis (TDA) that represents high-dimensional data in a shape graph. Applying this method to 333 major firms’ patents in 1976–2005 reveals hitherto undocumented industry dynamics: some firms remain undifferentiated; others develop unique portfolios. Firms with unique trajectories, which we define and measure graph-theoretically as “flares” in the Mapper graph, tend to perform better. This association is statistically and economically significant, and continues to hold after we control for portfolio size, firm survivorship, and industry classification.     

‘I keep a close watch on this child of mine’: a moral critique of other-tracking apps

Smartphones and mobile applications are omnipresent in our lives. At the core of this article are ‘other-tracking apps’, i.e. mobile applications that make it possible, via location technology, to track others. These apps ensure that we are never unconnected from the network of ubiquitous information and, via that network, from others. In specific, focus lies on apps designed for parents to remotely track the whereabouts of their child(ren). This particular case can be considered as one example of broader reflection on what continuous technical connectivity means in moral terms. Other-tracking apps give new ground to moral queries related to information technologies. Even though there is little doubt that parents might implement these technologies with good intention to extend care and responsibility over a distance, our concern is that they mistake control for care. This article seeks to demonstrate that a critical stance towards other-tracking by parents is required, because these apps raise a number of concerns that should be recognized as they are implemented. A number of moral critiques are expressed and discussed. These apps have the potential to engender a situation of ‘over-proximity’. A framework is hence required that emphasizes maintaining the critical distance to respect the other’s heterogeneity, autonomy, and privacy.     

Knowledge co-creation across national boundaries: trends and firms’ strategies

This paper examines the role, patterns, and characteristics of knowledge co-creation in a cross-border context and develops a theoretical framework to guide empirical exploration of the value of cross-border knowledge. The empirical results reveal an upward trend in the share of cross-border knowledge and show that cross-border knowledge is of higher quality than within-border knowledge in terms of having more forward and backward citations, more claims, and a shorter technology cycle time. Our study also reveals pronounced differences in knowledge co-creation patterns between the triad regions: Japan, Europe and the United States. Moreover, the analysis of three cases, IBM, Hitachi, and Bayer, demonstrates that instead of focusing on conflicts of interest, such leading firms cooperate with foreign competitors to address technological challenges and opportunities, penetrate foreign markets, defend their positions, and advance technological innovations. Overall, our findings provide new evidence regarding the importance of cross-border knowledge co-creation.     

The role of business analytics capabilities in bolstering firms’ agility and performance

Many companies invest considerable resources in developing Business Analytics (BA) capabilities to improve their performance. BA can affect performance in many different ways. This paper analyses how BA capabilities affect firms’ agility through information quality and innovative capability. Furthermore, it studies the moderating role of environmental turbulence, both technological and in the market. The proposed model was tested using statistical data from 154 firms with two respondents (CEO and CIO) from each firm. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares (PLS)/Structured Equation Modelling (SEM). Our results indicate that BA capabilities strongly impact a firm’s agility through an increase in information quality and innovative capability. We also discuss that both market and technological turbulence moderate the influence of firms' agility on firms' performance.     

Science and the ‘modern values of control’

Conclusion  This is a challenging book and it addresses important questions. This review has focused on what I think is the most important question of all: just what is the relationship between the ‘strategies’ which drive modern science and the social values which guide the societies we live in. I have much sympathy with the way in which Lacey tries to answer this question and how he tries to open up alternative possibilities and give us a view of the future which is not just a continuing catalogue of environmental disaster ‘for the relief of man's estate’. However, I have expressed doubts as to whether he has been entirely successful in this regard, especially concerning the alternatives to the materialist strategies.     

Workers’ replacements and firms’ innovation dynamics: New evidence from Italian matched longitudinal data

In this paper, we explore the impact of a firm's workers’ replacements on innovation performance by using rich matched employer–employee panel data for the Veneto region of Italy. We take the well-known resource-based theory of the firm as our departure point, and develop a set of hypotheses which we test empirically with negative binomial regressions. We find that workers’ replacements significantly dampen innovation performance, coherently with the idea that they generate losses in the tacit knowledge base of the firm. We also find that workers’ replacements are especially detrimental to large and young firms, possibly because large companies benefit comparatively less from ‘diaspora’ effects and because innovative capabilities in young firms are mostly dependent on specific human capital. Finally, our results show that firms’ location in industrial districts significantly mitigates the negative impact of workers’ replacements, and that a similar picture emerges when firms are more exposed to knowledge spillovers, particularly of related knowledge.     

The role of information technologies (ITs) in firms’ resource orchestration process: A case analysis of China’s “Huangshan 168”

This case analysis considers how digital disruption is reaching beyond technology to engulf traditionally considered low-tech industries and influence conventionally viewed non-digital businesses. For incumbent firms in these low-tech industries, the disruption brings not only plenty of opportunities but also numerous threats. Firms that quickly embrace the digital era by profoundly changing their incumbent strategies, systems, operational habits, and business models have great chances to outperform their competitors and succeed within this dynamic environment. One digital strategy that might be adopted by incumbent firms in the low-tech industries to seize the opportunities brought by digital disruption is to integrate their resource orchestration actions with advanced information technologies (ITs). Given the strong connection between firms’ resource orchestration actions and their competitive advantages, as well as the increasingly vital role of ITs in contemporary business operations, it is an imperative to investigate the impacts of ITs on the resource orchestration processes of modern enterprises. Additionally, for incumbent firms operating in the low-tech industries, integrating their resource management with modern ITs might help them effectively identify and accumulate unique resources, develop their capabilities, and create value through continuous reconfiguration of resources. Therefore, low-tech firms that strive to adopt modern information technologies in their resource orchestration process are more likely to achieve improved organizational performance and competitive advantages than their competitors.     

Aftermath of a tragedy: A star's death and coauthors’ subsequent productivity

Following the death of a star scientist, do coauthors experience a uniform decline in productivity? Prior work informs us that the death of a star negatively influences coauthors’ productivity. In this study, I extend this idea and argue that the characteristics of coauthors’ collaboration networks moderate the negative association between a star's death and coauthors’ productivity. The analyses of data on academic publications in pharmacology and pharmacy between 1980 and 2000 reveal that the death of stars has heterogeneously affected the subsequent productivity of coauthors. In particular, I find that the effective size of the coauthors' collaboration network mitigated the negative effect of a star's death. In contrast, the stability of the coauthors' collaboration network intensified the negative aftermath of the loss of a star scientist. The findings uncover the role of collaborative ties of the coauthors of a deceased star in pursuit of scientific research.     

The ‘Hungarian sappho’: some comments and comparisons

A brief and constructive criticism is offered of the recent study (see preceding paper) which successfully adopted and adapted the Sussex SAPPHO ‘pair comparison’ technique to the investigation of twelve success-failure pairs in the Hungarian electronics industry. Despite some differences in methodology and differences in the industrial and political environments in which the two studies were made, the results of the Hungarian SAPPHO and the Sussex SAPPHO are remarkably similar.     

Reprint of “The Startup Cartography Project: Measuring and mapping entrepreneurial ecosystems”

This paper presents the Startup Cartography Project (SCP), which offers a new set of entrepreneurial ecosystem statistics for the United States from 1988 to 2016. The SCP combines state-level business registration records with a predictive analytics approach to estimate the probability of “extreme” growth (IPO or high-value acquisition) at or near the time of founding for the population of newly-registered firms. The results highlight the ability of predictive analytics to identify high-potential start-ups at founding (using a variety of different approaches and measures). The SCP then leverages estimates of entrepreneurial quality to develop four entrepreneurial ecosystem statistics, including the rate of start-up formation, average entrepreneurial quality, the quality-adjusted quantity of entrepreneurship, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem performance associated with a given start-up “cohort.” These statistics offer sharp insight into patterns of regional entrepreneurship, the correlation of quality (but not quantity) with subsequent regional economic growth and the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems over time. The SCP includes both a public-access dataset at the state, MSA, county, and zip code level, as well as an interactive map, the U.S. Startup Map, that allows academic and policy users to assess entrepreneurial ecosystems at an arbitrary level of granularity (from the level of states down to individual street addresses). The SCP and accompanying datasets may be found at: https://www.startupcartography.com/.     

A Review of: “Hacking Cyberspace’

Abstract

The efforts of other nations to develop comprehensive approaches to the development and application of information technology have given rise to concern in many quarters about the adequacy of the U.S. government's response to information issues.

A bill, H.R. 3137, was introduced in the House of Representatives in April 1981 by Congressman George E. Brown, Jr., in an attempt to stimulate movement toward a coordinated development of U.S. information policies. Hearings on this legislation elicited a wide variety of opinion concerning how best to proceed toward this development. This paper surveys the testimony presented at the hearings and some recent actions taken by Congress and by the Reagan Administration on information issues.     

Galileo: A ‘rehabilitation’ that has never taken place

The media have repeatedly reported that Pope John Paul II had officially admitted the error of the Catholic Church as far as Galileo is concerned and ‘rehabilitated’ him. Apart from enthusiastic, often exaggerated, headlines and comments, careful considerations of the details of the Pope's initiative lead to a different picture: despite the good intentions expressed at the beginning of the process, 13 years later it ended up as a failure, since the Pope's summary is vague and useless.