Close, but not the same: Locally headquartered organizations and agglomeration economies in a declining industry

Departing from research on expanding, high-technology industries, we study the impact of agglomeration in a declining, low-technology industry. The setting is U.S. footwear manufacturing between 1975 and 1991, when import competition rendered local support critical for survival. We examine how agglomeration-related survival benefits depended upon the presence of locally headquartered manufacturing plants and whether such benefits came at the expense of other local industries. Consistent with ecological arguments, plant failure rates were higher in agglomerations but this effect was attenuated and, in some cases, reversed in agglomerations with more locally headquartered plants. Moreover, only locally headquartered plants experienced such benefits; remotely headquartered plants failed at higher rates in agglomerations. Although more footwear manufacturing jobs were retained in agglomerations with many locally headquartered plants, such locales also exhibited lower manufacturing job growth in other industries. These findings lend greater generalizability to agglomeration theories and also imply trade-offs at the community level.     

知识型产业区位的实证分析

产业区位是一种主要的地理现象。杜能于１８２６年提出了农业区位的一般模式,韦伯１９０９年发展了他的工业区位理论。本文实证研究了知识型产业区位问题,进而讨论了中国知识型产业发展的空间布局。     

Learning through informal local and global linkages: The case of Taiwan's machine tool industry

Most existing studies of successful late industrialization, which draw on findings from high-technology industries, emphasize the need to invest in formal channels of technology acquisition to allow latecomers to catch up. This line of reasoning neglects the fact that in some industries, including low- and medium-technology (LMT) sectors, much knowledge can be acquired by informal means. Through the study of Taiwan's machine tool (MT) industry, this article demonstrates the significance of informal learning activities in LMT industries and the possibility for latecomer clusters to climb the technological ladder through exploiting various local and global informal knowledge linkages.     

Managing technology alliances: The case for knowledge management

Organizations need to form alliances with external entities in order to acquire or access resources outside ones bounds. In recent times, we have seen an increased number of alliances geared towards acquiring technology capabilities. Alliances for technology capabilities include software application licensing agreements, access to technological infrastructure, and accessing technological know-how. While a lot of attention has been paid to the financial, economic, legal, and architectural issues of such arrangements, one dimension has been under debated and discussed—the knowledge component. Knowledge is the critical resource that is exchanged, managed, and integrated, in technology alliances. Managing knowledge in and around technology alliances is of utmost importance if we want to reap the strategic and operational benefits of such engagements. In this case study analysis, we share crucial knowledge management concerns to bear in mind while constructing, governing, and terminating technology alliances.     

Measuring knowledge spillovers: What patents, licenses and publications reveal about innovation diffusion

Measurement of knowledge spillovers remains an important challenge. While patent citation analyses are one common empirical approach, questions persist about their efficacy and potential biases. In an effort to assess various measures of knowledge diffusion, this paper compares patent data surrounding recombinant DNA technology to licenses and publications building on the same technology. Evaluation of these measures highlights errors of both omission and over-representation in each measure, and reveals potential biases tied to organizational age and location. The results suggest that studies of knowledge diffusion can be strengthened dramatically by drawing upon multiple indicators.     

Exploration and exploitation in innovation systems: The case of pharmaceutical biotechnology

This paper develops a theoretical framework for an explanation of how exploitation and exploration build on each other, in a ‘cycle of discovery’, developed in earlier research. The framework is tested empirically, in the sense of seeing whether it can help to reconstruct and understand the emergence of the pharmaceutical industry. One of the conclusions is that whereas recent literature stresses the idiosyncratic nature of the biotechnological revolution, our analysis seems to reveal that this does not seem to be as unique as suggested. From this, we conclude that the theoretical framework we propose, serves its purpose of explanation. But there are also some lessons for improving it.     

Knowledge bases and regional innovation systems: Comparing Nordic clusters

The analysis of the importance of different types of regional innovation systems must take place within a context of the actual knowledge base of various industries in the economy, as the innovation processes of firms are strongly shaped by their specific knowledge base. In this paper, we shall distinguish between two types of knowledge base: analytical and synthetic. These types indicate different mixes of tacit and codified knowledge, codification possibilities and limits, qualifications and skills, required organisations and institutions involved, as well as specific competitive challenges from a globalising economy, which have different implications for different sectors of industry, and, thus, for the kind of innovation support needed. The traditional constellation of industrial clusters surrounded by innovation supporting organisations, constituting a regional innovation system, is nearly always to be found in contexts of industries with a synthetic knowledge base (e.g. engineering-based industries), while the existence of regional innovation systems as an integral part of a cluster will normally be the case of industries-based on an analytical knowledge base (e.g. science-based industries, such as IT and bio-tech). In the discussion of different types of regional innovation systems five empirical illustrations from a Nordic comparative project on SMEs and regional innovation systems will be used: the furniture industry in Salling, Denmark; the wireless communication industry in North Jutland, Denmark; the functional food industry in Scania, Sweden; the food industry in Rogaland, Norway and the electronics industry in Horten, Norway. We argue that in terms of innovation policy the regional level often provides a grounded approach embedded in networks of actors acknowledging the importance of the knowledge base of an industry.     

An empirical investigation of knowledge management and innovative performance: The case of alliances

This paper examines firm-level performance implications of strategic alliances by employing knowledge management practices as intermediaries. Unlike previous research which focuses on partner firm factors, this study investigates how alliance characteristics (i.e., alliance scope and governance) affect interfirm knowledge sharing and creation, and how these two practices and their interaction in turn affect innovative performance. These questions are examined in a sample of 127 German partnering firms. Results show that joint ventures as opposed to contractual alliances are more effective and influential in facilitating knowledge sharing and creation. In contrast, the scope of alliance activities, while positively associated with knowledge sharing, has no direct relationship with knowledge creation. In addition to these results, the study also finds that knowledge sharing, knowledge creation and their interaction significantly contribute to partner firms’ innovative performance.     

Knowledge exchange in clusters: The contingent role of regional inventive concentration

Geographic clusters confer advantages to collocated firms, in particular access to local know-how. This article argues that the access to local know-how is contingent on the extent to which inventive activity is concentrated in the cluster. We draw on sociological theories of generalized exchange to argue that contrasting logics of exchange emerge in geographic clusters that have opposing effects on the extent to which firms benefit from collaborating with local organizations and source local knowledge. A longitudinal data set of 1903 firms engaged in nanotechnology research is used to examine the relationship between firm co-authorships on scientific articles with firms and public research organizations (PROs) and firm inventive performance. Results indicate that when cluster-level firm inventive concentration is high, collaborations with local firms are associated with lower inventive performance. We also find that firms source less local knowledge for their own inventions when firm inventive concentration is high. In contrast, concentrated inventive activity among PROs increases the positive relationship between collaborations with local PROs and firm inventive performance. Results also show firms source more knowledge from local PROs when local PRO inventive concentration is high. The findings suggest that inventive concentration both helps and hinders spill-over of cutting-edge knowledge.     

产业集群演进机制和竞争优势研究述评

产业集群的演进机制和竞争优势作为当前区域经济和产业经济领域内的热点问题,引起了经济学界、管理学界的诸多关注和广泛探讨。本文首先对产业集群的基本内涵做一简要概述,然后基于此内涵从多个理论视角对产业集群的演进机制和竞争优势及其相关内容的研究现状和进展进行梳理、分析、比较和评述,以期有一个深入全面的认识,并为进一步的研究奠定基础,找准方向。     

External knowledge sourcing in biotechnology through acquisition versus alliance: A KBV approach

Knowledge sourcing is important for firms, especially in fast-paced industries. However, few studies explore the effects of knowledge-based predictors on the comparative choice of employing acquisitions versus alliances for sourcing external knowledge. This study extends the limited existing research on this topic. It simultaneously examines the effects of knowledge domain attributes, seeker and source experience-based knowledge, and dyad knowledge similarity and digestibility on whether a firm chooses an acquisition or alliance when sourcing external knowledge. Data is comprised of 209 research-driven acquisitions and alliances of biotechnology firms based in North America. Our findings reveal that external knowledge sourcing through acquisition is more likely when the knowledge domain is more complex and valuable. Acquisition is also preferred when the seeker has greater acquisition experience and when the source has accumulated a moderate level of alliance experience. Alliance, in contrast, is the chosen mode for accessing external knowledge when the knowledge is high in specificity and when the seeker has prior alliance experience. In addition, increasing similarity and digestibility of the dyad's knowledge bases strengthen the relationship between knowledge value and the probability of acquisition versus alliance. These results extend understanding of how firms decide to augment their knowledge resources in a knowledge-intensive industry. They also demonstrate that a multilevel KBV approach emphasizing knowledge characteristics uncovers important predictors of strategy and structure in research-driven organizations.     

图书馆工作的实质：知识的收集、组织与服务

本文认为图书馆工作的实质是对知识的收集、组织及用有序的知识为全体读者服务。     

The evolving nature of Taiwan's national innovation system: The case of biotechnology innovation networks

The dynamics of national innovation systems (NISs) are a source of considerable academic and policy interest, especially when to address new competitive challenges they involve changing institutions and relationships within successful systems. This paper examines the case of Taiwan which is embarking on a new phase in its approach to building its national innovative capacity through creating the infrastructure for a biotechnology industry. By examining the process and mechanisms by which new biotechnology innovation networks are being created, and contrasting their development with existing networks, we analyse the dynamics of Taiwan's NIS. The paper reviews the prospects for this new phase in Taiwan's transition from ‘imitation’ to ‘innovation’. The paper aims to add to the understanding of how innovation systems evolve. It is concerned with the contributors, processes and challenges of NIS evolution and the form and meaning of its dynamic changes.     

Shareholder returns and the exploration-exploitation dilemma: R&D announcements by biotechnology firms

We explore a financial returns dimension of the exploration-exploitation dilemma. Using 1277 R&D announcements by 178 listed bio-pharmaceutical firms, we examine whether investors are myopic along the continuum of exploration (patenting and preclinical trials) to exploitation (human clinical trials and NDA). We find that investors respond positively at every stage, but there are differences between small and large firms. For small firms exploration is favored, provided it is focused. For large firms, there is value in both exploration and exploitation. Projects which are part of an alliance are no more likely to generate abnormal returns. Policy implications are discussed.     

The ex ante assessment of knowledge spillovers: Government R&D policy, economic incentives and private firm behavior

This paper investigates the role of government R&D subsidy programs in stimulating knowledge spillovers. R&D subsidies are an effective public policy instrument when knowledge spillovers exist yet ex ante it is difficult to identify projects that have the greatest potential to increase innovation and economic growth. This paper derives a set of project and firm attributes that the literature finds generate knowledge spillovers and uses data on project proposals to estimate the degree to which a government R&D program conforms. We find that projects that were awarded R&D subsidies were more likely to have attributes such as participation in new research joint ventures and connections to universities and other firms. Following the post-award activities of firm, we find that receipt of a government R&D subsidy increased the funding from other sources when compared to firms that were not awarded funding.     

Latecomer firms and the emergence and development of knowledge networks: The case of Petrobras in Brazil

This paper addresses the emergence and development of firm-centred knowledge networks within learning and innovation systems in late-industrialising countries. A key contribution of the paper is conceptual and methodological: the development of an original typology of knowledge network properties to trace out changes in the form of networks as they evolve over time. A second contribution consists in providing an example of the application of the typology by examining the emergence and development of a firm-centred knowledge network in the case of Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company over more than 30 years between the late 1960s and the early 2000s. This demonstrates that the properties of Petrobras’ knowledge networks continuously evolved through a succession of stages towards (i) increasing intentionality in the management decision-making underlying network development, (ii) growing complexity and diversity in selected cognitive characteristics, and (iii) greater complementarity in the division of innovative labour between Petrobras and its network partners. These original results from applying the typology, in conjunction with retrospective historical methods, illustrate only one aspect of its potential value in the analysis of knowledge networks in late-industrialising economies: tracking out organisational evolution over long periods of time. Others include the comparative examination of network differences across different circumstances and the analysis of relationships between changes/differences in network properties and other characteristics of learning/innovation systems and their contexts.     

技术溢出度量述评

技术溢出的度量尚无定论,但技术溢出对企业的技术创新作用却非常大,因此,利用科学的方法对技术溢出进行度量的意义重大。从技术溢出主体(国家间、行业间、企业间、高等院校与企业间)的角度,对目前国内外有关技术溢出度量的结论和方法进行了评述。     

Complexity, networks and knowledge flow

Because knowledge plays an important role in the creation of wealth, economic actors often wish to skew the flow of knowledge in their favor. We ask, when will an actor socially close to the source of some knowledge have the greatest advantage over distant actors in receiving and building on the knowledge? Marrying a social network perspective with a view of knowledge transfer as a search process, we argue that the value of social proximity to the knowledge source depends crucially on the nature of the knowledge at hand. Simple knowledge diffuses equally to close and distant actors because distant recipients with poor connections to the source of the knowledge can compensate for their limited access by means of unaided local search. Complex knowledge resists diffusion even within the social circles in which it originated. With knowledge of moderate complexity, however, high-fidelity transmission along social networks combined with local search allows socially proximate recipients to receive and extend knowledge generated elsewhere, while interdependencies stymie more distant recipients who rely heavily on unaided search. To test this hypothesis, we examine patent data and compare citation rates across proximate and distant actors on three dimensions: (1) the inventor collaboration network; (2) firm membership; and (3) geography. We find robust support for the proposition that socially proximate actors have the greatest advantage over distant actors for knowledge of moderate complexity. We discuss the implications of our findings for the distribution of intra-industry profits, the geographic agglomeration of industries, the design of social networks within firms, and the modularization of technologies.     

A framework of industrial knowledge spillovers in big-science centers

We employed the grounded theory method to construct a framework describing the distinctive mechanisms through which big-science centers generate industrial knowledge spillovers in the economy. Our focus is on large-scale big-science installations typically associated with experimental physics. We draw on social network, social capital, and inter-organizational learning theories to examine knowledge spillovers accruing to industrial partner companies in big-science-industry dyads. The context for the study is provided by CERN’s new particle accelerator project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In addition to building a grounded theory framework for the study of industrial knowledge spillovers, our study demonstrates the distinctive potential that big-science centers offer as a source of knowledge spillovers in national innovation systems.