Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications

Addressing the reasons for—and the solutions to—the “digital divide” has been on the public agenda since the emergence of the Internet. However, the term has meant quite different things, depending on the audience and the context, and these competing interpretations may in fact orient toward different policy outcomes. The goals of this article are twofold. First, the authors unpack the term “digital divide” and examine how it has been deployed and interpreted across a range of academic and policy discourses. Second, through a framing experiment embedded within a nationally representative survey, the authors demonstrate how presenting respondents with two different conceptual frames of the digital divide may lead to different perceptions of who is most accountable for addressing the issue. From this, they discuss the dynamic relationship between the construction and communication of policy discourse and the public understanding of the digital divide, as well as implications for effective communication about the digital divide and information and communication technology policy to the general public.     

Knowledge of the natural and the social: how are they different and what do they have in common?

Knowledge of the natural and the social are irreducibly different yet have much in common. The differences lie at the levels of complexity they engage, modes of explanation they adopt, investigation aims they allow and whether they assert a ‘double hermeneutic’ effect to the behaviour of the studied objects. Knowledge are in common in that they are all construed out of available resources, justified based on the consequences of acting upon them, settled until better alternatives emerge, and serving as walking sticks for beating unknown paths in human life. Because of this, there can be no hierarchy of knowledge or unity of methodology, and dialogical encounters guided by situational ethics, not professional deafness driven by ontological/instrumental fallacies, are a viable strategy for morally and practically wise actions, including knowledge management projects.     

“The Art of Knowing”: Social and Tacit Dimensions of Knowledge and the Limits of the Community of Practice

Community of practice theory is inherently a social theory. As such it is distinct from more individualist accounts of human behavior, such as mainstream economics. Consequently, community of practice theory and economics favor different accounts of knowledge. Taking a community of practice perspective, this article challenges economists' attempts to reduce knowledge to information held by individuals and to reject tacit knowledge as mere uncodified explicit knowledge. The essay argues that Polanyi's notion of a tacit dimension affected numerous disciplines (including economics) because it addressed aspects of learning and identity that conventional social sciences overlooked. The article situates knowledge, identity, and learning within communities and points to ethical and epistemic entailments of community practice. In so doing it attempts to limit, rather than expand, the scope of community of practice analysis and to stress the difference, rather than the commonalities, between this and other apparently congenial forms of social analysis.     

Popular and/or prestigious? Measures of scholarly esteem

Citation analysis does not generally take the quality of citations into account: all citations are weighted equally irrespective of source. However, a scholar may be highly cited but not highly regarded: popularity and prestige are not identical measures of esteem. In this study we define popularity as the number of times an author is cited and prestige as the number of times an author is cited by highly cited papers. Information retrieval (IR) is the test field. We compare the 40 leading researchers in terms of their popularity and prestige over time. Some authors are ranked high on prestige but not on popularity, while others are ranked high on popularity but not on prestige. We also relate measures of popularity and prestige to date of Ph.D. award, number of key publications, organizational affiliation, receipt of prizes/honors, and gender.     

Knowledge management and ERP: Complementary or contradictory?

This research aims at deepening the understanding of the effects of information systems on supply chain operations, and to find the level and direction of the relationship between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Knowledge Management (KM) in the context of operational and financial performance. Essentially, this study emphasizes the explanation of the complementary relationship between ERP and KM. Therefore, the mediating effect of KM is also analyzed. Using a survey method, 163 responses are collected from Turkish manufacturing companies which operate in a variety of industries. A structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test both the reliability and validity of measurement and the structural path model. The results show that ERP has no significantly positive effect on operational performance, but it is a precedent of KM. Moreover, results also show that KM affects operational performance positively and it has a mediating effect for the relationship between ERP and operational performance. Lastly, the path analysis shows that operational performance is positively associated with financial performance.     

Knowledge generation and sharing in UK universities: A tale of two cultures?

As economies become more knowledge intensive it has become evident to most organizations that knowledge is a valuable resource. This is particularly true in academic organizations, which have the generation and dissemination of knowledge as their principal mission. This research assesses whether path-dependency exists in relation to cultural expectations of knowledge generation and sharing in knowledge intensive organizations. This paper adopts a constructivist approach facilitated by focus group discussions which were conducted in two UK universities, one Russell group university and the other a post-1992. Institutional culture and path dependency play a major role in the willingness of institutions to generate and share knowledge. Each institution exemplified a distinct path-dependency that underpinned cultural expectations but in each case internal and external factors were necessitating changes regarding knowledge sharing and generation which affected individual perspectives and organizational structures. The paper concludes by purporting that certain universities display critical junctures and cultural transformation in terms of knowledge generation, dissemination and sharing.     

Exploration on the Cognitive Schema and Its Transformation of Knowledge Management

Abstract Knowledge management （KM） has been receiving considerable attention in the human-system research community. And it is one of the key issues on what the cognitive structure （schema） is and how it transfers. From different perspectives, such as the cognitive science, the concepts, elements and characteristics of cognitive schema, the knowledge structure, knowledge acquisition and influence of schema on it, this paper explores the cognitive schema of knowledge management.     

Exploration on the Cognitive Schema and Its Transformation of Knowledge Management

Knowledge management (KM) has been receiving considerable attention in the human-system research community. And it is one of the key issues on what the cognitive structure (schema) is and how it transfers. From different perspectives, such as the cognitive science, the concepts, elements and characteristics of cognitive schema, the knowledge structure, knowledge acquisition and influence of schema on it, this paper explores the cognitive schema of knowledge management.     

At the margin: continuing crisis in British environmental history?

An understanding of historical relations between gender and nature, whether within the context of 'untouched wilderness' or the pulsating vibrancy of the industrial city, is central to collective self-knowledge in the world in which we all live. However, have British historians been less successful than their American counterparts in engaging with key aspects of the environmental past?     

Accountability and the Framing Power of Visual Technologies: How Do Visualized Reconstructions of Incidents Influence Public and Political Accountability Discussions?

In this article visual technologies and their use in three reconstructions after an incident are linked with accountability issues. Conclusions are drawn on the relation between administration, the choice of technology to create and distribute visual occurrences, and society and how visualizations are used to frame accountability issues.     

Digital technology adoption and knowledge flows within firms: Can the Internet overcome geographic and technological distance?

Under what conditions does digital technology adoption increase cross location knowledge flows within firms? We investigate this question by studying the impact of adopting basic Internet access on cross-location knowledge flows within the same firm. We construct a large data set of Internet adoption and patent citations among dyadic pairs of firm-locations between 1992–1998. We find that when both locations in the pair adopt basic Internet there is an increase in the likelihood of a citation between the citing and (potential) cited location. In contrast, we find no significant effect of Internet adoption at only the citing location. We further study how this effect varies according to the proximity of the research activities between the source and recipient of knowledge and specialization of the research activities within the recipient. We find that the likelihood of a citation increases more after dyadic Internet adoption when the pair is working in similar research areas and when the research areas in the citing location are less specialized. These results, which are robust to a range of robustness analyses, suggest that digital technologies such as Internet connectivity are able to facilitate knowledge flows between locations only when they share a common knowledge base.     

Spatial differences in the quality of university patenting: Do regions matter?

This paper uses patent citation data to analyze the quality of university technology across European regions. The empirical analysis draws on a panel dataset of 4580 European university-owned patents classified by 202 European regions over the period 1998-2004. The methodology involves a multilevel framework to identify the effects of factors at three hierarchical levels (individual, university, and regional) on the quality of university patenting. The results suggest that regional factors, such as the level of development, industrial potential, and regional higher education R&D expenditure, do not play any significant role in determining the quality of European university patents. We instead find that the factors affecting patent quality stem from their specific characteristics. We also find that university size does not explain the quality of patents. However, there is significant unobserved heterogeneity at the university level in all models, suggesting that differences in other university characteristics explain a substantial part of the variance in patent quality.     

Knowledge management practices and performance: are they truly linked?

Knowledge management (KM) has often been claimed to be an essential ingredient in building competitive advantage. Yet, KM adoption is relatively slow, especially in the Malaysian context. Most organizations are unsure if the promised performance improvement is just a passing fad. This study intends to provide empirical verifications to support the link between KM practices and performance outcomes for organizations. Responses from 180 knowledge-based organizations were analysed. The analysis indicated that knowledge acquisition and knowledge utilization positively influenced strategic and operational improvement in organizations, whereas the positive effect of knowledge dissemination was only evident in the case of strategic improvement. Organization size had some interesting moderating impact on the tested relationships.     

Concurrent development and strategic outsourcing: Do the rules change in breakthrough innovation?

Concurrent development activities and strategic supply chain management have become staples of the new product development (NPD) process over the last 15 years. Although this is beneficial, often the advice given comes in a “generic” form, based on the assumption that the similarities among NPD efforts are more important than the differences between them. However, variation in the radicalness of projects can make a significant difference in the way that they should be managed. This paper explores the processes associated with the development of radical new products. Based on interviews with project managers and engineers in the United States and Japan, this paper puts forth three propositions, which we summarize in a model aimed to help managers decide whether the “degree of radicalness” of the product may require changes in the organization's NPD process.     

Inter‐firm Migration of Tacit Knowledge: Law and Policy1

Abstract

Much knowledge is diffused by the exchange of property rights in intangibles. But tacit knowledge, not being subject to property rights, is instead diffused by migration of knowledgeable individuals between firms. The law impacts significantly on this diffusion mechanism, in particular those rules that determine the use individuals may make of their tacit knowledge after migration to a different firm. The general principle underlying the relevant law is that individuals are free to migrate with all their tacit knowledge. Nonetheless there are some narrow exceptions to this principle. That these exceptions remain narrow and carefully policed by the courts is important because imposing too many restraints on use of tacit knowledge post‐term would have a negative impact on real innovation.     

Unravelling the drivers of technological innovations in the Czech Republic: Do international technological linkages matter?

This study aims to investigate the main factors driving technological innovation within firms in the manufacturing and service sectors of the Czech Republic. We apply a binary logistic regression model to cross-sectional data from 502 firms, obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The results of our empirical investigation show that certain elements of the business environment, such as the tax rate, serve as significant obstacles to firms’ product innovations. The results also confirm that international technological linkages—measured by international quality certificates and foreign technology licenses—affect technological innovations. Moreover, we found that internal R&D activities positively impact technological innovation across all sectors; contrarily, we found that process innovation in the manufacturing sector is positively influenced by foreign technology licenses and business association membership. Process innovations in the service sector are positively correlated with external R&D and financing from banking institutions. Finally, business association membership does not positively influence technological innovation in the service sector. Our findings have salient implications for firm managers, policymakers, and scholars aiming to explore and improve innovation outcomes in transitional economies.     

Do teams need both hands? An analysis of team process ambidexterity and the enabling role of information technology

As a core organizational resource, business processes are vital for organizational teams. To deal with today’s volatile business environment, organizations need to be ambidextrous in terms of process capabilities. However, little is known about how process ambidexterity, process standardization, and process agility, are enabled by information technology (IT) and related to team-level activities. To fill this gap in the literature, we conducted a field study based on 160 teams of 1081 individuals from seven companies in South Korea. Our results show that IT enables both process standardization and agility, and that a team’s process ambidexterity has a positive effect on inter-team coordination and team innovation, which in turn have a direct impact on team performance. Our findings highlight the importance of process ambidexterity by investigating the enabling role of IT and its outcomes in a team. Our results offer theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of team process ambidexterity.     

Do public subsidies affect the performance of new technology-based firms? The importance of evaluation schemes and agency goals

New technology-based firms (NTBFs) greatly contribute to the dynamic efficiency of the economic system. To perform this role, NTBFs need external financing. However, private financing of this type of firm is particularly subject to market inefficiencies. This seems to recommend policy intervention and NTBFs often find support through payment of direct public subsidies. When these are based on ex ante selective screening procedures of applicants and awarded competitively, direct public support may exert a positive effect on the performance of NTBFs beyond the amount of the subsidy. By picking promising projects, governments may signal the quality of a firm to third parties, thereby lowering information asymmetries. This paper contributes to the literature on the differing impact of various subsidies on firm performance by crossing the evaluation dimension (i.e. selective vs. automatic subsidies) with the dimension of the specific goal (R&D-enhancing vs. other measures) for which a subsidy may be implemented. Our results show that the evaluation mechanism and the goal of the subsidy are both important dimensions in the policy design domain and that selective R&D subsidies outperform other types of scheme in fostering NTBF performance.