BEYOND THE HYPE: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY/KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

Abstract.  This paper explores the debates surrounding whether or not we have now moved into a new knowledge economy and/or knowledge society and if so whether this shift is as significant and as far reaching as the industrial revolution. In this possible transformation the place of information communications technologies has been crucial. Debate has occurred across both economics and sociology with differing emphases as is shown in the ranges of definitions that we review in the paper. One consistent factor is the lack of clarity and consistency between them both within and across the disciplines. In order to explore the issues that the debates raises in a more grounded way, the paper explores them in relation to intellectual property (IP) and the intellectual commons in the process of innovation, growth and economic development. The paper is developed through an analysis first of the industrial revolution and the role within this of uncertainty, technologies, complementarities and elective affinities and the way IP was protected and controlled through patents, secrecy, being first to the market and copyright. The second part of the paper examines definitions of the knowledge economy and society and the role within these of information communication technologies in order to explore whether the ways that IP is protected and controlled have changed. In the debate about the 'knowledge economy and society' the role of innovation via human capital with a greater reliance on intellectual capabilities has been emphasized. The role of IP thus remains central but is now challenged by the rise of new forms of communication, which make its protection harder and move much of the concern with respect to regulation to a global rather than national and local level.     

The Relationships Between Adhocracy and Clan Cultures and Tacit Oriented KM Strategy

Abstract

In this study knowledge is considered as explicit and tacit; and in line with this, knowledge management strategy that focuses on tacit knowledge is identified as tacit oriented knowledge management strategy. Organizational culture, which is one of the crucial antecedents of knowledge management process, is categorized into four types by using two dimensions—external versus internal orientation and formal versus informal organizational process—as adhocracy, clan, market and hierarchy. And the relationships between adhocracy, and clan culture and tacit oriented knowledge management strategy are investigated. Also the industrial environment hostility is used as a moderator between adhocracy and clan cultures, and tacit oriented knowledge management strategy.

According to the regression analyses, adhocracy and clan cultures have positive effects on tacit oriented knowledge management strategy; and the impact (magnitude) of adhocracy culture is approximately the same as the clan culture on tacit oriented knowledge management strategy. Also it was found that greater industry environment hostility, the greater relationship between adhocracy and clan cultures, and tacit oriented knowledge management Strategy.     

Test of the MBA knowledge and skills transfer

In view of the growing popularity of the MBA degree as a management development tool, there is a need to examine knowledge and skills transfer among MBA graduates. This study then developed and tested a parsimonious model of perceived transfer of knowledge and skills of MBA graduates to the job. Respondents were those who had completed part-time MBA programmes in Hong Kong for at least one year but not more than five years. LISREL results revealed a modest fit of the model to the data. The path coefficients further revealed that seven of the fifteen predicted relationships were statistically significant and in the predicted direction. Specifically, self-efficacy, Type A personality, transfer climate, and transfer rewards were positively related to motivation to learn, while organizational commitment was negatively related to motivation to learn. The results also indicated that motivation to learn, continuous-learning culture, and utility of MBA programme were positively related to perceived knowledge and skills transfer.     

Planning Histories and Practices of Circulating Urban Knowledge

This symposium creates and stimulates new dialogue and cross‐disciplinary exchange between planning theorists and geographers in researching the transfer of urban policy and planning models, ideas and techniques. The symposium challenges a restricted historical focus in much of the emerging geographical literature on urban policy mobilities by drawing on a rich tradition within planning history of exploring and documenting the trans‐urban travel of planning ideas and models over the last 150 years. It is argued that this longer‐term perspective is required to highlight important historical continuities and institutional legacies to contemporary urban policy circuits and pathways and to question what is particularly new, distinct and innovative about an intensification in the travel of urban ideas, plans and policies over the past decade — and the accompanying scholarly interest in them. The symposium also uses the emphasis on particular details and specific experiences within planning histories to foreground and develop approaches, particularly from recent geographical scholarship, that investigate the contingent and embodied practices and wider epistemic contexts that enable — or hinder — contemporary policy transfer.     

论基于业务流程的设计企业知识重组

本文从知识生成管理、知识积累管理、知识交流管理、知识应用管理等四个方面介绍了设计企业知识管理的特点,对设计企业业务流程知识管理的现状和存在的问题进行了分析,提出了基于业务流程知识重组的必要性.本文研究了设计企业业务流程的特点,并从横向知识重组、纵向知识重组两个角度阐述了设计企业知识重组的方法.结合业务流程知识重组的需要,提出了构建设计企业知识管理平台的基本模型.     

Application of collective knowledge diffusion in a social network environment

ABSTRACT

We present a group dynamics model that shows knowledge integration as a process occurring over time. As each individual in the group contact others, his own knowledge changes, and over time the collective knowledge is obtained. This allows modeling knowledge diffusion in a social network and while the models presented in this paper are not competitive in that area, they approach the problem from previously unconsidered direction. We test the behavior of the model in a multi-agent simulation and we test a simple advertisement campaign in a social network. We provide discussion of elements needed for making model more competitive.     

Linking improved knowledge management to operational and organizational performance

This research empirically examines the importance of knowledge management processes to operational and overall organizational performance (OPERF). Specifically, results indicate that a shared interpretation of knowledge among operational personnel mediates how knowledge is disseminated and used to design and implement a unified operational response to that knowledge. Further, results collected in a logistics operations (LO) context support a strong positive relationship between this knowledge management process and operational and organizational performance. Importantly, psychometric measures for organizational performance collected from managerial respondents were strongly correlated with secondary financial data for participating firms obtained from Compustat, thus supporting a link about operational performance and hard organizational performance data.     

The scholarly exchange of knowledge in Operations Management

A number of studies have investigated the quality of journals in Operations Management. This research steps back from these studies and investigates the exchange of ideas within Operations Management journals and between other management disciplines (Management, Marketing, and Finance) during the last decade (1998–2007). Journal citation metrics provide a measure for the exchange of scholarly ideas. Operations Management (OM) journals show a willingness to cross-pollinate ideas with other management disciplines. But, they also tend to have a higher level of self citations and lower level of within discipline citation exchanges when compared to other management disciplines. As a result, Operations Management journals may reflect methodological silos in the field that could potentially dampen scholarly exchange. In general, increasing the diversity of scholarly exchanges within Operations Management, and conducting more cross-disciplinary research with other management disciples should improve the scholarly development of Operations Management.     

企业网络能力与技术创新——基于跨组织知识管理的实证研究

本文从企业网络能力对技术创新的影响机制展开分析,引入跨组织知识管理,提出了企业网络能力、跨组织知识管理与技术创新三者之间的关系假设.通过问卷调查和结构方程模型分析,对我国企业网络能力如何影响技术创新的问题进行了实证研究.研究结果表明,网络能力的结构对跨组织知识管理有积极影响,跨组织知识管理的结构对技术创新有显著的正向影响.本文认为,对于处于社会网络之中的企业而言,通过提升自身的网络能力,建立和优化内外网络关系,加强与其他组织之间的合作,实现跨组织知识管理不失为一条新的创新路径.     

国际合资企业的知识管理研究——从外方母公司获取知识

国际合资企业的成功一直是跨国经营理论界和实践界共同关注的问题。基于知识的理论认为,从外方母公司获取知识是国际合资企业提高竞争力、获得成功的一个非常重要因素。本文重点分析了国际合资企业获取知识的理论基础、方法途径、具体过程和影响因素。同时,结合中外合资企业的经营实践,对于如何加强知识的学习、转移和创新,促进中外合资企业自身发展提出了建议。