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.     

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.     

跨文化环境下的知识共享策略

以往的知识共享研究都集中于共同文化背景下的知识共享;而当前企业越来越多地面临着跨文化环境下的知识共享问题。本文分析了跨文化环境的含义、来源与特征以及对知识共享的影响,并提出了跨文化环境下的知识共享策略。     

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.     

Inter-organizational communication as a relational competency: Antecedents and performance outcomes in collaborative buyer–supplier relationships

Inter-organizational communication has been documented as a critical factor in promoting strategic collaboration among firms. In this paper, we seek to extend the stream of research in supply chain management by systematically investigating the antecedents and performance outcomes of inter-organizational communication. Specifically, inter-organizational communication is proposed as a relational competency that may yield strategic advantages for supply chain partners. Using structural equation modeling, we empirically test a number of hypothesized relationships based on a sample of over 200 United States firms. Our results provide strong support for the notion of inter-organizational communication as a relational competency that enhances buyers’ and suppliers’ performance. Implications for future research and practice are offered.     

哈耶克的知识观及其高等教育市场化观点评析

哈耶克所谓的高等教育市场化不仅仅意味着在高等教育领域引入市场手段和竞争机制。还意味着对高等学校系统从权力分配、管理运作到教育内容安排等全方位的再建构的思想指向。它涉及到从不同的知识观出发进而在意识形态层面与“立场”紧密相关的价值观问题、文化观问题等。如何从理论上思考和回应这一层面的问题,是我们在高等教育市场化改革大潮之下不可回避的深层次问题。     

Emergency preparedness in Romania: Dynamics,shortcomings and policy proposals

Romanians were exposed in the last century to a range of natural or man-made disasters, mainly earthquakes and floods. The transition of the country from a Communist authoritarian pattern of emergency preparedness to a democratically civilian emergency system challenges the assessment of emergency preparedness and adds more complexity in designing a better and efficient system. The aim of this paper is to briefly describe the risks and institutions dealing with disasters, to assess the emergency preparedness, the uses of Knowledge Management Systems and Foresight Methodology approaches and to discover the shortcomings of the Romanian Emergency System. The empirical study designed as a reality check focuses on the perception of the local leaders of the emergency system regarding the most probable risks, and the uses and utility of long term strategic planning and foresight methodologies, using the Delphi technique. Lessons drawn from the Romanian transition could provide an interesting case study for other emerging democracies.     

Dynamic decision trees for building resilience into future eco-cities

Intensifying global urbanization and environmental changes bring about the imperative of sustainable urban development and decisions upon inescapable pressures and risks, but knowledge integration between disciplines is a limiting contextual challenge. This paper proposes a reformulation, in terms of urban risk management, of an earlier developed ontological scenario generation method. The procedure consists of several steps: (i) identification-and-prioritization of main pressures, (ii) paired discussion of pressures using four-cell matrices, (iii) re-visit of the pressures' priority order, (iv) articulation of short-listed pressures as decision-making questions, and (v) generation of scenarios via “yes/no” responses to each question, in their order of priority. In this article, the method feeds upon the general context described in recent multi-disciplinary urban studies and public strategic plans in the city of Iasi (Romania), to propose a formal procedure for enabling the acceleration of productive decision making towards city sustainability. Answering three top priority questions, namely “Implement a business-friendly and efficient governance system?”, “Develop a resource management system?”, and “Carry out a human capital accelerator strategy?” results in a 4-scenario set: Receding City, Wanting City, Promising City, Inspiring City. The scenarios are discussed in terms of systemic risks at the end of post-communist transition and beginning of the socio-economic convergence with Western Europe.     

知识表达、知识互补性、知识产权均衡

基于知识的“代数格”表达方式和知识的互补性原理 ,这篇文章讨论知识产权的博弈均衡问题。每个人都拥有“局部知识” ,显然 ,如果法律对每个人的局部知识设立产权并由政府全面加以保护的话 ,人类知识将无法获得任何发展。另一方面 ,如果法律不承认任何知识的产权且政府对任何知识产权都不加以保护的话 ,人类知识也难以获得发展的激励。这里将证明 ,N个具有局部知识的社会成员在社会整体知识构成的代数格上关于各自的“局部知识”的价格的博弈存在至少一个纳什均衡———此即该社会内部自恰的和最优的知识产权配置。由周林 ( 1 994) ,这类均衡点构成一完备格。又由MilgromandShannon( 1 994) ,博弈的每一参与者最佳对应集内的最大策略和最小策略在社会知识的代数格上 (按集合强序 )单调非减 ,这意味着当社会成员的初始知识水平有所提高时 ,由产权博弈均衡所决定的各个局部知识的知识产权价格将相应有所上升。所有上述结果都不需要通常的凸性假设 ,因此在以“知识”为核心要素的经济分析中 (包括收益递增经济学 )具有独特重要的意义     

基于快速成型的产品创新知识供应链研究

知识是技术的源泉,知识供应链是技术创新中知识供应的有效通道。应用知识供应链开发新产品包括强化知识供应链,加速知识流动转化和反馈知识应用绩效,以及保持知识循环等方面。快速成型技术在产品创新知识供应链中,加快了知识流动,促进了隐性知识显性化,反馈了知识创新的作用绩效,加速了知识螺旋循环,有效地支持了产品创新。