Knowledge Management What Can Organizational Economics Contribute?

Knowledge management has emerged as a very successful organization practice and has been extensively treated in a large body of academic work. Surprisingly, however, organizational economics (i.e., transaction cost economics, agency theory, team theory and property rights theory) has played no role in the development of knowledge management. We argue that organizational economics insights can further the theory and practice of knowledge management in several ways. Specifically, we apply notions of contracting, team production, complementaries, hold-up, etc. to knowledge management issues (i.e., creating and integration knowledge, rewarding knowledge workers, etc.) , and derive refutable implications that are novel to the knowledge management field from our discussion.Transaction costs, organizational economics

The mediation between participative leadership and employee exploratory innovation: Examining intermediate knowledge mechanisms

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.We examine mediation effects of coworker knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity on the participative leadership–employee exploratory innovation relationship in R&D units of Taiwanese technology firms. Deploying a time-lagged questionnaire method implemented over four business quarters, data is generated from 1600 paired samples (managers and employees) in R&D units of Taiwanese technology firms. The structural equation modeling results reveal that (1) participative leadership is positively related to employee exploratory innovation; (2) coworker knowledge and (3) absorptive capacity partially mediate the relationship between participative leadership and employee exploratory innovation independently; and, (4) coworker knowledge sharing in combination with absorptive capacity partially mediates this relationship. The results extend previous research on participative leadership and innovation by demonstrating that participative leadership is related to employee exploratory innovation (Lee and Meyer-Doyle, 2017; Mom et al., 2009).Results also confirm that participative leadership drives employee exploratory innovation through employee absorptive capacity. This reinforces the need highlighted by Lane et al. (2006) to investigate the role of absorptive capacity at the individual-level. Collectively, while participative leadership is important for employee exploratory innovation it is the knowledge mechanisms existing and interacting at the employee-level that are central to generating increased employee exploratory innovation from this leadership approach

Managed Care

By 1993, over 70% of all Americans with health insurance were enrolled in some form of managed care plan. The term managed care encompasses a diverse array of institutional arrangements, which combine various sets of mechanisms, that, in turn, have changed over time. The chapter reviews these mechanims, which, in addition to the methods employed by traditional insurance plans, include the selection and organization of providers, the choice of payment methods (including capitation and salary payment), and the monitoring of service utilization. Managed care has a long history. For an extended period, this form of organization was discouraged by a hostile regulatory environment. Since the early 1980s, however, managed care has grown dramatically. Neither theoretical nor empirical research have yet provided an explanation for this pattern of growth. The growth of managed care may be due to this organizational form's relative success in responding to underlying market failures in the health care system - asymmetric information about health risks, moral hazard, limited information on quality, and limited industry competitiveness. The chapter next explores managed care's response to each of these problems. The chapter then turns to empirical research on managed care. Managed care plans appear to attract a population that is somewhat lower cost than that enrolled in conventional insurance. This complicates analysis of the effect of managed care on utilization. Nonetheless, many studies suggest that managed care plans reduce the rate of health care utilization somewhat. Less evidence exists on their effect on overall health care costs and cost growth.

Profit-Sharing – A Tool for Improving Productivity, Profitability and Competitiveness of Firms?

The importance of appropriate utilization of rewards for performance is still growing and therefore this type of rewards can be seen as a significant part of a total rewards package. Companies that are able to appropriately implement rewards for performance may gain competitive advantage over their competitors, but successful implementation requires a good knowledge of these rewards. The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the growth of this knowledge by identifying possible positive and negative impacts of profit-sharing on various areas that are important for the performance of a company, nevertheless, addressed are also macroeconomic consequences of profit-sharing. Furthermore, a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the relevant literature is provided, under-researched areas are identified and suggestions for further research are given. To accomplish these goals, we applied methods of bibliometric analysis to the articles indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge to identify the most important articles, authors and topics. According to our findings, the majority of studies report a neutral or positive impact of profit-sharing on productivity and profitability. This impact may be achieved by direct influence of profit-sharing on productivity of employees (due to the dependence of their pay on profit), but it seems that yet more important are various mediating mechanisms, especially effects on employment stability, absenteeism, quits and related issues, as well as effects on attitudes of employees and on relationships between employees. We argue that a well-designed profit-sharing plan is crucial for its success, but it is a relatively under-researched problem

The Interrelationship between Formal and Informal Delcentralization and its Impact on Sub-Central Governance Performance: The Case of Vietnam

Formal and informal institutions are often viewed as complements or substitutes in empirical and theoretical works. However, no evidence of complementarities or substitutes is found in our empirical analysis of the interrelation between formal and informal decentralization across 64 provinces of Vietnam. This paper finds that the formally decentralized system of public service supply is accommodating the informal one, but informal decentralization in public order provision tends to compete with the existing ineffective formal system. This implies that the central government needs to reorganize the system of decentralizing the provision of public goods/services and public in order to make informal institutions complementary rather than rival or free-riding on formal ones.formal decentralization, informal decentralization, sub-central governance, accommodating, and competing

Why so much wage restraint in EMU? The role of country size - Integrating trade theory with monetary policy regime accounts

Using theoretical models about the interaction between monetary policy-making and wage bargaining institutions, some researchers had been predicting an acceleration in wage growth under EMU (Iversen and Soskice 1998; Iversen et al 2000; Cukierman and Lippi 2001). However, the empirical evidence shows that, after the formation of the monetary union, wage growth has remained under control or even decelerated. Of the numerous explanations advanced to account for this trend, the most promising seems the one proposed by Posen and Gould (2006), who argue that behind the generalised shift towards wage restraint is enhanced monetary credibility in EMU. Whilst building on a similar argument, this paper adds to it in important respects. First, I show that the effects of a monetary union depend on labour market institutions. Second, and most originally, I argue that a strategic interaction between the ECB and non-atomistic labour unions is possible only in the case of large countries, whose price behaviour can potentially affect EU-13 inflation. This leads to the main finding behind this paper, namely that the relationship between wage growth and economy size is hump-shaped, with wage restraint more present in large and small countries, and less so in countries of intermediate size. Differently from a large country like Germany, small economies are free riders with respect to the monetary regime, but they care nonetheless for cost competitiveness, even if to different degrees. On the other hand, intermediate countries are trapped “inbetween” because neither do they believe capable of affecting euro-zone inflation, nor do they look at cost competitiveness as key to their economic survival.Wage restraint, collective wage bargaining, EMU, openness, international trade

Employee Compensation: Research and Practice

[Excerpt] An organization has the potential to remain viable only so long as its members choose to participate and engage in necessary role behaviors (March & Simon, 1958; Katz & Kahn, 1966). To elicit these contributions, an organization must provide inducements that are of value to its members. This exchange or transaction process is at the core of the employment relationship and can be viewed as a type of contract, explicit or implicit, that imposes reciprocal obligations on the parties (Barnard, 1936; Simon, 1951; Williamson, 1975; Rousseau, 1990). At the heart of that exchange are decisions by employers and employees regarding compensation

Studying Innovation in Businesses: New Research Possibilities

The rapid pace of globalization and technological change has created demand for more and better analysis to answer key policy questions about the role of businesses in innovation. This demand was codified into law in the America COMPETES Act. However, existing business datasets are not adequate to create an empirically based foundation for policy decisions. This paper argues that the existing IRS data infrastructure could be used in a number of ways to respond to the national imperative. It describes the legal framework within which such a response could take place, and outlines the organizational features that would be required to establish an IRS/researcher partnership. It concludes with a discussion of the role for the research policy community.Business microdata, innovation, confidentiality, researcher access, tax policy

Informal networks and knowledge sharing in organizations: case study of GR Group

In the era where knowledge and technology have been advancing, knowledge, together with capital and human resources, has become an essential productive factor, playing a vital role in economic growth and enterprise development. Moreover, knowledge-based economic growth relies principally on enterprise knowledge and technological innovation. Nowadays, communication channels have been evolving so rapidly that the types of knowledge sharing have transferred from traditional administrative orders to diversified, multi-channel and informal ways. From the perspective of networks, social platforms and social capital, more attention has been paid to employee behavior in the past few years. Compared to technology and knowledge innovation of the whole organization, growing emphasis has been placed on knowledge sharing of informal networks built by individual employees. As a supplement to formal organization system, informal network is characterized by versatility, background similarity and excellent communicability, defining its positive effect on knowledge sharing and interaction. Consequently, informal network is the key variable in the innovation performance of modern enterprises. Nevertheless, studies on the informal network of knowledge sharing mainly focus on the overall network instead of on network segmentation. Accordingly, knowledge sharing ways and channels is a research gap now. Therefore, it is essential to further delve deeper into informal networks as a closer scrutiny of such topic is of theoretical value and practical significance.Na era em que o conhecimento e a tecnologia avançam, o conhecimento, juntamente com o capital e os recursos humanos, tornaram-se um fator produtivo essencial, desempenhando um papel extraordinariamente vital no crescimento econômico e no desenvolvimento empresarial. Além disso, o crescimento econômico baseado no conhecimento depende principalmente do conhecimento empresarial e da inovação tecnológica. Atualmente, os canais de comunicação estão evoluindo tão rapidamente que os tipos de partilha de conhecimento foram transferidos das formas administrativas tradicionais para formas diversificadas, multicanais e informais. Do ponto de vista de redes, plataformas sociais e capital social, mais atenção tem sido dada ao comportamento dos colaboradores nos últimos anos. Para compreendermos melhor a inovação nas organizações precisamos de estudar a partilha de conhecimento nas redes informais construídas pelos colaboradores. Como complemento aos sistemas formais da organização, a rede informal caracteriza-se pela sua versatilidade, pela comunicabilidade excelente, provocando um efeito positivo na partilha do conhecimento e na interação entre as pessoas. Consequentemente, as redes informais são as variáveis chave no desempenho de inovação das empresas modernas. No entanto, os estudos sobre as redea informais de partilha de conhecimento concentram-se principalmente na rede geral, e não na segmentação da rede