International Energy Technology Transfersfor Climate Change Mitigation - What, who, how, why, when, where, how much … and the Implications for International Institutional Architecture

The goal of the paper is to expand and refine the international technology transfer negotiating and analytic agendas and to reframe the issues. The paper presents concepts, indicators, illustrations and data that identify and measure international transfers of energy technologies that can be used to mitigate climate change. Among the questions on that agenda are how much technology transfer there has been to date, and how much will be needed in the future, especially to assist non-Annex I developing countries in their efforts to mitigate climate change. Before the how much questions can be answered, however, there are several prior questions, and hence the many other elements of the subtitle of the paper: what, who, how, why, when, where. These aspects of international technology transfer vary significantly among three existing institutional settings and among the associated analytic paradigms: North-South Official Development Assistance, Global Private International Investment and Trade, and International Public-Private Cooperation Agreements. The principal sections of the paper focus on features of international technology transfers in these institutional settings and on illustrations drawn from the biodiesel industry, especially the use of jatropha tree as the source of the feedstock. The conclusions are summarized as follows: (i) Technologies include intangible know-how and services, as well as tangible goods in the form of production process equipment and finished products. (ii) International transfers of some types of technology are much easier to measure than others. (iii) International technology transfers are highly industry-specific. (iv) Even for individual industries, it is necessary to use multiple indicators of technology transfers. (v) Patterns in the types of technology and methods of transfer vary across the three institutional settings examined in the paper. (vi) All three of the institutional arrangements are probably under-performing and inadequa

Managing innovation uncertainties : a user-oriented knowledge typology

New product development processes are subject to uncertainties. These uncertainties can and should be managed to prevent innovations from failing. Uncertainties or knowledge deficits are addressed by deploying the right approaches, or learning activities to stimulate relevant inflows of knowledge. A typology of user-oriented knowledge types is key to overcome the reluctance of organizations towards multi-actor involvement and user-oriented learning activities. Here, we present a user-oriented knowledge typology departing from the end-user, embedded in a two-states framework (current state opposing future state). We discuss three iterations of the framework, including an expert review and real-world application as part of a workshop with intermediary organizations. When implemented, the framework enabled participants to identify and select learning activities enriching their innovation project. We want to underline our vision to transcend the gut-feeling and experience-driven allocation of learning activities, but instead strive towards optimal activity-selection based on the knowledge deficit at hand

Supply chain knowledge management: A conceptual framework

The supply chain literature still largely focuses on asset, alphanumeric data and information (in the form of documents and files) elements of exchange between supply chain partners, despite the fact that increased integration and collaboration clearly require development of more complex elements of expertise and knowledge. In this respect, this paper recognizes the knowledge management (KM) literature as a potential source of new insights to add conceptual depth and understanding to managing 21st century supply chains. Specific KM theories and constructs are identified as potentially contributing to theory and practice in supply chain contexts. An overall framework for supply chain knowledge management is developed, along with literature-based definitions of supply chain knowledge transfer, competence and maturity constructs. The "knowledge lens" theory building approach is applied to import these perspectives into supply chain domains, with efforts to maintain conceptual consistency across the two literature streams.Knowledge Management; Supply Chains; Conceptual Framework;

The Role of Tacit Routines in Coordinating Activity

We explore the influence of tacit routines in obtaining coordination. Our experiment uses simple laboratory "firms," in which we interfere with one kind of firm's ability to develop tacit routines. Thus, our firms vary in the degree to which they rely on this kind of knowledge – instead of other, explicit, mechanisms – for obtaining coordination. We find that interfering with the development of tacit routines harms firms’ ability to coordinate. We then explore the extent to which firms are able to transfer their ability to coordinate activity, either to a new domain or to new members. Our results indicate that tacit routines transfer more easily than other mechanisms to a new, but closely related, domain. However, routine-based firms perform slightly worse in their ability to incorporate new members

Social transfers and chronic poverty: objectives, design, reach and impact

In the first decade of the new century, social transfer programmes emerged as a new paradigm in the fight against poverty in the global South. These programmes currently reach more than 860 million people worldwide. This paper focuses on three policy questions: first, do programme objectives address chronic poverty? Second, are programme design features – the identification and selection of beneficiaries, delivery mechanisms and complementary interventions – effective in reaching chronically poor households? And third, do social assistance programmes benefit the chronically poor? The paper finds that by promoting longer-term human capital investment and protecting household assets and facilitating asset building, social transfers can directly or indirectly tackle persistent deprivation. The discussion notes that current knowledge on the outcomes of social transfers encourages strong expectations on its potential role in addressing long-term poverty, but that this can only be confirmed when current programmes reach maturity. This draws attention to the importance of extending the scope, depth and especially length of academic research into these relevant questions.social protection; chronic poverty, programme design

Integrating supply chains: An investigation of collaborative knowledge transfers

This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact upon performance of explicit knowledge transfer in the integrated supply chain between a manufacturer and its external suppliers and customers. Literature derived hypotheses were evaluated using International Manufacturing Strategy Survey data from 338 companies. Valid and reliable scales were created via confirmatory factor analysis, and effects upon inventory performance tested via regression techniques. Whilst knowledge transfers from upstream and downstream directions were positively related to a manufacturer's performance, knowledge derived from customers was more powerful. Furthermore, integrated knowledge transfer- the combination of knowledge emanating from both suppliers and customers- had the strongest link to performance. The implications for practioners are that integrating knowledge across supply chains could be more far reaching than the exchange of assets, data and information usually considered in supply chain literature. Furthermore the current generalized approach to managing external knowledge is inadequate. This study expands upon existing literature by including directional implications as to which knowledge inflows are most valuable. For academics, this paper supports and extends existing literature by considering the supplier-manufacturer-customer triad in unison. The focus goes beyond asset, data and information exchange towards the leveraging of external knowledge. Relevant perspectives and dimensions were adopted from the knowledge management stream in order to add conceptual depth. Several areas of knowledge-based supply chain research have been identified as potential opportunities for further investigation.Supply Chain; Knowledge Management; Empirical Research:

On Internal Knowledge Markets

In large organizations, knowledge can move rapidly or slowly, usefully or unproductively. Those who place faith in internal knowledge markets and online platforms to promote knowledge stocks and flows should understand how extrinsic incentives can crowd outintrinsic motivation

Generating innovations through analogies: An empirical investigation of knowledge brokers

In this paper we explore how knowledge brokers - specialised design and engineering companies offering services to clients in diverse industries - use analogies for product development. Our research is based on interviews with project leaders of 13 knowledge brokering companies. The interviews focused on product development projects in which analogies were used. First, we categorize these cases according to the motivation to use analogies (efficiency vs. innovativeness). Second, we describe and analyse the process of using analogies. Our results show that analogies are frequently and very pragmatically applied throughout the whole development process. We also found that individual characteristics of the persons participating in such projects are the crucial factor that influences the outcome of the project. --product development,knowledge brokers,analogy